Her Quest : Magic in the Blood

"Sonia!" Aunt Carol's voice brought her out of the world she was currently in. Blinking back owlishly, she looked up to see her standing right in front of her, fists on her hips.

"Yes Aunt," she closed her book gently.

"Did you water your plants?"

Sonia's eyebrows knitted in confusion, "Ian watered all plants just a couple of hours ago."

"And he was strictly prohibited from watering your’s. I want a part of my garden to exclusively belong to my girl. So you have to take care of it."

Sonia giggled at that.

"Are you laughing at me?" Caroline asked narrowing her eyes.

Sonia shook her head as she got up and hugged Caroline, "Oh Aunt. Even your scoldings are filled with love," she smiled as Caroline's arms surrounded her.

"How can I scold the one thing I yearned for decades?" She whispered, stroking Sonia's hair.

Sonia moved back, her hands still on Caroline's shoulders, "And what would that be?"

"A daughter just like you, my girl," she pinched Sonia's cheek and they both laughed merrily.

James smiled as he silently retreated his steps back, happy at the love his wife felt for Sonia.

***

The weeks passed by in a blur and before anyone knew, Ian's birthday was almost upon them.

Excited to celebrate the first event of the family, Sonia took it upon herself to see to the preparations for throwing a secret party.

On the eve of his birthday, Sonia rushed about, swearing and sweating on the dozen little things she had forgotten.

Luckily, for her, Gage - unknown to her plans - had whisked Ian away in the morning, claiming something urgent work Uncle Ray had thrust upon him to get done. So Ian and Gage were out of city, visiting an important client on behalf of their fathers.

This had presented a good opportunity to both Sonia and Jake, and thus they both had dragged Dim and Emm into the secret party preparations.

Now, it was nearly eight and Sonia was hovering dangerously on a ladder stool as she arranged the ribbons and balloons.

"Sonia please. I'll see to it. Just come down," Emm pleaded as he stood guard by the stool, clutching it as if that will prevent her from falling.

"Just a bit more, Emm and we would be done here."

Getting the last of the ribbon in place, Sonia huffed out a breath and tucking the scissors in her back pocket, began to climb down.

Before she could place her feet on the rod, a pair of hands wrapped around her waist and plucked her neatly from the stool, placing her safely on the floor.

Sonia giggled as Emm let go of her, "Thanks, Emm."

He grumbled a "Anytime," before folding the ladder and carting it away.

Sonia was smiling after him just as her phone chimed in her pocket, "Hello!" She answered.

Her eyes widened as she listened to the voice, "Yeah. Just hold on a sec."

She ran over, searching for someone and bumped into Dim.

"Whoa. Easy, girl," he steadied her.

"Dim. It's an emergency. You and Emm will have to go and collect the food we ordered. Here," she pushed her phone in his hand, "Just do as she says, please." She pointed at the phone and rushed away to find Jake.

"Jake?" She called out after not finding him in the dining room.

"In here," he hollered from the kitchen.

Sonia peeked her head in, "Will you be able to just add the chocolate carvings to the cake? It's in the freezer and the cake's in the fridge, the second tier in the chiller above it. It have to rush over and get my gift."

Jake mock saluted her, "Alright Captain. I'll get it done till you get back. The design?"

"I trust you," she shrugged, "And thanks a ton." She smiled, "And yes! Call Gage. By what time will they be back? We need to arrange the table too."

"I just called," Jake walked over to her and took her hands in his, "They will be here in a little while. And don't worry. Everything's under control."

Sonia smiled softly, "Then I'll just run over and get his gift."

She dashed up to her room to collect her backpack. Running down, she grabbed her jacket before jogging out of the house.

Sonia hurried her pace, afraid it was already late.

Reaching the library, a little out of breath, she hurried in.

The librarian gave her a smile as she walked to her desk. Sonia winced as she looked at the clock showing 10:30.

"I'm so sorry. I got caught up in something," she gushed.

"Ah. It's alright. There's still a kid here, so you are welcome," she smiled at Sonia.

"Can I get the package?" Sonia asked.

"Aye. Sure. I'll get it in a minute," she got up and walked in the back office.

Sonia sighed as she dragged herself to a chair and slumped in it.

"Hey," a voice jolted her up.

She turned around to see a smiling Eric holding a couple of books, standing right behind her chair.

"I heard your voice so came over to say hi," he spoke softly.

Sonia smiled despite her tired self, "So you are the one keeping the library open?"

