“Knock knock,” Alexei said, standing in the doorway to Kleo’s room. Kleo was sat on his bed beside Nox, grimoire open before him with toy elf at his side and what appeared to be an ornate box in his hands. A smile bloomed on Kleo’s lips as soon as he looked up and placed the box down.

“Hey, how were your parents?” He asked as Alexei joined him on the bed.

“They’re good,” he said, propping his head up on one hand as he picked up the toy elf. Every day seemed to bring something new to be learned about the magical world and he wondered if today’s daily dose of strange magical encounters included this little guy. “Do I wanna know what’s going on here?” He asked, setting the elf down so that it was sitting up on the bed and reached over to pet Nox. The familiar purred, nuzzling his head into Alexei’s hand.

“I’ve had quite the number of realizations today,” Kleo said excitedly and adjusted himself so that he was sitting upon his knees. Box in hand, he pointed towards the elf with an amused look in his eyes. “That little guy is a golem that I somehow accidentally awakened when I patched it up the other day, and this” he showed him the box then faltered before sitting back with his legs crossed. “Well, I’m not entirely sure but I’m pretty sure there’s something in here that can help me control my magic. The elf showed it to me.” He explained and Alexei raised an eyebrow.

“The elf did?” He questioned as he took the box, trying to find a seem or lock or any way to open it. “Is it spelled shut?”

“I think so. I texted Flora to see if she knew of a spell that could help but she hasn’t responded yet. I’ve been trying to see if there’s one in the grimoire while I wait for her to answer.”

“What makes you think it has something that will help you?” He asked, curious as he looked the box over once more before setting it down on the bed.

“I will show you,” he said, quickly flipping the grimoire to a space where a page used to be. He turned it so Alexei could see the piece of scrap that was left behind. “I saw this and showed Nox. While we were talking about the possibilities of what it meant, the elf found it in an armoire.”

“Wow, that’s really impressive,” He looked back at the elf, wondering if it would decide to move again and let him see for himself how alive he was. He was curious, to say the least, and was very much interested in how someone could magic a doll. “How did you accidentally awaken him?” Alexei asked, picking the elf up again as Kleo continued to flip through the grimoire.

“Nox thinks I did it when I patched it up the other day. I must have accidentally diffused magic into it or something when I did that,” he explained. “I thought I got a weird vibe from it but I didn’t realize that that was what it was.” Alexei hummed, setting the elf down gently so that it was sitting up and picked up the box to see if he could find some sort of seam or lock on it.

“All the weird magical stuff seems to happen as soon as I leave the house,” he chuckled. “ Alexei took a moment to look Kleo over from where he laid, resting on the bed. His hair had grown since the start of the semester and you could barely tell that it used to be styled in an undercut. He reached over to move his bangs out of his face and was gifted with Kleo’s grin as he looked up from the grimoire.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” Alexei smiled back before tucking a piece of his bangs behind his hair. “It’s getting a bit shaggy.”

“Yeah? I thought about booking an appointment to get it cut again but then wondered if I should try something different.”

“Oh? Thinking of growing it out?”

“Maybe,” he said, lifting his head so their eyes met again. He seemed to give Alexei a once over of his own before smirking. “But probably won’t let it get as long as yours.”

“Are you trying to say you don’t like my hair?” Alexei scoffed and Kleo chuckled.

“I do, but on you,” he explained and Alexei hummed.

“Smooth,” he said before his eyes fell to Kleo’s neck where the old bruises were finally starting to fade away. He couldn’t help to think back to that night every time he saw them. It hurt to think that he wasn’t there to help him or try to prevent it from happening it some way. “That balm Flora gave must have worked wonders. They’re nearly completely gone.”

Kleo hummed in response and went back to his book only for his phone to start vibrating. “Speaking of Flora,” Kleo said and answered the phone. “Hey, I was just about to call you,” he said as he placed her on speaker. “You’re on speaker by the way. Alexei is here.”

“Hey Flor,” Alexei chimed in, sitting up from where he was laying on the bed.

“Hey! Sorry, I didn’t realize you messaged me. I uh, had some stuff going on here but did that old elf of yours really turn out to be a golem?”

“Oh boy did it,” Kleo said, shooting a glance to where it sat on the bed. “It made quite the mess trying to show me this old wooden box that was in an armoire in the workroom. I can’t seem to unlock it and was hoping you knew of a spell that could help me out?”

“I do, and it’s child’s play so you shouldn’t have any problems with it. I can text it to you later though, I kind of had my own reason for calling you,” She said and Alexei raised an eyebrow and looked to Kleo to see if he had any clue as to what she was referring to.

“What’s up? Is everything okay?” Kleo asked, looking just as curious and maybe even a little confused.

“My cousin and I were hanging around and we ran into those guys from before,” she said, voice dimming to almost a whisper as she explained further. “The ones who took Effie.”

“What do you mean?” Alexei asked just as Kleo started to spout off his own questions in concern.

“Are you okay? Did they do something to you?”

“I’m fine,” Flora quickly assured them before continuing. “They didn’t recognize me or anything but we were able to listen on some conversation they were having. It turns out that they’re working for this witch in town named Basil. They mentioned something about him putting a hold on whatever plan he currently had.”

“Do we know anything about this Basil guy?” Alexei asked and Flora took a bit of time to answer.

“Well, uh,” she faltered and it became obvious to Alexei that there was something she didn’t want to say. “I don’t know too much, honestly. He’s someone with a high standing within the coven but I’ve never personally interacted with him. I mean, I’ve seen him here and there and there are things that are common knowledge about his family and all that but, nothing that would really pertain to this I guess?”

“Flora, what are you hiding?” Alexei immediately asked and Kleo immediately nudged his arm.

“Dude,” Kleo gave him an incredulous look.

