“Get me some fresh blankets. A glass of water, people get thirsty when they’re giving birth. They need to be helped to the toilet. You need to watch over them, but don’t hover. Evantra? Evantra. Are you listening to me?”

  “Y-yeah?” Evantra twisted her head towards her mother, sensing the edge to her tone in the depths of her voice. A warning siren that she had learned to attune herself to, after getting burnt far too many times.

  “We will talk about your texts later.”

  Evantra paled, shifting in her seat as she heard her father chuckle in the seat in front of her. Where Evangeline Blair had luscious, wavy black hair, William Blair’s was straight and wiry, which he insisted was owing to his Romanian ancestry.

  “This is what you get Eva. You fuck arou—”

  “Language.” Evangeline’s voice interrupted through her father’s words as he coughed into his fist.

  “You mess around, you find out.”

  Urgh… at least they aren’t going to recite the bible to me.

  Evantra nervously shook her leg, casting glances towards her mother’s pocket, where her target lay. She quickly averted her gaze as her mother shifted in her seat, heading towards the Huangs.

  When she’s distracted, I’ll make a break for it.

  Fuck, I’ve already missed the Veilhunt. What creatures were they fighting this time? Some youguai they managed to catch in the Sichuan province and a strigoi from Romania. Mills is going to have to tell me everything at this rate…

  There was still a chance she would still make it in time for the exhibition match. In purgatory, the undercity beneath Elsecaller – they were hosting a spar between two Ghostslayers. It was just her luck that her mother had caught her texting Millie, confiscating her phone right when she needed it the most.

  “We’re here.”

  “Wait a minute… what are you doing?”

  She watched in confusion as her mother handed her phone to her father in the passenger seat. Her mother gave her a withering gaze. Black eyes of the same shade as her own that bore into her. She had always been mildly miffed about the fact that her mother always seemed to know when she was up to no good – the epitome of a helicopter parent.

  “Here you go, Evantra. You wanted your phone back, didn’t you?”

  She stared helplessly at her phone screen. She watched animated pixel art of a bunch of babies building a tall tower out of blocks played out, with a stylised time programmed for 24 hours.

  The fucking parental lock. No they didn’t.

  “Swear again, and the next time, I’ll lock it for a month. No visiting privileges either. You won’t see that occult girl. Who knows what words that family is whispering into your ears—”

  “Don’t call her that.”

  An undertone of anger entered her words as she raised it in defence of Millie. She saw her mother’s expression draw tense as she detected the tone in Evantra’s voice.

  “Do not call them that. They are nice people, far nicer than you.”

  “Than me?” her mother's voice rose with incredulity, as if Evantra’s words were incomprehensible. “We preach the word—”

  “And they don’t go around ridiculing you for it, do they? You and your fucking religion. Your head’s so full of it that you’ve got nothing left up there, do you, mum? Millie and Adeline are better than you, better than both of you could ever be.”

  William frowned, a tinge of worry on his expression as his eyes flicked between mother and daughter as they bristled.

  “Eva—”

  Evantra jammed her phone into her jean pocket and got out of the station wagon. She gritted her teeth, casting another glance back at her phone, and her frustration seemed to redouble.

  “Fucking hypocrites,” she whispered under her breath.

  “Evantra!”

  She heard a woman’s voice call out to her from across the yard, and she mastered her expression, concealing her frustration.

  Emily Huang looked full of life, quite literally.

  The woman’s dress revealed the bulge of her belly, made more pronounced from the way that the lady hunched, her face contorting into a brief expression of discomfort, rubbing at her back. She gave her a grin, and Evantra crossed the yard in a brief jog to envelop the woman in a hug.

  “Em, it’s good to see you. You look well.”

  “Are you alright? Was there something troubling you. Ah…”

  She seemed to trail off as Evantra watched her eyes latch onto something behind her. Glancing back at the car, she heard the muffled voices of her parents raising their voices in a disagreement, before Evangeline seemed to notice their attention, causing her to step out of the car.

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  “Emily!”

  The bitterness in her mother’s expression seemed to melt away as she took the woman in.

  “You look wonderful. How are you feeling? Here.”

  Evantra averted her eyes, crossing her arms tightly as she watched her mother pass a heating pad to the pregnant woman, who received it with a look of intense gratitude.

  “I feel like someone’s shattered my spine in half, Evange. Was this how it was for you?”

  Evantra watch her mother’s hard, dark eyes fall on her, as if preparing a retort that would draw her into its mix.

  “It’s painful, Emily,” she seemed to pause a moment before her coarse voice seemed to soften a degree. Her mother seemed to bite her lip before turning back towards the woman and whispering into her ear.

  She must be talking shit about me.

  Evantra clenched her jaw and followed the women into the Huang home.

  ---

  “Put this in the safe.”

  “Why,” Evantra grumbled as she received a small box with some items within. In it were a couple of disparate, confusing items. Despite her chagrin at their early conversation and the baby lock her parents had placed on her phone, she couldn’t help but look up at her mother in curiosity.

  She could spot a bottle of whisky, some cigarettes, and copious amounts of chocolate. They were piled so high in the box that the items threatened to spill from where they were precariously balanced.

  Her mother thrust the box into her hands, which she was forced to accept.

  “Hide it. Preferably top shelf, somewhere she can’t reach it,”

  Evangeline’s eyes seemed to soften as her mother’s eyes fixed on her friend, whom William was helping onto her bed in a neighbouring room.

