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Arkhelios Adventures

Eero Darktide slammed his drumstick harder than he intended. He wasn't stressed or angry, or so he told himself. The letter that had arrived on his desk in a shower of magical sparkles wasn't a big deal. It was fine. Everything was fine.

Eero lived under the care of the Arkhelios government and fledgling Arkhelios coven with several other students. Charity cases, as people whispered. Sad orphans with no one else to take them in. Unimportant enough to have been dumped on Arkhelios' shores when Strangetown sensed an opportunity to make cutbacks in their budget. It hadn't been so bad before Despina had left for Pleasantview. They'd always had each other, just like the relationship between their father and aunt...until it had imploded along with their coven.

It was a mistake to think about his family, as broken as it was. It only reminded him of the letter.

Dear Eero, by the time you read this, I'll be gone. I know you don't agree with me about our parents, but I have to know about them. I have to.

The drumstick hurled itself against the wall before Eero could even register it happening. His twin sister, the only one he could depend on since they were kids, had just left him an impersonal letter before sneaking into a doomed realm, chasing answers about people who hadn't given a damn about them. Despina wasn't even trained for this suicide mission their cousin had accepted. She always thought that she knew better than everyone, but this was different. This was dangerous. Not only dangerous, but pointless. Their parents hadn't loved them, no matter what Despina claimed a ghost was telling her. His sister was going to die in a strange realm without even saying goodbye to him. Why hadn't she just talked to him about her plan? They could have figured out something together. She could try a magical solution and he could try a scientific one. She didn't have to leave him alone like this.

Eero dropped the remaining drumstick before he snapped it in half. Clearly, he was too upset to take his frustrations out on a drumkit. Something sturdier was needed.

The backyard was state of the art. Wanda Bellamy had spared no expense when designing it. There was brand new sports equipment, a large pool, and gardens that depended on magic to survive the harsh Arkhelian sun. Eero grabbed a basketball and whipped it at the net. This was a game that he could play on his own, so he'd better get used to it. It wasn't like his cousins or aunt were going to stop by anytime. As far as he knew, Duke Goldman had taken Elowen and Bronwen out of school and kept them isolated from their friends to limit their potential exposure to the dream illness. Remy was basically in a coma, Adam was in another realm, and his aunt was somewhere that sounded like a magical prison hospital when President Bellamy had tried to explain it to him. Despina was gone and that shy boy from Jubilant Accosts was....no! Eero refused to even think about him. Not after the letter.

The ball bounced back into his hands and Eero channeled all of his anger into throwing it as hard as he could in the direction of the net. It didn't even matter if it went through the hoop. As long as it hit something.

Mom is from Jubilant Accosts. I may never get the chance to find her family ever again if I don't go now. I want to see what she looked like. I want to see where she lived. If there's any chance that I can-

No.

White hot current ran through his body. He wanted to hurl the ball into one of the expensive glass windows of the building until glass rained down around him like confetti.

Their mother? Who cared about what their mother had looked like? Despina has always been sensitive about her appearance growing up, and longed to see where in the family her light blue skin colour had come from. Since they had seen pictures of their father, Despina had always assumed that their mother had been blue like her. When her research in Pleasantview revealed that Imogen Muir wasn't blue, Despina had latched onto another theory.

Muir. Eero hated that he knew his mother's last name. He would prefer not to know a single thing about the woman who had given him life only to try to snatch it from him days later. He hated knowing his father's last name just as much, but at least there were other Darktides to hide among. There was no way that he was going to use Muir to honour a woman he hated. Neither of his choices for a last name were any good. No, one day, when he got married, he would take his spouse's name and be done with being a Darktide. It was the easiest way to choose a name without the baggage of his family dragging him down.

"Hi everyone! We're late, but we're here!" Thea Davis announced. The boy beside her rolled his eyes, embarrassed to be seen with his mother.

"Mom! I think they know, we knocked on the door and you're shouting at the top of your lungs. They know we're here."

Malik Bellamy pushed past his mother, looking for his friend. He could see Eero entering the house from the backyard, grinning to see him.

In a puff of smoke, Leah Toyonaga materialized in the hallway, cutting off Malik's view of Eero.

