Page 5 of The Crownless King
“You need help, little Chawi? It’ll only cost you a teensy bite,” a shifter sitting on the front steps of his battered home taunted.
The moon was barely up and already, the air was thick with magic and menace.
Moving faster, Amaya didn’t breathe easier until she reached the entrance of her neighborhood. It wasn’t a compound, but after years of Chawis without covens settling there, the whole neighborhood had been warded against most dangers posed to the witches. Their landlord had even put up some extra warding on their house.
Amaya growled in aggravation when she got home and noticed that her uncle’s car wasn’t in the driveway. Hastily unlocking all four locks on the front door, she rushed inside.
“Mom,” she called.
Their house was small, the entrance leading directly into the living room. From the front door, Amaya could see into their small kitchen and down a short hallway to the two bedrooms that flanked each other. There was a single bathroom down that hall as well. Her heart raced as she spotted her mother outside in the postage-stamp sized backyard. Anita stood at the back fence.
What was she doing?
Dropping her bag onto the sofa, she walked toward her mother. There were no scents other than the ones of the plug-ins she used to keep their neat space smelling good, which meant that her uncle hadn’t even cooked before he left. He was a terrible caretaker, but he was all she had at the moment. She took a deep breath to wipe all the tension from her face and opened the door. Anita could read her well, and sometimes, she would react to Amaya’s stress.
Those were long evenings.
“Mom,” she called again gently.
Anita turned and smiled. “Sweetheart.”
“What are you doing?”
“Just talking.” Anita wiped her hands on her clothes.
Amaya was her mother’s twin, from their high cheekbones and full lips to their almond shaped eyes and thick lashes. The only difference was that Amaya was full-figured where Anita was tall and trim. Her willowy figure was currently swallowed in a comfortable off-the-shoulder cotton dress that her mother wore to lounge in. She was beautiful and, despite her dementia, kept her appearance up.
Mostly because Amaya was sure Anita often forgot that she wasn’t going anywhere.
Her mother still got up and dressed for work some days. The fact that Anita was dressed so casually meant that at least her Uncle Paul hadn’t dragged her out of the house as he was wont to do. Amaya tried not to be so hard on her uncle because if nothing else, he made sure his sister lived as normally as possible.
“How long ago did Uncle Paul leave?” It was a question that would test how lucid her mother was this evening.
“Not too long,” Anita said absently, walking up and cupping Amaya’s cheek Without prompting, her mother’s magic soothed the stress tightening her daughter’s shoulders. “You look tired. Have we had dinner?”
Amaya swallowed the lump in her throat and shook her head. “I was thinking of making soup. Fall is in the air.”
Fall was finally pulling the temperature down, sure, but mostly Amaya didn’t think they had groceries to make anything else.
Anita gave her a bright smile. “Soup it is, then.”
Amaya released the breath she was holding and returned her mother’s smile. “We can put your vegetable garden to use.”
“Great idea. My cabbages look amazing.”
Guiding her mother inside, Amaya felt lighter. No matter the hardship she went through, seeing her mother happy was worth it. Anita sat at the two-seat dining table in their kitchen and watched her daughter with a wistful smile.
“How was work?”
“Same ol’,” Amaya answered, opening the fridge.
Her mouth dropped open in surprise. There was food in there! See, this was why she could never stay mad at her uncle. Yes, he was irresponsible, but when he came through, he came through in a major way. His contribution of groceries would let her check stretch just a few more days. A blessing, really. It wasn’t as though the Archive paid her pennies, but with the fact that she couldn’t work that many hours, her pay was lean.Smiling, some of the stress that had been riding her shoulders was shed. It was only a small reprieve, but she would take what she could get.
Chapter two
Anger consumed him.
Some days it felt as though it ate away at his sanity, while other days it was a simple buzzing in the back of his brain that blocked out other, productive thoughts. Levi had quickly discovered that the unpredictable emotion was one of the side effects of the Akachi meteorite he’d acquired months ago.
