“Don’t thank me yet, you’re walking me home. I don’t know what kind of riff-raff we’ll meet on my way.”
“I mean, I could, but I have a series to binge on Netflix, and it’s a couple of miles out of my way…” He chuckled and took his hands away. “Of course I’ll escort you home.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll have Mr. Tom fly you home after.”
“I take my joke back. It was in poor taste. Please don’t ever suggest that again. That’s not a man I want to share a space bubble with.”
“You don’t want to kiss that friend, huh?”
“I am still in hearing distance,” Mr. Tom called. “And I find this chatter highly insensitive. Like a bunch of crude barbarians carrying on.”
The walk home didn’t take long, and as the night wrapped around us, I kept looking back for Mr. Tom to see if I could spot him. In town, it was impossible. I never once caught a glimpse. It wasn’t until the wood overtook our route that I noticed him, a dark shadow within the cascading moonlight. Slight of form and old of body, he still glided like he was made of air. His cape—no, his wings—fluttered out behind him, and I remembered various times when they’d fluttered without a breeze.
“This is all still blowing my mind,” I said into the hush, peering into the deep sheets of black between the somewhat swimming trees. The wine had a tight hold on me. “Like…it is blowing my mind.”
“I imagine. Your perception of the world has changed in the space of a day. I didn’t know that you would take to the idea so fast.”
“I saw a woman turn into a rat. And I have a lot of genre fiction to back that up. It’s just…believing my eyes. Believing something like this is real! It is crazy! But let’s face it, magic is a much better explanation for the amount of weird that goes on at Ivy House. I constantly half wonder how long it will take me to end up in an unmarked grave.”
I thought back to my first visit to O’Briens, back when I was ten. Even then, the house had spoken to me. I’d felt drawn to its dark mysteries.
“I think all kids secretly hope there’s some magic curling through reality,” I mused. “That if we look hard enough, one day we’ll find it. I haven’t ever grown out of that. And I did find it, in books mostly, as I said. In daydreams.”
“Now you’ve found it in real life, and I have to be honest, your situation, whatever you decide, is going to be a lot more dangerous than most.”
I blew out a breath as Ivy House came into view, the windows glowing like a beacon, welcoming us home. Niamh’s rocking chair was empty as we passed her house, but her rock pile was steadily growing. Edgar was nowhere to be seen, and I made a note to find him at his residence, wherever it was, or maybe his labyrinth, just to check in. If I was going to choose this as my new residence, I needed to work harder at establishing the community I so badly desired.
“Well.” Austin stopped next to me on the porch, scanning the grounds. “You made it. No boogeymen.”
“Do you want to have a glass for the road?” I jerked my head at the door. “No foolishness, don’t worry.”
“No.” He traced the doorframe with his gaze. “The house allowed me to hang around earlier. I don’t want to tempt fate.”
“Yes. It did allow you to hang around earlier,” Mr. Tom said, waiting behind us. “Why, I wonder. Now that I am on independent ground, I will say that I was surprised and troubled by that. You overstayed your welcome by some time.”
Austin sighed softly, then took a bottle of wine from the box he carried. He handed it to me. “You’re going to need this. Call me if there are any problems with the hired help.”
He was starting to sound like Niamh. I supposed Mr. Tom could bring that out in people. “Just the one?”
He didn’t grin like I’d expected him to. His face was bathed in shadow, so I couldn’t confirm my hunch that his eyes had turned haunted. “One is plenty for you. I’ll need…significantly more.”
“If you don’t mind me saying so, Austin Steele, with the visitors we had last night, and the ones who are likely to come…keeping a focused mind might be the best thing for you,” Mr. Tom said.
“I do mind you saying so, actually.” He strutted toward Mr. Tom, his shoulders straight and his head held high. Mr. Tom wisely ducked out of the way. “I need a night off.”
“Okay, well…just think about it,” Mr. Tom called after him.
“Who were those people last night?” I opened the door. “And how can this house force people out? I get that it has magic, kinda, but…well, what could it actually do?”