In the Name of Magic

Chapter 2

Chapter 2Taylor laughed. “What are you talking about, buddy?”

I put my hands on my hips. “There was a man here. I think he was the prince. He dropped this when he left.”

I handed the locket to Taylor, and he examined it before passing it to Katherine and Raquel. Each looked to be trying to decide if this was a clue from the prince or some obsessed subject. They passed the locket back to me.

“Maximillian has a point. There’s an initial on the front and a photo of Queen Penny and King Dorian,” Raquel said.

Taylor tossed an arm over my shoulder. “Sorry we made you come with us. We should’ve been more sensitive, given what happened to your grandma.”

My lips quivered. “It’s a moot point.”

“I’m not so sure. Because I’m beginning to wonder why I came to the execution,” Katherine said.

Taylor narrowed his gaze at her. “I thought we weren’t going to argue.”

“I can’t help it if I have a different opinion than you,” Katherine said.

Taylor grimaced. “Do you think coming here was a mistake?”

Katherine nodded. “Yes, I do. In my opinion, Penny and Dorian didn’t deserve to die.”

“It had to be done,” Taylor said without taking a moment to think.

Raquel frowned at Taylor. “Don’t be so cavalier about death.”

Yup. Penny and Dorian’s beheadings were still cringeworthy even though the actual moment had passed. I couldn’t wrap my head around people committing violence against their parents. Though I couldn’t help wondering if Dorian and Penny had secretly done something horrible to Queen Vivian when she was a girl. Economic treason or greed didn’t provide enough motivation for the level of violence that matricide and p*******e required.

“What’s done is done.” Taylor scuffed the toe of his shoe on the ground.

“Anyway, what did the man want, Maximillian?” Katherine asked.

I sighed. “He wanted to check on me. I was…a little upset when he saw me.”

Katherine pushed a lock of hair out of the way. “Do you think the man was Prince Stefan?”

My lips quivered. “Yes. He didn’t look much older than me.”

“What are you going to do with the locket?” Taylor asked.

It was kind of funny how Taylor was taking such an interest in the locket/Prince Stefan-sighting situation. He was skeptical when I first mentioned it.

“I don’t know,” I said.

Katherine raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to go to Fang Manor and see if that’s the man that you met? It’s not like it’s on the other side of Magnifico.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

The wind whistled even louder, making us all shiver. Then, we continued staring at each other. Apparently, coming up with a plan was easier said than done.

“This could be a trap,” Taylor said.

Katherine shook her head. “Oh, please! Clumsiness isn’t the beginning of an international incident.”

“I’m not so sure,” Taylor said.

“You’re hesitant about everyone,” Katherine said.

Raquel shot me a gaze. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. But if it’s okay with you guys, I want to be alone for a while,” I said.

“That’s fine. I can catch a ride home with Taylor and Katherine.” Raquel paused for a beat. “That is if you two are okay with that?”

“Of course. Making an extra stop isn’t a big deal,” Taylor said.

After a quick hug from the girls and a shoulder bump from Taylor, they walked away without another word, and I was soon alone.

My gaze returned to the locket while I bit at my lip. If the locket was Prince Stefan’s, then that meant his parents had just died. So, yeah. I had sympathy for the guy. My grandmother’s gruesome death remained etched in my mind despite how the event happened years earlier.

* * * *

I’d returned home from school an hour before, yet I hadn’t stopped toying with the locket since entering my bedroom. The whole situation with the royal deaths defied logic, because I shouldn’t have gotten caught up in something that wouldn’t directly impact my life. A week had passed since King Dorian and Queen Penny were executed. However, I still couldn’t forget why the mysterious man had chatted with me. The fact was, he didn’t know me but chose to be kind to a stranger.

Fuck it. I could either continue staring at the locket or I could visit Fang Manor and see if the urban legend was true and the mysterious stranger was Prince Stefan. I wanted to indulge my curiosity. Besides, my parents wouldn’t be back for a couple of hours—Mom was having coffee with a friend and Dad was at work. So, I wouldn’t need to explain my intentions to my parents.

I stuffed the locket into my pocket and grabbed my coat and my car keys, determined to find out about the legend and the man.

