Riley’s voice was getting higher and tighter.
“Your grandmother has decided that the best way to repair our family’s reputation in the eyes of the guild is to host a public seance.”
Riley’s gasp had Nick checking the doorway for a gun-wielding maniac.
“No!”
“Yes. Tonight.”
“No!”
“At your place since ours isn’t big enough, and she felt that Wander’s studio decor was too ‘reassuring.’ Whatever the hell that means.”
Riley looked like she was about to collapse, so Nick guided her to the couch and pushed her down.
Blossom dug through the box of cloaks, muttering to herself. “Aha! Here it is.” She tossed a black, filmy hunk of material to Riley. It hit her in the chest and fell on her lap.
“What. Are. You. Doing?”
Nick had never heard that particular tone from Riley before. Sure. She’d yelled at him plenty. And he was quite fond of the noises she made when he was inside her. But this sounded flat and a little scary.
“It’s your outfit for tonight. All the Basil women are required to attend and participate.”
Riley collapsed against the couch. “This is insane! How is Grandmother communing with the dead in front of my neighbors going to fix our ‘image problem’?” she demanded, using air quotes.
“Well, maybe it’s because she ‘also invited’ a couple of guild representatives and a handful of ‘journalists,’” Blossom shot back.
The woman clearly didn’t understand how air quotes worked.
“Journalists?” Riley’s voice had entered the pitch that made dogs start howling. Daisy mooed outside.
“Everything all right in there?” Roger bellowed from the window.
“Oh, go back to washing your cow!” Blossom yelled with a flutter of her hands.
“Mom, I’m not doing this. I don’t want any more media attention.”
“I know you don’t, sweetie. But I don’t know what to tell you,” Blossom said, opening the box of crystals and taking inventory. “Riley has performance anxiety,” she explained to Nick.
“It’s not performance anxiety!”
“When the girls were little, we spent a week with my mother in her free-thinkers spiritualist camp, and she enrolled Riley and Wander in a talent showcase.”
“Kill me now,” Riley said, pinching the bridge of her nose.
“Wander got up and was able to sniff out an entire week’s worth of dinners the senior guild member had. But poor Riley. You can understand why she’s been so hesitant to use her powers when her vision broke up her father and me.”
Nick felt like some kind of reaction was required, so he nodded.
“Anyway, the poor kid froze and just stood there on stage like a robot.”
“They threw cabbage at me,” Riley whispered.
He squeezed her hand and decided that the Thorns may have just edged out the Santiagos in the Weirdness World Cup.
“It was for good luck,” Blossom insisted. “Cabbage wards off bad spirits.”
“Well, consider me a bad spirit because it warded me off. You can’t make me do this.” Riley’s big brown eyes settled on Nick and pleaded with him.
