The ointment felt oily on her fingers as Avalon rubbed it on her temples and between her eyes right at the bridge of her nose, making her wrinkle her nose. Trying not to think about what he'd said about wanting to taste the tincture on her skin, she put the can back on the bench. She turned toward the pentagram, exchanging one last glance with Neymar. Then she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

Undoing spells required the skill set that usually only a master of magic had acquired of years and years of studying and practice. Someone like a clan elder, or a clean leader like a father. Normally. The form a spell and to make it hold, its delicate tendrils were interwoven with reality. That was easy enough, seeing as casting spells was a feat any little witch could do. But undoing a spell was something different. Especially someone else's. She remembered her parents' nagging whenever her childhood-self had screwed up something or another and they'd had to clean up the mess until she'd learned to do it for herself. But that had usually revolved around a cleaning spell gone wrong because she hadn't wanted to tidy up her room by hand and then her mum was stuck with undoing the spell and sorting out the magic that had stuck her jeans and sweatshirts together instead of floating them into her closet.

And now here she was, years later, trying to undo a spell, just like her mum. Only it wasn't clothes. It was a human being she was trying to sort out. Just like that one time...

Ever so slowly, she sent out her magic. Tentatively. To test the waters of the strength of Nina's love spell, of the power of their pentagram. The softest pull in her mid-section. There. That was–

"Hey, I felt that! Was that you?" Neymar asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Avalon frowned, concentrating on the connection that was there now. So weak... "Yeah. Now quiet please."

She sent her inquiring magic further down the connection. It felt... weird. In an oddly familiar sense. Like she'd felt his aura before. But that shouldn't be odd, should it? The connection was his aura and hers, bonded through her magic, after all. Then why did it seem like an old friend?

"Right," she said, once she'd made sure the connection held firm. "I'm going to start probing for Nina's fabrications now. I'm sorry but this is going to be uncomfortable."

"Uncomf– holy shit that hurts!"

Pulling his arms over his abdomen, Neymar leaned forward, grimacing as he felt Avalon's magic tugging at the tendrils the love spell was made out off. The tendrils deeply entwined with his aura, his matter, his reality. 'Uncomfortable', Avalon knew, wasn't cutting it close but it couldn't be helped. What she was about to do was nothing less than pulling each tendril out of him, one after the other. All without ripping his aura into pieces.

Because it was as easy as it sounded. Not. Because she'd done a great job that one time she'd done it back then. Not. Don't think about it, Avalon! She squinted her eyes shut, her concentration faltering for the faintest of moments. It was almost enough to make her lose her focus on the task at hand, to make her lose the mental grip she had on that first tendril of Nina's spell that had wretched itself into Neymar's aura, into Neymar's chest and deeply into Neymar's heart.

Grip it more firmly, she reminded herself. Don't let it slip from you. You can't let it slip from you!

Then she pulled, and Neymar screamed. Her eyes opened wide.

Everything before her was pink, and turquoise and golden. Her power, a colourful whirlwind, engulfing herself and the footballer – powerful, relentless, uncontrollable, destructive. Fighting another force, black and sinister and blood-red. Twirling in between her whirlwind. Slowly overcoming her magic. Overwriting her power.

Realisation hit her like a punch in the stomach. No! No, please no! Not again!

All of a sudden, the present and the past were the same. The events from years before. Right in the same spot where Neymar was the ghostly silhouette of another man stood, also bend over in pain, also holding his hands over his heart as if he wanted to rip it out, the face a mask of hurt and torture. On the other side of the pentagram, shadowed by the whirlwind of mixing powers, a woman's screams echoed from her memories. "You're killing him! Stop it, you're killing him!"

"No!" Avalon yelled, tumbling back. She could feel tears running down her cheeks now, and despair took hold of her heart.

Neymar screamed in pain, but she barely even heard him. The woman's voice rang over everything. "Stop it, you're killing him!"

Avalon shook her head as she watched, in utter disbelief, the black and red become stronger and swallow more and more of her own magic. Her hands started to grow numb, her arms weakened. She could feel the flow of her magic, steady, strong. Treacherously so. "I... can't! I can't stop it! It's too strong! I'm sorry! I can't do it!"

"I'm not asking you to stop, damn it!" Neymar said, his voice sounding forced. "Finish it, I know you can!"

The woman was wailing now. "Please! You're killing him!"

But she couldn't, Avalon realised. Her body wouldn't move. It just stood there, frozen, as it let the energies flow. Flow and flow, growing stronger now. Why were they stronger now? What was happening? Her ring was growing hot now. Something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the ghostly form of the woman – no, the young girl – creep toward her. No, don't come closer! Avalon shook her head in panic, as if that would make her stop. Don't come closer, Lina. Please. I will only kill you again.

