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“But I wasn’t talking about Marcus being the son of a reaper,” I clarified. “I meant it’ll be hard for him because neurological conditions can pass down genetically. I have multiple mental health disorders, and Marcus could’ve inherited similar neurology.”

“We can handle that,” Nadine promised. “We know how to get him the care he needs if he requires support. All we can do in the meantime is give him a good life. Besides, we don’t know that this curse is going to last forever. Professor Wykoff has been away all summer researching Marcus’s curse, but she’ll be back this afternoon for the ceremony. We’ll talk about this with her then.”

“All right,” I agreed. “Let’s get to the ceremony. We don’t want to be late.”

I grabbed the carved wooden box from the table, and our friends carried the boxes of programs out to the cars. We loaded the kids in their car seats and the stroller in the back, then drove down the road to Miriam Mansion.

School officials had already lined rows of chairs at the front of the school. There was also a podium set up, along with a wide red ribbon stretched before the doors. I dropped my box off at the podium, then my friends and I helped distribute programs to each seat before coven members started arriving.

As cars began filling the parking lot, Nadine, Chloe, and I went to find our spots up front with the rest of the Imperium Council. Miles stood near the podium with his hands on his hips, keeping watch for any threats. His position as sheriff was pretty easy these days, but it was his job to stay on high alert. Grant and Talia went to find a seat with our kids in the front row.

“Priest Anthony, Priestess Linda.” Nadine greeted the other council members kindly. It still felt strange to call them anything but Professor Richards and Dr. Mack. “Have you seen the headmaster?”

“He should be around here somewhere,” Professor Richards said as he peered through the crowd.

I followed his gaze, but I didn’t see the headmaster at first. Instead, my eyes landed upon a woman with purple glasses, and a man pushing her wheelchair. He helped her into a spot near the front reserved for wheelchairs, then sat in the row beside her. In her lap, she held a young child. The kid was the same age as Marcus, but he looked a bit younger, with a rounder face and shorter limbs. He wore glasses with a strap, though I knew he couldn’t see well out of them.

Lydia and Quentin had returned to Octavia Falls once the conflict ended, and they’d brought their son Alistair with them. He’d been born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism, and though he wore glasses now, his vision was quickly deteriorating, and he’d been diagnosed legally blind. We got together with them for play dates, and he and Marcus always had a blast. Alistair was nimble on the playground, but walked with a cat on a leash otherwise to help him get around. The first time I’d seen his cat, it’d been a kitten, but the cat was always eating and getting fatter by the day—hence the name they’d given it, Pig. Alistair had started using a cane as a secondary assistance device.

Quentin and Lydia had been some of the few people we knew personally who’d moved back from Hok’evale . Monica, Tate, and Mandy had all established a good life there and returned to Hok’evale after we killed the demon. Monica had reopened a music shop, and Tate was working at the rehab center there. Mandy worked with a jeweler making all kinds of beaded trinkets. She’d sent a beautiful beaded rattle for Erica’s birthday a few weeks ago, and our daughter hadn’t stopped playing with it since.

Onyx was also notably missing from the ceremony. After things settled following the conflict, the United Supernatural Union reached out. Our previous representative had perished the night of Nicole’s attack, and as part of our treaty with the Union, we were required to appoint a new representative. Onyx had already been working with other supernatural races and making alliances in Paris, so the coven appointed her our Union Representative. We rarely saw her these days, but I was glad she was living her dream. The last time we talked, she seemed enthusiastic about the work she was doing, and I’d never seen her happier.

Among the crowd were other friends who had survived the conflict. Samantha and Darcy sat next to each other, shooting glances over at Alex, who was standing near the back in his police uniform.

“If you like him, you should ask him out,” I heard Darcy say loudly.

“Shh…” Samantha hissed. “I didn’t say I liked him. I just said the scar on his face is hot.”

“You didn’t have to say it,” Darcy said. “I know a girl in love when I see it. Plus, he looks at you the same way my boyfriend looks at me. He clearly likes you.”

