The delightful smell of Marcus’ cooking wafted across the dining room table, filling me with equal parts desire and suspicion. Our plates were adorned with hash browns and English muffins topped with ham, a perfectly poached egg, and the real star of the show: hollandaise. It was creamy, tangy, acidic, and without a doubt a trap.

Mara leaned her head sweetly on my shoulder as we all waited patiently for the last of our little crew. Marcus ran his thumb across his chin, admiring his work like a proud father showing off polaroids of his newborn daughter. Both of them were entirely too cute for their own good, and so, so far past suspicious.

“So,” I said, tapping my fingers along my fork.

“Sooooo,” Mara chirped in a singsong voice. Her tail moved rhythmically through the opening of the wooden chair. If I hadn’t known better, I would have said she was wagging. Wait, was she wagging?

“So!” Marcus grinned at me like a perfect goddamn angel with nothing to hide. Fool me once, you gorgeous jerk.

“So.” Finally free of her nest of blankets, Constance wandered into the dining room like a total zombie. There was no telling just how much expending herself to keep my circle open had taken out of her, but to be fair, she really wasn’t great at mornings to begin with. She sighed in distaste as she lowered herself into the seat between me and Marcus. Connie pushed her neck slowly to the side until it popped with a loud crack. “What the fuck is up, Marcus?”

“Why Constance! Whatever could you mean?” Marcus batted his eyes at our mutual girlfriend. “Am I not allowed to simply make a delicious meal for the household after a strenuous encounter?”

“Okay, first of all, you don’t talk like that.” Connie effortlessly cut a thick slice through her food, causing gooey, rich yolk to spread like molasses across her breakfast. She brought the piece to her mouth and moaned ever so slightly as she chewed the decadent treat. “Second, this is delicious. Thank you, babe.”

“You’re so very welcome, bea-”

“Third.” Connie interrupted, holding up three fingers. “What do you want?”

“What she said.” I followed Connie’s lead, slicing open the absolutely breathtaking display before me. I wasted no time shoving the rich, tart, savory, chewy bite into my mouth, and it was every bit as wonderful as it looked. I closed my eyes as I rode out the dopamine rush that came from eating the special breakfast my boyfriend made me. I forced back the smile that came from the thought that I, in fact, had a boyfriend. Not the time, Chrissy. “Whatever’s on your mind, spill it.” Connie raised an eyebrow and nodded at me in approval.

“Oh, my heart! Such accusations!” Marcus raised his hand to his forehead and feigned fainting in the most melodramatic fashion possible. He held it there for a few seconds before opening one eye to take a peek at our reactions.

Connie rolled her eyes and huffed. “Are you done?”

“Marcus and I have been talking.” Mara finally took a bite of her breakfast, and frankly I was astonished it had taken her this long. The second the food made it to her mouth, her eyes grew wide and her back abruptly arched. “Fuck me, you people live like this?” I had to cover my mouth to hide my smile. Mara was too fucking cute.

“He’s a good cook,” I managed through another mouthful of ham and runny yolk.

“He’s an amazing cook,” Connie added. “Between that and the puppy dog eyes, he’s more dangerous than me half the time.”

“Thank you, thank you.” Marcus took a bite of his own cooking with a satisfied smile. “I do what I can.”

“You two have been talking, and?” I let the pause hang in the air as my eyes drifted from my boyfriend to my familiar.

“Well, as we all know, Mara’s body was stolen when she was a kid.” Marcus brought his fingertips together like he was in a child’s idea of a business meeting.

“Yeah, she’s supplanted.” Connie took another sizable bite of her food. “I knew as soon as I saw her heart shaped tail-tip and her nubby little horns.”

“Hey!” Mara frowned at Constance, nearly choking in the process.

“Oh, don’t be like that. They’re cute on you.” Connie punctuated her words by nonchalantly licking some rogue hollandaise off her finger. It wasn’t even aimed at me, and I squirmed in my seat, doing my best to pass it off as repositioning myself. I made a mental note to get some advice from Connie later on for…

…research purposes.

“That’s not the point, but thanks,” Mara grumbled, unable to maintain eye contact with Connie. Her face was turning a brilliant shade of rose.

“The point is!” Marcus leaned forward on the table, ready to make his case for whatever it was he was about to pitch. “I was thinking maybe we could all go with her to take her to see her family today.” Wait, that was all? That’s what all of this was about? I was already dead-set on taking Mara home.

“Are you kidding? Of course I’m going with you.” I was quick to grab Mara’s hand and lace my fingers between hers. Going home had been one of the only things written on her original contract, and I would’ve signed that paper in a heartbeat if I’d known the chance was going to slip out from under me. Mara risked everything for me; this was absolutely the least I could do for her. “I’m your familiar, remember? I told you I was going to get you home.”

Watching the look on Mara’s face was all I needed to tell me I was making the right decision. She softly bumped her forehead into mine before leaning in to kiss my cheek. I swore to myself nobody would ever hurt her again so long as I could help it, and taking her to her family was something that was totally within my power. My familiar smiled back at me, her eyes shining with excitement and hope. I was so focused on her I barely noticed the silence that had fallen over the rest of the table.

Constance sat with her arms folded staring daggers at Marcus across the table. Marcus pleaded with his eyes for something I didn’t understand, but those pleas met a wall of frustration in Connie. The silence dragged on long enough that Mara and I finally took notice, our attention trailing from each other to whatever secret battle was being waged on the other side of breakfast.

“You’re gonna make me be the bitch?” Connie’s head came to rest in one hand, halfway covering her face. As my girlfriend breathed out a long and frustrated sigh, I was hit with the sudden and unfortunate realization that all Marcus’ pageantry hadn’t been for me. Connie downed one last bite of her bribery breakfast and chewed it pensively. “Let me ask you something, Mara.”

