Wishcraft

Concordium 31

Wishcraft Chapter 9

Erik

I remembered waking up and stumbling down the hall to my bed sometime in the middle of the night. I'd been drinking, something I never did under normal circumstances. I remembered Sebastian and a blond woman walking with me and supporting me. Then I'd fallen asleep in my clothes.

When my Alarm went off at 7:00 a.m., my head was still a blur, except for the pounding headache. A tray sat on Alonzo's desk with cups of tea and small glasses of pills. (His areas were always neater than mine). There was a card next to each set with our names. I took the card labeled Erik and read it.

Erik,

I have included a hangover remedy. The blue pastille will alleviate fatigue. I have been distracted lately but know that I am always here for you.

Jason

I had been so strung out that I hadn't noticed Jason being distracted. He and Kieran were good friends to us. I needed to make time to get together with them again. I took the pills and swallowed the tea, then got dressed and headed down to the room at the end of the hall. That was the last place I'd seen Alonzo. Just in case he couldn't come with me, I took the tray with his medicinals and tea with me. Whatever Jason had put in those little pills of his was working. My hangover was gone, and I felt like I'd had a good night's sleep.

I knocked and was allowed in. Alonzo was sitting up on one of the beds, naked, drinking a bottle of water. A tray next to him had a few long silver needles on it. Sebastian, Marvin, and Marvin's roommate (I couldn't remember his name) were in the room.

"Good morning," I said, putting my own tray down on the desk across the room from where my boy sat. "How's my Alonzo this morning?"

Alonzo forced his bleary eyes open and said, "I've been better, but I think I'll survive."

I walked over and bent down to kiss him good morning. Alonzo's lips were chapped and dry, but I'd take his lips dry over anyone else's lips in a heartbeat. But I should try and remember to get his cherry lip balm before I went to class. "I love you, baby," I said and kissed his forehead.

I gestured at the tray I'd brought and said, "I have Alonzo's morning medicinals from Jason."

Marvin looked skeptical and went over to look at the tray. He called Sebastian over and I heard them whispering in another language that sounded like Spanish with harsher consonants. I distinctly heard the phrase "alchemista ordinis primae". In the end, Marvin relented and brought both cups over to Alonzo, while Sebastian pocketed the card.

I was staring at Alonzo while he was swallowing his pills. He was small, about a foot shorter than me. His brown hair hung in waves, barely touching his slight shoulders. His large, expressive eyes were amber in color, and his skin was back to the most beautiful light caramel that I had ever seen. The tattoo on his chest, which I’d insisted he get, was still puffy. I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that I'd done it without even consulting him, but I couldn’t deny that my  cock stirred seeing him marked with my sign.

When the time came and the medicinals had kicked in, I picked him up and carried him to the bathroom. He was light in my arms. I regularly lifted twice his weight in the gym. I sat him down on the toilet and helped him afterward. He was still weak, but I could see that, compared to last night, he was gaining energy rapidly. Still, we barely said a word as I wanted my boy to save what little reserves he was refilling. When he was done, I carried him back to Marvin's room and sat him on my lap in a chair.

"Go ahead and get to your lab, Erik," Sebastian said. "I'll make sure Alonzo doesn't miss his music practicum, and we have to finish his final examination before letting him go."

I didn't want to leave, but I had the impression I was in the way. Anger rose unbidden as I saw Marvin putting his hands on Alonzo's neck, but I pressed it down. I had to keep calm. I seemed to lack control when it came to Alonzo. My eyes grew moist as I remembered hitting him and squeezing his balls until he cried, but it made my cock twitch and I felt disgust for myself.

"Text me and let me know how you're doing before class," I said. Then I kissed him again and left.

 

Alonzo

I'd drifted in and out of consciousness all night. I remembered the needles stuck in my body, and I remembered other people, male and female, lying naked next to me with needles in their bodies as well. I remembered how stretched and hollow I'd felt, like my body was losing definition at the edges and I was dissolving into the background. I felt better this morning, however. Whatever Marvin had done, it had worked.

Marvin finally took his hand off my neck. "His reserves are building faster than I expected," he said.

Sebastian said, "You did the hard work of repairing his numinous body last night, but Jason gave him a powerful refectionary elixir to build him back faster physically. He told me to tell you to come see him if you need a boost this morning."

Then Sebastian turned to me. "Are you feeling better?" he asked.

"Yes I am, thank you..." I began.

But Sebastian cut me off. "You can thank Marvin and all the mages who gave selflessly of their own reserves to save your life, then. I don't know what in the name of the Styx you thought you were doing, but you almost killed yourself last night. You were told not to try any magic that we hadn't approved for you. Then you performed three reality warping spells in a row. Any one of them would have killed anyone else."

"I'm sorry," I said. And I was, even if it had felt good to do it last night. I broke down and started sobbing. "It seemed like the right thing to do, and it felt good, so I kept doing it. All I did was change a couple of driver's licenses and... well, I shrank a guy's dick. He was being mean and making fun of me and... I shouldn't have done it."

Sebastian sighed, then picked me up so he could hold me while he chewed me out. I was still naked and Marvin was still in the room, but I didn’t care. Sebastian wasn’t being sexual with me. I felt like a child being comforted by an adult. I was so drained emotionally that I needed the attention.

"You didn't just change the driver's license, you know. You created a new reality and then superimposed it on the pattern of the world as we know it. It wasn't just that Erik's license said he was 77 inches tall. Now it’s a universal truth. He never was that short guy we met last weekend. You did the same thing to yourself. Alonzo, it's not boasting to say that I'm a powerful seer, but even I remember you always being this short. I know the truth intellectually because I examined the spell, but I remember the new reality."

"So, I changed everyone's memories? Everyone in the whole world?" I asked, impressed with myself even though I wasn't supposed to have done it.

Sebastian laughed, "That would have been bad enough, although a memory spell is not likely to come that close to killing you. But, no, you didn't change anyone's memories, boy, you changed reality itself. A spell like this is usually done as a ritual that takes special ingredients and hours to cast, sometimes even days and a team of assistants. You did it in a few seconds. Then you did it again. And then you did it again. If I weren't so glad that you were alive, I'd turn you over my knee and blister your bottom for you!"

"I'm sorry," I said, but I really wasn't all that sorry. If Sebastian was more impressed than angry, then I had a right to be proud, didn't I? Especially since I was about to give it all up for good.

Sebastian played at smacking my butt, but he was careful to avoid the fresh tattoo.

