When Zain woke up that morning, Nyx wasn’t sleeping next to him on the floor. He did however smell some delicious breakfast. After getting dressed quickly, he left his bedroom in search for the alicorn.

“Nyx, are you cooking?”

“Hmhm,” The dark-haired man hummed while turning around. He was wearing an apron to protect his once again bare chest and was munching on a piece of bacon.

Zain sat down at the kitchen table, patiently waiting until Nyx was done. He thought back to last night, the dream he had shared with the man and how utterly broken he looked after he had woken up. He was glad he looked a lot better now.

“What are your plans for today?” Nyx asked, curious.

“Well, as I took some weeks off of work, probably nothing more than being a couch potato. I tried dating, but that has been a disaster so far.”

Nyx set a plate with toast, eggs and bacon in front of Zain. “Were the girls not to your liking?”

“Guys,” The redhead quickly corrected, “But yeah. I didn’t feel a connection with any of them.”

“Maybe you haven’t found the right one, yet,” The alicorn shrugged before biting off a piece off toast.

“Maybe.”

Truth to be told, Zain didn’t really want to continue looking. Ever since he had laid his eyes on the alluring alicorn, he knew he had already found his ‘prince Charming’. He tried to hide it, hide it for Nyx and even himself, but the more time he was spending with him, the deeper he was falling. That one spontanious ‘I love you’ Nyx had uttered yesterday, it had made Zain’s heart flutter everytime he thought back to it.

After breakfast Zain decided to make up his still messy bed. He disliked messes, and after yesterday there surely were things to clean. Like the now smudged symbols on the floor.

“Oh hey, I know those symbols!” The alicorn commented from the doorway. He was now topless again, having ditched the apron, and before Zain would feel his face get red, he threw the guy’s hoodie from the day before at him.

Now dressed again, he came in and stopped next to Zain. “They represent the seven elements that Silver Garden is made of.”

“Huh, really?”

“Hmhm. They are day, night, fire, water, earth, life and death. Zaphir was one of the seven elemental guardians too, besides being the founder of Silver Garden.”

Zain was amazed. Everytime they talked, he discovered more and more about the mysterious winged unicorn, whether it be about his heritage, his past or his personality. And his love for Nyx had grown several sizes over the past twelve hours.

“But how do you know them?” Nyx said, slightly confused now.

“I found them in the book. Oh shit! The book! We need to find you a cure!”

Zain scrambled up to find the grimoire, and after a short while, found it had slid under the bed.

“There! Let’s see.”

He flipped back to the table of contents, to see what else the book could reveal.

The last chapter, simply reading sex demons, what was caught Zain’s eye. Though he had to blush lightly at reading the chapter’s subject, he made his way to the back of the book anyway.

“Sex demons, also known as a succubus or incubus, are creatures that live off of a human’s sexual energy. While the act itself is in most cases not fatal, a creature that is only partial succubus or incubus may have less control over their urges, and thus more dangerous.”

There was a slight frown on Nyx’s face. “I wonder what Elrick did to get this information. Even I don’t know that much about my incubus heritage, so why does he?”

“Maybe he met someone knowledgable in the subject?”

“Could be. I only know about my mother because I received a letter a few days after my eighteenth birthday. Maybe it’s the same person of the letter.”

It felt entirely suspicious to Zain. Who else knew about the alicorn besides him and Elrick? And what did they want?

Zain flipped through the next few pages to see what else there was. “There really is a potion to help you, Nyx!”

The dark-haired alicorn perked up. “Really?”

They skimmed the page until they reached the ingredients list. Then Nyx’s face turned gloom. “Petals of the Moonlight Rose. You can get those only in Silver Garden.”

“Shit. And there isn’t a way to get them here on Earth?”

The taller man shook his head. “They are too delicate to be transported. Even harvesting them is already a tricky matter, if you’re not careful enough, they crumble and turn to dust in your hands.”

There went their hopes of a cure. They couldn’t make the potion until they could find a way back to Nyx’s home.

“Then what do we do?”

Zain got up, entirely frustrated. He really wanted to help him, no matter what. He was already in this too deep. He couldn’t help but pace through the small room, while Nyx sat down on the bed with the book open on his lap.

“What if we could protect you?”

The redhead turned his head. “What?”

“There is a potion that increases your stamina and health regeneration.”

“Why… would I need that?”