Cast A Spell (Mages and Mates #4)

7. Otto

Otto

M ention the word “Transylvania” and people immediately think vampires. I’d met a bat shifter once, but she assured me none of them drank blood in human form. Facts didn’t stop the world from romanticizing vampires.

We’d left midmorning and flown directly to Romania. The time difference meant we arrived early in the morning the next day. The sun was rising, and the last hour of the flight was filled with stunningly beautiful countryside.

The plan was to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible. Thalion and Lysandor were sons of the unicorn alpha and had dual citizenship, but that wasn’t going to help us evade customs. Owen and I had diplomatic status, and Dad used it to have Romanian officials come meet us at a small airport that didn’t typically handle international traffic.

The town northeast of Cluj was a perfect gateway to our destination. Big enough to have plenty of amenities, but without all the congestion of the city. Nestled in a valley surrounded by rolling hills, its buildings were a mix of quaint shops and modern architecture. The town center boasted a picturesque square with a fountain and benches, surrounded by colorful buildings and blooming flowers. The outskirts of the town gave way to the verdant fields we’d seen from the air.

After breakfast at a family-run restaurant, we got in the rented SUV and headed out. I drove and used my mage stone to map out our route. No surprise, Lysandor and Owen sat in the back so they could maintain contact. Typical of mates who just met.

Thalion and I had come to an unspoken agreement. We both wanted the same thing, but he accepted my limitation. There’d been a few times when he struggled to curb his desire to touch me, especially after watching our younger brothers, but he kept himself in check.

A heavy weight settled in my chest as I watched him struggle with something that should’ve come naturally. It saddened me, but I didn’t waiver. Nothing had changed. He was filled with hope, while I hung onto skepticism. Thalion could afford to be optimistic, but I couldn’t. Allowing myself to get too close might make it impossible to pull back, tempting me to let down my guard. Better to stay away than risk the outcome I feared.

The drive wasn’t long in distance, but the narrow road, better suited for horses than cars, wound its way through a dozen tiny hamlets. The small farming communities were slices of the past preserved in time. Most of the fields were worked by hand with draft animals used in place of vehicles. It was quaint, but also enticing. What would it have been like to live in a world that wasn’t plugged in, hectic, and available every minute of the day?

I smiled at how easily I fell into a false narrative.

“You’re smiling,” Thalion said, as if my lips had never bent up.

If we’d bonded, I could share my thoughts and he’d understand immediately. Instead, I had to rely on clunky words to convey emotions. “I was admiring the simple way of life these people live. It’s beautiful, but it ignores all the advances in medicine, agriculture, food storage, and the like they rely on to supplement their bucolic lifestyle.”

“One of the reasons Father moved the herd was to find a better balance. By nature, unicorns are not city dwellers, but the countryside around us was resistant to most changes.”

“I’m good with all the changes,” Owen said. “Makes it easier to keep track of my friends, hear new music, try new things. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a postage stamp-sized village.”

“I agree,” Lysandor said. “There are more people who work on the ranch than in a place this size. They don’t give you a lot of choice for friends or mates.”

Our brothers were more in tune with the modern world, but we weren’t dinosaurs. I didn’t like all the changes, but the ones I liked outweighed those I didn’t.

The brief exchange ended, and the car was quiet. Owen and Lysandor might be sharing their thoughts silently, but Thalion and I had only our own to consider. I imagined his centered on my refusal to complete the bond and allow us to share like our brothers.

I started analyzing those thoughts again but stopped. We didn’t come to Transylvania simply to find out if I could safely bond with Thalion. The earth had a purpose in choosing two mage/unicorn mates. It wasn’t an accident. Understanding those reasons had to be our focus.

“What do you know about your grandmother’s talents?” I asked.

“Not a lot,” Thalion said. “We haven’t spent a lot of time with her because she refuses to leave Transylvania to even visit the new home.”

Oculars were not common among mages, but they were extremely rare among beings. Like so much else about magic, we didn’t understand where the ability came from. Most speculated it was a form of earth magic. “Why?”

“She told Father she could only read people if she stayed here,” Thalion said.

I wished Leo had come with us. His inquisitor training might help me unravel this. “We’re missing something important. Your grandmother is a good ocular, but Sally Pederson is better. Everyone—our fathers, Sally, the heads of the Conclave and Assembly—wants all four of us in Transylvania, I just don’t know why.”

Whatever Owen and Lysandor were doing, they stopped and paid closer attention. “Maybe it’s because she’s a unicorn ocular and this involves a unicorn/mage pairing,” Lysandor said.