I got in my car, tossed the locket on the front passenger seat, put on my seat belt, and started my car. I took a deep shuddering breath as I gripped the steering wheel. “Don’t be a wimp!”

A few minutes later, I turned left and plowed toward the outer edge of the city. It wasn’t long before I arrived at Fang Manor.

Locket in hand, I clicked the lock button on the key fob. I snickered. Locking my car was another example of how I worried too much. I mean I was practically out in the boonies. So, yeah. There wasn’t a real chance someone would steal my car. The former king and queen’s execution hadn’t created some magical new beginning for Magnifico regardless of what Taylor thought. Magnifico still needed to recover, and snapping fingers or beheading people wouldn’t change the economy.

The aging manor sat on a hill. The land resembled a regal queen looking down upon her subjects. I trudged past neglected shrubbery and over tall grass growing in the cracks of the stone walkway. It only added to my fear that whoever or whatever lived here would lend some credence to the legends that swirled around the house. The peeling paint and eroded shutters were less than welcoming, which made me think Prince Stefan didn’t live here. Then again, there were worse places than Fang Manor since some people in Magnifico were practically homeless due to the Goblin War.

From where I stood at the bottom of the front steps, smoke was visible, seeping out of the chimney and lazily floating above. Well, at least someone was here. I did the only thing I could do. I climbed the weathered steps and rang the doorbell. But nobody came to the door, which made me repeat the action. A harsh sound, almost like a phlegmy clearing of a goblin’s throat. I shuddered.

No answer.

Damn. The guy should’ve answered the door. Wanting confirmation Prince Stefan was indeed the masked stranger at the stadium didn’t make me unreasonable.

I rang the doorbell for a third time, and the door creaked open a c***k.

“Who’s there?” asked a person from behind the door.

That voice.

Yeah. It was the guy I’d met at the execution. I had fantasized about his voice often enough in the intervening week to know it was the same person. TMI. I sighed. “It’s the guy from the stadium. You dropped your locket.”

The door groaned as it opened farther. The guy who stepped forward didn’t need to be wearing a mask or the same clothes for me to recognize him. I would have known the aura of mysterious sadness anywhere.

“Thank you,” he said, taking the locket from me.

“One of my friends thinks returning it is foolish.”

“And why is that?” He crossed his arms as if protecting himself from the answer.

“He was worried this was a trick or something.” I took in a deep breath.

“I was in a hurry and dropped the locket. That’s the truth.”

“Well, I should get going. I just wanted to make sure you got your locket back. It seemed to have sentimental meaning for you.”

He flashed a small smile. “Umm, you don’t have to go yet, do you? I mean, you could come in and…talk or something.”

Hmmm. This was exactly what I had wanted. I still hadn’t confirmed whether my suspicions were correct or not. But even I couldn’t help being surprised he would want to continue chatting with me and not immediately dismiss me as the nerdy guy he had bumped into the day his parents were killed.

“I don’t even know you. No offense or anything,” I said.

Yeah. I felt the need to be a little evasive even though I was pursuing my random hunch. Waiting a few more seconds before asking the guy if he was Prince Stefan was the only logical step. Blurting out such a serious question could make me look desperate. And that wouldn’t be good.

“None taken.”

“Are you Prince Stefan?” I blabbed. Well, so much for self-control.

He remained silent for a beat. “What would make you ask that?”

“I saw the S initial on your locket and the photo of King Dorian and Queen Penny inside.”

The guy snorted, the sound making my back hairs stand up. “You should work for the new queen. You’d make a good investigator.”

“That’s okay. Working for Queen Vivian’s regime is the last thing I’d want to do. Anyway, you aren’t annoyed I looked inside the locket, are you?”

He made a clucking noise with his tongue. “People will do what they want to.”

“Look, forget it. The question was nosy.” I turned and descended the steps.

“Wait,” he interrupted.

I turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow. He gestured with a sigh. “Come inside. You’re going to want to hear what I have to say. I promise I mean you no harm.”

I walked back up the steps and followed him into the house. The entry was dark and water stains gave the aging plaster a drooping appearance. All went darker when he closed the door with a thud. We continued into what I assumed would be the parlor with a couple of worn velvet couches that belonged to a time long past. Luckily, the crackling fire in the fireplace seemed to be safely contained.