"No, you're not," he said. "You wouldn't have done it in the first place if you were sorry about ignoring our instructions. You almost died, and a lot of people donated their own numina reserves to keep you alive. A third of the mages in this dorm will be mostly useless for magic today. This is the peril of rogue magic. You don't see the dangers until it's too late. We all care for you, Alonzo. Once we've overcome this curse, I'm going to make sure you become a part of the mage community."

He kissed my forehead and hugged me to him. I could feel his hardon through his jeans. I let myself lie against him and relax. His hand was stroking my bottom, but then he stopped and cleared his throat, like he'd suddenly realized what he was doing. "We need to get you ready for class," he said, standing me up next to the chair.

Then he got up and handed me my robe. "I picked this up for you last night," he said, "when Clarissa and I took Erik back to his bed."

I put the robe on and let him walk me back to my room. Erik was already gone so I started pulling out clothes. I wouldn't be able to make them fit this morning, not with Sebastian standing there watching me. I wanted to sing Bailando for my audition, so I picked out a pair of green jeans and a lighter green t-shirt. I didn't have any army green to dress like Enrique in the video, so these would have to do. I pulled out my rainbow-colored vest to put over it. I didn't have a military style cap either, but I did have a deep purple beret. At the last minute I chose a rainbow-colored cloth belt to match the vest.

Sebastian was sitting in a chair watching me while I dressed. "It's going to be tonight, Alonzo," he said, his voice deadly serious.

"When you say tonight, what do you mean by that?" I asked. "What exactly is happening tonight?"

"I don't think it's a good idea to wait any longer," he said. "Nico's free, or at least he will be, and the woods should be clear. There's the big celebration on the green so everywhere has a reason to be there. Nico will be invisible to everyone who can't see through the veil. Erik can see the magical world now because the curse is so advanced. Nico will drag you off through the baseball diamond, so we'll make sure that there is a baseball bat on the field for him to grab."

"Wow," I said. "Nico will keep his word, right? He's going to help us end the curse?"

"Of course he is," Sebastian said. "If Nico promises to do something, then he'll do it."

"He scares me a little," I said. "And he's so..."

"... alien?" Sebastian asked.

"That's the word exactly," I replied. "One minute he's threatening you and the next minute he's friendly, and I can't tell what he's thinking."

"He lacks normal human body language," Sebastian said. "But he likes you, Alonzo. I've known him for years and I can read him a little. He seemed happy with the idea of helping you, and you have no idea how rare that is. He normally sees all interactions with humans as a negotiation."

I nodded my agreement and said, "He told me I can't tell anyone about my deal with him, not even you. But I get the impression that he could have made a better deal and chose not to. Then he pretended that he'd been out-negotiated."

Sebastian threw his arm around my shoulders and assured me, "If Nico gave you a better deal, it's because it's something he wants to do. Maybe he feels obligated to help you after all and balancing that obligation is part of the price he set."

I didn't want to tell him what I was giving up, that I wasn't even going to be a mage anymore once Nico collected his fee. I wrapped my arms around him and let him hold me for a few minutes. I wasn't trying to be disloyal to my boyfriend, but Erik wasn't very comforting these days, and I needed hugs right now. And Sebastian felt older than us, even though he was only about five years older than me, and he gave good hugs, comforting, like papa.

I pulled my cowboy boots on and scowled because they were too big. So were my clothes. "Don't you dare, Alonzo," Sebastian said, as if he could read my mind. He was a seer. Maybe he could.

He pulled out his wand and ran it around my body, tapping the seams of the clothing and he said, "Vestamenta transmutantur; exactae sint mensurae!"

My clothes shrank down until they fit snug against my body, as did my boots. I grabbed my folder of music and then hugged Sebastian good-bye. "Thank you Sebastian," I said. "You take good care of us and I don't think I've thanked you enough for it."

I felt good about my look as I danced across campus to the music building, and I got a few whistles and catcalls on the way. I loved it when men whistled at me. I managed to get there twenty minutes early so Professor Gantz had time to take me to the room where the band was going to hold auditions. There were two girls and two guys in the room already getting their instruments set up. All of them were older than me, and all of them were taller than me. One of the girls was just two inches taller, but the other had three or four inches on me. One guy was just under six feet tall and the other was just over six feet tall. They all seemed to know one another.

Professor Gantz was talking to them and pointing in my direction. The tallest member of the group was holding his hand down at his waist, like he was implying that I was only three feet tall. There was a girl and another guy standing around with a folder like mine. They told me I would be the third to audition.

The woman went up first. I thought she was pretty good, but she missed four notes in the song she'd prepared. I couldn't tell if the others noticed or not. The group surprised her by pulling out "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran. Her voice was too high for the part, so they couldn't possibly have expected her to perform it well. I guess they wanted to test her range. After that, they gave her an old Madonna song – "Like a Prayer."

The guy had chosen "Uptown Funk". He wasn't bad, but I didn't think he was that good. He kept missing the syncopation in the beat and it sounded more pop and even less funky than the original, which was a good song but couldn't touch anything by P-Funk or the other great funk bands. They handed him the lyric sheet to Deborah Harry's "Call Me" and he predictably floundered trying to hit the high notes. Finally, they gave him "As It Was" by Harry Styles, and he did a good job.

I was nervous when I got on the stage, and I fumbled with the mic until the lead guitarist came over and adjusted it for me. I asked for "Bailando" by Enrique Iglesias. I dropped two notes because I was nervous. I apologized afterwards and the keyboardist seemed impressed that I knew which notes I'd missed. I offered to do it again, but the band said no and handed me "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. I knew they expected me to miss some of the high notes, but I was proud that I didn't. Then they handed me "Everybody Hurts" by REM. I guess they wanted to hear how I could do with a slower song.

They must have liked my performance, because they handed me a copy of George Michael's "Careless Whisper". They made me sing it without the music. I missed a couple of notes. It was hard without the background music to keep me on tune. When I finished, I gave them a plaintive look and they laughed. The lead guitarist, whose name was Billy McAndrews, patted me on the back and said that they had a few more auditions to get through and that I should take a seat.

Another four singers tried out, but I wasn't paying as much attention after I'd gone. We were told to wait around for the band to decide, so we milled around and got to know one another for about thirty minutes. Everyone seemed friendly, even though there was only one opening. In the end, I was one of three who were asked to stick around for a few minutes, and I was the last one called in.

