Ink was still in a daze. It had been months now, and he was still completely out of it. Life had lost its color. He flopped down on the couch in his boss, Benton's, house. He didn't want to work. He didn't want to eat. He just wanted to sleep his days away.

Amy had left him.

Those words kept floating through Ink's head. His usual uplifting attitude had disappeared with his wife. “Markus, we need to talk,” Those dreaded words fell from Amy's lips with determination. Ink knew that it was going to be bad, and his stomach sank as they sat in the living room. Especially when Amy sat across from him instead of by his side.

“I can't do this anymore. I want an annulment. I've set the date to go before the judge. It will be in three days,” The love of Ink's life said with a matter of fact tone.

He sat on the old floral couch in shock. Finally, he got his jaw to move, “But, why?” This had hit him out of nowhere. He knew he'd been absent a lot with work and helping clear up some issues his coworkers had been going through but had it really been enough to warrant an annulment?

“Why?” She gave him a look that spoke volumes. She couldn't believe Ink didn't understand why. “You're never here! You're always haring off with that man, Joe. Or you're staying till all hours of the night working at SlideRuleGames. There is always some excuse for why you can't be here with me! I'm tired of it,” Amy was angry, and the words left her mouth with heat making Ink feel two feet tall.

She was right, he was always gone. “I'll fix it! I'll quit helping the guys on the force! I'll tell Benton that I can't work nights anymore! Please, little momma, don't leave me! I'll make it right,” Ink begged. He felt like his heart was being torn out of his tattooed chest.

Amy's ire melted, and pity replaced it, “I'm sorry. I've... met someone else. Someone who I have something in common with. Someone who will always be there for me.”

It felt like she'd stabbed him with every syllable she spoke. “Did you cheat on me?” Ink asked, his gruff voice breaking on the words.

She shook her head, and tears hovered in the corners of her eyes, “No. I'd never do something like that to you. I'd never do that to myself either. I'd wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I had.” She wiped away the edges of her eyeliner as she wicked away the moisture. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before she said, “I just need to feel selfish for once. I need this for me.”

How could he argue with that?

The whole scene was ingrained into the front of Ink's brain and replayed over and over. When the judge asked about assets three days later, Ink had immediately relinquished his claim on the house and her car. She wasn't at fault for wanting to be with someone who would be there for her. Hindsight showed him the cues he'd missed the first time around. She'd been hinting that something was wrong for over a year, and Ink had just steamrolled over it, oblivious.

God, he'd been an idiot. Ink rolled onto his side and closed his eyes with a small groan. Months had passed, and he couldn't get over it. The night she'd told him, he had agreed to leave the house and find somewhere else to stay. Ink packed up an army duffle with all his personal possessions and drove his bike to Benton's place.

Benton and his husband, Tomas, answered the door together. They were all bright smiles and hearts in their eyes for each other, until they'd gotten a look at him. Tears streamed down Ink's face. He wasn't one to cry. Ever. It wasn't his thing. He was ex-police. He was a biker. He was that tall, almost six-foot muscled guy that everyone thought looked like he'd be more than happy to strip your car. When in fact, Ink would be more at home helping stop the guy who was stripping your vehicle. He was a hero in a villain suit. And, he didn't cry. But, he was.

Tomas took one look at Ink and his bag and knew what had happened. Benton was no slouch, either. He grabbed Ink's hand and led him to the couch. The very same couch he was laying on. The guys hadn't asked Ink any questions, they just gave him the space to mourn the destruction of his life. He'd rarely left the couch since, not even to go to work. He knew he should be more grateful to his friends. He knew he should get back into the routine, but he just couldn't raise the energy.

Benton walked into the living room and stood in front of Ink. Ink looked at him listlessly. The honey-haired man had his hands on his hips as he looked down at the lump on the couch that used to be one of his best programmers.

“Ink, it is time,” Benton said, and Ink had a deja vu feeling, “Pack your bag.”

Was Benton going to break his friendship with Ink? He probably deserved it for stealing the privacy of his friends. They'd only been married for a couple of years. There was no way he wasn't messing up their alone time.

“Moose has found you the perfect place to stay,” Ink's boss said with a kind smile.

Moose? Andy, the head of marketing for SRG, had found him a place to stay? He didn't know whether he should feel grateful or alarmed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Issac was famous on the internet. He'd been eighteen and still in high school when he'd started his gaming vlog. That was ten years ago. Within that time, his popularity skyrocketed, making him one of the most favorite internet stars to date.

A couple of years ago, was when he could really start calling himself successful, though. It all started with a video blog he'd done on April fools day...

“Welcome back, everyone! This is Ice, the coolest gay gamer online, and I'm about to log into Fantasy Tavern Online on our favorite gag day, to see what the developers have hidden for us this year,” Issac smiled at the tiny camera that stared at him from the top of his computer screen. He knew how to use his dimples to his advantage.

He'd logged into the game, and it took him thirty minutes of unusable footage to finally stumble across the jokes hidden in the game. Issac had decided to teleport back to his Tavern, called the Ice Cave, and he'd found it! The perfect joke on him.

Gamers called the portal potions, P's. They would transfer the player's character from where ever they were to their in-game Tavern. To use a portal potion was to “take a P.” Usually, when someone used the P, it would merely cause their character or “toon” as most liked to call them, to simply phase out and phase back in within the walls of the Tavern.

When Issac took a P this time, his toon, Ice, jumped up and down a few times, ran in a circle, and waved his hands around like a lunatic. “What the?” Issac's jaw dropped in confusion as he watched. A blue outhouse, with a glowing half-moon revolving in a circle above it, hovered in the air. The outhouse door opened, and Ice was sucked up into the contraption. Then, the outhouse spun in a circle and shrank down before disappearing with a pop!

Issac laughed so hard, he had tears in his eyes, “What the *beep* was that? Oh, my gods, that was so freaking perfect!”

He quickly tried the other versions of the portal, and each one was just different enough that he found himself cracking up again and again.

When he'd finally gotten ahold of himself, he let out a hooo sound and grinned, “Well, I have to give it to the developers at SRG. That was the best April Fools prank they've ever released. Now we know that they're probably playing the game right along with us, if they know of our inside jokes like, “taking a P,” color me impressed.”

Issac grabbed a sign from the corner of his desk. It was in a stack of similar signs, each one color-coded on their sticks. He held the sign up for the camera, “I give SlideRuleGames a One-hundred percent for originality and for a flawless execution! Good job!”

It was five days later when a woman named Andy, rang Issac up and offered to sponsor him. She was an employee of SRG. To put it mildly, he'd lost his shit in his excitement and acted like a fanboy. Thankfully, she'd pretty much done the same to him. Needless to say, he had agreed, and the rest was history.

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Author's note:

Hello! I know I said it will start in March. The actual start date is STILL March, but This month and next month I'll release ONE chapter each to wet your appetites. XD

VERY IMPORTANT!!! IF you want to read Gamers and Magic, the first book in the series, it WILL be taken off of tapas at the very end of February!!!!!!! get those reads going! After that time, Gamers and Magic will be available only on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

ALSO VERY IMPORTANT!!! KNIGHTS AND MAGIC CAN BE READ AS A STAND ALONE! If you've missed the cut off date for Gamers and Magic, it is OKAY! You can read this story as a completely whole stand alone novel without missing anything.

Thank you so much for reading! <3