They stopped, and Ezra watched in bemused fascination as Raum dropped his head into his free hand and sighed, loud and exaggerated. Raum was between Ezra and the alley so he wasn’table to see who spoke Raum’s name. Ezra tried to peek around him but Raum started walking again, gently tugging Ezra along with him, outright ignoring the person in the alley.
Ezra, ever curious, turned and looked over his shoulder at the exasperated sidhe in the alley, who rolled his eyes at Raum’s antics. “It’s Saemund! Hi! What are you doing in the alley?”
“Noo,” Raum groaned, but he stopped and turned around, and they waited for Saemund to catch up to them on the sidewalk. Saemund was dressed the same as when Ezra saw him last, though his long hair was up in a bun the same as his grandson’s. “What’s he done now, Grandpa?”
“Can’t a grandfather stop by to see his favorite grandson on a whim?” Saemund replied, sounding a bit cagey.
“You can see I’m on a date, in town, and you could have called. What’s Dad done now?” Raum asked, sounding fond and deeply aggrieved at the same time. Ezra recognized the tone from dealing with Dr. Royal all the time back in college. She was a master of the fond-exasperated-aggrieved tone.
Saemund glanced around and came closer, whispering. “He’s in the lab and your mother is out for the evening with her friends.”
Raum sucked in a sharp breath. “He’s alone in his lab and Mom isn’t home.”
Saemund nodded. “I did try to distract him, but the dear lad has got a wild idea in his head and he’s running with it. It’s your turn. Goddess knows I’m not interrupting your mother’s night out.”
“So you’re interrupting mine,” Raum bit out before stopping himself and turning to Ezra. “I am so sorry to do this, but family emergency. I need to handle this. I can get you a ride back to Sacred Threshold.”
“What’s going on?” Ezra asked, concerned. “Nórr is in his lab? Is it dangerous? I can help. I handle dangerous situations all the time.”
“Such a lovely boy,” Saemund declared. “Raum, bring him along. You heard him, he’s an expert.”
“I don’t want to get you entangled in my family drama,” Raum started, but Ezra wanted to know what was going on and a lab sounded like lots of fun, even with the dire implications from Saemund. He silently pleaded, eyes wide, holding Raum’s hand tight.
“Goddess, that expression is dangerous,” Raum muttered under his breath, caving. “Fine, but we’re getting a ride to Mom and Dad’s house.” He said the last bit to Saemund, who pouted for some reason, then shrugged.
Raum pulled out his phone, pulled up the rideshare app, and summoned a car. They moved to the edge of the sidewalk, and minutes later a large van pulled up at the curb next to them.
All three of them piled into the van, and Saemund commented, “It’s been awhile since I was in one of these. How novel. What’s this strap?”
Their driver, an older woman, looked back over her shoulder and pinned Saemund with a sharp glance. “A seatbelt. I am not moving until you put it on.”
“Of course, of course,” Saemund replied, but he was confused by the belt and Raum leaned over and belted his grandfather in the seat before leaning back and doing the same for himself. Duly warned, Ezra did his belt as well and waited.
The driver huffed, checked once more over her shoulder, and then pulled out into traffic.
Ezra leaned forward to peer past Raum and address Saemund. “When was the last time you were in a car?”
Saemund grinned, shrugging one shoulder. “Aside from now? Back before seatbelts were a thing.”
“Then how did you get around the city? Did you walk everywhere?”
“We can talk about it later,” Raum interjected, his voice heavy with some hidden meaning that Ezra was dying to pick apart. “Let’s just get there and see if I can talk some sense into my father.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
RAUM
The drive to his parents’ house didn’t take that long, but he was impatient the entire ride, both with his grandfather not dealing with the situation with Nórr, and occupied with thoughts of what his father might be cooking up in his laboratory.
The house was set back from the road and was a huge mishmash of styles and influences from the last 130 years. The lot was full of mature trees, the yard a mix of natural areas and rock gardens, but most of it was in a semi-wild state with a riot of colorful flora. The light above the front door was lit, but the house was dark, except for a light coming out from under the partially raised garage door.
Raum tipped the driver on the app and they piled out of the van, the vehicle pulling away instantly and driving off back to Edmonton. They weren’t that far outside the city limits, and there were some distant neighbors visible through the trees, but he understood the haste to leave and return to a more populated area.
Raum led Ezra and Saemund up the paved driveway to the garage, and he reached down and lifted the door higher so they could all duck under it and enter the garage.
His mother’s car was gone, as expected. The two doors at the rear of the garage led to the kitchen in the house and the backyard, and he headed for the one leading to the backyard, opening it and heading across the stone patio behind the house to the rather large shed at the rear of the backyard near the fence line.
The modified shed was retrofitted with a ventilation system and emergency fire suppressants, water sprinklers, and a huge HVAC system that handled the intense temperature swings between winter and summer in Alberta. Windows and skylights had been added, along with a sliding metal door in place of the typical wooden panels, this one with a security system and deadbolts. There was a ramp leading up to the doors, and Raum led the way up, his footsteps echoing, surely alerting his father to their arrival. The inside of the shed was lit up, bright enough to illuminate part of the yard and the trees beyond the fence.