The band members were seated at two tables that had been pushed together and I had to stand in front of them and answer their questions. Billy seemed to be taking the lead. They had my application I'd filled out sitting in front of them on the table.

"So, Alonzo," Billy said. "I'm a little worried that you're a freshman. Are you sure you'll be able to keep up with your workload and put in the time necessary to practice?"

"Yes, I can," I replied. "Music is what I want to do. It's more important to me than my other classes. I may shirk my responsibilities sometimes, but not in music."

Maraiah, the pianist, asked, "I don't want to be insensitive, but I must know. Have you finished going through puberty? Is your voice still changing?"

The drummer, George, joked, "Do we have to check your pubes to make sure?"

I was blushing a little. "I'm good," I said. "My voice never really cracked anyway. My lower range expanded but I can still reach any note from countertenor to tenor. I can't do bass, and I won't pretend that I can."

The questions veered into personal territory.

Would there be any relationship drama?

I hoped not because I had a steady boyfriend.

Could I handle alcohol?

No, that's why I didn't drink a lot.

Drugs?

None so far and I didn't plan to try them.

Any problems with "other races"?

Dude, I'm a Latino in the Midwest, no problem on my end.

Isn't that Latinx?

Not if you’re Latino. That's something white people say.

Any problems with LGBT? I guess not.

No ma'am!

In the end they said they would give me a call when they decided, but the pianist gave me a smile, a wink, and a thumbs up. I assumed that I probably had the spot. Although my age was still a problem for them. They checked my student ID and my Texas driver's license to be sure I was really 18. From their discussion, I got the impression everyone else in the band was a junior or senior.

My practicum had run late because of the interviews afterwards, but I still had some time before my meeting with Professor Thorne. I remembered to text Erik. I'm doing fine now. I had to run to get to class and couldn't text earlier.

Erik replied, You'll pay for disobeying me, Boy.

Fuck me, I thought, Einar was back.

I ended up running to Sebastian and telling him about Erik's threat.

"We expected him to slip into Einar mode again; that's the other reason we have to move fast," he said. "If I remember correctly, Pedro ran away from Einar and hid in the village. All you must do is stay away from him until he finds you at the concert tonight. Nico will capture you and drag you off. Erik will follow and we'll be on track to complete the pattern tonight."

Sebastian took me to lunch. He was really sweet and if I weren’t already with Erik, I would be totally into him. He had that nerdy professor look down and I thought it made him sexy. And I got the impression that he liked me as well. I ate the whole cheeseburger he bought me and all the fries. I was amazed because I hadn’t been able to eat as much since I made myself smaller. And I hadn’t even realized I was hungry until then, not until the delicious scent of fried potatoes, beef and melted chesse reached my nose.

Sebastian pushed the rest of his fries over to me and leaned in to whisper, “Doing powerful magic makes you hungry, but kills your appetite. It’s one of the reasons I made you have some food and sat here and watched you eat it.”

I batted my eyelashes at him. “One of the reasons?”

Sebastian inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. “Yes. One of the reasons. I know that you’re with Erik, but I am attracted to you. No sane man wouldn’t be, but don’t worry. I’m happy just being your friend.”

A tear came to my eye. “Thank you, Sebastian. That means a lot to me. I know that I can be kind of extra, and I really appreciate everything you do for me. Your friendship means a lot.”

Afterward we headed for Professor Thorne's office, a normal sized room that seemed small because each of the walls was covered with overflowing bookcases, except for a single section of wall that had a cloth hanging on it. The cloth was embroidered with geometric designs. It included magic sigils that I recognized from Tia Marisol's books. Professor Thorne, Clarissa, Jason, and Kieran were already there (I’d caught the boy’s eyes and given them a wink) and it was crowded in the room. It became more crowded when we were joined by four freshmen I didn't know but recognized from the Pagan Traditions meeting.

"Squeeze up and give me a little room," Professor Thorne demanded. Then she tapped the cloth, and traced a pattern along certain lines, with a slender wooden wand and said, "Via interstitia nobis manifestetur."

I could feel the magical energy gathering in the room and I could follow the professor hooking it on the tip of her wand and weaving it into a new shape. The cloth seemed to unfold into the wall, leaving a narrow passage three feet wide and seven feet tall that stretched for about thirty feet. One by one, she ushered us through the passage, leaving Sebastian to bring up the rear and make sure there were no stragglers. On the other side of the long hallway there was a circular room also about thirty feet across. A twenty-foot diameter circle was inscribed on the floor, with magic symbols relating to protection and abjuration running along the interior. Inside the circle was a five-pointed star.

Professor Thorne invited us into the circle to gather around a bronze bowl on a stand that contained a fire. Once we were settled, the professor spoke in her strong voice, "We are gathered here today for an induction ceremony. Six stand before us, preparing for initiation into Concordium, the most important bond in all magical society. Because the aspirants do not understand Latin, we will be conducting the ceremony in English."

There was some murmuring from the room; it was clear that some people had no idea what was going on. I wished that I could have asked Sebastian what was happening, but he, Professor Thorne, and Clarissa were lighting candles around the periphery of the circle. I could feel the power closing in on us, sealing us within a protective bubble.

Professor Thorne invoked the guardians of the four quarters of the world. I knew that these beings were known as angels, jinn, or spirits to different peoples around the globe. Then she invoked the quintessence. I'd heard that term before. It was some universal mind or soul that magicians rely on for a lot of their magical power. Finally, she called us forth one by one and took our oaths. Each of us had a sponsor. Kieran was sponsored by Jason. Alan Somers and I were sponsored by Sebastian and all three girls were sponsored by Clarissa.

When it was my turn, I repeated the words, "I, Alonzo Santiago Ramos, swear on my very mind, soul and body to protect the great secret behind the veil, neither revealing said secret nor allowing it to be revealed through my inaction insofar as I am able. Furthermore, I swear on my very mind, soul, and body to reveal no secrets of the sodality of mages to those who are not also bound to that sodality, and to not allow such secrets to be revealed through my own actions or inactions insofar as I am able."

As each of us swore, the flames in the brazier shot higher for a moment, as if something were acknowledging our oath. I could feel the bonds of the magical compulsion settling into my body and mind, weaving itself into my very being. There was no resisting this compulsion because we had freely accepted it. When all had sworn, Professor Thorne broke the magic circle that had surrounded us and reopened the doorway at the end of the hall, and we filed into her office. She hugged and welcomed us all into the sodality of mages. Then we left her office.

