Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
Delainey glared at the hospitality gifts sitting on the mantle over the fireplace.
There were five of them arranged in a neat row: two braided cord bracelets, a polished river stone etched with runes, and two small glass vials stoppered with wax, each no bigger than her pinky finger.
The Nevins had brought a collection of charms for protection and prosperity, made by the most skilled witches in the Wallace Grove Coven.
They were worth thousands of dollars if they could even be sold, and she wanted to chuck them out the window with the Nevins right behind them.
Elise’s parents had been staying at the coven house for over a week now with no signs of leaving—not without their daughter. Elise was dealing with the situation by making herself scarce, which Delainey understood in the abstract, but it was really freaking annoying for the rest of them.
The coven house was tense as hell.
Everybody was walking on eggshells, and the vibe was completely off.
Their home was usually a chaotic comfort.
Serena would be in the kitchen. Aya would be in the basement playing with her magic dollies.
Elise would be quietly scheming to go against whatever bonds she thought someone was trying to inflict on her.
Delainey would be living her own life, and Briana’s door would just be sitting open, ready for anyone who needed to vent.
Now it felt like the house was under siege.
Open doors were closed. The kitchen was spotless, which was disturbing in its own way.
None of the coven members were stress cleaners, which meant there was always a bit of a mess somewhere, but now they were all on their best behavior for someone else’s parents.
The kitchen looked like no one had ever eaten in it.
Nobody was talking, nobody was turning on the TV, and all the shoes were put away in the back closet. The place just felt wrong.
Tonight, Elise hadn’t managed to escape.
Delainey glanced into her room and then looked away quickly. Elise was stretched so thin she was practically translucent. She was working at the zoo; she was doing her EMT training, and now she was dealing with expectant parents when she couldn’t run away and avoid them.
The dark circles under her eyes were growing by the minute. Her blonde hair was a little greasy, which was not at all like her. She was sitting cross-legged on her unmade bed in an old hoodie that swallowed her frame, her bare feet tucked under a bunched-up quilt.
Every time she heard a noise she didn’t expect, she jerked her head around like an animal about to be caught in a trap. Or maybe she had already been caught in the trap.
Wasn’t that what her parents really were?
Delainey expected Elise to run back to Nico’s cabin as soon as she could figure out an excuse. Not that Delainey blamed her—if she had a place to run to escape the torture of parental expectations, she would be sprinting like an Olympian.
She wanted to go out and get a drink, or well, do anything that wasn’t sitting in the house and pretending to be polite to people who were being freaking assholes. But her responsibilities tugged at her, and she couldn’t let herself leave.
The only saving grace was that the Nevins didn’t spend all day at the coven house.
Once it had become clear that Elise wasn’t going to hang around and wait for them to lecture her every morning, the Nevins had found business in the city. Wallace Grove had its tendrils in many places—Hobson was no different.
Witches affiliated with that coven lived in the city, even though they were far away from home.
There were plenty of allied covens in the city too, not to mention the supplies they could buy that they couldn’t get at home.
Not that there were many of those. Wallace Grove was as close to self-sufficient as it came, but even they needed certain imported goods.
Delainey followed her nose to the kitchen and found three large bags from a local restaurant sitting on the counter. The bags were stiff white paper with the restaurant’s logo embossed in gold. Some local swanky restaurant. Briana was pulling foil-wrapped dishes out of the bags.
“This looks fancy,” Delainey said. She leaned her hip against the doorframe and crossed her arms. There had been more takeout than usual this past week, but that was mostly pizza or sandwiches. Not something from a fine dining establishment.
“The Nevins want ‘family dinner’.” Briana peeled the foil back from a dish of roasted meat without looking up, her strawberry-blonde braid swinging forward over her shoulder. She made air quotes around the words.
“We’re not their family,” Delainey scowled back.
Briana shrugged.
This was all Elise’s fault.
Delainey felt guilty even thinking the words, but it was true. If Elise hadn’t started dating a stupid werewolf—and then, even worse, told her parents about it when she got caught instead of doing the smart thing and just lying—they wouldn’t be in this mess.
She didn’t blame Elise for the controlling parents.
That wasn’t anyone’s fault but Brenda's and Tim’s.
But at this point, Elise could have told them to get out of the house and go back home.
The rules of hospitality meant no one but family could do it, not unless Brenda and Tim broke etiquette first. And frankly, their small little coven was not in any place to piss off healers from Wallace Grove.
If they made an enemy of them… Oof. The coven would need stronger allies first before they even considered what that might mean.
Their dinner table fit five people just fine. Seven was a stretch, but the circular table did its best. It was old oak, scarred from years of use. Delainey had to force herself not to elbow Serena, who was seated to her right.
Elise was stuck between her parents and looked about fourteen years old and miserable.
