Chapter Twenty-Five.

"Cam?" Eden whispered.

"Hm?" Cameron responded.

"Don't forget you have to meet with Seph tonight," Eden told him. "If you want to eat before you go, you should do that now."

Cameron shifted on his bed, looking over at Eden, who was standing beside it, looking at him with concern. Eden's concern wasn't entirely unjustified, as Cameron had been sleeping fitfully ever since he'd laid down after the fight against the fairy.

The only reason Eden wasn't still in the bed was because he'd gotten up to make some spicy chicken and rice for them for dinner, and it had just finished.

He talked Cameron out of the bed and into the kitchen, where they ate dinner. Eden then made sure Cameron changed, before teleporting the two of them to the mansion's foyer, where Seph was talking with some wounded vampires.

According to Adam, every major supernatural force in the city had been attacked by fairies. Adam, Seph, the DoSS headquarters… all of them. All to ensure that Silviar could kidnap the two of them without anyone else interfering.

The only reason he failed was because of Cameron's demigod strength and speed. Eden knew demigods were stronger and faster than regular people, but he hadn't expected Cameron to have that, not with his divinity bound.

Looking at Seph, Eden realized that there'd been some serious fighting. The vampire was paler than normal, and even had a few injuries, himself.

"I take it you got attack by the fae, too?" Eden asked.

"Yes," Seph looked at them. "And you two?"

"Everything was a distraction to try to get us without issue," Eden stated. "But Cam and I aren't entirely defenseless, and they targeted me in my apartment. I have anti-fae guns everywhere in there, and always on me."

Eden and Cameron had agreed on the story being that Eden had been the one who killed the fae, with three bullets to the chest. To further the story, and explain why only the head was dropped off, they agreed to claim that Eden was abusing the rest of the body in revenge for scaring his dog and trashing the apartment.

"Alright," Seph said, then looked at Cameron. "Head to the room I trained you in on Sunday, I'll meet you there in a few minutes."

Cameron nodded, and Eden tapped his arm.

"I'll return in two hours."

Cameron nodded, then left, and Seph looked at Eden, frowning.

"How did you do it?"

"Do what?" Eden asked.

"Bypass my wards," Seph answered. "This is twice in three days you've teleported directly into the mansion, and I had the wards buffed heavily since then, especially after we had an angel break in."

"What did the angel what?"

"I'm not actually sure," Seph answered. "The only reason we know it was an angel was because we could sense his heavenly aura. He kidnapped me, and erased my memories of the ordeal."

Any angel who could actually mess with memories was either an Archangel or higher, and Eden couldn't think of any good reason why one of them would want an ancient vampire and leave them alive.

"Contrary to common misbelief," Eden answered the question posed to him before he posed his. "My primary roots are the type of teleportation that can't be blocked in most cases."

The only reason the fae had succeeded with him was because they had blocked all spatial magic, not warded against teleportation, the most common form of it.

Seph's lips curled down when he heard Eden's statement as realization hit him.

"Personal teleportation," Seph said. "The rarest of all spatial magics. To have that as your natural gift is an incredibly rare chance, even when ignoring how rare spatial magic as the roots is. You can teleport directly to anyone you've met before. That explains why you were able to teleport into our room on Sunday – you were teleporting to Cameron."

"And today," Eden said. "I was teleporting to you, since I 'officially' met you on Sunday, when I picked Cam up."

"I'll have to look into wards against that," Seph muttered as Eden's phone rang.

Eden pulled his phone out and frowned. His father was calling. They paid for the phone, but never contacted him. The only reason he had his numbers was because he'd never forgotten them and programmed them into his phone when they gave it to him.

"I have to take this," Eden said. "Don't you dare upset Cam again."

With that, he teleported back to his apartment and answered his phone, putting it to his ear without saying a word.

"Eden," his father said.

Eden stood there.

"Eden, can you please let me know it's you I'm talking to?" His father asked, and Eden detected not a hint of annoyance in the voice, just the genuine request.

"It's me," Eden stated. "It's been what, three years? Four years? What, decided to finally sell me to some scientist or mage trafficking ring?"

