Strings of Fate

Strings of Fate

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Bonus

05:48

I make it to the bar in under thirty minutes and spend the next half hour anxiously cleaning the already immaculate bar. Cora did a great job closing last night, the place is exactly how I like it. I’m going to have to make it up to her. Honestly I think I need to hire another bartender, we’re getting more and more busy. I should really give her a raise or a promotion or something. She’s more than earned it. I end up sitting on the customer side of the bar and I basically stare at the front door while I swing and kick my legs anxiously. Finally, Ryann arrives, but she’s not alone. She has three people with her. Megan, Darrien and Aaron. Shit, how am I going to have a proper private conversation with her in front of all of them? I left the front door open so they let themselves in. Darrien greets me with a small smile and Aaron nods. The two women are a little less friendly. Megan raises an eyebrow at me and

Ryann crosses her arms over her chest.

“Well?” She says expectantly and I sigh.

“I suppose you want an explanation for why I would call Harry’s best friend over the day after he essentially dumped me.” I answer flatly.

“Pretty much, yeah.” Megan chimes in. My eyes dart to the guys nervously. Darrien is nice but Aaron intimidates me a little, he’s so big and quiet. It makes him kind of unapproachable.

“Uh… is there any chance we can have this talk in private?” I ask weakly. Ryann shrugs and Megan laughs.

“There’s no point. They’ll know everything we talk about sooner or later. Besides, Harry sent a LONG and detailed message to the group chat last night and pretty much every hour since then so I doubt there’s much you can say that we haven’t all heard already.” Ryann says, a little sympathetically. I take a deep breath and let it out again.

“Fine. In that case, I’m an idiot. I screwed up and I need your help to get Harry back.” I tell them boldly. I honestly expect them to say no, I mean why would they want to help the girl who screwed over their friend?

“Sure. What can we do?” Ryann asks happily. Huh, what? Why is she being so cooperative? I narrow my eyes at her suspiciously. Is this a set up of some kind? I don’t get it. I was expecting to have to beg and plead for their help. Or that at very least I would have to get

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them drunk first. My thoughts must be clear on my face because Ryann finally drops her arms to her side and Megan relaxes.

“I know, you thought you would have to grovel. But honestly, I am in no position to be lecturing you about your relationship decisions. I screwed things up with Bellamy in my own way and it took me months to pull myself together enough to fix it. I’m not going to leave you to do the sanfe thing, for you

and for Harry’s sake.” Ryann says kindly and I want to throw myself at her in a hug. Megan nods her agreement.

“Yeah… And I almost married someone who wanted to kill me because I was so oblivious that I didn’t even consider Darrien as an option. So I’d say neither of us are exactly the poster girls for good relationship decisions.” Megan says, shooting an adoring look at Darrien who takes her hand and tugs her close to his side.

“So… What you’re basically saying is that you’re just as terrible at this as I am and asking you for advice is probably not the smartest plan I’ve ever had?” I joke. Darrien laughs.

“You’re not wrong.” Megan elbows him in the ribs and me makes a big deal out of pretending to be in pain.

“Actually, that’s why we bought Aaron, he gives weirdly good relationship advice assuming you can actually get him to answer you.” She winks at me. I suspect that she is making things up because she just wants someone else to join her in her mission of pestering Aaron into trying to talk.

+1

“Well as much as I appreciate you bringing the apparent relationship guru, it was actually you I wanted to talk to.” I admit. Ryann nods.

“Go on.” She prompts. I delay a little bit longer by suggesting everyone gets settled at a table. and I fetch drinks for everyone.

“No spelled booze for us please, we’re still working.” Darrien chimes in, gesturing to himself and Aaron. I make sure to just serve them regular alcohol. We’re all sitting at a booth and I finally ask my question.

“So, I need to know about Incubi, especially about their magic and how it works. I’ve been running off a whole bunch of assumptions and stereotypes and I’m starting to think that

Bo

Te all wing and that I really should mave guleu ulls out soUTICI

denial.” I explain. Ryann nods enthusiastically.

UULI 103 AUIL UL JEL

“I can help with that. I grew

most do. Do you have any specific questions?” She asks. I flounder.

un around Incubi so I learned a lot more about their magic than

“I don’t think I know enough to even ask what it is I need to know.” I sigh.

“Okay, so Incubi for beginners. For starters all that rubbish about being demons and stuff is completely fake. They just happen to have magic that affects emotions. But deep emotions are harder to affect, it works easiest on shallow emotions, like lust. Partly because they’re the ones you don’t usually think about too hard or try to explain away but also because Incubi influence people’s emotions by reflecting their own emotions back onto someone. So if they’re happy they can make you feel happy, or horny they might make you feel… lustful. Basically you feel what they feel, but if it’s not something you would

actually feel then it won’t stick for long. Lust is the one most commonly felt because, well to be honest most Incubi are hot and they are still guys after all and due to their appearance and reputation not a lot of people try to resist their magic.” Ryann starts. Okay, so I kind of already knew that Harry could influence other emotions, but I didn’t realise it was only ones he was already feeling himself. It’s good information, although mostly it just tells me that since his magic usually makes me hot or relaxed that he tends to feel that way around me. A good start, but hardly new since he’s been pretty honest about that from the start. I latch onto the comment about resisting Incubi magic. Harry accused me of not even feeling it. Could I actually be resistant? I ask for more information about that.

“Oh, well it is possible to learn to resist Incubi magic, but really the best way is just to avoid interacting with them too much if you don’t want to deal with their magic. Building a resistance takes years and years of practice and on being able to focus on the emotions you’re feeling that are definitely your own. I’m pretty good at it since I’ve been doing it since I was at kid. There were a lot of teenage Incubi around where I grew up and their self control is less than amazing.” Ryann shudders. Okay, so it’s super unlikely that I have any kind of resistance to Harry’s magic, I’m just better at hiding my reactions than I thought..

“What do you mean about control? Do Incubi control their magic or not? If it’s linked to their feelings it seems like it would be very hard to control.” I follow up.

“It is pretty difficult for them to control. Their magic is very instinctual. They tend to share a lot of magic when they’re feeling emotional. It’s kind of like a defensive thing? Harry has

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05:11

better control than most and I know he’s been actively working on it for the last few since he realised that he didn’t have a lot of friendships or relationships left.” Ryann Saya proudly. I frown. If Harry is controlled then what are other Incubi like? I feel his magic

CONSTANTLY.

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