Out of the World

18. What the hell is that a spell?

Nina

Taking a long inhale, I headed to the shower. A nice hot shower in this decadent bathroom would surely calm my nerves down before I met the whole cast of Harry Potter or better said - Zorion’s whole magical family.

The warm water ran over my body and Lola’s words resonated in my mind. This mate thing was a promise of eternal love, fairytale and so on.

A sigh left me, could forever be that easy? As much as I hoped so, I feared not. Yet I would take a leap of faith and go for it. Better have my heart broken by Prince Charming than by the boy next door, right? So, let it be.

My overthinking mind never lets my uncertain heart have any peace and it comes to the same place again and again: the place and the moment where I am abandoned.

Sighing again I lifted my face and let the shower rain over me, washing away the tears I didn’t want to let fall. I also tried to let the water take all these doubts down the drain.

Wrapping an extra fluffy and surely magical towel around me, I headed to the room, Zorion was still not back and I was feeling brave to show myself to him again. It’s not like he already haven’t seen everything.

I looked at the dress on the shelf, a beautiful blue dress. Taking it in my hands I confirmed what I already knew: the dress was way too long for me, even though it would fit otherwise. It was surely Lola’s and not Helena’s.

“Hell, these girls are tall!” I murmured to myself as I heard the door open and looked in its direction. A beautiful woman with bright ash-blond hair that looked silver-ish entered the room carrying two dresses.

“I think one of those will fit you better. I am the shortest female in the house, except Auri, of course.” She smiled, showing me two dresses, a green and a light blue one. They were actually more my style than Lola’s, simpler.

“I am Liv, Zorion’s mum,” she added, placing the dresses on the shelf and coming closer to me. A gasp left my lips, so this Goddess here was my mother in law? Holy Damn!

She took my hand in hers. She felt warm, radiating. Is this how people look when they have three husbands?

“You look so young and beautiful!” I exclaimed like an i***t, ogling her. But hell, her eyes were bright and deep blue like magical waters.

“Thanks, we all stop ageing at a certain point here, when exactly, you might ask. I have no clue. Well, I wanted to come and meet you since you arrived, but I wanted to give you some space instead of suffocating you. I can’t even imagine how many changes and new things you have to deal with,” she squeezed my hands softly, tenderly, “You humans are fascinating people and I hope you tell me everything about your world, when you want, of course.”

I only smiled at her, she was right. I had to cope with a lot, so having to meet less people and especially someone as important as a mother in law, would only add to the panicking chaos my mind was in these last days. Yes, my mother in law. If this mate thing was a forever deal, then that was what Liv was.

Realisation snapped in my mind and I gasped again, today I was pretty much like a fish, O-o-O.

“You are a queen!?” I asked-exclaimed, pulling my peasant hands away from hers slowly.

“Yes, I am. It’s a lot of work. Don’t you have a queen on earth too? I think she was called Elizabeth or was it Beyoncé?” she asked, as her head creased with lines and the corner of her lips tilted up slightly.

I couldn’t hold back my laugh, “we do have queens there, and pop singers.”

“I am happy to meet you and to have you here, Nina! We all are!” she added excitedly, wrapping me in a hug tight with affection.

That woman, that queen, didn’t even know me, but she seemed to care more about me than most people I’ve met in my life. Maybe it had something to do with magic, or love.

“Lola told me about the human guards issue. I am sorry you can’t come back to visit your world any time soon. You must be missing/miss your family,” she said softly. Her words of care hit me like a slap. I didn’t have any family, anyone to miss.

I haven’t really talked about that with Zorion and the girls - it wasn’t something I normally talked about. How could I even do it? ‘Hey, I am an orphan that no one ever wanted to adopt and I have no one, nice to meet you!’ That would be the worst line ever.

“I… I don’t have a family,” my words came out with a stupid deep sigh.

“Well, now you have one! Us!” Queen Liv told me, taking my hands in hers again. Her blue eyes were so full of affection and warmth.

“Nina, Mum,” Zorion’s words attracted my eyes to him as he entered the room. “Honey, I’m sorry I took longer than I expected,” he told me, placing a hand on my back.

As soon as Queen Livia broke the hug, Zorion captured me in his arms. So much affection was making me dizzy, but hell I did like it, even though it wasn’t that easy to get used to. Looking down, I realised that I was only wearing my towel. Way to be a weirdo, Nina! My nak.ed bvtt was hugging people around more than I have ever done before, even when I had clothes on.

“It’s okay. I was with Lola and that cool tree. I will put it on, thanks Queen Liv,” I replied, looking between Zorion and his mum. My hands reached for one of the dresses as I freeed myself from my mate’s arms even though my body wanted to stay. I had to change now. My body was too na.ked, too close to his, very hot and his mum was here!

Swallowing hard I made my way to the bathroom and put the green dress on.

Looking at the mirror, my mouth opened in a huge gasp, “what the hell is that a spell?” I murmured to myself as I noticed something weird.

My hand went up to my face and I took a better look at my reflection. My skin felt smoother under my touch - no pimples and no dry skin on my nose. Even the dark bags under my eyes disapeared completely. I was actually looking half decent. Was there something in the water that made people look better? This couldn’t be only the result of the only few good nights of sleep I had in the last couple of years, right?

