Chapter 8

Another lesson learned.




“I don't need your help," I snapped, taking the paperwork and shoving it back into my bag. He was probably following me; I couldn't think of any other explanation for him being here. I was in South East London, where he definitely didn't belong, wearing his highly expensive suit and that watch. My plan was easy; I just had to turn around and walk away, but when he stood there in front of me without his fiancé my breathing problems returned. Damn it! My magic that had been absent since my meeting with Tron and Alex suddenly came back to life.
"Julia, let me call Roberto, he can give you—"
“Don't you dare pretend like you care! Don’t you fucking dare!" I hissed, seriously pissed off. Nathaniel pinched his eyebrows together and exhaled. I tried to ignore the fact that my heart was doing a happy dance in my chest, and the fact that he looked so amazingly yummy and handsome right now. This was the second time that I’d seen him and each time my heart opened up again.
"Julia, please, I meant to call you when I came back to London—"
"Stop talking, Nathaniel. I don’t want to hear it. You don’t owe me an explanation," I barked, tossing my blond hair behind me. My fingertips started to sparkle, my throat went dry and the whole world started to spin. For eight months I didn't have to worry about my damn magic and as soon as Nathaniel stepped back into my life again, I was screwed.
He moved closer and his hazel eyes were penetrating me again, but I was a few steps ahead of him, so I took a step back trying to decrease my power.
"I want to explain, Julia. I didn't want you to find out like that. As soon as Lucinda told me about the murder, I decided to come back. It turned out that I didn't have to move to Geneva."
My hand was itching to cast a spell and waves of heat were hitting my body. I felt like I was in the desert standing in forty-degree heat. Even though I wasn’t prepared to admit it, I missed him. Everything was falling to pieces, because the connection that always pulled us together was alive.
"Spare me the details, Mr. La Caz, and go back to your fiancé because I'm not interested. I'm no longer single but in a happy relationship," I explained in high-pitched tone. Maybe I went too far telling him that I had a boyfriend. It was none of his business.
Nathaniel was still staring at me with his rich hazel eyes. He tried to hide his expression, but he was clearly shocked.
"Julia—"
"No, don’t Julia me,” I shouted, taking another step back. My body turned into mush and my legs were like jelly. "You don’t owe me anything. From now on our relationship is strictly professional!"
"The giant?" he asked with a hint of sarcasm.
This time he crossed the line. I swiftly turned around and started running away. I didn't deserve this. I especially didn't deserve to be judged by the guy who was so afraid of commitment that he had to move away to a different country. He was so afraid of a relationship with me that he got engaged to a supermodel.
I heard him shouting after me, but I was so caught up with my escape that I couldn't turn around. Once I got into the tube I was finally able to breathe normally. Meeting Nathaniel again distracted me and instead of jumping onto a train that would take me straight to Ella’s house, I went back to my own neighbourhood.
My apartment was a five-minute walk from the station but my meeting with Nathaniel caused an eruption of lust in my body and my breathing was shallow. My street was quiet, and I walked into my home feeling exhausted. Thoughts of Nathaniel corrupted my mind. I felt guilty that I’d been thinking more about him than Quentin. He’d left me two voicemails while I was on my way home, so I called him. It was nice to hear his voice again. Quentin always made me feel better, no matter what kind of crappy day I had. We talked about his trip and about my day at the agency. Quentin had been planning our weekend away for some time now, and tonight he reminded me that I had to book a couple of days off as he was planning a big surprise for us.
As soon as I hung up the phone I felt like I needed to slap myself. I didn't understand what was wrong with me. Not only had I been lying to my friends but I was also lying to my boyfriend, and he was prefect.
My life was becoming more complicated every day and on top of everything, my ex was back in London.
I ran myself and bath and put some soft music on. Once I slipped inside the bathtub, I closed my eyes and imagined that my magic wasn't lethal, my friends didn't think I was going crazy and that my life was completely normal. The silence was helping and, for a long moment I enjoyed lying there aware it was my evening. My mother’s life was perfect. She didn't have to worry about magic or a super-rich, ex-boyfriend who was now engaged to someone else. My mum was going into work, dealing with normal human beings, making tea for my dad and thinking that her daughter was just like any other girl.