“What? It’s obvious that she is,” Alexei defended himself. “I’m just saying, if it’s important then we need to know.”

“I understand that but we can’t just assume these things. Flora would tell us if she found out anything she felt was important to all that.”

“One of those guys attacked you Kleo!” Alexei looked him in the eyes and he went silent. He didn’t mean to or necessarily want to be like this with Flora but she wasn’t the one who walked in on Kleo that night to see what had happened. Alexei may not have magic powers to try and help or protect Kleo, but that wouldn’t stop him from figuring out a way that he could. Right now, the best way to help seemed to be getting whatever information all these guys that they could. Kleo was soft. He was nice and trusting and those are truly some of his greater qualities, but not when it came to speaking up for himself. “I’m sorry, but I would think that anything about them or whomever it is they work for would be important for us to know in case they show up and something like that happens again.”

“Whoa whoa, it’s okay,” Flora’s voice cut through the phone as she tried to get their attention. “It’s okay, Alexei’s right. I,” she paused, presumably to try and figure out how to word whatever it is she wanted to say. “There is more, but I just didn’t know how to tell you I guess? I didn’t want to bring up something that might be a downer for you. Besides, I don’t have all the information. I just don’t like saying things when I don’t know all the facts, you know?”

“Alright, that’s fair,” Kleo said with a sigh. He ran a hand through his hair and picked up the phone to hold as he talked. “Alexei does have a point though, so if there’s anything else you know about this guy, can you tell us? Just so we have a better idea about who he is and stuff at least.”

“It’s just,” Flora paused before letting out a sigh of her own. “Families in the coven can get close, obviously. Basil’s always been known to be close with your's Kleo.”

“So he’s like a family friend?” Kleo questioned. Alexei listened, wondering why someone whose supposedly a family friend would send someone out here like that. It almost didn’t occur to him that the guy probably didn’t know Kleo existed.

“I guess you could say that. He’s close enough that apparently he regularly checks on your grandmother and spends time with her. Lady Amastacia, well, she hasn’t been the same for a while now. I mean, I’ve only met her personally on one occasion when I was younger. She used to be really sociable and involved within the community as our High Priestess. But some years back, she just sort of isolated herself and pulled away from everyone. Everyone pretty assumed it had something to do with your mother passing away,” her voice was somber as she explained.

Alexei looked to Kleo as soon as Flora mentioned his grandmother, curious and worried for what his reaction would be. Kleo never spoke of grandparents, even when they were younger, and Alexei just assumed that they had passed away. He wondered if Kleo assumed the same. Alexei reached over and gently took Kleo’s hand in his own. He felt Kleo give his hand a squeeze and squeezed back.

“I should have told you about your grandmother sooner, I’m sorry,” Flora said, filling a silence that Alexei hadn’t even realized was there.

“Does she know?” Kleo started to ask and Alexei could see the conflicting emotion in his eyes. “About me, I mean. Do you think she knows?”

“I,” There was another pause on Flora’s end and Alexei knew her answer before she had to say it. He knew Kleo knew it too. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “I don’t think she does.”

Kleo sighed, closing his eyes as he tried to process all of this new information. He thought back to when he was younger and would ask his mother about his grandparents and why it seemed like when so many people had these large and full families, it was just the two fo them. He realized that she never really answered him. She would beat around the question and curious as he was back then, he would bring it up quite often. He only stopped when he was old enough to recognize the hurt within her eyes whenever he questioned it. He may have been curious, but he didn’t want to hurt his mom with his questions. Part of him wished he continued to ask so that at least now he would feel so disconnected from people he should be close to.

He opened his eyes and looked up at Alexei. He laid with his head in his lap as his fingers combed through his hair. Anytime his feelings were tangled up as they were now, it seemed like Alexei was always there trying to show him comfort through touch. A hand on his waist, his shoulder, anywhere really just to show that he was there. Nox was similar in his approach and laid pressed against his side with his head in Kleo’s arm. He felt like he was in a bubble of solace and that he could breathe with ease.

“I feel spoiled by the two of you sometimes,” he spoke up, a smile on his lips, and Alexei chuckled.

“I don’t know if I’d say this was being spoiled.” He held Kleo’s bangs back and looked him in the eyes. Kleo’s smile grew and he reached back to take his hand. Alexei just continued to watch him and Kleo could feel the warmth start to gather in his face.

“Why are you staring?” He questioned and Alexei just smirked back.

“Cause I can.”

“Gosh, you’re so cheesy,” Kleo groaned, covering his face. Alexei just laughed at him as he laid there, embarrassed. Kleo groaned again before checking his phone to see if Flora had texted him the spell he needed to unlock the box. “She sent the spell,” he said, quickly sitting up and causing Nox to jump out of the way. He quickly apologized and grabbed the locked box. Alexei sat up and closer to watch him work his magic.

“What did she say to do? How does this work?” Alexei asked as Kleo positioned the box so it’s front faced him and took a breath, focusing on his intent.

“So, the intent is what drives a spell and all but sometimes there’s a motion or action you have to do with it,” Kleo explained and formed a small orb of light in his hand. “For this, she said I basically needed to envision a locking mechanism there and just use my magic as if it were the key.” He placed the orb to the front of the box and checked her text again to make sure he was doing it right. He looked back to the orb, praying that it will work. A grin formed on his lips as it started to seep into the wood of the box, and once it was fully inside, a click was heard and the lid popped open.

“Whoa,” Alexei leaning over to get a look inside the box as Kleo opened it more. An antique gold ring with a red oval jewel rested at its center. “The elf was right.” Kleo smiled, taking the ring out of the box and slipping it on his finger. Immediately, he feels a spark ignite inside him as some of his power flows into the ring, and the engravings on its side glowing brightly for a moment before dimming.

“That he was.”