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“Because he’s anticipating things getting bad.”
“I think we all are,” I said as we pulled away from his darkened house.
“What happens to the women?” she asked after a long silence. “Your friends’ wives or mates or whatever it’s called.”
“What do you mean what happens to them?”
“Well, you guys don’t die. What happens with them? Do they just… grow old and die on you? Leaving you to mourn for all eternity?”
Fuck.
Just the idea of her dying had a pit opening up inside and trying to pull anything even remotely joyful into it.
“No. Well, no so far. Each of the women have done the ceremony to take on a little demon themselves. They will live forever as well.”
“And the kids?”
“Yes, seeing as they are more than half demon. Why?” I asked, trying not to let the hope slip into my voice.
That was what I felt right then, though. Hope. Because why would she be asking those kinds of questions if she wasn’t considering her options?
“I don’t know. I’m just curious,” she said, gazing out the window. “I used to think I was so intelligent, so worldly. Now, it turns out, I know very little.”
“The way I see it, intelligence and wordiness isn’t just about how many books you’ve read or shit you’ve seen and know about, but also about how quickly you accept and adjust to new information as it comes in and challenges your preconceived notions. And if that is part of the framework for intelligence, baby, I think you’re doing just fine. Especially since I think we are about to see just how less intelligent people handle learning that everything they thought they knew about the world is a lie.”
“It’s going to get scary.”
“You can stay with m… us,” I corrected myself, not wanting to pressure her, “for as long as you want. You’ll be safe.”
“I… I’m definitely going to stay for the night,” she said. “Maybe a couple of days. But I will have to figure something out when my father comes. If he comes.”
“If Arick says he’s coming, I think we can guarantee he is.”
“Well, he also said that thing about someone visiting you guys within a day. So I guess we can put Arick’s supposed skills to the test pretty quickly.”
Yes, yes we could.
And I don’t think any of us could have ever been prepared for just who showed up at our door.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Charlotte
I guess I expected a wizard to be more, you know, wizard-y.
Cloak, long beard, and a wand at the ready.
Or, at the very least, a wise, old Merlin sort of person.
Not a young, very attractive, guy with magical tattoos that seemed to move with his mood, and an aura of both power and… burden.
Yes, that was what it felt like, like he was weighed down with his knowledge, with his skills.
And, I guess, when you knew more than everyone else, it was hard to ignore all the pleas and demands from people for help. Especially in such uncertain times when people were, understandably, scared and looking for answers. Ones they knew he would have.
As the liquor wore off with each passing moment, I lost all the light, easiness that I’d felt standing in Arick’s kitchen wrapped up in a giant bat wing that was so soft it took everything I had not to rub my cheek against it.
Not that I thought Bael would mind.
