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Conn slung an arm across my shoulders. “The main house has a basement with an indoor heated pool and a canning kitchen. The caretakers may choose to live down there. There are two libraries on the main floor. I think there’s a greenhouse somewhere as well. You could make planters for all the porches and turn one of them into a meditation space.”

Memories of Zara calmly sitting on her porch lingered. I frowned and shook my head. Unlike my daughter, I didn’t need a pool or a pizza oven. What I needed was to figure out how to guide Zara’s talents once I inherited the job of babysitting her.

The Dagda would be returning the demon wolves soon. Where would they sleep here?

And where was Rasmus going to sleep if I stayed this angry? Was I seriously going to buy this mega-mansion without him bothering to offer his input?

I dropped my head and studied my feet so I wouldn’t glare at Conn and Mulan. “I think this place is too much.”

“It is good bargain,” Mulan declared.

Shrugging, I turned to her. “Money isn’t my only concern.” I sighed as I paced around in a circle, which allowed me a view of all four residences. Finally, I waved a hand. “This much property is too much for me, even if we have no debt on it. All I see is work here. I see no sanctuary and no relaxation.”

“Let’s see all of it before we decide,” Conn said, not criticizing my opinion yet.

Somehow I ended up walking through the main house alone while Conn and Mulan checked out a cottage with chocolate-colored siding and another with light blue. No one bothered looking inside the yellow one because Fiona had already claimed it.

Given how much of a stickler Mulan was about neatness, it was easy to see why the clean lines of the blue one held the most appeal to her. I suspected Conn wouldn’t care which house she chose so long as the Wu Shaman shared her bed with him. If the cottage didn’t suit his needs, he’d just fix it until it did.

He did that when we lived in Grandma Murieann’s house, even though he’d spent most nights as a dog sleeping on Fiona’s bed. I had refused to let Da fix my house problems and Jack plain out wouldn’t take the time. Conn had feared Fiona falling on an uneven sidewalk or through a loose board on the porch so he simply fixed any issues he thought needed fixing.

I never had to lie about who did the work because Jack assumed Da had done it and I let him. Back then my father had been the owner on paper. Now, as his heir, I was. Since I lived too far away to take care of things, Ma handled the details of caring for it for me. Recently, Ma had let a young family move into the house while she leased the farmland to locals. I made her keep the money from renting it as a reward for her help.

Mulan and Conn talked in low voices as they looked toward the blue house. It was easy to imagine Mulan chopping vegetables on a freshly installed butcher block countertop in the small kitchen. I could see them maybe adding an outdoor hot tub and building a two-person sauna on the deck behind the cottage. Mulan and Conn both liked their amenities.

Eventually, I walked away to stroll through the cavernous main house. It contained many elegantly painted rooms with nearly no furniture in them. The space felt like a museum to me but no matter how often I said that, no one seemed to care. The house expanded up three stories and outward in sheer area.

Its three floors were of equal size connected by a staircase that curved down on two sides into a grand foyer. There was elaborate millwork around all the doorways and the windows. The beautiful wainscoting in many of the rooms was milled to match.

I finally wandered outside again and over to the chocolate cottage. It was quaint and reasonable but as small as the rental house we currently lived in. The lack of space in the rental bothered me. Maybe that was an after-effect of seven years living alone and having such a big house all to myself. If we bought this space, I could only see living on the bottom floor of the main house. Each floor was over two thousand square feet, which made the mansion much larger than Fiona had described it being.

Eventually, we all wandered out of the houses and back to the paved area next to the main house where we’d parked our cars. Mulan’s vehicle only fit two people. Since they hadn’t wanted to ride with me in my old car, I’d driven alone.

Our tour of the property ended with all three of us agreeing that it was a lot of property to be priced for a fraction of its true worth. Even with our collective knowledge, we couldn’t determine why it was such a good deal.

“I see amazing value here once it gets modernized,” Mulan declared as she studied the outdoor spaces.

Conn’s hands were tucked into his pants pockets. “Now that I’ve seen it, I can tell you it would easily finance for the price they’re asking for it. That said... it’s going to be a lot of work to renovate and the repairs won’t come cheap. No one touched any of these residences in the last decade.”

“There’s a fancy barn and a paddock ring too,” I said, staring at both of them. “What on earth are we going to do with those?”

“We could raise unicorns,” Conn said with a grin. “They’re great at protecting the spaces where they live. No one likes to deal with them—not even their owners.”

I rolled my eyes before glaring. “Do ya seriously fancy yerself shoveling unicorn poop for a living? They’re not the most pleasant of animals and ya know it.”

Conn gave me his most indignant look. “Silly woman, I would hire the poop shoveling done. We could recoup some of our renovation money if we provided lodging for the paranormals Ben’s going to hire. You already promised Rasmus he could rent a room in the main house. Have you changed your mind?”

I appreciated Conn not asking if Rasmus would sleep in my room for free, but I didn’t like the way he was looking at me. “What’s that pinched look for? Ya look like ya have gas, Conn.”

“Imperial Demons never have gas. My digestive system is flawless.”

Mulan lifted an eyebrow. “Why are we talking about bodily functions?”

I pointed at Conn. “Because he’s about to suggest I let Jack Derringer move into the chocolate house. If he says the words out loud, I’m going to zap him.”

Conn snorted. “I’m not his fan but he helped save your life, Aran. And if he’s going to work for Ben, he will need to be trained. Humanity’s most famous warlords recommended keeping your enemies close. Isn’t that what you’re planning with the female guardian?”

“Do ya think Jack’s going to halt all the evil stuff he’s doing and become some great guy, Conn? Have ya forgotten that being a demon hunter is his lifelong dream no matter how stupid we know that work to be? Jack’s a devious bastard and I’ll not be owing him for Ben’s lack of judgment. He tried to kill me in his monster form. I’m sure Ben properly compensated Jack for his two minutes of work taking Zara down.”