Recover: Book 2 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

30: The Search for Solutions

July 2017

Moving back to Hammersmith was overwhelming—to put it lightly. Having grown used to just being around Olivia, the liveliness of the house was too much to bear. So after I walked into the bustling home with my housemates coming and going, alongside other mutants from around London popping in here and there to say hello, I immediately beelined to my room and focussed on unpacking.

A flick of my wrist would have seen all my clothes, books, and pills going to a spot in the room without me having to get off my bed. But, not wanting to get caught using too much magic, and desperate for an excuse to kill time before having to face the boundless questions to come my way once I descended those stairs, I chose to unpack a shirt at a time, folding it at the edges neatly, and walking it over to my cupboard.

But my attempts to avoid everyone were useless.

Five minutes was all I got to myself. Three hundred seconds before my door burst open and Jayce, Loren, Ivan, Drake, and Ben bounded into my room, sitting on my bed, taking my desk chair, pulling up a spot on the floor, all staring at me eagerly.

And, to my dismay, Jayce flicked his wrist at my suitcase, and the one job I had to distract myself was taken from me.

"Why do you look sad?" Drake was the first to ask—gracing us with the rare sound of his voice.

"No clue. Maybe because Jayce is a show off," I grumbled. But as my suitcase then floated off my bed, Jayce took the seat right in front of me, his obsidian eyes staring up at me, studying me.

"He does look sad," Jayce mused.

"Why are you sad, Lukas?" Loren then asked.

"Oh my gosh, I'm not sad!" I retorted.

But apparently they were ignoring me now.

"You were so happy the other day," Ivan contributed.

"He was, wasn't he?" Jayce said, smiling at Ivan. "He reminded me of Loren actually the time that he and Jade were bond-whipped."

"Ahh, to be bond-whipped," Ivan sighed, falling against my bed.

"Shut up," Loren grumbled, throwing a pillow at each respective teaser.

"I'm not bond-whipped," I muttered back. Because how could I be... ours was only an invitation now.

"Ooo... I saw clouds pass across your eyes just then, Lukas," Ivan mused.

"Are you a poet now?" I snapped at Ivan.

"I could be... What would you know? You've been gone from the face of the planet for six months."

"I wasn't gone," I sighed, finally falling onto the bed, wedged between Jayce and Loren, with Ben sitting behind me—not adding anything to this conversation, as usual. "I was still in London."

"Where?" Loren eagerly asked, grabbing another one of my pillows to hug as he moved closer. Anyone walking in would think they had somehow entered a teenage girls' sleepover with all of us lounging on and around my bed, gossiping. Though the bleak colour scheme and testosterone hanging in the air would surely make eyebrows furrow and question how they could change the channel from our strange parody.

"Soho," I finally gave them. I wasn't going back again, so may as well tell them. 

And next time Ollie came back into my life... she'd be coming here. I was sure of it. 

If we all survived this...

Drake gasped. "Expensive rent."

"What do you care about costs?" I shot back.