All those happy thoughts collided in my mind when I heard a loud knock on my door. For a second, I thought it was just my imagination, that my mind was playing even more tricks on me. Then I heard the same loud knock again. I gritted my teeth and got out of my relaxing bubble bath.
When I stepped out of the bathroom someone continued knocking and I was ready to have another fit. It was close to ten o’clock at night and I wasn’t expecting any visitors.
"All right, all right, I'm coming," I said opening the door.
"Miss. Taylor, we’re sorry for the intrusion but we’re afraid to leave you alone for longer than necessary."
I was shocked, not because Alex and Tron were standing in front of me, but because they knew where I lived, and this wasn't right.
"So, are you two following me now or something?" I asked not caring for the world that I was without make up, dressed in a robe and just got out of the bath. Tron looked amused and Ella’s dad, well, he looked serious wearing an over the top suit.
"Julia, I feel offended. With a little bit of magic, I can get any information I need," Tron said. I rolled my eyes but let them inside.
"Is there anything I can help you with?"
"We need to practise; the other day you left so abruptly, and we didn't have a chance to do anything with your lethal power," Tron said looking around my apartment with obvious curiosity. Alex looked uncomfortable, maybe because as a royal he was expecting me to live somewhere more posh, or he was still unsure about my connection to his daughter, Ella.
"I left because I wasn’t prepared to lie to my best friend who’s suddenly a fairy princess," I snapped folding my arms together.
"She will know the truth in time, Miss. Taylor, but for now you need to focus on control. If your magic gets out of control then my family’s identity will be revealed, and it won’t be long before other royals make their way to London." Alex sighed frowning. I meant to tell him that it was the twenty-first century not the middle ages. Royal fairies and that whole honour killing thing sounded absurd, but it took me a moment to compose myself. If he was Ella’s father, then he was probably equally sensitive.
"So, you guys decided to show up in my house to do some hocus pocus? Nice. Didn't you think to use a device called a mobile phone?"
Alex and Tron exchanged a look which said, "She must be absurd, we don’t own phones."
"You live alone, Miss. Taylor, and we were certain that no one would disturb us here."
"Fine, take a seat. Let me put some clothes on and we can get started," I muttered, vanishing into the bedroom. I should have been worried; there were two strangers in my apartment, two very powerful paranormals. Instead of getting aggravated with the situation, I slipped my underwear on along with the rest of my clothes and went back to the living room.
The two paranormals were standing by my collection of paranormal romance novels.
"I'm ready. Where do we start?"
Tron started talking and for a split second I began to wonder if this was a good idea. In the past few weeks I hadn’t had any blackouts and my magic was only out of control when I was around Nathaniel, but they didn't need to know that.
"We will try a few simple spells to see if you have any control at all," Tron suggested stroking his chin. Shortly after that, Alex produced three plain glasses and put them on the table. Then I was asked to sit down on my sofa and concentrate. I ought to have said that they were wasting their time. My grandmother had already tried simple spells, but my casting sessions always ended up in disaster.
"Concentration is key,” Tron said. "Now, can you break the three glasses?"
I nodded and look towards my new target. I whispered the spell and felt as my magic flew through my back, then my arms. The usual warmth caused all the hair on the back of my neck to rise, however, nothing was happening. After few more seconds, I was ready to tell them I couldn't do this, when the glass door to my wardrobe in the living room cracked. The two paranormals turned their heads at the same time and both raised their left eyebrow.
I relaxed and took a deep breath, then all of a sudden, we heard thunder clapping loudly, then lightening spread across the sky shortly after that. This time my fingertips began to sparkle, and I felt increasing energy flowing through my body.
"Did you see that, Alex?" Tron whispered, looking out the window with disbelief. Alex looked like he was having some sort of anxiety attack.
"She’s too young for this, she can't even concentrate on the source," Tron added.
