“Hannah? Is that you?”
Shit. “Hey, Mom.” I try to inject cheer into my voice, but I don’t think I succeed.
Mom appears from the kitchen with a cup of coffee. She’s still in a matching set of red plaid pajamas with gray slippers on her feet. “You’re home early,” she says carefully, glancing out the front window. “Whose car is that? Where’s Sarah?”
“Umm...” I glance out the window and wish, not for the first time, that I was good at lying. But since I’m not—and Mom has perfected her bullshit meter from working with college students—I sigh and settle on the truth. “There were a few complications.”
“Complications,” Mom echoes, raising an unamused brow. “Care to explain?”
I fidget under her attention, tracing the edge of the house key still clutched in my hand. “Not really.”
Mom pulls out one of her signature glares, an expression I haven’t seen leveled at me since before Dad died. “Sit,” she says, pointing at the lumpy couch that came with this rental. “Explain.”
So I do. I try to downplay everything that happened in Brooklyn, but it’s hard to minimize a covenmate losing her magic and Hunters planning to create an airborne drug that will wipe out the entirety of the North American Witch Clans.
To her credit, Mom sits beside me on the couch and listens without interrupting. When I’m done, she’s quiet for a long time. She sips her coffee and rubs her eyes like this is all a bad dream, and if she tries hard enough, it’ll fade back into mist. “I think I missed something, Han. Why didn’t Sarah or Ryan bring you home? Why do you have the van?”
I cringe. I was trying to avoid this part. “One of the Hunters is Morgan’s ex. Seeing him really upset her, so I drove her home.”
Mom nearly chokes on her coffee. She sets her cup on the side table and crosses her arms. Her expression should look ridiculous in her plaid pajamas and sleep-mussed hair, but is actually terrifying. “Why was Morgan there? That was never part of the plan.”
“She went with me to New York?” I don’t mean to, but my voice raises at the end, turning my words into a question. “We thought having another Blood Witch would help get Alice to agree. Which worked, by the way. Alice is going to help us.”
“I really wish you had called me. I shouldn’t have to wait hours to find out my daughter was attacked by Witch Hunters. Or that a covenmate lost her magic.” Mom glances at the clock on the adjacent wall. Her brow furrows. “What time did you drop off Morgan?”
I swallow, glancing at my phone. It’s still really early, but I spent hours with Morgan. “I don’t know exactly.”
Mom’s glare sharpens. “Guess.”
“Four?”
“Four?!” Mom lets out a slow breath, and I can feel how hard she’s trying not to yell. How much effort it’s taking to stay calm as she massages her temples. “Did you getanysleep last night?”
My blush answers for me, and Mom sighs. “Please tell me you at least used protection.”
“Mom!”
“I know you girls can’t accidentally get pregnant, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get an STI. Your dad and I looked it up. It’s not impossible.” She reaches for my hand, and a flicker of pain crosses her face at the mention of Dad. She plows forward anyway. “Intimacy changes things, Hannah, and you girls have only been dating a little over a month. Just because you and Veronica were having sex doesn’t mean you should rush into it with Morgan.”
“Oh my god, Mom. Stop.” I’m dying. I am literally going to drop dead on this couch. “First of all, it’s been closer totwomonths. And more importantly, we did not have sex!”
“Just because there’s no penetration doesn’t mean it isn’t sex.”
Is this hell? I’m pretty sure this is hell. I am not about to explain queer girl sex to my mom. Nope. Not going to happen. She’s notwrong, there doesn’thaveto be penetration but—nope. Not even going there.
“Hannah—”
“We kept our pants on, okay? There was no sex. Zero kinds of sex!” Mom does not need to know about Morgan deftly removing my bra and her tongue sliding across my—nope. I shove the memories away. I refuse to blush again in front of her. Besides, I’m, like, ninety-nine percent sure none of that counts as sex allby itself. Thankfully, my phone chimes, Cal finally getting back to me.
CM:Meet me at my place in an hour. We can talk before we go to Archer’s this afternoon.
His next text includes his address near the Salem State campus.
I’m about to text back and ask what he’s talking about when a text from Archer comes through.
DA:We need to prep for Ithaca. My place. 2pm.
Mom sighs, which makes me look up from my phone. She reaches for her coffee. “I’m sorry, Han. Your dad was so much better at this stuff.”