“Sure?” Mara’s hand tensed up and squeezed my own, and I felt her tail wrap around mine. I could sense her anxiety building.

“You’ve got no magic, right? Nothing?” There was no malice in Connie’s voice, but her tone was cold.

“Right, yeah.” Mara bit her claw, chewing on it nervously.

“I figured.” Connie’s tail idly bumped against the wooden chair as she formed her words. “So all that magic, everything you might’ve gotten in a pact if it all went well?” Constance waited for poor Mara to nod in understanding before she spoke again. “If you don’t have it, odds are good she has it.”

“Oh.” Marcus’ looked like his master plan had been torn down in one fell swoop. His face changed dramatically as some horrible recognition set in, and I sympathetically bit my lip. Whatever he’d latched onto hadn’t yet clicked into place for me, but I could already feel my heart sinking.

“Uh-huh. Marcus, you know better than anybody what a demon with all of their magic intact looks like. When you don’t ask for any of your familiar’s magic, you have no way to defend yourself.” Connie lowered her voice, doing her best not to make things any more tense than they already were. “Mara, your little body snatcher is probably somewhere close to my league when it comes to power. I don’t need to tell you how fuckin’ dangerous that is.” 

With every passing second, I could see more of the life drain out of Mara’s eyes. Despite Connie’s best efforts, even her softest summary was enough to get the message across: Mara was powerless. I felt her grip on my hand loosen and her grasp on my tail unravel. 

“Hey, come on.” Connie ran her hand along the back of her neck in frustration. “It’s not like I like playing Grim Reaper for your dreams. It blows having to be the voice of reason all the goddamn time. Do you know what it is you want, Mara?” If Mara was supposed to respond, Connie didn’t exactly leave her time. “You want your body back? You want to see your family again, for them to know where you’ve been and that you’re safe and all that? Or do you want revenge? Because those are all different things, and they’re all going to cost you something.”

“And if we fuck up,” Marcus added shortly. “Any one of them could cost her everything.” Our boyfriend turned his gaze to the table, his unbridled energy finally deadened in the light of his realization. “Shit.”

“Yeah, babe.” Connie finally reached a hand across the table and placed it on Marcus’. “I need you guys to understand how wild it is that Mara got back here at all.”

It was only yesterday that Mara played the part of the intimidating demoness that held my future in her hands. Looking at her as she was now was jarring, her entire body slowly sinking into her chair. I couldn’t imagine what it must’ve felt like for her to get this far and to have the rug pulled out from underneath her at the very last second.

Wait, no- I could imagine exactly that.

When I was back in the circle and Mara told me about her lack of magic, she pushed past the risk and changed my body for me anyway. I slammed right into the cruel, invisible wall of fate and Mara shattered that wall into a million pieces. Because of her, I was able to recognize the face in the mirror and tell that girl sincerely that I loved her. Now that Mara found herself in the same position, what was I supposed to do? We had met the wall again, callous and unfeeling as it ever was, but this time I was the demonic familiar. This time, I would be the one to do the breaking.

“Mara, I’m going to get you home.” I took Mara’s face in my hands. “Whatever I have to do, I’ll do it. I may not have signed your contract, but I know what I promised you.”

“Chrys,” Mara muttered, her voice barely above a whisper. “This isn’t a game. We might get absolutely destroyed.” 

“Can’t believe I’m saying this,” Connie said as she placed a hand on my thigh. “But listen to your demon, girl.”

“I’d never forgive myself if you got hurt.” Mara’s voice was full of an awful resignation that I was all too familiar with. It was too bad for her that I was long past accepting the cruel whims of fate as gospel.

“You’re hurt! You’re getting hurt now, Mara.” I pulled my familiar into a hug and held her there, feeling a tenacious fire kindling inside my gut. “Two decades and six failed summonings and you finally make it back, and now you’re ready to give up?”

“You know I don’t want to, Holly.” I felt Mara weakly hug me back, her breathing hitching for a moment.

“Then don’t! I’m good at solving puzzles!” I let go of her to look my familiar in the face, only to see the tears beginning to form at the corners of her eyes. “So this is a hard one? Big deal! We’ll figure it out together!” My heart raced as the flame inside me raged.

“Is she, uh…” Marcus looked at Connie before fixing his sights on me. “What’s with the glow?" Was Marcus talking? I could barely hear anything over the thrumming in my ears. My heart careened unbridled on a pathway towards vicious possibility.

“Hey, Holly! Maybe cool it for a sec?” I could feel Connie’s hand in the periphery of my sensation, but the inferno inside me was more vibrant and intense than any normal touch.

“I swore I wouldn’t let you keep suffering, and I won’t!” Something moved around me, but it didn’t matter. The heat inside me was unquenchable. My body boiled from the inside out as my every pore vented this new, roiling energy. I was going to overflow. “We can find a way, I know it.”

And then, just like that, everything pulled back into focus again. I felt the arms of all my partners around my body, holding me there in place. Suddenly I felt tethered to something again, grounded to the room and to this world and to these people. The air was dense with ambient magic. As the flame inside me slowly calmed, my mind began to gather the pieces and put them together. 

“There she is.” Marcus held onto my hand as my tail coiled around his arm, squeezing a little tighter than I would’ve liked. My breathing was heavy, but I could feel them all there. Mara had her arms all the way around my torso, face buried in my chest. Connie had her cheek pressed into mine, arms draped loosely around my neck.

“We got you, baby girl.” I followed the sound of Marcus’ voice back down to the arms of the people I loved.