Chapter Thirty-Three.

Cam covered his mouth as he yawned.

"Do I have to be here?" He asked.

"You agreed," Kris told him. "It's not my fault you were up late last night playing video games."

"It is, too!" Cam protested. "You were playing them with me!"

Kris chuckled, then returned to looking at his classmates, who were arriving at school. He and Cam were sitting on a bench near the school's front entrance. School began in fifteen minutes, and while Cam didn't go anymore due to living on the streets and absolutely refusing to attend unless his brother forced him to once he had custody of him, Kris still had to go every day it was in session.

So there they were, waiting for the girl Kris liked to show up. Cam kept looking at another girl, which Kris felt a little annoyed by. He knew that Cam was head-over-heels for Jenna, but it seemed like Cam was checking out someone else, too.

"There she is," Kris tugged on Cam's sleeve, drawing the demigod's gaze away from the girl. "Margaret Addison, she's the girl in the pink and blue coat chatting with two other girls."

"Hm," Cam looked at her just as she looked at Kris, her expression turning a little blank. "She doesn't like you. She thinks you're a jerk for not getting the door for her whenever you two reach it at the same time since she's a girl and you're a boy. That's an incredibly sexist viewpoint. Whoever gets to it first should open it, regardless of their sex.

"By the way," Cam looked at the girl Kris had caught him checking out. "That girl over there likes you. She thinks you're cute and was wondering if I'm related to you, since we look like we might be cousins or something. She also likes video games and puppies, and-"

"Was wondering?" Kris asked Cam as he looked at her.

"What?" Cam asked. "Oh, yeah, I told her I was your uncle, that your dad was my big brother."

"Wait, when did you do that?"

"If you didn't interrupt me," Cam said with mild irritation. "You would've heard that the next part is that she's a natural telepath. We've been talking the last few minutes. I told her you're single and was crushing on the jerk lady too much to notice anyone else. She agrees that the jerk lady is a jerk. According to her, the jerk lady hides her nastiness, but is incredibly spiteful. She's being honest, by the way. Your last day of school before break is Thursday, right? Yeah, she just confirmed that. Okay, you two are going on a date after school on Thursday. She said she's not going to be a sexist female and expect the male to pay for everything, and that she'll cover her own stuff."

"How did you find out she's a natural telepath?"

"I've played air hockey against her at the Jules Arcade."

"Oh."

"She's really good, you two are going on a date there."

"What?" Kris looked at him in shock.

"Your dad's calling me, I gotta go!" Cam hopped off the bench and took off, making his way to Michael's car. "Hey, Mr. Kendall, why did you want me to hurry up?"

"Abigail called," he answered. "She's coming by my house to do an inspection."

"Why?" Cam asked. "Did someone make a report about you to CPS?"

"No," he answered. "It seems your mother has decided to not seek custody of you. I may have spoken with her yesterday, and I promise you, Ambrosius, that I did not threaten her, so don't give me that suspicious look. I simply informed her that as it was, you didn't want anything to do with the Thorntons. When you take that into consideration and combine it with the fact that the Thorntons were a pretty nasty family, she's decided to wait until you've recovered and instead work with DoSS regarding the family's illegal activities, now that she's the head."

"What does that have to do with Abigail and doing an inspection of your home?"

"With your grandfather dead," Michael said. "And your biological mother not wanting to push for custody, and no 'knowledge' of your father, that leaves the custody of you up to either the state or the relative who had been actively seeking adoption for you before your escape three years ago. To place you in my custody, she needs to do a home inspection to make sure the house is adequate and that you'll have your own room."

"Oh," Cam said, then his face lit up with excitement. "Ooooh!"

He buckled up, and Michael pulled out of the parking lot and drove to his house. When they exited the car, another pulled up, Abigail stepping out.

"Oh," she blinked a few times. "Hello, Cam."

"Hello, Abigail," he said. "No Rufus?"

"Not for an inspection," she smiled. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"I sometimes spend the night," Cam told her. "Like last night. Kris and I stayed up late playing video-oops."

