“Let’s go to my room,” I suggest. “We can scry to watch her.”
The three of us head into my room, and instead of going into my hidden study, I pull out the emergency components I keep handy, and make a quick offering to Mercury. “Can I borrow your phone, Reggie?”
She immediately hands it over, no questions asked, and it makes me want to kiss her that she trusts me so much.
I turn the cell phone on, the passcode showing on the screen. I ignore it, swiping my finger down the left side to keep the surface active. “Show me Aunt Dru.”
Reggie presses her chin to my arm, leaning over me to watch the screen, and I love the way she casually drapes herself on me, freely touching me as if I belong to her. I like the thought of belonging to her. A lot.
The phone’s screen goes black, and then a picture begins to slowly form once more. It focuses in on Aunt Dru’s bed, and I watch in disbelief as she yawns and slowly rises, rubbing her eyes. She smacks her lips and then frowns down at the chip bags on her blankets. She gets up from the bed, stretching, then checks under the bed, disappearing for a moment. When she resurfaces, she has a bag of chips and starts to eat again, shoving them into her mouth quickly.
“I’ll be damned,” I say softly.
Aunt Dru’s fooled us all.
38
REGGIE
In a way, I’m relieved Dru cursed herself.
Even though I want to kill her (cheerfully) for deceiving us all, I’m glad it’s going to be easy to resolve and Dru’s not in danger of dying. Ben’s expression is utter relief, and when he hugs me close, I know he was worried. He’s more relieved than I am. Dru is my friend and employer, but she’s Ben’s family.
Lisa is pissed, though. Really pissed. “Not only has she been stealing my snacks for days, but I have spent hours in that fucking uncomfortable chair with my bladder being kicked by my baby, and she has the nerve to play these games?” She rubs her distended belly, teeth bared in a snarl. “Do you know how pissed Jim’s warlock is at how much time he’s taken off? Oh my god.” She shakes her head. “Unbelievable. I love how this is all a joke to her.”
“She must have her reasons,” I say softly. “At least, I would hope so.”
I suspect she does, though. Dru strikes me as a little manipulative, but her heart is in the right place. She adores Ben, and this scheming seems to be centered around him.
“Whatever you say,” Lisa says with a shake of her head, writing the last of the note we’ve decided to leave in Dru’s room. It seems the easiest way to communicate with her—let her know that we’re aware of the curse, demand to know where the tablet is so we can destroy it and break it, and then have a nice, long talk with her after the fact and find out what the hell she was thinking for scaring Ben like that.
I wrap my arms around him a little tighter, fighting back resentment. All the hours of worry, all the stress . . . and Dru was never in danger. If I’m feeling a little worn out and used, I can’t imagine how hurt Ben is, how utterly frustrated. I’m draped over him as we sit on the couch, while Lisa composes the note. When she gets up, Ben gets to his feet, too, taking it from her. “You sit. I’m going to be the one to deliver this, right on her forehead so she can’t say she didn’t see it.”
Oh yeah, he’s a little mad.
Lisa sits down again gratefully, rubbing her belly. “I think we’re all going to have a few things to say to her when she wakes up.”
* * *
I BITE MY nails, waiting, while Ben is upstairs. He doesn’t come back down to join us, and I suspect everything he’s feeling is bubbling over. When he does stalk through the living room, he pauses by my seat on the couch, touches my cheek tenderly, and then hands me the two broken halves of a tablet. “I need some time alone.”
He heads outside to Dru’s gardens, and my heart squeezes. I feel bad for him, because I know he’s frustrated and hurt. Lisa gives me a curious look, but I just shrug. It’s between him and his aunt. I can’t interfere in it; I can only be there for him if he needs me.
Dru comes down the stairs in her favorite fluffy pink robe, giving us a wobbly smile. “Surprise.”
Lisa immediately gets to her feet, waddling over to hug Dru. She embraces her tightly despite her enormous belly and wiggles back and forth. “Do not ever scare us again like that, Drusilla, or I’ll murder you myself.”
Dru just chuckles, and the sound is weary, as if she’s the one that’s been put through the wringer for the last several days. “No you won’t. You’re too softhearted.” She touches Lisa’s belly. “How’s my baby doing?”
“She’s tired,” Lisa says. “We both are. And we have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon. Jim’s going to pick me up any minute now. Now that you’re awake, can you break my curse, please? I’m getting really tired of having to pee with the bathroom door open, and I suspect the doctor isn’t going to be a fan of that, either.”
“Oh yes, your tablet is between the mattresses upstairs. I should go get it—”
“I’ll get it,” Lisa says, a warning note in her voice. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
Dru looks over at me, uncomfortable. “I’m not sure anything I say will do any good.”
“Try?” I say. “How about you try and explain why you put us through hell for the last five days?”
“?‘Hell’ might be a little bit of an exaggeration,” Dru begins, shuffling over to where I’m seated on the couch. “Perhaps ‘mild strain’ would be better?”
“No,” I say firmly. “It was hell. It was hell watching Ben slice open his palm because he was frantic to help. It was hell going to that house party. It was hell having to chase down Gwen and dealing with her. Ben’s reputation is fucked all over again because of what you did. He’s upset. He’s angry. And I need to understand why. Just . . . why, Dru?”
She beams at me, all white curls and sweet smile. “It makes me so happy to hear you defend him like this, dear. You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted this for both of you.”
I raise a finger. “Don’t change the subject. You’re still not telling me why you cursed Lisa, threatened me with a curse, and cursed yourself! Was this all some ridiculous matchmaking scheme? You couldn’t have thought of any other way to get us to talk to each other? Because that’s what this is, isn’t it? Some matchmaking scheme?”
Dru sighs heavily. She puts her hands in her lap, and they’re nearly buried in the folds of her pink robe. “It’s hard for me to watch my dear Caliban be so sad and lonely.”
I spread a hand. “So you cursed yourself? I’m not seeing the reasoning behind it, Dru.”
She taps my leg. “Quit interrupting and I’ll tell you.” Dru ignores my scowl and straightens her shoulders, tossing her head back and sitting as regally as a queen next to me on the sofa. “I’m two thousand years old. I’ve outlived six husbands . . . though I did get rid of a few of them,” she admits with a wink. “But I like being ancient. I like near immortality. It means people flit in and out of my life before I can grow tired of them. It means that when I have a friend—like Livia—they’re a friend for hundreds and hundreds of years. It allows us to be very close. Now and then, when we get tired of witch society, and who wouldn’t, we take a sabbatical. We disappear for years at a time and avoid casting. I’ve had several sabbaticals in my years. Normally when I get tired of people, I just pack up my things and head off to explore some new place. I’d retreat from society for a few years, and when I got the itch to cast again, I’d return to society and pick right up where I left off.” She shrugs. “It works very well for me because I don’t mind solitude. Even when I’m alone, I’m not lonely. I like who I am and the choices I’ve made.”