He winced, "I guess I lost it there between which one to read first and ended up settling back and starting one," he raised the books and shrugged sheepishly.

Sonia let out a laugh at his goofy look.

"What about you?" He asked.

"Actually it's Ian's birthday. I ordered his gift and forgot to collect it."

Eric nodded his head slowly, his smile dimming a bit, "Oh," was all he said.

The librarian, Mrs. Phelps, returned just then with a bulky package in her hands.

Sonia winced as she placed the brown paper covered package on her desk.

"I forgot to order gift wrapped," she mumbled, face palming herself.

"No worries, dearie. I can help you with that," Mrs. Phelps smiled and crouching down, got out a pink wrapping paper from one of the drawers.

Eric let out a snort, "Perfect."

Sonia looked at him and shrugged, "Beggars can't be choosers."

Eric let out a laugh, "Don't worry, love. I'll wrap it up. Ma'am, can I have some old newspapers please?"

She nodded and got him a few papers.

Sonia took off her bag and pulling out the scissors from her back pocket, bent to the paper, ready to be a helping hand.

Twenty minutes later, Sonia jumped up with joy at Eric's masterpiece.

Instead of the pink paper, he had wrapped newspaper around the package and had made quite an elaborate and huge bow with the pink paper.

The result - bow covered the surface of the package and newspaper wrapping saved it from being girly.

"That looks wonderful," Mrs. Phelps beamed.

"Yeah," Sonia smiled and looked up, her eyes widening as they landed on the huge clock on the wall behind Mrs. Phelps, "Its getting late. We should get going," she added to Eric who was stuffing both his books in his bag while she collected the gift and her bag, "Sorry for the trouble, ma'am. And thank you again."

She waved away her concerns with a flick of her wrist, "Good night, kids," she called out after them.

"Hey, wait," Eric called as Sonia hurried out and over to the sidewalk.

"Thank you so much, Eric,” she said once she was able to stuff the gift, unharmed, into her bag, "You saved the day."

To her surprise, a blush covered his cheeks as he raked his hands through his hair, "Anything for you," he mumbled.

Sonia laughed, "I must go now. Bye." She waved and turned around but was stopped as he grabbed her hand.

Sonia turned to him, confused, "You forgot your jacket," he held it out.

"Oh," Sonia smacked her head and got off her backpack.

She was about to put the jacket on herself when Eric stepped close to help her with it. Once her arms had slipped through and the jacket was in place, he pulled out her hair softly through the collar.

"There," he whispered from behind her.

"Thank you again," Sonia tried to smile, her cheeks reddening slightly at his soft gaze.

Eric placed his palm over her cheek and rubbed his thumb lightly over the pink tint, "You're so beautiful," he whispered, suddenly standing too close to her.

Sonia looked at him, her eyes wide as her heart beat at an unsteady pace, "Eric. I - I,"

Before she could get over her words, Eric pulled his hand back and immediately Sonia took a couple of steps back as did Eric.

"I'm sorry," he rubbed the back of his neck, "It's just that you are …. umm, nice."

Sonia smiled, "It's okay."

"Goodnight, love," Eric said as he took another step back.

"Goo-," a growl made her stop all of a sudden.

She whipped around in the direction of the sound and a gasp left her lips.

Ian and Gage stood by across the street. Gage's hand resting on a seething Ian's shoulder.

Sonia's eyes widened as he shook off the hand and headed towards where she and Eric stood.

She turned to Eric in panic, "Eric, go. Quick. This ain't gonna end well."

Eric's jaw hardened as he stood in place. Sonia huffed in disbelief at his arrogance and turned back to step in the path of a speeding Ian.

She held out her hands and they collided quite painfully with Ian's chest making her take a step back.

Ian let out a growl at the intrusion and took hold of her wrists to move her hands away.

"Don't you dare hurt her," Sonia's eyes widened at the vicious voice from behind her.

She turned her head to look at Eric who had taken a step towards her.

"You do not speak for her," Gage snarled from besides Ian.

Sonia gulped at the increasing tension. Turning back to Eric, she tried her best not to let her voice quiver, "Please go, Eric. This is not the time," she pleaded.

Eric's shoulders visibly slumped at her words before he took a step back.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled softly enough for her to hear.

She closed her eyes for a second and when she opened them back, there was no sign of Eric.

She sighed in relief and turned around but her next breath hitched in her throat.

Ian and Gage both looked at her, their faces an epitome of fury. Sonia tried to gulp down the lump in her throat as her gaze found Ian's dark orbs.