Chapter 1

𝙼𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚌 𝙵𝚘𝚛 𝙳𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚒𝚎𝚜

Setting down his backpack, Max fell forwards onto his bed. He released a stressful breath as he turned his face to the _side._

"Alright, just give me a second." He said to his white dog as he climbed off his bed slowly.

The dog raised from its seated position next to his bed and walked out.

Max sat on the edge of his bed and pulled out his phone. The time showed two-thirty in the afternoon. He technically wasn't supposed to be out of school for another 30 minutes, but he had 4th period off on B days.

Suddenly, he noticed something strange. On the ground not far away was a book he hadn't remembered purchasing. It was a plain brown book wrapped in leather. On the front were words he couldn't read.

The book titled ᛗᚨᚷᛁᚲ ᚠᛟᚱ ᛞᚢᛗᛗᛁᛖᛋ was soft to the touch, not rough as he was expecting.

He opened the book and cut his right index finger as he turned the page. Sucking in a cold breath, he sucked on his finger to lessen the pain. He closed the book as a bark sounded from downstairs.

He placed the book onto his desk, and left the room. The book words on the book began to glow slightly and morph to form new words. The title now read 𝓜𝓪𝓰𝓲𝓬 𝓕𝓸𝓻 𝓓𝓾𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓮𝓼.

Max walked down the antique bronze colored stairs and made his way to the kitchen. Opening the pantry, he grabbed the dog food and poured some into a bowl.

"Here you go, Duke." He set the bowl on the ground and watched as the white Labrador ate his food.

Max looked at his index finger and sighed, "Damn clumsy."

He reached for a cabinet and grabbed a small bandaid. Once he was done applying the bandaid, he threw away the trash and headed back upstairs to his room.

When he entered, he glanced at the brown book and sat at his desk. He pulled out his laptop and began to type his midterm essay. He had to have an essay finished by Monday, the only problem was that he had no topic, no sources, and hadn't started.

It doesn't help that his partner is nowhere to be found. His partner, Theodosia Neiper, was supposed to come over yesterday after school to work on their project, but she didn't show up.

When he called or texted, she didn't answer. She didn't even show up to school today. His phone started ringing, giving him a good reason to not think about writing or his no-show partner - at least for a bit.

Caller ID was unknown, so he picked up the phone and spoke, "Hello?"

"Did you get my present?" A deep, distorted voice asked from the other end of the line. To Max, it sounded kind of like a demon had a sore throat.

"I'm sorry?" Max questioned as he looked around his room.

"The book. Did you get it?" Max was going to ask which book, but he already knew that answer. His eyes locked onto the brown book, the one he could now read.

"Who is this?" Max stood from his chair and walked to his window, making sure it was locked.

"Did you get the book?" The voice asked once more, its tone not changing in the slightest.

"Tell me who you are before I answer your question." Max bargained, he was met with silence for a short time.

"You can call me Proctor. Open the book. Look at the first page. What does it say?" Max looked at the book, then hung up the phone.

"Damned psychopath." He shook his head and placed the book in an empty slot on his bookshelf.

The shelf was lined with different sized books ranging from history and language books, to geography books.

Max sat back at his desk and leaned backwards, "God, what should I write about?"

"Max, I'm home." His mother, Helen, spoke loudly from downstairs.

"Okay, mom." He shouted back. His phone started ringing again.

He looked at the caller ID before answering, "Hey, Jake. What's up?"

"Have you not heard the news?"

"What news?" Max asked as he grabbed his TV remote and flicked on the television in his room.

"Police are still looking into the death of local student Theodosia Neiper. Theodosia was found about 3 hours ago in West End. Her collar bone was broken, and showed signs of having been chewed." The news woman looked down at the papers in her hand, "All signs point towards an animal attack, but police aren't sure what kind of animal."

"Theo's dead?" Max spoke softly into the phone.