"Eero! Thanks for inviting me to hang out. Since Lukas left for whatever mission they're on, my dad and sister have been going nuts. Every ten minutes, someone calls or Uncle Gee shows up or Great-Uncle Charley sends a representative to talk. It's been crazy. Thank god Lukas never picked me to be their stupid champion. It's not like Lukas ever pays them for all this stress."

Eero hugged his friend.

"Do they know how Lukas is doing? Are they okay? Have they met anyone from here? There hasn't been any deaths they'd reported, is there?"

Eero held his breath as Leah gave him a strange look.

"Since when do you care some other realm? I thought magic was your sister's thing, not yours."

Eero's voice caught in his throat. Of course, magic was his sister's thing-that was why he had to hope that Lukas found her and could either protect her or send her home. He didn't feel like explaining what Despina had done to his friends though. They didn't need to worry about him or Despina. Eero had spent a lifetime taking care of himself and he knew what he was doing.

"Eero's just hoping that Jubilant Accosts will be safe to travel to so he can find someone new to sleep with," Malik teased. "He's got too many exes and broken hearts here."

Leah snickered as Eero blushed. The topic of Jubilant Accosts vanished when Eero could be teased for something more scandalous.

"That's not fair," Eero replied, faking a small laugh. "Aatu and I are just better as friends. He's seen other guys since we broke up and so have I. Some girls too, which doubles my dating pool. I don't need to go to some broken realm to get laid."

"Even still, I worry about you, 'Ro. You've been off lately. If it isn't about Aatu, what's going on?"

Eero smiled weakly, hoping to avoid the subject of his true feelings. Unfortunately for him, his friends knew Eero better than that.

"Let's go hang out in my room," he suggested. "I don't want to talk about anything where the adults will hear us."

Because of the small population in the Arkhelios coven's sponsored orphanage, Eero's room was fairly large. It could easily fit more people in it, should the coven expand as Wanda hoped.

"Sweet! The violin is still here from last time!" Leah gasped. "They really don't care if you keep it in your room? I thought it belonged to the school."

Eero shrugged.

"There's no one else here who wants to use it, otherwise I'm sure they'd care. President Bellamy wants the coven to be state of the art, so its school needs to be as well."

"And how are you doing being raised by witches when you can't even use magic to light a candle? Aren't you failing if you can't do magic?"

"Remy is failing on purpose, yet she's welcome in the coven," Leah pointed out, picking up the violin.

"Remy is faking it," Malik pointed out. "Eero has the magical ability of a rock. He failed the Pleasantview Academy entrance exam spectacularly. The last thing he needs is a reminder of something he can't even do. President Bellamy wouldn't force him to study magic if he can't do it. She's not a monster."

Eero winced at his friend's words. Malik wasn't wrong with his evaluation, but he could have at least used some more tact. The looks the witches and warlocks had given him after he'd failed their test were cruel, even if they weren't trying to be. Standing next to Despina who was beaming with pride hadn't helped much either. He hadn't wanted to be accepted to the academy like Despina did, and maybe he'd purposely answered the questions he did know wrong, but it still stung to be the untalented one in his family. The unwanted orphan of terrorists with delusional plans. The cousin of Adam, who seemingly couldn't stop having weird magical episodes that impressed the adults as much as it scared them. Despina's twin brother, who wasn't dating a prince or running off to dangerous places. The disappointment.

"Gee, thanks, Malik," Eero replied. "You don't see me pointing out that you can barely do math with a calculator in front of you or that you have no idea how to read a tarot deck without sticky notes on the cards. Your mom is just as disappointed in you as mine would be if she wasn't dead."

Malik grimaced at the thought of his mother. Thea was fine enough with her expectations, but his other mother was relentless with her demand for him to be a "proper Bellamy." He was just as terrible at reading cards as Eero had said, and he'd never once heard the sea of voices that supposedly spoke to the Bellamy family.

"Maybe I would be better off as an orphan," Malik mused. "If my mom was dead and I can't hear the voices of the spirits, then she'd have to wait for me to die to scream at me for failing her."

Malik rolled his eyes at Leah's comment.

"Tacky, Mal. Eero didn't choose to be an orphan and they just put his former guardian in wizard jail or something. Us having parents is a blessing, not something we regret."

