Between Shadow & Ruin (Fangs & Fae Saga Book 2)

thirteen.

We barely parked the car when Odie ran out of the car and inside the house. He was quiet the entire ride home and I figured he was still processing the awkward moment we'd had. Val and I got Noah and Ava out of the car as Chris and Zane grabbed the bags from the car. We got to our bedrooms, and I heard the kids close their doors. The students that were outside welcomed us all back and congratulated me on my new position. Dylan and John came over to our home after classes were done.

"Congratulations, Magister!" they said.

"Thanks, guys," I said, giving them hugs.

"You missed one hell of a party, Dylan."

"I bet," Dylan stared. "But I had to be here with my pack."

"I know, but I'm sure it's got to be hard as a hybrid... As least you got to miss the incredibly awkward moment we had with Odie after."

"Why, what happened?" Dylan asked. I gave him a side glance.

"Odie caught us trying to sneak back into our suite, super drunk, and I didn't have nearly enough clothes on."

"Oh, no." Dylan put his face in his hands and John laughed loudly.

"It was awful. He told us to go to our room!" I laughed.

"Liz, it's been fifteen years since I've known you and though I'm not a kid anymore, I would probably feel the same way he did. That's terrible!"

"Oh, please. Don't act like I haven't caught both of you in situations that we'd rather not discuss..." John blushed remembering that I'd found photos of him with Odette years ago. "He didn't talk to us the whole way home."

"Eh, he's just a kid, Liz. He'll get over it," John said as he clapped his hand to my shoulder.

"We've all walked in our parents, or parent-like figures, doing questionable things," Dylan said. I gave him a confused look. He tried to look away.

"Did you – did you know about the things that Odette and John were doing!?"

"Yes! And I don't want to talk about it, thanks!"

"Yeah, neither would I!" John added. I rolled my eyes as Dylan and John started to go back to their Den with the wolves. I looked towards the school, and saw the last of the bedroom lights go out from one of the teachers' rooms. I said goodnight to our kids, and they headed up to their bedrooms as Chris came from the kitchen with a couple of beers for me and Zane.

It was silent for a minute while the three of us and Val tried to figure out how we wanted to start this conversation.

"Odie already knows that there's a prophecy about him and that it says he has two souls," Val started.

"Well, yeah it was kind of hard to keep that from him, especially with his eyes being different colors. I'm worried about the whole 'defeating the darkness' part," I said.

"Zane and I have shown him more than enough battle magic to take care of it, but he has to know when to use it. If he uses too much, he's going to exhaust himself before he even starts!"

"We can't keep hiding the details from him anymore, though," Zane said.

"I know," I said. "Val and I can feel the darkness in him." Chris and Zane nodded.

"How are we going to tell our son that he could possibly fucking die if he doesn't take care of this? He's only got just over six months to do this! Why did we wait so long?" Chris asked.

"Because we all wanted to deny it happening..." Val said. "I'm so scared and my fucking denial caused this. We should have told him years ago. I'm worried he's not going to be strong enough."