Brenda sat with her napkin spread precisely across her lap and her back ruler-straight against the chair, while Tim occupied his seat like he was enduring a hospital waiting room, his long fingers laced together on the table’s edge.
Briana was next to Tim with Aya on her other side, and on the other side of Serena was Brenda, which made them one big miserable family.
They ate quietly. The food was about as delicious as takeout could be, especially when it came from a restaurant that didn’t list prices on the menu.
But since it all came with a side of sour disapproval from two parents who could make their faces look impressively pinched, it all tasted a bit salty, metaphorically.
Delainey was half finished with her food when Brenda broke.
She set her fork down parallel to her knife on the edge of her plate with a judgmental little click and addressed Briana directly.
“I just don’t see why you didn’t guide Elise away from this mistake.
You are a coven—when one of your members acts foolishly, you correct them. ”
“We trusted you to look after our daughter,” Tim added.
Assholes.
Delainey didn’t say it out loud, but she had to bite her tongue to keep the word from escaping. Serena knocked her foot against Delainey’s and shot her a warning look.
This wasn’t Delainey’s battle. Elise was the one who had to speak up. So why did she just sink further and further into her seat? She was shrinking down to nothingness, going quiet and pretending to be a good little girl who never fought back.
But that wasn’t Elise.
Delainey had known her for years now and gotten to know her tics and tricks.
Elise wasn’t the type to argue. She would sit there and shrink and agree and look recalcitrant and pathetic, and then the second someone looked away she would slip off to do whatever the hell she wanted.
Delainey appreciated the tactic and understood exactly why Elise had chosen it for her own personal brand of avoidance.
But clearly it wasn’t going to make her parents go away. They needed things spelled out for them, and Elise wasn’t the type to do that.
“Your room is waiting for you back home,” Tim reached for his daughter and placed his hand over hers.
Elise’s mouth fell open and her eyes got wide. Delainey thought maybe this would be the moment Elise finally stood up for herself, but then she just looked down. “This is my home now,” she mumbled as she pulled her hand out from under her father’s and tucked it into her lap.
Okay, that was something. It wasn’t the knockdown drag-out fight Delainey would have preferred, but at least Elise was making her desires known.
“A home keeps you safe,” Brenda said. “It doesn’t let you cavort with the enemy.”
“Nico’s not—” Elise snapped her mouth shut and slouched even further. If she went any lower, she might actually slide off the chair.
“Yes, tell me what Nico is,” Brenda said. She set her water glass down hard enough that liquid sloshed against the sides. “Elise, do you know where he’s from? Who his father is, and that pack of his?”
“You have no place—”
“You have no place,” Delainey snapped. She dropped her fork onto her plate with a clatter that made Aya flinch.
Crap.
She wasn’t supposed to do this. She was just supposed to sit back and take the Elise strategy of taking the beating and letting it pass. But the Nevins didn’t look like they were going to give up anytime soon.
Brenda looked at her, eyes wide and mouth open in an expression that looked strangely the same as Elise’s had a moment ago. Delainey pushed any thoughts of resemblance aside.
“This isn’t your coven,” Delainey planted both hands on the edge of the table and leaned forward, her blue nails bright against the tablecloth.
“You don’t make the rules, and you don’t get to tell us how to live.
Elise is a grown woman, and she can love who she wants.
If you have a problem with that, the door is right there.
” She pointed down the hall toward the front entrance.
The table went silent. Delainey heard the clock on the wall ticking and felt blood rushing in her ears.
Her hands shook a little, and she flexed them before they gave her away.
Elise looked mortified, and Briana’s expression had gone blank.
Serena knocked her knee against Delainey’s, as if to say ‘you got this’.
Aya took a bite of her mashed potatoes like nothing had happened.
“How dare you speak to us this way, you little—”
“Brenda.” Tim held up one hand, palm out, without raising his voice. He looked at his daughter. “You should come home with us now, child.”
Elise hung her head, then forced it up to meet her father’s eyes. “I’m staying here,” she said defiantly. “This is my home now. It’s where I belong. I think it’s time the two of you went back to Wallace Grove.” Her voice was small but strong.
Brenda opened her mouth to say something else, but Tim just shook his head.
“Clearly you do not need our guidance,” Brenda said, pushing her chair back from the table and standing in one sharp motion. “We will remember that in the future.”
She and her husband stalked down the hallway toward the guest room, where Delainey could hear Brenda snap something about packing up their belongings. The guest room door shut with a firm click, and then came the muffled thud of a suitcase being pulled from the closet.
“Hell fucking yeah,” Serena said, reaching across the table to steal a piece of bread from the basket. “Someone needed to say it.”
“That might have consequences.” Briana rubbed her thumb along the handle of her fork without picking it up.
Delainey shrugged. “They were pissing me off.”
By the time they finished eating, the Nevins were gone.
Delainey hoped she never saw them again.