As we walk, she loops her arm through mine. “Is it true? What you said on the phone? We are really going to be safe here?”
“Safe as we can be. We made a deal with the fey. Jade did, actually.”
Her eyebrows rise. “The love of your life?”
My ears go a bit hot. “Yeah. Him.”
She hums knowingly. “Can’t wait to meet him.”
As we walk toward the house, Cara casts a glance at the fancy windows and the tall chimneys, her brows raised.
“So... this is where all the weirdness lives now, huh?”
“Weirdness?” I ask, half-laughing, half-bracing.
She shoots me a look. “Don’t ‘what do you mean’ me. I may be new to this whole fey and magic and otherworldly-creatures business, but I’m not stupid. You’ve told me that your new friends are all magical.”
I nod warily.
Cara exhales slowly. “Right. And your boyfriend’s a portal-magnet with ancient magic blood?”
“Yes,” I say, a little defensively.
“So, that’s weirdness!” She declares triumphantly.
I wince. “You’re taking this really well.”
“I had a mild existential crisis during the invasion, cried in the bath for three days straight, and then I got over myself,” she says matter-of-factly.
A full body laugh shakes through me. I should have known that my sister would take this all in her stride.
She grins at me, and everything feels wonderful.
We head in through the kitchen door. The warmth hits us immediately, along with the scent of cinnamon and something fruity. Cara pauses to take it all in. The hanging herbs, the mismatched mugs, the worn wooden table covered in board games and spell books.
Then the yelling starts.
“I am telling you, Lello, you can’t put moonstones in a warding wreath!”
“Why not?”
“Because they attractdreamenergy, and we wantdefense, not everyone sleepwalking into the damn hedge maze!”
Lello and Pink appear in the hallway, both carrying armfuls of dried flowers, evergreens, and various sparkly crystals. They’re facing off like two reality show contestants arguing over a cake.
“Dream energy is calming!” Lello insists. “You just don’t want to admit my wreaths are prettier than yours.”
“Pretty isn’t the point! You always do this, you make decorations, notprotections! Last solstice your garlands attracted moths the size of pigeons!”
“They were festive!”
“They were practically carnivorous!”
They are so busy glaring at each other that they don’t even appear to have noticed me and Cara.
Cara leans toward me, eyebrows raised. “So... that one’s a kelpie?”
“Lello, yes. And Pink’s human. Kind of.”
