Could It Be Magic Read online

  Chapter 2 – Freaked out...

  Laars

  Well, that was the weirdest feeling ever. Laars Zanelli shivered as he hoisted his backpack higher up his shoulders and set off to find his new acquaintances. He couldn’t call them friends yet because he hardly knew them – but they’d all been very welcoming. That was nothing new – everyone was always really welcoming and ready to make friends with him – it was a gift he was very glad to possess…

  That new kid with the darkest, most compelling eyes he’d ever seen, however, was freaking him out. He’d never felt so totally aware of anyone in his life before. Even his name gave him shivers. Saul… Saul what? He hadn’t given him his surname, even though Laars had spilled his guts instantly he was asked, and suddenly he was desperate to know it. Actually, that wasn’t all. He was slightly shocked to realise that he was absolutely desperate to know everything about him.

  What the hell was it about him? He wasn’t even that good-looking... Laars thought about the young guy’s eyes again. Actually, that was a total lie. He was, objectively, without a shadow of a doubt, gorgeous – but there was something about him that was… weird.

  And had that just been his idea of flirting? Well, that was awkward! Boys didn’t normally flirt so openly with other boys without first establishing that they weren’t about to get their head kicked in for it. Well, not from where he was from, anyway, but he had to admit that he lived in a pretty rough area…

  He’d always been very careful not to openly show that his interest in girls was completely non-existent and generally no one back home had a clue that he wasn’t as straight as a die – and that was the way he’d prefer to keep it.

  He shook his head and carried on, trying to put the dark haired, dark eyed boy to the back of his mind.

  Only trouble was, he kept coming straight back to the front of his mind. Laars’ footsteps faltered. He’d been a little rude and dismissive and the poor guy was probably just feeling really nervous and bewildered with his new surroundings, like everyone else. He bit his lip. Should he go back and find him?

  He turned. It was as if his feet were working without his conscious effort. Before he knew what was happening, he’d made his way all the way back to the student union bar.

  Laars opened the door and scanned the room. He found Saul straight away. He was exactly where he’d left him.

  Saul’s head whipped around and he stared straight at him, almost as if he knew he was there. He smiled and Laars’ heart started to thump in his chest as if he’d been running. Had he been running? He didn’t think he had but what the hell did he know? Only a minute ago, he’d had no clue he was even coming back here...

  He blinked. He was stood right next to Saul. How the hell…? Surely, he’d been stood at the door a second ago? “Uh, I uh, wondered if you wanted to join me and my new friends?” He asked, internally rolling his eyes for being such a dork. “There’s a bunch of us going into town just to have a look around – you know, find our bearings and all that...?” What the fuck? I’m damned sure I wasn’t going to say that...

  Saul’s expression did something funny to Laars’ insides. His jaw dropped slightly and then his face broke out into the most beautiful smile that Laars had ever seen, “Are you sure that would be okay?” Saul asked, already getting up, his voice coming out a little breathlessly and making goose bumps break out over Laars’ skin. He nodded helplessly, “Of course.” He agreed without really knowing what it was he was agreeing to.

  Grabbing his bag off the table where he’d slung it earlier, Saul treated him to another beaming smile, melting his insides to mush. “I know I can be a bit of a geek...” he gushed, “But I’m nice. Honest.”

  Laars smiled back at him and shook his head slightly. The guy was adorably awkward and really kind of annoying. There he went again, spouting off at the mouth and inadvertently putting people off him, “Will you stop that.” Laars said gently, “How is anyone ever going to get to know you if you constantly try to put them off you?”

  Saul blinked, “Do I do that?” he asked, “Shit...” he said, light dawning on his face, “I do, don’t I?”

  Laars laughed, “Just a bit – not that I was put off.” What the actual hell? He thought, now utterly mortified with himself, Did I really just flirt with him? “Come on,” he added gruffly, “let’s go and find the lads.”

