Page 33 of Spell Ya Later

He might not be whatever killed my father, but he’s a daemon who hurts people. Breaks apart families. Causes damage that lasts for generations. And I have no problem training up for the specific purpose of getting rid of creatures like him.

And if one day I meet the thing that killed my dad...Well, then I’ll be ready.

I stand and brush the grass and dirt off my jeans.

Laura and Ash are still...I don’t even know how to classify what they’re doing. Staring at each other. Dick measuring. Eye fucking. Whatever. But our three hours are almost up and I don’t need to stare down the wrath of Grandma.

“Laura! We’re leaving!” I call to her.

Her head whips to me, blonde hair cascading around her face and shoulders. The surprise on her face is evidence enough that she’s lost herself in conversation with Ash. With a pointed glare in Ash’s direction, she huffs and joins me.

“Not a word,” she grumbles, crossing her arms.

“Yeah, yeah. I won’t mention whatever that was.” I chuckle at her pouting. “Let’s go back to the entrance. Grandma should be there soon.”

“Don’t tell Grandma about Ash! The last thing I need is for her to make assumptions and ask a bunch of questions. He’s obnoxious and I have no intention of ever seeing him again.”

“My lips are sealed.”

We walk in silence through the rest of the stalls. Thoughts of Botis overwhelm me. Any other day I’d be poking and prodding Laura about Ash, but I can’t clear my head. It’s like a puzzle piece that I’ve been missing.

I canhelppeople. I can have a purpose. I can use that knowledge to find whatever it is that killed dad.

Maybe someday I can even bring closure to my mother. To myself. To Laura. Is this closure what’s been preventing us from connecting as a family all these years?

If I avenged my father, would Mom embrace magic again? Could she heal in a way that could open a real door to us for a relationship?

That’s the question. Do I have the opportunity to fix my family?

Even if I’m not sure of the answer, the possibility is enough of a reason to try. I may get hurt in the process, but as Grandma says: I’d do anything for my family.

Chapter 12

Cottagecore

Grandma invites Laura and I for dinner with her friends at her home before my first magic lesson. Which gives me time to decide if I want to ask her about daemons or keep that to myself.

Would she support my desire to hunt them? I honestly have no clue at this point.

Those thoughts are overtaken by curiosity as we turn onto a dirt path in the forest. I’ve never been to Grandma’s cottage.

When Grandpa left, Grandma bought the house I grew up in for her and Mom. She stayed there when Dad moved in, and when my parents had Laura and I. But once he died, she moved out.

No one ever told me why she moved out, despite me asking almost every day for two months. All I remember is the silence as she walked out the door with her bags already in her little car.

I can taste the tingle of magic in the air as we approach the cottage, proving that Grandma gets no unwanted visitors.

The cottage itself is straight out of a fairy tale. It’s a two-story white-brick with wood accents and ivy climbing gracefully up the sides. It’s a secluded paradise surrounded by a garden thelikes of which I’ve never seen. Herbs, flowers, vegetables. Many I couldn’t name.

“Damn, Grandma, this place isamazing,” Laura says with a gust of breath from the back seat.

That’s an understatement.

Grandma chuckles, pulling up next to her home. “Thank you. I’ve taken a lot of time crafting my space.”

As we step out of the car, the scent of chrysanthemums and pansies dances around me, mixing with the fall leaves that sway in the breeze.

“Come, come.” Grandma opens her forest-green front door and herds us into the house. “This is home.”