Bespelled

Chapter 1

"Do I really need to be there?"

I could have shaken my head at her. It was my book launch. She didn't need to be here. But I wanted her there. She was all I had and this was as close to having an offspring as I could get. I may die but my books will live on carrying my name, my mark indefinitely. The mark of the Osbolds, who to their dying day didn't want me.

Sighing unhappily, she did one more twirl before turning to take my hand.

"Ok, I am as ready as I will ever be. Let's go."

I nodded my head absently, my gaze as always arrested by Ebony's lush dark hair and then narrowed on her cyan blue eyes. They were shockingly mesmerising. They never failed to deliver a shock to my systems as soon as they settled on mine. But I didn't have the time to drown in them now, I needed to go launch my bloody book. It was my only hope to stave off the inevitable poorhouse.

My Osbolds parents having shunned my very existence for most of my life did me no favours on death either. Living a precariously bold lifestyle they had been literally functioning on borrowed time as well as borrowed money. Both were gone now. Debts cleared, this house and few megre belongings were all that remained. Even this was won by Ebony's father's unchallenged standing in the social hierarchy.

People of my world bent over backwards for just the merest nod from that man. And I had him singing my praises on the account of his daughter inexplicable friendship with me. A friendship that baffled me as much as it did me. And as I clearly read minds, that was certainly saying something. But the Blackthorns were hardly ordinary in anyway. I didn't expect I would ever access all their secrets despite my mind reading capabilities. One couldn't best power. And that was exactly what the Blackthorns are.

"You know you need only ask if you require my body," I said simply, as I rose to my feet from the bed. At Ebony's raised brow I murmured," I know you long to ravish this." I ran my hands down my physical perfection.

"Jarrod Osbolds!"

My grin was swift and incorrigible.  Ebony's blush was rare and becoming.

"Let's just go," muttered Ebony, clearly mortified.

I didn't blame her. Being an open book to me almost her entire life was surely a bane to her existence. But I couldn't help but read her mind. I was not restricted as other witch and wizzards. I didn't need to love whomever I chose to mindlink with. Everyone on this Earth was an open book to me. I had only to tap into their minds and their thoughts were mine. Ebony Blackthorn was too irresistible to otherwise ignore. Her mind fascinated me like nothing else. While with her unlimited power, she could very well block me as her parents were wont to do but oddly enough, she didn't. Didn't always anyway.

But catching her off guard like this amused me. Ebony was naturally a very guarded person. That I could reduce her to insensibility, was a talent I couldn't ignore and shamelessly use to my advantage.

A unique combination of her dad's shrewdness and her mum's naivety.  Ebony should have been a recipe for disaster only she was a blessed Blackthorn. All powerful and in good faith with Lady Destiny and her cronies.

I on the other hand was the accursed Osbolds. Pox on my parent's. I should never have been born at all cursed as I have been before my conception even but my randy father had much to be blamed for his inability to keep it in his pants.