"Maybe your parents are a blessing. My moms only see me as a way to carry on their legacy."

"Having no one around that cares about you has its advantages," Eero agreed. Leah put down the violin just long enough to smack her friend on the head.

"You have people who care for you. Me and Malik care, and your cousins care. Despina cares a lot about you, and I'm sure that even Aatu still cares about you. I think he still has feelings for you."

"My cousins don't care about me," Eero replied, rolling his eyes at the thought. "They feel bad for me, that's all. I appreciate you guys, you know that, but you're not an adult or a parent. Someone who will look out for me."

"And Despina? Did you guys have a fight? Are you guys even capable of fighting? I thought you two had a weird twin connection that made you think the same."

Eero laughed at Malik's assumption. He couldn't be more wrong about the Darktide twins.

"I don't think that Despina and I have agreed on anything since we were kids," he laughed. The laugh came out more bitter than he'd expected. "My little sister-well, we always joke that she's my little sister, but we really don't know who's older because it's not like our shitty parents bothered to register our birth or see a doctor. We just assume I'm older because I'm the responsible one. I'm not the one chasing after ghosts and magic and fantasies. Despina thinks the best of people, including our parents. She has hope that magic will save us, even when I know things are hopeless. She's everything our parents aren't, that I can't be. We disagree about a lot of things these days."

"Damn, Eero, your mommy and daddy issues are bad today!" Malik laughed. "Let your sister pursue what she wants. All magic isn't bad. My mom would be thrilled if I could do anything like the Pleasantview witches as long as it didn't interfere with my 'studies'. Maybe if I knew some magic, she'd get off my back a little."

"I could teach you the birth control spell," Leah teased. "But seriously, come to the Crystal Cove coven some weekend with me. Eero, too. My dad practically runs it, and he teaches easy introduction spells some weekends. He got rejected from the Pleasantview coven when he was our age for having a learning disability, and he does everything he can to remind them what they missed out on. I'm sure that even Eero could pull off a spell or two if he tried."

"That's okay. Thanks for the invite, Leah, but I don't need any magic. I've taken the universe's hint and given up on trying to learn it."

Thankfully, both of Eero's friends seemed pacified by this statement and began another conversation about the resources that were poured into the building. Eero drowned them out easily.

Everyone knew that Remy purposely hid her true magical talent. Failing tests, underachieving and failing to even open her textbooks broadcasted that she didn't put any effort into a skill she clearly had. Everyone knew that she could be a strong witch if she put the effort in. But Eero? He'd learned long ago that it was all or nothing when crafting a lie. People knew with conviction that Eero was a powerless failure. That his parents had given all of their magical abilities to his sister. It was strange that a family with such strong, powerful magic users could produce a son barely able to light a candle with magic. It was strange, but believable. Remy gave too much away. She got excited to use magic in her schemes, revealing what she was capable of. Eero never once used magic even when Despina had pleaded with him to try. The key to a good lie was consistency.

Theo and Adam are going to stop the dream plague from Xexys and I'm going to help them. I can use dream magic like Dad, and I can use it to keep our cousin safe. Don't worry about me. I know you will anyway, but you don't have to. I promise I'll come back soon and with tons of stories about our family. I'll take pictures of werewolves and dream demons for you since they're something we've never really seen before in Arkhelios. They sound so cool that I know even you will be impressed by them.

Eero's right arm twitched subconsciously. The limb felt like it had fallen asleep. It was possible that Eero had been leaning on it weirdly, but he'd been lying on his back. He tried to shove down the memory of his sister's words, but it was a struggle. Despina belonged in Strangetown with her love of the occult and the supernatural. She chased after werewolves and demons like it was nothing. Eero had nothing against supernatural beings, but he wasn't exactly about to make an effort to meet one.

Pain pulsed through Eero's arm. At least it wasn't asleep anymore. Pain he could deal with.

"Let's go to the music room," Eero said suddenly, rubbing his sore arm. "It's boring here. Leah shouldn't be the only one playing an instrument. Let's do something."

Leah and Malik shared a look but didn't complain. Eero was definitely hiding something from them, but they could wait for him to share whatever it was with them. Getting a secret from him any other way would be nearly impossible. He was stubborn, but he was also their friend.

