Page 79 of Demon's Beauty

“I didnotleave the coven.”

“Really, then what do you call all this?” She waves her hand at me, at Vayla’s workshop. “Coming here, finding out you have a mate, going gallivanting off through the realms like you’re me or something.”

“I just needed a breather. A little time to think. I just… just…”

“Just what?”

“I’m having fun!”

Seren levels me a look. “Fun? Is that all?”

My face flushes with anger and embarrassment and indignation. “What’s the problem with me having a little fun? Goddess knows I didn’t get very much of it back in the coven hall.”

“And when the fun ends? Where’s that gonna leave you?”

“That’s none of your business.”

Seren’s face softens. “Of course it’s my business. It’ll always be my business. Even if you Ascend and have your magick tied up in that goddessforsaken coven forever, my twin sister will always be my business.”

“You don’t understand,” I say weakly, mind too fuzzy to grasp what this conversation is even about anymore, what I want out of it. “You left.”

“Yeah, I did. But I made a choice, Sol. I didn’t have one foot in and one foot out. I made a decision and stuck to it, for better or worse.”

“That’s not fair, and you know it.”

“Do I?”

“You’re impossible.” I throw up my hands in frustration and pace out of the workroom into Vayla’s greenhouse. It’s full to the brim with plants and herbs from all over the realm. I’d love to stay here and learn about them for months, years, the rest of my life if it meant I never had to face any of the rest of it.

Like a petulant child, I park myself by the windows and gaze out, stubbornly not turning around when Seren’s voice comes from the doorway.

“I can’t pretend I know what it’s been like for you since I left, but I know what it was like while I was there. Is that what you want for the rest of your life, Soleil? Truly?”

“We had this conversation ten years ago,” I mutter, and she sighs.

“And your answer’s still the same?”

“My answer is… mine. It’s mine, Seren. Mine to decide, no matter what it is.”

“Fair enough,” she allows, and her footsteps echo across the flagstone floors as she walks over to stand beside me.

We both stare out the greenhouse windows at the blue, blue sky and the brilliant autumn day. Long moments pass, heavy with everything unspoken between us, heavy with the weight of everything that could change in a few short weeks.

Seren bumps me with her shoulder. “Remember the last Samhain I spent at the coven, when Marjorie Ascended?”

I snort. “Yeah. When she spilled the ceremonial wine all over her pretty white robes?”

It was epic. A tale told and retold by countless apprentice witches, especially on the days when Priestess Marjorie decided to be an exceptional pain in the ass to her students.

“I don’t know who was more mortified,” I continue, “her or Esme. For a second there, I thought she’d call the whole thing off and tell Marjorie her Ascension wasn’t happening.”

We both snicker at that, and Seren cuts me a look.

“Try not to let that happen. If you do Ascend, I mean.”

“I’ll do my best.”

She opens her mouth to say something else, but the sound of the workshop door opening cuts her off.