He was wrong, but I didn’t want to sound too authoritative. Yes, there were unicorns involved, but the other half were mages. “That might play a part, but there’s got to be more.”

“Why?” Thalion asked. “You didn’t mention this before we left.”

Even though we weren’t bonded, I felt Thalion enough to know he wanted to understand not challenge me. “It’s something you said. She wouldn’t even leave to visit you. The gift of reading what’s inside someone isn’t transient. Elana might need the earth magic of her home to use her talent, but it wouldn’t disappear forever if she left for a short time. She hasn’t left for a different reason, and I bet it’s connected to what’s happened to us.”

The frustration with hunches, going with your gut, instinct, or whatever you called it, was you couldn’t prove or disprove the idea. There was more to our being here than having Elana read the four of us. I should have clued in when Bran said Sally wanted us to go to Transylvania.

“So what do we do?” Thalion asked.

The only thing we could. “We ask her when we find her.”

T he “barely a road” ran out a few miles from where my mage stone said we’d find Elana. By the end, we were following a one-lane path never intended for a car. How did their grandmother survive this far from anything close to civilization?

I laughed inside remembering the conversation I had with Leo when he learned we were going to Presque Isle. He was appalled at the lack of five-star amenities. This place lacked even one-star comforts.

The closer we got, the more anxious I became. No one else was affected. If anything, they were all excited. Thalion and Lysandor wanted to see their grandmother, and Owen probably fed off Lysandor’s emotions.

As the odd man out, I planned to keep my head and look for clues to the real reason we were sent to Elana. I wanted to be wrong because then Elana would clear up things. For better or worse, I’d know what path I had to follow.

My mage stone had me turn right, and a minute later we pulled up to a stone house so big it put many castles to shame. There were no other cars I could see, but there was a large carriage house with room to park.

The stones were dark and weathered, implying the ancient strength and resilience of the unicorns. Turrets jutted out from various corners, their pointed tips reaching for the sky. Sunlight danced off its gray facade, creating shadows that seemed to shift and move. Between the first and second stories, a band of mezzo-relief told the unicorn’s history. Its magnificence left me speechless.

“Whoa!” Owen said, expressing my feelings. “Is this where your family used to live?”

Thalion laughed. “Don’t sound so shocked. Did you think the alphas lived in a mud hut with a thatched roof?”

In truth, the building of my imagination wasn’t far from what he said. “No, but given your home in Wyoming, I didn’t expect anything this grand.”

“What you really mean is you didn’t expect anything livable this far from the nearest city,” Lysandor said. “At least that’s what Owen thought.”

“You suck.” Owen playfully pushed Lysandor’s arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“First, you told me I suck amazingly well.”

Thalion cleared his throat, and my eyes went a bit wider. The boys, however, smirked fondly at each other.

“Second,” Lysandor said. “It was more fun seeing your faces when we arrived.”

“I’m still confused,” Owen said. “How do you keep this place supplied? We barely fit on these roads.”

“This is a home for unicorns, not humans,” Thalion said. “Our roads are made for us, not carts or cars.”

I drove us around a gravel circle lined with tether posts. I could almost see the guests riding up to the big house and tying their horse to one of the iron posts. I stopped at the front doors, and before I could put the SUV in park, the door opened.

A tall, older woman exited the house and walked slowly down the stairs. Unbent by age, she moved with the regal grace of a queen, which she was when her husband was the alpha. Her presence commanded respect as did the power radiating from her being.

Her smile greeted us as we got out of the car. Lysandor was the first to reach her, and she gave him a hug. Owen joined them and after a brief introduction, the two were off into the house. Elana watched them wistfully, shaking her head.

“Boys.”

They were, and they deserved a chance to be that way without the responsibility the world wanted to thrust on them. When she turned, Thalion’s face lit up and he seemed happy for the first time since we’d met.

“Oh Thal. My sweet Thal.” She swept him into a hug, her voice echoing through the still air. Thalion returned her embrace with a big grin.

My gaze was fixated on them, as their shared moment tugged at my heartstrings. Rejuvenated by familial love, Thal was more attractive than ever. This was the being he was meant to be, not one with his heart broken.

“Otto.” Elana’s voice brought me back to reality as she untangled herself from Thalion. Her violet eyes bore into mine with such intensity that I felt like an open book under her scrutinizing gaze. “Welcome to our home.”

She extended her hands, and I let her embrace me. The gesture surprised me, but I quickly went with the moment. Warmth radiated from her touch, and some of the weight of responsibility melted into the background. After a second she released me, and I stepped back so I could bow.

