This Why I Don't Talk (Ryker)

It was nice to finally have the answers to the questions I'd been asking myself since I was a kid. Not to mention I also now have sibling which was never something I'd thought I would have.

Once Mayline was down with her talk Jade and Peyton split apart from us, probably to process the large amount of information they just heard.

Jack got up and pulled anther silver bracelet from a drawer, for Hale, one he claimed would be much stronger and be a lot harder to break.

I looked over to Mayline who was gracefully stirring her tea. I got up and took Jacks' seat right next to her. She looked up at me and set her tea down to give me her full attention.

"Yes Ryker?" she started for me.

"So um... So I'm a painter and well I mean I do more than paint, I draw and sometimes I mess around with clay and I really like mess around with watercolors, but that's not what I wanted to talk about. Um, what I mean is, lately I've been having weird dreams and my mom told me to uh, paint them so that I could really look at them and well... one of them is Hale. And I guess what I'm asking is, why." After stuttering around for two minutes I finally made my point across.

"Oh well, that is interesting. I thought we made sure that this wouldn't be a problem. We were very careful." Mayline thought aloud.

"That what would be a problem?" Jack asked intruding our conversation.

"Ryker bonded to Hale," Mayline told him casually.

"Ryker did what to me?" Hale asked in a hard voice that made me very nervous.

"He bonded to you. It's why we separated all of you to begin with, so you wouldn't bond. Yet somehow you two managed too." Mayline explained.

"We made sure that all your schooling, homes, and hobbies were far enough away from each other," Jack added.

"Is there anywhere you two might not go on an everyday base, but frequent enough that you bonded to each other?" Mayline probed.

I shook my head.

"I'm either at home, art school, and occasionally the hospital," I answered.

"Hale?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The academy or the fighting ring. Sometimes I'll go to a small gym that's nearby,"

"What gym?" Mayline asked.

Obviously, this wasn't one of the places they stalked Hale, before last night.

"I'ts just a small gym, it's near a bakery and some prep school." Hale shrugged the whole thing off.

"Wait hold on. I think I know what she's talking about. There's a gym near my art school, that's near a bakery."

"Yeah, and in the alleyway, there's always-"

"That couple making out, like no tomorrow." I finished the sentence for her.

She smiled and nodded.

"Well, I guess we figured out where it was formed," Mayline grumbled not happy with this.

"So the way the bond works is it connects your magic together, so your magic is connected. So you'd know you bounded by the way your magic pulls you. Like the way, Ryker drew you in dark shadows. Hale have you ever experienced anything like that." Jack explained briefly.

"No, not really. I'm not a painter or anything. I'm a photographer, you can't really paint someone into a picture." Hale shrugged.

"Do you have any photos on you?"Jack asked with pinched eyebrows.

Hale nodded and pulled photo paper out of her back pocket.

"These's are my favorite ones."

Jack unfolded three photos. The first one was in black and white expect the grass and flowers the sprouted at the edge of a headstone. The second one was a close up of a headstone with a candle melting, just like the last everything was black and white but the vibrant flame. The last image was a large statue of a withered angel with leaves blowing in the air, swirling around it.

"It's the elements," Mayline stated. I looked at them all over again and agreed. Even Hale seemed surprised.

"I can't believe this whole time, and we never realized it." I wondered aloud.

"We probably passed each other and just never knew."

Hale moved the bracelet over her wrist in circles.

"So what's the deal with the whole, house shaking thing?" I asked.

"Well we were wondering the same thing, but know that we know about the bond its a lot clearer," Mayline answered. "As a dark witch Hale can shift planes, but with the bond and being able to access Ryker's powers, shes shaking the plane that we are on and focusing it on just the house. Like an earthquake, but focused on our plane."

"Woah," I exclaimed.

Hale gave a small smirk.

"Hey, guys look at this! Peyton is in a band!" Jade rushed over, showing us a photo.

