Previously On "The Otherworlders": When Patrick, Farid, and Aidan go to the Sticky Wicket pub, a mysterious stranger catches Aidan's eye. Encouraged by his friends, Aidan steps outside to chat with him... only to be kidnapped by two men in a van.

Guilt-ridden, Patrick and Farid search the outdoor patio for Aidan, with no luck. At a complete loss as to where to look next, the boys catch a break and find Aidan's pet gryphon, Maximus. Believing that Maximus can help them track down their friend, they set out on a mission to save him. Will they find Aidan in time?

**********

Aidan, tied to a chair, huffs out a breath as the black bag is pulled off his head, causing his tousled blond hair to stand up on end. He blinks rapidly, trying to adjust to the harsh fluorescent lights above him. He finds himself in a cheap, temporary office inside of a nondescript warehouse. Standing before him are two men he doesn't recognize. Thomas is nowhere to be seen.

Aidan looks at the men and laughs nervously.

"All right, fellas..." He squints. "...what's this all about, eh? Did Patrick and Farid put you up to this?" he laughs again.

Man #1 (Tabul) asks, "Who the hell are Patrick and Farid?"

Aidan's nervous smile fades as he realizes this is not a joke. He looks around the room and notices someone standing in the background. It's Minuk. Suddenly, all the puzzle pieces fall into place.

"Okay, I see, I see..." He forces a chuckle. "Maybe you're not trying to pull one over on me." He looks back and forth between the two men. "So...what's this all about then?"

Man #2 (Serik) leans in, his face only inches from Aidan's. "Look, Magic Boy, we ask the questions."

"Magic Boy? Really?" Aidan scoffs through a smirk. "That's the best you got?"

Serik straightens, narrows his eyes, and then backhands Aidan across the cheek.

Whaaap!

Aidan's head whips sideways. He freezes a beat before slowly licking a spot of blood from the corner of his mouth. "Okay, that really hurt," he says as he works his jaw, intent on masking fear with a snarky attitude. He turns back and looks up at Serik. "Now, what'd you have to do that for?"

Standing behind Serik, Tabul growls. "Shut up, boy!" he barks, baring his teeth, looking like he's ready to pounce.

Minuk holds up a hand and steps forward to intervene.

"Aidan. It's so nice to see you again." He smiles malevolently, "I'm sure you have many questions and it's only fair that you receive some answers." He pulls a chair up and sits down, leaning back and crossing his legs. "You see, we've brought you here because we thought you could help us with a little problem we're having."

"Well, Minuk," Aidan acknowledges with dripping sarcasm. "It's lovely to see you too. And, you know, I'm more than happy to help you out with your little problem. But, seriously, all you had to do was ask. The whole felony kidnapping thing? Definitely overkill."

Minuk's disingenuous smile fades. His eyes narrow, his expression turning cold and calculating. Sitting perfectly still, it seems as though Aidan's snarky comment might have triggered something volatile and dangerous within him.

But after a beat, Minuk's tight smile returns, and he turns to retrieve something from the folding table next to him. He holds it up in front of Aidan. It's a wooden statue, almost a foot tall, of a skeleton wearing a wolf's head and pelt. The blood dripping from the wolf's fangs makes Aidan's skin crawl.

"Do you know what this is?" Minuk asks.

Aidan shakes his head as Minuk cradles the statue reverently.

"It's Mai-coh," Minuk tells him, "a very important god in our culture. They say his spirit lives forever. But because of an ancient curse, his spirit is trapped inside of this statue."

He retrieves something else from the table and holds it up in front of Aidan. It's a spell book.

"However, somewhere in this tome is a spell that can release Mai-coh's from his prison," Minuk says. "Apparently, though, we need an Enchanted to figure out which spell and to read the spell aloud."

Aidan scoffs. "I think you're mistaken. I don't have the power to release your Shifter spirits. And with the book being that thick, I wouldn't even know where to start. Plus," he indicates his shackled hands with his chin, "in case you hadn't noticed, you've tied me up. How am I supposed to flip through the book?"

