Page 36 of Forgotten Arcane (Broken Ashes #6)
Neith
R ansom moves so that he’s crouching in front of me, his eyes meeting mine.
“It’s okay. Everything happens for a reason, remember? It’s really fucking shitty though,” his hands cup my face, and his thumbs gently rub my cheeks.
I swallow all of the what-ifs and then take a deep breath and release them all.
“It does no one any good focusing on the what-ifs of the past,” I say.
It’s something that I actually used to repeat to myself regularly. It’s just a little bit harder to listen to this time.
“Exactly,” Ransom says, and he leans forward, kissing me softly. “Better?”
I nod, “It would have changed a lot, and it would have saved me from a lot, but life didn’t work out that way, and that’s okay. The mistake is mine and I own that, but I will not let it affect my present.”
Ransom smiles proudly, “That’s my girl.”
“I’m sorry, maybe we shouldn’t have told you,” Calia says with a worried frown.
I shake my head and smile. I really do feel okay about it. The initial shock just hit me a little hard. Okay, really fucking hard.
“No, I would have preferred that you told me rather than kept it to yourself,” I reply honestly.
Because I want to change the subject now, I check in with the Voices about what I want to do, and when they don’t really react in any way, I grin. Standing up, my smile widens even more as the guys immediately catch on to what I’m doing and move the chairs back so that I have enough room.
“Is everything okay?” Eamon asks, looking extremely confused.
Doc nods, “Watch this.”
I call on my magic to bring on my shift, and I’m really pleased that, just like River said the first time that I shifted, the odd sensation that comes with shifting is already not as bad as it was.
Just like with Sully, I only shift my wings, not my fangs or eyes.
Calia and Eamon’s eyes widen, as huge, proud smiles light up their faces.
“Oh, Neith, they’re beautiful,” Calia mutters. “You look so much like your mom right now. I know your wings are different, but wow. She would be so proud of you.”
My answering smile is watery. I don’t know why it affects me so much that a woman I don’t remember would be proud of me, but it really does.
Clearing my throat, I grin, “They’re pretty cool, aren’t they?”
“They really are,” Eamon agrees. His smile dims, “You should be really careful where you use them. You’re really fucking rare. There are only two of you.”
I nod and shift back because chairs are still the enemy where my wings are concerned.
“We were made aware of that when they first appeared,” Reed says. “The Elders sent a messenger.”
Eamon’s eyebrows hit his hairline, “The Elders? They haven’t gotten involved for centuries. They think that it hasn’t been that long, but they really don’t have much concept of time.”
“Oh wow. Lucius made it seem like they were slightly out of touch, but not massively so,” I reply.
Calia nods, “That’s because Lucius is almost as out of touch as the rest of them. He used to put more effort into staying up to date with current affairs. It’s certainly surprising that they’ve gotten involved now.”
“You need to be cautious,” Eamon warns us urgently.
Van nods, his expression serious, “Yes, we know. Our initial instinct was to be incredibly careful.”
“They know ancient magic,” Eamon says. “Magic that the rest of the supernatural world has forgotten, and because of that, they are extremely dangerous.”
I share a look with the others. We thought that they were something that we need to be cautious about, but now that we’ve learned this, we’re going to need to be even more careful.
“Thank you,” Reed says. “Obviously, we can’t just ask anyone about this kind of thing.”
Eamon shakes his head, “No, you can’t. I’m sorry that I couldn’t tell you more. I will have a look through my library. I brought quite a few books over with me from Trieneliea, hopefully one of those might have more information about them.”
“That would be great,” Raiden grins, excited at the prospect of new books with better information.
“No problem. If I find anything, I will call you, and you can all come and grab the books,” Eamon says, with a smile. “And have dinner again.”
Van frowns slightly, “I’m sorry. I promise that we’ll visit more.”
Eamon chuckles, “I’m teasing. I know how demanding your jobs are.”
“Alright, is there anything else that you want to talk about?” Calia asks, changing the subject. “We should probably start cooking soon. It’s going to take longer than usual to get everything ready because I want to teach you all how to do it.”
I look at the guys, for the moment, I think I have all of the information that I need. I’m sure that more questions will come up the more that I find out, but for now, I know what I need to.
“I think that’s everything for now,” Van answers, and I nod in agreement.