And yet her eyes remained transfixed on the apparition inching its way toward her. The blonde hair, set in a ponytail. The tiny frame, clad in jeans and a T-shirt and sneakers. The huge blue eyes that had begged her then and were begging her now to quit her magics because she was hurting the boy she'd been so in love with. The one she'd been desperately trying to make him love her back. The one she, Avalon, had ended up killing instead of freeing from the spell that Lina had tried to bewitch him with. Had ended up killing both the boy and her best friend.

"Avalon! Avalon! Look at me!" Neymar? Avalon blinked. Startled. Where was he? He couldn't be here. They were thousands of kilometres away, way back in Rioja, way back home. Weren't they? She frowned, looked around. The whirlwind was... different. There were her magical colours, hidden in that dark, but not the blue and green hues of Lina's. Her clothes were different. She felt different. There was... a presence with her. Another aura. Strong. Warm. Radiating from her ring. It made her feel like she wasn't alone.

She turned slowly. There. Hidden in that whirlwind. Caught somewhere in the ghostly apparition that was Lina's gangly love-that-never-was. There, his hazel-green eyes! Was that pain in them? It was! "I don't care who that is, okay?" he said. His mouth was force into a smile, strained as it was. "Ignore her. Please! I need you here with me, okay? Focus, Áva! Can you do that? For me? Áva!"

He was clutching his midsection, and it seemed he had a hard time staying on his feet. Avalon frowned. Something inside her was warning her about something. He shouldn't be moving. He needed to remain where he was. What was going on? Why did Lina want her to stop? Why did Neymar tell her not to? And why was her magic growing stronger still?

The metal of her ring was scorching now, burning her skin where it connected with her body. Magic flowed from inside of her, through her arms and out of her fingertips to give more and more juice to the whirlwind that was twirling around and around, with Neymar at its centre, she now noticed, and the pentagram its only leeway.

Hold on.

Juice.

Juice.

How did that word make it into her subconscious all of a sudden?

Juice!

That was it! Her eyes widened. Thank you, Gil. That was the reminder she'd needed to set herself back into the present.

Avalon visibly shook herself out of her reverie and pulled her shoulders back, lifted her chin and force her eyes away from the image of Lina. "You're gone," she said sternly, getting her feet back on the ground. "Go. Away. There's someone I need to save. In the here and now!" She sought out Neymar's gaze, holding it. You, she reminded herself. I need to stay with you!

Now how was she supposed to achieve that? Right. First, reign in that power of yours, Avalon! Slightly irritated with her inner voice sounding oddly like Zelo, she bit her lip as she concentrated on steadying her the power flowing from her. The moment she stabilised the flow, the stakes within the whirlwind turned in favour of her pink and turquoise colours. She'd gained control over her powers again. That was the difference. It wasn't the amount, it wasn't the flow itself. It was her control over her magic.

But what was even more important was the effect that had over everything. Not only did the whirlwind stabilise, where the black and red of Nina's spell slowly succumbed to her own magic – slowly and steadily becoming less and less, until there was no whirlwind anymore – but the ghostly apparitions... they disappeared. Less and less visible they became. Until they were no more. Gone. Just like that. Back in the past and in her memories. Where they belonged.

But – most important of all – when her full focus was back on the one person that mattered to her the most – she breathed a sigh of relief. Because there he stood, without the gangly features of a man long gone distorting his physique. In the middle of the pentagram, panting like he usually did after one of his training sessions, a smile on his face. Neymar was visibly relieved himself.

The ring was back to its warm glow, to that oddly familiar feel of an aura. Neymar's aura. Which was connected to hers again, as it was before that whirlwind started.

Neymar tilted his head, grinning as he stood to his full height again. He didn't seem to be in any pain anymore. Good. "This feels so weird. Feeling you without... touching you, I guess? It kinda tickles a bit. In a good way. Now that this weird, uh, whatever that was is over. So... fucked up past, huh?"

Avalon crinched. "Yeah. But now that's all done and done I think I'm good to go now." And she was, as she found out the moment she turned her attention back to the love spell.

The black heart was still there on Neymar's chest. But there was one tendril less leading into his heart.

1:0 for us! Take that, evil bitch.

Avalon smiled, their first success giving her the energy to continue the undoing right away. Neymar blinked, feeling her work through the bond but he didn't comment. He only raised his hand, holding it above his chest and raised his eyebrow when he didn't feel any pain.

Neither of them said anything as Avalon worked and Neymar did his best to stay in one spot – a feat if you knew him. The temperature gradually rose in the room as the candles lazily burned down. Every once in awhile, Neymar would grimace whenever a tendril would disappear and a candle would hiss and some of the decorative designs of the pentagram would turn from white chalk to black ash – burning Nina's magics the moment Avalon would extract them from Neymar, destroying them immediately so that they could do no more harm.

"Are we done yet?" Neymar asked. It wasn't the first time he'd asked that. Kind of like that kid in the backseat asking that pesky question about that wondrous time of arrival.

