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

twenty-four.

We spent a few more hours at the office. I had a couple phone calls and e-mails about decisions Sheriffs wanted help with and I couldn't take much more after the emotional toll I had that morning. I logged off my computer and walked down to Aria at our front desk.

"You okay?" she asked.

"It's been a long fucking two weeks... Val and Zane are taking care of some stuff in the fae realm. Do you and Ray want to come over for a movie night with the kids?"

"Sure! We didn't have any plans. Does six sound good? I want to feed before heading over."

"Yeah, I'll see you two then. Make sure you lock up, okay?" Aria nodded her head, and I headed out to my car and drove home; Chris followed behind in his car a few minutes later. I pulled into the driveway and realized the kids would be home in a half hour. I started to make them something to eat as Chris went to shower. I heard the kids walking over as I finished. They opened the front door, and Noah ran over to me, dropping his bag on the floor. Odie picked it up and put it on the couch.

"Momma!" Noah yelled.

"Hey, baby," I said, giving him a kiss on the forehead. I placed the food on the kitchen table and told him to go wash his hands. I kissed Ava and Odie as well. Odie grabbed some water for the three of them as they sat down to eat. I joined them at the table and watched them eat their sandwiches as Chris came down the stairs. He ruffled through Odie's hair and kissed Ava and Noah on the head. He sat down on the other side of the table across from me.

"How's everything going at school?" Chris asked them.

"Fine!" Ava said. "I don't like not learning magic... When are Momma and Poppa going to be back?"

"Maybe another week?" I said. "They have to take care of something really important."

"Is it about me?" Odie asked. I nodded.

"Some of it. But they have other things to check on, too." I put my hand on his shoulder. He stopped eating and took in a sharp breath, putting his hand to his eye.

"Your eye's still bugging you?"

"Yeah, it's on and off hurting and my vision will go blurry every now and then."

"Mom and Poppa will figure it out..." I said. "We can talk later if you want." He went back to eating after rubbing his eye. The three of them ran upstairs to shower and change before doing their homework. With Val and Zane gone, the kids didn't have any magic to learn so the other teachers took the time to give them extra credit assignments to keep them busy.

Looking over their shoulders I realized I was glad I didn't have to learn these things now because math didn't even look the same. The twins were already learning division and multiplication, but the formula looked weird and didn't make sense to me. Luckily, they understood it but if they ever had questions, I usually called Aria over to help them. Odie had to write a paper on the Vietnam War and he and Chris went back and forth on the discrepancies that history books got wrong.

"Dad, I have to follow what these books say! It doesn't matter if it wasn't actually Sergeant whatever who came up with the idea, I don't want to fail!" Odie said from his room.

"Okay, fine. But it's wrong. That's not how it happened." Chris came out of Odie's room and sat down on the couch next to me. "They're teaching our children incorrect accounts of history." He crossed his arms.

"Yeah, I know. I'm older than you, did you forget?"

"But why? Why don't we teach them what actually happened?"

"You and I have been alive long enough to know that everyone remembers shit differently. And unfortunately, these kids will grow up and have real jobs – they have to know what 'the man' wants them to know to succeed and if they don't pass the state's testing, we get shut down."