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Conn coughed to clear his throat of laughter. “Let’s get some coffee into you before we tackle the hard questions. While you’re showering, think of last night and all you would miss if you killed him.”

I gripped my blanket tighter. “If he’d tossed a couple hundred on the bed before leaving, I’d have at least understood his absence. This waking-up-alone shit has got to stop, Conn. I won’t be treated this way.”

Conn chuckled as he reached out to pat my shoulder. “It wasn’t his idea to leave you. Your guardian grandfather came for him. Trust me—Rasmus wasn’t any happier about it than you are. I believe he tried to make you sleep until he returned to avoid this situation. I warned him it wouldn’t work the way he hoped.”

“He was probably hoping I wouldn’t know he’d left me again.”

Chuckling, Conn shrugged. “Your power is flourishing, Aran. Soon, I don’t think even the guardians will affect you. The Dagda stone seems to finally be revealing itself, and it has its own opinions of the people in your life. Most of my keepers wore the stone like a piece of jewelry. You’re the first to internalize it. Anything can happen.”

I knew Conn and I needed to talk about the stone. My parents knew of its existence but not how it worked. It had hung among Ma’s other necklaces for two weeks after my grandmother passed with no one protecting it. They’d reluctantly handed it over the day they also reluctantly informed me I’d inherited Conn. Based on Jack stealing the stone from me, I suspected he knew more about it than I did. It wasn’t like I could ask him. No, I’d just have to learn about it on my own.

I gripped the door handle hard and kept my gaze on my hand. There was no way to keep the bitterness from my tone. “Orlin took Rasmus awayagain.”

“Well... sort of,” Conn said, snickering at my escalating anger. “I think your guardian was convinced to leave by the end of their debate. Your guardian grandfather did look rather stressed about something.”

“Do ya knowwhyOrlin took him?”

“No, but I tried to find out. The sneaky guardians talked as far out in the yard as they could get. I think they dropped some sort of silencing field over themselves. Somehow, they kept Mulan and me from eavesdropping on their oh-so-important conversation. I’m guessing it had something to do with ensuring Zara’s memory loss took place but I can’t be sure.”

I snorted. Orlin could have needed help with restraining Zara but I doubted it. She’d run from him before. My grandfather seemed at the top of the guardian food chain.

“It was probably over the fact that Rasmus got his memories back when Zara threw him around. I should have known Rasmus couldn’t hide his awareness from them. The guardians function like a freaking BORG hive. Sometimes I even think they share a single brain.”

“They’re like a what?”Conn asked with another laugh.

I sneered at him. It was the first time in ages Conn had no reference. “BORG hive mind, Conn. It’s from that Star Trek show with Patrick Stewart as the captain. Jack was a Trekkie the whole time we were married. Look... I don’t have time to explain it. Ask Mulan. She’s up-to-speed on pop culture. I’m going to shower, and then I wouldn’t refuse if Mulan wanted to make me a sandwich.”

“I think what you need most is a pot of strong coffee,” Conn said with more laughter.

Usually, yes, that was what I needed. This morning, what I needed more than caffeine was a man who would wake up with me, but I refused to whine about what couldn’t be changed.

It was bad enough my body was protesting every movement I made.

How unfair was it that there was no one I could blame in person for it? Or celebrate with? Blaming Orlin would be redundant and I couldn’t blame Rasmus until I’d heard his side of things.

My bodily discomfort guaranteed that all I’d be doing for the next few hours was reliving and rehashing last night. It wasn’t fair, but I refused to sit around feeling abandoned.

I was forty, damn it. I wasn’t some young girl who regretted her choice of bed partner.

Rasmus didn’t understand yet that our bed-sharing was a tentative situation that could change—andwouldchange—if he kept up his disappearing act. Neither he nor Orlin would catch me crying over him not being around when I needed him.

My back stiffened with resolve as I turned back to Conn. “Let’s go look at that house Fiona found. Can you give the real estate agent a call and see if we can go by this afternoon?”

Conn grinned as he bowed his head. “Consider it already done.”

The property turnedout to be more enormous than Fiona had described.

Mulan sighed and shook her head while muttering to herself in Chinese. I didn’t know what she was saying, but I agreed with her anyway. Her expression probably mirrored my own.

Upkeep on this place would cost us in utilities alone. I could see that the property hadsomeadvantages. There was a tall fence around the front with a security gate at the entrance. The real estate agent gave us a code. After tapping it in, the gates swung wide to let us drive down the tree-lined road through the property.

Conn argued that the two live-in caretakers he’d acquired were skilled enough not to need additional help with my giant colonial monstrosity. It boasted three fairly well-maintained porches held up by bulky fluted columns running from the ground to the third-story porch.

We both agreed it would take a lot of work to maintain the property but Conn sincerely felt it was doable. Fiona would get a cottage. Mulan and Conn would get one as well. Upkeep on the other small house would become the responsibility of whomever we let live in it. Conn’s demon caretakers would monitor tidiness but I knew they would have to use the Wu Shaman’s standards to keep the peace.

Still unconvinced that this sprawling location was the right place for us, I texted Fiona to ask which of the cottages was the one she preferred. She declared it was the yellow one with a paved patio out back containing a built-in pizza oven.

I looked up from the message and glared at the group. “Do ya know who would pay a million dollars for a patio with a pizza oven? Jack Derringer’s frivolous child, that’s who. Goddess bless, I’m thinking that buying this place would be a really stupid thing to do.”