BLAKE

Blake knew there was an envelope in front of him and he knew the person in the picture, but nothing was connecting, not in a way that made sense. He sat at the dining room table as if not being inside his father's office suddenly made the whole affair casual and not a business meeting. The staff closed all the doors. Even Adrian agreed to stand outside.

Yet, he could hear the faint clattering and the sound of the daily activities of the manor. This house groaned, compiled of old aches and stiff joints from its many centuries standing tall. Not that it looked like a haunted house. It was too soft, too warm for that. Blake's heart matched the shape of this house and held the same love for the people inside.

He looked across the table at his parents. They were surrounded by the silver, armies of candles, napkin holds, silverware and a few bits and bobs, spread out to sort, clean and maybe even replace. He met their eyes and the knife twisted in his back. He couldn't help feeling like this was a betrayal, despite the blood they shared.

The entire Winslow family was made up of willowy people with long limbs and swanlike necks. Blake and his brothers all shared their father's hawk nose, even though they all looked like ravens. They had protruding purple eyes from the magic coursing through their veins. That magic, that constant feeling of static made their inky black hair curl, but the way Blake's hair always sat on his head in a mess was a personal feature.

"Do you remember Daniel Bellerose...?" Blake's mother, Emma asked about the full-grown man in the picture, the headshot they used to announce Danny's future Reign over the Bellerose coven. He had the remanence of the kid Blake once knew, subtle features that weren't quite missing and yet, so different. It was his eyes. They were darker. Colder.

"Do you remember when we used to visit their family in Sagewick?" His father asked next, maybe making sure Blake hadn't gone completely catatonic.

Sagewick, an island where winter and the fall seasons had dominion. So tiny, Blake used to own a snow globe that he truly made him feel like he held the entire island in his hands. The Bellerose family ran the entire coven on that island. They were basically royalty. From what Blake remembered, they were treated as such.

Danny.

Looking at Danny's picture stirred up a crazy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He remembered him. How could he not? They spent the majority of their childhood together and every Christmas until Blake turned twelve. Blake's face warmed.

Danny Bellerose sure grew up.

If Mike's looks made Blake smack face first into a wall...

Danny was so attractive he might've walked into rush hour traffic.

"Yeah." Blake shook his head, leaning back in his seat. He had to stay on task. "I remember Danny. He was such a punk." All the memories he repressed jumped back at him in full force. "He abandoned me during a game of hide and seek once, remember?! Nobody found me for two hours and I ended up peeing my pants—hey! He's the reason I got dubbed a cry baby, you know!"

"He's older now," Emma insisted, her smile tight.

"That's—"

Blake took a deep breath. He reeled in the anger and annoyance, leaving him with nothing but confusion and the cold feeling of trepidation, the same feeling of standing on the very edge of a cliff and facing a very long way down. Blake ran his hand through his dark curls and sighed. Underneath the table, he picked at the skin around his nails.

"That's not what I have a problem with. I can't believe you're just telling me now that I'm engaged. I'm twenty-two-years old and you didn't think to tell me that until now? Doesn't it feel a little too late to you?" The more he spoke, the less he felt like he could get the words out, the less he felt like he could breathe. His skin became sweltering hot and he wanted to open all the doors and windows in the entire house.

Blake rubbed the side of his head. "Does Danny know?"

Emma nodded. "Daniel's parents are telling him this morning too."

"Oh, good. Good. Good. Good. It's good to have something in common with your fiancé. We've both been lied to our whole lives."

#

DANIEL

"Yes, of course," Daniel said as he walked around the sitting room for the sixth time in the last minute. His arms crossed tighter and tighter, without him even realizing it. "I remember Blake Winslow. He peed his pants like all the time."

He remembered the entire Winslow clan: Mrs. and Mr. Winslow, the owners of the biggest Potions and Magical remedies corporation and their sons, Damien, Link, and Blake, the youngest. Blake, the shrimp of the family who used to cry over anything and everything. He was afraid of the littlest things like lady bugs, the dark and once, his own shadow.

He just couldn't imagine an adult version of that.

"We're sorry darling," Daniel's mother, Adele said from the sofa, bundled up in quilts.

Daniel's father, Etienne stood at the door, grabbing the pillows from the maid and brought them back to his wife, settling them behind her back and neck. He ran his knuckles down her cheek. Daniel's father had more bulk than height and dark cool skin like the blackened char left after a forest fire. His eyes were red from a fresh feeding. Unlike Daniel's mother, still wearing silk lounge clothes, Etienne wore a gray houndstooth suit tailored to perfection.