"What?" His father exclaimed. "Eden, we'd never do anything like that. I'd have called you months ago, but from what I knew, you seemed pretty happy with what you were doing, and I didn't want to pull you from that. Your mother and I have done a lot of talking – and I do mean a lot of talking. About you, and about your ability to just teleport around like that. We've talked to a few people we found in the supernatural community who had discovered similar things themselves or with their kids. We wanted to call you and ask you to come home, but as I said, you seemed happy with what you were doing from what we did know, and we didn't want to pull you from that happiness."

"What's the point of all this?" Eden asked. "Decided you wanted to pull me away? Dad, I was happy when you bought this apartment and sent me to live here. Well, before then. It took me nearly a year to start being happy again, and I didn't really get happy until I found someone in the underground fighting who could actually challenge me. You took me away from my friends, the people I enjoyed hanging out with. You took me away from my home, from you two, from Nick. I enjoyed being with you three. What do you want, now? To pull me away now that I'm happy again? To ruin what I have?"

"No," his father said. "Eden, I'm sorry about what we did, and so is your mother. That's another reason it's taken us so long to talk to you again. We knew you were heartbroken by what we did, and angry at us. We knew you were probably still angry-"

"Then. Why. Are. You. Calling. Me?"

"We think Nick's awakened magic, or whatever you call it," his father told him. "The last few weeks, he's been buying a lot of candles, and pulled away from his friends. He doesn't talk to us much anymore, and when we check on the candles, they're mostly used up. We think he's using fire magic of some sort, and is using the candles for it."

Eden thought about that. It was possible that Nick had awakened his magic and found himself a fire mage. If all he was doing was lighting candles with it, then he probably had the most common basic fire spell root for natural fire mages as his primary root as well.

"It's possible," Eden said. "Have you tried talking to him?"

"Attempted," his father said. "Tried everything short of asking him if he was using magic, in case we were wrong. He's in his room right now, and we're sure he's doing… whatever it is he's doing when he's playing with the candles. I was hoping you'd be willing to come home and maybe talk to him? I know he remembers you teleporting, even if he doesn't bring it up."

"Fine," Eden sighed, then hung up the phone without waiting for his father to say another word.

He pocketed his phone, then visualized his thirteen-year-old brother in his mind. Same sandy blond hair and brown eyes as him, and same lean muscle. From some of his secret spying sessions, he knew his brother preferred anime tees, possibly a change that occurred after seeing his brother teleporting around the house before getting kicked out.

A few deep breaths later, and Eden appeared in his brother's room, who jumped, startled by the sudden appearance of someone, the movement knocking over the pillar candle. Sure enough, Nick was wearing sweats and an anime tee, and when Eden had appeared, he had his right hand by the wick of a candle, index finger and thumb less than an inch apart, the wick between them.

"E-Eden?" Nick asked in surprised, then dropped his voice. "If Mom and Dad find out you're here-"

"They suspect you can do magic, too," Eden said. "I just hung up on Dad as he was asking me to check. Do the spell you were about to do."

Nick scrambled back to the candle and set it upright, then touched the wick with both of his fingers, a flame appearing between them. He released the wick quickly, though kept his fingers to either side, before widening them as far as they'd go. The flame grew in size as he did that, melting through the candle faster. Nick let it burn for a few seconds before pulling his hand away, and the flame returned to normal.

"Pretty basic fire spell," Eden said. "Also the most common spell to have for fire mages as their primary root. Looks like you've already figured out how to make flames bigger, too."

"Yeah," Nick smiled at Eden. "I've missed you, E. And you weren't as subtle as you think when you were spying on me at school."

Eden snorted, then grabbed his brother and pulled him up and into a hug.

"So," Nick said once they separated. "Mom and Dad know?"

"Suspect," Eden said. "They aren't going to kick you out. I think. When my friend finishes with his training, I'll see if he'd be happy to ask."

"Why do I get the feeling that's a lot more sinister than it sounds?"

Nick and Eden looked at the door, where their father's voice had come from. Eden walked over and opened the door, glaring up at his father.

"My friend's a mind mage," Eden said. "A very powerful mind mage who's bested me in every fight we've had. He'll mindrape you to find out the truth."

"I promise," their father said. "We don't intend on that. We'd like you to come home, Eden, and we'll do whatever it takes to help the both of you get stronger with your powers. How-how does that work, anyway?"

