Page 37 of The Darkest Night

“Don’t take it personally,” Violet told the fox. “It’s a prey-predator thing.”

Trixie lifted her head from where she’d burrowed her face in the crook of Violet’s elbow. She shuffled around guiltily and twitched her nose at Brimstone. The fox came over slowly and pressed his snout against hers. A low rumble left Trixie. Her ears perked up.

Brimstone looked pleased.

“Oh. You’re awake.”

Violet looked around. Mae had come through from the bathroom, a towel around her shoulders.

“Yeah.”

Violet rubbed a hand down her face, embarrassed at how well she’d slept. She looked over to where Miles snored gently, face down in his sleeping bag and Millie coiled on his back.

Ryu and Ye-Seul had insisted they spend the night instead of returning to Mae’s apartment. Mae had agreed. She’d gone on to surprise Violet and Miles further by inviting them to attend Rose’s funeral.

“Are you sure?” Violet had asked hesitantly.

She knew how much the loss of her best friend still ate at Mae. And she’d started to feel increasingly guilty about all she had yet to reveal to the newly awakened witch regarding her and Miles’s presence in New York.

“Yes,” Mae had replied. “Besides, I need you to take care of Brimstone until the ceremony is over.”

Miles had grimaced at that. “So, you’re basically using us as a familiar baby-sitting service, huh?”

“I don’t want him digging up bones in the cemetery,” Mae had said firmly.

From the guilty look that had shot across Brimstone’s face, the fox had been entertaining precisely that idea.

“I see those two are bonding,” Mae said presently. She indicated Brimstone and Trixie. “By the way, what do familiars eat?”

Violet shrugged. “Pretty much what their physical nature demands.”

They observed the fox and the rabbit.

“Don’t eat her,” Mae warned Brimstone.

The fox looked offended. Trixie gulped.

“Or any other familiars for that matter,” Violet added.

Brimstone huffed out a put-upon sigh. Miles snorted and mumbled something in his sleep.

“He’s a heavy sleeper,” Mae observed.

“Sometimes, Aunt Carmen has to use magic to rouse him,” Violet said wryly.

Carmen Nolan was Miles’s mother and the cousin of the Head Priestess of the Chicago coven.

Mae looked over at Brimstone. “Wake him up.”

The fox lowered his front body with an expression of pure mischief, wagged his bushy tail, and pounced on the sleeping sorcerer.

Miles yelped. Millie shot up into the air and landed on the floor with a splat. A wheezing sound left the fox where he sat on Miles, his mouth open on a smile. Mae chuckled.

“That was not funny,” Miles grumbled.

Millie hissed, annoyed.

Violet grinned. “Yeah, it was.”

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