“Nina, are you okay?” I heard Zorion’s voice from the other side of the door. Over-caring much? Weird enough, I liked it. Hell, I loved to feel like I mattered, that I was important and special for someone for the first time in my life. Special to him.

“I am coming,” I told him, taking a last look at the stranger in the mirror before I left the bathroom.

“Zorion, is there some kind of beauty spell in the water or - I don’t know - the wind here?” I asked and he looked confused, furrowing his brows. His mum had already left and we were alone in this - in my - room.

“No, there isn’t such a thing. The water here is quite pure, but that’s it all,” he explained, leading me out of the room by placing a hand on the small of my back. He had changed as well, and was wearing a dark blue long-sleeved shirt that hugged all his amazing muscles. My tongue ran across my lips as I glanced at him, desire pulsating in funny paces down there.

“Nina, there is an art school in the Fae Realm, a very good one. Maybe you could attend it, I don’t want you to give up on your dreams because of what happened, because of me,” he said, bringing me back from the hot and thick clouds of desire my mind was lost into.

What happened with Gabrielle and Soggy Bread had nothing to do with Zorion, but he was right, I missed art classes. They were always the best part of my day, the only time I was free. But how could I attend a school with magical people, fairies, when I was only me?

Clearing my throat nervously, I nodded. I should at least try it, I could audition the classes without participating and leting people - or better said, fairies - know how bad I was. Yes, that seemed like a good idea.

“We can go there tomorrow or the day after,” he added as we walked into the living room, where his siblings, mum and the Devil Dad were waiting. The Devil guy was hugging his queen from behind, his reddish eyes filled with adoration and love. Did Zorion looked at me like that too? Maybe a little? Well, they seemed better than human guys, but according to my experience the bar was very low. Like on the floor low.

“I am excited for you to meet the rest of the family, Nina! Aunt Lea is also mated to three guys, it runs in the family. But it seems like their lucky generation got them all, you see for Lola and I it’s all dry. Very dry. No mates, at least no good ones, or ones that deserve to be mentioned,” Lena jumped in my direction as she stole a glance at Lola and her blue eyes clouded with sadness.

The Devil guy let out a guttural sound and wrapped his hand around Lola’s protectively.

“Anway, you will meet the whole family, so it makes sense to explain stuff first. Aunt Lea is mated to the werewolf king, the vampire king and the Fae King. They have four kids together and baby number five is still in the oven. She is pregnant, that’s what I mean. I don’t know if you humans are familiar with these expressions, but here isn’t like in the fairy tales from humans in which they put kids in the oven. No, not even in Hell, right Da?” she added, looking at her Devil Daddy and he smiled at her.

“Demon kids in Hell always have a blast, playing around and partying,” he replied, his grin made his lips tilt up and showing his dimples. OMG, the Devil had dimples! That was so strangely cute!

“Uncle Alexus, the Vampire King, is a great artist! We should visit his atelier together one day. His work is incredible!” Lola exclaimed, light gleaming in her pink eyes.

After a little while, Lola’s words registered in my mind. Did she say vampire? Her dad was the Devil so I shouldn’t be surprised, but yet I was.

“A vampire? The vampires from here aren't evil like Dracula?” I asked, filled with confusion. For all I knew from movies and books, vampires were cruel bloodthirsty creatures and not an artist uncle.

“Dracula? Do you mean Vlad? He said some humans call him Dracula! He is a bartender in Hell. Well, he normally doesn’t put enough vodka in my drinks, I wouldn’t say that makes him evil, just regular annoying. I know it’s all Da Laius’ fault, he is the evil one who tells Vlad to give me virgin margaritas! That is the definition of a bad hell, Nina! Virgin margaritas, I like my drinks slvtty and by that I mean with lots of alcohol. No virgins here, no offence, Lola!” Lena chuckled, looking at her sister.

“Don’t worry. I am not one of your margaritas, so I take no offence,” Lola giggled softly.

Zorion’s father walked out of a portal of light with a smiling Auri in his arms almost at the same time as Elric and Delrick came in. Delrick really looked like his bio father, they had the same colour of hair and eyes.

Avalon’s eyes didn’t linger on me, but it was enough for me to know that I wasn’t welcome. Maybe I should ask again if that guy wasn’t the real devil.

“Now that we are all here, we can go,” Queen Liv said, taking little Auri in her arms and heading towards the door. Avalon moved his hand and looked like someone that was about to make some magic when Liv stopped him, “Sweet Goddess of lazy men, help me. Avalon, we can go by walk, it won’t take even three minutes. Too much magic and too little exercise won’t be good for the shape of my bvtt!”

“I like to walk with my feet, not my bvtt, mum! But I can try it too. ” Auri exclaimed, looking confused as her mum put her down and held her little hand in hers.

Zorion took my hand in his and smiled at me as we left the house together, “They will love you, Honey.” He reassured me. A smile found its way to my lips and for the first time, I believed that someone would actually like me. I guess that was the effect of being surrounded by so many loving people, a family.

Crossing the street, we went to a very beautiful mansion-castle. Flowers of all colours and sizes surrounded it. Taking a deep inhale, I tried their smell and filled my lungs with their sweetness as something foreign and rare beat in my heart: the hope of love.