He shrank a little under Michael's gaze.

"It was Kris's idea."

"Uh-huh," Michael said.

"It was!" Cam protested. "I was sneaking ice cream, and when I came back into the room, Kris was up and said 'hey, wanna play some video games?' So we played some video games."

"That didn't help your case," Michael said, then looked at Abigail. "Shall we start?"

Cam followed the two adults through the house as they inspected it, sensing that something was going on with Abigail. He did his best not to pry into her mind, resisting his curiosity at her unhappy state.

"Whoa," Cam said when they entered the basement. "I've never been down here before. Are those weapons?"

A variety of bows, arrows, guns, swords, staffs, knives, and whips were resting on racks and tables, along with boxes of ammunition. Half of the room had been converted into a training area, with mats covering the floor and several training dummies set up.

"Oh, hey!" Cam picked up one of the knives, which had a pure-white blade and a diamond set into the crosspiece and pommel of the crimson grip. "Dad gave me a knife like this!"

"Please put that down," Michael said tensely as Callum, in his dog form, wandered into the basement.

"Why?" Cam asked. "It's not like I'm going to stab someone with it. Callum, look! Michael has one of these, too!"

"We generally require," Abigail said. "All weapons to be locked and out of access to the youth when looking into custody placements."

"Nunchucks!" Cam picked up a pair. "Eden was teaching me how to use these. His were lighter, though. I guess that's cause he's weaker than you. What are they made out of, adamant?"

"Yes," Michael answered as Cam began testing them. "Cam, play with them over on the mats."

"Okay!" Cam ran over to the mats and began playing with the nunchucks.

"I can assure you," Michael told Abigail. "The weapons won't be an issue. I've raised my son to know how to use them, and will teach Cam to be responsible with them as well. Callum, stop drooling on that sword."

Callum closed his mouth and gave Michael a pleading look.

"Not while you're in dog form!" Michael told him telepathically. "You can play with them once you turn back and Abigail is gone! But don't drool on them again!"

"That's a very well-behaved dog," Abigail said. "To stop drooling on command. I seem to find dogs anywhere Cam goes," she shook her head. "I'm still not sure about the weapons, though."

"You do know," Cam said as he set the nunchucks down. "That I use weapons, like, every day? Eden's teaching me how to use a gun, and Adam teaches me martial arts, staff fighting, knife fighting, and sword fighting. Eden also does some of that, but not with a sword. He seems to have some weird prejudice against them. I've also been shot at, kidnapped, nearly killed, and so on. I think me having access to weapons is perfectly reasonable. How else am I supposed to gut the next person who tries to sell me off?"

"You were kidnapped?" Abigail asked in shock.

"Yeah," Cam said. "Don't worry, she won't come after me. She and her husband and armies are all dead. Speaking of kidnappers, did you know that your sister was one?"

"Y-yes," Abigail answered. "I just found that out after she got arrested. How did you know?"

"Kidnapping a friend of mine is why she got arrested," his expression darkened as his grip tightened on the knife he'd picked up without realizing it, his eyes turning pink. "That lady messed with the wrong kids."

"Did his eyes just… turn pink?" Abigail covered her mouth in shock.

"Hm?" Cam asked, then took a few deep breaths to calm down so that his his eyes would return to normal. "Oh. I guess you're the only normie I really interact with."

"Normie?"

"Mundie?" He said. "Mundane? Person who isn't part of the supernatural community? You know your sister was a witch, right? A really evil one. She used truth serum on me and it made the voices in my head all talk at once, even ones I didn't even know existed."

"Wh-what?" Abigail asked.

"Magic," Cam said. "It's real. The voices in my head are one of my magical powers. I can't turn them off, they're always there, even when they go quiet. Sometimes, something blocks them from being able to communicate with me, and that disturbs me, 'cause I'm used to them."

"Does he normally joke like this when he's relaxed?" Abigail asked Michael.

