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“Nox!” His shout filled the world with light as they shattered. The lamps strobed around them and the bed vibrated harder and faster until it was smoking, then jiggled awkwardly and jerked to a halt. The lights dimmed and the room grew silent until it was just the sounds of their chests heaving. “I think we broke Minnie’s Magic Fingers,” Nelson whispered into the hollow of Nox’s neck and laughed softly.
“I’ll make it up to her.”
Nelson lifted his head and squinted at Nox in the dark. “Are you going to keep doing that?”
“I don’t know why that keeps happening,” Nox said and stopped Nelson’s next question with a kiss. “I promise. I don’t have any more secrets with you.”
“Good.” Nelson’s lips nudged Nox’s. The tentative, reverent touch made Nox’s toes curl. “This thing with us has been too fast and too much, but I can deal with it as long as I know who or what I’m giving my soul to.”
“You aren’t giving me your soul,” Nox said softly, sifting his fingers through Nelson’s hair. “I think we were made for each other and our souls are braided together. But I think that happened long ago and it’s taken a long time for us to find each other again.”
“Like fate?” Nelson sounded skeptical. “I don’t like fate.”
“Why?”
Nelson shook his head, the stubble on his jaw grazing Nox’s shoulder. “Is that how Elsa’s life was supposed to go? Did Sharon Cleary raise her daughter to be strong and independent because she knew that one day, Mila would be taken by monsters and tortured? There’s nothing good about fate if it works like that for Elsa and Mila while braiding men together so they’re stronger and better.”
Nox shook his head. “I’m certain fate had a big, beautiful life planned for Elsa, but she met a monster and he stole it from her,” he said sadly. There was so much light and love in her and it hurt Nox’s heart to know that something so beautiful and good had been snuffed out. And done so with such carelessness and cruelty. “That’s why fate would bind two wounded, flawed men together. So they can be strong enough to fight the monsters and protect the innocent like Elsa.”
There was a long pause before Nelson humphed in approval. “That, I like. He’s still out there, your puppet master.”
A grim grin curled the corner of Nox’s lips. “He’s still out there,” Nox repeated, his intent and his purpose aligning and honing in on that sinister mystery. “And there’s no telling how many more monsters like Julian he has under his power.”
“What about your…power?” Nelson asked, his hands spreading and pulling at Nox’s back possessively. A hand fisted in Nox’s hair and Nelson pressed their foreheads together. “I’ve seen and heard and felt you doing magick. You say you don’t know why you turn into a human floodlight or why you started to fly in that field, but what do you know? How…magickal are you?” He asked.
“Well…” Nox ignored the ingrained urge to deflect and play dumb. Even though he didn’t really know, Nox knew he had played innocent too many times to get away with it now. “I caught my dad using magick once when I was a kid. We were camping and he woke up in the middle of the night to relieve himself. He didn’t bother to put on his glasses and he tripped in the dark and I saw him make a tiny ball of light so he could see what he’d kicked. He thought I was asleep and when I asked him about it the next morning, he swore that I’d dreamed it.”
“Why? Why wouldn’t he teach you? Isn’t that supposed to be the MacIlwraiths’ thing? You’re academics and teachers. Why didn’t he teach you how to use real magick while you were learning how to burn herbs and make moonwater?”
“Hey!” Nox gave Nelson’s skull a hard flick, making him gasp. “It’s all real magick and I’d be no better than a stage magician if I ignored the practical and useful aspects of my craft in order to refine a few parlor tricks.”
“Being able to make fire isn’t a parlor trick. I thought it was the day we first met at Georgetown. But you produced a little flame in the palm of your hands, right in front of your students.”
“That’s all I know!” Nox confided in a laughing whisper. “I can hold onto a flame or other elemental things like smoke or a gust of cold wind and bring them back. But I can’t make fire spontaneously and I’ve never tried to hold onto anything bigger than a single flame or a puff of steam.”
“I understand why your dad didn’t want the world to know you’re gods, but—”
“We’re not gods! We’re like mortal vessels or His representatives in the physical plane,” Nox argued, earning a bemused snort.
“Fine. I don’t understand that part, yet,” Nelson amended. “But he could have helped you with the magick part without the world learning about the rest.”
Nox pushed out a heavy breath, releasing the grief that had built in his chest. He missed both of his parents deeply. “I wish I could have learned a lot of things from my dad, but how to see in the dark or start a fire with my fingers wouldn’t be at the top of the list. He was convinced that suppressing every bit of this was what was best for humanity. And safest for us. That was Dad’s biggest concern. He didn’t want this thing with us and Him to swallow me up and take my will away from me. He also believed it was a curse for the MacIlwraiths because the men in our family don’t live to old age. They rarely make it to forty like he did. And he believed it was because of the magick and he told me not to touch it.”
“But, you did,” Nelson observed, his tone gentle and apologetic.
Nox nodded, acknowledging the whiff of bitterness that often accompanied his father’s memory. He couldn’t help but wonder what they could have learned together and if that could have made his father stronger and have somehow saved him.
“He was only forty-six when he died. He hid from the magick and he hid his magick from the world, but it didn’t save him from the curse. I don’t want to be a vessel or have my own cult, but I’d like to use what fate has given me to keep our old gods and old lessons alive in the hearts and minds of my students and I’d really, really like to use it to catch monsters.”
“Okay.” Nelson rolled onto his back, pulling Nox on top of him. “I’ll help you learn how to use it and we’ll catch monsters,” he stated matter-of-factly and made Nox’s heart feel like it was going to burst.
“Magick and monster can wait until later.” Nox traced Nelson’s lips and the hard edge of his jaw, cherishing his face. It had become sacred and as familiar as his own so quickly and it was lovely to be able to finally touch it and treasure it. “I’m more interested in learning about you and all the hot, naughty things we can do to each other.”
Nelson smiled. His lips spread into a wide, wicked grin as his hands wrapped around each of Nox’s asscheeks and he was lifted. Nelson adjusted them so Nox was sitting on thick, heavy, throbbing heat. “I saw something in a dream we could try.”
“Now, that sounds like magick and something I’d definitely be into.”
The End