Etienne explained, "We didn't think we'd go through with the engagement."

"So, what changed?" Daniel asked. "Why are we even engaged at all?"

#

BLAKE

"500 years ago..." Blake's father, Clay explained as Blake held back his lunch from gushing through his lips. He raised his finger into the air and swirled it around, until the picture of Danny flipped over all on its own, so Danny would stop staring at him. Inside the folder was a picture of the Sagewick castle, a plane ticket and a huge portrait of the entire royal family. Clay stood at the cold fireplace the way he did in all his board meetings with excited hands and big facial features.

"Our families, the Winslow's and the Bellerose's joined together in a contract with a demon. For this deal, the Winslow family was given incredible gifts. Our entire family was taught magic, potion making, and we were even given our first shop."

"That's..." Blake whispered, letting that information sink in. "Nice."

"Nice at a cost."

"What was the cost?" Blake's mouth went dry.

"Before that," Emma said gravely, eyeing her husband first before she went moved on. "You have to understand the consequence of breaking the contract."

The blood in Blake's veins cooled. He couldn't speak, couldn't move his mouth. All he could do was sink into his chair and fiddle with his hands. He strangled the circulation from his thumb. This wasn't what he expected when they brought him back.

"Show him," his mother insisted.

Clay nodded, strolling to one of the candles. He picked one up by its silver neck and brought the wick close to his lips. Blake knew this old trick. It was one of the first things children were taught when they needed to harness their magic. They focus everything on that small little breath and the candle wick bursts into flames.

Clay blew on the candlewick.

Nothing happened.

Blake thought his heart was going to burst through his chest. He said, his words coming out strangled and strange, "That's not funny."

"It's not," his father agreed.

#

DANIEL

"So, the Winslow family will become human?" Daniel asked, seeing if he was keeping up with the plot. He thought about this for a moment. "They'd be ruined. A family of humans couldn't possibly run a company that's sole production is in magical items and potions."

"Clay Winslow has already lost most of his magic," Etienne explained, and it was as if a chill swept through the room. Clay Winslow, to Daniel's memory was an excitable man with enough passion to start a Golden Age of magic and the kind of patience and class that made Daniel want to grow up and be the kind of man that could control the room with a single word.

Daniel felt like he was going crazy. He stood back up and paced by the windows, covered in thick velvet curtains to keep out the sun.

"How did you let it get this far? Weren't there signs? I mean," Daniel threw his hands up. He hated learning about problems when they were piled so high, they had the opportunity to bury him alive. "You had five hundred years to prepare."

"We didn't think it was anything to worry about. I mean," Adele smiled sheepishly. "We knew the time was coming. I grew up with talk about the curse, about the agreement, but..."

"But you didn't believe in it, did you? But now you believe in the curse? Why?"

"Well, there have been signs. When we had you, my love, we were quite surprised. We weren't even trying. We had you young, younger than either of our families wanted. To some mortals, they could mistake us for siblings."

"If anything," Etienne shrugged. "We were actively trying to avoid having children."

"Thanks."

"It was a blessing."

"Little things happened that seem so much bigger now. When you were younger, around four, you woke up from a nap and you wouldn't stop crying. Even after your tears ran dry, you couldn't stop..."

Daniel's brow narrowed. "You never told me this story."

"We learned later that was the day Blake was born. You cried while Emma went through her labor and only stopped, when Blake was born at midnight. I'll never forget the way you finally calmed down and fell asleep in my arms."

"I think that was the last time you rested," Etienne muttered.

"Why didn't you ever tell me that?"

"We tried to ignore it. You two didn't exactly get along when you were younger."

"Then..." Adele touched her hair, the streak of gray.

All at once, the world caved in around Daniel and he wasn't sure how he could possibly escape.

#

BLAKE

"You mean they're dying?" Blake asked.

"Mortality is catching back up to them," his father explained further. "500 years ago, we were blessed with the gift of magic. They were given immortality and strength. It's not completely clear, but 500 years ago, the Bellerose family became vampires and if the contract breaks, those powers will also disappear. Just like ours."

"To be clear, it wasn't just the average powers bestowed to us. We became titans. They became royalty. Without that help, I don't know if the Winslow family or the Bellerose coven would still exist and now, our families must merge if we want to keep this power going."

"So..." Blake spoke softly, his voice as loud as he could manage. Closing his eyes, he rested his head in his hands. "What does this mean? I'll have to drop out of school and what? Move to Sagewick and live in the castle and wow, I bet this plane ticket isn't a round trip..."