I thought it ironic that I had just been sworn in as a mage, but I was going to give it up to Nico after we finished the curse breaking tonight. But Sebastian and Clarissa were so happy for me that I couldn't break the bad news to them. I didn't even want to think about it myself.

 

Sebastian

Alonzo had been weepy and needy all day. I didn't blame him. His life had been a roller coaster ever since he'd put that curse on Erik, and tonight he was going to suffer more. As annoying as his flightiness could be at times, I admired him for his perseverance. As we were eating lunch, I could feel the sexual tension between us growing thicker. I knew that he was feeling the same thing I was, but he was too distracted by events to recognize it. And I couldn't do anything about it, either. I wouldn't get between him and Erik.

There was something else that I wasn't seeing with mundane senses, but I was still monitoring him with my arcane sight to make sure that he was healing properly. He was feeling sadness unrelated to Erik. It was my ethical duty not to pry, but it was a pain that was burning inside him and my emotional connection to Alonzo made it almost impossible to ignore. He was doing his best to bury it.

"Is there something wrong, Alonzo?" I asked.

He shook his head, then began nodding. "I can't tell you what it is. He told me not to."

"You're talking about the deal you made with Nico, aren't you?" I asked.

His eyes grew watery, and he said, "Yes, I am. It's going to hurt, but I promised, and I must do it."

"Is there anything I can do?" I asked him.

He was shaking his head again, then he said, "Can you hold me for a little while?"

I pulled him into my lap on the uncomfortable wire chair in the food court. It took an act of pure willpower not to get hard with his firm butt pressed into my lap. I rubbed his back for a moment and strengthened my resolve not to confuse him while he was this vulnerable. In the end, I had to murmur a quiet bodily control spell to keep myself professional. “Noli tumescere” was different enough from the Spanish that it aroused no suspicion.

I glanced around and no one was looking in our direction. I stood up, waved my wand, and spoke the words and we were suddenly standing on the carpet in my room. I pulled him down onto my bed and held him until his physics lab. He cried against my shoulder until it was time to go.

 

Alonzo

It had felt good to lie in Sebastian's arms and let him comfort me. It hadn't felt sexual, even though Sebastian really was a good-looking guy, and I could tell that he wanted me, even though he was trying to hide it. And he didn’t fool me with that spell of his. Tumescere was close enough to the English “tumescent” for me to miss that he had to use magic to kill an erection. But it was the comfort and emotional support that I'd been missing over the last week. Erik had been nerdy and awkward before the curse and had become cold and callous afterwards. I'd even become jealous of Kieran, despite how sweet and naive he was, over how supportive Jason was. Erik and I hadn't gotten a chance to grow into that kind of relationship because I'd spoiled it by cursing him.

I hugged Sebastian and thanked him before heading to my biology lab course. It ran from 3:00-5:30 PM and it was one of those boring classes that was a huge information dump about lab procedures. The TA said that they had to go over these the first day of every lab course. I took notes but made sure to get the link for all the handouts online. I've never done well with physical copies. I tend to forget that I have them.

‘Concert’ was a bad description of what was happening on the quad that evening. There was a stage set up and a lot of bands were scheduled to play 2-3 songs each. The band I was hoping to join wasn't playing because they hadn't gotten all their members in time. But there was also a karaoke booth (at the opposite end of the quad), several food stands and some fairground-style games where you could win gift cards as prizes.

I didn't feel like doing much, but Reggie, one of my fellow students from vocal class, convinced me to go up and sing "Call Me by Your Name" with him. It was fun, and it felt nice when he put his arms around me during the song. I felt more than a little naughty when he kissed me right after the final mm, mm-mm, ooh. A lot of cameras went off in the crowd and there were some cheers.

Reggie picked me up and kissed me as he carried me off the stage. "I've been wanting to do that since I saw you shaking your little butt in class," he said. "I got seriously pissed off when Gantz made you stop. If I was short enough to be right behind you in the lineup, I would have been tempted to grind your ass right there in class."

"I'm really flattered," I said, "but I've got a boyfriend already, and he's going to get angry if he sees us like this."

He let me stand on the ground, then said, "Of course you do."

He gave me a look over and added, "You don't realize that you flirt with everyone you talk to, do you?"

"No, I don't," I protested. "It’s not flirting, I'm just friendly with everyone."

He kissed my nose and said, "Keep telling yourself that, boy. And if you get tired of that boyfriend of yours, let me know."

I shook my head as I watched him walk away. He was good looking, with his light brown hair, fair skin, and hazel eyes. He had a nice voice, too. If it weren't for Erik, I'd absolutely be giving Reggie a call, but it was Erik I wanted. I knew that. I'd reshaped his body to match my own desires (without meaning to, of course), but I'd liked him even before that.

I went over to a food booth and ate a hot dog. I tried the chili relish, and that was a mistake. It was thick and sweet, like jelly. I threw it away when no one was looking and decided to try the gyro. It was pretty good, even if the meat had been cut earlier and was sitting in a steam tray. The tzatziki was good. A tall man with dark olive skin and short black hair approached me and said, "Sebastian wants me to lead you to the athletic fields."

I started following him, walking fast to keep up with his long legs. The crowd seemed to part in front of him like magic and soon we’d left the lights of the concert behind. There were no lights on the athletic field and we were well out of sight of everyone when I put a hand on his shoulder and asked, "What's your name?"

Of course, that’s when I realized that I should have asked that question before following a strange man into the darkness where no one could see us or hear us. He turned around and I could see that he had changed. His features were now sharper, more angular, and his chin came to a point. His ears were long and tapered to points that stuck up beyond his hair.

"You may call me, Tir-Aerenoth," he said. That was the name of the elf prince in the Viking's Prize.

"Nico?" I asked.

He looked exasperated. "I said to call me Tir-Aerenoth. I need to be playing a character for this to work," he said.

I nodded my understanding. Then we stopped. He looked back into the lit quad and said, "Erik is over there now."

He changed again, this time before my eyes. In an instant he grew to seven feet tall, and his body grew coarse and thick. His skin grew dark and warty, and his eye teeth grew overlarge almost like small tusks. He grabbed me and picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder. Someone, probably Sebastian, was pointing in our direction..

A strange compulsion came over me. I shouted, “Help me, Erik! I’m over here.”