“You think?” Samantha squeaked. She glanced over her shoulder again, and Alex caught her eye and smiled. She went beet red under his gaze, then giggled as she turned back to Darcy. “All right. I’ll ask him out after the ceremony.”

Professor Richards pointed to the crowd. “Ah, there’s the headmaster. He’s with Allyn.”

Headmaster Warren knelt at the edge of a row of chairs, talking to a young child that sat between Gregory and Brayden. The kid was Marcus’s age, with light hair and the complexion of a ghost. Headmaster Warren made a funny face, and the child let out a full-belly laugh.

For as strange as it was to call Professor Richards Priest Anthony , dropping the professor title off Warren’s name felt entirely natural. Headmaster Jonathan Warren suited him quite well, and he was really good at his job.

But his job didn’t leave much time for family, and after everything that happened, Warren decided that what was best for his family was different from most. He’d been too stricken with grief to raise a child. He didn’t talk about it often, but he opened up to me once to say that every time he looked at Allyn, he saw Clarice Verla.

“ I knew I couldn’t be a good parent to my son ,” Warren had admitted to me. “ The best thing for him is to be raised by someone else. I still want to be a part of his life, but I can serve him better in the role of a grandfather than his only dad. ”

Gregory and Brayden had stepped up to raise Allyn as their own. The couple had gotten married at a nearby courthouse after the evacuations. Everything had felt so uncertain then, and they wanted to tie the knot before they lost the chance. After they returned to Octavia Falls, they assumed it’d be a few years before they could adopt a child, but Allyn had needed somewhere to go, and Warren had chosen them. Legally, Gregory and Brayden Walker were Allyn’s dads, but Warren was still around to help.

Nadine and I walked over to Warren. He noticed us and got to his feet.

“Nadine, Lucas. It’s so good to see you,” he said as he shook each of our hands in turn. “I have to say, I don’t know if we would’ve been able to salvage the school without the two of you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

“We couldn’t have done it alone,” I said.

Nadine gestured toward the podium. “It’s time to get started, Headmaster.”

“Yes, of course.” Warren turned back to Gregory. “I’ll see your family tomorrow night for dinner.”

From what I heard, Gregory and Brayden brought Allyn over to Warren’s house every Sunday night for dinner. Their arrangement was unconventional, but the four of them had become a family of their own, and that was beautiful.

Professor Warren stepped up to the podium, and the crowd quieted as his voice rang through speakers. “Welcome to the Miriam College of Witchcraft Grand Reopening! I’m Headmaster Warren, and we’re thrilled you’re here today to share this historic moment with us.”

Krista Thomas, little Caleb’s mom, knelt near the podium and started snapping photos with her professional camera. The pictures would go in the Miriamic Messenger next week.

Professor Warren went on to give some history about the college, as well as thank members of the community who had donated their time or money to rebuild the school. It was quite a long list, as it seemed that everyone had chipped in some way to help restore the building to its former glory.

“Before we open the school for tours, our Imperium Council welcomes you to be a part of this historic event by joining hands, so that together, we may perform a space-bending spell to expand the school to accommodate our staff and students’ needs,” Warren announced. “We join together with the following incantation: What once lay broken is now revived. We expand this school to its former size. ”

All around us, hundreds of coven members joined hands and began speaking the incantation. Power surged around us as I linked my hands with Nadine on one side and Chloe on the other. Nadine’s eyes began to glow a bright white as the power of the coven filled her up. She brought our power together and guided tendrils of magic to circle the entire building and swirl upward, until the whole school was encompassed by a massive spell.

From the outside, it appeared that nothing was happening, but through the front windows, I witnessed the walls of the Main Foyer stretching and expanding to our will. The grand staircase sank back into the school, and sconces doubled before our eyes as the walls tripled in size. Even the large fireplace seemed to grow under our spell, and I could’ve sworn I saw the painting of Mother Miriam above the mantle shimmer, like she herself approved of our spellwork.

