Chapter 64: Coffee And Answers

Mom hugged me so hard I could barely breathe but I wasn't complaining. It was nice to have her arms around me, to stand there in the safety of the Hayle magic I couldn't

feel. Harder though was accepting I needed that protection and, when she turned me sideways and tucked me against her hip, her blue eyes flashing that family anger I had a healthy dose of but, obviously, not the ingrained guts to back it up, I let her and the others have their interaction without my input.

"Well, this is a surprise," Damon said with a grin, nodding to Sassafras who shuddered and took on human shape. Damon lost his smile, jaw dropping as Sass stared with his own mouth gaping open while Mom looked back and forth between them with a testy kind of glare but her anger fading.