Chapter 61

Zeke gave Carly her satchel after dinner while Lindsay served sweets.

Zeke also presented Lindsay with a head chain and his staff-like wand. While Lindsay had Lore, Energy and Earth, Carly had Nature, Psychic, and Physics. Zeke pointed out to them that combined, they had the full set. As a duo, they could be formidable.

“What did you do with the slave chains?” Carly asked as she filled her spoon with ice cream and lime jelly.

“You two are wearing them,” Zeke said proudly.

Carly dropped her spoon in shock. Lindsay gave Zeke an odd look and then closed his eyes. “Well, I’ll be damned. While gaining the new items, I was, too, overwhelmed to realise my entity felt different.”

“Oh, she is so happy. She loves you for freeing her, Zeke. She thinks you are wonderful and that was why she agreed to stay. She likes me too, thankfully.”

“But what about the curses,” Carly cried.

“Well, the devotion spell must have worn off. The short-life spell was surprisingly easy to remove, and so was the spell to limit who could claim them. You should expect three to four hundred-plus extra years if you look after yourselves.”

He grinned at their shock. On a more sober note, he added, “Carly, you will most likely find your libido accelerating as you complete puberty. If you need relief, please be careful who you ask to help you. I don’t want you hurt.”

“Oh, that’s easy. I’ve got you, two,” she smiled smugly at the shocked men and then put the spoon in her mouth.

“Carly, I didn’t give you the items so I could use you. I promised. Plus, you aren’t legal yet as far as we are concerned since we are more than four years older than you.”

“Ah, but I didn’t promise to not use you. I’ve already figured out you have the hots for blondie here. He reciprocates, by the way. I think he fell in love the moment he set eyes on you.”

Ignoring Lindsay’s blush, she went on, “For me, it took a bit longer. It was when you hugged me after beating the shit out of the arsehole who was going to strip me. I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but it is, what it is.”

“Plus, from what I’ve read, you will get some real relief with the two of us to help. I must have been tough going from nothing to Lord Wizard. How long have you been wearing your items?”

“I was nearly fourteen when I put on the Usekh. So, nine years, I did have use of my wand for two years before that,” Zeke replied.

“Bitchen, long time to go without decent sex,” she commented.

“Anyway, legally, it will only be two weeks before I’m eighteen, and I don’t think anyone will get bent out of shape. The thing in my head has fixed why I stopped growing to my full height a year ago. She thinks my mother had something to do with it for some reason.”

“She implies my mother gave me something, which was why I didn’t show signs of being magical before she left. I’ve felt the magic building in me since then and started using it to some degree. Lee’s web pages have helped me understand what was happening to me.”

“I’m otherwise fully developed. I just haven’t been eating well for most of a year. Hence why I’m so skinny. I will probably eat you off this ship in the next couple of months.”

The men chuckled as they realised, she was probably right. They had both suffered the pains of rapid growth.

“Um, Zeke, for another thing, before you become all righteousness, the entities tricked you.”

Zeke felt panic come from his entity.

“How so?” he asked Carly calmly.

“That one in your head loves the two in ours. What the previous owner did to them was his way of keeping your entity in check. It was why, when he felt them, he wanted you to find them.”

“When he felt what I was, he believed I was a perfect candidate for you and one of his other mates. You already had Lindsay, whom they approve of, by the way.”

“I felt them communicate when we were at Wazza’s. Don’t ask me how I understand them, as I can’t explain. Oh, your entity left the other guy as punishment for losing him his mates and the things he made him do, once they realised, they were trapped.”

“Even knowing this, I was surprised that you hadn’t released the other two. I guess he talked you out of it and helped you remove the curses. So, you are stuck with us until you upgrade us.”

“Shit!” Zeke swore. “Excuse me, I need to go have a chat with someone. I’ll see you both in the morning.”

Zeke stood and then blinked.

Zeke was sitting on the side of his bed when Lee blinked into his room.

“This had better be imported,” she started saying.

She stopped when she saw the condition of the man on the bed. His ripped shirt was on the floor near her feet. She could see the gouges he had dug into the sides of his chest and near his neck, as if he had tried to rip something off that had been around his neck. Blood was still dribbling down in multiple places.

Lee walked around the bed to see his back. It was worse than the front. It looked as if an animal had clawed him. Blood ran from several wounds all the way down his back. It was soaking into the waistband of his trousers.

She walked back in front of the man and quietly asked, “Zeke, what’s wrong?”

His eyelids popped open, and he blinked the tears away to see her. The runnels from the tears smeared with blood ran down his face. He looked as if he was totally lost.

“Can you remove it?” he asked hoarsely.

“The Usekh or the entity, Zeke?” she asked as she sat beside him and took his hand in hers.