The Heir Of Dreams And Curses

Where I have the weirdest dream

When I asked Edgar why he hadn't told me about the prophecy before, his reply was, "I wanted to push you away."

Looking at Edgar in that moment, I felt like I had finally resolved a mystery. His words sounded rehearsed, and they probably were. He looked like he was having a hard time not stuttering and tripping on them as he spoke. His gaze was shifting, not really looking at anyone or anything.

That was why, I realized, it had startled me so much in the first days we got to know each other when I caught him looking at me.

"I've been wanting to push you away since I met you," Edgar added, unusually talkative. "I thought I was better off without friends. I thought of myself as dangerous. And I thought of you as dangerous too."

"I'm not sure I'll take it as a compliment," I said.

"Dangerous like fire," he explained. "Burning too wild, too quick. Passionate, determined, focused. You looked like someone I shouldn't have hung out with."

"Is that why you said you couldn't stand me?"

"I wasn't protecting myself when I said that," his dark blue eyes looked right into mine, sending something that felt like pure electricity all over my body. "I was protecting you. From the hurt. I didn't want to hang out with you anymore. Not with your friends either."

"Then," he added, smiling slightly. "You called me up. Said you wanted to talk about the prophecy. So many things have happened since that day that I don't know if you've realized you've never even mentioned it. But that's okay. It helped me to realize I could not try to avoid you. You'd always come back. I started feeling guilty, and I thought I owed you the truth."

"Wow," I said. "You've never talked that much since I met you."

"Never in my life," he confirmed. "I practised in front of the mirror. I owed you the truth for too long. I'm sorry I lied about my powers when we first met."

"It was so long ago, and it made sense you didn't want new acquaintances to know..."

"What I had done," Edgar finished darkly.

"So, the prophecy...?" I asked, to change topic.

Edgar looked at me. I had never seen him look so sad and so defeated. There was tragedy in his eyes.

"The only way I can break the curse," he said gravely. "Is by dying."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "You're not even part of the family. You don't need to sacrifice yourself."

Edgar showed me his hands, as if he was showing me the very source of his powers.

"Maybe I should tell you what I did as a child, in detail. It eventually made me run away from home."

"You ran away from your home... to protect your parents?" I asked in disbelief. It was cruel the hand destiny had dealt me. I was beginning to realize how much Edgar was worth, as a person, and he was destined to die.

"You're making it sound honourable," he said. "It wasn't. There simply wasn't another way my father could have loved me and I wasn't sure that I loved him. I was unsure of many things."

"I told you the truth about my childhood. I used to practise magic when I was a child," he added. "Mostly healing magic. It was the only thing I was good at. I was a weird little Enchanter. My father noticed my powers were strange. He was a hybrid, but his powers were more reliable than mine. He didn't have much magic in his veins, though."

"Like my mother," I said.

"After a while, he noticed my powers were bouncing back on someone else. Every time I used them, this person was feeling weaker. He taught me the patience to read all those books about magic. He made no secret that he thought I was somebody else's son, and that he was worried."