I was really glad the Pixies were with us as we approached the space where Monsters was. Being stuck with a bunch of Kelpies would probably be worse than the Krakens. Krakens had to behave in front of Gorgon.

Kelpies had no such incentive.

I saw Jade and who I assume was their mother behind them talking to Fethris and his dad.

"Aww…little Nightcall looks like Nat."

Gods help me, Mom had little incentive to behave either.

"Do you know who that is that he's talking to?" She asked in a low tone.

"A…friend of ours? The Kelpie we get along the best with." I didn't want to assume, but it would be best if Mom played nice.

"How did you make friends with a Kelpie?" She sounded almost shocked enough that I might have been offended. If Horus wasn't a factor.

"I don't know, they started hanging around after I saved them from a sprite attack." Please behave. Please.

"Ah. They were the other student in that incident. Mother told me and your father about it. Didn't give me names though." Oh no, she looked like she was calculating.

"Please be nice to them. They tried to give me a heads up about Horus acting funny." Please no schemes.

"Who?"

"Kelpie Representative."

"Repaying a kindness with spying? Very Kelpie. What color magic?"

"Dusty brown."

"Did you tell them about me?"

"They know I have a parent who went here."

She nodded, "That's why they aren't bothered, I assume you left out the human father part."

"You told me not to tell people."

She pinched my cheek. "Let's go say hi."

I took a deep breath and followed Mom's lead.

Mom's wide grin was back. I was pretty sure it was a mostly genuine expression.

Jade's mother had a very neutral expression as we got closer. I couldn't tell if it was real or some kind of show. Fethris noticed us first.

"Serafina," he called out while waving at us.

I gave a small wave back as Mom skipped over to them.

"Lucinda," Caninin Nightcall greeted.

Mom's name caused a physical reaction in Jade's mother, something close to a recoil. "Lucinda Hearth?!"

I didn't look at Mom instead choosing to sigh and look at Fethris. "It's been like this all day. How's your day been?"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Hearth?!" Jade exclaimed before looking at me like I'd betrayed them.

I would probably have to explain or apologize later.

"Not anymore, my last name is Stewart now. I told Serafina not to talk about it." The correction wasn't as sharp or aggressive as it had been with Gorgon, but the cheer in her voice was entirely fake.

"Nothing too extraordinary, thankfully," Fethris responded to my question.

His father looked exasperated.

"How did you think people were going to react once they found out you were back?" Caninin Nightcall asked.

"I don't know if I'm back yet, just…visiting. There's a lot of things still to be decided." I was pretty sure Mom was mostly teasing. But there was a small hint of truth underneath it.

The whole thing was a mess that left me scratching at the curse.

Jade looked a little confused.

I shrugged, "Parents, am I right?"

I meant it as a joke but neither of them laughed.

"Forget it," I looked away from both of them and saw Jade's mother looking at mine terrified.

"Jade, let's leave them be," she sounded firm.

Jade swallowed and looked between us.

"See you around Jade," I waved at them to try and keep some peace. Anyone fighting was the last thing I wanted.

But then it was just Fethris, his father, Mom and me.

Fethris looked a bit awkward as Mom's expression changed to something more genuine.

"It's nice to meet you Fethris, Serafina says you're the most reliable Dragon. Trustworthy and sweet. Never thought I'd hear Serafina say anything like that about someone."

Fethris looked almost as uncomfortable as I felt.

"I'm sorry about her."

Mom wasn't sorry in the slightest, and I felt like one of us had to be.

She rolled her eyes at me. A non-verbal request to not apologize for her being herself.

I chose to ignore it.

Fethris had a moment more of nervousness before looking at me. "Our day's been uneventful. Russel was acting weird in Elements, but I think we're all a little on edge."

Russel and Fethris' Elements class was third. So Russel being 'on edge' might have been mine and/or Mom's faults. Or something happened in the time between then and now. I decided to not say anything, too little information for a comment.

"Lucinda, are you aware there's rumors around you already?"

"Of course there's rumors Caninin," Mom winked. "The runaway heir of the Hearth Coven comes home. Nothing better than a good scandal."

He wasn't glaring at Mom, but it was near thing.

"You really don't intend to tell any of us what's going on, do you?" He stated flatly. I wouldn't call the tone accusatory, but the judgement was there.

Fethris looked between his dad and to my hands, where I was rubbing at the curse. I could see it on his face that he had figured out what his father hadn't.

Mom laughed. It sounded smug.

I guess Caninin Nightcall realized he wasn't going to get straight answers about it out of Mom, because then he asked a question I hadn't expected. "Did you two sign up for the Coven Contest?"

I hadn't fully processed the question, the answer was so obviously 'no', before Mom spoke for us both.

"Of course," Mom said with a grin.

"Umm…" Fethris looked ready to point out the very long list of reasons why that was a bad idea.

"What?" I cried. "Why?! Mom!"

She winked at me.

"Mom! Why am I just now hearing about this?!" More importantly why did she do that?! Why didn't Dad stop her?

"Oh I knew I was forgetting something…" she drifted off like it had been a burst of forgetfulness. Despite her having known I can't cast spells for my entire life and knowing about the curse for nearly three months and still signing up in the first place. It wasn't often she tried to outright lie to me, but I saw right through it.

The pain from the curse was sharp and burning.

I needed to calm down but how was I supposed to do that in this situation.

"Why did you do it in the first place?" I demanded. The one part I couldn't decipher. What could have possibly convinced her this was a good idea?

"It'll be fine. And good for us both. What's the harm in a bit of mother-daughter bonding against some other covens?"

A lot! There was a lot of potential harm! And she knew that!

My hands were shaking.

Mom stopped with the fake grin and patted me on the shoulder.

I flinched away from it.

She sighed and nodded, "Would I sign you up for anything I thought would hurt you?"

I tried to calm down. My left hand was trembling. She wouldn't, but that didn't mean much with the unpredictability of the curse. Anything could go wrong.

"Don't worry, it'll be a wonderful learning experience. For both of us."

Both of us?

I counted to ten and tried to think about what I knew about Mom.

Mom wasn't stupid. She was doing this for a reason.

She reached towards to ruffle my hair again, but stopped halfway. She must have noticed it wouldn't go over well right now.

"Will we be seeing the two of you there as well?" Mom asked.

"Unfortunately," Caninin Nightcall responded.

"I think this will be a lot of fun. More fun than I ever had at parent weekends," Mom was playing up her cheerfulness. But she was doing a terrible job.

From the look on Caninin Nighcall's face, he was about as fooled by Mom as I was.

It was kind of nice, seeing other people as exasperated with Mom as I was.

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