Page 103 of The Darkest Night

Chapter 46

Mae enteredthe kitchen and rocked to a halt.

Yoo-Mi was making tea at the counter. “Want some?”

Mae grimaced.That woman has eyes in the back of her head.

Brimstone spoke.She sure does.

“Yes, thank you,” Mae murmured.

She padded barefoot into the room, Brimstone at her side.

Ye-Seul had been discharged from Grandview General sometime around midnight. To Mae’s relief, the CT scan had shown no evidence of skull fractures and the neurosurgeon who’d seen her had declared her fit as a fiddle bar a mild concussion. Mae decided to spend the night at the family home, partly to talk to Yoo-Mi, but mainly to be with the people she loved the most in this world.

Yoo-Mi placed a cup of green tea in front of Mae as she sat at the table. “I madeHoeddeokfor breakfast.”

Mae eyed the trays of cinnamon, honey, and peanut filled pancakes keeping warm in the oven.Hoeddeokwas her and Ryu’s favorite.

Yoo-Mi looked down at Brimstone. “I bet you’d like some meat?”

Brimstone huffed, jaws splitting in a grin as he swept the floor with his bushy tail. Mae’s mother had insisted on meeting the familiar and Hellreaver once she learned of their existence. To Mae’s everlasting surprise, Yoo-Mi had taken everything she’d told her in her stride, from the attack on Grandview General to Ryu and Ye-Seul’s rescue. The fact that Mae was the reincarnation of the child of a witch and a demon never fazed her.

“You’re my daughter and always will be,” she’d said quietly to Mae last night. “So, no more secrets, okay?”

Mae had nodded tremulously, her vision blurring and her heart light with relief. “No more secrets.”

They’d hugged for a long time, Mae’s tears soaking into Yoo-Mi’s shoulder. The way her mother had trembled had told her she wasn’t as unaffected as she was pretending to be.

Yoo-Mi went over to the refrigerator, took some fresh beef steaks out, and laid them on a couple of plates on the table.

“Up you come,” she told the fox.

Brimstone glanced warily at Mae before leaping onto the chair beside her. He nibbled delicately on his steak, careful not to make a mess of the tablecloth.

Yoo-Mi eyed Hellreaver. “The second plate is for you.”

The medallion hummed hesitantly before transforming and dropping gently to the table. He hoovered his meat up in a single gulp, swallowed happily, and fell silent, as meek as a mouse.

“Wow,” Mae told Yoo-Mi. “You gotta teach me how to do that.”

Brimstone and Hellreaver looked at her innocently.

Yoo-Mi chewed her lip. “You should get a tenant for that spare room. You’re gonna need the extra rent to feed these two.”

Mae was about to protest when a voice came behind her.

“Well, this sure warms the heart,” someone drawled.

Mae spun around in the chair.

Vlad smiled at her from the doorway.

She ignored the alluring way his shirt stretched across his chest and turned to Yoo-Mi. “He spent the night?!”

Yoo-Mi flushed. “Well, he asked so prettily. I put him in the spare room with the other guy.”

Mae narrowed her eyes at Vlad. “Did you use your incubus powers on my mom?”

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