Mom was out of bed when Dad I finally arrived back at the house. She was leaning on the counter with a cup in her hands. Little wisps of steam rose from the mug. The teapot, a yellow thing with little painted blue flowers. She'd made it herself. Who needs a kiln when you've been learning fire magic your entire life?

I didn't quite share Mom's artistic talent, but at least she looked awake and aware.

"So, how'd it go?" She asked.

I moved to the other side of the counter and leaned forward towards her, almost identical to her own pose. "Next week?" I prompted.

She flinched. Genuine surprise and a flash of shame. Okay she did just simply forget to tell me. "I meant to tell you!"

"I know."

She pushed the pot towards me. "It's wildflowers. Light on the honey."

"Is the excessive sugar a Hearth thing or a you thing?" I teased.

"Rude. Mostly a me thing though."

"Vivian made me tea like yours once. Way too sweet. I think she operated on, 'just pretend she's Lucinda and hope for the best' for a while."

"That sounds about right."

I left her to go grab a mug of my own.

"Welcome back," she said to Dad in lower voice than how she greeted me.

"It went well, actually." He answered her previous question that I'd ignored.

I poured myself a cup of tea while trying to not roll my eyes too hard at Dad kissing the top of Mom's head.

"So what exactly is the plan for next week?" I asked.

"The three of us are going to go meet with Mother, Ruby and her son at a place I know. It's going to be cold so be sure to dress warm."

"That tells me nothing," I complained.

"It's a place I've been before, it's a little place further north," she seemed deep in thought. "I don't remember the city name though. It's close to Canada, but still in the US."

"It's not like a formal thing, is it?" I asked with dread. It was going to be strange enough without a dress code or something.

"Not that formal. I mean I won't stop you if want to dress cute for the day."

Cute huh? Maybe. "Just for the day?"

"Just to see how we all get along. Should be fine, Ruby and Victor have met before. And Jarec seems nice."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

She didn't mention the biggest potential problem, Vivian Hearth. How my grandmother felt about Dad was the real problem. And then there was also the question of what to do with the rest of the coven.

"So…how big is the Hearth coven?" I asked. "Like how many people?"

"Well there's the main branch, which you've already met most of. Me, Ruby, Mother and her brothers. And there's a few side branches of cousins here and there. So I think about thirty."

I had no way of knowing if that meant it was huge or tiny. But it was nice to know all the same.

"It's probably for the best that you won't be meeting them just yet."

I would have to trust her on that. And I did for now. Honestly just the handful we were meeting was stressful enough.

"So main branch are the people most likely to inherit leading the coven."

"Well…being the leader comes with more responsibilities than that. Mother's also the major council."

"The law-making one?"

"Yep."

"How does she have time for that and working at the school?"

"She's always had a habit of over-extending herself. But I also know she only goes to meetings when she wants to. The power of being such an old coven, not a lot of people can force her to do anything she doesn't want to."

"Is that where you get it from?"

She chuckled, "Probably."

"Ruby seemed nice last time I saw her," Dad spoke up as he settled into the stool next to Mom.

"I think so. Jarec's generally pretty cool," I commented.

"He's one of your friends from your dorm, right?" Dad asked.

"Yep. He's the one who runs the group chat."

"How does that work with the curse?" Mom asked.

"It doesn't. I'm technically in it, but I never hear anything and they don't get anything from me," I shrugged. We still needed to find some kind of work around.

Mom looked very contemplative for a moment before letting out a quiet hum. She knew something. Or I just confirmed something for her.

Wait.

"Did you know that telepathy doesn't work on me?" I asked carefully.

"I suspected. Victor gets my messages but can't send any. You never seemed to even get them," she admitted.

"That would explain why I feel so out of the loop all the time."

"I don't use it that often. Maybe once of twice if there's other adults in the room." She was mostly telling the truth, from what I could see in her face.

"She used it to make fun of all your teachers during PTA meetings," Dad ratted her out.

Mom gasped in betrayal with all the melodrama of being stabbed in the back. Entirely fake, of course.

I laughed at her expense.

"So mean! Why is our baby so mean to me?" She continued to complain in that very fake tone.

Which was why I didn't feel bad in the slightest about laughing at her. If anything that was probably why she did it.

A moment passed, then she stared into her mug of tea. "If I thought this was going to be a disaster, I wouldn't have called Mother and Ruby about it. I have faith in them."

"I trust you. Mostly. I promise." I teased.

"Mostly, she says," Mom scoffed. "Do you hear her?"

"It's better than hardly," Dad teased.

(*********)

Snowman making was a special kind of artform. The snow had to have just the right amount of moisture. Completely dry snow wouldn't stick to itself enough. Of course too wet and you have basically a slushie that couldn't stand.

It was a balance. A delicate one.

It was easier to focus on the sphere of snow in my hands with my back turned to the Archer house though.

I made the larger one about a foot and a half in diameter. A nice steady base of frozen water. It was kind of funny to think about how far the water for the snow might have travelled, just to end up on my lawn and at my whim. It could have come from anywhere and now it's here.

I made the middle section smaller, only a foot in diameter. I set it on the first sphere and stepped back to made sure it wasn't going to rebel against me by falling off or something.

It stayed where it was because it knew what was best for it.

I made the head of the snowman about eight inches, making my snowman just over three feet tall. I stepped back and tried to think about what I wanted for it.

I didn't like using a carrot for the nose, too easy for some critter to ruin my fun.

I had something else though. A large smoky quartz crystal. It was still smaller than your average carrot, but it was me. I pushed the flat end into the snow, the point made for a fun silhouette I think.

I didn't really want to put a hat on my icy friend. So I opted to attempt to fashion a crown for them. I gathered up some more snow and shaped it into little spikes around the outer rim of their head.

It was kind of messy and a little lopsided, but I liked it.

It wasn't the kind of snowman that everyone else made, but that wasn't the point. It was my snowman and I made it for me.

I gave it a gentle pat on the side of the head and went back inside.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.