“You’re right,” he said, seeming to swallow around the lump in his throat. “I’m Prince Stefan.”

Taylor might have been one of my best friends. However, being right about my hunch was still important to me. The look on Taylor’s face at this moment would’ve been priceless. I wanted to rub his nose in the situation for all the positive Queen Vivian sentiments he uttered before the execution. Nope. That wasn’t the reason. I wasn’t a vindictive person. But Taylor needed to realize he didn’t know everything, all the time.

“My parents dying confirms what I’ve known all along,” Prince Stefan murmured, looking at the floor.

“And what’s that?”

“My sister is a terrible person. Not to mention, she’s power hungry and ruthless.”

The cracklings from the fireplace grew louder and the fire larger at Stefan’s vehemence.

“What’s your point?” I asked.

“Don’t you get it? My sister is dangerous. That’s why I ran away from home.” Prince Stefan crushed a spider crawling near his foot with a lazy twist of his shoe. “Although having one of my uncles assist me with fleeing helped.”

Interesting. Good to know Katherine wasn’t the only one who had issues with Queen Vivian, because having an opinion validated was always a good thing.

“But you were only a boy.”

“I’ve got my magic,” Prince Stefan said.

I gripped my hands together. “You hated your sister enough to run away from home? Because that seems a little dramatic.”

“Not if you know Vivian.”

A thought popped into my mind despite how asking the question might make me seem presumptuous. “You wouldn’t happen to know why Magnifico is in black-and-white, would you?”

He snickered. “I was so angry right after I ran away that I cast a curse so everyone would see things as dreary and bleak as I did.”

“Some nonmagical people are afraid of what’s going to happen to them,” I said.

“I’m not surprised.”

There was a good chance goose bumps might cling to my arms when I tried falling asleep tonight. Prince Stefan had gone beyond his initial point of having disdain toward his sister. He had actually acknowledged out loud Katherine’s sentiment that nonmagical people had reason to be afraid of Queen Vivian.

I raised my eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“You can figure it out for yourself. I mean, you’ve seen what’s been happening in Magnifico.”

Someone knocked on the front door before I considered responding to Prince Stefan.

“Are you in there, Maximillian?” It was Taylor.

Nothing like having a friend pull me out of an intimate discussion. My conversation with Prince Stefan had flowed without much effort. One point led to the next. However, Taylor had given me a much-needed metaphorical smack in the face because no matter how nice this moment was, Prince Stefan remained an enigma.

Another knock pounded against the door. “Please come out, Maximillian.” This time, it was Katherine.

Yup. I should’ve realized someone other than Taylor would come. Most moments were fleeting—like this one with Prince Stefan. He and I hadn’t even scratched the surface of getting to know each other, because I didn’t even know his s****l preference.

Prince Stefan quickly glanced toward the door and then back at me. “You have to leave!”

Damn. This chat was over. I would’ve given anything to prolong it for another minute. Okay. I wouldn’t have given anything to continue talking with Prince Stefan. But the general sentiment remained true, because this conversation couldn’t end. Not ever.

No amount of disappointment justified getting angry at my friends, though. Checking on me proved they were good people even if Taylor’s admiration of Queen Vivian frightened me.

The prince raised his hands at me. Gusts of fast-moving air hit my chest and lifted me. Then, the air pushed me toward the front door that had opened on harsh-sounding hinges. Stefan jerked his right hand and another blast hit my back and sent me tumbling down the stairs beyond Taylor, Raquel, and Katherine.

The front door slammed shut. Only an i***t would be oblivious to Prince Stefan’s secretive nature after that.

“Want some help?” Taylor offered his hand, and I took it.

I wiped away any possible dirt and dust even though the wetness of the saturated grass from the on-again, off-again rain was the bigger problem.

Raquel pursed her lips. “What happened, Maximillian?”

“I met Prince Stefan.” I tried to catch my breath while Prince Stefan remained on my mind. Sure. Our conversation might have been interrupted. However, nobody could take away the current smirk that graced my lips. For once, I had something to look forward to. Because I almost squealed from the anticipation of seeing Prince Stefan again.