The music room was a sanctuary for Eero. He didn't play violin or any stringed instruments like Leah or play piano like his cousin Adam, but he still liked to unwind by singing or playing the drums. No one really complained when he sang, so Eero guessed that he might be good at it. He had picked up a guitar for music class, but Malik was better than he had ever been. Singing gave Eero an outlet, especially if he could scream with his favourite artists on furious songs. It was something he liked to do in private, unlike taking his frustrations out on the communal drum kit. Leah refused to play anything that wasn't pop anyway, so he didn't have many chances to sing angry songs with his friends.

"Oh, Thea, how are you? If you're looking for my wife, she's not here. Pleasantview elected her to lead the coven temporarily due to Master Maricourt's sudden illness."

Arthur Toyonaga smiled politely at the woman before him. Thea Davis and the other major Bellamy family in Arkhelios kept to themselves mostly. Malik was a frequent visitor of Eero's, which Arthur didn't mind. His mothers were another story. Any Bellamy made his and Alicia's lives miserable, especially Roman Bellamy, and Thea Davis had been rumoured to be a servant of Dorhack long ago. If Arthur never heard the name Dorhack again, he would die a happy man.

"Oh, I wasn't looking for Master Maricourt-Toyonaga," Thea replied. "We've all been watching the news, and she appears quite frequently on it with updates. The coven is lucky to have her. No, Malik wanted to cheer his friend up, so I thought that I'd tag along. It's been some time since I've been to the coven/social outreach center. Wanda's done such a great job with this place. It looks expensive."

"It is," Arthur confirmed. "It's worth it though. The coven will grow in time and it needs to look like it should be respected. The Strangetown coven was destroyed, and the Crystal Cove coven is a joke. The only coven worth competing with is Pleasantview's and they have centuries of money and tradition behind them. Maybe we won't surpass them in this lifetime, but it's a good start."

"It's a shame that Theodosius isn't a member here. With all that power born to two Arkhelian boys, Arkhelios deserves to have his skill in its coven. Pleasantview has plenty of strong warlocks without him."

"I'm sure they do," he assured her. "But Theo has sworn an oath he can't break. He is first and foremost a student of Pleasantview no matter where he was born."

Arthur fought the urge to roll his eyes like a teenager. Fortunately for him, growing up as a prince of Strangetown helped keep his face uninterested.

"Does President Bellamy know about the competition brewing for her coven?" Thea asked. "Ginevra and her wife have that funny building down the street from the old Rivales factories and rumour is that they're looking to branch out."

"Branch out from what?" Arthur asked, looking confused. He knew the building in question, but the drama in Pleasantview had dominated his family's focus as of late. He knew that Ginevra was part of the Rivales family and that she'd married a gold eyed demon with money, but aside from that, no one seemed to pay any attention to her.

Arthur wasn't sure where his wife preferred the little hybrid to be. Her first loyalty was to Pleasantview, but she had also put hard work into establishing a coven in Arkhelios. He suspected that she would continue to support Theo's membership in the coven she truly loved.

"Uh huh. Well, I'll be sure to speak with my wife about it when I see her next," Arthur said diplomatically. "I'm sure that we can all peacefully coexist here in Arkhelios. Leah's father is my cousin, after all. Leo would never do anything that would hurt anyone intentionally."

"Of course," Thea conceded. "It's just something that I've been keeping an eye on. It never hurts to be suspicious of new things in this place. Arkhelios has developed a well-earned reputation for demonic activities after all."

"From their little witchy cult," Thea answered, looking thrilled to be sharing this gossip with someone new. "They have the place packed with crystals, so Crystal Cove has to be a part of this scheme too. Some kind of financial backer maybe? They're said to worship the One Who Watches in all of his many forms. Lukas' champions run the same exact styled building in Crystal Cove. That girl my son is friends with is the daughter of Life's champion and has no doubt been asked to spy for her parents. My wife and I share some concerns about her friendship with Malik, but you know teens. The instant you tell him to stay away is the instant that he's glued to her side."

Arthur smiled tightly. The last thing he wanted was to discuss demons, especially with this woman.

"Of course."

I have to tell you something, Eero and you have to promise not to get mad.

