“You don’t smell like my baby anymore.” Mads took a deep breath. “But I know you’re my son.”
Rexford hugged back, years of pain clear on his face. Years of betrayal by the only other parent he’d known. “It’s weird. I was so mad for so long, but it’s gone now. I’m only sad we missed one another.”
“Yeah. But your little boy is adorable. I want to meet your mate, too. What’s he like?” Mads parted from him and stared up.
“Spicy little black cat familiar with a foul mouth and no filter.” Rexford said it as if it were something to be proud of. Black cat familiar? Certainly. Everything else? The little gutter snipe could turn a sailor’s ears blue.
Then again, once upon a time, Mads had been much the same. A mischievous little omega following the Romani around as if he belonged there. A pennywitch.
“I bet it drives Marquis mad.” Mads clapped Rex’s shoulder and finished with a little hug.
“So, what would you have me do, Mads?” Marquis took a seat in the chair Mads had been sitting in. He hefted Caspian onto the arm of the chair to balance him and flinched in surprise when Mads strode over and sat across his lap. As familiar to him then as he once had been. “Should we work on getting your magic back?”
“It should work fine. Baron’s magic was too sticky for me. I could never handle it. Yours should do.” Mads took Caspian back into his lap and laced his fingers with Marquis, and magic flowed between them. It was as perfect as he could have imagined.
Familiar magic…
“Mads… You’re drawing magic. Like a familiar.” Marquis gestured for Rex to take Caspian, and he did with a quick sweep by.
Rexford glanced between them. “I’m going to go out in the hall and find a restroom to change Caspian in. You two talk.” He left in a hurry.
“I am a familiar. Sort of. All omegas are, kinda.” Mads frowned as both their hands laced and he studied their fingers as they bridged. “Every omega is one. There just needs to be the right spark. That’s what Baron was doing.”
Marquis swallowed. “And what is your form?”
“I dunno. I needed magic around me that I could use. We’ll find out. Maybe I’ll have Damien’s fox. Maybe I’ll have something else.” Mads wrapped his arms over Marquis’s head, leaning in close. “You asked me what I want.”
Marquis nodded as Mads leaned to his ear, his breath trembling. “To forget that Baron ever existed.”
“I wish I could make you.” Marquis wrapped his arms around Mads, his body so familiar. He’d been with Doris for so much longer than he ever had Mads, but the omega owned his soul.
“Then please give us a try again. I want you. No other mage knows my soul. I gave myself to you entirely.” Mads hugged tight and sighed, his breath evening out. “I’ll do whatever it takes, my stuffy mage. For our Penumbra.”
“I made the Penumbra. I overshadowed the Eclipse, and I’m the council lead for this part of the new world.” Marquis huffed. It’d been their dream to start a new clan, a subsidiary. He’d made it happen. “And Rexford made his own coven. The Red Sky.”
“As ambitious as his father.”
“Which one?” Marquis half grinned.
“I’ve always been the more ambitious of us.” Mads shook his head, his hair sweeping off his brow. “And what do you want, my mage?”
Marquis thought about it. His chest constricted. He’d come in looking for answers, an apology, pain, anything. He’d believed that Mads had left him. He’d believed all the foulness and walked away. He let Doris lead him around and push him higher. “I wish to step down as council head and take over the Penumbra once more. The Eclipses are all gone, now.”
“We need to keep people away from wish. Those that use it are gone—” Mads silenced when Marquis squeezed.
“Nite came up with the simplest solution to fix it. Those that are tainted can be rehabilitated.” Marquis smiled.
Mads stared at him, eyes wide. “They can reverse it?”
“Yes.” Marquis brushed his fingertips through Mads’s hair.
“How?” Mads straightened up.
“Fairy gold. We cast a spell over it to change it to wish with intent to change it to an antidepressant after. His original ideawas for acetaminophen or aspirin. The antidepressant it turns into aids impulse control, and it curbs the addiction. At the time of administration, we exchange something of value, so by morning, it works.” Marquis smiled as wonder lit Mads’s face.
“That’s amazing. And the humans… Are they being helped?” Guilt flashed over Mads’s face.
“Wish is no longer being sold to mortals. We’re calling this new stufffairy dust. Those that are addicted are weaned onto this; those that aren’t, well, it doesn’t do anything long term, and eventually they get bored with it. Dealers are backing off, only selling to existing clients, supposedly. We’re working hard.” Marquis shrugged and corralled Mads to sit more on the arm of the chair rather than his lap. Old feelings stirred within him, and it was hard to stay proper. But he wasn’t certain what was the morally acceptable thing to do, nor the socially acceptable thing to do when one met their mate again after so long apart.
