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“Willow?” Camila rubbed the sleep from her eye, muffling a yawn behind her hand, as she stepped into the kitchen. “What are you doing up so early?”
“Oh, good morning, Camila!” Willow replied brightly. “I couldn’t sleep, so I got an early start with breakfast!”
“That’s nice, dear,” Camila yawned again and settled at the table. The kids didn’t always have the best idea of what counted as edible in the human realm, but Willow’s food was usually pretty safe. “How long have you been awake?”
“Just since two-thirty.”
Camila froze. “Two-thirty?”
“Uh-huh. Here you go!”
She ignored the plate of suspicious-looking muffins to take a good, long look at the girl. Willow’s complexion was a little too pale, with dark bags shadowing her eyes. “Mija, how long have you been having trouble sleeping?”
Willow blew a breath through her lips and waved the question away. “Oh, that. It comes and goes. It’s not a big deal. Do you want coffee?”
Judging by the coffee pot, Camila would need to cut it with a knife, but she accepted a mug anyway. It was opaque and slightly reddish and left a grainy residue on the sides of the mug when she tilted it.
“It couldn’t get it strong enough, so I added some of that instant stuff,” Willow explained. She took a big slurp of her own cup and Camila winced—coffee like that would have the girl up for days.
“Willow? Are you okay?”
“Me? I’m fine!” Willow sat at the table and grabbed a muffin. “You should try these. I made seven different flavors.”
Camila blinked at her, then at the spotless kitchen around them. Baking and cleaning…she knew coping mechanisms when she saw them. “Willow,” she tried again. “You know, what you’ve all been through has been pretty difficult.”
“I’m fine. I’m probably the most well-adjusted witch here.”
“Your eye is twitching.”
Willow tilted her glasses up enough to rub at the offending eye. “Yeah, it does that sometimes. Here, try the pumpkin ones. They went feral so they’re a little gamey, but the cloves balance them out.”
Camila cautiously took a bite of the offered muffin. Willow’s green thumb had been a huge benefit over the past few weeks, as the girl had been able to coax a thriving garden out of the limited space behind their house. And if some of the vegetables turned out a little more sentient than others, well…they all had to eat.
“You know, you don’t have to do so much,” Camila commented. “I appreciate your help, I really do, but it’s okay to slow down sometimes. You’ve all been through a lot…maybe you should take a break?”
“A break? I don’t need a break,” Willow laughed as she took another long sip of coffee. She’d consumed so much caffeine she was practically vibrating, and it made Camila feel even more exhausted just looking at her. “It’s like I keep saying, I’m fine. I know I did everything I could back in the demon realm, and there’s nothing I could have done to change what happened to us. It wouldn’t matter if I was faster or stronger or smarter; the Collector would still be free, and all our families would still be in danger. I’m totally A-OK.”
Her eye was twitching again.
“Besides, you should really worry about the others, not me. What they’ve been through is way worse than anything that’s happened to me.”
Camila reached for her, but Willow was already moving back to the kitchen sink to rinse out her mug. “Willow…mija…that’s not how it works. Even if you think they’ve been through worse, that doesn’t mean something bad didn’t happen to you.”
“But nothing bad happened,” Willow insisted. She turned back to face Camila, her smile almost painfully bright. “I’m here and safe and we’re going to find a way back home and everything is going to be okay.”
Her kids were going to break her heart.
“Willow…”
Camila broke off at the sound of approaching footsteps. She turned to the door to smile as the boys filed in. “Good morning, Gus. Hunter.”
“Good morning, Camila!” Gus stretched his arms over his head, sniffing at the air. “Willow, did you make muffins?”
“Sure did! Got some new flavors for you to try.”
“I don’t know if anything can beat your parmesan-blueberry recipe, but we’ll see!”
Hunter stood next to Camila, just close enough to brush against her shoulder. She smiled up at him, noticing the cardinal perched on his shoulder. Hunter usually only had his little friend out like this if he’d had a rough night.
“Are you okay?” she asked. Whether from nightmares or plain old insomnia, she couldn’t count the number of nights she’d found him curled up in an odd corner of the house reading a book by flashlight. The shadows under his eyes had gotten better since they’d all arrived, but things could still get pretty bad.
“I heard Willow pacing in the kitchen most of the night,” he whispered back. “Is she…did something happen?”
Camila sighed. “It’s hard when the people you love don’t want your help,” she replied, watching the other kids. Willow was regaling Gus with the story of hunting down her feral pumpkins, who’d apparently formed some sort of colony behind the abandoned house and had been terrorizing the squirrel population. Gus seemed to be listening closely, but she was sure his sharp eyes hadn’t missed the signs of Willow’s sleepless night.
“So what do we do?”
“We have to be patient.” She reached up to pat his shoulder, careful to make sure he knew it was coming. He could get a little jumpy after a bad night. “Just let her know we’re here for her and be ready to jump in when she needs us.”
“Okay,” Hunter nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“I know you can.” She squeezed his shoulder, then pushed herself up and away from the table. “I think I hear the rest of the girls, can you set the table for everyone?”
Her kids were going to break her heart…but she wouldn’t give them up for the world.