Minuk shrugs and says sarcastically, "Perhaps you could, I don't know, use your magic?"

Aidan chuckles, then shakes his head again. "Nah, it doesn't work like that, mate. I'm not a Mage."

Although it seems that Minuk is fairly well versed in aspects of Enchanted magic, Aidan has no intention of letting him know that all Enchanteds possess Minor Magic and flipping through that book would actually be a piece of cake for him.

"Aidan. I'm well aware that you're a Spirit Guardian, so I'm sure you can figure something out." Minuk stands and then continues, "Look," he says, "We'll even give you some privacy. Tabul and Serik will be right outside." He points to the office door, "Just call them and they can get you whatever you want in order to get the job done."

Aidan smirks. "How about a key for the lock and a map out of here?"

Minuk lets out a vile chuckle from deep within his chest. "Oh, Aidan. You are an entertaining one, aren't you?" He tilts his head to the side. "It would be a shame to have to resort to torture in order to get what we need from you." He then reaches out and pats Aidan on the cheek, the one Serik slapped. Aidan winces in pain. "But I doubt it will come to that," Minuk adds. "I have every faith in you, son."

Minuk straightens and then motions for Serik and Tabul to join him outside, closing the office door behind them.

Once Aidan is alone, he blows out a shaky breath, waits a beat to make sure they're not coming back, then lifts the leg of his jeans with his foot, revealing a lizard-like creature — a newt, in fact — tattooed above his ankle.

He whispers a spell in Latin, bringing the creature to life.

"Okay, Cornelius." Aidan says. "It's time to get to work."

Cornelius, the newt, crawls off of Aidan's leg, across the floor, and straight to the closed door. He scurries up the wall, and positions himself on the ceiling, near the crack at the top of the door, allowing him to channel the men's conversation for Aidan to hear.

Outside the warehouse office, Serik questions Minuk, "So, what do you think?" he asks.

"He's lying," Minuk says. "From what I understand, Spirit Guardians can awaken any kind of spirit."

"So, should we get rough with him then?" Tabul asks.

Minuk considers the question. "No," he finally says. "Before we beat the poor bastard senseless, let's send Stephen in with some water or something. He's very good at extracting whatever we need from people, just by putting them at ease."

"Whatever you say, Boss," Tabul says.

At the sound of the men moving again, Aidan calls to Cornelius and the creature takes its rightful place back on Aidan's leg.

"Well, that doesn't sound promising," Aidan mutters. "And who the hell is this Stephen fellow?!"

***

Back at the academy, Jake is out walking. The full moon hangs high in the sky above him — bright, stark, beautiful. He's been walking for the past two hours through the woods on the outskirts of campus, careful to stay within the boundaries of the ward Headmaster Pierce had shown them only a few days ago.

He can't sleep.

He can't sleep because he can't stop thinking about what a dick he was to Inez earlier that day.

Guilt sits like a stone in his stomach as his mind obsesses over the ill-fated words that spilled from his mouth and the horrified, absolutely horrified, look on her beautiful face as he said them.

"Shit...," Jake mutters, suddenly stopping, finally admitting to himself that he's an idiot.

Feeling a weird buzzing sensation zip through his body, he thinks maybe it's coming from the mental torture he'd been enduring all day. And now it's infecting more than his mind, but actually invading his body.

But then he looks up and realizes that he'd walked too far, much farther than he'd planned to, and what he's feeling now is the thrum of Headmaster Pierce's ward, pulsating just a few feet away from him.

Tired of berating himself, he turns around and begins walking back to the Shifter suite, on his way, passing right by the Enchanteds' dormitory.

He stops. All the lights are off in the building except for one high up on the third floor.

There, he can see Inez, curled up on the small window seat in her room. She's got her knees bent up, and a desk light shining on a book propped open in her lap. She's also munching on an apple and is deeply engrossed in whatever it is she's reading.

