Page 54 of Monsters' Manor

“Rosie,” he says, a huge grin spreading on his face and pride burning in his eyes. “You were—”

“Wonderful?” I say, laughing again. “Perfect? Badass?”

“All of that and more, witch. You must have had an excellent teacher.”

I roll my eyes and am about to give him some more sass, when he leans down and catches my lips in a fast, hard kiss. It’s a kiss that soon turns deeper, darker, more insistent.

At least until Ren pulls away, breathing hard. “There’s something else you need to do tonight, Rosie.”

I nod, knowing exactly what he means.

I need to talk to Odelia. I need to make my choice.

“I’ll find you after?” I ask him, and he gives me one more brief kiss before nodding toward the door.

“Go,” he says, eyes alight with encouragement.

Making my way out one of the side staff entrances, I cross quickly to the admin building. The light shining from beneath Odelia’s office door lets me know she’s inside, and a steady certainty settles on my shoulders as I raise my hand.

At my decisive knock, Odelia calls out from inside. “Come in.”

She doesn’t look surprised in the slightest to see me. As she leans back in her chair and folds her hands in front of her, her knowing expression says ‘I told you so’ without her having to utter a single word.

And fine, she’s won. I’m so ready to accept her offer that I’m only slightly annoyed by how smug she’s probably going to be about it.

“I’m in.”

“In for…” she starts, then trails off, waiting for my complete surrender.

And I’m more than willing to give it.

“Everything. All of it. Whatever help I can give to all the witches and monsters at the Acres. I want to stay and be a part of it all.”

“Good. Take a seat and let’s talk.”

And just like that, it’s settled. All that certainty, that acceptance, the intuitive knowledge I’ve just set myself off down the path I was always meant for, it all sets down on my shoulders like a warm blanket as I take my seat across the desk from her.

We talk for a few minutes about what it all will entail, me coming on to the Acres full-time. There will be an adjustment period, of course, time for me to find my place and for the rest of my kin to decide where my talents will best be spent.

In the meantime, I can stay in my cottage and continue my life here. Start putting down some roots that just might stick.

“And I’ll expect you to continue your training,” Odelia says. “Fire-wielding, telekinesis, and… alchemy. If you decide it’s something you want to explore.”

For a few long seconds, I can’t answer her. Alchemy. The kindled embers of my father’s power in my blood, the magick I haven’t yet been brave enough to touch.

“I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” I murmur.

“Well,” Odelia says. “You might begin right over there.”

She nods to one of the curio cabinets at the side of the room, and my breath catches in my throat when I follow her gaze and realize what I’m looking at.

Alchemy tools.

My father’s alchemy tools.

I’d recognize them anywhere. The iron cauldron inlaid with golden runes. The leather-bound grimoire which contains his decades of carefully curated knowledge. I never knew what happened to any of my father’s things after he died, and I’d never been brave enough to ask my mother if there was anything of his I could have kept.

“How?” I whisper as I stand from my chair and step over to the cabinet. “How did you get these?”

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