“No, it’s not,” Astrid replied sternly. Tatyana, Astrid, and I had retreated to the comfort of Astrid’s room. There was something about the way she’d decorated it that felt welcoming, with Christmas lights covering one entire wall and crystals clinking soothingly overhead. Harley and Wade were off making moon eyes at each other, Dylan was in his room, cramming for a college exam, GI Joe and Jane had gone for dinner in the banquet hall, and Raffe had gone to speak with Tobe about reinforcing his Hyde box. According to Raffe, he was worried about its integrity. Super comforting, considering I spent a whole night beside it, thinking it was safe.
“It is annoying, though,” Tatyana conceded. “We keep thinking we’re getting somewhere, that we have this upper hand, and then it vanishes again. Having a Clairvoyant should have made this easy, but she lacks the strength to be of considerable use.”
I pulled the pillow away from my face and sat up. “Hey, she’s trying her best.”
“I’m not saying she’s not, but I don’t think I’m wrong in assuming that we all thought this would be the key to solving our problem. If she were stronger, and more in control of her powers, it might have made a difference. As it stands, we just have visions that lead us nowhere,” Tatyana replied bluntly.
I hated to admit that she was right. Tatyana was one of my best friends, and I adored the bones of her, but sometimes she lived up to her reputation as an ice queen. Every time Marjorie strained to use her powers, seeking to delve deeper, it left her weak and worn out. The trouble was, we’d all been given the gift of time with our powers. Marjorie didn’t have that luxury, not if she wanted to please everyone around her. It riled me up to think of the pressure she was under. For heaven’s sake, she’s only been at the coven a day! Give her a friggin’ break. I didn’t say it out loud because it wasn’t Tatyana I was annoyed with. It was Alton. For the director of a coven, he wasn’t being particularly patient with the newbie.
“She must be so confused,” Astrid said. “I bet all she wants to do is go home to the Hamms and forget any of this ever happened.”
“Yeah, which is what the Hamms have done,” I replied wryly. “I’m not looking forward to the day I have to tell her that.”
Tatyana smiled. “You two seem to have a nice connection. It’ll be good for her to have someone like you. She looks up to you already, I can tell. I just hope your foul mouth doesn’t rub off on her.”
“My language is perfectly clean, thank you very damn much,” I shot back, laughing. “Anyway, I can’t help being fiery. It comes with the territory if you’re a Catemaco.”
“Speaking of which, how’re you feeling about the Family Gathering next week?” Astrid asked, looking up from her book. She’d been delving into the realm of rare abilities to see what we might be up against. There were some insane ones that had fallen into extinction, as far as the history books were concerned: Flyers, Amphibians, Regens, Electros, Time Jumpers. A mad bunch of awesome powers that had been cut off somewhere down the bloodlines.
I exhaled and flopped back onto the bed. “I’m looking forward to it about as much as I would look forward to jumping into a baboon cage slathered in peanut butter.”
“That good, eh?” Tatyana chuckled.
I flipped over and crawled to the end of the bed. “You’re looking forward to it?”
“Yes and no. I guess I’m a bit nervous about seeing my parents again. I anticipate the usual barrage of Vasilis charm,” she said sardonically. “However, this time I’ll have something good to tell them. It won’t all be doom and gloom and disappointment.”
“Oh?”
“I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of days, but I’m planning to talk to them about the Merlins and Katherine Shipton.” She set down her phone and looked up at me, her legs dangling off the end of the bed. “It makes sense, right? They know their history, I’m sure they do, and they might have even been around during some of those events.”
I frowned. “Weren’t they in Moscow?”
She shook her head excitedly. “No, not back then. Twenty years ago, they were still in New York, working their way through the ranks of the NY Coven. It was a few years later that they took their positions as directors of the Moscow Coven—because, you know, they don’t do anything without each other. Like they’re joined at the hip or something.” She rolled her eyes, making me laugh.
I grabbed the pillow and chucked it at her head. “Hey, that’s romantic!”
“Not when it’s your parents.”
“If Raffe gets off his ass and tells me he likes me, that might be us one day.” I grinned at the thought. My encounter with the djinn hadn’t done anything to put me off. We all had our flaws. His just happened to be a smoky demon that took over his body every now and again, giving him improved strength and stamina. There might even be a couple of benefits to that…
“Believe me, you don’t want to be anything like my parents,” Tatyana said.