"Mostly?" Eden asked. "Training. Lots and lots of training. Nick's got his spell down already, and even learned a variation on it, which is impressive. Other than that? It's best to find a teacher. If you register Nick with the government, they can connect you to mages who are suited to teaching him, though it'll cost, of course."

"Cost doesn't matter," his father said. "If it really mattered to us, we wouldn't have bought that apartment for you, Eden. We'll spend whatever it takes."

"Or you can go for underground teachers," Eden said. "No government registration involved. They're a lot more expensive, however, especially the good ones – who the government know teach magic against regulations, but allow anyway."

His father thought for a few moments, then nodded.

"What's the difference between registered and non-registered magicians?"

"Registered mages," Eden explained. "Can receive cheaper training, often better training, and have access to government-run supplies for some magical things, which is generally cheaper than going somewhere that's not a government mage shop.

"Word of advice," Eden looked at Nick. "Don't go out and try to be a superhero. There are secrecy laws in place, and the government's pretty strict, regardless of what you're doing. If you knew it's not allowed, the fine they'll slap you with will be bigger, and depending on what you did, you might even serve jail time. The only difference between registered and unregistered mages with this is which jail you go to if you do get slapped with some time for it. Registered mages get a nicer jail. There are some other perks to being registered, but these are the main ones."

"Are you registered or unregistered?"

"Unregistered," Eden answered. "But for someone with innate spatial magics, that's better. Being registered also means you're willing to do some things if the government calls on you, and for someone who learned spatial magics, that happens quite often. Having it innate would only increase that. The government's been trying to take me in, but they've kind of given up as of Friday. Me and my mind mage friend are both high priority targets for taking into custody, either as a registered mage or as a prisoner. We can cause a lot of chaos."

"What kind of chaos?" Nick asked.

"Will you come home?" Their father asked.

"No," Eden answered. "I'm in the middle of at least two wars going on right now. I'm going to explain something else, before giving an example of why I'm not coming home. The heavens themselves – the various gods that exist – support the secrecy laws. They're the primary reason they went into effect, and the governments saw it as a good thing.

"To put into perspective how much the heavens want this," he continued. "Earlier today, more than one thousand fairies attacked while one very powerful one attempted to capture me and my mind mage friend. Their mission had been to tie up the federal agency that deals with the supernatural, as well as anyone that could interfere in the kidnapping plan. You won't hear about it on the news, because the various factions of angels that are part of one of the two major supernatural wars going on right now worked together to create a veil that obscured the truth from mundane eyes. The news will probably report gang wars or terrorists, not a thousand faes fighting against vampires, werewolves, mages, and the government."

"Are-are you okay?" His father stepped forward. "You said they attacked you and-"

"I'm not that easy to kill," Eden smiled, then looked at his brother, his lips curling down. "Actually, depending on how powerful Nick is, he might become a target for the fae, too. I'd have to get a read on his magic level, but I don't actually know the spell for it.

"I do, however," Eden looked back to his father. "Know a mage who specializes in fire and enchant magics. Unregistered, and teaches other unregistered fire mages. He charges two hundred an hour, usually working in sessions two or three hours long. He's a blacksmith that makes some underground mage weapons. Want me to put you in contact with him?"

"Yes," his father said. "You're sure you won't come home?"

"A thousand fae and a Fairy Lord invaded in an attempt to kidnap me," Eden said. "And my friend and I seriously pissed the fairies off by not dying and for killing the Fairy Lord. As soon as they muster an even bigger force, they'll be back for us.

"Also," Eden said. "The whole, ridiculous thing about the winter solstice that's on the news the last couple of days, and how people are showing up in town and preparing for the celebrations early? Yeah, that's bullshit. It's to help cover up the war that's going on."

"So fairies and the heavens are at war?" Nick asked.

"No," Eden said. "The fairies are kidnappers, and are working on invading to catch my friend and me before we can become powerful enough to truly pose a threat to their attempts at kidnapping us. We got lucky earlier with our victory. They only sent one, against the two of us, and we have a secret weapon. As soon as it's out in the open, however, we lose that advantage. The heavens are at war with themselves, but it's bleeding over into our city because the war is over a demigod living in the city.

"Anyway," Eden smiled. "Let's play a game or something. It's been too long, and I've still got a bit before I have to pick up my friend."