Page 43 of Moth to a Flame

“Did you think we would just let you run around unmonitored after everything you’d done?” His smirk was cruel, and I heard a raven caw nearby, causing Mugen to arch his back and hiss from the patio before immediately taking off after it. Deimos ignored him.

“A Moon Queen flower bond—the first successful one recorded this century. One that’s been stable between a witch and a”—his eyes flicked to my antennae—“cryptid. Do you have any idea how valuable that is?”

The cold in Lucia’s chest crystallized.

There it is. That’s what they came for.

“The flower was destroyed,” Lucia said, unable to help herself. “There’s nothing⁠—”

The three “guests” stilled as if she had slapped them. But whereas something like sadness tugged at the corners of her mother’s eyes, Deimos’ were filled with triumph.

“I told you, Mother, nothing has changed. She’s still so combative, even after all this time.”

“I’m not—” Lucia stopped herself. She pressed her lips together, and her light went out.

She was so quiet. And gods, the practice in that silence. The muscle memory of it. She’d learned to go small and dark the way my brothers had. They had learned to fold their wings in crowds, to keep hidden under hoods and glasses—protection from a cruel world that looked, to anyone watching, like shame.

I couldn’t stand it.

“Now, despite your…attitude, Atropa Pharmaceuticals is prepared to be generous,” Deimos continued.

The lawyer stepped closer, handing Lucia the folio, opened to a page marked with gilded letterhead.

“An emotional-transparency bond. Think of it—couples counseling, corporate mediation, feel what your partner feels. We’ve already drafted the trademark. We’d need the specimen⁠—”

“The flower was destroyed,” I said clearly.

Deimos’ eyes snapped back to me, and I watched the gears turning behind them.

“A complication…but not something we can’t overcome.” He snapped his fingers, and the lawyer behind him jolted. The smaller, sweating man whispered an incantation, and the letters on the document lifted into the air, ready to be rearranged.

“Instead, we will need your cultivation notes, any and all spellwork-related research, and, of course, access to the two of you for the case study.” The letters found their new home, the contract changing to reflect the new terms. “Compensation is on page four. It’s more than fair, considering.”

“Considering what?” I asked.

Deimos didn’t even bother to look at me as he answered. “Considering my sister has been giving away proprietary Atropa remedies for years. Recipes she stole from us.”

The late-night runs. She wasn’t just hiding from the townsfolk then, but from the gavel of a corporation which clearly was holding it back because the threat was sometimes worse than the punishment. But it hadn’t stopped her.

“You stole them first! They never belonged to us! They belonged to the people who cultivated those plants for thousands of years. They were never meant to be commoditized⁠—”

Her mother gasped, and she fell silent again.

“Darling, please, it doesn’t have to be like this.” Her mother shook slightly, and guilt threaded through the bond as the lawyer helped support the distressed woman.

“I’m afraid with her, it does, Mother.” Deimos clicked his tongue. “We could pursue those losses, Lucia. You know that. We’ve chosen to be kind.”

I couldn’t help it. My eyes drifted to the number on the paper, and my antennae went flat.

It was more money than I’d ever seen.

Visions of a new house for my family, one with a real foundation and air-conditioning, flashed through my mind. Motthew’s schooling covered, even if he didn’t get a scholarship. Not having to live on my motorcycle just to keep us fed.

Lucia looked up at me, and I knew she knew what I was thinking. A sadness just as dark and cold as any I’d already felt washed through the bond, but she pulled it back just as fast.

“I would understand,” she whispered to me. “It’s a lot of money. I’d go with you if that’s what you wanted.”

Listen, I wasn’t the smartest guy around. I’ll admit that. But even I could put this together.