Chaos Magic (The Forbidden Kingdom)

Carmell hadn't slept yet, and the sun was rising and hitting off the TV, obscuring her path through The Forbidden Kingdom and stopping her hyper-focused session as a mutant wolf snapped its enormous jaws over her head to remove it from her body.

"Fuck!" she screamed, stopping midway from launching her controller at the screen, "I- I can't get past the run to the centre of the kingdom," she wined, "Tenet, is it that infested?" she asked with a hint of fear.

"I think it's worse. No one has been in there for decades, and the only ones we kill are those that find the underground system."

"Shit! I need to practice killing these things before I go there," she sighed, stalking into the bathroom to sit on the shower floor and mope for an hour.

The only thing the game never showed her was how the battle classes work, and Tenet was being purposefully vague to not scare the crap out of her. It was unfortunate that the game was more concerned with her falling in love with every male in the game, even the twins, and she shuddered at the thought and didn't go near them unless she had to. Carmell was one hundred per cent convinced that the place she had found herself in was real.

The twins were decent people and represented their kingdom incredibly well. She shook her head in shock and lathered the crap out of her hair; she saw the town in the game, but she had a feeling it won't look the same. Tenet doesn't exist. Well, anything remotely technological and Darrius' stepmom don't exist. She didn't know what that meant, but it was strange because, in that sense, none of Darrius' siblings would have existed either. It was a mess to her and essentially useless.

She closed her eyes and fell asleep under the shower's hot water. Carmell jerked awake on the bathroom floor, her skin feeling too smooth as she shuffled out of the bathroom and got dressed. With a deep breath, she dried her hair and kept Tenet in her arms as she left her room.

Darrius was standing at his door, directly opposite, and her anxiety and stress melted away as she walked into his open arms. He smelled amazing, and she felt safe in his arms. The tingling became a constant, wonderful reminder that what they had was abnormal.

"How are you two so bright? It's eight am," Zyn grumbled from his door.

Cassie's door hissed open next to the sickly cute couple, and she trotted out in her updated uniform, her skirt bouncing and swaying like a Royal Ballerina's tutu. She was delighted with her new best friend and desperately wanted to tell her mother about her big brother's powerful new girlfriend. A thought struck her mind, and her smile widened, her teeth sparking with her eyes.

"If you marry Darrius, you'll not only become Queen Consort, but one day, you'll be my sister-in-law," Cassie gushed.

Everyone looked at her in shock; even Zion was stunned by her words. Carmell and Darrius' eyes widened, and they turned to look at each other. Darrius smiled, his hand awkwardly running through his hair, brightening her vision and sending waves of palpitations to her heart. Her light brown skin burned red on her cheeks and ears, and she turned back to Cassie with a pointed look.

"Cassie, take a step back-" Carmell started.

"At least four steps back-" Zyn interrupted.

"Right, yes. We aren't even officially together, and we haven't had the chance to talk about it yet," Carmell finished with an exasperated sigh.

She loved that idea, but she had a very long relationship with Milo, and he killed her, so she wasn't exactly jumping at the chance to put a label on them. Darrius was very possessive in the game when the heart bar was only a quarter full. He would follow her everywhere and pick fights with his siblings whenever she spoke to or had classes with them.

Trying to pick the right option not to piss him off was exhausting for her gameplay. It was almost like he was two different people, but she knew she couldn't entirely rely on it.

"Yet?" Darrius asked carefully.

"Tonight," she promised, taking his hand and heading towards the lifts.

Carmell skipped out of the lift with Darrius trailing a little behind, his hand still in hers. He thought he would need to turn her in the right direction. Most would assume they would need to go out of the front door and down the stairs, but she carried on down the right side of the hall and into the east wing.

His eyes narrowed, but he dropped the question, knowing she could have studied the slate last night and learned that the academy is hidden, and students need to go through a tunnel into the edge of the village to keep its location secret. The tunnel was simple in the game, with smoothed dirt, grass, and fluorescent flowers, which were impressive in the dark as they lit the way. They had cobbled the path, which should have made it difficult for Cassie, but she clicked over them with no problem.

'Must be the fairy blood,' Carmell mused.

The curved roof had been cemented and smoothed out in bright white, and instead of a meadow, it was painted with a map of the entire kingdom.

"Wow, this is much better than the glowing flowers," Carmell mumbled out loud, catching everyone's eyes as they stared at her suspiciously.

Her eyes darted from side to side, and she started sweating in her palms. Darrius could feel her pulse rising against his hand. Heat began to build in his throat, and he unconsciously licked his lips and stared at the slight pulse in her neck.

The light of the day burst into everyone's eyes, and the vampire blood in the siblings caused them to react badly to the light and forget about their questions about how she knew about something that had changed over ten years ago. They were walking in twos, with Zion in the front by himself.

"I thought it would be a good idea to head to the equipment and ingredients shop," Zion said, walking backwards.

"I don't have any money," Carmell mumbled, scratching her head in embarrassment.

"You can pay through the slate. You have one thousand coins to spend in the villages and recreational areas; it's loaded on every month and can accumulate."

Carmell raised her eyebrows in surprise and wondered if the prices were the same as in the game. Twenty coins for a giant cauldron seemed incredibly cheap. When they left the alley, Carmel turned to see Cassie and Zyn, but the alleyway to the tunnel had disappeared.

"Where does all of this 'free' money come from?" she asked Zion as they started to walk along a path lined with cute cottage-type houses with thatched roofs, similar to those in England.

"Taxes," he replied.

They looked like separate houses with their own little gardens at the front; some were decorated with tables and chairs, while others had children's toys and little swimming pools. When they stepped into the village, Carmell wanted to faint at the sight of the shops with glass windows and signs above with shining lights. It was incredibly modern but kept plenty of its medieval charm, with thatched roofs and black-and-white paint.

Down the left was a market with people selling different things. Vampires and fairies worked together but owned businesses separately, each with strengths and weaknesses, which they sold for profit.

Carmell paused for a moment and wondered whether they suffered from many fires. Knowing magic made that a different issue. Firefighters wouldn't be necessary. She began to question how they dealt with criminals. From the game, she learned that many who committed terrible offences were sent to the forbidden tunnels to kill most of the mutants and monsters before the rest were sent to the academy for the students to battle.

She wasn't looking forward to that and looked at Zion with narrowed eyes. If anyone were going to tell her about the Battle Class, it would be him. She moved to tap his shoulder, but they suddenly veered to the left and entered a shop full of ingredients and equipment for witches.

'For fuck sake!' she hissed in her mind and forced herself to calm down by counting and deep breathing.

Darrius raised an eyebrow at the sudden jump in her pulse, which radically calmed down. He stared at their entwined hands and squeezed, catching her attention and keeping her mood steady.

She lifted their hands and pulled Darrius closer, resting her slate on their hand and forearms. She used her right hand to tap on it and pulled up a list of products she listed from the game and her grimoire.

Darrius smiled so brightly that Zyn wanted to throw up; he hadn't seen this much happiness in his older brother in their entire lives, and it was a little eery. Was it always like this, and they didn't know because their relationship was familial? Either way, they enjoyed seeing their brother so happy. The shop assistant sucked in her breath as he saw Carmell and Darrius holding hands and acting as if they'd been together for years. He opened his slate camera immediately, took a quick three-second recording of the couple surrounded by the siblings, and sent it to the King and Queen.

Tenet snapped his head towards the assistant, his eyes wide with horror. When he realised what she had done, he wasn't fast enough to intercept it. He stomped his little foot in frustration and grumbled that these upgrades were becoming a serious security problem.