"Hey speaking of the kissing couple!" I laughed as I looked over the phone.

"Wait- let me see!" Hale said excitedly. "Oh gods, it is!"

"Who are you talking about?" Peyton asked defensively, taking the phone back.

"The two beside you, they meet up near this alleyway a lot and make out, like, hardcore make out," Hale answered laughing a bit. A smile made it's way onto my face as well thinking about it. It was sloppy and well, I'm surprised that's all they did.

Unlike us, Peyton's face fell sad and still.

"What's wrong?" Jade asked concerned, she put her hand on Peyton's shoulder for support.

"That's Cooper and Lucy. Lucy's my best friend, and Cooper's...he's my boyfriend." Peyton explained in a small choked up voice.

The smile disappeared from my face and sympathy flowed through me. I went to comfort Peyton, but Hale stepped in front of me, she went to the door and pulled it open.

"Where are you going?" I called out to her. My eyebrows pinched together in confusion.

"Out, I'll be back." The door slammed shut with force. We all jumped. We all jumped, exclaiming the same WTF look.

Peyton's face was tense as she tried to hold her tears in.

"Can I go now?" She asked meekly.

"Of course," Jack answered before Mayline could say otherwise.

Peyton left without another word.

I turned to Jade who I could tell was just as nervous as me.

"So uh-" Before I could finish my barely coherent sentence my phone rang in my pocket.

"Uh, one sec."

I awkwardly took my phone out of my sweatpants, I read my mom's caller ID. I took the call and pressed the phone to my ear.

"Hey, Mom what's up?"

"Hi sweetie, I just home. Where are you?"

"Oh uh... Ethan and I went..." Being the worst lair ever, I said the first thing that came to me. " We went bird feeding."

"Bird feeding?" She asked not sure if it was that believable. I mentally slapped myself.

"Yeah, It's boring. We are about to head home."

"Ok, see you soon."

"Yup bye Mom." I hung up and released a pent up sigh.

I didn't even notice that Jade was uncontrollably laughing.

"Oh, Shush," I told her, which only fueled her giggles.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, it's not funny. What you are doing for those starving birds is so amazing. Do you go out and buy them food, or do you just give them stale bread?" Jade mocked in between laughs.

"Haha, I doubt my mom would be happy that I spent my day learning about my magic coven and power-hungry father. Oh not to mention we are the ones have to kill him."

Jade's smile disappeared as she recalled our day.

"We should get going, your moms expecting you. And if I don't get home my dad will drink too much again."

I gave her a concerned look.

" Don't worry, he's not a mean drunk, more of a self-pity, sad drunk," Jade explained trying to be funny.

"You sure?" I asked clarifying.

"Yup. It's been like this since my mom died. I'll be fine."

"Okay, well I guess I'll see you soon."

"Yeah, goodnight Ryker." Jade smiled.

"Night." I returned as I opened the door.

It was almost 8 o'clock when I got home.

Mom was half passed out on the couch, watching old tv re-runs.

"Oh Ryker, your home." Mom greeted as she woke up.

"Yeah, hi. How was work?"

She gave a sad shrug.

" A few births, couple of surgery's, we have a new comatose boy, I got to meet his girlfriend, such a sweet girl."

That perked my interest. I knew that the guy was Jade's friend, I didn't realize they were dating. No wonder she was so mad that Hale sent him to the hospital.

"So how was bird feeding with Ethan?" She asked casually.

"Oh uh boring. Nothing special, we got bored like I said."

"Ok, what else did you do today?"

Damn! She's so nosy.

"Uh played video games."

Finally a normal lie!

"All day?" She asked appalled.

"Yep, all day." I tried to smile but I was nervous and it was just awkward. "You shouldn't do that, you'll rot your brain."

"Ok, Mom we won't do it again. Well, look at the time. I should get to bed. Night!" I said quickly and retreated to my room.

Once I was safe surrounded by the walls of my room, I let out a sigh and flopped onto my bed.