Homesick Book 2. The Secrets of Blackthorn Manor

An Unexpected Request

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Chapter Three

An Unexpected Request

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It took some time for Adrian to wake. He felt warm and relaxed. Normally he woke with either the blankets tangled around his limbs or with the fabric completely missing. On the off chance he actually made it all the way to sleep, he tended to thrash about. It was a habit he'd picked up since his family's passing. He still had a small scar on his arm from when he had flailed violently enough to throw himself out of bed. He had whacked his arm against the corner of his bedside table at the time and needed a couple of stitches.

This morning he was actually still in bed, and he knew why. He smiled as he felt the steady rise and fall of the naga's chest. It was a good thing the man was supernatural. Most people didn't like having the weight of a young man basically crushing their chest for the entire night. Thankfully, to Owethu, Adrian was probably the same weight as both of his two tiny cats. Speaking of which...

'Eww...' Adrian whined as a wet, cold, slimy nose touched his cheek. Duchess mewed expectantly. Apparently, he was late to providing them breakfast.

'They are persistent,' Owethu rumbled.

'How long have you been awake?' Adrian asked with only minimal slurring.

'About thirty minutes,' the naga replied. The man unwound, leaving Adrian exposed to the cold air. The sorcerer shivered and sat up.

'You slept,' Owethu said in an uncharacteristically soft voice.

'I always sleep better when you're here,' Adrian muttered, his cheeks flushing slightly. Their relationship was still new enough that open words of affection still caused some embarrassment. Maybe if they had met in a more... conventional manner then their affections would be more advanced. Adrian generally didn't bother to compare his bizarre soul bond with the ancient man with anything that could be considered normal...

'Do you need to go back to your clan early?' Adrian asked as he flopped out of bed and attempted to find clean clothes.

'I will need to go back at some stage today, but it doesn't need to be this morning,' Owethu said, and he shifted his incredible patterned coils back into dark-skinned, human legs.

'Oh, breakfast then?' Adrian asked, trying not to look as relieved and happy as he felt. Duchess let out another high-pitched piercing yowl.

'In the meantime, time to feed the demon cats,' Adrian added with a long-suffering sigh. Prince purred in response.

A short time later, the cats were fed, Adrian was dressed, and coffee had been poured. They were sitting at the table, plates of fluffy scrambled eggs and toast in reach. It was a nice day outside with a strong bright sun and no clouds to interrupt its shine. Adrian glanced down at his phone. He had trashed and re-downloaded his social media applications so many times, he half wondered why he bothered. As he flipped up a new browser, he was immediately bombarded with headlines about the fundraiser. It didn't take him long to find his own name splashed into the article.

His name came up a lot.

There had been several articles about the only living Blackthorn. Adrian had done his best to ignore every damn one of them, hence why he had deleted all the social media applications off his phone so many times. It didn't matter though. He still knew the gist of them. Everyone was waiting for his episode of madness. There had rarely been a practitioner with two familiars that hadn't lost their mind.

He had done a lot of research into the topic over the winter months in a desperate effort to understand what could happen to him. Unfortunately, the phenomena was so uncommon that documented cases were hard to find and cases that had been documented in the last hundred years were even rarer. He had no true reliable information. He could be totally fine. Or... he could kill everyone he ever knew. Really, just why was he ever stressed with two such lovely options to think about?