  Laars had no idea why he felt so compelled to include the odd young man named Saul in his plans for the evening but he couldn’t deny that it was quite an overwhelming feeling of protection that he felt towards him. Brushing the strange feeling aside and trying his best to get his head back into his pre-Saul mindset, he turned and pulled the door to the Student Union bar open.

  Saul fell into step beside him and they made their way into the town.

  “So,” Laars asked as they wandered along the leafy street, trying his best to keep things light between the two of them, “what are you into?”

  Saul frowned, “Into?” he asked, “Like what? Subjects?”

  Laars shook his head, “No,” He said, flashing Saul a grin, “I didn’t mean what you’re studying – you already told me you were a Geology student. I meant, what do you do for kicks?”

  Saul stared back at him blankly, “Oh,” he faltered, “I dunno, really...”

  Laars frowned. He’d totally thrown the poor guy. He’d said he’d been into rocks, but had he actually been living under one? “PlayStation?” he asked, “or X-Box games? Sports? What?”

  Understanding registered on his face, “Oh, right. Recreational games and stuff?” He nodded, “I like free-running.”

  It was Laars’ turn to look blank, “Free-running?” he asked faintly, looking the kid up and down in his loose clothing that looked like they’d belonged to someone else before him, “Like Parkour, you mean?”

  Saul nodded, his dark eyes glowing with an inner sort of energy that kind of took his breath away, “It’s the best sort of stress release.” He gushed. “Do you want me to teach you?”

  Laars’ jaw dropped, “Me?” he squeaked and immediately shook his head, “Uh, no.” he said firmly, “I’m not really a thrill-seeker kind of guy.” And if I was, I wouldn’t be seeking my thrills with you…

  Saul smiled, his dark eyes flashing with mischief and humour, “I am.” He said raising his eyebrows flirtatiously and making Laars wonder, not for the first time that day, if the guy was gay.

  Not that it made any difference to him, whatsoever. He wasn’t interested in romance and he certainly wasn’t looking for it with this guy. Romance was for idiots – and romance with beautiful, geeky, parkour-fanatical guys was just a recipe for disaster...

  Chapter 3 – Only Human…

  Saul

  Saul was delighted when Laars walked back in through the Student Union doors. And it wasn’t even that he saw him, it was more that he felt his presence. Laars was something pretty special. Saul was absolutely convinced of it. He just didn’t know why he was so special – yet.

  Because Laars was surely only human, after all? Maybe that was what made him so perfect. Maybe Saul was destined to fall for a normal, non-magic human – and not a witch. A thrill of terror flooded his body momentarily at his father’s parting words – that he was to meet a girl to marry in the next three years. What for? He could extend that to ten years and he still wouldn’t be able to give her what she’d need and his needs sure didn’t involve girls.

  He closed his eyes and the vision of the red-haired young man that burst to the front of his mind, got his blood pumping like no one else in the world had ever done. He sighed inwardly. Perfection. Not so much easy on the eye as a Technicolour dream – and the fact that Laars was male just added the cherry on top as far as Saul was concerned.

  He turned, knowing without any doubt in his mind that he’d be right there, standing behind him. His eyes instantly found Laars’ beautiful, bright green eyes staring into his. Laars had a slightly shell-shocked look on his face – almost as if he couldn’t quite belie
ve that he was there, himself.

  Saul jumped out of his seat and grabbed his bag before Laars could change his mind about asking him to come and explore, but Saul just knew deep in his bones that they would have so much more fun if they explored their surroundings together. Somehow, he just knew that Laars was the yin to his yang...

  They started chatting and Laars asked him about games consoles – something that Saul was familiar with, but had never been allowed to indulge in. His father was very particular about keeping normal human entertainment to the bare minimal – even though he worked in a state-of-the-art building that relied heavily on all sorts of technology that was only human – and then improved, using magic.

  Saul found himself admitting to his love of free-running. Something that he was effortlessly good at – without having to rely on magic to get himself out of any difficulties. He was simply incredibly pliant and strong.

