For a moment, there was only silence as the parents stared at me.
“Well, fuck.”
We all looked at Aunt Mallory, who was now frowning as she stared at me.
“You’re right,” she said, but her brow was furrowed in confusion. “But I’m not sure how you’re right.”
“I’m sorry,” Mom said. “I still don’t understand.”
“Back to my eyes,” I whispered, and monster let them shift back to normal. “It’s like a second consciousness—isa second consciousness. It is aware, sentient, emotional. Doesn’t like demons. Likes fighting. And wants to go home.”
“Home?” Dad asked. It was the first thing he’d said.
“Into the sword with its other half. I think it’s lonely.”
“I still don’t understand,” Mom said. “How long has this been going on?”
And when she asked that, I knew she hadn’t meant that she didn’t understand the magical possibility. She lived in Chicago, had been Sentinel of Cadogan House. She had seen some shit.
But she didn’t understand how this could’ve gone on without her knowing. Or without me telling her.
“Since I was a teenager,” I said. “That was the first time I became aware of it. But it’s been there forever.”
“She just told me last night,” Lulu said, trying to ease that particular ache.
“Does it hurt you?” Dad asked, a wrinkle of concern between his eyes.
“Not usually on purpose. It’s been a pretty good companion. But circumstances being what they are, it needs out. I need it to get out.” I looked at Mom. “This was the thing I wasn’t ready to tell you about.”
“That’s why you always wanted to hear the story of the dragon,” Mom said.
I nodded.
Wordlessly, Mom rose and left the room. And my worst fear had come true. I had horrified her. Learning the truth about who I was had horrified her.
“I thought there was something,” Aunt Mallory said. “But only, like, residue from the spell because it was so closely connected to who you are.”
“That’s not wrong,” I said. “It’s just not all of it. It took me a long time to figure it out. I didn’t really get it until Rosantine took Cadogan House. Monster grieved. And when the House came back, it let me understand why.”
I didn’t mention the years in between, during which I’d thoughtit wanted to grab the sword and start killing. That had been my error and not monster’s fault. Also my parents would freak.
“It’s weird,” Aunt Mallory agreed. And looked like something was bothering her.
Not, I thought with much relief, because I was wrong or bad, but because the magic was odd. I didn’t disagree with that either.
Mom came back in, and I steeled myself for anger or disappointment. But she was carrying an old-fashioned bell-shaped glass bowl, its dark brown contents topped with a pleated mound of whipped cream.
“What’s this?” I asked when she handed it to me.
She crouched down, looked up at me. “Chocolate milkshake with a swirl of mocha and whipped cream.”
Memories flooded my eyes with tears. The last time she’d brought me a chocolate milkshake, I’d been sad that I wasn’t going to have a senior prom. I’d been tutored as a kid, so it wasn’t like I expected the full balloons-and-band routine. But I’d also discovered Connor was dating a human and she’d invited him to her prom.
The time before that, I’d broken my arm while trying a complicated spinning kick. My arm had healed quickly, but I’d been so frustrated with my lack of progress that I wanted to quit training to fight altogether.
There was a time before that and a time before that. Chocolate shakes had marked chapters in our lives, and had been my mother’s little trick to heal my heart with chocolate.
“We love you,” she said, still crouching in front of me. “Notregardlessof who you are, butbecauseof who you are. Because you’re you. And you are ours.”
