Page 22 of Midlife Demigod Unexpected

“But I somewhat failed my challenge,” Kartika said. “I was supposed to poison Morel, but I couldn’t do it.”

“Nobody said you were supposed to poison Morel,” Chloe shook her head. “It was your idea.”

I gazed at Kartika thoughtfully. “Have you been in touch with him since?”

“I don’t think they left it on quite good terms,” Jane said.

“There’s even more reason why she should call him back and tell him something crazy,” I said.

Chloe looked at me, her head cocked to the side. “You mean like totally gaslighting?”

“Yeah, but the opposite of a gaslight,” I pointed out. “Like say everything is your fault and you’re so sorry and you know you want to work things out.”

“She’s going to have to show she’s for real and not bullshitting him.” Chloe pursed her lips as she tapped a pencil against them.

“But he knows that she knows that he’s a douche,” Bianca said. “How do you propose we get around all that?”

“Easy,” Chloe responded. “He’s a narcissistic, douche bag and a demigod trying to bring about the end of the world by fucking up our portal. He’s all about himself. He’ll totally go for it if you pander to his ego.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” I nodded.

Bianca grinned. “Great. I’m glad we’ve got that figured out. Now you’re part of the Coven,” she turned to me, “can we get something a little stronger than Witch’s Brew?”

I shook my head and smiled. “Not until the insurance gets taken care of and the pub is rebuilt. Though I’m sure it’ll happen lickety-split if my mom has anything to say about it.”

“Well, if she doesn’t get things moving, let us know,” Mae said. “I’m sure we can help out.”

“Wait, I think we need to back up a second,” Kartika said. “You’re proposing I call Morel and tell him I want to come over to the Dark Fae. Should I also let him know we have the six members of the Pentacle of Time?”

“Sounds right,” Chloe nodded.

“Ok, but what’s the main thing we’re trying to achieve here?” Kartika asked.

“I see where you’re headed,” I nodded. “You want to give him a call to action. We want to preemptively get him out of whatever bunker he’s in trying to come up with a big plan to take over Cougar Creek. If we reach out to him, why don’t we do exactly the opposite of what he’s thinking? Why don’t we invite him to Cougar Creek?”

They all looked at me like I was crazy.

Nobody said a word. There was dead silence in the room with each member of the coven weighing the idea in their own perspective. It was a pretty cocky plan, and I didn’t know quite what to follow it up with, but I still felt like if we were going for the element of surprise, this would be the last thing Morel would expect.

“It’s not a half bad plan,” Mae finally said. “I don’t know what we’d do with him once we get him here.”

“I was wondering the same thing, but I figure we’re six smart women.” I grinned and motioned to the room. “We’ve got to be able to figure out a plan,”

“Do we want him to come with Styx or without? If you want him to come with Styx, then either way you’ve got a sell them on the fact you want to join with him.” Mae pointed out.

Kartika pulled a small hematite rectangular stone out of her pocket and held it up. “It’s the key stone, but if he gets the sense any of you are here it’s not going to go over well.”

“I think some of us should stay in the room to watch from the side to get a different perspective,” Mae said. “Let’s have Helen stay because she hasn’t seen him before and may have a new perspective.”

I didn’t want to tell them what I wanted to be doing was researching golden eggs in Ireland and trying to figure out who my father was. At this stage I wasn’t trying to figure out exactly where I came from, I was simply trying to understand my powers a little bit better.

My gaze jerked toward Mae. “My mother did not put me in the blood pact. Why am I in the blood pact if she’s not in the blood pact? It must be on my father’s side. He must’ve known he needed to leave a descendant here.”

I recalled my father must’ve known there was a Pentacle of Time. A massive realization slowly dawned on me, and my stomach clenched. “My father was not from this world,” I said. “He’s either a monster, a demigod, a demon, or even a Fae. We already have two Fae in the coven so that means my father was either a demon, demigod, or monster.

“Hey, I think I have something.” Kartika lifted her head from the crystals, and it was only then I realized she had made a connection. Mae put out her hand to me and we both stepped back into the shadows, while everyone else in the room retreated to the kitchen.

Mae and I watched the screen as a devilishly handsome dark man’s face smiled out toward us.

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