sixty two

sixty two
Haylee's POV

There is no sleep after Xavier's gnawing revelation. I walk the length of the guest bedroom, back and forth, a caged animal, my thoughts careening between rage and fright. Every couple of minutes I go in to see Kael and Lior, pleasantly asleep, in the other room, blissfully unaware that one of the two of them is now magically linked to the creature that slaughtered our family and everything we ever knew.

"We have to test them," I instruct Dr. Sarah for the third time, just as dawn is rising over Aiden’s territory. “Hey, there’s got to be a way to figure out which child is ill.”

“Haylee, I’ve already told you,” Dr. Sarah says with patience, but I can also see exhaustion in her eyes. "Magic blood tests, especially in children are really dangerous. And if Xavier has locator spells cast into the bond, testing could inform him of our point of origin.”

"So we do nothing?" I snap, my snarling with that of the wolf beneath my skin. “We just sit here, waiting for one of my children to slowly unravel under his corruption?

“We watch,” Aiden says, firm in his spot at the window. “We are monitoring for signs and symptoms without placing the children at risk.”

"Observe what, exactly?" I demand. How do I know that my 6 year old isn't possessed by magic? They’re kids — they should be innocent and trusting.”

Dr. Sarah removes a tattered journal from her bag. “Well, there actually are some specific signs we can look for. Master Elias had recorded a number of instances of enspelled binding in children throughout the years."

She flips to a marked page. Nightmares involving the caster, between inexplicable obedience and passivity, rare moments of a child's eyes momentarily shining or changing color, talking in the caster's voice in the moments of unconsciousness.

“And sudden knowledge or skills they should not have,” she adds. "Those bloodmagically bound children often show bits and pieces of the caster's memories or abilities.

I collapse into a chair, suddenly too weary to comprehend. How could I have been blind to this? How many signs did I overlook because I had faith in Xavier?”

“You could not have known,” Aiden says gently, reaching to put a hand on my shoulder. “Xavier is adept in keeping his magic a secret. It took even me, the Master Elias months to sense the amount of scrutiny you were exposed to."

“But our kids, Aiden,” I whisper. “One of our kids has been carrying this poison for six years, and I had no idea.

Before anyone can answer, there’s a light tap on the bedroom door. Marcus pops his head in, looking concerned.

“Alpha, Luna,” he whispers. "You need to see something."

We walk after him into the living room, where he’s brought out a laptop showing the security video footage from the night before. “This is from our perimeter cameras, after Xavier took off, an hour or so after he left.”

The boy, his strange, unchildlike grace stilted somehow, walks through the yard in his pajamas, his small form creaking and feeling tossed as might be a tin man without oil, as it were.

"When was this?" I whisper my voice low.

"Three AM," Marcus replies. He was going straight for the boundary of the forest. If he hadn’t been spotted by the patrol..."

He gets up in the middle of the night and I watch in horror as he makes his way with purpose towards the tree line in a way no sleeping six-year-old would. The patrol member feels my fingers tighten instinctively around his arm as Lior turns his face toward the camera, and even in the grainy footage, his eyes are lit with the uncanny light of silver.

"Oh god," I breathe. "It's Lior. Xavier's got his hooks I'm lior” 

“The patrol took him back to the house,” Marcus says. "He was dazed, he said he was hearing a voice calling him. A 'nice man' wanted to show him something 'cool' in the forest."

“Xavier was calling him,” I say, things suddenly snapping in place with a sickening click. “He was attempting to coerce Lior to come to him."

Dr. Sarah leans in closer and studies the footage carefully. "The magical signature is pretty strong. See how he's moving? That’s not sleepwalking — that’s something impelling from the outside.”

"Can we break it?" Aiden asks urgently. Is there a way to disconnect whatever is connecting us?

“Not unless I know exactly what the binding ritual entails,” Dr. Sarah confesses. “And even then, trying to forcibly break a blood bond could seriously harm or kill the child.”

I can feel tears running down my face as I watch the video for the second time. My sweet, innocent Lior- Xavier’s victim before he was even born. “What kind of evil does this to an innocent child?”

“The type that views people as possessions rather than their own person,” Aiden murmurs darkly. "But we’re stopping him, Haylee. I promise you that."

"How?" I demand. “And even if you did defeat him in the ritual combat, Xavier owns a magic claim on Lior. The ancient laws may not be strong enough to break a blood tie.’

“Then we’ll find another way,” says Aiden, soft but unyielding. “There are other wizards, other founts of Lore. We’ll get someone to help us.”

There’s a soft noise in the hallway and we all freeze. Kael shuffles over to the doorway rubbing his eyes. "Mama? 
“Why is everyone up so early?”

“We’re just chattering, baby,” I say, wiping my eyes and forcing a smile. "Did you sleep well?"

“I had bad dreams,” Kael says, padding over to nestle in my lap. “I dreamed that Lior was walking away from us, and I could not reach him.”
My blood runs cold. "What other details can you recall from that dream?"

“He said there was a man in shadows beckoning to him,” the youth pleads. "He felt... wrong. Like he stunk — and not with his nose. With his heart.”

Aiden and I make eye contact over Kael's head. Even while asleep, Kael's Alpha instincts are screaming at him to watch Xavier and his threat to his brother.

“It was only a dream, baby,” I tell him, but we both know it was so much more. "Lior is safe here with us."

"Is he though?" Kael asks with a wisdom well beyond his years. "The dream shadow man said Lior is his.” That he’s here to take him away.”

Before I can answer, a voice calls out from the hall — but it's not Lior's sweet voice. Xavier’s words flow out, in his soft, modulated cadence:

"The lad is speaking the truth, my dear Haylee. The ritual fighing is simply a matter of tradition. I'll be taking what is rightfully mine, while your champion tires himself for freedom.

We all look over to find Lior, standing in the hallway, eyes burning that familiar alien silver light from the security footage. But his face takes on a mean, calculating expression - it's Xavier's look on my little one's face. 

“old laws or ritual combat, cannot break the blood bond” Lior continues in Xavier’s voice. “The child is mine by the power of magic and the bond of pain. He will be mine of free will before long, and there will be nothing you can do to prevent it."

"Lior!" I yell, springing up from the floor. "Baby, can you hear me?"

My son’s brown eyes flash once back to the warm, deep brown I am used to, a look of confusion crosses his face for a moment. "Mama? Why does my head hurt?"

Xavier's power takes over again, and Lior's face goes cold. “Make the most of these last days with him, Haylee. They will be your last memories before he is what he was always fated, my heir and successor.”

The light in Lior's eyes dim and he crumples to the ground. Aiden and I push our way through to his side, but he’s already waking up, looking around with complete disorientation.

"What happened?" Lior asks in his own voice. "Why am I on the floor?"

I pull him into my arms and cling him close to my chest, battling to keep the tears at bay. "You're okay, sweetheart. Everything's okay."

But nothing is okay. It was a clear message of Xavier’s – the ritual combat is only a side show. While we’ve been concentrating on the legal and old-fashioned avenues of getting out from under his hold, he’s been set to tie up Lior through their blood tie.

I pick my son up and start heading back to bed and catch Aiden’s eye over Lior’s head. There’s a resolve I see in there that’s like my own. We’ve got three days before the ritual combat, three days to figure our way out of Xavier’s mystical mess with our baby.

“We’re going to make this right,” I whisper to Lior as I tuck him back in bed. “Anything that we need to do, we’re going to make sure that we keep you safe.”

But even as I voice my words, Xavier's last threat plays in my head: "It won't be long now, before he'll come to me willingly, and you'll be helpless to prevent it.”