Mated to the Wizard

8 - The Trampoline

Avery's P.O.V

"Avery, you're not leaving."

"I'm sorry?" I ask loudly, confused and also worried. I've seen what my mate can do, and I have no doubt he will keep me here if he wants to. But what I don't understand is why. Over the past few days, his actions have been sending me mixed signals. From insulting my dress sense at the café back home, to turning up at my house and nearly kissing me for no legitimate reason, to saving me from a blood thirsty rouge, explaining Ben's story, randomly kissing me in Costa, but then threatening me in the park. And now he's the possessive type?

"I can't let you leave this house, now I have you here." Everest shrugs like it's nothing while I just look at his flabbergasted. I can't just leave my family! I thought this was a short term arrangement!

"Why the fuck not?" inwardly, I've taken a protective stance, with my legs slightly apart and my clenched fists hanging at my sides. You can easily tell I'm angry from my facial expression, which I'm sure is showing complete irritation right now.

"Just stop asking questions." he sighs, leaving the living room and walking into the hallway, grabbing a set of keys from the table near the door. "I have to go get Ben, do you want to come, or are you just gonna stay here?" I just stare with widened eyes as he raises an eyebrow at me. He's being so casual about dropping the bombshell on me that I may never see my loved ones again. When I don't move, Everest seems to take it as a no, I don't want to come. "Great. So, I've locked all the doors and windows, the phone is out of order until I get back, there's no internet so don't try contacting anyone. Oh, but the TV does work, so feel free to watch it." he nods at me and I continue to stare at him as he opens the door awkwardly. Now I'm a prisoner, and he's made sure of that. With a swift tug of the door behind him and the sound of a key in the lock, I find myself trapped in Everest Black's bungalow.

Swallowing deeply, I run a hand through my hair. What to do, what to do, what to do...

Can I really do anything about this while he's gone? No, not really. He will have used his powers to secure the house; there's not even any point in trying to leave. I just need to think about an escape strategy, try to ignore the fact my mate has me held kidnapped in a town I don't know and he won't let me leave. Yes, that's definitely not going to be swimming around in my mind until he returns.

To try and distract myself, I decide to do some exploration of the house. I haven't properly looked around on my own yet, and if there are any secrets to be uncovered, I may as well look for them now.

I wonder into Everest's bedroom that I've been sleeping in since I got here and go straight over to the desk. I don't feel guilty over stealing the wizard's bed now that he's told me I can't leave. It's just made me want to act like a bitch towards him now.

On the desk, there's a book open with some scrunched up pieces of paper. I open up one of the sheets and read the top: Dear Father, I have begun to realise that perhaps our plan has its flaws. There must be ways around the writing has a line going right through the middle. What plan? Maybe a development one? And ways around what, exactly?

Unfolding the next one, I find it has a similar concept: Father, I have been meaning to call you for quite some time now about what we plan to do with again, the letters have an agitated line drawn through them, and it's cut off right where I want to learn more. It's like a cliff-hanger at the end of a chapter of a book.

After reading through the other pieces of paper, I realise they're all the same, but with changes to some of the word order and adverbs used.

Turning to the book underneath, I sigh in agitation when I see it's all in Latin. It would take hours and a lot of Google Translate to translate even one page of it. I've never been good with languages, and the foreign letters and words can't even compare to English to me.