Tragic Magic [boyxboy]

Chapter Six

No matter how much I badgered and begged and pleaded with him, Tristan wouldn’t tell me anything more about my supposed “powers”. His face didn’t give anything away but I could just tell he was feeling all smug and superior about keeping it to himself, the rat bastard.

                Eventually I stormed off in a huff to my room, not expecting to get any sleep after what I’d been through over the last hour, but of course as soon as my head hit the pillow I conked and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. When I woke I felt completely rested and surprisingly ready to tackle Tristan again about all the new questions he’d managed to put into my head.

                However it wasn’t to be. When I arrived downstairs, bright and early on that Sunday morning, everybody was sitting amicably around the breakfast table without a sign of Tristan.

                I sat down next to Annabelle, reaching for the cereal, and beginning, ‘So-’ but before I could even get a second word out Maya interrupted me nastily.

                ‘He’s not here.’

                I clamped my mouth shut, scared to say anything else.

                ‘Given the nature of the things he revealed to you last night,’ Gregory commented boredly, not taking his eyes off the newspaper he was reading, ‘Tristan has disappeared with his tail between his legs.’ Gregory finally looked at me over the tops of his reading glasses. ‘Probably scared you’re going to wheedle more information out of him.’ He returned his attention to the newspaper article.

                I was about to say something when I felt a small hand on my arm. ‘I’m really sorry about last night, Cody,’ Annabelle said solemnly. ‘I didn’t want to scare you or hurt you.’

                ‘Um. That’s okay. It wasn’t your fault Annabelle.’

                ‘I know,’ she said, with characteristic maturity. ‘It was Tristan’s. But I’m still sorry.’

                I nodded, unsure of what else to say, and smiled, before returning my attention to Gregory. Even though Tristan had told me Edwin was the most “powerful” or whatever, I was still naturally drawn to Gregory as the head of the household.

                ‘I’m sorry if I overstepped any marks,’ I said awkwardly. ‘I know none of it is any of my business but-’

                ‘Cody,’ Gregory interrupted in the same semi-bored voice, still not giving me much attention, ‘if it wasn’t any of your business we wouldn’t have invited you into our home in the first place.’

                ‘Oh.’ I guess this had something to do with how I was supposed to “help” so I didn’t say anything, hoping Gregory would elaborate. No such luck.

                ‘You’ll realise that when the time comes. Until then, you don’t have to apologise for being nosy. It would be unusual if you weren’t at least a little suspicious.’

                I bit my tongue, determined not to blurt out any questions about Kaley or what he was planning to do to rescue her, and one more evil glance from Maya solidified my resolve.

                Gregory folded the paper and took off his reading glasses. ‘I thought we’d all go to the park today, since it’s so lovely out. Annabelle, why don’t you go and get dressed. Cody, you’ll join us?’

                I hadn’t realised I’d had a choice. Part of me wanted to stay in the house and do some more snooping, wait for Tristan to get home so I could bug him some more, but another part of me knew that I’d be more likely to get answers if I went with the rest of the Darlingtons.