The microphone in Eero's hand felt like it was on fire. The instant Eero felt calm, singing and laughing with his friends, Despina's words rose unbidden to his mind. The feeling of fire returned to his hand once more.

Dad made me promise not to tell anyone until I absolutely had to. Do you remember meeting Sebastian Wall at my school when you came? I don't know if you two met or not, but he's our half-brother. Pleasantview's royal assassin, Coby Wall, wanted to control dream magic for himself, but the closest he could come to that was by controlling a child who could do it for him. Dad made Sebastian with him, even though he felt really bad about it.

The pain searing through his arm felt white hot, as intense as the sun. Eero nearly dropped the microphone in his hand as he doubled over in pain.

"I'm not Adam Darktide's son," he groaned through gritted teeth. "I'm not related to...to Imogen Muir. I don't have a brother, just a twin sister."

Sebastian can't use dream magic, though, so Coby's plan....

...Sebastian has the dream plague. His father incubated the disease in him and....

...Dad says that you don't have the gene, otherwise he'd try to contact you. You could still try....I know you feel like Remy when it comes to magic, but you have a gift you shouldn't waste, even if you don't want to admit to having it. I could help you connect with Dad. We could be a real family again if you weren't so stubborn. It's everything I've always wanted for us.

"Despina, you're just like them," he whispered under his breath. It felt like a release to say the words out loud, but he didn't want his friends to think that he had lost his mind. Already, Leah and Malik had stopped playing and were giving him concerned looks. "You chose magic over your family."

A fire raged in his chest, consuming every breath he tried to take. Adam Darktide had another son. He had made that son as a weapon, just as he'd made Eero as a sacrifice. His children were disposable to him and Despina was deluding herself if she thought any differently about him. They didn't have a family. Their aunt hated them, their cousins pitied them, and Eero refused to believe that this Sebastian could be anything like him or Despina. It had always been just the two of them, but now Despina was gone too. After so long, their parents had finally returned to claim their daughter's life.

Dad loves you, even if you never hear him say it while we're alive. You and me and Sebastian are family, and I'm going to save him so that we can spend the rest of our lives together. You always said that you didn't know how to be the son of Adam Darktide, but with whatever I find out in Jubilant Accosts, and with Sebastian's help, I know we can change the way people see our family. I'll redeem our family name and even Aunt Edana will have to treat us better. I'm going to come back and everything will be better; I just know it will.

Red, searing magic exploded out of Eero's hand at the thought of his father. It was wild and out of control, raging like a fire. Every breath was fire. He could feel fire blaze out of every pore in his skin. He was being consumed from the inside out by relentless flames.

"Eero? What's happening?"

"I'm not Adam Darktide's son! I'm nothing like him! I don't care about my mother because she never cared about me! I warned Despina! I warned her and she still left! She left to chase after ghosts who don't give a damn about her! She left me alone!"

After what felt like an eternity, the flames inside Eero died down, cooled by the return of rational thought. The searing magic had vanished from his arm, leaving Eero with two concerned onlookers.

"Eero, do you need us to get help?" Leah asked. She took a step towards him and Eero took two steps back.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I just need some air," Eero stammered. "Nothing's wrong, I just...I have to go."

Eero burst outside, gasping for air. His throat tightened, knowing that despite his efforts, he'd been found out. Years of repressing the smallest hint of magic and it had taken was Despina's letter to ruin everything. Maybe he could convince Leah and Malik that it wasn't magic that had burst from the dam he'd created in his mind. Maybe they'd believe it was a medical condition or a sign of this so-called dream plague. Anything but magic.

With that, Eero bolted from the room, running as fast as his feet could take him.

His friends had seen him perform magic, even if it was against his will. All the long years of hiding his abilities, of ignoring them in the hopes that they'd go away, was all for nothing. People knew, even if they were his friends.

Eero gasped as the blinding pain returned. Despina's letter burned inside of the pocket that he'd hidden it in, and he threw it on the ground to be rid of it. Another wall within him broke as he imagined his sister writing the damn thing, excited to be joining a suicide mission for the slim possibility of knowing more about two people who cared nothing for her. Why couldn't she see what she was risking? Why had she been determined to follow the same reckless path as their parents? Magic was dangerous. Magic had broken their family before he and Despina had even been born. What possible good could come from learning about the people magic had twisted?

