Seren doesn’t answer right away.
In fact, she doesn’t answer for long enough that sweat beads on the back of my neck. I shift from one foot to the other and then back again, as if that will do anything to dispel the discomfort coursing through me.
I shouldn’t have offered.
It’s not like she’s going to—
“Where would we go, if I came back with you?”
Startled, I clear my throat. “I… have a place. It’s small, but there’s room enough for both of us. We could rest and… maybe plan for what comes next? If you’re still in the hunt, I mean?”
The glint in Seren’s eye sends all that discomfort scattering to the wind.
There she is.
There’s the witch I know.
“I’m absolutely still in the hunt.”
Her words still have that same tired edge, but the glint remains, and the thread of magick between us tugs insistently at my chest.
“I wouldn’t have expected anything different.”
She smiles—a proper smile this time, full of the sharp determination I’m coming to know so well—then glances to the Veil.
“Alright. I’ll come with you.”
17
Seren
I’ve made a lot of rash decisions in my life, but agreeing to travel back to the demon realm and shack up for the night with my supposed demon mate might just take the cake.
Still, as we both step into the Veil’s light and fall through weightless non-space for a few reality-bending moments, I can’t make myself regret it.
I really, really didn’t want to go home.
Mom’s still a member of the coven. Not as connected as Soleil, but a member all the same. And if I know anything about the speed with which gossip travels from the coven hall to the network of Crescent witches all over the world, I’m nearly positive someone will have called her already.
Or sent a raven.
Or an enchanted rabbit, or whatever.
Somehow, some way, she’s heard about it.
My cell is long-dead so I don’t know if she tried to call me, and maybe I should care more about how much she’s probably freaking out, but I can’t make myself regret that, either.
Going home would have meant a warm meal and a comfortable place to sleep, but it also would have meant another gentle lecture from my well-meaning, if misguided, parents.
Neither of them has ever fully understood my reasons for leaving the Crescent Coven. Neither of them knows the full depth of the rift between me and my sister.
It’s all a mess. And not one I feel capable of dealing with right now.
So, to the demon realm I go.
As soon as we’re out on the other side, Callum offers me his hand.
“It will take a couple of jumps,” he says.