  Laars had looked him up and down in disbelief.

  Well, one day, mate – I’ll show you how fucking good I am at this game...

  They arrived at the coffee bar that Laars had agreed to meet the rest of their halls residents at and found them all sitting around, drinking various different drinks and laughing and joking.

  “Guys,” Laars said easily, “this is our latest arrival. I found him in the SU bar. His name’s Saul Blackthorn.”

  Saul’s heart stuttered and he battled with his facial expression to not looked utterly astounded. Laars had definitely not asked his surname and he hadn’t given the information away freely either. He was absolutely sure of that – because he never wanted anyone to know that he was related to the famous Blackthorn family when he first met them. Of course, outside of the magical community, no one knew about the Blackthorn family name but within it, the Blackthorn name made people recoil before he could even get properly introduced. Nigel Blackthorn, Saul’s father, was not a well-liked man.

  In fact, he was notoriously ruthless in business and there were rumours that some senior politicians at the Pyramid had gone missing after a business meeting where Nigel Blackthorn had not got his way – hopefully they’d only gone into hiding but having grown up under his father’s regime, he wouldn’t swear to it…

  But Laars had found out his surname from somewhere and yet, to Saul’s delighted relief, he wasn’t in the slightest bit fazed. And that would be because he was human and wouldn’t have a clue about the magical world.

  He blinked as something occurred to him. How the fuck had he gleaned that information from him without asking, then? Was he from the magical world? No way. Saul might not be the most observant guy in the world but there was no way Laars wouldn’t have made him sit up and take notice – not least because he’d be the only red-head in the land… Could he read him, then? Was he gifted? Did he possess some sort of inner eye that just knew stuff about people when they were introduced? And if that was the case, how extraordinary was that in the normal human world? Could a lot of people do it?

  Saul had always been brought up to believe that the normal human world was full of idiots to be scorned for having no magical prowess – pretty much in the same way as he’d been scorned his whole life.

  Pushing down his conflicted feelings that wavered between terror and excitement that Laars might be of magical blood, he nodded around and smiled at everyone. Laars touched his arm, sending an electrical charge directly to his groin. Holy shit. No one had ever had that effect on him before. What the fuck was going on?

  He jumped and looked up into Laars equally as stunned face, “Wha...?” he asked faintly.

  Laars blinked, blushed bright pink and stammered, “I uh, wh-what did you want t-to order?”

  Blushing just as furiously, Saul dug around in his jeans pocket and brought out a rather battered looking fiver, “Hate these plastic things,” he muttered, “I’ll uh, have a latte, please – get yourself one, too.”

  Laars nodded and took the money silently.

  No one else seemed to have noticed anything awkward pass between the two of them; Laars ordered the drinks and passed Saul his cup.

  “Thanks,” Saul muttered, avoiding eye contact.

  Laars turned away and started to talk to one of the other students. Saul remained silent, not looking at anyone at all. No one else in the room held a candle to Laars. It really wasn’t worth striking up a conversation.

  Saul absently poured his sugar into his drink and started to stir it with his spoon.

  “Hey, that’s cool.” A voice from his left piped up.

  He turned with a frown, “What is?”

  The boy who had been introduced to him as George nodded to his coffee. Saul looked back at it and found his cup self-stirring.

  Fighting with his facial expression to remain neutral when he was actually shocked to his core that he was actually moving something with his mind without getting a nosebleed with the effort, he forced a chuckle and said, “Oh, yeah – if you stir fast enough, it’ll carry on, on its own for a second or two.” He clamped his hand around the spoon and took it out, dropping it unceremoniously into the saucer with a bit of a clatter.

  George narrowed his eyes at him, “I was watching it for a good thirty seconds.” He said, “What’s the trick?”

  Saul shook his head, “There is no trick,” he insisted, “maybe it was the air-conditioning catching it in a vortex or something.” Fuck, if he believes that, he’ll believe anything.