The school absorbed the power, until all the shining tendrils of magic seeped into the walls of the building.

“Now, the Imperium Council will join me to cut the ribbon and welcome you back to our school!” Headmaster Warren announced.

He withdrew the box Beau had carved from beneath the podium and carefully opened it. Inside sat a long ceremonial wand that Beau had crafted by hand. The wand was even more beautiful than the box that held it. The handle had leaves and flowers carved into it, with vines that twisted around symbols from all Casts. The ceremonial wand looked like something antique and from another time, though it was brand new.

The Imperium Council gathered together, and Headmaster Warren stepped between us to hold the tip of the wand to the ribbon. Only when I got a look up close did I notice that Beau had engraved something else into the blade—an inscription that read Unitas . It was a Latin word that meant unity or oneness . It was the perfect touch.

“Smile!” Krista shouted.

Her camera clicked in quick succession as we leaned in to place our hands over Headmaster Warren’s. Together, we cast a simple spell that sliced the ribbon in two. The ribbon fell away, and the crowd erupted into ceremonial celebration.

“Welcome back to Miriam College of Witchcraft!” Headmaster Warren shouted.

As the ceremony ended, people began flooding into the school to tour the new classrooms. I was amazed at the Main Foyer when we entered. It was a lot like I remembered, but it was somehow more beautiful. The red carpet that spanned up the staircase was brighter and softer than ever before, and the black chandelier that hung over our heads shined brilliantly.

Our friends met up with us in the Main Foyer. “This looks amazing!” Chloe raved as she spun around to take it all in.

“Miriam College of Witchcraft has never looked better,” Talia agreed. She pushed the kids in a stroller. Erica was passed out, but Marcus twisted his head in every direction to take in the expansive room.

“How big is the pool?” Grant asked eagerly.

“I made sure to give the pool a little extra magic, just for you,” Nadine joked.

“Anything else that’s changed?” Miles wondered.

“I funneled more magic into the kitchens because they always seemed a bit too small,” Nadine said. “However, there’s one thing I decided not to change. Follow me.”

Nadine led us around the back of the grand staircase to an elevator there. When the school was being rebuilt, we worked closely with construction crews to ensure the new school was entirely ADA-compliant, even when accounting for the space-bending spell. Nadine had insisted on tons of elevators and ramps, accessible sinks in the restrooms, braille signage, and all kinds of other accommodations in the buildings and class curriculum. Disabled kids deserved to enjoy and love this school just as much as everyone else did.

We took the elevator up to the second floor, and Nadine led us to the far end of the hallway. There was another elevator there, but where I expected to see a staircase, there was merely a blank wall.

“What’s this?” Chloe asked.

“It’s the Vanishing Stairwell, of course!” Nadine exclaimed.

Grant took a few steps back. “Ah, hell no! I’m not getting stuck in there again.”

“It’s not really vanishing,” Nadine said. She pressed her palm to the wall, and her hand went straight through it. “I bent the space to make it look like a wall, but it isn’t. It’s a trick stairwell that’s entirely safe.”

“I like it,” Talia said simply. “Miriam College of Witchcraft wasn’t just about our classes. It’s about the history of this building and the stories it tells. Believe me, finishing our coursework at the community center wasn’t nearly as fun as roaming these halls with you guys. Nadine’s keeping the tradition going.”

“That’s exactly what I wanted,” Nadine stated proudly. “The next generation will grow up with legends of their own. I thought it’d be nice to have something to share with them.”

I wrapped an arm around her waist. “It’s perfect.”

“Yes, it will be a joy traumatizing the next generation of students,” Chloe teased. “Remember the time you pushed me into the Vanishing Stairwell, Nadine?”

Nadine laughed. “That’s not fair. You trashed my room and tried to frame me for defiling Mother Miriam’s painting.”

