Thank you, castie67 for your comments and for getting excited about what's coming next. Here we go...

"So, let me get this straight," Vince said as he speared another artichoke heart with the specially designed artichoke fork he had been provided with.

"You, Howard Moon, went to a school which is not only ridiculously exclusive and old, but also haunted and susceptible to paranormal activity and magic?"

"Um... yes."

"And you learnt magic."

"Yes."

"And you went to this school because your dad was on the school council."

"Yes."

"Your dad, the Viscount."

"Um..."

"Your dad who died five years ago - which you didn't tell me about by the way - and left you as his sole inheritor."

"Um..."

"Which now means that you are Viscount Moon."

"Um..."

"A viscount! Seriously?"

"Well..."

"And you didn't think I needed to know any of this stuff before we came out here? Hmm? My Lord?"

Vince was annoyed. Well, that was an understatement. His nerves were frayed and he was scared and it seemed that Howard had been hiding a lot more about his childhood from him than a few incidents of schoolyard bullying. He was downright angry.

Unfortunately Howard was looking at him with a hang dog expression that had been perfected over thirty-three long years of being dressed down and Vince just couldn't bring himself to yell. He sighed instead and even that was harsh enough to make his other half wince. Howard had issues.

"You've got issues, Howard."

Howard blinked in response.

"And I knew that. I just didn't realise how big and... weird the issues were."

"You still don't," Howard mumbled into his wine.

"Don't I?"

Howard was swallowing nervously so Vince gave up his righteously angry pose and reached his hand across the table to grasp his shaking hand.

"Howard?"

"Does this mean..." Howard took a deep breath. "Does this mean you don't want to be with me any more?"

"What?"

"Because I understand if you do. I mean don't. I mean..."

He didn't have to finish the sentence. Vince had already abandoned his chair and deposited himself in Howard's lap.

"I ain't leaving you, ya muppet!"

"But... but... my issues?"

"Everyone's got issues, Howard! I'm an illiterate orphan who gets mixed up between fantasy and reality. Your issues are just a bit more... Edgar Allen Poe than most. I mean, how can a place like this even exist?"

Howard let his arms creep around Vince's waist. He'd never questioned his upbringing, it was who he was. He came from a family of sorcerers, after all. He'd just done his best to block it from memory. Vince had helped with that, with his many and varied stories of their imagined childhood together and, he realised, Vince was still helping, by not running away in the face of his nightmares.

"It just does, Vince. It always has. And..."

"And?" Vince squirmed. "Howard, is there more?"

"Well. For as long as this school has existed, there's been a Moon in residence. It's our bound duty. I think that's part of why we're here."

"And that's bad, isn't it?"

Vince tried not to sound annoyed but he was starting to suspect that there was a lot more going on here than he'd been led to believe, even an hour ago.

"A bit bad, yeah."

"Christy, Howard. I thought maybe you'd been roughed up by snobby classmates and yelled at by your teachers, now it sounds more like thumb screws and demons from the fifth dimension."

"The thumbscrews were fairly unpleasant, but I was roughed up by my classmates too. They always thought I was too weak to make anything of my life."

Vince kissed the tip of Howard's nose and carefully rearranged his hair.

"Nothing wrong with being weak, small eyes, it makes you kind, and easy to love. You're a poet, remember. And don't stress about those nonces. We've still got our plan, yeah? We'll get through this."

Howard nodded, actually looking a little better before looking seriously into Vince's eyes.

"There is one more thing you should know right now, little man."

"Which is?"

Howard considered telling him the whole truth but, even knowing that Vince wouldn't run screaming, it was too frightening.

"Dinner starts in an hour."

"An hour! My hair!"

And as Vince ran madly for the bathroom Howard looked around their room and tried not to think about what might be coming his way in the next twenty-four hours. It didn't feel good to be back. He could taste the magic in the stones, a bitterness he almost didn't remember. Something wasn't right here. He shouldn't have come.