SpellShocked (SpellShocked Saga: Book 1)

Chapter 13 - Five Thousand Years?!

I was staring between Harvey and the man, feeling more confused than I ever had in my entire life. What the fuck was going on here?!

"You gave it to him! Didn't you?!" the man screeched, hatred burning in his eyes.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Harvey said casually, "Regardless, you should leave. Now. Before I make you leave." As if to emphasise his point, blue lightning crackled between the fingers his outstretched hand, leaving a burning smell in the air, and effectively answering the question of who had conjured the ward.

I had noticed that Harvey's' accent and broken speech pattern had changed; he was speaking in an English accent, his voice was dangerously quiet, and all of his words were fully formed. If it wasn't for his shabby clothes and wild matted hair, I would never have recognised him.

The man, who had previously looked furious, now looked positively terrified by the magic crackling from Harvey's hand. His eyes flickered between Harvey and me, as if trying to decide whether he could slice my throat before Harvey could blast him away. But with one last snarl, he dispelled his blade, turned around, and ran into the forest. I looked back to Harvey when I was sure the man was gone.

"Harvey, what the hell is going on here?!" I yelled. He looked down at me as if just noticing I was here.

"Charlie. Stand up, we have work to do and I do not have a lot of time." When I just stared at him, he sighed in frustration. He waved his hand in an upward motion, I felt my body levitate into the air until I was standing upright. I yelp of fear from behind me told me that the same thing was happening to Jay.

"Harvey! Tell me what's going on!"

"Look Charlie, I will explain it to you soon. But right now, I have to follow Umbra back to his master, and I have to clean up this mess before I leave." He walked towards me and put his hand on my shoulder, "So for now, shut up and do as I say. Okay?"

I was about to say something cheeky in response when I noticed the Focus Mark on his hand and it shut me up immediately. I had seen that symbol before; Mr Beck had drawn it in the dirt. It was a circle with an infinity symbol inside.

My mouth dropped open and I stuttered, "Yo-your...a-are you..."

He rolled his eyes again, but answered my unspoken question, "Yes Charlie. My name is not Harvey, and I'm not a homeless person. My name is Merlin."

I just stared at him, speechlessly. He turned his head slightly to the right and looked over my shoulder. "You are not going anywhere, Mr Cooper." I turned and saw Jay staring at both of us fearfully, slowly backing his way out of the glade.

"Please don't kill me!" he screamed as Harvey, or Merlin, began to walk towards him.

"I am not going to kill you, you stupid boy," Merlin growled, "I am going to wipe your memory so you do not remember any of this."

"Woah, wait!" I yelled, snapping back into action, "You don't have to wipe his memory!"

Merlin turned to me, glaring, "And why, pray tell, is that?"

"Because..." I paused. In all honesty, the reason I didn't want his memory to be wiped was because I was actually starting to like him, and he genuinely seemed to like me too. Selfishly, or perhaps foolishly, I didn't want to wipe the memory of the first person to ever show an interest in me.

But when I looked over at Jay and saw the look of complete horror plastered to his beautiful face, I knew that we had to wipe his memory; clearly this whole magic business was too much for him. And as much as it hurt me to admit, there wouldn't be a future between us if he couldn't handle who and what I now was.