“Dang, Dad,” said Ava. “Why don’t you just burn her at the stake?”
“I didn’t understand why you left, why you did what you did,” said Blake. “But when Sage went missing, I saw the difference you made to his parents. And when Morgan got sick...” He swallowed and looked away. “I’m trying to say...maybe sometimes you had good reason to be gone.”
“Maybe sometimes,” I said. “Not always.”
“When Ronnie met us at the Northshore Mall yesterday and said you’d stayed behind, I was pissed.” He circled his mug with both hands. “I felt like a kid again. Like you’d abandoned me again.”
“I know. And I’m sorry.”
“I was mad because I was scared, Mom. But if you hadn’t made the choice you did, a lot more people would be dead today, and I might not have gotten Morgan back.” He reached over and took my hand. “Ronnie told me how hard it was for you to stay behind. How upset you were. I’m saying you made the right call.”
I needed to schedule an optometrist appointment. My vision was getting awfully blurry. “Thank you.”
“Ugh. Boring.” Ava hopped up to grab another cookie. “Grandma, you said you’d answer all my questions. You mentioned vampires and hamadryads, so those are real. And ghosts, right? What about zombies?”
“At least eight different subspecies, yes,” I said. “Though only two of those are found in North America.”
“Werewolves?”
“Yes.”
“Angels?”
“I had an affair with one when I was nineteen, shortly after I left my first husband. It was quite the scandal. She almost lost her halo.”
“Hobbits?”
“Made-up.”
“Can you teach me to cast spells?”
Blake and I answered that one together. “No!”
She scowled. “I bet Uncle Temple would have said yes.”
“He would not,” I said firmly. “Because he’d have known what I’d have done to him if he did.”
I knew the sharp pain at the mention of Temple’s name would eventually begin to heal. I also knew it would never disappear completely. Grief was a lifelong process, difficult and painful, but made easier by the presence of family...and the fresh-baked cookies of the recently deceased.
I licked red crumbs from my fingers and stood. “Why don’t I show you how to check the stock for magic? That’s kind of like casting a spell.”
Ava rolled her eyes with the flair and drama only a preteen girl could pull off. “And a glass of milk is kind of like ice cream.”
Most of the house was back to normal, but we’d found a few bits of magical chaos left behind after Temple closed the portal. Since we didn’t want anyone buying a Salem-themed refrigerator magnet/bottle opener that would reanimate the contents of their fridge, that meant carefully inspecting every item by sight, smell, and feel.
“I’ll also tell you how Uncle Temple spent a semester as an exchange student in Atlantis,” I added. “His roommate was a goblin shark named Ximena.”
Ava’s eyes widened. “Did Uncle Temple know Aquaman?”
I aimed a playful swat at her head, which she dodged.
“Do you mind if I join you?” asked Blake.
“Why?” The defensiveness slipped out before I could stop myself.
“Because I’ve never heard that story either.” He finished his coffee and stood. “After everything that’s happened, I think I should learn how to spot curses and other nasty magic. If you don’t mind?”
My throat tightened. “I’d like that very much.”