Jake steps back off the walking path, away from the light post, and melts into the bushes across from her room. Here, he can see her clearly in the moonlight, and luckily, he's pretty sure she can't see him.

He just stands there, staring at her, watching the way she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear every time she turns the page. At one point, she chuckles softly at something she's just read and Jake smiles as if he's right there in the room with her.

The last thing he wants to be is a Peeping Tom; but honestly, he could stand there all night long, just watching her read.

Suddenly, Inez looks up, as if she's just become aware of something outside. She sets her book and what's left of her apple aside and swings the window all the way open. She leans out into the dark and looks up and down the walking path in front of her dorm.

When she doesn't see anything, she pulls herself inside, and sitting cross-legged now, lifts her hands — palms up — above her knees, closes her eyes, and creases her brows, deep in concentration.

After a moment, her eyes pop open, and with a radiant smile, she sticks her head back out of the window.

She stares directly at the trees and foliage across from her room, and even though it's pitch black where Jake is standing, Inez is clearly staring in his direction, if not directly at him.

"Crap!" he whispers as he whips around and plants himself behind a tree, pressing himself so hard against it, he'd melt right into it if he could.

Too scared to breathe for fear that, somehow, Inez would hear him, he looks around and tries to assess whether or not he can make a break for it, run straight towards the training fields without her seeing him.

At the very least, it's not unreasonable to presume that, even though she was looking in his general direction, she might not have seen enough of his face to know that it was him.

Then again, she is an Enchanted, so who the hell knows?

Not seeing a safe path out of his predicament, Jake slides down to the ground, his back pressed firmly against the trunk of the tree.

For the moment, it looks like he's trapped. No worries. He'll just sit tight, right here, until Inez realizes there's nothing to see and goes back inside, or better yet, just goes straight to bed.

It's a nice night. He can wait it out if he has to.

Determined, Jake lets loose a heavy sigh and zips his jacket up to his chin, crossing his arms over his chest to ward off the cold.

He really shouldn't have stopped when he saw her in the window. But something in him wouldn't let him leave without watching her for just a moment, drinking her in, without her thinking he's weird, or worse, him opening his mouth and insulting her, yet again.

Jake's stomach clenches as he thinks about the impression he must be making on her. Honestly, except for that brief moment when she'd read to him in the infirmary — most of which he can't remember, he was so hopped up on the healing tonic the shaman had given him — he's managed to come across as either a bumbling fool or an arrogant ass, each and every time they've been together.

Given that, it's pretty clear he's just deluding himself if he thinks they could ever be a couple because why on earth would she ever like him back?

Stuck sitting on the cold, slightly damp ground, resting against the tree and with Inez's dorm out of view, Jake looks up at the full moon and shakes his head derisively.

The full moon — one of the many elements in the urban legends surrounding Shifters that most non-Shifters get entirely wrong.

What they don't understand is that, although the full moon does have a certain intangible appeal to Shifters, to them it's nothing more than a very beautiful and mysterious object in the sky, not a force that makes them vicious, or turns them evil, or drives them mad.

Unfortunately, it's very difficult to dispel them of this myth.

"Great." He mutters to himself. That means that if Inez did manage to catch a glimpse of him, staring up at her longingly from the middle of the bushes, she probably thinks he's not only an ass, but a creepy, werewolf, stalker dude as well.

Jake lets out a bitter laugh as, shivering, he hugs himself tighter and begins to bang his head slowly back against the tree. "So now, I'm an awkward, arrogant asshole, AND  with the full moon out, I'm Creepy, Werewolf, Stalker Dude too!" he scoffs. "Fantastic! Fan-freaking-tastic!"

**********

A/N - Well, that was fun, wasn't it? 😄

Oh, Aidan and Jake, Jake and Aidan... both lovable idiots in their own way! 😆

Until next week!

~ Paula ❤️