“Really? You’re going to take his side on this?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s a fun little terrifying doll. Are you hungry? Want me to make you some food?” Stellan jumps off the couch and heads straight for the kitchen.
The apartment building was built sometime in the 1800s. It’s a beautiful old Federal style building, but drafty as hell in the winter. I’m ready to put on my pajamas and crawl under a bunch of blankets. I weigh grilling Stellan for more information versus having him cook so I don’t have to.
As I stare down at the doll, a kernel of an idea begins to form. I don’t know what possessed me to buy the thing in the first place. Bram always seems so damn serious. I get it, he has a curse, and I don’t know what it is. His brother’s was awful, and mine sucks too. Most days, I’m okay with mine. I try to stay positive and look on the bright side. Some days, I fail at that. I’ve only known Bram for a few months. Well, I knew of him before, but now that Josephine and Roman are a soulmate, forever kind of thing, we’ve been spending more time together. It’s in the moments when he thinks no one is watching that he looks broken.
And I am fully aware that I fall into the bucket of “no one” when I catch him in those moments, which hurts my heart a little.
I also want to make him smile for some dumb reason. Even if I don’t get to see it. Honestly, I thought he’d hate the stupid gift. I never imagined he’d be starting up a game with me over it. Whether that’s what he intended or not.
“Fine. I’ll be out of the shower in ten minutes. I expect something warm.”
Stellan has a bowl of soup and a grilled cheese sandwich waiting for me on the kitchen island once I’m showered and in my pajamas.
“You’re the best.” I groan as I sit down and pull the soup toward me.
Stellan hops up and sits on the counter, facing me. My brother and I both have brown hair, but I swear he got all of the primo genes in the womb. He’s tall and built and has ourmother’s blue eyes. His beard is getting out of control, though. It’s been a few days since he’s trimmed it down, and his brown hair is a mess, but it just makes him look rugged.
“Long day?” He picks up half of my sandwich and takes a bite. I let him have it since he was nice enough to make me dinner.
“Yes. I had to go over to the resort and then back to the office to do all the important things that my boss isn’t capable of managing on his own, but a dummy like me can handle.” I slurp a spoonful of soup and feel it warm me from the inside out. I wonder if Stellan put some healing magic in here. A few simple ingredients and a spell chanted while cooking is all it takes, but it still warms me that he even thought to do that. “How was your day?”
Stellan makes a face, but then shrugs. “It was fine.”
His aura is murky as the lie spills from his mouth. “Don’t bother.”
He sighs and shrugs again. “I talked to mom tonight.”
I groan, and he holds up his hand. “See, this is why I didn’t want to talk about it.”
I zip my lip, but then immediately invalidate the gesture by speaking. “Go ahead and vent. I’ll keep my opinions to myself.”
Stellan and I have an agreement. If we say we just want to vent, then we don’t give advice. Despite how hard it might be, you have to bite your tongue and save your thoughts to complain about it with someone else later.
“Well, she called to ask if I could come over and cast protections around the house, but you know it’s really Dad who’s asking.”
I nod, because that’s how it works. Our father doesn’t lower himself to ask for favors. It’s my mother’s job to arrange all the minutia in his life so that he doesn't feel one bit of inconvenience in his day. And Maiden forbid the man will do any fucking workon his own. Setting up wards around the house is tiring work. Our dad wouldn’t want to wear himself out. That’s what he had kids for, isn’t it? To do all the shit work he doesn’t want to take care of.
Stellan and I stare at each other. “Go ahead. Get it all out. You're seething.”
Damn my brother for having the same magic as me.
“I said I’d keep my mouth shut.” I take a bite of the sandwich to keep my mouth occupied.
“Just say it.” My brother makes a “give it to me” gesture.
“Fine, I get that you don’t want to abandon Mom, but she’s made a choice.” That choice being to stay with our dad when she should have left him ages ago. The choice to pick him over her child in a family disagreement, which was essentially me just trying to live my own life.
“She’s brainwashed by that bastard.”
Our dad is a master manipulator. He has a way of twisting words that makes it feel like you’ve done something wrong, or that it’s your fault bad things happen when it’s entirely out of your control. It could rain when he’s supposed to go golfing and he would find a way to blame the weather on an innocent bystander.
“But you’re enabling him by jumping every time he says boo.”
“Should I ignore her? Leave her alone with only him in her life?”
I have memories of my mother laughing when I was a kid, being bright and full of joy. I don’t know when that all changed. But gradually, the light dimmed, and she became nothing more than his puppet. I cut off ties because I had to get away from them both. When I started dating Jamie, my father disapproved. He said he was from a low-power magical family and didn’t deserve to be with someone from the Vandenberg line. Not thathe didn’t deserve to be with me. It was all about the magical legacy that I might someday give birth to.