There was no way he should have been able to hear me, but his head jerked up and he started running toward me at breakneck speed. Nico ran into the woods fast, but he made sure to leave a trail in his wake, breaking branches and stomping on the soft, wet earth. When we came to harder ground, he pulled my shirt off and left it hanging on a branch. Then it was a shoe, then another, then both socks one at a time. At the next spot where he couldn't leave prints, he yanked my pants off and dropped them. Then it was my briefs.

In his troll form, Nico was fast. We probably had a half hour lead on Erik and whoever was with him. I decided to call him the Troll because it wasn't really Nico. He was playing a part, and it was a part that I was paying him to play. And he was playing it to the fullest. He threw me down on the ground. It was a soft bit of ground, so he didn't hurt me, but it knocked my breath out of my lungs.

The troll knelt beside me and ran his thick finger along my jawline. Then he stuck it in my mouth. He thrust it in and out of my mouth, making me gag and cough up mucus. Then he slid the finger down to my ass and rubbed it against my hole. His other hand alternated between giving my cock hard taps with two of his fingers and rubbing the head. I lay my head back and moaned in pleasure.

"You feel so good inside me," I moaned. "Keep doing that, stud."

The troll growled at me, "You're so small, I've got to get you ready for me or I'll rip you in half."

I could see his cock pressing against his loincloth. It was impressive, but I didn't think it was bigger than Erik's. His had grown to almost a foot long, with a girth to match. "You are big and manly, aren't you, stud? Please don't hurt me."

My lines were paraphrased from the eBook, and so were his. In the book, the troll had been a rough partner, but had been less cruel and callous than Einar. He used my precum to wet his fingers again and plunged two in this time. He fucked my ass with those his fingers spreading them to stretch me a little. That was good because he was much wider than Erik, and he was still only semi erect.

His skin was rough. I could feel every bump and crease on his big fingers. It was even more obvious when he worked a third inside me. I started working my butt against his hand. I was trying to force him against my prostate, but he was actively avoiding it. Suddenly I remembered why. In the eBook, Pedro never came from the attentions of the troll. He got fucked until he was rescued by Einar. The troll gave me a sorrowful look, then pulled his fingers from my ass.

The broad tip of his massive cock poked at my butthole. I prepared myself to the best of my ability. I clenched tight and then released, pushing back so he could enter more easily. I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt. The troll's cock was long and thick, but he managed to get the head pushed past the entrance, and I didn't cry out. I did gasp a little. He looked at me with sad eyes, clearly letting me know that he was not enjoying this in the slightest, and then thrust all the way in. And I screamed.

He didn't relent, and I didn't stop screaming until his coarse and wiry pubes were rubbing against my smooth ass cheeks. He was following the script of the book fairly closely, and so was I. I didn't want anything to go wrong, and I didn't want to have to do all this again. Most of all, I wanted to end this curse so Erik would be alright.

"That's it, human boy," he growled. "Take my troll cock deep in your ass. I'm going to plant my seed so deep inside you that you burp cum for a week!"

I hadn't realized how terrible the dialogue was in the eBook until I heard it aloud. But I worked my way through the pain and replied with a cry, "I can't take it, Sir Troll! Your cock is so mighty, and my ass is too small. You're tearing me apart!"

The troll was pounding my ass hard, and I could feel every leathery inch of his cock as he thrust deep, then pulled out. My dick had wilted under his brutal assault and the pain was bad enough that I wasn't growing hard. I'd never experienced this before while getting fucked. Erik had always made sure that I enjoyed it. Even when he'd been overshadowed by Einar, I'd been able to get hard and reach an orgasm. But Pedro didn't cum from the troll fucking him in the book, and Nico seemed determined to let it play out that way tonight. It was disappointing, but probably for the best if we were going to bring this pattern to a conclusion.

"Scream all you want, little pup," the troll growled. "Your Viking master has probably given you up as a lost cause. You've been nothing but trouble to him. If he comes upon us, he'll likely pay me to take you off his hands."

"Never!" I cried, recalling Pedro's lines from the eBook. "Erik won't abandon me! He'll rescue me from you and then you'll have reason to fear, monster. Erik is the most brave and valiant man there is. I'm proud to be his thrall!"

I was unsure, but at the last minute I chose to refer to him as Erik instead of Einar. It felt right. It was Erik I was proud to belong to. It was Erik I wanted to find me, just as I wanted to find Erik. I knew he was hidden inside Einar right now and I wanted him to hear me. If the curse was as powerful as Sebastian and Clarissa kept saying it was, he had to be near enough to hear me. He had to come breaking into the clearing at the dramatic moment.

"If he comes here, he'll be dead, and we'll feast on his corpse for our wedding meal!" the troll shouted.

At that exact moment, Erik came bursting into the clearing, swinging a baseball bat over his head with both hands. "Unhand my thrall, you monster!" he shouted.

The troll came deep inside me, then pulled out, still spewing cum, which splashed all over my body. It sprayed far enough to strike Erik as well, splashing completely unbelievable amounts of semen around the clearing. The eBook had referred to it as “bucket loads of troll spunk”.

"You've hurt Alonzo!" Erik cried. (I noticed that he was also using my name instead of Pedro's.) "Now my rage burns inside me like a flame from deepest Muspelheim!"

The baseball bat burst into flames but wasn't consumed. For a moment the troll seemed taken aback, then he lunged forward. His massive foot landed on my chest, but I noticed that Nico had the presence of mind to apply no real pressure, instead he leapt over me, using his other foot to propel him.

"What do you care, Viking?" the troll demanded. "He's just another thrall. There are plenty more awaiting your next raid."

Erik swung the bat and struck the troll in the chest. "Alonzo is more than a simple thrall," he yelled. "He's the thrall who stole my heart! In all my pillaging and conquering, he's the little thrall that conquered me!"

The troll took a swing and Erik went tumbling to the ground, but he jumped to his feet before the troll could stomp on him and he swung the bat again, this time bringing it down with a solid thump on the troll's head. As the troll staggered backwards, Erik struck him again and again in the chest, abdomen, arms, and legs.

"No one will lay a hand on Alonzo so long as I am alive to draw breath!" Erik shouted. I felt something shift in the pattern of magic around us. "And I will always find the strength and power within myself to keep him safe."

That last sentence wasn't in the eBook, but I felt the pattern of magical energy around us adjust and accept Erik's words. I could have sworn at that point that I saw Erik wink at me. And I could tell from the look in his eye that it was Erik, not Einar. What had Erik done with his words? This scenario was the culmination of fantastically powerful magic, a reality warping spell Sebastian had called it. I wondered why I wasn’t being drained, and then I realized that the energy for this spell had already been expended. It had come from somewhere outside of me.

