“Slow down…” Charlie murmured under his breath, and I winced. Ancestors, Charlie and I hadn’t even talked about kids yet, and we weremarried. Marcus was moving way too fast.
I watched Kallie bristle. “What do you mean by that?”
Marcus definitely realized he made a mistake. “I only— I just think our kids would be cute, is all.”
Fucking hell, Marcus. One good date didnotmean a lifetime of commitment. I braced myself for the worst.
Kallie barely managed to hold her composure as she said, “Cute. I’m sure they would be. All mutts are.”
Marcus’ face darkened. I heard a bit of resentment come into his tone as he said, “Right. Our kids would bemutts.I’m sorry I’m not a snobby fae, hooked on bloodlines and good breeding. But I should know my background isn’t good enough for a princess.”
Something shifted in Kallie. Her voice changed, and her eyes were different. I visibly watched her morph from that refined, tender girl into a blighted and fractured Institute kid as she snapped, “How do you expect us to raise them? We grew up in completely different societies.”
“Neither one of our societies want us anyway,” Marcus shot back.
“You’re right, they don’t. So where are we going to live, huh, Marcus?” Kallie sneered. “Malovia won’t take you, and the Miriamic Coven sure as fuck won’t accept me, so what do you want to tell these kids when they start asking why no one wants to accept them?”
“We’lllove them. That’s all they could ask for!” Marcus said.
“That’s not a good enough life for a child!” she yelled back. “Community is important!”
“What’s important is loving yourself more than depending on other people for your identity!” Marcus cried.
“Guys,” Charlie started, trying to break up the fight. But they were on a roll now, and there was no stopping it. I was certain this was an argument they’d had before, because the responses were just too quick to be anything other.
Kallie huffed as she sat back and rolled her eyes, adding snidely, “Oh yeah, I forgot. You’re awarlock.You put yourselves and whatyouwant over everyone else. It’s not like your kind needs anybody. You can get along just fine all by your lonesome.”
“That’s not how it goes,” Marcus growled.
“It’s selfish!” Kallie shot back.
“No! What’sreallyselfish is continuing to give and give to other people until there’s nothing left of you, because you don’t know who you are unless you’re connected to somebody else,” Marcus screamed.
“I’m sorry that I’m a fae, and my culture and heritage mean something to me!” Kallie shouted. “Marcus, this is who I am! I identify myself on what I mean to others, and it might be the wrong way, but it’s the wayIwas taught and the way my people live. You can’t force that out of me!”
“You can heal yourselftoheal your community!” Marcus snapped. “That’s why you have to put yourself first!”
I really thought they were arguing about the same damn thing, and you couldn’t have one without the other. I opened my mouth to say something, but Kallie shouted over me.
“And how wouldyouknow, Marcus?” Kallie asked. “You haven’t done a damn thing to recover from what you did, because if you had, we’d be together by now, and I wouldn’t be dragged along on your ridiculous redemption parade to nowhere!”
“You can choose to be with me or not! It’s not like you’re forced,” Marcus replied. “The gods give us free will to choose.”
“There’s no such thing as free will. Our lives are predestined. The gods have our lives planned out, and all we have to do is walk the path of destiny,” Kallie insisted. “I’m stuck with you, whether I want to be or not.”
“That sounds really stupid,” Marcus said condescendingly. “Some gods you have, forcing you to take a journey you don’t want.”
Insulting her religion was clearly one of the worst moves he could make, because Kallie erupted. “I don’t know why you even bothered to ask me on this date if you’re so godsdamn independent. Let’s face it, I’m a shifter, which means I need you a hell of a lot more than you need me. It must be nice to only care about yourself.”
“I need you too!” Marcus screamed. I watched as his Seer magic welled out of control, bursting the inferichite that was embedded in the cuffs on both of their wrists.
But the inferichite crystals weren’t the only things that broke. Cracks formed up the sides of the crystal ball that Kallie still held, threatening to erupt.
“Marcus!” I yelped, crying out a warning. He saw the crystal beginning to shatter, and panicked, but it was already too late.
The crystal ball exploded. Kallie’s palm was sliced to pieces as the crystal ball broke. A large piece flung off of it, cutting underneath her eyes and across her nose. I heard Alette give a high-pitched scream of pain, and things started falling out of the air. Charlie kept me, himself and Oberi levitating, but everyone and everything else, including the table and chairs, dropped to the ground.
Marcus and Kallie both fell hard onto the ground, and Rishi landed on a pile of dishes. The reanimated skeleton animals became dead once more, their corpses lying in a degraded heap.