Avalon rolled her eyes. "Almost there."

At least now she wasn't lying anymore. They were working on the last tendril, and the black heart on Neymar's chest had taken on the faintest hue by now – not that Neymar could see. It now looked like a Henna tattoo about to disappear with the next shower or something the like. Avalon's clothes underneath the heavy magic robes were soaked through from sweat. Apart from a small patch of white, the pentagram's design had turned to greyish-black ashes.

She licked her lips, focusing the last of her magical resources on that very last effort, that very last piece of Nina's magic still holding onto Neymar, and she saw impatience and expectation in his gaze and tension in his stance as he waited for that to finally be done with it. She could feel it in the way his aura heated up through the connection. Snorting, she shook her head. "What did I tell you about staying calm? Your aura's kinda clogging up the area."

Neymar groaned, holding out his hands. "Come on, we're almost done now, anyway, right?!"

"Neymar, shut up!" she scolded. Avalon bit her lips, scowling. The last tendril suddenly felt slippery. She needed to act quickly now and be done with the undoing. She was running out of her juice now anyway. Throwing him a look – and only feeling a little guilty about what she was about to do – she gathered her magical power and, with one last magical effort, she gave that last tendril a heavy pull.

"Ah!!!" Neymar screamed as the last of Nina's magic ripped right out of him, and promptly fell on his face.

Avalon, exhausted and magically drained from what must have been hours of undoing Nina's love spell, mimicked Neymar's fall. Landing hard on her knees, she stopped her momentum with her hands, panting heavily. The candles had gone out when they burned away the last of Nina's magic. The only sounds were Neymar's groans and her heavy breathing.

"God," he said as awkwardly fell sideways and lay on his back. "That last one hurt like a bitch."

Avalon chuckled. She crawled over to him, sat down by his side. Then, deciding that he had a good idea going on there, she plopped down next to him, lying down on her back. Together, they stared at the ceiling of the VME's backroom as their breaths returned back to normal.

After a while, Avalon felt a hand bump into her side. "Hey," Neymar said. "I'm free now. Right? It worked?"

She nodded, then, realising he couldn't see her, she cleared her throat and replied. "Yeah. You're free. It worked."

"Good." Shuffling from where he was. He sat back up, grabbed her hand. "Come on up," he said, pulling her by the hand. She groaned, staying right where she was. The ground was comfortable. And she was tired. So tired! "Come on up!" he insisted. "You can sleep later! Promise! Come on, there's something I really wanna do, remember?"

Another groan coming from her. It was dark in the room. Not even a bit of light coming from the tiny window. Oh! Nope, she realised, opening her eyes. Huh. When had her eyes closed? Squinting in the dark, she tried her best to make out the silhouette of the Brazilian as he pulled her up, put his arms around her, pulled her close – and suddenly she wasn't all that tired anymore.

There they were. Sitting across from each other in the dark backroom of a magic shop in Barcelona. After she'd depleted her magic powers to free him of a love spell, almost killing him in the process because she'd been haunted by the past and her failures back then. And now he leaned close, and their foreheads connected, and his breath felt hot against her face, and their nose rubbed against each other ever so softly.

"Hi," he whispered, his voice as much a caress as the fingers softly stroking the side of her face now.

"Hey."

"Thank you. For saving me."

She smiled. "You're welcome."

Another rub of his nose against hers. Kind of playful. "You're... pretty messed up. Which I'm fine with, just so you know. I like messed up. Your kind of messed up, that is. I think it's going to fit pretty nice with my kind of messed up."

"You think?"

"Mm... I wasn't going to be overly confident by saying I know, so..."

"Neymar?"

"Hm?"

"I'm about to fall unconscious from exhaustion in about a minute," she said. "If you want to do what you wanted to do you bette–"

She didn't get to finish that sentence. Not that she minded. Because that was the moment he did exactly what he'd said he'd do.

Which was kiss her.

And Goddesses, did he do that fine!

Too bad she passed out from exhaustion a minute later.

- - - 

At laaaaast, my loooove has come alooong... *sing sing* How'd you like it? ;) It's a bit... unconventional, I guess. ^^ But, hey, love spell, magic... Anyway, this was a very tough chapter for me to write, I hope I didn't disappoint... This was a long time coming, after all. But now the love spell is gone, finally!!! :D 

Sooo. I know I'm slow like a snail in these kinds of things. He's national team captain now. Hm. We'll see if his hotheaded days are over. And rumour has it he wants to go back to Barcelona. Yeah, yet another one of those. But I know I wouldn't mind, so I can't help NOT hear those! :D So long as he won't make a move to Madrid. Everywhere but there. Go to England, go to Germany, stay in Paris, heck go to the US and play for Beckham for all I care. But don't go to Real, please. My heart can't take it! :P

All the best.

- - -

Published on: 10 September 2018