I had no doubt that my brother and Av were being shown totheir own rooms as I sat here in my office. My office, which abutted a bedroom that was clearly for me. But it was nothers.
There was a line I’d missed in her note, a smaller one at the bottom of the card:I sleep fitfully, but we can have sleepovers as much as you want.
My heart swelled. She’d made room for me in her life in a way that finally accommodated her needs—that took howshewanted to live into account. And she did sleep fitfully. I knew that from the short time we’d spent sleeping in the same bed. If I had known she’d sleep better on her own, I would have left her to it.
But I was proud of her for speaking up for what she needed, the sting over having been given my own room fading as each moment passed, marked by another thump of my heart.
I set the card down and wandered back into the bathroom, showering and then dressing in a daze, choosing a pair of gray sweatpants and a black cashmere sweater—all in my size—before peeking through the door to Ember’s room. She was tucked into her bed, her hair damp and cheeks rosy. She was fast asleep. Lux was curled up in an oversized velvet chair in the corner, reading her tablet.
She’s fine, she mouthed to me.Let her sleep.
I nodded, then closed the door and wandered back through my bedroom and office. I stood staring at all the little details: a watercolor painting of a flower shop, a portrait of the breed of dog I’d had as a child. Countless pieces of me that Ember had collected in her mind over the years were evident here. I didn’t understand how she’d done it, but she had. Her nimble mind had pulled all these disparate memories of me together and made them mean something.
The flowers in the foyer.When I’d mentioned the language of flowers to her, she’d acted as though she didn’t know what it was. But she knew now. She knew that I would know what that combination of flowers meant, and she’d made sure it was right there, the first thing I’d see when I came through the door.
Had anyone ever considered me thus? I couldn’t remember a single time in my life that anyone had ever paid such close attention to me. Ember Verona was chaos embodied, in so many ways, but I had underestimated her. I wouldn’t do it again. My woman had range.
A goofy grin made its way across my face, unfamiliar to me as the feeling of being soseen. In the hallway, there was a bit of movement. I went to the door to find Briony coming out of the room across the hall.
She rolled her eyes at me. “Guess you’re mom and dad now. Ember says my roomhasto be across from yours.”
I snorted a laugh. Ember had thought of everything. “Show me,” I said.
She opened the door wide, her smile brightening. Stanley, in his favorite tomcat form, wound around her feet, purring happily. The room was lovely, a richly patterned wallpaper that resembled an old tapestry of a unicorn hunt covering the walls. Briony’s bed was canopied with midnight blue velvet curtains, and an enormous, sparkling chandelier cast a golden light throughout the room.
“It’s more like a lamp than a big light,” Briony explained. “Look, it’s dimmable.” She slid a switch up and down until she had it back at a cozy level. “Ember said I could have whatever I wanted. I’m getting tutors to help me get up to speed before I go back to school next spring.”
I nodded as she showed me the little room that connected her bathroom and closet, where there was a neat little desk with a giant cork board behind it and a state of the art computer with several screens.
“She wants us all to stay,” Briony said, sighing at the primo desk setup. “Are you going to?”
Briony’s eyes were big, wide with worry that I was going to leave her hero. I touched her arm. “I am not certain yet, but know this, I will always be here if you need me.”
“Don’t you love her?” Briony asked. There was an edge of awhine in her voice that I understood. In a short time, we had becometheadults in her life.
“Yes,” I answered honestly. I was deeply touched by all of this, but I wouldn’t lie to the child. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to stay. I needed time to process. Time to be sure before I made promises I might break to people I cared for. “I just need to be sure that staying is the right thing for both of us.”
Briony shook her head. “If you love her, I don’t see what else there is to be sure of.”
Briony might be a teenager, but wiser words were probably never spoken.
Iwandered through the house, listening to Av talking with Eli, Lara, and Calypso in the hearth room off the kitchen. They were getting to know each other, telling the story of tonight, but also telling one another about themselves. As I made my way into the kitchen I noticed how carefully Eli watched Sera as she piled slices of pizza onto her plate. And the way Max watched Eli, giving him the stink-eye.
I was staying miles away from that. It was a mess waiting to happen. Rhiannon sat with my brother in a little alcove that looked out over the greater garden. The two of them stared wide-eyed at Oleander Cottage. Both seemed practically transfixed by the place.
“Hey,” I said as I sat down with them. Neither had touched their food, though they both had full plates.
Eryx startled at my voice, as though he hadn’t heard me sit down or seen me coming. It was utterly unlike him to be unaware of his surroundings. “Hey, big brother.”
I frowned at Eryx, then felt for spirits. There were a few Shades wandering around the house, but their energy was curious, happy that there were inhabitants in Hemlock House oncemore. Nothing malicious. But under that, IfeltOleander Cottage. It was as I remembered it, a whispering mess of malefic energy. The sooner we warded it off, the better.
Slowly, Rhiannon turned away from the bank of leaded glass windows in the alcove. “Is Ember all right?”
I nodded. “She’s resting.”
Rhiannon took a deep breath, expelling air from her lungs like she was banishing something else. Was there something she sensed about Oleander Cottage that I didn’t? Before I could ask, she spoke. “This all turned out well, didn’t it?”
I hummed my agreement.
