Til Death

1. Blake

BLAKE

Despite what a regular mortal may think, love potions are not illegal. They're just a taboo form of magic and when the potion is administered incorrectly, the consequences for both parties could be dire. Too much fennel and your lover may become so obsessed with you, they decide to lock you in a cage forever, or they'll kill anyone who breathes in your direction. If the witch forgets to add just a sprinkle of cinnamon, whoever drank the potion might become so overwhelmed with emotion every time they see you, they're compelled to sob uncontrollably.

The worst part might be when the target of the witch's affection drinks from the potion, a cry of anguish cracks through the sky. It's the sound of someone losing the love of their life to a wicked witch. It's the cry of someone's heart breaking. That alone could drive a person mad.

Blake never considered using a love potion.

Not until he took one look at Mike Finley's face.

Mike Finley and his soft tussle of blonde curls. Mike Finley and his chin dimple and endless ocean eyes. Mike Finley with the kind of smile that made Blake forget his last name. He would fork over his Social Security number or his entire inheritance, if he could just spend one magical evening in the back of Mike Finley's Toyota Corolla.

Blake left his parent's home for college for one reason and one reason only:

To date without his older brothers getting in the way.

After twenty-two years of being dateless and alone on the weekends, Blake planned to fall in love and he needed to do that soon because the winter break was right around the corner and he'd be forced to return home a failure.

When he first saw Mike, Blake was so distracted looking at his face, Blake ran right into a glass door. Sure, he nearly broke his nose and ruined a perfectly good sweater with a blood stain, but Mike came to his aid with an ice pack and a winning smile.

Twenty minutes after that, Blake scored a date.

"Hey, Blake!" Mike came jogging up the sidewalk. This college town was dressed for the holiday, its roads framed by trees dripping with Christmas lights enlarged Lamppost wrapped up in tinsel. Every shop was as pretty as a Christmas card. Blake wished he could capture it all in a snow globe to take home to show his family.

He wanted to come home with some sort of proof that he could make it on his own. That he didn't need his brothers to survive. That he didn't need Magic to be worth something.

Mike joined Blake wearing one of those skintight work out shirts and a pair of shorts that multitasked showing off his exposed calf muscles, but also cupping his butt. Needing an extra moment, Blake turned to the side and made a thousand dumb faces of excitement before he looked back like a normal person. Blake was good at pretending to be a normal functioning person with half a brain.

"Hey, Mike," Blake said and ran his fingers through his black curls.

"You're pretty dressed up for running around the block," Mike said in good humor and Blake's brain froze. He super glued his smile and just nodded, slowly putting the situation together. When Mike suggested the date, he said something about taking Blake around the block and something about working up a sweat, but Blake had hoped that was more of an innuendo than Mike suggesting they actually run a 10k or something.

I'm such an idiot, Blake thought to himself as he realized the truth.

The beautiful Mike Finley did not ask Blake out on a date.

He asked him to go jogging.

"Oh, yeah, uh," Blake said, gargling his thoughts in the back of his throat as he thought up some excuse to why he'd be wearing a sweater, jeans and a button up to workout. Thankfully, he wore his trusty pair of converses (not that he owned another pair of shoes).