“Which we would not be needing to do were he to assume the duties he knows await him.” The gruff expression on Luke’s father’s face made my knees weak, and I expended a lot of energy to keep them from knocking underneath the purple material of my dress.
Lady Eveline sniffed and spoke in a more colloquial fashion. “I recall a certain vampire in his younger years taking off and traveling the world, all in the name of a woman he refused to give up.”
Luke’s father grunted. “No need to bring up the past, Eveline.”
“And yet, with so much history behind us, we tend to get far too wrapped up in it all the same,” my one vampire supporter declared. “Your son is home. He has chosen his partner well. Is there not plenty to celebrate in the here and now?”
Luke’s mother considered her friend’s words with a grin. “Perhaps your presence here in this moment is beneficial to us all.” She addressed me directly. “Forgive us if we seem…stilted in our hospitality. Our son’s absence has been hard on us.”
I recognized a guilt trip when I saw it, and I squeezed Luke’s hand in support. “If it gives you any relief, he has a wonderful life back home. Many friends who are loyal because he is such a good man.”
Luke’s cheeks turned a light shade of pink, the equivalent to a vampire’s blush.
“That is good to hear, that you have not been lonely in your time away,” his father said. “Although we would know such things from you if you had not expended the effort to hide away from your responsibilities.”
Luke gritted his teeth. “I can see we will not be making any progress in our relationship. It was foolish of me to think that the years away would soften your hearts and your demands.”
“Your female speaks of home as if you were not standing in it right now,” his father continued. “No other place should have that name where you are concerned.”
Luke pulled his hand out of my embrace and stepped forward. “I am sure you have heard of the English saying that home is where the heart is.” He pointed back at me. “Where Ruby Mae exists, that is my home.”
Although his words should have made my heart skip a beat, the brewing confrontation between father and son terrified me. A breeze picked up and blew some of my hair in front of my face. With my fingers, I pushed the strands behind my ear.
Damiana stopped smiling and blurred to standing in front of me, yanking my hand away from my head. “Tell me this is a replica.”
“It is real, Mother,” Luke said in a steady voice. “I had hoped to tell you in private rather than in front of so many onlookers, but I have asked Ruby Mae to marry me.”
Gasps and murmurs exploded around us. A shrill female voice I recognized from earlier cried out, “No!”
Luke’s mother’s bottom lip trembled, and she dashed a pink tear away. “I thought this ring was lost. I did not know you had it.” She let go of my hand. “Forgive me,” she said again. “All the time in the world does not dampen the loss of a beloved child. If my son has given you this, then you must mean a lot to him.”
“Damiana, you cannot possibly mean to allow—”
“I mean to welcome this child as the woman our son has chosen to introduce to us as his betrothed,” she insisted.
A throat cleared from behind me, and a tiny birdlike figure stepped forward. “Did I hear right? Our Luca is engaged to be married?” Amara asked her question without acknowledging my presence. She tapped the side of her crystal glass with a long fingernail in impatient annoyance, and the light sound of each tink bore into my head.
“Amara, not now,” Lorenzo growled, still angry with his progeny. “We will speak more of this later.”
“As you wish.” The younger vampire turned to face Luke. “I suppose we should toast your impending nuptials.” She raised her glass with too much force, and the wine splashed all over the front of my new dress.
Her smirk did not match her words when she begged for forgiveness for her clumsiness. A little too keyed up from the entire encounter and lightheaded from a lack of food and too many sips of wine, I tried to fix the situation.
“It’s no problem,” I said, summoning some of my magic to my fingers and casting an easy spell to lift the liquid out of the fabric. “My great-grandmother taught me that at an early age since I loved to play a little too much in mud puddles.”
The droplets of wine rose away from the dress and hovered in the air. Amara scuttled away with a dramatic shriek, but Luke’s mother watched the liquid as each droplet faded into mist and dissipated into nothingness.
“Strega!” his mother hissed, backing away as if I had done something to hurt her. With one hand clutching her neck and covering the ruby amulet, she wagged a finger at me and shrieked, “You are a witch!”
Lady Eveline nodded once in approval. “Yes, she is one, Damiana—”
“You knew!” The woman of the castle turned on her friend. “You knew of this…this…”
“Abomination,” Luke’s father finished, a disappointed frown aimed at his son.
My friend from back home interceded on my behalf. “There is no need to insult her thus, Lorenzo. She can no more deny her heritage than you can.”
“I am not asking her to renounce her magic,” the man spit out in anger. “But she should not be here. And well you know this, Luca.”
My fiancé’s mother dashed her hand across her cheek to wipe away the pink trail of tears. “How could you bring her here?” she accused. “After what we went through with your sister. Do you hold such disregard for us that you would do something this outrageous?”
Luke opened his mouth to reply, but his father stepped
