Page 8 of Midlife Demigod Unexpected

“No,” she said, surprised. “I mean, we had to have a demon working for us ever since we’ve had all the problems with the portals. We only recently put him on payroll.”

“You recruited him to moonlight for you?” I asked. “Poaching my employees. And you didn’t even tell me he was a demon!” The more I thought about it the angrier I became.

“It was no secret he was a demon,” my mom said. “He’s in the national registry if you would ever bother to look for supernaturals near you.”

“Did you plant him here?” I asked.

“Nope. “

I turned on Jag. “Why didn’t you tell me? “

“Demons aren’t exactly the most beloved creatures on the face of the earth,” Jag said. “I didn’t see that it mattered if I was the cook. What do you care what race I am?”

“It would’ve been nice to know you’re a supernatural,” I said.

“I’m a supernatural,” Jag deadpanned.

I sighed. “OK, fine. Did you get the cambion or not?”

“He was in hiding, but I reported him to Thrain. He’s not our problem anymore and he won’t be coming back.” Jag explained.

“He burnt down my pub,” I said. “I’m not done with him. “I don’t give a shit who Thrain is or for that matter who you are. I intend to get justice for my pub, so I’m going to find him.”

“Don’t you think you might want to focus on maybe rebuilding the pub?” my mother asked.

I couldn’t explain it though. There was a burning inside my body, itching to have a fight with the guy who had made such a mess of my pub. “I don’t simply want to rebuild it. I wanted to slay the jerk who had burnt it down and rebuild the foundations on his ashes.”

“That’s a little intense,” Kartika giggled off to the side. I glanced around, shaking my head, and trying to rid myself of the energy that had come over me.

“Wow. I don’t know what that was,” I said. “I felt like a vengeful warrior.”

“Well, you looked a bit like Xena warrior princess from here,” Mae said with a smile. I looked at the sword in my hand, which had a slight glow around the edge.

“What’s going on?” I asked. Everyone else stared at the hilt of the sword and the glow around my hand. Energy poured through my body, and I felt like I could wield the sword for a hundred hours in battle.

“You have powers,” Hilda said, her voice squeaked in delight. “My daughter, you have powers. We found them.”

“I think she has more than powers,” Kartika said.

“What do you mean?” Jane asked.

“Look.” Kartika pointed toward the pendant hanging from Mae’s neck. I’d heard them talking about it. My mom had explained it earlier, but I didn’t quite understand what it was. The pentacle had a stone on each point and one stone in the middle. As we all stared at it, it glowed. The center stone glowed purple and green, the next one fluorescent green, then red, turquoise, orange, and finally the last one lit up glowing gold.

“We fulfilled the Pentacle of Time,” Mae said, her voice hushed.

A blaze of energy seared through me and as I looked at the other women, I could tell they were feeling the same rush of power moving through their bodies.

“Can you feel that?” Jane whispered. “Bianca and Chloe aren’t even here, and I can feel their energy merging with mine and surging through me.”

“The Pentacle of Time is complete,” Kartika clapped her hands in excitement.

“It can’t be,” I said.

“It is you,” Jane smiled, reaching out to clasp my hand.

“It can’t be me for a lot of reasons. One is I have no magic and second, you have a witch.”

“Maybe you’re not a witch,” Jane said. “The pentacle works with one being from each species and the light and dark Fae get their own, but I’d have to be a different species and all we know is I’m half witch with no magic.”

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