I didn’t respond, mostly because I was afraid I would start crying. Then something occurred to me. “May,” I blurted, referring to my ghostly grandmother.
“May you what?” Larry prodded.
“No.” I shook my head. “May. As in May Potter. Has anybody seen her?”
Larry shifted from one foot to the other. “Um, ma’am … .”
“Stop calling me that,” I hissed.
“Ma’am,” he said again, as if he hadn’t heard me. “I understand that your grandfather loved your grandmother very much. We all humor him with the May stuff, but we don’t pretend we believe it’s true.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Are you calling my grandfather a liar?”
“Hadley.” That one word from Galen was laced with warning. “Not everyone on the island is paranormal. Even those who are — like a lot of the shifters — can’t see ghosts. You cannot blame them for being dubious.”
I waved off Galen’s admonishment. I understood what he was saying on a very basic level, but I didn’t have time for it. “May will know where he is.” I started toward the house, not waiting for Larry or Galen.
I let myself in, looking left and right for a hint of my ghostlygrandmother, and then headed toward the living room. I’d seen Wesley and May watching television together. They snuggled on the couch, as if she were still alive. They played board games. There was no sign of my grandmother in the living room.
I was in Wesley’s office when Galen caught up with me. “You didn’t handle that great,” he complained. “Now Larry thinks you’re a crackpot too.”
“I don’t really care what Larry thinks,” I fired back. “He’s a tool.”
“He loves Wesley.”
“He also keeps calling me ‘ma’am’ even though he knows I hate it.”
“He’s being polite.”
I swiveled to face him. “No offense, but how is it being polite if every woman he points that word at hates it?”
Galen seemed to struggle for an answer.
“Ha!” I poked his chest and went back to looking. May wasn’t in here either. That left Wesley’s bedroom and the kitchen. I checked both, calling out May’s name at the top of my lungs. The house was empty.
“What are you thinking?” Galen asked when I stopped moving around the house.
“May isn’t here.”
“Is she with Wesley?”
Maybe it was wishful thinking but I really did believe that. “I think so. What’s our next step?”
“We might need some magical help.”
“You’re calling Booker.”
“And Aurora. She’s a masterful tracker. With your magic and their abilities we have a good chance of finding him.”
I didn’t know if I believed that but nodded all the same. There weren’t many options we could embrace. I trusted Aurora and Booker with my life. If they could help, they would.
“Call them,” I said. “I’m going to have to cast a locator spell. Iwant to make it strong. There’s an herb garden near the patio. I’m going to go out there and collect some ingredients.”
“Watch your back. Just in case.”
“You don’t have to worry about me.”
That made him smile. “Ah, if only.”