Blake would have to uproot his whole life, leave his family behind and all his plans. He'd become the fiancé of a vampire prince. A fiancé. Then, a husband. He'd be getting married at twenty-two, having never been in a serious relationship in his entire life. And could he do it? Be a part of that family? He didn't even know what it took, what it required to be a husband or the kind of husband Danny needed to help run a coven.

Blake was gonna vomit.

"Honey, the lights," Emma whispered, carefully touching his arm.

"Huh?" Blake snapped up in his seat, noticing how dim the lights had gotten. Blake waved his hands by his head and tried shaking off this feeling and the connection to the house's electricity. Magic was like being tied to everything in sight with an unlimited amount of string. Blake had the habit of pulling on those connections without thinking.

Finally, the lights brightened back up.

"Sorry," Blake said.

A few silent beats went by and Blake knew he needed to answer them. His father's phone buzzed and rang out, scaring Blake, which made all the lights flicker. Blake unloaded a long sigh, even though the weight didn't leave his chest. His father hurried out of the room, speaking low into the phone, "Hello Adele. Yes, we just told him. How's it going on your end?"

Clay escaped the room, breezing past Adrian, still at attention. Blake met his eyes and tried not to look completely devastated. Adrian met his smile and used the backs of his fingers to tap his chin, his silent way of saying "chin up."

Blake straightened his back and faced the table properly again. Somehow the picture of Danny faced him again. Blake remembered Danny's parents in simple ways. Adele and her soft eyes and despite not needing to eat the way Blake did, she always kept his favorite snacks in the kitchen. He recalled the way Etienne made sure Blake's whole family was comfortable in the cold Sagewick castle. He'd do anything for him family. Could Blake do the same?

"We had to send Adrian to find it in one of the old family vaults..." Blake's mother stood up and grabbed something from his father's briefcase he brought into the room before Blake's entire life imploded in on itself. She took out a wooden cylinder with intricate stars and moons carved into the wood. Spindles of coppers than covered it like overgrown vines, caging the beauty inside. Emma popped the copper lid and instantly, a scroll jumped into the air. Unraveling on its own, it fluttered about the room until it crashed landed on the table.

"If you needed any more convincing, we were able to track down the contract. It's indestructible," Emma explained as the paper fluttered in front of Blake's face. The handwriting was in cursive so fancy, Blake could barely make out the words. He could only pick out their family names, letting his eyes drift down to the bottom where he found a droplet of blood where most people signed a contract.

Only one name appeared in glimmering typography, like the shimmering flecks of a diamond brought to the light. Even without touching the name, Blake could feel the power the same way people hovered their hands over food to check to see if it was scolding hot. This name was on fire.

Ignacio

That must've been the demon.

Why did it enter a deal with their families?

What did a demon get out of a vampire and a wizard marrying?

The reality truly sunk in and Blake knew what he couldn't allow to happen. He couldn't let the Bellerose family fade and die. He couldn't ruin his family's legacy and his brother's future with Winslow Apothecary. Even the people they employed would suffer... all Blake had to do was sacrifice a little freedom. That was something he was already familiar with.

His father returned, his phone still up to his ear. Blake twisted around to look at his father and now that he knew the truth, he could tell that the usual storm of magic inside his father's chest fizzled to a flat can of soda.

Clay looked at his son with concern. "Think about it as long as you need to-" He winced and corrected himself. "Well, not too long, but we understand. It's a big decision-"

"What did Danny say?" Blake asked.

"He said yes. He's willing to do it."

To do it.

He's willing to marry Blake for his family.

Blake took a deep breath. "I don't need to wait. I'll agree to it. I'll marry Danny."

Emma cried out in relief and tears even pricked at Clay's eyes, making them bright pink and itchy. He wiped the corners of his eyes with Adrian's handkerchief and left to finish his conversation with Danny's mother. Emma came around the table and embraced Blake, running her hands through the back of his head and ruffling his curls. She kissed the middle of his head. "It's all going to be alright. I promise."

All Blake could do was nod.

Through his mother's arms, he could see the scroll, Danny's picture and the plan ticket. It all glared back with such great expectation, enough to cover the lining of his body with lead. He closed his eyes and let all his weight fall into his mother's arms. He wasn't an Oracle. He couldn't predict the future. He just hoped his mother was right, like she always was.

#

Author's Note

 Thank you guys for all your support! It means the world to me and I'm excited to keep sharing these stories with you. All comments are appreciated! I've gotta bolt, I'm about to clock back into work! Love you guys!