♦ The Coven ♦

When Tedrick arrived back in Barastone, he felt like… he was forgetting something. He couldn’t piece it together. The whole business trip felt hard to remember. One moment he was putting Ferris to bed in their room at the Gourmand when suddenly he was speaking with- who…?

The image of an older man with slicked dark auburn hair smiled back at Tedrick. This was the one his father had sent him out to meet in the first place. It was for a business meeting to discuss starting a branch of their catering company out in Meridien. To think he had gotten so drunk Tedrick had the discussion without even remembering….

In the end he packed everything up, let his father know things went well… and most importantly, Ferris was happy. A weekend that was supposed to be a dull errand for his Father turned into a nice time alone with his boyfriend and that was more than he could ask for. The feeling of forgetting something only returned once Alys texted him.

She was wondering where he was and why Tedrick hadn’t messaged. He was confused as to what he needed to message her for. She asked him to come home as soon as possible, seeming… concerned. That wasn’t like her. So he drove Ferris home, who was happy to avoid seeing Tedrick’s sister, and made his way to the family mansion.

♦ – ♦ – ♦

Driving up the winding path, the expansive Spanish estate of the Carridio’s stood. But no matter how clean and lush the exterior seemed, the sight of home loomed over him.

Tedrick took a deep breath and walked up the front steps, when the front doors opened with Alys before him. Her cold demeanor didn’t warm at all with his arrival.

“You don’t have any new information for me?” Alys asked.   Her tone was sharp, arms crossed. It made Tedrick’s stomach twist.

“I didn’t understand what information you needed. I-I just went to Meridien for Father’s work… you knew that,” Tedrick tried to defend. His brain felt so foggy…

Alys pursed her lips, staring her brother down from the entrance. “You really don’t remember…” she murmured, then approached Tedrick, who tensed.

“W-What are you doing?” He hesitated, staring down at his sister as she cupped his face and stared into his eyes, her own glowing purple.

He felt his heart drop as Alys began examining his mind. He could feel her poking around, like she had many times before. As much as he wanted to push her away, he resisted as she searched.

“Your memories… have been altered. The kind of magic someone would need to get past the ward I gave you would have to be immense…” Alys muttered, Tedrick looking dazed as she drew back her hands.

“Did you come face to face with the djinn?”

“The what?” He felt so confused, and if he was honest with himself, a little scared. “Alys, I… don’t know what you’re talking about… why would my memories have been altered?’

She looked at Tedrick with a frown now. “I told you to investigate the magic you found. You’re the one who came to me. You seriously can’t remember?”’

Tedrick felt his anxiety continue to rise, she was being so persistent and that made him only more nervous. He swallowed thickly.

“Well I got there with Ferris early and we spent time around downtown together… We went to the restaurant and we met some old… acquaintances.” He wasn’t especially close with Cole or Token, it was Ferris who brought him to a party where they met a month earlier…. But for some reason, thinking of Cole gave him a bad feeling..

“After eating we went back to the hotel room and….” Tedrick trailed, trying to remember the order events of that evening but it was starting to get muddled. “I was talking to the CEO… ” he frowned.

“And what happened between you both going to get dinner and meeting the CEO?” She asked carefully.

“I don’t remember… Ferris was wasted though, I must… maybe I had something to drink too…” Tedrick attempted to reason, avoiding her pressing eyes.

“That doesn’t sound like you-”

“Since when do you know anything about me?” He shot back. He didn’t want to let his sister play a card like that.

Alys paused before making a slight roll of the eyes and she sighed. “What matters is that your memories have been altered. I told you to investigate the magic you found. Someone there doesn’t want you poking around.”

Tedrick resigned his irritation and glanced at her with a knowing look, “If they don’t want me poking around, maybe I shouldn’t be poking around…”

Alys’ gaze hardened as she snapped, “We don’t have a choice now. If you really want to join the coven then you’ll do as I say.”

Tedrick felt his chest tighten. Why did she have to bring that up? She was cruel… 

“If I’m right and it’s a djinn that’s in Meridien, we need to find out more about this. They are rare, powerful… and we don’t know a lot about them.”

He sighed and held his head low. “Yeah, ok…”

“I’m going to see what the other coven members think,” She stated without pause, opening the doors into the mansion, leaving him at the entrance alone.

Tedrick watched Alys leave, heading into the foyer. He sighed as he was once again alone, his hand running through his hair. What was that about? My memories were altered? A djinn? I found undiscovered magic? Maybe Alys is messing with me. No- she wouldn’t do that, she keeps telling me she wants to fix things between us. But she still acts so cold, so cruel…

He pressed his lips together as a pit formed in his stomach. Because that didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t remember everything. I really am still the fuck up of the family… he sighs, closing the doors to the home and instead going to his garden to calm down some.

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