You Will Be Mine (New Horizon Book 3)

Chapter 40: Clarice

We’ve been eating for a couple minutes now, and I can sense the tension in the room. Everyone is waiting and wondering what I have to say.

“Matt, it’s the term ‘intended’ that I feel a need to explain a little,” I finally speak out into the room, and I can feel just how many people at this table are now intrigued and even more anxious than before.

All of them, save for Gerry, whose interest is piqued, though this information is purely for intellectual purposes, as far as he’s concerned. He’s only just met the girl, after all.

“I figured it might be the mage equivalent of an ‘intended mate,’ though I did hope to pick your brain about it,” Matt tells me.

I can understand why he thinks that, but he’s wrong.

“Actually, a mage’s intended is better compared to a fated mate,” I explain. “And it’s not all mages that have them, either. It is only sorcerers and sorceresses who are linked to an intended at birth. Rather than the Moon Goddess, these mages loosely follow the goddess most commonly referred to as ‘Mother Earth,’ also known as ‘Gaia’ and a variety of other names. It is from her that such mages draw their power, and her that is the source of that bond with their intended. Depending on the particular group of mages, she may also be viewed more as a force or a presence than a goddess, but regardless of how she is viewed or spoken of, she is always described as a ‘life-giver’ and generally attributed with creating and controlling all natural phenomena, gifting some of those powers to her chosen children.”

“Oh, interesting. I had assumed from what I witnessed of the conversation between Jeannie’s grandparents that her mother was a witch,” Matt comments thoughtfully.

“And I would agree,” I surprise him by saying. “Their description of her does fit that of a witch, and though they seemed to have a basic understanding of what an intended is, they were also viewing it slightly inaccurately.”

I can tell by the way that he raises an eyebrow at me that he finds this part to be of particular interest, and I waste no time explaining what I mean.

“It wasn’t her mother who was born with an intended, or rather she wouldn’t have been if not for being the intended of a sorcerer,” I reveal. “And they seemed to think that all mages have an intended, which is not true, as I said before.”

“Which is why Jeannie has a mate and not an intended,” Matt surmises, allowing his body to relax a bit because he thinks he’s figured it out now. He hasn’t.

But I hazard a glance at the mage in question, both seeing and feeling her confusion, anxiety, and the rapidly growing mass of unanswered questions. Though to her credit, I can also sense that she doesn’t intend to ask any of them, at least not yet. She seems to be one of the few people who understands that if you just let a knowledgeable person talk, they may eventually answer your questions without you having to ask them.

And I smile at her as I recall Matt’s earlier description of her. She’s quiet, but clever, and holds back far than most will ever know. He seems to have been spot-on about that.

“No, that’s not it at all. Jeannie should absolutely have an intended, and I have no conclusive explanation as for why she has a mate,” I contradict what Matt just said.

Gabe growls lowly from across the table, but of course he does. What I just said could be construed as a challenge of his claim on his mate.

“Although I do have a theory,” I tell him next, hoping that what I’m about to say will help put his mind and his wolf at ease. “As I said, it wasn’t Jeannie’s mother, the assumed witch, who had the intended. Her father, the assumed sorcerer, did. Now, I’m assuming that without knowing anything about him other than that he came to claim his intended, but I feel like that’s enough to tell us that he was a sorcerer.”

But wait, I’ve already gone off-track without explaining what I meant to for Gabe. Shaking my head, I take a breath and try again.

“Along those same lines, perhaps it is that Jeannie’s intended takes the form of a mate just simply because of who and what her intended is. Although I will say that I’ve never heard of a mage’s intended not being a mage … but it makes some amount of sense in some other ways, which would be better explained later, when I tell you more of my theories about what sort of mage I believe her to be.”

“A sorceress, I would assume,” Gabe chimes in. “You said that only they have an intended, and you also said that Jeannie should absolutely have one.”

“Very good,” I can’t help my instinct to praise him.

In some ways, he’ll always be the rambunctious little boy who used to come visit me with his brother every Saturday, and I’ll always feel an urge to teach and advise him.

“And that’s a type of what you were saying before, an ‘innate’ caster?” he wonders next.

“It is,” I confirm for him. “There are about three or four types of innate casters, and sorcerers and sorceresses are among them. In fact, they are the most powerful among them, which also makes them the rarest.”

“Oh,” Jeannie verbalizes for the first time since she’s sat down at the table with us.

And though I look her way and give her a moment to say whatever is on her mind, that one word seems to be all she has to contribute for now. I’m also getting a sense that the reason why might have to do with the presence of the others with us, I would presume Gerry and Matt more than Gabe. Although I don’t know. I can’t get an accurate read on her yet.

“Are mage hunters a thing?” Matt asks, and I can tell that what I just said about the rarity of mages like Jeannie troubles him.