One final swing brought the troll to the ground. Erik raised the bat to swing a finishing blow, but he heard my groan in the background and dropped the bat to fling himself onto the ground beside me. He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me gently.

"I have you now, gentle boy," he said, looking down at me and kissing away my tears. "I've been a cruel master to you in the past, but that's done for now. I'll be a different sort of master to you going forward. I can't promise never to be cross or angry, but I'll not beat you again or share you with my court. From now on, it will be spankings, just hard enough to remind you of your proper place."

And these words too became part of the new pattern. I could feel them wrap around both Erik and me, binding us to the new reality. But once again Erik had changed the words. He’d softened them, almost as if his mind couldn’t promise the harsher fate that awaited Pedro. In the book, Einar had promised not to “beat Pedro more than was necessary to remind him of his place”, and he’d promised him “spankings hard enough to remind him of his place as a thrall”. What had Erik meant by “proper place” and “just hard enough”? It was like he was altering the words just so far as he could without ruining the spell. Surely, as a mundane, he couldn’t understand magic? Maybe he was more bound by the words than I was and his mind was fighting against them, but could only go so far.

He sat down on the ground and turned me so that I was sitting on his lap. He kissed me and ran his hands down my back. My cock was beginning to react to his tender affection. I could feel him hard like a rock pressing against my sore ass. I wanted him to take me, but my hole was still aching with the pain of it's last brutal fucking.

"I hurt so bad from the troll," I said, "but I'll be good, master, and try to smile if you want to take me."

He lay me down gently on the ground and said, "Tonight is not about my pleasure, Alonzo. It's about yours."

Then he bent down and took my hard cock into his mouth. For the first time, I was happy that my cock had shrunk. He was able to take the entire length in his mouth. He was an amateur, but he was enthusiastic. His mouth felt warm and soft, and his tongue was rubbing all the right spots. No one had sucked my cock but Father Mendez. He'd been more skillful, but Erik seemed to do it with more passion. I was getting that feeling of impending orgasm. My cock was filling with cum and I was beginning to tighten.

"I'm going to cum," I said. "If you don't want it in your mouth, now is the time to stop."

Erik's response was to suck harder and to slide a single finger inside me and touch that special spot. He'd always been able to find it. Like a bolt of lightning, a wave of pleasure started at my prostate. It moved to my balls then to the shaft of my cock, which tightened and then spewed cum into Erik's waiting mouth. He sucked harder, like he was trying to suck me dry, using my cock as a straw.

"Oh god! I’m cumming," I yelled. I wrapped my legs around Erik's head and ran my fingers through his hair.

When I relaxed, he slid up next to me and said, "You taste as sweet as you look."

We were cuddling and kissing when Nico appeared next to us. He looked taller and more regal and wore a silver circlet on his head. He was dressed in a scintillating floor length robe of lavender and silver. "You have proven your love for one another," he said. "If it is your desire, I can perform for you a sacred oath-taking ceremony to seal your love forever. The form shall be as is common for your people. But be aware that this oath is taken with the goddess of all creation as witness, and it is magically binding upon you."

Erik looked deep into my eyes and smiled. I held the gaze briefly, making sure there was no gleam of Einar in those clear, bright eyes. And I smiled back. "We would appreciate that greatly, Lord Tir-Aerenoth," Erik replied.

"Tir-Aerenoth is merely a name I use, please call me Prince of Elms," he said. "Now both of you tell me if you want me to perform this service."

"I do, my lord Prince of the Elms," said Erik.

"So do I, my lord Prince of the Elms," I said. Nico was somewhat off script.

"Join hands before nature's witnesses gathered here," he said.

Erik and I joined hands. In the scattered moonlight shining from above, Nico seemed even more fey than ever. I could see rabbits, foxes and owls had come and were watching us from the shadows. Even the trees seemed to be bending in our direction. And what was this Prince of the Elms business. That wasn’t in the script either, but it had to mean something.

"Alonzo, do you swear to give yourself to Erik, to always put his needs first and to provide comfort and support for him from this day moving forward?" he asked.

"I do," I replied, feeling a tightness in my chest and mind when I uttered the words.

"And you Erik, do you swear to give yourself to Alonzo, to always put his needs first and to provide comfort and support for him from this day moving forward?" he asked.

Erik replied, "I do."

And there was another change. In the eBook Pedro had promised to “put Einar’s needs first and to obey him in all things” while Einar had promised to “take Pedro’s needs into account and to discipline him with a firm but loving hand”. I hoped that Nico knew how far he could change things without breaking the ritual.

"Then before these representatives of the courts I, Prince of the Elms of Central Park, declare that you are now joined in sacred oath," he said.

I turned to Erik and looked deep into his eyes. "Is it you, Erik?" I asked. "Are you free of Einar Ironblood?"

He replied numbly, "It's me. I... I feel more awake than I have in days. It's like a great weight has been lifted from me."

 

Erik

It was true. I was free of outside influence for the first time in days. Everything came back to me. I remembered the discussion with Sebastian, the existence of magic, the fact that I'd been cursed. Looking at Nico standing there in the moonlight, I realized that he wasn't human. He had beckoned Alonzo to him whilst I was processing all of this. That was when I saw him whisper something in Alonzo's ear. Then Alonzo nodded sadly, and Nico placed a hand on his smooth chest, tapping it with his finger.

When I looked at Alonzo, I was overwhelmed with guilt. I remembered the things I'd done to him over the course of the last week, the beatings, the callous indifference to his feelings and wishes, and the way I'd taken advantage of his affection. The fact that my cock was hard and aching as I watched him made me feel even more guilty. He hadn't given me any sign of resistance since Sunday. Had I scared him that much?

He looked in my direction and smiled. Then he seemed concerned. He finished what he was saying to Nico and then ran over to me again. "Are you okay?" he asked.

I took his hand and said, "I don't know."

This experience had changed me. I’d done things that I never would have dreamed of. I had to work it out in my own mind. One thing was certain, I was never going to hurt Alonzo again. I was more sure than ever that I loved him. I stood up and hugged him to my side. "You have no idea how sorry I am, Alonzo."

"Me too," he said. "It's getting late. We should probably be heading back to the dorm now."

"Sure thing, little guy," I said to him.

