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“Sounds good to me, little miss. Now let’s get you ladies home and into bed. You’re gonna need a good night’s rest if you’re going to help solve the case.” Tennyson had occasionally let Everly stay home if she was struggling with something. They’d check out the witchy shops and spend the afternoon making cookies. He’d never before kept her out of school to help work a cold murder case.

Oh well, Ten supposed, there was a first time for everything.

5

Ronan

Sitting around the kitchen table with the girls, and Ten, Ronan still had no idea what the hell had happened the night before at the Salem Witch Board Museum and how Everly and Aurora were being allowed to stay home from school.

“Why don’t you two get dressed and then we’ll get to work, okay?” Ten took the girls’ empty pancake plates and threw them in the trash. “We’ve got some stuff to talk about before Fitz and Jude get here.”

Aurora ran out of the room. Everly was quick on her heels.

“How’d you sleep?” Ten asked.

“Like shit,” Ronan admitted. “When we got into bed, I just stared at the ceiling, trying to wrap my mind around the fact that Everly took charge at the museum and is now heading a cold case murder investigation.” Ronan couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth, but they were all too true.

“She’s not actually heading the murder investigation.” Ten snorted and started to laugh. “You’ve always wanted her to follow in your footsteps and here she is.”

“Yeah, after she graduates from high school,” Ronan whined. “Not while she’s in the third grade.”

Ten sighed. “They grow up so fast nowadays.”

“This isn’t a laughing matter. Cisco wants us to solve this murder. The murder of a witch. One of Everly’s sisters. She may have been a casualty of war, but what the hell was Delilah doing on the battlefield in the first place? I’m willing to bet she wasn’t there of her own free will. The last thing I want is for Everly to see and worse, feel, what happened to this woman.”

“I hear you loud and clear, but we’re beyond that. Everly insisted she was coming with us last night. She didn’t know where we were going or why, but she knew she needed to be there. You’ll also remember that neither one of us made a move to stop her. We could have dropped both girls with Cope like we did with Ezra, but we never even suggested it.”

Ronan nodded. Ten was right, there was no use arguing.

“I’d take that a step further and say Aurora was meant to be there as well.”

Ronan nodded. “I think so too.”

“You do?” Ten asked, sounding shocked.

“Last night, when Everly was talking to Fitz about helping Delilah, she told him it would be good for Fitz’s family and she nodded her head toward Aurora. I think she might be tied up in this thing.”

Ten’s mouth hung open. “I didn’t catch that last night. We don’t know anything about Aurora’s family, just her mother’s name. Do you really think it’s possible that Delilah is somehow connected to Aurora?”

“It’s Halloween, Ten. Stranger things have happened.”

“Daddy’s right,” Everly said, walking back into the kitchen. “I don’t know what the connection is, just that there is one. I didn’t tell Aurora and it’s probably for the best if we keep that to ourselves for now. At least until we have a little more information.”

“How did you get so smart?” Ronan asked.

“From you two.” Everly grinned at her fathers. “Now, before Uncle Jude and Fitz get here. There’s something we need to talk about.”

“You heading up a homicide investigation?” Ronan asked, sounding snarky.

“I’m more of a paranormal investigator, not a police detective, but if saying I am will put some cold hard cash into my savings account, I have no problem with that.”

“What are you saving for? You’re eight?” Ronan asked, visions of another classic Mustang danced in his head.

“For our cruise, Daddy!”

“We’re going on a cruise?” Ronan asked, his eyes on Ten. So far as he knew there had been no mention of going on vacation.

Ten shrugged. “Let’s table that for a minute. What was it you wanted to talk about before the others got here?”