“Oh, you,” Daisy fumed, wringing her hands in her apron and looking everywhere but at Gabriel while the other two left them alone in the sitting room. The discomfort between them thickened.

Gabriel could see how this would be up to him. “I’m sorry, Mom,” he offered.

Her startled gaze flew to his. “Whatever for?”

“I should have talked to you right away. I know that all of this has been hard on you. I don’t—” His voice caught on the emotion, and he had to take a breath. “I don’t blame you for hating all the ways things have changed.”

Tears filled her eyes. “I don’t. Not really. I didn’t mean those things I said.”

“It’s all right if you did mean them,” he said gently. “I know I’ve changed, that you never wanted a wizard for a son. Or a familiar for a daughter.”

She wiped away the tears as they spilled over. “I just… I thought our lives would be different. Simpler. It would’ve been enough for me.”

“For me, too,” he told her, waiting for her to see the honesty in his gaze. “But my mother always told me we have to take whatever life throws at us and make the best of it.”

She laughed, a watery sound. “I did always say that, didn’t I? Who knew you listened to anything I said, though!”

“I listened, Mom,” he said. “I still do.” He opened his arms to her, hoping she’d take him up on the offer of a hug.

To his relief, she moved into his arms, hugging him tightly. “I am proud of you, Gabriel,” she said softly. “And Nic is right: you are still all those things I’ve always loved about you, no matter the color of your hair or eyes.”

His heart thawed from the tense fist it had hardened into ever since he overheard her words to Nic. “You don’t have to be afraid of me.”

“Oh, I know that.” She pulled away. “But you will bring Selly home?”

“We’re working on it.”

“And you will make her normal again?”

He winced internally over the word “normal” but let it go. “We have a lot of people with the expertise to help her. And I’ll do everything in my power to do what’s needed.”

“All right, then.” His mother tucked her arm in his. “Let’s have some cake.”

Unfortunately, arcanium sex was not to be. By the time Daisy finished regaling them with tales she’d heard as a child about House Phel’s former glory, it had grown quite late. Also, Nic was no fool, and she could easily fill in the blanks in Daisy’s stories, just as Gabriel half feared, half hoped she would. At least the time of reckoning had come.

Nic was quiet on the ride home, and Gabriel waited tensely for her inevitable questions. She was too poised, too well trained to have revealed anything to his parents, but he’d watched her put the puzzle pieces together, seen the occasional accusing glint in her gaze as she glanced at him speculatively, before hiding her eyes behind the lush fringe of her dark lashes.