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When she finishes her story, I hardly know what to say.
So I invite her in for tea.
She stays for a long while.
EPILOGUE
THE OLD MAGIC
The Old Magic finds the holidays to be quite the ordeal, especially Winter Solstice when everyone and their cousin’s sister decides whatever climate they live in is not a preferable way to spend the holiday. Asha and Kiran, of course, believe that a Winter Solstice is not a Winter Solstice without snow, despite the Old Magic reminding both of them that they always hate the snow as soon as the first flake melts upon their skin, burning their hands frozen.
Since Kiran’s Flame died with Azrael, the Old Magic supposes the poor male doesn’t have a manner in which to warm himself.
Ellie and Evander are the opposite. They suffer the displeasure of snow multiple months out of the year, and by the time Solstice comes around, they want nothing more than to escape to somewhere with a warmer climate.
This almost always results in at least one person complaining about the weather, no matter where the group decides to meet for the Solstice that particular year.
Of course, on the years they meet in Naenden, everyone complains about the weather.
The children are also an ordeal.
In fact, last year, the interruptions had gotten so bad, so frequent, the Old Magic is considering withholding story hour.
Thankfully, since this would have meant that the Old Magic would have missed story hour as well, he’s come up with a better plan for punishing the insolent children. Blaise and Nox’s children especially. When they’re not getting their sticky hands into the blood sausage, they’re skirting around rules as if they’re suggestions, and always, always interrupting the Old Magic’s stories.
That, and the Old Magic gets the strangest feeling around Aysel, Blaise and Nox’s oldest.
There is something familiar about her, something that reminds him of…but that can’t be.
In fact, the Old Magic can’t help but eavesdrop through Asha’s ears on Nox and Marcus’s nearby conversation.
“So, Sasha’s magic talks to her?” Nox asks Marcus as they sit around the fire.
Marcus leans back in his chair, chewing on the flax Amity brought him a few minutes earlier.
Marcus chuckles. “It’s the strangest thing. We had no idea what was happening at first. Sasha kept getting into trouble, then telling us it was the voice that was telling her to do it.”
Nox stiffens. “What kind of trouble?”
“Oh, nothing too sinister. Mostly getting into the kitchen and trying to make things a three-year-old should not be attempting. I can’t tell you how many fires I had to put out before we finally figured out what was going on.”
Nox sits on the edge of his seat now. “Which was?”
“Apparently, when the fae absorbed magic all those generations ago, it got passed down with each generation, fracturing each time. Except when Piper was born, since she had human blood in her veins, a fraction of her magic sort of woke up. At least, that’s how Sasha explained it to us. When Sasha was born, there was even less fae blood, meaning Sasha’s fragment can actually speak to her.”
Nox chooses his words carefully. “And that doesn’t…disturb you?”
“Oh, it does. Immensely. But it’s not as if I can really do anything about it, can I? Other than lay down ground rules about what is and isn’t allowed in the kitchen.”
Nox glances at Aysel, and his expression softens. “No, I suppose not. But what if…what would you do if the voice Sasha was hearing wasn’t inclined toward good?”
If it were me, I’d drop her off at the vampire clans in the north and be done with her, thinks the Old Magic to himself, though this is one of the less self-aware things he has thought, since he secretly holds a tenderness for Aysel.
Marcus furrows his brow. “What do you mean?”
Nox leans forward, propping his elbows on his legs as his tone goes hushed. “It’s just that Piper’s magic, Asha’s magic—they both have a sense of morality. I just can’t help but worry that passing fragments of the parasite onto our children…”
“Is going to ruin them irreparably?” Marcus asks.