“Excellent,” Eamon says as he stands up. “You kids have fun learning to cook. No need to be nervous, there is just a whole compound worth of people waiting to try your food, who have all been told that you’re cooking it.”
“Oh wow. No pressure,” River grimaces.
Eamon chuckles as he leaves the room, clearly proud of his joke, and making me smile.
Calia waves her hand dismissively in the air as she gets up as well, “Ah, don’t listen to him. Come on.”
We all get up and follow her out of the room and back through the vast house to the kitchen.
“So not everyone knows that we’re helping you cook today?” Reed asks, looking relieved.
“Oh no, they all know,” Calia replies with a twinkle in her eye, and I chuckle.
When we get into the kitchen, it’s to find that she’s already set everything up to make it as easy for us as possible.
The kitchen is massive, and she’s split it up into different sections, with chopping boards, and the things that we need to chop, and all sorts of other things.
There are enough individual areas for all of us.
“Wow, Mom, this looks great,” Van compliments.
She smiles proudly, “Thank you. Okay, so, first things first, these are all the recipes I’ve put together for you.”
She lifts up a big binder that is full of recipes, and I try not to smile. The guy’s prediction was dead on, and I love her for that.
“Thanks, Mom,” Evander says as he takes it from her. “This is great.” His eyebrows rise as he flicks through it, “You’ve put shopping lists for each recipe in here as well.”
Calia nods, “Yes, well, I figured that would help as well. The recipe measurements don’t really tell you how much of one thing that you actually need to buy, and it can get a little bit confusing to work out. So I thought it would make it easier.”
“That’s great, thank you,” Griff grins.
“No problem,” she replies. “Okay, so these dishes have quite a lot of prep work, mostly because we’re making such big quantities. I’ve printed out the recipe for each of you, and I will be helping you every step of the way. We’re making three dishes.”
I smile nervously. I really hope that I’m not going to burn something.
“Is anyone else nervous?” River asks out of the side of his mouth.
I burst out laughing.
“There’s no need to be nervous,” Calia grins. “I have picked simple recipes that we can do on a massive scale. We’ve got creamy peppercorn chicken with rice, roasted veg, and pulled pork sliders.”
My mouth waters. They all sound delicious, but I can’t really believe that I’m going to be able to make them that successfully. I can cook, but it’s not really anything made from scratch. It’s more about reading the back of the packet and throwing it in the microwave or oven.
A gourmet cook, I am not.
Hell, I’m not even a competent cook.
She sets us all up, and I find myself really enjoying it, and it’s not as difficult as I thought it was going to be.
None of us has burned anything yet, which is a good sign.
It turns out that Coen was being modest when he said he was an okay cook.
He’s really good. So good in fact, that Calia quickly let him be in charge of the chicken dish, and Coen even tweaked the recipe and put his own twist on it, we were all really impressed.
Because Coen had one of the dishes handled, Calia decided that we should make another one so the rest of us could get some practice in, which is why I ended up making something called Mediterranean chicken. It smells absolutely delicious, and I can’t wait until I can try it.
Eventually, we’re done, and just in time as everyone begins to arrive together.
I grin at the sheer chaos of it all as kids run around greeting each other, and people start placing the dishes they’ve brought on the table.
When I was younger, I used to worry that we would run out of food for everyone, but that didn’t happen once.
In fact, people would always leave with leftovers.
I have no idea how we never run out, but I would have to guess that it’s thanks to Calia’s planning. We have made huge portions of what she taught us to make, and when Doc asked her how many potions it was, she said that there should be enough for everyone to have seconds if they wanted.
That’s five hundred people.
That’s an insane amount of food, and the sheer amount of prep work makes a lot of sense now.
They use magic to make sure that everything stays warm, and it’s the best.
Fortunately for us, the aunties and uncles that Evander and I were worrying about were too happy to see us to scold us properly, and we both let out a relieved breath when all they did was give us great big hugs.
As I sit between Van and River, enjoying my food, it becomes increasingly clear that not everyone is happy to see me. I’m trying really hard not to show my amusement as one of the girls who always had a massive thing for Van glares at me from across the table.
Unsurprisingly, she has her best friends sitting on either side of her, and they’re giving me dirty looks too.
It’s absolutely ridiculous. It would appear that some people never left high school. I am even less bothered by their glares than I was when I was younger.