Chapter 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 mention why she 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.”
She looks fondly at Seren as she speaks despite her slight exasperation, but my mate doesn’t see it. Seren’s got her eyes rolled toward the ceiling, clearly not interested in having what I can only imagine is an often-repeated conversation with her mother.
I, however, am not as ready to let the topic go.
“What’s Seren’s rising sign?”
Celeste’s eyes sparkle. Seren’s narrow into a glare fixed squarely on me.
“Sagittarius. My wanderer.”
“And Soleil?”
“Scorpio. My alchemist. Both of them are so driven to learn, to explore, to press boundaries, even if they go about it in different ways. And don’t even get me started on the rest of their charts. If ever there were two witches destined to do great things in their—”
Seren puts her palms flat on the table and lifts herself out of her chair. “Fascinating, truly, mom. But if we’re all finished up with this little lecture, Callum and I should really be—”
“Leaving already?” John asks, looking genuinely disappointed his daughter is going so soon.
Seren leans in to press a kiss against his temple. “I won’t be away so long this time, dad. There’s just… there’s something Callum and I have to do. It’s pretty urgent, and there are a few things we need to get before we can do what we need to here in this realm.”
“A glamour?” Celeste guesses, eyeing me. “I think I can help with that.”
“You don’t have to—”
Celeste interrupts her daughter with a wave of her hand. “You won’t find someone who does better or faster work than Angelique.”
Seren’s eyes go wide. “Angelique. Really?”
“Really,” Celeste says, reaching into a handbag sitting on the counter and pulling out a small, rectangular device that she taps with her thumbs. “She owes me a favor for the charts I pulled and analyzed for her last month.”
“Must have been some pretty impressive charts, knowing what she charges for her stuff,” Seren mutters, and Celeste just laughs.
“You have no idea.” She finishes tapping and a few seconds later the rectangle lets out a metallic ping. “It’s not every day I have to pull composite relational charts for someone deciding between three different potential paramours.”
Seren’s eyes light up with interest despite her lingering grumpiness. “Who did you recommend she choose?”
“All of them.” Celeste sets the device down with a satisfied smile. “And she’s so happy with her lovely new ploycule that she’ll be here in half an hour with everything we need for a foolproof glamour.”
The glamour is… itchy.
Not in a way that makes it impossible to wear, but in a way that makes me keenly, uncomfortably aware of this temporary form.
Seren was right. It does look like me.
Sort of.
My horns, wings, tail, fangs, and crimson eyes are gone, but the rest of me is still somewhat the same.
Same beard, most of my height and muscle, though both are toned down a little because they don’t grow them like you here in the human realm, as Angelique said when she put the finishing touches on her magick.
The glamour witch is just packing up her things to go when I return from the bathing chamber after inspecting my new appearance.
“Does it meet your approval?” she asks, putting her hands on her slender hips.
“It will serve,” I tell her, and she laughs, giving her long, midnight-blue curls a shake.
“I hope it does.” She gestures to the heavy black onyx ring she gave me. “Remember not to take that off unless you want to remove the glamour. Otherwise, you should be good to go.”
“How long will it stay charged?” Seren asks.
“My glamours? I haven’t had one discharge yet. Longest running is fifteen years, but if you ever find it wears out before that, just call me. I give all my clients a lifetime guarantee.”
With a few more pleasantries and goodbyes, Angelique leaves, and Seren and I prepare to do the same. John and Celeste fuss over their daughter, worry clear in their eyes even when Seren tells them there’s no reason to be concerned.
It would seem they know their daughter too well to believe that.
“Ready?” Seren asks as she meets me by the door in a set of clothing that’s different than what I’ve seen her in before, much more like the other human garb I’ve seen so far.
Dark blue pants, and a short-sleeved black shirt with an olive green jacket pulled on over it.
I miss her tight tan breeches and her blousy white shirts and her cloak. I miss seeing her look like she’s more a part of my realm than this one. It’ll be better for us as we try to blend in, but the change is still jarring.
She gave me some of her father’s old pants and something called a sweatshirt to wear in this new form after she stowed my armor in that bottomless bag of hers, promising we’ll stop somewhere along the way and get me a few more things to wear here in this realm.
Being without my armor makes me even itchier than wearing the glamour, but I suppose I’ll just have to put up with it.
Back at the car, I climb in—fitting much more comfortably this time—but Seren pauses before getting in the driver’s side.
“I’ll… be right back.”
Before I can ask where she’s going, she walks back up the path to the house where her parents are still waiting, watching, making sure their child has a safe departure.
She hugs her mother first, then her father, exchanging a few quiet words I can’t hear from this distance before she turns and comes back to the vehicle.
Inside, she doesn’t look at me as she starts the car and begins to back out, at least until she feels my eyes on her.
Seren looks over with a sigh. “Don’t say it.”
“Say what?”
“My parents. I know they can be… a lot. Especially mom. Was it awful?”
“It wasn’t awful.” I chuckle and reach over to grab her free hand. “Your parents seem like lovely people.”
She snorts as she turns us back down the narrow drive toward the larger road. “Yeah, sure.”
“I mean it.”
Her eyes are inscrutable as she studies my face, as if she’s looking for some lie there.
I’ve got no lies to offer.
Her parents are lovely. Even her sister, in a more abrasive, no-nonsense way. Seren’s entire family very obviously loves and cares about each other, and I hope my mate can sense it.
And maybe she can see the truth of it in my eyes, because she lets her arguments go and focuses on the road ahead.
“So,” I begin, changing the subject. “Where are we going?”
That earns me a smile. “To stay with a friend. You’ll like her. She’s got a demon mate, too, so the two of you can bro out or whatever while we catch up.”
I should be focused on the larger part of what Seren said. A friend and her demon, the place we’ll be staying tonight, but one little word catches in my ear.
Too.
She’s got a demon mate, too.
Whether or not she knows it, my mate’s just claimed me.
And that’s enough to make me feel like I could take on an entire realm for her, face any danger we might endure on our hunt for the fae queen’s prize.