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“Boys, are you in here?”
I was at Priamos’ bedroom door. I thought I heard them leave, but there was no harm in checking. They knew how Serena felt about them leaving the house after sundown. It simply didn’t look good for her image. When I didn’t hear them, though, I let myself in.
Once inside, I noticed something on Priamos’ bed. Only when I got closer did I realize it was a notebook. I picked it up and studied it, noting the torn pages and crossed out words. Priamos took very good care of his books. He would never tear a book, let alone write all over the pages.
In my confusion, I didn’t even notice when Serena came in behind me.
“What are you looking at?” Serena demanded.
She didn’t even wait for me to answer before she ripped the notebook from my hands and flipped through the pages. She paused on one page and began to tremble. She clenched her jaw, muttered an incantation, and set the notebook on fire before tossing it out the window.
“You will forget about them, Maya,” she told me as she stormed out of the room.
I quickly followed, “Why? They’re our sons, Serena. We can’t just forget them.”
I rarely questioned Serena’s orders, but... I couldn’t (and wouldn’t) just forget the two boys that we worked so hard to raise. Priamos and Tempest were the reason why I existed. Well, in a figurative sense. I existed for Serena if we’re going to go in the literal sense of the word.
Serena and I were lovers in our youth, but after I passed away, she fell into a deep depression for many years. She then began to study magic even more vigorously than before and - eventually - managed to bring me back to life. She had to use up a lot of her magic to bring me back and even then she couldn’t bring me back fully. So, I existed as a spirit and was bound to her. If something were to happen to her, I would likely die. Of course, there were ways to combat that, but I would only resort to those options once Serena was no more.
And, one of these days whether by her own hands or someone else’s, she would be no more. She was simply that oblivious to believe nothing can touch her. It was rather endearing.
“No, Maya,” Serena snapped, “They’re your sons. I never wanted them and you ignored me and still took them in.”
I backed up slightly, feeling her spit land on my cheek.
“What are they doing?” I asked.
This was already getting to be annoying.
“They’re researching Struzapans,” Serena replied, spitting out the name like it was poison on the tip of her tongue.
“Even though Priamos promised me he wouldn’t,” Serena ranted as she made her way downstairs, “Even though he had me almost completely convinced that I wasn’t going to have to worry about having a Struzapan believer and sympathizer for a son. You know, Maya, it’s bad enough that we had to deal with them being boys all these years. Now I have to deal with this, too.”
As she ranted, I felt myself growing confused. I was not a believer in Struzapans. They were nothing but a silly old human’s tale to me. Really, I was just shocked that Serena was allowing herself to get so worked up over something as silly as this.
Serena started to head into the basement before turning to look at me one last time, “All I can say is they’d better hope that we don’t find them - and that they don’t come to any more coven meetings.”