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He immediately threw up an illusion that turned Elliot into a stump. “We’ll go together. It seems to be quiet.”

“No. See, Cunkle? Unicorn,” the stump said.

“You want to be a unicorn, sweet baby?”

I don’t know what it is,Corbin growled.I can’t see anything, but I don’t like that he thinks he can see something.

Now, and I’m itching. Let’s get inside.

Can you hide us long enough to save the burgers?

No problem.He threw up a quick glamour—sort of his emergency, no one can see us illusion, a heavy fog separating the house from everything. “I think we should go eat with Grandma, huh?”

“Gammy!”

“That’s right, my little gargoyle. Let’s go eat with Gammy. That sounds like way more fun than eating out here. It’s a little hot, huh?” And he was moving from nervous to wigged.

“Unicorn come?”

“Not today. He’s not hungry. He doesn’t eat hamburgers. Unicorns are notoriously vegetarian.”

“What mememarian?”

“That means that they have dull teeth, not sharp ones like us, and they don’t eat meat.”

Elliot’s knot holes went wide. “No burgies.”

“Nope. No burgies at all.” They gathered up the food and headed inside, locking the door firmly once they were all inside.

He peeked out the window, making sure there wasn’t anything out there that he could see. All he could see was sparkly fog.

By the time the illusion faded, the intruder wouldn’t be out there watching anymore. Whatever it was, well, if he hadn’t given up, they’d eat him.

Chomp.

ChapterThree

He’d been seen.

Honestly, Orion was kind of shocked. He’d thought he’d cloaked himself well,andhe’d picked a good hiding spot.

But that little one had seen him sure as shit.

He pondered his next move. Because while the family who was out there grilling burgers were obviously sweet and loving, they were also purple and green and silver. Not merely human…

So Orion felt honor bound to see what the hell they were… And what they wanted. And why a simple A-frame house from the fifties was now mostly a giant Victorian monstrosity with painted lady flare.

And then there was the purple guy. Skin and hair was a vibrant violet, and he was obviously an illusionist. And he’d made Orion as hard as a rock with one good look at him.

He thought that was an unreasonable reaction, and he did not improve. Well, he approved, but now he just had to get into that house and figure out what the hell was going on.

The illusion that Mr. Purple and Wonderful threw up was solid, and if he hadn’t seen him do it, he might have even missed it.

Even better was the illusion that had turned the little silver baby into a stump. Honestly though, if they were going to continue with that then they were going to have to teach the little one to stop talking.

And wiggling its limbs.

Right. Orion rolled his eyes at himself. He just needed to go find out what the hell was going on. He figured the easiest way to do that was to knock. So, he tromped up to the door and rapped on it smartly.