“Oh, kiss already!” Miles exclaimed. “I don’t care if Chloe’s my wife. You two have the ultimate enemies to lovers story, and I’m sick of watching you two flirt and never getting to a climax.”

Nadine smirked. “You want me to make your wife climax, Miles?”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Don’t listen to him. He just likes the idea of me making out with other women.”

“Let’s not and say we did,” I suggested.

Nadine laughed. “Sorry to disappoint you, Miles. I’m gonna have to go with my husband on this one.”

Chloe draped an arm around Nadine’s shoulder. “We may not be lovers, but we do make very good friends.”

Nadine looped one arm around Chloe’s waist, and the other around mine until we were all gathered in a group hug. “Friends forever,” Nadine promised.

“ Friends forever .” We spoke in unison, as if the words themselves were an incantation sealing our life and our stories to one another.

After everything we’d been through, there was no taking it back. We were united as one, in this life and the next.

We continued through the halls of Miriam Mansion, touring dorm rooms and classrooms. Even the Grand Ballroom seemed bigger and more vibrant than it’d ever been before.

We finished our tour in the cafeteria, where there were refreshments laid out for the open house. Our friends gathered around a big table, and Marcus and Erica nibbled on fruit and crackers. We were almost finished eating when I caught sight of Professor Wykoff entering the cafeteria.

I nudged Nadine. “Professor Wykoff is back.”

“We should go say hi,” she suggested. “Tal, can you watch the kids?”

“Sure, but if your son starts finger painting with applesauce again, I’m not cleaning it up,” Talia replied.

Nadine quickly moved Marcus’s plate of applesauce away from him.

We approached Professor Wykoff, and our former teacher dropped her shoulders in relief when she saw us. “Lucas, Nadine. It’s wonderful to see you!”

We exchanged hugs, but when we drew away, I noticed a hint of worry in her eyes.

“Is everything all right?” I asked.

“Everyone is safe for now,” Wykoff assured me, though I didn’t like the way she said for now . “I finished my research.”

I shot a glance at Marcus. He was laughing at Grant, who’d placed two pieces of salami over his eyes and made faces at the kids. Marcus tried copying him by putting a pepperoni on the end of his own nose, but it fell off his face and onto the floor.

A lump rose to my throat. “We should talk in private.”

“Yes, of course,” Wykoff offered.

She led us out into the Main Foyer, which was all but deserted now. We gathered around a private seating area near the crackling fireplace. I took Nadine’s hand in mine, and she squeezed back tightly.

“I do wish I had better news to share,” Professor Wykoff began. “I’ve been working closely with the Demigod Guardians, and we know now why the Master Wand couldn’t break Marcus’s curse.”

“There must be something that’s stronger,” Nadine insisted.

Professor Wykoff shook her head regrettably. “That’s what I have to tell you. There’s nothing that can break his curse.”

My stomach dropped, and Nadine’s features went pale.

“I’ve never run across a curse that can’t be broken,” Nadine pressed. “Even if it takes time.”

“I’m afraid even time can’t change this,” Wykoff replied. “In our research, the Demigod Guardians have learned that a spell a demigod casts upon themselves cannot be reversed. In this case, your son’s curse was cast using the Master Wand, which was born of his own power. Magically, it’s as if Marcus cast this curse upon himself, and so this magic is locked in. There will never be anything more powerful that can break it.”

“There has to be something else we can do,” I insisted. “If he finds out he’s a demigod through other means, then the curse will have no hold on him anymore, right? The curse says that no witch or warlock can tell him about his powers, but what if we get one of our allies to talk to him?”

“It still won’t work, because indirectly, we’re still telling him,” Wykoff said. “Marcus is going to have to figure out what he is on his own.”

“How do we prepare him for that?” Nadine asked. “We know Marcus is going to be involved in some sort of supernatural battle when he’s older. Talia saw a vision of him with the Seer Wand, headed into battle on a wolven shifter’s back. Talia said he was more powerful than any warlock she’d ever seen.”