Not only that, but he knows that her grandfather was worried about her safety, and Matt is still left wondering what someone hid away and protected in Jeannie’s mind, not to mention why they’d go to that length. A lot of people seem to want to keep her a secret, and I haven’t even gotten to the part about the real reason yet. She is a sorceress, but it’s her type of sorceress that is the real interest here.

“Most hunters aren’t creature-specific,” Gerry jumps in to explain. “Some might be more experienced with one type of creature or another, but they’ll hunt just about any type of supernatural creature.”

“He’s right, but ‘mage-hunters’ are a thing as well,” I add to what my mate has said. “Although they’re called ‘nullifiers’ because they differ from your average hunter in an important way – they don’t want to kill mages. They only want to rob them of their magic. I’d argue that it’s one and the same, as a mage myself and knowing that our magic is largely who and what we are, but a nullifier doesn’t see it that way.”

“I had no idea,” Gerry admits, and I can sense the worry there. His mate is part-mage, after all.

“But in these modern times, both hunters and nullifiers are a lot less active than they once were,” I go on, hoping to alleviate some of his concern. “In the same way that hunters focus mostly on the rare and exotic these days, or join special units that hunt down only the troublemakers of the supernatural communities, nullifiers don’t bother much with your typical everyday mage who isn’t causing any trouble.”

“But they would have an interest in someone like Jeannie,” Matt gives voice to the part that I was deliberately leaving unspoken for now. I planned to inform Gabe about it later, after providing him and Jeannie with some more context.

“They would,” I feel an obligation to confirm, lest I be viewed as dishonest when the rest of the truth comes out later.

I hear another growl from Gabe, though this one is more protective than possessive, and he as much as pulls Jeannie from her own seat and into his lap so that he can soothe himself with her scent and the feel of her held tightly in his arms.

She lets out a surprised little squeal, her fork clanking against her plate as she drops it, and her little puppy comes charging in from the other room to add her own mess of growling and barking, lunging for and tugging on the bottom of Gabe’s pants to let him know that she’s here to protect her owner.

“I didn’t mean to get everyone all worked up,” Matt says apologetically, realizing his mistake as he watches the chaos unfolding with Jeannie. “I was only piecing together the bits of the puzzle, which are now starting to make some sense to me.”

It suddenly gets quiet with Gabe and Jeannie, and I glance up to see her eyes glowing in the way that the boys were describing to me before. Her puppy calms down and turns and trots back to the knotted socks I left for her to play with out in the hall, and Gabe seems to release a lot of his tension as well. He opens his arms and allows Jeannie to get down from his lap and return to her seat, and in seconds, it’s like the whole thing never happened.

“Yeah, I think the Moon Goddess chose the right mate for you, Gabriel,” Gerry comments, easing a lot of the tension as we all have a laugh at that.

Other than Jeannie, I can’t help noticing. She only glances up at her mate somewhat uncertainly and gives us her best brave smile.

“I need to be getting back to the school, though I’d love if we can talk some more about all this at some point,” Matt says, looking straight at his son.

“Yeah, of course,” Gabe agrees, turning to give Jeannie an encouraging smile and reach for her hand. “Although probably not tonight. I’m kind of hoping for a chance to talk to Jeannie privately tonight.”

“Understood,” Matt nods, starting to gather his dishes as he rises from his chair.

“Leave it all,” I order him.

He gives me a sheepish and uncertain look, and I return it with my sternest expression which always works with his boys. It must work with him too because he does as I asked and leaves the dishes for me to take care of.

“I’ll walk you out,” Gerry offers, though I can sense that there’s more to it than simply good manners. There’s some conversation he’s wanting to have with the younger man.

As they’re leaving the room together, I turn my attention on the two young people across the table, noting that they’re about finished with their food as well.

“We should probably move into the living room to continue our discussion more comfortably. Gabe can show you where that is, Jeannie, and I’ll join you once I’ve finished here.”

I gesture to the dishes on the table, meaning that I intend to clear and clean them before joining them. I figure they could probably use a moment alone anyway.

“I can help,” Jeannie starts to say, but Gabe cuts her off.

“She won’t let you, so you might as well just do as she said,” he advises her from his own personal experience.

Jeannie gives me one last uncertain look, and I can feel the force of how much it bothers her to leave a mess behind, but she eventually relents and goes with Gabe. I do feel a little bit bad that she’s so conflicted about leaving the work to me, but what no one ever seems to take into account is how little work it ends up being for a mage.

Maybe that’s partly my fault, though, because I always wait until they’re out of sight before I wave my hands around and mutter the incantations that very quickly take care of mealtime messes. It will be less than a minute before all the scraps of food are released to whatever part of the universe I send them to and these dishes are once again tucked away in my cupboards, restored to practically brand new.