Page 67 of Destiny of the Witch

Bastion and I settled our guests. He took obvious delight in picking individual mugs for each one, trying to get a grin with his selection.

Benji gasped when he saw the wall of mugs in the kitchen. ‘Now that is a work of art,’ he grinned. ‘I need to expand my own mug collection before I can rival that. Maybe I can put a shelf in my room.’

‘Whatever you want to do,’ Bastion said easily. ‘The room is yours.’ In reality, he hadn’t just given Benji a room but a whole floor, including a bedroom and bathroom, a guest room and a reception room all of his own. The kitchen and dining room would have to be shared, but apart from that we had plenty of space from each other – not that I thought we’d need it.

‘You’ve only just started your collection,’ Bastion continued. ‘I’m sure you’ll have an extensive array of mugsbefore you know it. Birthdays and Christmases will soon build it up.’

Benji shrugged. ‘I’m not sure exactly when my birthday is. July sometime.’

Anger flared. The Council hadn’t cared enough to tell Benji when he had been made. ‘I’ll find out,’ I promised. ‘And then we’ll hold a huge birthday party to make up for all the ones that we’ve missed.’

Shirdal raised his mug in salute. ‘We’ll make it the best damned party in the last century!’

Benji smiled wistfully. ‘I’d like that.’

Benji grinned as Benjamin spoke. ‘Why I declare, I would also love to experience a birthday party!’ At the familiar sound of Grimmy’s voice, Mum’s head whipped around, searching for the grimoire.

‘Ah, Benjamin? Why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself to my mother?’ I suggested.

‘I’m sure she’ll recognise me, no matter my current physicality. Isn’t that right, Miss Luna?’

She gaped. ‘Grimmy? What happened? What the heck did I miss?’

‘A lot, but this one is easily explained. Grimmy saved Benji’s life, and there are two of them living in the golem now,’ I explained briefly.

Mum slid a suspicious glance at him. ‘I’venever known you to be altruistic.’

‘And I’m still not, Miss Luna,’ Benjamin admitted. ‘Whilst I reside in our dear friend Benji here, I get tosee,tofeel,totouch.It’s fair to say I gained quite a lot out of saving Benji’s life.’

Benji snorted. ‘You did it because you liked me.’

‘I do like you, young sir, that’s the truth of it. And I’m heartily glad that we met when we did and themannerin which we did. You did Amber a great service by hiding me and keeping me safe. Now it is my honour to do the same for you.’

‘Well,’ Mum said. ‘Well now. Isn’t that something?’

The doorbell chimed again and my eyebrows shot up. ‘More guests?’

Bastion smirked. ‘I said I’d invited our friends.’

‘Yes, but isn’t this them?’ I asked in genuine surprise.

He laughed. ‘Come and see.’

We went to the front door together. I opened it to see a very tanned looking Jinx and Emory, with Reynard in tow. Reynard was shirtless as always these days, his black-feathered wings held neatly behind him like an avenging angel. ‘Is the fucking love of my life here?’ he asked eagerly.

‘Shirdal?’ I clarified.

‘The one and only.’

‘Yep,he’s here.’

Reynard beamed.

‘You look like you had an amazing honeymoon!’ I said to the tanned couple. They exchanged a rueful glance. ‘It was certainly something,’ Emory muttered.

Jinx laughed and elbowed him in the ribs. ‘No honeymoon talk today. We are here to celebrate Amber and Bastion.’

‘What exactly are we celebrating about them?’ Emory asked, just as Jinx saw the ring on my finger and gave a shriek of excitement. She bundled into me. ‘Amber! Congratulations!’

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