I made it through almost one episode of Star Trek before falling asleep on the couch. The end credits song played as someone draped a familiar weight that smelled like lavender on me. My favorite throw blanket. I wasn't awake enough to acknowledge it beyond snuggling further into the cushioned armrest.

Didn't mean I couldn't hear them talk.

"She's not going to disappear if you take your eyes off her." Dad's voice was low and quiet. Probably trying to not wake me.

"I know. It's just…nice to have her home." Mom didn't really do quiet, not in the same way Dad did, but her voice was almost as soft as the blanket.

"I know."

"She's been through a lot, and she hasn't told us everything. I can feel it."

"I believe they call that mother's intuition. I don't think she'll be up for much for a few days. She needs rest."

"Poor baby. You think she's sleeping well over there?"

"She hasn't complained about not getting sleep. But resting and getting sleep aren't always the same thing."

"It took me weeks to get any real sleep in Sylphid Tower. Pixie would have been too much and then she had to adjust again to Dragon."

"But she seems happy about it."

"You should have seen it, Dragon Tower is like something out of those black and white movies you two like so much."

"No wonder she seems to love it."

"And her friends seem nice. At least I know they come from good people."

"You're worried."

"I'm always worried. She's…she's our little girl. And I was her age when the worst day of my life happened. I can't…I want something better for her."

"You can't protect her forever."

"I know, but…I can still try, can't I?"

"She knows."

"She probably thinks I'm overbearing."

"You're a mother who wants to keep her child safe. And Serafina knows that. Even when she's not happy about your methods."

"You think she's still mad at me? For November?"

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"If she is, she hasn't told me. And I think she's starting to understand why."

"I don't want to tell her how to live her life. I won't. But…I think I can almost understand why…"

"Controlling is different from protecting. You want Serafina to be herself, just safe while she's being her. Your father wanted you to be someone very specific. And I for one am glad he failed."

"Sweet talker."

"It's why you married me."

"No. I married you because of your glasses."

I groaned as I shifted before opening my eyes.

"Whoops she's awake," Mom's voice came from the other end of the couch. On my right side and far enough away that I had plenty of space.

I yawned and rubbed at eyes.

"Have you been getting enough sleep?" Mom asked. Probably wanting to pretend that conversation with Dad hadn't happened. I didn't see a reason to not to play along.

"I think so," I sat up and shifted the blanket into my lap. I don't think lack of sleep was the problem, the nightmares might have been.

Not that I'd told them about the nightmares, but it was probably fine.

Maybe all that worrying had caught up to me. Between Red and Death's Echo and the Wraith. And the curse. There was a lot going on. Too much. But if I told them about any of it Mom might overreact.

Her pulling me out of the school and me losing everything was too real of a possibility. And it was the last thing I wanted.

"Probably just tired from the trip home," I told her instead. It wasn't fully a lie. Traveling by myself was not something I was comfortable with and sitting there had worn me out.

Mom seemed placated for now. Good but I wasn't sure I had the energy to get into it. I mostly felt dizzy.

I closed my eyes and a moment passed before Mom gasped loudly. "Serafina!"

I opened my eyes to glare at her. Then I felt something on my face. I rubbed my nose and pulled my hand back to see red on my fingers.

I scrambled off the couch and ran towards my bathroom. Why did my body hate me?

Luckily it wasn't a lot of blood, just enough to give my eyes a pink shine. I washed my face and tried to will them to go back to normal. They persisted for several moments.

I guess being home didn't free me from what I really was. What I had always been. The only difference was that now I knew. Now I could almost see it, the life I could have had. With friends and magic and…

Someone knocked on the bathroom door.

"You can come in, I'm fine."

Mom stood there, worry in her golden eyes and hands fluttering like she didn't know what to do with them. It was the same posture I'd seen a thousand times.

She stood there and then smiled. "You know…it's a pretty pink."

I gripped the front of the sink and looked down. "What…" I stopped and tried to find the right words for the question. "Would you have guessed pink?"

"I was expecting maybe brown or even white. But I've been wrong before."

"You told me it would be something if I got picked by Dragon, were you surprised at all?"

"I don't know how I felt about it," she leaned on the doorframe. "I was too nervous someone was going to piece together who you were."

Who I was? "You mean your daughter."

"Any chance you had for a normal school experience would have gone up in smoke."

"Then why did you…if you didn't want…" I could finish the questions.

But Mom seemed to get it anyway, "You wanted me there. And I wanted to see the curse in person. And at that point you'd already thrown normal out the window."

"Normal, huh? I don't think normal was ever an option for me."

"Maybe. But I wanted to give you the chance to try anyway."

I took a deep breath. I could still smell something metallic in the air. "Mom, I'm glad I'm not a Hearth. I like being a Stewart."

Her eyes went all watery.

"Please don't cry," I nearly pleaded.

She didn't, but her expression threatened it.

I sighed. Mom was still the same. Despite everything. That was more comforting than I expected. The Mom I had growing up wasn't another one of her tricks.

I still had something to ask her. I looked away and down into the sink. Small traces of my blood lingered there in specks. "Mom…if…if my magic had developed when it was supposed to…what would you have done differently?"

"A lot of things, but maybe nothing. Sending you to a non-magical school would have been too irresponsible. Even for me," she said with a wink.

I would never have met Ethan in that case. That was a sad thought, even with how everything went down.

And…maybe it was for the best that I didn't meet the others sooner. They barely took me seriously now, how bad would it be if they knew me when I was younger? I would be a complete joke then.

This was the better outcome for sure.

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