I give him a look. “Not happening Finn, Alvie can sleep in with me and you can bunk up with Gabriel.”
Finn looks uncomfortable for a minute, then says, “Um, the boys kind of requested a room tog
ether.”
I widen my eyes. I knew there was something going on with those two. I can’t help the smile that spreads across my lips. “That’s so cute, and surprising, I really thought Gabriel was straight when I first met him.”
Finn smirks. “Gabriel likes his bread buttered on both sides, if ya get me.”
“Oh.”
“Ah, give the guy a break. He’s pushing one-hundred and fifty, if I’d lived that long I’d probably be looking to shake things up in the bedroom department myself.”
I can’t stop the laugh that sputters from lips. “God, I never thought Gabriel was so old.”
“Dhamphirs can live for up to 500 years,” says Finn casually.
“I wonder how old Delilah is,” I mutter, half to myself.
Finn raises an eyebrow. “Cristescu’s sister? She’s younger than Gabe, probably only about eighty. Not bad looking for an old broad either.”
“Has Gabriel ever gotten in touch with Ethan or Delilah since I left?” I ask.
“I don’t think so, after the fight with Theodore on the island they all went back to ignoring the fact that they’re family, just like before.”
It makes me sort of sad, thinking about the rift between Gabriel and his half siblings. I look back at Finn then. “Fine, you can stay in with me, but keep your hands to yourself.”
“Are you forgetting whose house this is?” Finn asks, arms folded in amusement.
“Whatever.”
He smiles and pats me on the shoulder. “Come on, help me set up the rooms for our guests.” I sigh and follow him to the airing cupboard.
Chapter Ten
Remember the Daughter, and All That You Taught Her
Later that night, after everyone’s settled in their respective bedrooms, we all gather in the living room where Rita is preparing to cast a healing spell on Finn’s leg. Carefully, she unwraps the bandage to reveal a nasty looking wound, but at least it doesn’t appear to be infected. She gives it a prod with her finger and grins when Finn flinches in pain.
“Hey, what did you do that for?” Finn asks, clenching his jaw.
Rita shrugs. “Don’t know, I just felt like it.”
“You’d better hope this works, or else you can kiss goodbye to sleeping in the master bedroom.”
“Rita love, prepare the spell and quit messing around,” says Noreen. I look to the woman who is the spitting image of her daughter, except her features are slightly more aged and refined. I try to imagine her and Theodore together, but it just doesn’t seem to fit. Perhaps he’s not Rita’s dad after all.
Rita frowns at her. “Our house just burned to the ground Mum, let me get my happiness where I can.”
Noreen shakes her head. “I’ve told you time and again Rita, it is not a healthy reaction to derive pleasure from the pain of others.”
“I don’t really care what’s healthy and what isn’t right now,” says Rita dismissively, assembling the ingredients for her spell. I sit down beside her and ask her to explain to me what she’s going to do to heal Finn’s leg. Knowing that I have magic makes me want to gain a better understanding of what I can do with it.
“I had to pick these up at the market down the road, since all of my ingredients are back at the house and are more than likely incinerated at this point,” says Rita. “I was lucky too, because it’s late and the guy who works there was just ready to close up.” She starts tearing a range of herbal ingredients and throwing them into a big bowl. “I’m making a magical healing poultice to put on the wound, usually it takes a few hours to work, so he should be right as rain by morning.”
She picks up a spoon and begins mashing her concoction into a paste. “In here I’ve got echinacea, passionflower, root of ginger, aloe vera and tea tree oil. As a witch you need to know the correct properties of the herbs and other ingredients you use in your magic, because if you make a mistake, for instance by trying to use bee pollen in a healing spell when its function is to improve physical endurance, then you’re not going to get the result you were aiming for.”
“That makes sense,” I agree. I notice Noreen smiling proudly to herself out of the corner of my eye. She taught her daughter well.