Page 13 of Fog of War (Over the Moon)

Gabbie

“Ready?” I asked, glancing up at Paladus.

“If I can survive your harpy of a friend, I can survive two grandmothers.”

“You sure about that?”

I waggled my brows with a little sashay and Paladus squeezed my hip.

I was moving to Aescipoli.

Not right away. I had things to tie up on Earth.

I wanted one more Christmas in Vermont and to enjoy the skeletal trees in Portland, listening to cryptid podcasts and baking pumpkin bread while Paladus asked questions about the “horrible creatures that lurk in American forests.” We could watch horror movies and break my couch and fill the Ferulis clan transport with crate after crate of my favorite things to take with us.

And the best part? We were only a four-day journey from Earth. I wasn’t leaving forever. I was expanding my life with someone I was quickly growing to love, not just lust over.

Paladus hummed at me, standing on Juanita and Bonafide’s porch. I hugged the wrapped box in my arms, took a deep breath, and pressed the doorbell.

Ding dong.

“Get in here, peaches!” Juanita barked from the kitchen at the back of the house. Bonafide rounded the living room with a high mew of excitement, her arms outstretched. She wore a bright orange mumu and about a hundred turquoise and silver bangles.

“Oh my word,” she marveled, bypassing me to hug Paladus first. “What a tall drink of quicksilver.”

“Stop flirting with him!” Juanita groused. She hobbled out from the hallway, snapping a kitchen towel at Bonafide’s butt, then spied the gift in my hands. “Oh, a peace offering! Wine?”

My face turned cherry red. “Uh, nope. It’s… it’s definitely not wine.”

Paladus chuckled. “She’s nicknamed it ‘Rent.’”

Bonafide and Juanita’s eyes both bulged, calculating just how large the “rent” was this month.

“Oh my.”

Juanita took me by the arm, leading me away from our spouses. “Good on you, still being able to walk.”

I gasped, and all three devils erupted in laughte r .