Long repressed magic tore through his body. Cold flames engulfed his hands. Eero could faintly recognize it as hellfire, but it looked wrong even to his untrained eyes. Hellfire was usually orange like a normal flame, but this was green. What magic could mimic a demon's in such a way?

I promise that I'll come back, but until I do and Remy and Sebastian are cured, you're going to have to be the face of the Darktide family. God knows that Aunt Edana is incapable of that at the moment. It may feel like you're alone now without me or our cousins, but I promise that when I come back, you'll be overrun with relatives. Maybe I'll even find some of Mom's family to bring with me. We could have cousins on her side of the family too!

Eero trembled, unable to process what was happening to him or any of his emotions. How did Despina control magic? It was nearly all she talked about before she'd begun fixating on their parents, surely she'd said something about how to control magic at some point. He'd ignored most of the classes the coven taught about magic and after he'd been "caught" lighting a candle with a lighter instead of magic, most of his teachers had pitied him for his lack of magical skill and had given him homework that focused on potion work or calculating the mathematical requirements for spellwork instead of attempting the spell itself.

"You have to clear your mind. I know it's hard, but just listen to my voice. I'm going to guess that this situation is because of what's on that paper over there. Don't look at it. Take a deep breath. That's it. Now do it again. You can do this. This happens sometimes when a warlock is overwhelmed; it's perfectly natural."

Wanda Bellamy watched Eero with kindness. She wasn't the strongest witch, but she had learned a lot during her time leading Arkhelios and had seen many children struggle the way that Eero was. It was rarer for a teen to lose control of themselves, but Wanda had watched the Darktide twins over the years and seen first hand the difference in magical skill between Despina and Eero. The boy was unfamiliar with how magic flowed through a warlock or how emotions could wreck havoc in an environment.

"That's it, you're doing great," Wanda lied, hoping the boy couldn't pick up on her confusion.

"Eero, close your eyes and reach out your hand," she commanded. "You're going to imagine all of your stress, all of the magic you're feeling, withdraw from your body into the palm of your hand. Deep breathe and feel it all leave you. It's all in the palm of your hand. Everything is focused in your hand. Concentrate."

To her relief, Wanda saw menacing, swirling magic begin to pool in the teen's hand just as she'd commanded. If only things had been as easy with Theo.

There was something odd about the magic coming from the boy, something Wanda couldn't put her finger on. It poured out of him in a way that felt like watching Theo when he was younger and had less control over himself. Eero wasn't a demon hybrid, as far as Wanda knew. There were demonic genes in the Darktide family, that much was proven by Adam's reaction to the incident with Theo's magic. Despina had shared a womb with Eero, but Wanda had never seen magic like this from her either. Despina's entrance exam to the Pleasantview Academy was impressive but was still just standard formal magic. She hadn't even been aware of her ability to use dream magic when she took the test.

Wanda wasn't educated in a fancy academy, so she didn't know the names and descriptions of all the types of magic, but even she knew enough that this magic was unfamiliar. Still, it felt close enough to demonic magic that she might be able to help him. How many times had she tried calming demonic magic when Theo was young? The older he got, the less Wanda couldn't help him control himself, but Eero didn't have a demonic curse pulsing through his blood like Theo did.

Wanda cupped Eero's hands with her own. She chanted softly and the energy began to dissolve in the air, like it had never been there. When she felt the last of it vanish, Wanda wrapped the teen in a comforting hug.

"We'll figure this out, Eero. Don't worry, we'll figure this out."

"You did it," she said proudly, releasing him. "Eero, you did magic! Not only that, but you were able to dispose of it with minimal interference. Congratulations! Your sister is going to be over the moon when she hears about this!"

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. Without warning, Eero began bawling. Wanda frowned, unsure of what the issue could be. Too many kids had come to see her, wishing that they had the skills to learn magic. It had never occurred to her that Eero's steadfast determination to never touch magic was sincere. She had been convinced that the boy was jealous of his sister and cousins for doing magic he couldn't, so he became vocally opposed to magic to protect his own ego. Apparently, she'd been wrong about his motives. The teen was distraught at the magic that had exploded from him, staring at his hands like they'd betrayed him.

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