  “The alcohol and cigarettes I get… but the chocolate?”

  “She’s lactose intolerant. I don’t want her spewing from both ends,” her mother’s words that she whispered under her breath caught her so off-guard that Evantra snorted. For a moment, they stared at each other as a smile played at the edges of Evantra’s lips, before they dropped.

  “Right.”

  She turned and walked away as she felt her mother’s gaze linger on her back, before she heard a short sigh. Evantra idly picked through the items, her eyebrow raised in begrudging respect.

  “Damn Em... I didn’t know you moved like this? Is that a cigar? Surely, it’s Jung’s…”

  Her mind travelled momentarily to the quiet, wholesome Korean man who was Emily’s husband, currently making his way back from work. No doubt, anxious to be back with his wife, whom he doted on adorably.

  “Nah no way… Mum is more likely to be a smoker than he is.”

  “She was.”

  Evantra yelped as her father entered the room, closing the door softly behind him.

  “Um…”

  She stared as her dad sat down on the bed with a long sigh.

  “Kissing her was quite the experience. Can’t quite describe what snogging a smoker is like—”

  “I’m going to disinherit myself if you don’t shut up,” Evantra shuddered as her father chuckled. Then he turned towards her, giving her a long look.

  “What?”

  “You’re so much like her, you know that?”

  Evantra scoffed and barely refrained from breaking out into laughter.

  “Me? We couldn’t be more different. The only two words I hear out of her mouth half the time are “Jesus” and “Christ”. I’m pretty sure she says it more often than my name… unless she’s yelling it at me.”

  William Blair nodded, the beginnings of stubble present across his jaw. Evantra frowned at the sight, pausing momentarily.

  Huh… he’s looking a little more dishevelled than usual.

  “Yeah, the two of you are peas on a pod.”

  “Just because we look the same—”

  “It’s a good thing you do.”

  “Ew. Stop dad.”

  “What I mean is that you have a lot of your mother in you. Her temper, for one. If she’s mad at you, it won’t matter if you’re smack bang in the centre of the lost territories, you can bet she’ll somehow manage to give you a piece of her mind.”

  Evantra glowered at him.

  “I don’t have a temper.”

  William raised an eyebrow, wordlessly.

  “Your mother is also just as stubborn as you. And like you, Evantra, for all your abysmal traits that have me appealing to the lord for salvation, she has substance. When it comes down to the line, she’s there for you. When push comes to shove, she has your back. I know that you have that in you, too.”

  Evantra shifted her eyes away from her father, looking down at her feet. Then she frowned, remembering his previous words that they had glazed over.

  “I don’t believe you. Mum? Smoking?”

  Evantra fiddled with the cigars and cigarettes in the box before her eyes caught a glimpse of something, and her lips slowly turned into a slight smile.

  William yawned, and Evantra noticed dark circles around his eyes. Even as she could feel the adrenaline and excitement slowly enter her veins, she found the time to pause.

  “Dad… you alright? You’re looking a little tired.”

  William gave her a quiet smile.

  “She was up worrying. Having a kid Evantra… it changes your life in ways that you can’t even begin to imagine.”

  “Yeah, I am pretty great.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  Evantra felt the slightest bit of heat rise to her cheeks as she was graced with sincerity that surprised her. She felt her father’s gaze linger on her, as if he was considering something.

  “Still… why is she worried about Emily? I mean… I get that she’s her best friend. But still, she seems perfectly fine, sore back aside.”

  Her father stared at her with a strange, indecipherable expression before he laughed with a shake of his head.

  “So mature… at times. Yet so dumb. That part you got from me. Lucky you.”

  With a devious grin, her father leaned across the bed and shamelessly nabbed one of Emily’s chocolates that were placed in her box.

  “You know… your mum has a no-no box as well.”

  “Wha—”

  Her father lunged across the bed as her machinations taking place in the shadows of their conversation were cast aside, as Evantra exclaimed. He hurriedly raised a finger to his lips, casting a look of terror towards the door.

  “Your mum… she fought her own demons. Figurative ones, of course, the real ones wouldn’t stand a chance. She’d make a terrifying Ghostslayer,” William whispered with an undertone of awe and fear, which Evantra couldn’t help but agree with.

  “So, what, she ran to religion? And started uncritically spouting it as a means to cope? Because she was afraid? What is she even praying for? Come on dad,” Evantra pleaded with her father to see reason, but that frustrating, unknowable expression just re-entered his eyes.

  With a tight smile, he turned away with her, averting his eyes.

  “I’m with her on this one, Evantra. I prayed with her. You won’t understand, and I never hope you do. Your mum isn’t perfect, but she’s the way she is for a reason,” William let out a hefty sigh.

  “If she does have any faults, it’s that she doesn’t use her words enough,” William continued softly, shaking her head.

  Evantra just scoffed.

  “Except those that were taught to her.”

  Her father rose to his feet and gave her a poke in her shoulder.

  “C’mon, if she’s eavesdropping on the other side of that door, we’re both dead in the water. Why don’t we go keep Emily company huh?”

  “Alright, give me a minute, I’m just going to find a place to stash this stuff.”

  Her father nodded and exited the room, shutting the door behind him. Evantra finally let her grin blossom across her face as she dug into the box, fishing out a singular item inside of it.

  An item that would trivialise the insurmountable obstacle that was a baby lock placed on her phone.

  Evantra slipped Emily’s phone into her pocket.