Once upon a time, Serafina had been foolish enough to imagine a life with the roguish man in front of her. Once upon a time, she had thought he was the only constant she might ever find in a fruitless world that had abandoned the now hardened heart of the woman over and over. Once upon a time seemed so very far away, now that she reflected upon those very years and her own naivety. Within this world, Serafina had learned, nothing was constant. Not him - a fact that she was forced to accept when he had been pilfered from her grip - and certainly not even the man that currently warmed her bed on a near nightly basis. They would both move on, in time. Brennan would find another woman to woo with his wolfish grins and reckless antics. In the end, the only thing that Serafina had was herself. It was a truth that, though she had long ago come to accept, still stung at times such as these when Brennan's bitter words spat so harshly at her for her lack of appearance upon his boat. Nevertheless, a small shrug crossed the girl's shoulders. "I've never hated books." She responded quite simply. In fact - her own home was quite near filled with books in archaic tongues with spells and dark arts scripted upon aged yellow pages. She was, she supposed, a 'book worm' of an entirely different kind.

She was, however, rather grateful for the interruption towards what even she could tell was a dismal line of conversation. That bitterness that radiated from them both at the past stolen from them would surely do neither of them any good. It was with gusto that Serafina threw herself into verbally complaining of his very scent, the smell, though putrid, was hardly beyond what she could stand and yet, it was better than that talk of emotions that so threatened to get out of hand. Even so, Serafina watched with disbelief as he smelled the stench that clung to the very fabric of his clothing without a single glimpse of realization on it how it still lingered. She could only imagine how long he had been living in such vileness to become accustomed to it! That smell and it's origin were both enough to make a shudder run down her spine and yet, the truth of why Brennan was out in these woods in the first place only furthered her own disbelief. To fail to close a magic circle, to leave a portal open - it was quite near shameful for any witch or warlock! Much less the many hours Brennan had surely spent at Serafina's side in their youth whilst the girl had poured over rules such as these! Rules that, at the time, she'd been incapable of doing anything with but - the woman was sure that was besides the point.

Serafina was, admittedly, inattentive to the joy he took from her own frustrations as she massaged her temples. That sinful smirk went entirely ignored, at least until the man made some half hearted comment of any previous enjoyment she might have gained from his half thought out antics. How he was so quick to tease her! So quick to turn those very tables upon her as his jested with such daring lust within the depths of his gaze. How tempting he was - or, how tempting he could be, when the weight of his infractions didn't weigh so heavily upon her. Her lips pressed into a hard line at her inquiry before the young woman sighed, her arms crossing over her chest. "Really Brennan, I'm not quite sure how you expect me to enjoy your antics when they presently include releasing a nether realm's worth of demons on my town. A tower of shot glasses is cute. Fucking up baking is cute. Demons - " She stated, reaching up to rest her hand on his chest as she pushed him backwards and towards the very direction she had distracted him from. " - are not cute. There is nothing to enjoy about demons." It was her own way, she was sure, of informing him that it was hardly those adventures together that she didn't enjoy. Quite frankly she still found herself gravitating towards him and every ounce of his time she could steal away - but demons were nothing to be trifled with and ignoring them for word play and stolen moments would be devastating for them both, she was sure.

Thankfully, that gentle shove seemed enough to prompt Brennan to lead her towards the very portal she so fretted over. The very atmosphere seemed to shift as the two continued to trudge through the thick undergrowth. It was eerily quiet within the depths of the forest, far more than it should be. The very sensation of death prickled at her skin, even though the ghosts that often came with such a feeling were peculiarly absent. It was lucky, she supposed, that their trip seemed to progress without the interruption of any demonic creature such as the one Brennan and suggested in such painstaking detail. Her own thoughts lingered heavily upon the portal, the young girl oblivious to the inquisitive look that the man beside her gave her before her name upon his lips drew her stormy eyes upwards. That soft sigh caused her eyebrow to raise ever so slightly as his shoulders lifted in a vague shrug. His words, however, caused her to pause near abruptly in place as her grey-tinged gaze stared at him so blatantly. She swallowed, only for her eyes to turn to the foliage that surrounded them. "I thought the same." She admitted softly, only for her head to shake ever so slightly. "I guess fate had different plans in mind for us both."

Serafina fell back in step behind him, moving with care over that decaying log. It was hardly much further, however, before the man pause abruptly to inform her that they had arrived. For a moment, she merely stared at that empty place in front of her, her head tilted as she studied the very air before she noticed the rippling edge of the portal. Her gaze shifted only as Brennan reached down to pick up a stone, tossing it into the transparent portal - prompting it to shimmer and shift as it swallowed the rock whole. Tentatively, Serafina walked around the perimeter of the area, considering what she both saw and felt before the woman paused once again at Brennan's side. "Ostende mihi faciem tuam instituit." The young witch chanted, that spell coming to her almost effortlessly as a singular hand reached out to the portal. The very utterance of those words, combined with her own powers, caused the very win to shift, sending the foliage and fauna around the portal to shift, revealing the bare ground beneath it in a large, perfect circle. A circle of red appeared at their feet, runes written in an aged tongue circle around the very edges, carved into the ground in blood. A soft sigh left the young witches lips as she glanced at the very circle she had uncovered. "It's blood magic that's keeping this open....we'll need blood magic to close it...but I don't recognize these symbols. We'll probably need to find some book on Demoniac." A small frown crossed her lips as she glanced up at him. "The best we can do for now is cast a circle of protection outside of this one...hopefully it would be enough to keep whatever comes through in our circle." It was a long shot but they had not exactly come prepared to deal with this.

serafina dubois