The Glass Prince (5 page)

Matthew
didn
't look convinced,
but he left and Daniel wondered if he should at least talk to
Lucian about what had happened.

*~*~*

"
I met
someone."

Daniel,
about to tell Lucian about his encounter with
Luke
, stopped short and
looked at his friend with interest.

"
That's new," he
said. "After all, you live in a dungeon."

"
Please," Lucian
rolled his eyes and his mah-jongg tiles lay forgotten in front of
him. "It's just, this is different. He's different."

Daniel,
despite himself,
also
rolled his eyes and sat down to listen to Lucian talk to him about
some guy named Clint who'd burst into his office. "I thought he was
just a guy Tisuki had hired to play a joke on me. He was perfect,
he was everything I—" Lucian blushed and Daniel got up to pour
himself another drink. It had been a long night and by the time it
was over, he'd never even managed to get a word in about his run-in
with Luke.

As he
watched Lucian walk away that night, Daniel realised
that for a change, his friend
hadn't asked him even once as to how he was.
Funny
, thought Daniel as he looked at the game board
they hadn't used. He usually found Lucian's good-natured attempts
to force him to go out annoying, and his inquiries about Daniel's
wellbeing grating, but the one day Lucian didn't ask, he missed
it.

Annoyed
at himself for being so clingy, Daniel decided to go visit
Luke
's house the next
day. He had people he knew outside of work, just like Lucian.
Luke's house was in one of the rundown streets which he normally
would have never dreamt of visiting. He even had to put a
protective ring of glass around his car after parking
it.

He
wasn
't even sure as to
what he was going to say until he was standing by the front gate.
It was a run-down, single-storied house with a white picket fence
that had seen better days and a wheelchair ramp leading up to the
front door. He was about to walk over, when he heard the front door
open. He hurried back to the car, touching the ring of protective
glass in passing. It merged back into the road. People would wonder
why the surface of the road had more glass, if they even noticed.
He put a hand to his tinted window and concentrated—the car was
custom built for him: all the windows were glass, not the
almost-glass used by most cars, and he was free to manipulate it as
he wished. He thickened its window and watched as the scene before
him became clearer and closer—his own scrying glass. Daniel was not
a born mage, but all of his magic was tied to glass and he had
learned to manipulate it to his wishes.

A
rather pretty girl with long
hair emerged from the house, calling something over her shoulder.
Daniel frowned as he watched her walk out. She was too young to be
Luke's mother—sister perhaps, but why hadn't Matthew mentioned it?
Then he watched as Luke came running out and drag the girl a couple
of steps towards the road. Now they were close enough for him to
watch their lips move.

Frustrated that his talents didn
't include lip reading, Daniel watched as Luke
hugged her and then proceeded to kiss her deeply.

It was
something of a surprise to him
. He had expected Luke to live alone with his mother but
this, this beautiful creature didn't—couldn't belong to Luke. She
looked poised and beautiful, and for the first time, Daniel
wondered what he was doing at Luke's house. He sighed as the girl
broke off the kiss and backed away, shaking her head. She said
something which made Luke look as if someone had run over a puppy,
but then the next second he was smiling and they were
hugging.

Daniel
waited until the girl had walked away before getting out of the car
and walking towards Luke
. He was almost at the gate before Luke noticed him. Daniel
stopped, telling himself he was giving Luke the chance to get used
to the sight of him. But he was taking in the sight of Luke as
well.

Gone was
the lanky,
self-conscious boy who'd stumbled to serve him. Out of the
outrageous uniform, he looked his age. And without the cap or the
messed-up hair to obscure his face, Daniel could clearly see his
dark eyes and rather nice cheekbones. He strode hurriedly up to
Daniel. "Mr. Everwood, what are you doing here?"

Daniel
was struck speechless
for a moment when he realised Luke was a lot more confident
at home than at his place of work. Luke didn't look as if he would
throw Daniel out, but he didn't look as if he was about to melt
into a puddle, either.

"
I want to talk
to you." Daniel was used to dealing with people on a certain level.
He needed information and it kept him centred.

"
What... why..."
Luke looked floored. "If it's your phone, it's still with Marcy and
she's waiting for you to call and tell her it's yours. She knows
it's yours, but she doesn't want to just send it to
you."

"
It's fine,"
Daniel said. He'd forgotten about his phone some time ago. He'd
ordered a backup phone, transferred all the data, and cancelled the
previous one in a matter of hours. It was not the first phone he'd
lost, though he tended to smash them in fits of rage rather than
leave them in public spaces. "You can keep it."

"
Then
what..."

In
response
, Daniel
pointedly took his left glove off and lifted his hand. Luke's eyes
widened in surprise, staring at him as Daniel lifted his hand and
touched his cheek gently. Luke's skin felt soft, a light touch of
stubble around the cheeks. He was warm and pliant and Daniel
couldn't help but run his hand down Luke's neck.

He
traced the pulse with one finger, not daring to
breath
e. Luke's skin
felt so thin. Daniel knew just how fragile human skin was: a slip
of magic and shards of glass could tear it apart like it was
nothing. His eyes widened as he realised he was actually touching
someone without hurting—

Luke
inhaled sharply and stepped back
, breaking the spell. His eyes were wide and his cheeks
were flushed. Daniel could see the rise and fall of Luke's chest,
he was breathing hard and his mouth was half open. Daniel felt
something stir in his chest. He wasn't sure as to what it was, just
that he hadn't felt anything like that in... in his entire
life.