I was still wrapping my head around the fact that the curse had made me change so much. I liked the fact that I was six foot five inches tall, and that I had 250 pounds of muscle on my body, and especially that my cock was now eleven inches long. But I saw what had happened to Alonzo as well. At five foot four inches tall, he was more than a foot shorter than me. And he was thin, maybe 120 pounds. Most distressing for me was that his cock, once average size, was now no more than four inches. It didn't matter to me. Its cute little size is what made me want to suck it earlier. I thought it was perfect for him, but, given how elated I was at my new size, I could only imagine how devastated he must be.

"I can only find one shoe…" Alonzo said, pointing at a single shoe sitting in the dirt. He looked sad and forlorn. He couldn't be that upset over losing a shoe, but he was crying. "I lost the other on the way in. I've lost... I've lost a lot of things tonight."

"Maybe we'll find them on the way back," I said hopefully. "Let me give you a ride so you don't hurt your feet."

I'd noticed that Alonzo's feet were soft and lacked the callouses I'd built up going barefoot over the summer. Once when I'd commented on it, Alonzo had told me that it was too hot in El Paso to go barefoot and that there were too many things with needles and stickers on the ground. He walked over to get his shoe and brought it back to me. He was walking funny from the brutal fucking the troll had given him.

I picked him up and put him on my shoulders. His cock was getting hard again. Mine hadn't gone down. I'd had no relief since yesterday. Alonzo had been too ill this morning and he'd been avoiding me ever since – not that I blamed him.

We found a few more pieces of his clothes. The other shoe, one sock and his shirt. I wasn't sure we followed the same path out of the woods we'd followed in. Alonzo put on the clothes we had, but that still left him bare bottomed.

It looked like the lights were out in the quad. Something strange had happened with time tonight. It looked like it was after midnight, but that shouldn't be. I was sure we hadn’t been in the woods more than an hour at most. Nonetheless, this made it safe for me to carry Alonzo across the quad with his bare butt showing. There was no one to stop us on the way back to the dorm, and no one was in the common areas. Back in the suite, I washed Alonzo gently in the shower. I allowed him to wash me too since he insisted. I wanted to concentrate on him tonight, but he was in too thoughtful a mood to let me.

I lay down with him on the bed and kissed him for a while. He still seemed a little sad and distant, but also needy.

"I want you inside me so much, papi," he said, mumbling against my chest as I kissed his neck. I didn't deserve him.

"You're too sore and torn up, baby," I said. "Let me work some of Jason's magic lotion into your butt and then you can sleep."

He seemed disappointed, but he moaned and wiggled a little when I put the soothing lotion on him and inside his sweet rectum. Then I held him in my arms until he went to sleep. I waited a while before I got up and dressed. I needed to do some thinking. I wanted to be alone with my thoughts, gloomy and guilt-ridden as they were, but I saw Nico coming out of Sebastian's room and Sebastian was in the doorway. He motioned me to come inside, and I didn't feel I could say no.

"Do you want something to drink?" he asked, as he walked toward his mini fridge.

"Only if you don't add something to make me fall asleep," I replied, a little harsher than I'd intended.

Sebastian had the good graces to blush a little. "I deserved that," he said, "but the healers needed you to be asleep or gone and you weren't listening to reason. Nope. Tonight, it's water, sweet-tea, or beer."

"Water," I replied.

He handed me a bottle of cold water and said, "It doesn't look like you can sleep either."

I shook my head. "No, I can't. I don't know if I'll be able to rest for a while. I'm afraid to go to sleep, afraid that I'll wake up as someone else."

"Your fears are natural, but the other guy is gone, and he'll stay gone once Clarissa and I can seal the changes that have been made. That should keep him from ever coming back." Sebastian took a swig of his own water. "You have no idea how crazy this week has been," he said.

"I have some idea," I said, thinking of everything that had happened since last Saturday, the curse that had hit me, me passing out and nearly going mad when I learned about the existence of magic, and then all the work he’d had to do to help us break the curse.

Sebastian gave a sad laugh. "You know about the stuff that involves you. There's more, a lot more. But tonight, I wanted to focus on you. What are you feeling about all that's happened?"

I sighed and then said, "I don't know where to begin. This week my body has been altered and my mind has been invaded. My entire worldview has been shown to be false. And I beat up my boyfriend. You can say that I raped him. I recorded him without his permission and displayed my abuse of him on the internet. I... I don't know that he can ever forgive me for all that I did. I should probably ask admin to let me change rooms or change dorms."

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," Sebastian said. "A lot of bad stuff has happened to you. I can't fix that. No one can. That's how the magical world works. Sometimes bad things happen, and you just have to find a way to move on."

"I can handle what happened to me," I said. "I can't handle what I did to Alonzo. I can't look him in the eyes and not feel guilt."

"It wasn't you," he replied. "It was the character who was possessing you that did those things to him. The way I heard it from Alonzo, you fought back hard and even found ways to force him to be less cruel when he was in charge."

"But Alonzo has to hate me for what I did to him," I argued. "He's smaller than me and I abused him."

"Have you talked to Alonzo about how he feels?" he asked.

"No. I can't do it. I don't want to hear him say it," I replied. "He can't possibly be okay with what I did."

"If Alonzo had done these things to you, would you hate him?" he asked.

I didn't have to think about it. I answered him right away, "No. I'd be hurt, and I'd try to figure out why, but I'd never hate him."

Sebastian heaved a deep sigh and took a long drink of his water. "Alonzo is feeling a lot of what you're feeling. I know because he cried on me for an hour this afternoon."

"Alonzo has nothing to be sorry about," I insisted. "I'm the one who used my greater strength to hurt him. He couldn't hurt me if he tried – at least not physically."

"What if I told you that the person who put the curse on you didn't know they were doing it, that they had no more idea that magic existed than you had before the curse, that they couldn't take it back and needed my help to do it and that I did it the fastest way I could. Would you blame them?" he asked.

"If they didn't even know magic existed, and they somehow managed to do it anyway," I said, "I don't think I could blame them. For all I know, I could have done something magic without knowing it."

"Would you hate them for it?" he asked.

"No! How could I hate them for something they had no control over," I asked in turn.

"Then why do you blame yourself and hate yourself for something you have no control over?" he said.

"I don't know," I said. "It just seems different to me."

"That's probably because you're a natural leader," he said, "and you hold yourself to a higher standard than you hold others. I'm going to tell you something that I wasn't sure I would. But I must ask you to think really hard before answering this question. If I brought the person responsible for the curse in here right now, what would you do?"