"Excuse me, I'm still in the room. Do you mind telling me what’s going on?"
"Julia, can you charm anything, make things move, obey you? Read people’s thoughts when you want or anything that controls your magical powers?"
Those questions threw me a little off guard. There had been moments when my magic was useful, like when I was trying to protect someone or when I was really nervous or happy. All of these incidents, well, I wasn’t really in control. My magic always flew freely.
"I can produce extremely dangerous protection spells but only if my or someone else’s life is in danger. I can read thoughts but not all the time; it’s mainly when I get nervous. I’ve never had control over this power; it just happens," I explained feeling like an idiot. I didn't know anyone else who was so crap with spells. My cousin, Claudia, who was still abroad, was an excellent caster, she never messed up any spells. She was powerful, but my grandma was the most powerful elf in the family.
"You aren’t concentrating enough. You let your magic dictate what you do, it only obeys you when someone threatens it," Alex observed.
"Okay, you aren’t helping me. Tell me how to control it. Do you think I want to be this way? My genes are half human, so maybe that’s the problem," I argued having had enough of this session already.
"Listen to your source,” Tron said, “the magic is speaking to you, but your mind is tangled. We can teach you how, but this will take more time and we need to start meeting at least twice a week."
"Fine, whatever. I’ll do anything to prevent that fire. Maybe it’s not going to happen. Maybe I'm just imagining things. I saw myself killing Jennifer but what if someone used me and is trying to frame me?"
“It's possible, that’s why you need to close off your mind. Blackouts could come at any moment and you need to be ready. I think one particular wizard is very interested in your power. I believe his name is Jasper?"
My jaw dropped as I stared at my new partner trying to figure out how he knew about Jasper. I shouldn’t even have been surprised. Apparently, he knew everything about me and it was creeping me out.
"I don’t think he’s in the country. The police are searching for him." I shrugged, looking away. Jasper was capable of anything; he killed an innocent man because he wanted to gain access to me. He was in love with me and his dark magic had nothing to do with my own unsettled power.
"He specialises in a dark magic; what if he wants what you have?"
"Jasper doesn't want my magic. He wants me back and he’s capable of anything to get what’s his, and apparently he thinks I'm his property," I explained bitterly.
Tron looked like he was lost in his own thoughts and I couldn't read Alex; his emotions were hidden.
"In that kind of state your magic is receptive and exposed. Someone must have caused you to blackout and used you to kill Miss. Griffiths. No one would suspect the daughter of the chief.”
"I must agree with Tron. You aren’t in control which means that you are extremely vulnerable. If you want to prevent causing more harm, then you should agree to these sessions."
I bit my lip wondering if I should talk to my dad or Grandma. They would know what to do, but at the same time, Dad would have to make one of the most difficult decisions: hide me away or be loyal to the department.
"Fine, whatever it takes, just please help me. I don’t want to harm anyone, but my grandmother’s tried to train me since I was little and she never succeeded."
“Don't worry, we have a few more assets up our sleeves," Tron said with a wink.
That evening we didn't practise anymore with my magic. I kept asking Alex when he was planning to talk to Ella, but he wouldn’t give me a straight forward answer. He told me that Ella was having trouble adjusting to the knowledge she already had and needed more time. I wanted to argue that we’d already gone through this phase and Ella was talking to me again. She came to the hospital, so I didn't understand why she wasn’t returning any of my phone calls.
It was close to midnight when Alex and Tron left my apartment. We agreed to have another session in a few days. There was still so many questions and situations that hadn’t been resolved. Before that whole situation with McGregor my apartment had been broken into. Dad wasn’t making any progress with the investigation and now I was finally putting it all together. Maybe whoever was in my apartment was actually after my magic.
I had a headache when I went to bed. I really didn't need this right now. Ella had forgiven me and now her father had put me in an odd situation, expecting me to continue to lie.
Nathaniel popped in my mind as I was falling asleep, and despite being in a new fresh relationship my feelings for him hadn’t faded, if anything, they’d grown stronger.