LAST SUMMER
Magic? The tiger was magic?
Did I believe this? Okay, so the tiger’s fur had strange scribbles all over it, which obviously wasn’t something that occurred in the wild. But, magic?
I looked between Shane and Rory, my raised eyebrows asking for an explanation. Rory shrugged. “Wait til they decide to talk to you. You’ll see.”
They talked?
The tiger slurped coffee from the bowl on the table in front of them, ignoring us.
I took the mug Shane handed to me, but I couldn’t drink it.
I could only stare at the tiger and occasionally gaze around to make sure I was still in Dimi Costa’s old house.
In Houston. In the real world. Dimi hadn’t had a housecat, much less a tiger.
Shane brought out breakfast, putting plates of eggs, bacon, and biscuits in front of me and Rory. Ellis followed him out with his own plate plus one for the tiger, who didn’t get bacon. Magical tigers were vegetarian?
And apparently they had a name. Ms. Jackson, for fuck’s sake. I couldn’t decide if I wanted someone to be pranking me, or if I wanted this all to be real.
Ellis and Shane sat down across the table, and I finally twigged to what Ms. Jackson had distracted me from. Rory had spent the night here with Shane and Ellis. He’d figured out he was polyamorous in college, and his most recent relationship had ended badly. Like, nuclear explosion badly.
I waved my fork between Rory, Shane, and Ellis. “I like this for you, guapo. Much better than that last couple you were with.”
Rory’s mouth was full, but he widened his eyes at me and shook his head. Ellis frowned. “With, as in, in a relationship with?”
Ignoring Rory, I nodded “Oh, yeah. They were jerks. Decided he wasn’t good enough for them or some shit. It really messed with his head.” His new partners needed to know this stuff.
“Manny!” Rory knew better than to think I’d keep my mouth shut.
I pointed my fork at Ellis. I’d only just met him, but he seemed nice, and Shane vouched for him. These two were so much better suited to Rory than those other assholes. “Can you believe it? Kicking him to the curb because of the gifts God gave him.”
“Manny, that’s enough.” As if. Which reminded me...
“Oh, I forgot.” I turned around to face the living room, not that I’d ever be able to see anything. “Is your grandpa here? Hi, Grandpa! How’s it hangin’?” I set my fork on my plate and waved as obnoxiously as possible.
Shane and Ellis stopped eating.
“Manny, no. He’s not here.” Rory’s voice was tinged with desperation. Then his whole body jerked, and he covered his face with his hand.
“Oh, I know that look!” I smirked. “Hi, Grandpa! How’s the stick up your ass?
Are you clenching tighter since Rory’s found new partners?
” I flipped the bird in the general direction of the living room before turning back to the table.
Shane and Ellis stared at me with their mouths hanging open.
“Rory’s grandfather is a homophobic, polyphobic ass,” I advised them as I scooped up more eggs.
Rory rubbed his forehead “He was. I keep telling you, he’s changed since he died.”
I rolled my eyes. “And I keep telling you, it doesn’t make up for the shit he did when he was alive.
” Rory was way too forgiving. Not only had the fucker cut Rory out of his life, he’d cut him out of his will.
Granted, he’d left my mother a substantial amount as thanks for all her years of cleaning his house, but that didn’t excuse how he’d treated his only grandchild.
Rory held out a hand to shut me up. “He apologized and I accepted his apology. Plus, he helped me rescue a little girl last night, so I think even you can agree he’s making an effort not to be a jerk anymore.”
I sat up. “What little girl?” How had I forgotten he’d mentioned a little girl in his texts earlier? What did he mean by ‘rescue’? Was she hurt?
“Wait,” Ellis said. “Are you talking about a ghost?”
Shane chimed in. “You’re a Medium? I thought you were a Hunter.” He shook his head. “There aren’t any Mediums in the campaign. We discussed it on a Zoom call.”
I didn’t know what the hell he meant, but it didn’t matter. “Dead people can wait. Where’s this little girl?”
Rory groaned, holding both hands up this time. “I will answer all of your questions if you’ll let me talk.”
We kept quiet, but if he didn’t spill about the girl quickly, I was gonna have to interrupt again.
He held up one finger and looked at Shane and Ellis. “I can see ghosts. I’m not a Hunter, but I didn’t correct you because I was hoping to be gone from here before we had to have this conversation.”
What the hell did he mean by ‘Hunter’? I opened my mouth, but Rory turned his raised finger to point at me. “All of your questions will be answered eventually.”
I rolled my eyes but kept my mouth shut.
He went on. “My grandfather is a ghost. Last night he was following my Uncle Hugo around, and Hugo went to a party at Randolph Chamberlain’s house.”
Shane and I gasped in unison.
“Right. The billionaire. Uncle Hugo moves in expensive circles.”
“Thanks to your grandfather’s money,” I muttered.
He ignored me. “When Uncle Hugo was talking to Randolph Chamberlain, Grandfather saw another ghost, who turned out to be a dryad.” He met my gaze. “Like the tree spirits, but they can look like humans too, apparently.”
“Um, okay?” More magic? What the fuck?
Rory explained how the dryad ghost had shown Grandpa Blackbourne’s ghost her daughter, Pia, who was being held captive by Randolph fucking Chamberlain.
Grandpa had come to Rory for help in getting her out.
Rory told us how he’d snuck into the mansion, and while he was there he’d heard his Uncle Hugo saying he wanted a captive magical person of his own.
Motherfucker. I gripped the edge of the table to keep from leaping on Rory to get him to tell me where Pia was now.
He shrugged. “The ghosts helped me get Pia to the car, and then they figured out we should come here for help.”
Ellis frowned. “I think we’re going to need the long version of that story soon, but are you saying you don’t know about the campaign?” I blinked. Like D&D?
Rory cocked his head. “Like a political campaign?” Fuck, Rory.
I couldn’t take it anymore. “Not important right now!” I was pressing so hard on the table my fingers were turning white “Where. Is. The. Little. Girl?”
Shane put me out of my misery. “She’s in the apple tree out back. Um, like inside it, not climbing it. She needs to hang out with it until her magic heals up. She’ll come out when she’s ready.”
I frowned, relaxing back into my chair. That made sense if she was a dryad. “Okay?” Was I now believing dryads existed? I eyed the tiger next to me. I guessed I was.
Rory nodded. “I promised her I wouldn’t leave, which is why I asked you to bring my clothes.”
I chewed on my lower lip a minute before meeting everyone’s eyes in turn. “And Ms. Jackson? Where does she—sorry, they—fit in?”
Ms. Jackson turned their head toward me, then they leaned over and licked the side of my face. “Ewww!” I scrubbed my cheek with my napkin. Magical tigers had saliva. Good to know.
Everyone else laughed. Ellis said, “We’re not really sure. They were... inanimate originally. It’s a long story. But they asked to visit me and Shane. I live in Dallas, so we came here first.”
Another long story I needed to hear sometime.
Ms. Jackson stood up and butted their head into my side until I stood up as well. Rude. They pushed me toward the back door. I got a clue and opened it, walking out into the backyard. They herded me until we were standing under Dimi Costa’s green apple tree.
I guessed it was time to meet a dryad. How had my life turned this weird in like an hour?