Page 26 of The Wolfing Hour

“Were you present at their birth?”

The way he looked at me before he nodded told me yes, but that no one had known it. Wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but this was Sexton. The usual social rules did not apply.

“I was given consent, if that’s why you are eying me in that reproachful way. Rose only asked that I remain hidden so her husband would not feel territorial and lash out at me, risking his life.”

“I have so many questions about your relationship with her, and yet, I’m not sure how much I actually want to know about my grandparents’ love life.”

“Rose saw me in a way I’d never experienced before or since. I did not soften my appearance with her as I sometimes do when among humans. I was as you see me now, and she…”

“She loved you for you,” I finished for him.

“Yes.”

In the distance, the picnickers were packing up their car. Fennel was crouched beside a gravestone equidistant to the bench where Sexton and I were seated and the tombstone where Cecil was passed out. A pair of roadrunners chased a lizard over one of the gravel paths, and doves roosting in a nearby tree cooed a summer song.

A mild breeze warmed my face. It felt surreal to be surrounded by this much peace during a time of such emotional turmoil.

“She knew I couldn’t remain at her side,” he continued. “Staying would have put Rose and our sons in terrible danger. I had seen smitings of entire generations for less serious offenses. When she asked me to leave, it was a mercy—for us all.”

“Smitings?” I asked. “You mean from other demons? Gods?”

His neck creaked as he nodded. “A risk I understood going in. It was selfish to love her, and yet I find myself unable to regret it.” His mouth lifted at the corners—it was for only a second, a mere muscle twitch, but I caught the smile.

“Was she human?” I asked.

“A witch. Not an elemental like you and your mother, but a strong learned one.”

I frowned. “I don’t understand why she’d marry another man if she loved you.”

“Rose had always been fond of Charles, and he’d long been in love with her. When he discovered her circumstances, he offered to marry her and raise the baby as his own.Babies,” he corrected.

Hercircumstances? What a strange way to say he’d gotten her pregnant. “But she loved you.”

“Yes. And she also loved him.” He clicked his teeth chidingly. “You are an adult human, Betty. You know it is possible to love two beings at once in different ways.”

Not from experience—at least not in the way he was insinuating—but I supposed I could imagine the possibility.

“Charles was a strong mage. He was aware of our relationship, but he loved her. She was quite easy to love.” A trace of tenderness entered his voice. “He swore to raise our children as his own as long as I never interfered in their lives, and he was as true to his word as I was to mine. Rose chose her life partner well.”

Clearly, he’d loved the woman, yet he understood—even approved of—her choice to be with Charles instead of him. I didn’t know if I’d be so generous with Ronan in the same situation.

Then again, Rose’s reasoning hadn’t been so much about choosing Charles as it had been about protecting herchildren. I suspected things would’ve gone differently had the circumstances been less volatile.

“Is she alive?” I asked, hopefully.

He slowly shook his head. “She and Charles were killed in an automobile accident twenty, noforty, years ago.” He made a fluttering motion with one hand. “The human world’s passage of time eludes me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“As am I.” He sat up on the bench, coming back to himself. “You require an explanation of what to expect now that you’re coming into your full power.”

“Death or lunacy, apparently,” I said.

“Neither,” he corrected. “I expect you will not only survive, but thrive, as your father did.”

“What happened to him?” I asked. “Why didn’t he ever visit?”

“It was out of his control. He had a job to do. A calling.”