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I shoved Ezra’s arm. “Don’t be making fun of the way Bo talks. If all trolls were as non-violent as Bo, they wouldn’t be on our collection list so often. And ya know it.”

“Trolls are never nice, Aran. Ya’re as crazy as ya always were,” Ezra said with a grin.

“No, I’m way worse, but luckily, I’m notyerproblem.”

“No, you’re mine,” Rasmus said, picking up my hand. “Let’s go home. I’m covered in snake ashes and need a shower.”

I couldn’t tell if the guardian was staking a public claim, warning Ezra off, or truly wanted to get the snake ashes off. Rasmus didn’t sound jealous but he did sound possessive.

I never could tell what motivated him. Guardians didn’t think like humans.

Snorting, I decided the best thing at the moment was to accept Rasmus as normal. I wanted to celebrate my Bo win and bask in the possibility of being right.

And if Bo never returned? Well, I’d be picking him up for free like I promised.

Pulling my hand away from Rasmus, I turned to Jayesh, put both hands together, and bowed to him. “Thank you for your help, Jayesh. Communicating with Bo wouldn’t have been possible without ya. If he asks for more word lessons, will ya teach him? I’d like not to have to call ya every time there’s a communication problem.”

He responded with a nod and a smile. “I’m happy to help. Let’s consider that our Bo experiment has officially begun.”

I returned his smile before letting Rasmus take my hand again and drag me out of the cage area to the car.

Chapter Ten

On paper, the property officially belonged to me and Mulan. Conn was a silent backer that only the four of us knew about. Rasmus maintained guest status, though he offered to pay us rent every month. Since he was sharing my bed and wouldn’t be taking up even one of the many, many empty rooms, I let my guardian lover keep his cash.

Conn did some sort of accounting magick that made it possible for the two of us to combine his cash and mine. My financial agreement with Conn was that he pointed at something and said, “Do this, Aran,” or “Sign here,” and I obeyed.

When it came to money, I always did what Conn thought was best. I wasn’t irresponsible with my earnings. I could keep a budget because Bridget O’Malley had insisted on it. I simply wasn’t diligent enough to take proper care of it by myself. If Conn hadn’t stashed away my earnings when I went to prison, I’d have been broke because Jack took everything I’d had at the house and in our joint account.

Thanks to Conn, I had money, a life, and now… property.

The real estate people closing the deal were awestruck by our ability to request wire transfers and have the money immediately processed. With all they knew, between the two of them, Conn and Mulan probably could have bought the entire city of Salem if they had wanted to.

Thanks to Ezra’s prompt payment, we even had enough to hire movers.

Mulan had sold her house and put her things into storage. She made arrangements to have it delivered, never once doubting that we’d close successfully and it would be done.

After signing a giant stack of papers, the place was ours to do with as we pleased. I texted Fiona a picture of the actual signing and got back a squeal of happiness in little pictures that I understood substituted for actual feelings. Or at least, I think that’s what Mulan told me. I couldn’t even tell what half of the tiny pictures were in Fiona’s reply, but her written “yay” was clear enough.

I currently stood in the foyer of the giant and empty house and wondered how I could ever feel like this was home to me. My dreams of a home were cottage-sized, and this place was a mansion.

Rasmus moved the queen bed from the garage of the rental house into a large bedroom on the first floor with an attached bathroom. The sad couch and sofa had belonged to the rental house, so we left it behind. I still had trouble imagining how I could afford to buy enough furniture to fill up even a tenth of this space.

“Aran?” I turned at my name to see Conn leading an older couple into the house. They were both about the same size as he was. Looking around at the emptiness, the couple wore the same shocked expression I felt sure I did. I smiled at them to let them know I understood.

“Hello. Are these our new caretakers?”

“Yes,” Conn said, stepping aside to let them walk forward.

Both bowed their heads to me in greeting. I smiled wider at them. “Welcome to my empty museum,” I said because that’s how I honestly thought of it.

Conn chuckled. “It’s notthatbad.”

I made a strangled sound. “This house is empty and cold. Everywhere I look all I see is a space with nothing in it.”

“It’s big and full of possibilities,” Conn argued back.

I snorted. “I’m thinking about moving to the small chocolate-colored house. No one has claimed it yet.”