Page 39

That was actually a fairly decent plan, and I told him that. If that was what he truly wanted, I wasn’t going to stop him.

“I’d better go. I’m only human and I have a feeling your uncle will shoot me if I do what I’m wanting to do.”

I mean, yeah. If Pan didn’t chase someone off, Rainer usually did. I didn’t know what had gotten into Pan, but if Rainer heard sex noises, he would kick the door down with his shot gun.

Ask me how I knew.

Pan could let himself out if he needed to go outside. He’d usually do a quick patrol and come back. I didn’t need Sasha’s tea anymore to stop the nightmares. Pan was enough. Even if he got up at night, I didn’t wake up. Until now. I was anxious and sweating. Pan would come back when he knew it was safe.

I had tins of Sasha’s tea at both houses and traveled with is just in case. It was probably all the mentions of the Yellow King that had me squirrely. I padded to the kitchen to make tea and found Solomon there with his own cup. I remembered them all saying he didn’t sleep well.

“Hey. You know, if you don’t mind the help of a witch, Sasha could help with the insomnia.”

I told Solomon about the nightmares and how much Sasha’s remedies helped. He was sipping warm milk. Ew.

“How does it work?”

“Sasha is a green witch, so it’s just plants and herbs. She puts them together in a tea or she distills them down to essential oils. She can make perfume or bath products with it. I’m pretty sure I’ve got one of her sleep oils here. It’s mostly for nightmares, but she said it gives a restful sleep too. I don’t know what’s in it, but it smells like lavender and chamomile with a little mint. I can find it when I’m done with my tea.”

Solomon chuckled sadly.

“All that fear and death for a little apothecary. We would have killed her just for being a witch, but my cousin got into a few MLMs that sold items promising to do the same thing. It wasn’t witchcraft. It was overpriced lotion with synthetic fragrances. I have a feeling Sasha’s isn’t.”

“No, Sasha has a giant greenhouse in her backyard and some of her bedrooms have grow lights for the delicate stuff.”

“If she grows pot, don’t you dare tell Saul.”

She did, and she refused to sell it to me because of Rainer.

“Saul is adorable when he’s high.”

“No, he’s not. He eats everything in sight, but he has to combine it in ways that are really gross. Then, he wants everyone to talk to him about his insane theories about what would happen if you could time travel and give really sour candy to a Medieval peasant.”

“You know that’s adorable, right?”

“Not when he’s having that conversation while eating a whole rotisserie chicken he’s dipping in Nutella.”

Gross.

“He did not!”

“He did it more than once.”

“Tell me about you. How do you speak so many obscure languages?”

“My parents are doctors. My mother is a cardiologist and my father is a neurologist. My sister is currently a gynecologist. I am their exact opposite. I’m good at math and science, but I don’t enjoy it. I love history, art, and the written word. Languages have always come easy to me.

“I was discouraged from pursuing art because I was told I couldn’t support myself. I knew I really didn’t want to teach. I joined the Church to learn. They saw that and pulled me into this. They paid for me to learn any language I wanted. I would prefer sticking to the research portion of things. I really have no taste for all the violence.”

I knew Caleb enjoyed the danger. I wasn’t going to ask him to join the Flame, but he was the one who brought it up. Solomon would be an amazing edition. We had tons of lore books and I’d bet he would love doing new translations. He had to make that decision on his own.

“Do you still draw?”

“Lately, I’ve been drawing you. I actually thought you were using witchcraft to invade my dreams. It’s always the same dream.”

I was probably going straight to Tartarus for asking, but what the hell.

“What am I doing in this dream?”