Page 20 of Wolves' Midlife Reunion
“Yes! Come here!” She pulled Dex by the hand into the living room and sat him on the couch, then grabbed Tina and put her next to him. Sage went around to the other side of the coffee table.
“We’re getting a whole show,” Dex commented with a smile.
Sage put her doll on the table. She carefully straightened its tiny dress and yarn hair before she took a step back and held out her hands, palms down.
Tina’s mouth tightened. Sage had made fantastic progress for her age and experience, but they hadn’t worked with anything as big as the doll yet. They’d stuck to cookies, pens, and a few napkins. She fought the urge to correct Sage and tell her to go back to what she knew. Sage needed the adults in her life to believe in her, and there would be times when she failed, no matter how hard she tried. Still, that didn’t make it easy to watch.
Sage’s soft brown eyes were focused on the doll. Her fingers were relaxed and slightly curled, but she slowly straightened them. As she did, the doll lifted off the table’s surface. Sage lifted her palms slightly now, bringing the doll a couple more inchesinto the air. When the girl moved her hands to the right, the doll floated along as though on an invisible board. Slowly, carefully, she put the doll back down. Her eyes were alight when she looked up at her father and Tina. “Did you see?”
“I definitely did! What a great job!” Tina turned to look at Dex. “She only did that with a cookie during our lesson.”
His face was a storm cloud of emotion. He put on a smile for his daughter, but thunder was in his eyes. “Sage, that was very nice. Why don’t you stay here and play with your doll for a minute? Tina and I need to talk.”
Something had gone wrong, though Tina didn’t know what it was. She stood and led Dex out onto the small balcony that looked over the street. Sliding the glass door shut behind them, she went to the railing. “What is it?”
“Tina, that…” He looked back over his shoulder at Sage and then brought his voice down a notch. It wasn’t loud, but it was angry. “That was just the sort of magic that almost killed Chris Kelly.”
“I don’t know that I entirely agree with you on that,” she said carefully.
“No? Because I was there,” Dex countered. All the gentleness and warmth she’d noticed when he’d arrived had drained completely away. “I remember what it was like when that fight got out of hand. I remember raising my hands and lifting Chris straight off his feet, sending him higher and higher the more he kept yelling at me. There was nothing he could do about it, and I felt powerful. I just didn’t realize how much power I had until I let go.”
She could hear and feel the pain in his voice. “Dex, I get it. I know it was hard for you, and it still is. That wasn’t the magic’s fault, though.”
He turned away, shaking his head as he leaned on the rail.
She felt the gap between them increasing once again, their differences getting in the way of any chance of a real connection. Had she been wrong to think they could get past all of that now that they were adults?
Tina wasn’t going to give up that easily, though—not on him, and definitely not on Sage. “Magic is about intention and emotional regulation. Yours got out of hand that day, yes, but it doesn’t always have to be that way.”
“I don’t want Sage to go through the same kind of hell I did if she makes a mistake,” he growled.
“I don’t, either. That’s why I think it’s important for her to start learning these things now so she can control herself.” Tina felt desperation tightening her chest. She’d only had one lesson with Sage and was already looking forward to many more.
Dex rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe I got ahead of myself. She should probably learn, but it doesn’t have to be right now.”
“She’s already using magic, whether you like it or not,” Tina pointed out firmly. “What happens if she goes another year or two without any formal training? What happens when she hits puberty and her hormones start up?”
He still didn’t look convinced.
“Do you know what’s impressive about her? It’s not just that she knows a few tricks. It’s that she already seems to understand that she’ll have a mess to clean up if things don’t go right. At the moment, we’re just talking about cookie crumbs or picking up a dropped item, but it’s a hell of a start. She’s a brilliant girl, and I think she could go a long way.”
He let out a long, reluctant sigh. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. I know you are. It’s just tough to see that as a dad. I want to protect her, but someday she’s going to be out in the world on her own. She’ll have to be able to protect herself. That includes protecting herselffromherself.”
Relief rushed through her. “I agree. I know I’m not her mother, but I only want what’s best for her.”
He reached over and dared to put his hand on top of hers where it rested on the railing, even though there was a risk that Sage might see. “Thank you, Tina. It’s not easy being a parent, especially a single one. You have to make all kinds of choices, day in and day out. With some of those decisions, you won’t even know if they’re the right ones for years.”
“I think you’ve got a better grasp on it than you give yourself credit for,” she told him. “So does that mean the lessons are still on?”
He looked through the glass door. Sage was still practicing, but this time she had her doll sitting on a chair and was trying to levitate a cookie to the doll’s mouth. Dex laughed, and that warmth was back. “They definitely are.”
“Are you ready to go, kiddo?” Dex asked as they stepped back inside.
Sage was standing at the coffee table with Tina’s notebook in her hand. She had her brows scrunched up again, a sure sign that she was thinking hard. “What’s Sam-hain?”
“Oh.” Tina bit off a giggle at the pronunciation. She heard it plenty of times at The Crystal Cauldron from tourists who didn’t know any better, but it was much cuter coming from a little girl. “It might look like Sam-hain, but it’s actually pronounced SOW-in,” she explained, putting the accent on the first syllable.
When Sage didn’t believe Tina, she got the same look Dex did. “Are you sure?”
