Until the Upheaval, anyway.
"Aww," Jessica gushes, reading over my shoulder. "I haven't seen Steph in forever, but I'm not surprised she's looking out for you. Maybe I should go haunt her family for a bit while you're off excavating tomorrow. I could see if her husband's hot younger brother is still living with them."
"I thought you said he could fly with those ears."
"He can, but did you see the size of his hands? Big ears, big hands, big everything, I bet."
I snort at her before fidgeting with my phone, glancing at the broken window beside me. I have security cameras and a few protective wards on my home, thanks to Everett asking Silas to add them a few months ago. And whenever I'm not frozen in panic, I'm actually faster than most shifters.
I'll be fine staying at my place tonight.
But still. It really sucks that Ryan showed up and made me feel unsafe at my favorite place in the world.
I've spent a few years working on my three-bedroom, two-bathroom forest cottage outside Koasville to turn it into a dream. It was a dirt-cheap fixer-upper when I bought it after graduating—the first thing I ever bought with the money Everett insisted on sending me for years.
I've put a lot of love and elbow grease into it, getting help from Jessica and her family now and then. She became my roommate a while ago, and together we turned it into a charming, adorable, brightly colored cottagecore haven, complete with an indoor garden, a sunroom library nook, and a comfy upstairs loft that doubles as a projector home theater.
My home is cozy and remote on a spacious plot of forest land, so I can shift without neighbors seeing. For the last eight months, I've spent a lot of time alone there reading, watching movies, chatting with Jessica, and generally avoiding the outside world and all its secondhand emotions.
All this to say, Ilovemy home.
But if Ryan keeps popping up there…
"I might need to talk to Steph's husband about Mr. Douchenozzle," I decide.
“Oh, girl, no.Definitelytalk to the Amato quintet about it instead. That jerk will be turned into an ice cube before he can even sleep off the alcohol," Jessica points out.
"As much as I love my brother and his quintet, their methods are very not human, and?—"
"Yeah, yeah, I know—and you prefer to act like one of us," she finishes with a sigh. "Fine. Maybe your security cameras caught his craziness on video, and you can get a bajillion restraining orders against him." Then she pouts. "In the meantime, I'll go haunt Steph's brother-in-law tomorrow while you're gone. I'd do anything to tag along, but you know they salt the hell out of that entire area so we ghosts can't bug Carolina Reaper."
That's Jessica's nickname for Maven because, and I quote,'she's the hottest.'
"Good plan. I'll see you when I get back," I grin. "But before you leave tomorrow, I promise to make butterscotch chocolate chip oatmeal cookies in your honor."
"I accept these terms and conditions," Jess says, saluting me before drifting out of the car to see if Ryan is still hanging around my house.
I text Everett back.
Me: 5 AM works great. Do you guys like butterscotch?
4
HEIDI
"Okay.I'm really leaving this time. Cue the tears."
I pull the last tray of cookies out of the oven and salute my ghostly friend with my oven mitt. "So long, sailor."
Jessica disappears through my kitchen wall, only to pop back into the kitchen for about the sixth time. She's been faking leaving for the last thirty minutes ever since I woke up to prepare for Silas to pick me up for another day of excavations. I'm dressed in my usual outfit of what I imagine a paleontologist would wear—practical pants, a tan button-up shirt to hopefully hide some of the dust, sturdy hiking boots, and a coat for the pervasive chill in the underground tunnels. It's what I've been wearing to nearly every scheduled excavation since we started months ago.
"You're saving a plate of cookies for me, right?" Jess checks.
Turning off the oven, I gesture with a flourish to the covered plate with a sticky note reading"Blue-Haired Poltergeist."
"You can't eat, so…yes," I confirm.
"Not true. I devour with my eyes."
