Our parents had us all lined up on the couch. It was a tight fit seeing as Eros and Hades, were giants in disguise, and my brother was no slouch either. I was wedged between Hades and Chill, with Eros on Chill's other side.

“We've decided that Achilles will stay in school here and be tutored by Eros in magic when he isn't at school. And Athena will go with Hades to visit our family Under-hill. We'll just pull you out of school and say you've decided to take the rest of your senior year as home school.” Mom just laid it all out on the table.

Both Chill and I had issues with the whole shebang.

“You're sending me off, by myself, with this guy? Are you insane?! We know the clerk at the grocery store better than we know this guy! Have you seen his muscles?”

“You're letting my sister go off by her self, with this guy? Are you crazy? We don't know him at all, you could be asking for her to get hurt! Have you seen his muscles?”

We both said at the same time, in typical twin fashion. Well it was almost a twin thing. At least most of our words were similar. Shhh, just work with me here.

“We just got off the phone with their parents, they seem like very nice people, and they're also on the MBC. No son of the Magical Beings Collective board would dare do anything to one of the magical community.” Mom was living in another world... come to think about it, I guess in a way she was, but dang mom, throw your daughter at a hot, grouchy, teenage wizard why don't you?

“What the heck is the Magical Beings Collective?” Chill asked, and I thanked him internally. I didn't want to always be the one looking like a clueless idiot... of course, Chill made clueless idiot look cool, because of course he did. Maybe it was his magic showing?

It was Eros who answered this one, “MBC is what happened after the dark elves banded together with a bunch of other ne'er-do-wells and caused the second world war. Once they were defeated, everyone signed a treaty. Mostly, they have to keep their altercations off the human plane and we won't tell the mundanes about them. Humans are scary. More scary than most magical beings, and that's saying something considering there are Others out there that eat humans for fun.” I swear the only reason Eros could get away with saying ne'er-do-wells  was  because he looked like Legolas.

And that was more than I wanted to know about the Others, my dreamscape was now going to be full of cannibalistic things that go bump in the night. Was it cannibalistic if they weren't human? Whatever. “So, the treaty keeps our neighborhood creepies from eating on the humans? Let me guess, that's what the MBC does, it's like our magical police or something?”

“No, we're the magical police. The MBC is more like the federal government, they don't do much other than make rules and expect everyone to obey them. I'd say about half of those rules are ignored on a daily basis.” Hades looked at my parents, “Like the rule that states that all children over the age of eight, who tested with magical abilities, had to be enrolled in mandatory Others classes.”

Chill and I gasped. “Mom! Dad! You rebels!” I said followed by Chill saying, “I am so ashamed.” His acting needed work, I could hear way too much humor in his voice.

Our parents just shrugged and dad said, “Those rules are from years ago. They're outdated and antiquated. The new MBC is working to revamp all the rules and get rid of most of those silly ones.”

“That's one of the rules they're keeping.” Eros and Hades said at the same time, making mine and Chill's twin talk seem rudimentary and lackluster.

Whatever, they weren't as cool as us. Chill looked at me and I could tell that's what he was thinking too.

“We should order pizza for dinner.” Chill said, proving me utterly wrong.