Chapter 11 Sky
Sky
Call me a big dork, but going to town with Kingston was one of my favorite things.
He moved through life so quietly, like he was scared to take up too much space, but the way he stayed close to my side, a hand at the center of my back, I felt safe—protected.
And right now, I needed that. There was so much to learn—so much to do—and we’d failed someone.
That couldn’t happen again. I wondered if King was worrying about that, too.
His silence was normal but the furrow between his eyebrows had me concerned.
As we reached the Daily Knead to purchase a fresh loaf of French bread to go with the cheese tortellinis we decided to have for dinner since they’d make an easy but delicious meal, King reached around me and opened the door, moving his hand up to let me duck underneath as I entered. Swoon.
“Thank you, kind sir.”
His cheeks went a little rosy, and he dipped his head. “You’re welcome.”
Inside, Craig and Theo stood before the register while Sonny bustled around behind the counter gathering their order.
“Look, Craig. The city boy is back,” Theo teased playfully.
Craig crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me. “I thought you were going to give us some business. We haven’t heard from you.” He blew a large bubble with his gum and popped it. “I knew you were full of it.”
Theo side-eyed his friend. “You could just invite us out to Willowhope Manor. I’m—”
Craig sighed, clearly as exasperated with his friend as with me. “Dude. Car. Wheels. We’re almost there. Why do you keep trying to give city boy and his friends free labor?”
“Ghosts,” Theo whined. “They have access to the otherworldly. That’s so awesome.”
Sonny slammed four bags of his delicious goods on the counter, making me jump. “You filling these boys’ heads with nonsense?” he asked me sternly.
“What? No. I was just—”
“Did you take a number?” he asked, cutting me off.
King held up his hand with one of the little number tickets pinched between his thumb and index finger. “I did.”
“Suck up,” I mumbled out of the corner of my mouth.
Craig shook his head. “City boy.”
Scared that Sonny would yell at me again, I stuck my tongue out at Craig’s back, making Theo snicker. They finished their transactions and headed for the door. King reached out and tapped Theo’s shoulder. “I’ll be out at the pond tomorrow evening fishing if you’d like to come.”
“Really? At Beckoning Pond?” The cute little redhead bounced on his toes. Ha. He had more freckles than me. Why were his so adorable and mine made me look…Oh. They made me look young, and Theo was young. I hoped he appreciated his.
King shrugged. “Sure. Why not? I’ll give you a tour of the house, too.”
At the door, Craig sing-songed, “Waste of time.”
Theo rolled his eyes and mouthed, I’ll be there, to King with hearts in his eyes.
“I think you have a new admirer,” I teased.
“The only one I need is you.” He leaned down and kissed me, leaving me with hearts in my eyes, too.
Sonny groaned. “What do you two want?”
“Aren’t you going to call our number?” I challenged.
He blinked.
King shook his head.
“What?”
Sonny looked down at his counter, then back up. “Number fifty-five,” he deadpanned.
“Why do I feel like I did something wrong?” I whispered to King, well aware that Sonny could hear me.
King patted my back, then took over dealing with Sonny, who I was starting to think didn’t like me. Or he liked teasing me. I couldn’t be sure. It had to be the latter, right? Why wouldn’t he enjoy my sunny disposition? Besides, I was a good customer. I didn’t come in daily, but damn close.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out to find a message from Ego.
Ego: I suppose you’re busy.
Shit. We’d taken a break today and gone back to the manor for a longer-than-usual lunch, and he’d mentioned that he’d finished writing a song last night. Did that mean he was bored now? Another thing I was failing at, my relationship with my cousin.
King’s arm slipped around my waist as he leaned down to ask softly, “What’s wrong?”
I turned my phone toward him.
“Oh.” He pulled me tighter to him. “Why don’t you invite him to your house for dinner? I can go home and have dinner with Gran.”
I wanted to whine and stomp my foot. How had my life gotten so busy and complicated?
And it wasn’t that I didn’t want to develop my magic abilities or help people in the Dream-veil or spend time with my cousin or my best friend, it was just that securing a permanent spot in King’s heart felt big… important.
“Orrrr…” he continued. “Maybe the three of us could have dinner at Gran’s.”
My head popped up. “Really?”
He smiled sweetly. “Sure, why not? I don’t think she minds how much time I spend at your house since she’s free to be with my pops now, and I can see him, too.
But wouldn’t it be nice to take a night off and just all be together?