"
What... what
are you doing?" spluttered Luke, sounding outraged, but his voice
broke in the middle.

"
Why aren't you
affected by my magic?" Daniel took a step closer and Luke stepped
back. "I can't touch anyone, my magic is too dangerous."

"
I... I'm born
that way," Luke replied after a heart-stopping moment. "I'm immune
to magic, one of the very few people around."

"
That's nice,"
Daniel said as his mind processed the information.

"
It's not nice,"
Luke spat out. "It means magic doesn't work on me."

"
There has to be
some benefits of it," Daniel said, not understanding the
anger.

"
Do you see any
benefits?" Luke sounded angry. "It's genetic, or at least, it's
something passed down the family line. My grandmother was immune
and so is my mother."

"
Your mother,"
said Daniel looking at the wheelchair ramp. Wasn't Luke's mother in
a wheelchair?

"
She could have
been healed by magic, but since she's like me, it doesn't work on
her." Luke looked as if it physically pained him to speak of it.
"It's a curse. It's our family curse."

Daniel
wanted to tell Luke he was sorry for it
, but it would be a lie. "I'm curious about your
family curse," he said instead and looked at Luke to gauge his
reaction. Luke took another step back and his lips curled in
disgust.

Daniel
stood for a moment, waiting for a
nother, more positive reaction, but even he was
aware he had overstepped his bounds.

"
Eren, are you
coming in?" called a female voice and Luke broke off to look over
his shoulder.

"
I'm coming,
give me a sec."

"
Eren?" Daniel
asked interestedly.

"
My middle
name," Luke said with a roll of his eyes. "My dad and I have the
same name, so he's Luke and I'm Eren. At work, they just looked at
the application and zeroed in on my first name."

"
I like Eren,"
Daniel said thoughtfully. "Suits you."

"
Well, good for
you," said Luke with a scowl. "I have to go in now."

Daniel
nodded to
Luke and turned away from the house. He walked up to his car, got
in and looked out of the one-way tinted glass to see Luke still
standing where he'd been before. He was staring at Daniel, face
full of confusion.

Daniel
made a
note to call Marcy and tell her to give his phone to Luke. He
wouldn't need it again. No, he corrected himself. He was going to
refer to Luke as Eren from then on. After all, he wanted Eren to
feel comfortable.

*~*~*

Daniel
drove back, no intention of ever even looking in
Eren's direction again. He reached his
penthouse rather quickly and dialled before he could think of it.
He wasn't sure what he wanted to say to Lucian when the call was
picked up.

"
Hey," said
Lucian, unusually cheerful for a change. "I was just about to call
you."

Daniel
frowned and sighed
.
"What's—" he then remembered that Lucian had said something about
meeting somebody earlier. Had it been that week or earlier? "That
person you met…" he couldn't remember Lucian's interest's
name.

"
He's called
Clint," Lucian told him. "I was about to ask if you have any advice
on how I should meet him."

"
You just met
him." Daniel couldn't see the logic in that
conversation.

"
But I want to
see him again," Lucian replied evenly. "Even if he doesn't want to
see me."

"
Why doesn't he
want to see you?" Daniel asked wearily.

"
He thinks we
did something to blow up his brothers' houses," Lucian
explained.

"
We, as in you
and Tisuki?" Daniel asked again, trying to understand the
situation.

"
We, as in Wolfe
Tower." Lucian sounded exasperated, as if Daniel's persistent
questioning was getting to him.

"
If you want a
reason to see him again, perhaps you should go see him at his
home," Daniel said. After all, that was what he'd just
done.

"
I don't think
that's going to come across as too welcoming," Lucian said
hesitantly. "What if I invited him back to the Tower…?"

"
So you can show
him your window drapery?" Daniel said dryly. "Won't it be more
logical if you could find out if Wolfe Tower really did destroy his
brothers' houses?"

"
There's no way
that happened." Lucian was as firm a defender of his magical Tower
as Daniel was of his.

"
Then prove it
to him," Daniel pointed out calmly and Lucian, after a moment of
silence, spoke again.

"
I think you're
right, I really should do that. Thank you."

Daniel
nodded and made to hang up
. "Wait," Lucian's voice came clearly through the speaker.
"Was there anything you wanted to talk about?"

"
No," said
Daniel with a shake of his head. "I just called to check up on
you."

Then he
stared at the wall, phone in hand, contemplating his
options
. He wanted to
find out more about magical immunity and what it meant. He also
wanted to find out more about Eren… and the most logical way was by
bringing him to Alaskan Tower.

And
so Daniel
thought up of a plan where he would actually manage to get Eren
into his tower. Only, it didn't go exactly as he'd
planned.

"
A prize draw."
The owner of Royal Mall looked intrigued by the idea.

"
Anyone who
spends over a certain amount—you decide how much—at your food court
will be eligible to this draw. We'll have the draw in one day's
time and select two winners randomly." Daniel thought it was a
brilliant idea, and even Matthew had agreed they could do with a
bit of local publicity among the 'normal people'.

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