Page 12 of Midlife Demigod Unexpected

Chapter 9

“I think you better start spilling the beans.” I placed a cup of Witch’s Brew tea in front of my mother.

It was late at night, and I had insisted we go home alone that evening because I wanted to talk. I had questions about this newfound coven and there were other things that needed to be sorted as well. For example, my heritage.

“Do you have any idea who he was?” I asked.

My mom bit her lower lip and shook her head slowly.

“Well, how did you meet him?” I asked.

“There was the annual festival at the Hot Springs on Samhain. He showed up. They were building O’Halloran’s at the time, and I remember seeing him over at the worksite earlier in the day as I walked by. I had thought he was applying for a job or coming to stay. He was young, tall, blonde hair, almost like a god. He was gorgeous. Later down at the Hot Springs… Well, it was a party. We were drinking and hanging out in the hot springs and...”

“I get the idea,” I held my hand up to stop her before she burned stories in my brain that I wouldn’t be able to unhear.

“Well, clearly he wasn’t some random guy,” my mom said. “He wasn’t coming to look for a job building O’Halloran’s like I thought. He was supervising the construction of it. Once he figured out who you were, he left it to you. Signed, sealed, delivered.”

“I have the box,” I said.

“Are you going to open it?” Hilda asked.

“Well, it was addressed in the paperwork on the pub as ‘open in case we lost the pub.’ and I know we have insurance and can rebuild it, but I’d say it’s pretty lost for right now.” I looked to my mom for approval.

“I would agree with you,” Hilda said. “Who knows. It might be able to give you a better idea of who your father is than I can.”

I looked at her, shaking my head “Do you realize how pathetic that sounds?”

“It was the early seventies. Give me a break,” Hilda said.

I grabbed the box from the side table in the spare room where I’d been sleeping. It had been in my possession since I’d inherited the pub. The same lawyer who’d given me the deed to the property had also given me the box and explained that in the event I lost the property I had permission to open the box, but under no circumstances should I open it for any other reason, or I would forfeit the pub completely. I had kept it carefully and followed the rules which had been made clear and easy to understand.

Even now, I stared at it, wondering if it was the right thing to do. Did this constitute the loss of the pub, or should I still find a way to wait a little longer to open it?

As I watched, my hands began to glow with a golden light.

“This is bullshit. I’m completely opening the box,” I said.

Only I didn’t know how.

The box was smooth on all edges, a solid cuboid. You would think it was a block rather than a box. If the guy hadn’t told me, it was a box I never would’ve known. The guy himself had been a bit strange, with very pale white skin. I should’ve figured it out then. The lawyer was an elemental. My father was from the supernatural world.

“Use your magic,” Hilda said. “It’s probably some sort of a signature to your light.”

My hand shook a little bit. “I don’t know how to use magic.”

“Of course, you do,” Hilda said. “You’ve been using it your whole life, just in different ways. Like when you cheer someone up, you’re channeling a little bright energy toward them. Take that energy field and channel it through your hands, because your hands are clearly the points emitting magic.”

I raised my eyebrows quizzically at her, completely unsure of if what she was saying even made sense to me. “Hold the box in your hands,” she said. “And think good thoughts about your father.”

I looked up at her sharply. “Why do I have to do that?”

“If he put the seal on the box, it was done with some level of emotion you have to connect with him,” my mom said. “He would’ve used his emotional signature, so you must match it. The matching vibration will unlock the box and it will come apart. It’s called a saving box. Fae make these, but he definitely wasn’t fae. He didn’t have those pointy ears.”

I stared at her blankly for a moment. Her world sounded so weird when I listened to it, as if I were a Normie, which is what I’d practically been my whole life. An outsider looking in. Now it was my turn. I closed my eyes and laid my hands on the box, heat rising from them.

The gold light shone off my hands and emanated into the air around the box. It was doing more, though. I could feel it seeping into the box. It was like the gold light was an extension of my own energy. I could feel it where it was probing inside the box, almost looking for a latch of some sort.

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