Normal.Right.As if anything about her life had been normal since she’d first started talking to ghosts.Then again, communing with spirits and helping them move on to the afterlife felt like a walk in the park compared to what she’d been through over the past few months.
Her phone vibrated from inside her purse.A text from Olivia, and Delia’s heart skipped a beat before she realized the message was just a standard arrival update and not anything sinister at all.
Flight’s on time.Should be at baggage claim in about twenty minutes.Thanks again for picking us up!
Twenty minutes to get her head together and figure out how to explain why it was so important that her cousin had to choose an alternative to Angel’s Dream Wedding Chapel without revealing that the venue was currently serving as headquarters for an interdimensional invasion attempt.
Piece of cake.
As she sat in the car and tried very hard not to think about Caleb trapped in the chapel…and her utter inability to mount any kind of successful rescue…Delia watched a family of four struggle with an overloaded luggage cart, the father looking harried while two small children ran circles around their mother.Such normal problems.Such beautifully, blessedly, normal problems.
Someday she hoped to have problems like those of her own.Now, though, she had to focus on the very real threat facing her and her friends…and the man who’d stolen her heart.
Another family emerged from the terminal, this group of three consisting of two parents and a daughter who might have been in her early teens, looking much more organized as they made their way toward the ride-share pickup area.Delia envied their brisk efficiency, their obvious confidence that they knew exactly where they were going and what they were doing.
Her phone vibrated again, this time with a text from her mother.
Just left the house to head to the airport.Your dad’s grumbling about traffic, but excited to see everyone.Any word on when you’ll be free to join us for dinner tonight?
Dinner.Right.Because in addition to managing a supernatural crisis and coordinating a wedding venue change, she also needed to be a dutiful daughter and participate in the extended family reunion.
Working on it,she texted back.Might need to juggle a few things with the venue situation.
The response came back almost immediately.
Everything okay?
Just wedding logistics.You know how it is.
Well, don’t let Olivia’s drama stress you out too much.This is supposed to be fun, remember?
If only it were that simple.
Another wave of energy coursed through her, stronger this time, and for a moment, the airport around her seemed to shimmer and shift.She could see the ley lines running beneath the concrete and asphalt, could sense the way they connected this location to the network that spiderwebbed across the entire Las Vegas valley.
And at the center of it all, Angel’s Dream Wedding Chapel blazed, a dark star embedded in neon and plate glass.
The connection to Caleb was still there, thank God, the thin, unbreakable thread of psychic energy that he’d used to contact her as she was on her way to the airport.But she could also sense something else through their bond — his anger, his frustration, and underneath it all, a growing determination that made her worried he was planning something dangerously heroic.
Don’t do anything stupid,she thought, directing the mental message toward the corrupted chapel.Just stay alive until we can figure out how to get you out of there.
Whether he received the message or not, she couldn’t tell.The psychic static from the ley line network was making it harder and harder to maintain clear contact.
A familiar laugh caught her attention, and she looked up to see Olivia and Alec emerging from the terminal.Her cousin looked pretty much the same as she had during the last family visit to Chicago, if a few years older — tall and willowy, with the kind of effortless elegance that made Delia feel slightly underdressed even when she was wearing her best outfit.Her dark hair was pulled back in a sleek ponytail, and she wore slim, expensive-looking jeans and a pair of strappy sandals that were more than a little impractical for hauling luggage through an airport terminal.
Alec complemented her well — broad shoulders, perfect hair, and the kind of confident smile that probably served him well when dealing with his hedge fund clients.Or at least, Delia assumed his work must involve something like that.Her mother had only vaguely said that he worked in finance, which could have meant almost anything.However, she kind of doubted that a bank manager had the cash on hand to buy a million-dollar house outright.
They made a beautiful couple, Delia had to admit.They definitely were the kind of people who belonged in wedding magazines and luxury travel brochures.
The kind of people who definitely didn’t belong anywhere near a demon-infested wedding chapel.
She got out of her car and waved, pasting on her best “everything is perfectly normal” smile as they spotted her and headed in her direction.
“Delia!”Olivia’s smile was genuine, if a little strained around the edges.Up close, Delia could see a hint of shadows under her cousin’s eyes that hadn’t been entirely erased by concealer, a subtle tension in her shoulders that spoke of too many restless nights.“Thank you so much for doing this.I can’t tell you how much it means to have someone local helping us coordinate everything.”
“Of course,” Delia replied, giving her cousin a quick hug.“That’s what family’s for.”
Alec stepped forward and shook her hand, his grip confident but not so strong that she had to worry about him crushing her knuckles.“Nice to meet you, Delia.I can’t thank you enough for stepping in to help with all the last-minute arrangements.Olivia’s been so worried about the venue situation.”