I thought about it for a while because I wanted to give a truthful answer, then I said, "I'd tell him that he hurt me a lot and made me do things I wouldn't ever do, and that I understood that he had no idea what he was doing. I think I'd tell him it was okay."

Sebastian had been staring at me while I was talking, like people do in the movies when they can  read minds and are trying to determine how genuine a person’s words are. Maybe he could? I knew he was a wizard.

"I believe you," he said. "The person who put this curse on you, and to a lesser extent on himself, was Alonzo. He's a mage, and a very powerful one, but he was untrained and had no idea that magic existed. He was in a focused meditation exercise when he thought of a book he'd read and accidentally made it real. You and he became the two main characters. And his own guilt has been eating him up ever since."

I was in shock. It wasn't that I couldn't believe Alonzo had magical power; it was that he could have fought back against my abuse with his magic and didn't. "I don't get it," I said. "Why didn't he use his magic on me to stop some of the things I did to him?"

"You can ask him," he said, "but I think he was afraid of hurting you. And now he's more afraid that you'll find out and reject him."

"He's afraid that I'll reject him?" I asked. "I'm mad at him, yeah. I know how he is. He probably wasn't thinking about the consequences when he did it. He's really smart, but he's impetuous. Mad? Yes. Mad enough to reject him? No."

"Before you get too mad at him, you should know that he gave up something valuable to him to get this curse lifted. He wouldn't tell me what it was, but he's been sad about it all day, and I don't mean a little down in the dumps. I was afraid for him, he was so depressed," he said. "If you meant what you said about not being angry and not rejecting him, I think you need to go back to your room and let him know that. He has an appointment at 10:00 a.m. with his magic tutor, but he's free until then. You guys can sleep late."

"Thank you," I said. "I think I will."

 

Alonzo

I woke up when Erik got out of the bed. I waited for him to come back, but I got nervous when he didn't. I felt like such a weakling, but I curled around his pillow and started crying. I'd given up my magic for him, and now I felt like I was losing him as well. When I heard the door open, I tried to stifle my sobs, but they got louder. Erik got into bed with me and spooned me from behind.

"It's okay, Alonzo. I'm back," he said.

"It's not okay," I said, sniffling and rubbing my eyes on his pillow. "I'm sorry. Sebastian told me not to say why but I want you to know how sorry I am."

He made me turn around so that my face was pressed against his strong chest. "I know, Alonzo," he said. "Sebastian told me, and I already told him that it didn't matter. If you can forgive me for all the things I did to you, then I can forgive you for the one thing you did to me."

"It wasn't your fault," I said, getting a little hysterical. "It was my fault. All of it, what I did and what you did. I'm the one..."

Erik didn't let me finish. He planted his lips over mine and kissed me. "That's how I stop conversations I don't want to have," he said. "Now tell me how much you love me."

"I love you so much, papi," I said.

"Tell me in your sexy Spanish, baby," he asked.

He was already nibbling my neck when I replied, "Te quiero, mi amor. Te quiero mas de lo que puedo decir."

I don't think he cared what I was saying. It was making him excited. I could feel his arousal pushing into me. And he was getting me excited as well. His hands slid down my back and cupped my ass. He squeezed me gently then ran a finger between the crack, caressing my hole. I gave a little gasp.

"Does that hurt, or does it feel good?" he asked.

"It feels better than good," I said. "It feels fantastic. Mmm. I want you inside me so bad, Erik."

"If it hurts, let me know," he said. "I don't want to hurt you again."

Then he put the head of his cock against my hole and pushed gently. I was still a little loose from the rough fucking I'd endured from the troll, so he slid in an inch or so without any trouble. I hoped I was still tight enough for him.

"You feel so good inside me, papi," I moaned. "Do it. Shove your cock inside me and make me scream."

He turned us so that I was on my back, and he could see my face. He used his phone app to turn up the lights a little. "I need to see your beautiful face while I'm fucking you," he said. "There's nothing I don't love about you."

I looked up at his pale face with its chiseled features and his blond hair. "I'm the lucky one, to have such a handsome güero to make love to me."

He chuckled. "Güero had better not mean ape or anything," he said, pulling at his thick blond chest hair.

"You'd be the best-looking ape in the world," I said, "but no, güero means blond or white boy and you are el guapisimo güero."

He pushed farther inside me, making me wince with the pain. "Does it hurt too much baby," he asked, his concern written on his face.

"It hurts so good," I said. "You've got a really big cock, so it's always going to hurt, but I know it will start feeling better soon. Just do it."

"I can't hurt you again," he said.

"I like it to hurt just a little, papi," I said. "I'll let you know if it's too much. Don't worry."

He swallowed hard and pushed inside me another few inches. "That's it, papi. Keep it coming."

With encouragement, he kept going until all eleven inches of him were inside me. I gave a sharp gasp when he pushed past my inner sphincter, but I made him keep going until I could feel him pressed tight against my ass.

"Now you did it, papi," I said. "I can feel you like a rod running right up beside my spine. Do it. Fuck me."

He began to pull out and thrust inside me. I may have played it up a little to reassure him that I was enjoying it, but soon his concern seemed to disappear."

"You fit me like a glove," he said, "like a tight, silk glove."

"And you fill me up, papi," I replied. "You know how to touch me in all the right places."

He was careful to press my prostate with each thrust, but, thanks to Jason's magic lotion making me more sensitive, my hole was tingling like crazy as well. In no time, the pressure built to the point of no return.

"You cum first, baby," he said. "With me, you will always come first."

My orgasm exploded out of me and my cum spewed all over my body. While my ass was clamping down on his cock, he shot his own load deep inside me. I tried to be quiet enough not to disturb Jason and Kieran next door, but I wasn't sure if I succeeded.

Afterwards, we cleaned each other off with our tongues. For the second time in one night, Erik ate my cum.

"I think I like the taste of your seed, baby," he said when we snuggled up and went to sleep, me lying in the crook of his strong arm.

 

---

You can read each story in The Concordium Cycle independently, or you can follow the author's preferred reading order that will blend the stories together. The next chapter in the author's preferred reading order is The Pack chapter 5.

Special Thanks to my editor [email protected].

Nota Bene!

This is the last chapter of Wishcraft. The story of Erik, Alonzo, Jason and Kieran will continue in a new storyline called Alchemy and Songcraft. Now that both couples have worked out some of their individual problems, they can begin working on the somewhat strange relationship between them. As we saw in Kieran’s out of time experience in the last chapter of My Roommate the Alchemist, these two couples are destined to be together in some way.