"He's not joking," Michael unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, before manifesting his wings, causing Abigail to stumble back a few feet in shock. "It's quite real. The only reason you can see the wings right now is because my house is warded against the Veil, which obscures the sight of those who do not know the truth or do not possess awakened magical abilities."

"You-you-you-you're an angel?" She asked.

"Demigod, actually," Cam corrected her. "He can manifest and unmanifest his wings at will. All demigods and nephilim who have wings can. I can't yet, since I'm still a kid, but once I'm an adult, which will probably be in the next few months, I'll be able to. Angels can't manifest or unmanifest their wings at will, so they're always shirtless. The Veil prevents you normies from seeing their wings, though. They have, like, their own personal little Veils."

Cam stopped as he realized that Abigail still needed to process things, and gave her a few minutes.

"By the way," Cam said. "My father and Mr. Kendall's father are the same person. He's a god of life. The high god of life. He's also one of the oldest gods. The person who kidnapped me was an ancient immortal fairy, their empress. Eden is a spatial mage, my friend Greyson is a nephilim, and my biggest crush is the daughter of the High God of chaos and destruction. Oh, and my dog isn't actually a dog, but an ancient demigod who fought in the biggest war to ever occur in the entire universe. Callum, speak!"

"Don't treat me like a dog," Callum responded, and Cam giggled as Abigail's shocked stare.

"He's just grumpy," Cam told Abigail as he scratched behind Callum's ears. "Look how much he enjoys this. His face and tail betray him. Don't they? Yes they do, you enjoy this so much, don't you, boy?"

"Stop treating me like a dog," Callum grumbled.

"We… can… overlook the weapons," Abigail slowly said.

"It's not like not doing that would change anything," Cam told her. "Since even if you don't give him custody of me, I'll still be here half the time, anyway."

"Let's… go check the bedrooms," Abigail said.

Michael led her upstairs and showed her the game room, Kris's bedroom, and the room that he assigned to Cam, which looked mostly-unused.

"Cam's actually a neat freak," Michael informed Abigail. "His bed is almost always made within a minute of him getting off of it. Tidiness is an inherent trait of the children of our father, though Cam takes it to a little bit more of an extreme. He's probably the most organized thirteen-year-old I know."

Michael paused for a moment, then shrugged.

"Since you're now no longer a mundane," he said. "I should warn you that Cam is likely about to age very quickly. Demigods age faster than humans, reaching the equivalent of an eighteen-year-old human by the time they are fifteen, but can be as early as thirteen. Since we know his wings are coming in sometime in the next few months, you're about to see that change. The only reason Cam looks as young as he does is the malnutrition of the last few years. He's been pigging out since finding out he's going to finish aging soon, so that should help to cover what he's missing and let him grow a bit more by the end. Think of him, right now, as a hyperactive, goofy fifteen-year-old."

Abigail thought for a few minutes, then nodded.

"I can see that."

"Who's also been kidnapped for weeks and killed a bunch of people out of anger," Michael said, and she stared at him in shock. "He's the one who killed his grandfather. As a demigod, he doesn't have the same inhibitions that humans do and rules are a little different. That doesn't mean he doesn't suffer from nightmares over what he's done, though, which is why he ends up in either my room or Kris's at night."

"I'm taking Callum for a walk," Cam told Michael, and the two adults looked at him. "Dad may or may not kidnap me for another party while we're out, so if I don't return for a few hours, that's probably what happened."

"I probably shouldn't," Abigail muttered as Cam walked over to the desk and opened it. "But all things considered, what else can I do? Alright. I'm going to award temporary custody to you, Mr. Kendall, and the rest will be up to the courts to decide. I don't know what to think anymore."

As she tried to sort out what to do, Cam pulled out a dark blue leash and walked over to Callum, then looked at Abigail.

"That the world is a lot cooler of a place than it was before," Cam told her as he clipped the leash to Callum's collar. "Come on boy, let's go. When we get back, we're celebrating how awesome life just got!"