MAGIC OR NO MAGIC?

“You can’t stop me I’m Beyoncé!” I sing, getting into my house only to let out a screech to rival a harpy’s.

“Jesus Mama! You scared the shit out of me, almost literally.”

“Gross Mahi,” Mama replies, folding her arms in a posture that I’d grown to know means I was seconds from getting an epic lecture.

“What is it?” I ask with a sigh which earns me another pointed glare.

“You went to Ryder’s again after work, didn’t you?”

“I…”

“And you left my sweet grandbaby alone, I had to drag myself all the way here to stay with him.”

“Mama! We live in the same estate, on the same grounds, quit being dramatic, and Blue wasn’t alone, I’ve just met Cherry peeling out of here like demons were on her ass, what did you say to her?”

“Nothing.”

Yeah right.

Cherry was my babysitter and for some reason, Mama loathed her from day one.

“Mama!” my baby boy calls flapping his tiny blue-black wings towards me.

“Oh, look at you, you are practically an expert at flying,” I gloat like any proud mother would.

“Nana’s been teaching me, Blue says, his speech clearer than it had been in the morning. Why the hell was he growing up so fast?

“Mama, I hope you broke nothing else with those damn wings of yours,” I grumble shoving my worries aside to glare at my huffing mother.

Yeah, I know what you are probably thinking.

****

See, I’m adopted… kind of. My Mama is a nymph which is more like a succubus, yes, the sex demon, but she’s not a demon, she’ll probably smite my ass for the description but it’s the best I can come up with buzzed, sue me. Also, she’s the best person in the world. To the people she likes that is. My Papa is a dragon-shifter alpha who moonlights as an executive in an entertainment company, which he also owns.

Before they came along, life was pretty hard; sleeping in parks, meals at the mercy of restaurant and café owners or their amazing staff.

As a female, I was used to being unfairly and sometimes inhumanely treated. Having my food snatched from me,was one of the things I had to learn to accept if I wanted to stay alive and untouched. But one day, my sparse luck ran out. They weren’t just satisfied with the food or the punches or the kicks to the face. All I remember before I blacked out was gleaming eyes crowding me in and a distinct smell of sea and forests.

When I woke up, the next day, I felt fine, tired and sore but fine. It wasn’t until a month later that I realized that a lot more had happened than I had previously thought.

Fast forward eight months and a teary adoption later, Knox ‘Blue’ Dracon was born. That was the single most terrifying moment of my existence and I swore I would on everything pretty that I wasn’t doing that ever again. But the moment I laid eyes on the snivelling blue-haired boy, I fell in love, everyone did.

Papa had some tests run once it was clear Blue was no normal baby. I mean, the tiny thing came out with blue hair. One distinct thing that came back was that he had nautical DNA somewhere, which would explain the amazing colouring.

They talked me into therapy for the trauma but the funny thing is, my issues didn’t stem from that incident since I couldn’t remember anything.

Long story short, I knew what those mages were talking about, the only issue was, I wasn’t the magical one, Blue was. Maybe Blue had left some traces in me.

“I don’t like that girl;” Mama’s voice jolts me back to the present.

I know that.

“What did she do now? Do you know how hard it is to find a good babysitter these days?”

“I found Knox hiding because she wanted to take a picture of him, and she called him a freak.”

She will die.

“But you glamoured him.”

“Yes, but the little hellion snatched something off the shelf with his tail, so she noticed.”

“Am I a freak Mama?” Blue asks with a sad face, which just breaks my heart.

Did he even know what a freak was?

“No baby, you are perfect and beautiful and loved.”

“And handsome?” he asks slyly.

“Very handsome,” I insist with a mock solemn nod.

“Like Jin?”

“Yeah, baby!” I yell clapping my hands, “You are also worldwide handsome.”

“Oh fates,” my Mama mutters, letting herself out.

“Nana, my blessings and kisses,” Blue whines reaching for Mama with a pout.

“Come here, boy,” he waddles over and she picks him up, planting kisses all over his face as she draws the family insignia around him with magic as a blessing.

The image lights up my world, two of my favourite people smiling and laughing, despite all we’d been through.

She hands him over with one last peck and leaves.

I turn to my boy, “Okay baby, what’s for supper?”

“Fish!”

“Again? I swear, sometimes you prove our speculations about you being part nautical. I’m tired of eating your brethren,” I mutter, hiking him up with a huff, while carefully navigating the pretty attachments on his back, he was getting heavy.

Blue, at almost three years old, despite being a tiny thing, had the intellect and understanding of a six or seven-year-old human child in all the other ways so he could eat pretty much everything and hold terrifyingly intelligent conversations, when he chose to.

They were entertaining sometimes, and I didn’t have a lot of dietary restrictions due to his age; Thank the fates for small blessings.

“How about I make some pasta, beef, and veggies for the growing boy?”

“Nana says you have to eat veggies, too.”

I scrunch my face “But I’m grown.”

“She said to tell you not really,” he answers with a serious face.

“Okay fine, let me grab a shower quick, hmm?” I ask already lowering him onto the sofa.

He nods and I’m off before he changes his mind and decides to join me.

The boy loved water.