The comment wasn’t flippant, just curious, like he couldn’t believe his good fortune, that there must be a hidden catch.
“Unless you don’t want to be?” I bobbed a shoulder. “It’s your call. I won’t hold you here if you want to go. I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. I required the blood oath for Colby’s sake.” At least that was the biggest reason. That it answered the question of whether I had daemon blood was the icing on the deep, dark family secrets cake. “I can’t fix your life, you have to do that, but I can give you a tent over your head, a fresh water supply, and protection for as long as you want it.”
“You didn’t mention how a daemon blood oath works for you. You’re a black witch, right?”
“I’m…complicated.”
Delma’s offhand comment after she manhandled Camber struck a chord with me, but whatever she knew—if she knew anything—she hadn’t shared that information with her brother. If she had, under the oath, he would have been compelled to tell me.
“I’m not in a position to look a gift horse in the mouth.”
“That’s the spirit.” I clapped him on the back, and he jumped away. “Oops.”
“I don’t mean to be rude, but I like having two hands.”
As often as the girls hugged me, and my neighbors and friends, I required defined parameters too.
If this insanity hurt someone I cared about, I would have to hunt down Asa’s father and behead him. The downside of that would be promoting Asa, which I doubted he would appreciate, and…hmm…guess that was the only negative. Other than it was wrong to murder people. Hard to keep that in mind when Asa’s father wasn’t the loving or nurturing type. He was one half of the reason Asa kept himself, the darker parts of himself, hidden from everyone.
Except me.
“Clay called,” Colby trilled across the yard. “He’s on his way.”
At the edge of the creek, I knelt and washed my hands and face clean. A shower would have to wait.
“Then we better hurry.” I winked at her. “We want to impress him with our manly forest retreat.”
“Heck, yeah.” She pumped her fist. “The lights are going to be amazing.”
“Lights?” Aedan flicked a glance at my bags. “You bought lights?”
“String lights.” Colby did a little dance. “They’re solar, and sparkly, and so cute.”
A cringe he couldn’t quite hide made me chuckle. “Cute is great.”
Poor Aedan.
If his sister wouldn’t kill him, he would have run screaming into the night when we broke out the lawn flamingos. He was a good sport about it, and I don’t think Colby noticed his thinly veiled horror when she unveiled the solar disco ball she chose to hang from the center of his tent.
That hadn’t come from the sporting goods store. She ordered it online with express shipping.
All in all, I had reined Colby in, mostly, by reminding her Aedan was a boy. She only ever saw the girls, who shared her love for the intersection where boho met bling.
Two hours later, we had a double layer waterproof pop-up tent with a modest covered porch erected. Royal blue, of course. The inflatable mattress, with matching blue sheets, was ready.
A camp stove stood on spindly legs in one corner, and a compact cooler full of snacks and drinks sat beside it. We bought a pair of blue folding chairs for the porch, and a cheap hammock to string between two trees. Colby’s idea. She wanted him to match her. Add in the disco ball that would spin tomorrow night, after it charged for the day, and the fairy light she strung between the trees, and Aedan was borderline glamping.
“Okay.” I gathered all the trash and empty boxes. “That’s all the damage we can do for one night.”
The blood had dried in uncomfortable places and made me itch. It was time for a long, hot shower.
Colby flew ahead, eager to touch base with Clay and get his ETA, but I had a date with the trash can.
“Hey.”
I called magic into my palm before I registered the voice and extinguished it just as fast. “Mrs. Gleason?”
“I noticed the lights.” She jerked her chin toward Camp Aedan. “What’s going on down there?”