If not… we’ll figure out something else. I’m nothing if not resourceful enough to think myself out of a corner.
“Let me just grab a few things and we can go,” I say, dumping some of my pack’s contents on the bed and heading for my dresser.
Callum, unfortunately, puts his shirt back on and settles himself on the lavender armchair in the corner to watch me while I work. I have to bite back a laugh at how absolutely absurd he looks sitting on the dainty, girly piece of furniture.
After I’ve restocked a few spells, personal items, and clothing, I gesture at Callum to follow me. We descend the spiral staircase, the main stair down to the ground floor.
“We’ll grab a quick snack for the road,” I say, heading for the kitchen.
It’s a mistake.
Maybe we could have made a successful exit if I hadn’t let my rumbling stomach do my thinking for me.
But as soon as I’ve grabbed what I needed from the fridge and cupboard, the kitchen lights flick on, illuminating two people who I really, really hoped weren’t going to be here tonight.
Dad looks surprised, but mom just smiles, puts her hands on her hips, and shakes her head with a soft laugh.
“Seren, darling, you really should give us a heads-up before you bring any guests over.”
26
Callum
Seren’s parents aren’t particularly disturbed to find a demon in their home, despite what Seren said earlier about my kind not being familiar to people of this realm.
In fact, her mother only seems slightly frazzled to have a guest she wasn’t planning for as she ushers us into the home’s small dining room and bids us to sit at the table while she puts on a kettle of tea.
Once we’re seated, Seren’s father stares at me long and hard, though something in the sardonic tilt of his lips suggests it may be more performative than serious.
As Celeste bustles around and John asks us a few questions about where we’ve been and what we’re doing in this realm—questions I let Seren answer with hedges and half-truths—it strikes me just how very homey the entire scene is.
Granted, Seren seems more annoyed than anything that the two of us got caught, but her parents obviously care a great deal about her. And despite her grumbles, it’s clear Seren cares a great deal, too.
Their house smells of magick and tea and freshly baked bread.
It smells like a home.
As Celeste joins us at the table with a mug of tea for everyone, she ruffles her daughter’s hair and looks at Seren with all the fondness and love in the world in her eyes.
It makes my chest ache.
But I do my best to ignore it while the conversation veers back to the coven, as it likely often does in this family of powerful witches. Seren makes an off-hand comment about having recently seen Soleil—though she very pointedly does not mentionwhyshe had to see her sister—and her mother turns to me.
“You’ve met my other daughter?”
“I… uh, yes, I have,” I say, searching for something that won’t give away the truth that Seren nearly died yesterday.
Goddess, how was that only yesterday?
“She’s a very gifted healer,” I finally settle on, and Celeste’s eyes shine with motherly pride.
“They have different rising signs, you know,” she says with an affectionate smile cast toward her daughter. “There was just enough time between their births for the horizon line to change. It’s why they might seem so different, but their hearts are the same.”
“Rising signs?”
Beside me, Seren sighs. “It’s an astrology thing.” At my blank look, she elaborates. “The planets and how they move through the sky. Humans have made a whole study of it and think it can tell you things about your personality, or about what’s going to happen based on where all the celestial bodies are now or where they were when you were born.”
“And my daughters, of course, think it’s all nonsense,” Celeste says ruefully. “Because apparently the Goddess has a sense of humor and sent me two skeptical witches to raise.”
