I was insane.
In a moment of total weakness, I texted Neely and invited him to join us. As my unofficial fashion consultant, I wasn’t comfortable shopping without him. He would stay with his husband, which spared us the awkwardness of explaining why he couldn’t bunk in Linus’s building. It was a Society holding, and humans weren’t allowed.
The discrimination might have bugged me another time, but it was for their own good. Non-predatory species had no place in a building that housed necromancers, vampires, and various other supernaturals. Animal instincts were at their highest in their dens.
“You ready to go?” Amelie asked from the doorway of my room. “Linus is waiting in the driveway.”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I turned another circle, ticking off my mental checklist. “I always feel like I’m forgetting something.”
“Whatever it is, you can buy another one when you get to Atlanta.” She hefted my suitcase in one hand and linked her other arm through mine. “Try to have fun, okay? Don’t let Linus keep your nose stuck in a book the whole time.”
Fiddlesticks.
Linus hadn’t mentioned if we would continue our lessons on the trip or not. I was hoping for field exercises instead of classroom busywork. But I had packed Eileen, ink, brushes, my modified pen, and a few other things that ought to get me over the hump if he assigned homework.
“It’s only three days,” I reminded her, and myself. The more often I said it, the less anxious I felt leaving her and Woolly. “That’s not much time to go sightseeing.”
“Forget sightseeing.” She dragged me down the stairs. “Hit the clubs. Drink in the bars. Live.”
“I’ll think about it.” I hadn’t been to a bar (except to pick up takeout) or a club since I turned legal. I wasn’t keen on doing it the first time alone, and I would be alone. Linus was not the kind of guy who club hopped or bar crawled. Neely might go out on the town with me, but if he was missing his husband, he would drag Cruz along, and Cruz was not a big fan of mine. “You can text me a list of your favorite spots. Maybe I’ll hit one.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” She deposited my luggage at the front door then cupped my shoulders. “Everything is going to be fine. The house, me, Odette. Everyone and everything. Fine.”
I wavered in my belief. “What if there’s another—?”
“Neither attack has done any damage. I doubt the third time will be the charm.” She held up her phone. “I’ve got Heinz on speed dial in case I kiss the floor again, and Boaz will be checking in with me at regular intervals.”
Trying not to think about how I hadn’t heard a peep from him since bumping into Eloise at Mallow, I smiled rather than show my hurt.
A knock on the door brought our heads up as Odette strolled in with a small bag over her shoulder. “Thank you for your hospitality, Woolly.”
“Odette.” I launched myself at her, wrapping her in my arms. “Thank you for doing this.”
“It’s no hardship, bébé. I will keep myself busy in the garden.” After a moment, she pushed me back to see my face. “That is, as long as it’s all right with you. I don’t want to overstep.”
“I would appreciate any help I can get out there.” I had trouble meeting her eyes. “I keep meaning to clean up, and I do tiny chores, but it’s like…”
“Everything is as she left it.” Odette nodded in understanding. “Only nature has changed things since she passed.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, voice hoarse. “That.”
“I will honor her memory.” She kissed both my cheeks. “I promise.”
I savored her mothering while I had the chance. “Are you sure you don’t need anything before I go?”
“Amelie and I can entertain ourselves.” She reached for Amelie and took her hand. “Can’t we?”
A peculiar expression flickered across Amelie’s face, a close relative to panic, but she schooled her features before I could be positive. “Sure. Yeah.”
I collected my bag from Amelie, stepping on the porch as Odette led her into the house. I watched them walk arm in arm toward the kitchen, wondering what Odette had up her sleeve and wishing I could linger and be part of whatever treat she planned on concocting. I was trying to banish the annoying sensation I was forgetting something important when an impact to my spine slammed me against the rail.
“You didn’t say goodbye.” Oscar cinched his arms around my neck until I couldn’t breathe. “I was hiding, but you didn’t come find me.”
Ah, that would be the thing I was forgetting.
“Sorry.” I pried him away from my throat and sucked in oxygen. “I searched for you through Woolly earlier, but I couldn’t sense you. I thought you must not be home.”
One day I ought to ask if he made a conscious decision to go wherever ghost boys went or if he simply dissipated when his reserves petered out, but I wasn’t sure he knew, and I didn’t want to upset the kid.
“I was in the basement,” he announced proudly. “It’s the best place to hide ever.”
Safe behind Maud’s wards, wards he shouldn’t be able to cross to a basement he shouldn’t be in.
“I bet.” I glared up at the porch light, but Woolly pretended not to notice. “We’re having a chat when I get back.”
Woolly flickered the bulb in a so what gesture that had me second-guessing—or was that tenth-or eleventh-guessing?—the wiseness of this trip. I couldn’t afford for my house to start sassing me now.
“The Odette lady has a bright glow,” he told me. “Is she nice?”
“She’s the best.” I collected my suitcase, ready to try again. “Remind her you’re a secret, okay?”
Odette was known for talking to herself, or at least to things outside our perception, so Amelie wouldn’t think too much of it if she got caught chatting with Oscar, but there was no sense in taking unnecessary risks. With Boaz only a phone call away, I wanted all mentions of the little terror far from her thoughts when her brother called.
There was no reason to believe the Elite, let alone Boaz, would have a problem with me keeping the kid, but they had wanted to use him as dybbuk bait, so I wasn’t keen on that crowd learning of his continued existence.
Better to ask forgiveness than permission, or something along those lines.
“I’m tired of being a secret,” he pouted. “You said I’m family.”
“Yes, you are.” I patted his cheek. “But you’re also family that not everyone can see or understand. It won’t always be like this. Amelie will move out in a few months, and you’ll have run of the house. After that, I can bring over friends who can see you for you to play with. How does that sound?”
He sank like a lead weight had been attached to his ankle. “Like Mr. Linus?”
“Yes, Linus is one of them. He’s a good man, Oscar. I promise he won’t hurt you. He’s the reason why you got to leave the Cora Ann. He wouldn’t have—” found his remains then returned them to his family, “—relocated you if he didn’t want you to have a better life. Afterlife. Whatever. That doesn’t make sense, does it?”
“I guess not.” He sighed in the way only small children can, as if all the oxygen in their bodies has been expelled, leaving only a boneless sack of meat behind. “I’ll be nicer since you like him.”
“I do like him.” I collected my bag. “You will too once you get to know him.”
Movement drew my gaze to the front yard and the man standing there, who had probably overheard our whole conversation.
“It’s time for me to go.” I waggled a finger at him until he laughed. “Be good for Woolly. She’ll tell me if you misbehave.”
“I’ll be good.” He squeezed me so hard I decided he must have been a boa constrictor in his previous life. “Promise.”
After disentangling from Oscar, I leaned against the wall and rested my forehead on the siding. “I’ll be home soon. Call me if you get lonely or scared, and I’ll come straight back. Okay?”