"Yeah. Sorry, bro. I know how you felt about her." Jake comforts from the other side of the phone, doing his best to be supportive of his best friend.

"I've gotta go, J. I'll call you later."

"Don't do anything stupid, dude." Jake warned before ending the call.

Just as Max was putting his phone down, it rang again.

"Hello?"

"Did you read the book?" The distorted voice asks.

"Listen, man, I'm not in the mood for your pranks. I don't know who you are, and frankly I don't care, but you need to stop calling me."

"Read the book." The clicking of the line signaled the end of the call.

Max stood up. He grunted angrily and threw his phone at the wall. A noticeable dent was made, and he shouted, "Mom, I'm gonna need a new phone."

Quick steps were heard and his mother was at his door. Her auburn hair was tied in a ponytail. Her brown eyes looked at Max through her glasses. She looked at the TV that was still on then at the dent in the wall, "Oh, honey. Was she one of your friends?"

"Yeah. Yeah, she was." Max deflated as he fell onto his bed backwards. He sat upright, his mom rubbing his shoulder as he drew in shaky breaths.

"I should've told her how I felt before… before she…" Max couldn't finish his sentence.

"Sweetheart, you couldn't have known this would happen. It's not your fault." Helen comforts.

"But, maybe if I told her, she'd have been here with me. Not in West End."

"She was found in West End?" Helen asks, surprise evident in her tone, "Do you know what she was doing?"

"No. She didn't tell me anything about it." West End wasn't even in the Western part of town. It was the Southernmost part where a cave was located. The cave used to have the bodies of famous Western gunmen. One of which was Doc Holiday. It was quite literally the End of the West.

"Well, listen. I don't want you going to school until you feel better. She was your friend, and…" She left her sentence unfinished, winking at Max.

He smiled dryly, "Thanks, mom."

She stood and walked to the door, "Your father's making brisket for dinner. I'll let you know when it's done."

Max sighed and laid back on his bed. As worried as he was about what happened to Theodosia, he couldn't get the book out of his head. How does a book change languages? He wondered.

He sat back up, looking at the book nestled on the shelf. It stood out, even though it resembled so many others on the shelf. It was like the book was calling out to him, like a quiet hum of music in the morning.

He grabbed the book and sat at the head of his bed, leaning against the headboard.

"Magic for Dummies." He read aloud, flipping to the first page.

"The first page." He rubs his finger across the words, "For the descendants of Magic itself."

The second page was even stranger. He was expecting something like card tricks and disappearing coins. Instead he was met with something similar to a textbook.

"There are 20 types of Elemental Magic, as well as 1 type of Pure Magic. All magic is fueled by magical energies like mana, which is the energy that is used to form magic, without the necessary energy or source to fuel magic into existence it would simply be powerless practices and pure myths." Max chuckled, setting the book on his night stand.

"Magic is bullshit." He walks over to his door and closes it before getting undressed and entering the bathroom attached to his room.

He turned on the water in his shower and waited as the bathroom began to steam. As he was going to get in the shower, the world turned negative. Colors inverted and the sound of the shower stopped.

"You read the first page. And yet, you live." The demonic voice comes from behind Max. He quickly grabs the towel from the wall and covers himself.

"How did you get in here? What happened to the world?" Max questioned as he slowly backed away from the man he found there.

"Pardon my intrusion. My name is Proctor. We spoke on the phone." His voice turned softer as he continued to speak, yet Max still couldn't make out his figure. The man simply looked like a splotch of black in the middle of an empty space, "As for the world, I paused time so we could speak. You are a descendant of Merlin, who is a descendant of the God of Magic, Magnus."

"You're crazy, Man. Get out of my house." Max was tempted to try and hit the man, but he wasn't sure he could even if he tried.

If he really could stop time, Max had no chance to touch the Proctor-Man. He could probably snap his neck without a second thought. That's if all of this was real, and judging by the negative-filtered world around him, it was real.