Since Ego doesn’t know anything about the paranormal, we won’t talk about the Dream-veil, or magic, or ghosts, or anything like that. We can just…”
“Be normal.” Excitement built in my chest. This was it. Why I felt like I had to cling to King anytime we weren’t working. Why I wanted as much of his attention during the daytime hours as I could. I finally understood why I was so worked up all the time, feeling like I needed more time with him.
Nothing in our lives felt…well, normal was the right word.
A part of me worried that without all of the other that came with this paranormal world we’d magicked into, that we wouldn’t have a connection.
And I wanted that with him more than anything.
I wanted Skylar Reign and Kingston Porter to be in a relationship.
Not just the Dreamwalker and his tether. I wanted it to be about more.
“You don’t mind?” I asked, not even trying to hide the hopefulness in my tone.
Holding me close, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, scrolled, then hit connect and put it to his ear. “Gran, we were thinking about asking Sky’s cousin to join us for dinner at our house. What do you think?”
He listened for a minute, then winked at me with a smile on his face. “Okay, we’ll probably have to go pick Ego up at the manor, but then we’ll see you soon.” He listened. “Love you, too.”
He shoved his phone back in his pocket. “All set.”
Sonny cleared his throat loudly. King grinned. “Call Ego, and I’ll finish up here.”
“Thank you,” I said softly, then kissed his cheek and stepped outside to call my cousin.
“Are you sure it’s okay with your grandmother for me to come, too?” Ego asked as we got out of King’s vehicle.
“Of course,” he replied easily.
The two hadn’t had the best start, and they still hadn’t been able to spend too much time around each other since Ego generally didn’t get up until King had already left his fencing practice for work in the morning, and we didn’t always go to the manor for dinner.
But they were getting more comfortable with each other.
I knew my cousin thought my man was odd after seeing him out at the pond a few times, looking like he was talking to himself instead of the ghosts who were hanging about.
But for me, he was giving him a chance. And now that King knew Ego wasn’t just some famous diva popstar, but my cousin, he’d loosened up quite a bit.
Was the cheap thrill I got that he’d been jealous bad? Oh well.
Upon entering their home, my eyes widened.
Gran had done some redecorating since the last time I’d been here, and it was…
awesome. But…I glanced surreptitiously at Ego.
His gaze bounced all over the place like he was trying to take it all in at once, and I got it, because so was I.
It looked different than when I last saw it.
Transformed. There were candle sconces on the walls, vintage gold-framed portraits I hadn’t seen before and shelves with small jars with flowers sticking out of them and small crystal statues of goddesses.
“Shit,” King mumbled. “I thought she’d—”
“Ego,” Gran said, appearing in the mouth of the doorway into the kitchen. “It’s so lovely for you to join us. Come in, come in.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Ego responded politely, trying his best to school his shocked expression into a semblance of civility.
If I’d thought the witchy entryway was a lot, it was nothing compared to the kitchen.
There was a cabinet of small bottles that looked like potions hanging on the wall, and a black cat curled up in a chair.
With the way it lifted its head, peered at us with disdain, then went back to sleep, I had a feeling that was Duchess, the normally golden feline.
But what really stood out more than anything was the steaming black cauldron on the counter. Okay. Wow. On any other day, I’d be completely geeking out over that, but today was not that day. What would Ego think? And if that wasn’t bad enough—
“And who might this be?” Pops asked as he swung an arm over his wife’s shoulders.
Were they kidding me? Sure, Pops looked completely solid right now, but fuck!
He was a ghost! Had anyone ever told Ego that Gran was a widow?
Omgosh. This could be bad. Really, really bad.
I’d talked to Chance and Elyse, and they’d agreed that maybe it was time to let Ego in on our secrets—at least some of them—but this wasn’t what I’d had in mind.
Even my invite for dinner had consisted of joining Gran for dinner—not a deceased member of our family.
Gran beamed up at her spirit-husband. “Lee, this is Ego, Sky’s cousin. They came for dinner.”
King managed to snap his mouth closed before me. He half-turned to Ego with a stiff smile. “Ego, meet my grandfather, Lee.”
Indeed, Ego looked distracted, like he was searching his memory banks for any mention of this Lee character. Which, he wouldn’t find because we’d never mentioned him because he was a ghost, for-fucks-sake.
“Ah…hello, sir. It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for allowing me to join your family for dinner.”