It was funny now. It had sucked then.
"You win," she said, "I only kept my sister's dragon from coming out."
The quiet pain hiding in the words hurt me too.
I jabbed at the dying embers in the pit with my boot. The shadow crawled right up my shin, painted both our faces in flicker-dark. "The point is, ‘control' isn't boring. It's what keeps us from disaster. Sometimes I wish I'd had more of it, younger."
She fiddled with the match. "You learned, though."
"Yeah. I'm still learning. But you?" I didn't sugarcoat it. "What you did, back there with Fifi? Holding her dragon back so she didn't blow the whole house sky-high? That's big magic. Bigger than my ‘yay, I can fly' show."
Her fingers whitened on the match. She mumbled, "I made it worse. Maeve said?—"
I cut in before she could finish the self-hate spiral. "Maeve said you were making it worse at that moment. There's a difference. If you hadn't been there all the other times, Fifi might've gone off with no warning. You bought your family time. That's the kind of power that matters."
Her hand tensed more and I thought she'd snap the match in half. Instead, she let it rest easy, shoulders relaxing just enough to signal she heard me.
A few more stars came out.
I shifted to practical. "Here's what I'm thinking. Next time Maeve is here—" which would be soon, because she was always up in our business—"I wanna see what you can do without holding back. Not chaos. Not dumb stunts. Just...maybe there's tricks we can share. Are you up for that?"
Now, her focus sharpened. That flat,puzzle-solver stare I'd seen on her face once or twice. "So," she said slowly, "you want to run experiments?"
I actually laughed at that. "Yeah. Something like that."
She mulled it over, twisting the match until it left a splinter against her thumb. "Not afraid you'll end up unable to change?"
"Not if you're on my side."
I left it hanging there for a moment. Then added, "You're mine, too, you know. Not just Fifi. If something comes after my witch, I burn it first. So make sure you have your fire extinguisher spells handy if you ever want to date."
The words barely echoed before the night swallowed them. But they were real.
She cracked a wry smile. Barely there, but I saw it. "I'll study hard then."
Tash
Flamesin the backyard always put me on edge, but today, I didn't even have the excuse of a barbecue.
I braced one elbow on the marble kitchen countertop, pretending to focus on my laptop while my eyes kept snagging on the backyard scene. Mere and Maeve. One of my babies and a kitchen witch, heads bent together like they were plotting to overthrow the government. Beyond them, the hills climbed up behind the fence, stark and smoky-blue against the morning sky. I told myself I was calm. Focused. Not spiraling about one daughter, maybe turning herself into a fireball under adult supervision.
Or the other falling out of the sky. With Fifi out for "flight lessons," and even though the whole pointwas to help her settle, I couldn't help picturing every possible disaster. Power lines. Nose-dives. Cell tower electrocution. I'd tried to pack my nerves away with the cinnamon rolls, but it didn't stop my stomach from doing gymnastics every time I heard a bird shriek overhead.
Maeve had said, "While Fifi stretches her wings, Mere's lesson can be low and slow." She even winked at me, like that would keep my anxiety from boiling over.
Through the glass, I watched as Mere tried her best to look unimpressed. She stole glances at Maeve, brow knotted while Maeve demonstrated something with a twig and a weird gesture, then nodded for Mere to try.
The first time, nothing. The second, a flicker of movement, but it could've been wind.
Then, on the third attempt, a spark lit up right in Mere's palm. Actual flame. No lighter fluid, no tricks. Just my daughter, conjuring fire out of nothing with her own two hands.
She gasped, and her whole face lit up with pride. Not the show-off kind, not even the "look, Mom, no hands!" kind. This was something bigger. Surprise laced with relief. She wasn't the oddball for not shifting. There was power for her, too.
My insides went soft.
I watched a little longer. Maeve clapped, delighted,then immediately launched into a rapid-fire pep talk. I couldn't hear all the words, but "more control, less panic" body language is pretty universal. Mere grinned so hard her nose scrunched, and the sun caught the loose strands of her hair and added golden highlights to her brown curls.
Huey flopped in a patch of winter grass nearby, every inch of him oozing guard dog energy. If anyone so much as thought about sneaking into the yard, he'd have announced it loud enough to be heard five blocks away.