“You can teach him theory, but his magic won’t fully awaken until he’s older,” Professor Wykoff said. “The best you can do for your son is to nurture his mind and spirit, so that when his powers do awaken, he’s ready for it.”

“So there’s nothing we can do to help him with his magic?” I asked.

Professor Wykoff sat up straighter. “I know you want the best for your child, but you must understand that you can’t physically be there for him through everything. His destiny is his alone, and there will come a time when you have to set him free and let him fight battles in which you’re unable to stand beside him.”

The thought of my son fighting anything like we had made me sick to my stomach. I leaned back in my chair to peer into the open doorway of the cafeteria. Marcus caught my eye, and he jumped out of his chair to come running into the Main Foyer. Talia tried to catch him, but he was out of her reach in a second. I waved to her to let her know not to worry about it.

“Daddy!” Marcus cried as he ran across the foyer toward me.

I opened my arms to him, but he tripped a moment before reaching me. My heart leapt into my throat as he went tumbling toward the active fireplace. I swooped down to catch him around the belly before he fell face-first into the fire. Nadine gasped in surprise, but it took everything I had in me to swallow down my fright. If I let Marcus know I’d been terrified for his safety a second ago, he’d have a full-on meltdown.

Instead, I tossed him over my shoulder like I had this morning and tickled his belly. “What are you up to, silly goose?”

Marcus giggled in my ear. “Daddy! Tickle me more!”

I plopped back down in my chair and cradled Marcus in one arm while I tickled under his chin with the other. Nadine playfully grabbed his feet and tickled his ankles.

“Mommy!” Marcus screamed in delight.

His laughter filled the room. It was a sound that melted my heart each time I heard it. It occurred to me how wonderful it was for Nadine and me to be holding our son here in the place we fell in love.

At the same time, I couldn’t shake the fear saying these beautiful moments were temporary—at least for our son. He was going to have to find what beauty looked like to him, and sooner or later, I would have to accept that his path wasn’t going to be the same as ours. What he found along the way, and the beauty he discovered in the end, would be his alone.

As I turned my gaze toward Nadine, I let my features fall. I kept tickling Marcus while I took a moment to catch my breath. He didn’t notice. I resolved never to let him see me fear for his future, because I couldn’t teach him to be afraid of it himself. Instead, I had to show him he was capable of anything.

Wherever Marcus’s destiny took him, and whatever it meant for him to be a demigod, we would be there to support him. We’d already fought a war, and whatever the visions Talia had seen with the Seer Wand had meant, they were not our fight, but our son’s. We could try to protect him from that, but there was no stopping fate. No matter where he went, it was up to us to make sure he knew his family, and his coven, would always be behind him.

As much as we wanted to take this destiny from him and fulfill it ourselves, this was something even magic couldn’t stop. Perhaps in some way we’d already done all we could, that by fulfilling our prophecy, it paved the way for the coven to continue on, so that our son could grow up to conquer his own destiny.

Our prophecy was complete, and we weren’t the chosen ones anymore. We were parents now, and that meant our job was to do our damndest to raise our children to the best of our abilities. To be a parent meant that when the time came, we would have to step back and let Marcus pursue his own destiny—with or without us.

Nadine and I drew away from our son, but a wide smile remained plastered on Marcus’s face.

“Mommy, Daddy,” he said. “I love you.”

I leaned down to press a kiss to the top of his head. “We love you too, pumpkin.”

Nadine entwined her quivering fingers in mine. “More than you will ever know.”

Greater than the fear was the love between our family. Nadine and I had found our happy ending. In it, all we could do was believe in our son and share as many beautiful moments with him as possible. I was a Death warlock, but I’d given my son the one thing I could give no one else.

Life.

I made my choices, and I couldn’t imagine any better life. What my son did with his?

That was his to decide.

END OF BOOK SIX

Thank you for reading the College of Witchcraft series!

Marcus’s adventures begin in The Villain Institute (Hidden Legends: Prison for Supernatural Offenders Book One) .