Page 55 of April's Fool
“Oh, of course! Sorry, I hadn’t thought.” Hellhounds didn’t have the same way of recharging their magic energy as incubi did. He would be running low after creating two portals across the country, dangerously low. It was better he recharged first.
“If he’s not going to be here, then we’re leaving Hela for you. She can protect you, can’t you, Hela?” Cody cooed to the hellcat. The beast chirped and purred at him, rubbed herself around his legs, then went to stand guard. “She’s very smart.”
Our goodbyes were long and tear-filled. I cried the most, I’m unashamed to admit. My son was going away. We were going to be parted for an unknown amount of time. Visits would only happen if Barr could make them work. We couldn’t fly to him or use another work around in case Basil caught our trail. Cody was too important to risk because of my delicate feelings. I’d lived without him for a long time. I could handle it until Basil was dead.
The apartment was quiet, with Cody, Toth, and Barr gone. Hela still stood guard. All I wanted to do was take Damon to bed.
“Why can’t we just go to bed?” Damon whined, echoing my thoughts. It brought a smile out. “Why did I say I’d listen to Thyme?”
“Because, despite what you say, you are a good person who cares about others. Thyme clearly needs to get this off his chest.”
“Fine, let’s just go so we can get to bed.”
I followed Damon back into the club and deeper into the lounge where Thyme waited. Oak lingered, as did a couple of the other witches. I barely paid attention to them, my senses picking up on Thyme’s deep unease and a trickle of fear.
“Thanks for coming back. I hope Cody got away okay.” Thyme forced a smile.
“Can we just… I’m tired.”
Thyme cleared his throat, then reached for a glass of water. The cocktail glass still full. “Okay. Goddess, this is so hard.”
“Please,” Damon sighed, exhausted. “Just spit it out.”
“Damon… I knew your mother.”
April Fools?
Damon
What the fuck?
“You knew my mother,” I repeated, my voice sounding numb to my own ears. This entire situation was beyond fucked up. The mess with Basil had been feeling off kilter, with only Mori to keep me grounded. He held my hand as we sat opposite Thyme on one of those ridiculous lounging sofas.
“I did.” Thyme’s gaze searched my face. Was he looking for the traces of the person he once knew?
“What happened to her? Why did she give me up?” Those questions had haunted me my whole life. Every time I left one family to go to the next, I asked myself if there was just something about me that made it easy for people to give up on me.
Until Magnus and Parker, I’d had no one to call family. Now, I had Mori, Cody, Toth, as well as Parker and Gregoris. We seemed to keep finding people and absorbing them into our group. Shifters, demons, a witch-demon hybrid, and me, the human.
Thyme went so still, it looked like he was barely breathing. “Damon, whatever you’re thinking, I swear it wasn’t that. Fern, your mom, loved you so much. All she thought about was you. I—I lost touch with her after you were born. If I’d known sooner, I might have been able to find you.”
It still blew my mind that Thyme was much older than me. He looked to be around twenty-one, with a sweet, innocent face. His ethereal looks hid a lot of pain and secrets. Like knowing my mom.
“How long have you known about who my mom was?”
He studied me again. What was he looking for? The ghost of my mom wasn’t going to suddenly appear! She hadn’t when I’d begged for her to come get me for years after she left me at that office. I didn’t even remember her face, or what she sounded like. My mom was a vague shape, shadows of memories, a life of knowing I’d been loved at one point. It just wasn’t enough for her to keep me.
“When we first met, there was something about you.” He picked up the water as if to take a sip, then set it down. “After the attack, when we touched, I felt a trace of deep magic. This stuff was practically etched on your soul, it was so deep.” Thyme let out a heavy breath. “I pushed it aside, and you,” his eyes met mine, “were careful not totouch me again, so I put it out of my head as residual magic from breaking the portal.”
“That was weeks ago,” Mori said with a frown. I hated that expression on his face. It didn’t belong there.
“I know,” Thyme stated simply. “So I had people look into Damon. It all aligned. Fern, the timeline. It all made sense, but I still didn’t want to believe it.”
“But you believe it now?” I scoffed. “Why now? What’s changed?”
“Basil.” Thyme slid from the seat and shuffled on his knees. He stopped on the floor in front of me. “Damon, I’m so sorry.”
“I don’t understand. What does Basil have to do with this?”
