Page 18 of The Goblin's Mine

Fortunately, the ATV is right where I left it, so I fire it up and head to the main house. I’ll talk to my parents first. They can relay the details to my siblings and cousin. When I reach the door, I take a moment to breathe and roll my shoulders. This is going to be quite an announcement.

I knock, then poke my head in. “Anybody home?”

“Natalie?” My mother comes rushing around the corner and pulls me through the door, enveloping me in a bear hug. “Oh, my goodness. I’ve been so worried!”

“Mmph,” I say, my mouth muffled against her shoulder.

“What?” She pulls back a little, but doesn’t let go of me.

“What’s wrong? Why were you worried?”

“Natalie Aurelia Bishop, you may be 26 years old, but you think you can just disappear for days on end without so much as a text? And I won’t be worried?”

I cringe. Oops. “Mom, I’m sorry. I didn’t even think. I needed a few days to myself, so I took off on a little trip. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She snorts. “Just wait until you have children. You’ll be fretting for the rest of your life.”

I lean in and hug her again. “Is Dad home? I need to talk to you both.”

“As a matter of fact, he is. And Haven is here, too. You know how that girl is. As soon as she realized you were gone, she came over to keep me company and help me stay calm. We bakedthree kinds of bread!” The house does smell good, like a bakery. I guess that explains it.

Thank goodness for Haven. I swear, she has a preternatural sense for knowing when and where she’s needed. She has the energy of ten people, and the heart and gumption of, like, fifty. She’s awesome.

Mom leads me into the family room, where Haven and Dad are watching some sporting event on the giant TV. He turns off the volume when we walk in the room.

“Bram, look who I found,” Mom says.

“There she is.” My dad grins at me, looking perfectly placid. Apparently Mom was the only one who thought I’d been kidnapped by pirates or something.

“Natalie! You’re back.” Haven jumps up and gives me a hug, then pulls me onto the green velvet couch with her.

“I’m glad you’re all here,” I say. “There’s something I have to tell you, and well…it’s weird.”

Three pairs of blue eyes stare at me.

I take a deep breath, uncertain of how to even start. “First of all, I’m sorry that you were worried about me. I should have told someone what I was doing. I went into the caves on the far side of the property.”

“Alone? Natalie, you know better,” Mom chides.

“Well, I wasn’t alone for long. I went searching…for monsters.”

“What now?” My parents both look puzzled, but Haven just raises a brow. She gets it.

“Okay, this sounds dumb in retrospect, but I was tired of everyone thinking I didn’t have my life together. That I wasn’t good at being a Bishop. So I thought if I could find monsters in the caves and prove they were real, it would help the tourist trade. And then you could finally be proud of me.”

“Natalie!” Tears dance in my mother’s eyes. “You think I’m not proud of you? Sweetie, you don’t have to be the mayor or run a business for that. You’re a capable, accomplished woman with more artistic ability in your finger than the rest of us put together. Of course I’m proud of you.”

“Ditto, honey,” my dad says. “I hope this doesn’t have anything to do with the Tourism Board job. I only brought that up because I thought you might like it. Might want to make enough money to buy a house farther away and get some space from us. But never once did I realize I was making you feel bad.”

I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve realized I was wrong. And none of that is the weird part.”

“The monsters,” Haven says in a quiet voice.

I glance at her and nod. “Yeah. It turns out I found them, except they aren’t monsters. They’re just…different from us.”

My parents are staring at me, but Haven seems calm. “What are they?”

“Goblins. But not creepy little green things. They’re blue, and they’re bigger than we are. And they have an underground civilization. And…I’m going to live with them.”

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