That was enough for Vera. She stepped out onto the porch and wrapped her arms around her nephew. Their estrangement was clearly a thing of the past.
Swallowing hard, I blinked rapidly, noticing Drea and Marlow had to do the same. Today was really challenging my ability not to cry sappy tears. I was such a softy.
“Come inside.” Vera waved to Gage, and we all moved forward. “Leave the traitorous trash out though,” she said as she glared at the rest of us.
We stopped, shocked at her words.
Gage let loose a nervous laugh. “Auntie, this is my girlfriend, Tatum, and our friends.”
My stomach dropped out.
Girlfriend.
He said it. Hetotallysaid it. Notmaybe-girlfriend. Notalmost-girlfriend. Just girlfriend, period.
The butterflies in my stomach multiplied then.
I gave his aunt a goofy lopsided grin and she narrowed her eyes at me. “Fine. Bring the girlfriend, but the rest could be spies. They stay outside,” she said sternly.
Muttering something under her breath, she fluttered her hands through the air and a green shimmer appeared briefly around her house and then it was gone.
The wards? Had she just modified them to allow me in?
“Go on,” Drea said. “We can wait here.”
Jacob, Dash, and Marlow nodded their agreement.
I cast a glance at Indigo, who looked anything but comfortable with the group of Lumens around her.
“Are you going to be all right without me?” I asked her.
She cast a side-glance at Jacob, who’d pulled a sword on her earlier, but then looked back at me and nodded. “No biggie. I got this,” she said.
I knew she wasn’t comfortable, but I also knew my friends would protect her like one of their own. I’d already seen it happen in the cemetery a few hours ago.
After casting her an apologetic look, I rushed forward, afraid his aunt would change her mind, and slipped into the open doorway behind Gage with no idea what lay beyond.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
After I stepped inside, Vera quickly put the wards on her home back in place and slammed the front door shut on Drea and the rest of my friends.
Gage took my hand and walked me out of the foyer and deeper into Vera’s house.
Holy glitter explosion!
It was like I’d walked into a craft store that had been bombed. The floors were hot pink with shellacked glitter, the walls quilted as if someone had painted glue over fabric squares. Each piece of furniture was a different color and size, and the coffee table was a pink wooden flamingo with a glass circle over its back. I spotted two paintings on the walls: one a two-tailed mermaid, another a bear with a teacup for a hat. The hallway was closed off with string lights and the ceiling had crystals hanging from it.
“Vera is an artist,” Gage said proudly.
I knew I was staring at everything with rounded eyes and my mouth hanging open, but there was too much to look at. I couldn’t take it all in properly because it was so cluttered and eclectic.
“She hates my house,” Vera growled, looking at me sternly.
I gulped. “No, I don’t. I’ve just never seen anything like it. It’s like an art museum.” And it was. A really strange and almost psychedelic museum that made me feel a little queasy from sensory overload, but it was definitely something else.
She smiled at that, nodding as if I was excused for my wild gawking.
“Vera can sense truths from lies, pick up on people’s thoughts, and also find lost objects,” Gage told me. “Isn’t that right, Auntie?”