  “Oh, yeah,” he said, flashing a reasonably cute smile, “Course.”

  Phew...

  Chapter 4 – Attraction…

  Laars

  Laars couldn’t stop himself from listening to everything being said between Saul and the sneaky-looking little fucker, George, who was currently trying to chat him up.

  And it was no wonder he was trying. Saul, he’d come to realise, was incredibly attractive. Beneath the terrible haircut and bad facial hair, he suspected there lurked a really beautiful young man. He couldn’t deny that his eyes were spectacular. A deep brown that were full of some sort of light that seemed to glow from within. Maybe he was being fanciful, or maybe it was the way the sun was shining in through the window of the coffee shop, but that was what he saw – every time he looked at him.

  His smile was like the sun coming out from behind a cloud on a rainy day and his voice was utterly mesmerising.

  What the hell is wrong with me? He thought. I’ve only just met him. He’s a total geek. Fuck he’s never even played on the PlayStation...

  But instead of feeling like they had nothing in common, all it did was make Laars want to teach him – just like Saul had wanted to teach him Parkour... maybe Saul felt it, too – but what was ‘it’ that they were feeling for each other?

  He’d never reacted to another human being on the planet this way before in all of his twenty years. He wasn’t the same age as the rest of the freshers.

  He’d been out in the world. Leaving college with A’s across the four subjects he’d studied (History, Philosophy, Sociology and English Language) he’d been ready for a break and had gone abroad on a gap year.

  When he’d returned, all fired up and ready to go to university, his plans were thwarted when his mother was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder and he was forced to take a job to keep their heads above water and a roof over their heads.

  Thankfully, she’d battled the condition and was now in remission. As worried as he was that she might relapse, she was adamant that he went to university. It was finally time for Laars to have his own shot at life...

  Laars drained the last mouthful of his latte and turned around to see if Saul had finished his.

  He was just putting his cup down and his glorious brown eyes were gazing up into his again. Fuck. Why did he have to have eyes like that?

  Saul flashed him a smile. Feeling a little out of his depth and wondering why he was so attracted to him for the millionth time, Laars left his seat and went across the room to sit with him, “Have you done all of your unpacking?” he asked.
/>   Saul shook his head, “Some of my rocks are still in my boxes.” He said seriously, making Laars smile.

  “Your rocks?” he asked in amusement.

  Saul rolled his eyes and nodded, blushing a charming shade of pink, “I like rocks, okay?” he said with a little laugh that touched Laars somewhere deep within his soul.

  Ignoring the rather alarming feeling, he shrugged, “Fine,” he said, “I like FIFA on the PlayStation. I guess we’re all different.”

  “Some are geekier than others.” Saul muttered.

  Laars chuckled, “I guess.” He agreed, “But I’m good with geeky.” Fuck! Where the hell did that come from?

  Saul just smiled.

  They got back to their halls and Saul looked hopefully at Laars, “Are you in a hurry to do something?”

  Laars shrugged and shook his head, “Nothing pressing.” He said, “Just a hot date with my games console, really.”

  Saul nodded, “Ah, right. I’ll uh, let you get on, then.” He said, sounding slightly disappointed, “See you tomorrow, maybe?”

  Laars nodded, “Yeah, sure,” he replied easily, “Or, maybe we can go and get a pint in the SU bar in an hour or so?”

  Saul brightened, “Seriously?” he asked, sounding as if all his Christmases had come at once.

  It made parts of Laars respond in an embarrassing way and he was very glad that he was wearing his fashionably oversized hoody to cover his untimely erection. Leaning in a little and looking him right in the eye, he whispered, “Deadly serious.”

  Saul’s eyes flashed with heat and his smile was pure desire, “I’ll see you in an hour, then.”

  He shot inside and closed the door.

  Laars stood on the outside of his room for a moment, wondering what in hell had possessed him to effectively ask the geekiest guy he had ever met, out on a date...