"You know in your heart I am speaking truth, yet you deny it. Isn't it every mortal's dream to learn magic?"

"Not from demons or shady ass books. Especially not from psychos who break into people's houses."

"Believe me, GodSpawn, if I wanted to hurt you, you'd have been hurt." The man spoke softly, but the word 'GodSpawn' seemed to take root in Max's very soul.

"Fine. Say I trust you, how does any of this benefit me?"

"At some point, you will be faced with a choice. To join the Aether or the Nether. I'm here to help you until you have to make that choice. I will help you learn magic, and keep you safe until your time to choose comes."

"What if I want no part in this war?" Max tightens his towel, he obviously doesn't want the random man to see his manhood.

"War? This isn't a war. This is a wager. They stopped fighting wars long ago. Now they bet on which side certain children will take. You are something of an enigma for them. They can't see your future, so it's more exciting for them."

"If they can see the future," Max questioned, "Why do they wager?"

"They can only see possible outcomes. And their wishes heavily skew which outcome they see."

"Why would I choose at all? You said there's no war, right? So there's no need to choose a side."

"That's also an option. However, you must be ready to face the consequences of not choosing one of the three factions."

"Three? You only said Aether and Nether."

"Oh, yes. I am a Watcher. We are the strongest of the factions, we make sure that the preternatural world is not revealed to the natural one. You could say we are supernatural policemen, of sorts." Max could swear there was a chuckle at the end of Proctor's speech.

"I could teach you to be a Watcher, GodSpawn." Proctor spoke after a short silence.

"Why? What does any of this have to do with me? Why do you keep calling me GodSpawn?" Max was getting closer and closer to just saying 'fuck it' and trying to hit Proctor as hard as he could.

"I want to teach you to be a Watcher in order to protect you. This wager is set on you, each side will do everything in their power to bring you to their side. Finally, I call you GodSpawn as you are a descendant of a god. Though your bloodline is heavily tainted. So much so, in fact, you are just a bit more magical than normal people." Proctor's form began to show color. Blonde hair and shining green eyes became apparent as he formed. He was wearing a black suit, the only thing missing was a suit jacket.

He had a golden chain stretching from one of his vest pockets to the corner of his vest, where it was hooked.

"Ah, it really is difficult to travel to the other side of the world." Proctor had a British accent. He was clearly Europian, yet his perfect teeth broke the stereotype that the British had so painstakingly set.

"Now, then. What is your decision, GodSpawn? You don't have to answer now, I'll be in town for a bit. After all, my official reason for being here is investigating the death of a human girl." Proctor checked his pocket watch, it wasn't moving.

Despite the world around them being negative, neither Proctor nor Max were as they were the focus of the spell and thus were immune to it.

He closed his pocket watch and looked up at Max, "GodSpawn?"

"What the fuck, dude?" Max shouted, "Do you really expect me to just take this in stride? I didn't even know Magic existed an hour ago. Now you're telling me that Magic not only exists, but I have a small talent for it. Not to mention, I'm descended from a god. If I couldn't see it happening right now, and didn't see you appear from nothing, I'd check you into a loony bin."

Proctor gave a small smile, his teeth sparkling in the negative light of the bathroom, "There it is. I almost thought you were broken. My number is saved in your mobile. Call me when you make a decision."

Proctor walked straight through his door, vanishing as color returned to normal. The sudden sound of the shower startled Max.

Max looked at his phone sitting on the counter of his bathroom. He sighed and stepped into the shower, closing the glass door.

"What the fuck is going on in this world?" Then, he had a sudden realization, "Death of a Human Girl? Proctor's here investigating Theo's death? Theo was killed by a preternatural?"

His heart sunk in his chest. His breathing became slow as he leaned against the wall of the shower. The white tile was cold against his skin, but he ignored it.

Foregoing the thought of his shower, he shut the water off and stepped out. Quickly drying off, Max grabbed his phone.