Page 74 of Blood of Night (The Thorne Hill)

“Oh, right. A friend has cats and I don’t want her thinking it’s okay to hold them all like they’re magical spirits.”

“Good point.” I mentally tell Freya to shadow out of Penny’s arms. She does, and she shadows around the two-year-old, making her laugh. Freya darts forward and Penny follows, reaching out of her and laughing hysterically when her fingers go right through the shimmering gray shadow. “Sorry things got weird.”

“This visit started with finding you standing over a dead body. Seeing my daughter play with a spirit is definitely not the weirdest part of the day.”

“Another good point.”

“I feel much better and you have a lot going on. Penny and I will get out of your hair. And I should head out if I want to beat traffic. Going into the city in the late afternoon is not fun when you don’t have a cranky toddler in the car.”

“I’ve never been a fan of traffic.”

“Let me know if I should start Doomsday prepping,” Abby jokes, but I struggle to find the humor in it. No amount of prepping will save you if hellfire burns in the sky.

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Good, because I don’t like clutter, let alone fifty jars of something that’ll probably expire before I get a chance to eat it.”

“It was nice seeing you,” Lucas tells Abby. Juliet is quieting down, whimpering more than crying. “We should plan another double date. Perhaps Callie and I can meet you downtown sometime soon. Without kids this time.”

“I would love that. It’s been a while since I’ve had a date night without my parents or Penny.”

“Then we must arrange a night.”

“For sure.” Abby gathers up her stuff, uses the bathroom, and then carries Penny to her Porsche. Penny started throwing a tantrum as soon as Abby told her it was time to leave and is still going strong. I don’t envy her drive home. Not at all.

Once they’re down the street, I close the front door and find Lucas in the conservatory. “What the hell?”

“What the hell what?” he replies.

“Making dinner plans.”

“Do you not want to go to dinner with Abby and Phil?”

“I do, but you’re acting like things are fine and normal and they’re not.”

Lucas frowns, looking at my forgotten potted plants. “There is one thing that humans have had for centuries, one thing I never quite grasped until I met you.”

“What is it?”

“Hope.” His eyes meet mine. “I have seen humanity go through horrible things. Things that should break a person. Things that should make nations give up or live in fear. Yet the hope that something will give and things will get better keeps people going.”

“I’m having a hard time having hope right now,” I admit. “Hope wasn’t enough to save Julian. It’s not enough to keep you with me.” Frustration starts to build inside me. “I want you back so you can be with your family. Your daughter needs her father and I need you. We can’t do this forever.” I angrily wipe tears away. “You’ll have to go back at some point and then what? You get back on the horse, keep the demonic energy from shifting or something and once it’s contained you come back? Osiris takes his role seriously, but he won’t do that.”

“We can’t think like that.”

“How am I supposed to think?”

“I don’t know,” Lucas is exasperated, and I see the strain on his face. Neither of us want to fight. It does no good anyway. “Sit on the porch swing with me?” he asks after a moment of silence passes.

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

We go through the house and out front, sitting close together on the swing. Juliet fell asleep in Lucas’s arms, and he keeps one hand over her face, making sure to shield her eyes from the sun.

“I can see why you like to sit out here and read,” he tells me. “It’s peaceful.”

“It is. I could take some serious naps on this swing too.” I tuck my legs up under me and loop my arm through Lucas’s. “And I never realized how fun a porch swing could be.”

“You know I can make anything fun.” He flashes a smirk that instantly gives me the feeling of butterflies.

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