I laughed. “I think it’s a good idea to speak to them about the Merlins and the Shiptons. They might have some useful insider knowledge that we’ve missed, or that certain people don’t want to tell us.”
“Hey, those people might end up your father-in-law one day, from the way you’re going on about Raffe,” Tatyana teased.
“See, that’s the one thing that could put me off Raffe… but if he can cope with my family, I can cope with his.”
“We’ll find out next week, won’t we?”
I grimaced. “Ugh, don’t remind me. I haven’t even thought about how I’m going to navigate that minefield,” I said. “My parents will sweep in with their nosy questions and their high expectations and their constant hassling. ‘When are you getting married? When are you coming home? When will you find a good man and take your place at the head of the Catemaco Coven?’ The usual stuff. It’s always a broken-record kind of thing. It never sinks in that I’m not interested, that I don’t want to bow to that kind of pressure.”
“So, you’re thrilled about it, then?” Tatyana joked, throwing the pillow back up onto the bed.
“I think I’m the same as you,” I admitted. “I’m half dreading it, half looking forward to it. At the end of the day, they’re my family, and I love them right down to their overbearing core. I’m just not too eager to be married off, you know? I like to keep my romantic options semi-open.”
“Raffe will be glad to hear that.”
I glanced at Astrid, who hadn’t said much as Tatyana and I had babbled on. She held Smartie close to her chest as it played a sweet song, her gaze somewhere off in the distance. All she needed was raindrops on the window and she’d have been a still from a romcom. I nudged Tatyana and pointed to our friend.
“Since we’re talking about romantic options… what’s going on with you, Astrid? Any options you want to tell us about, hmm?” I asked.
Tatyana nodded. “A certain Garrett Kyteler, perhaps?”
Her cheeks flushed pink as she turned to look at us, evidently remembering that we were still in the room. She put Smartie back down on her desk and fidgeted uncomfortably. I might as well have shone a flashlight in her face and demanded she tell me everything, she was so on edge. Up until that moment, I hadn’t been positive that there was much going on between her and Garrett, but now I was sure. This looked like the face of an entirely smitten young woman.
She shrugged. “I… I like him.”
I shrieked. “You do?”
“I really do,” she whispered, looking anywhere but at me. “I know he gives off this rude, abrasive vibe, and he’s a major sufferer of foot-in-mouth syndrome, but he’s fun to be around. He’s funny, and he’s intelligent, and he… well, he seems to like me back. I’m not one-hundred-percent sure, but I really do think the feeling might be mutual.”
“How could he possibly resist? You’re a dreamboat!” Tatyana cried excitedly.
“Recently, he’s been giving me all these subtle signals—a joke here, a touch there, a thoughtful moment now and again. Plus, he’s responsive whenever I attempt to flash a little signal in his direction. I’m not the greatest flirter of all time, but I think I do okay. He laughs quite a lot, which I think is a good thing?”
“Of course it is,” I assured her.
Astrid looked up sheepishly. “I know this must be awkward for you, Santana.”
“Pfft, what are you talking about? Garrett and I dated a million years ago. All of that is way in the past now,” I replied, meaning every word. “It was when I first came to the coven, and I think it was more out of loneliness than anything else. Besides, it all went sideways pretty quickly.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever asked you why it went sideways,” Astrid said. She looked worried, visibly bracing for bad news.
I shrugged. “We just weren’t meant to be. We didn’t work out. I think we were too different,” I replied, not wanting to delve too deep into it. I didn’t care about Garrett in that way anymore, but the scar of our bitter breakup still had its place in my heart. He’d hurt me and betrayed me, his eye constantly roving, and it had taken me a long time to forgive him for that.
“Are you sure that’s all there was to it?” Astrid pressed nervously.
“It doesn’t matter how we ended, because everybody changes. What matters is, we didn’t work out. I’m sure he’s a good guy now.”
“Do you think it’s a good idea to pursue this?”
I smiled at her. “I think you should follow your heart, mi querida. I only have one word of advice, and that would be to look after yourself. Keep a guard around your heart, because he might end up breaking it. He might not, but it’s always a good idea to protect yourself.”