“You honor me, Madam Eisenwald.”

Elana made a face I’d seen many times growing up. “You’ve remained true to your profession, but if you bow to me again, you’ll get a horn in a most painful place.”

Thal snickered and I couldn’t hold in my laugh.

“She’s not kidding, Otto,” Thal said, as he tried not to smile.

“And if you call me madam again, I’ll add a hoof to that horn.”

Elana had felt my burden and used humor to keep me from letting it weigh me down. It was a wonderful gesture, but I saw through it. “Very well. If I call you Elana, am I in danger of losing other body parts?”

Elana tossed her head back and laughed. “Wonderful. I was afraid you’d be too serious for my Thal.”

Her words were a reminder of why we were here. I did my best not to let it pull me down. Owen and Lysandor reappeared, their exuberance dulled markedly from when they entered.

“Elana!” Lysandor sounded almost despondent. “You gave Owen and me separate rooms? On different floors?”

Elana winked at me before she shifted her expression. “Mates or not, until you get married, there is no cohabitating in my house. I didn’t let your father or aunts and uncles, and I’m certainly not changing my rule for you two.”

Thalion shook his head and stole a glance in my direction. Did he expect me to be relieved? I wasn’t, if I were honest.

I tried to follow the argument between Elana and Lysandor, but my attention kept drifting back to Thalion. His violet eyes reflected the late afternoon sunlight as he followed his brother’s losing efforts. A lock of his silver hair swayed in the gentle summer breeze, and I found myself tempted to push it behind his ear.

Pulling my wandering thoughts back into check, I watched Lysandor shrink under his grandmother’s gaze.

“If you don’t like my rules, there is an unused shed out back you can sleep in tonight. Alone.”

Owen flinched in sympathy with his mate. They’d survive, which might be part of the lesson. My first thought was she did it so her “sweet Thal” wouldn’t feel singled out, but her stern response convinced me otherwise. This was a lesson to the “boys.” They’d have time apart and this would teach them they would survive.

“Now we’ve settled that, help the staff take your bags to your rooms.” She put a hand on Thal’s arm. “Show them where to take Otto’s. I need to speak to him.”

I’m not sure which of us gulped louder. Thal just nodded, pointed to my bags, and motioned for them to lead the way.

Elana turned to me, her gaze softening. “Walk with me.”

We ambled through the ancient structure, each room more like a museum than a home. The timeworn stone radiated earth magic like the dragon palace, but different. I wanted to study it, but my host kept walking. She pushed open a pair of glass doors, and we entered a small patch of tended garden. When we reached a stone bench, she sat and offered me the seat next to her.

“Lysandor and Owen are open books, easy to read. They’re young and yearn for someone to share the grand adventures they dreamed about since they were little. I’ve not had enough time to read Owen, but Lysandor is not fit to be the next guardian. Maybe your brother will change him, or maybe he isn’t ready yet, either.”

Angsty Otto returned after being put down for a nap by Elana. She was going to be disappointed if she thought I’d give in just because she declared the boys unacceptable. “Or maybe they’ll both surprise you. You’re an ocular not a seer.”

“Tut-tut.” She waved her hand about. “I’m not telling you this in hopes you’ll accept Thal. Only so you’ll be open to a different possibility. You were clearly meant to have a mate, as was Thal. Lysandor, on the other hand, I never saw a sign he was destined to bond with anyone. Every time my grandsons visited I read them, and this is the first time I saw this fate.

“No one knows for certain what happened in Wyoming. Some believe your resistance to being chosen confused the earth magic and it shifted to your brother and Lysandor. Others, like me, are not sure why the earth chose two pairs. I believe this is exactly the plan, but I can’t give you a reason why.”

It was just theories with no proof to support any of them. “If you’re correct, then if Owen and Lysandor become the guardians, Thal will be free to love again.”

“No.” Her violet eyes bore into mine. “I do not believe your brother and Lysandor can become the next Southern Guardians. I’ll need to meet with you individually, in pairs, and then all four together to be certain, but it is my opinion only you and Thal can shoulder that mantle.”

If Owen couldn’t be the Southern Guardian, it was more likely he’d be the fifth pairing. “How certain of this can you be?”

“I can’t answer you until I know. But consider this. You were always meant to have a mate, as was Thal. Lysandor’s fate changed very recently.”

The problem with her logic was the piece she left out. Owen’s fate had changed recently as well. My convictions were stronger now than ever that Owen’s life was in danger. “We need to know for sure.”