Gran took back over. “See, our Sky spent the night with my grandson at our house.” Well, that wasn’t true, but was it untrue? I mean, technically, I went where King dreamed, but he’d been at home in his bed. “Then Sky had a nightmare that rattled him so bad he had to check on you.”
Ego’s head reared back. “It was about me?”
“Yeah, sorry. I can’t remember what it was about”—I lied—“but I couldn’t shake having a bad feeling. I know I’m being a lot, but?—”
Ego shook his head. “No, you’re good. I’ve been having nightmares for the last week or so. My sleep has been junk. I must’ve really been having a bad one tonight because I woke up, and my body feels all bruised.”
My lower lip trembled. My poor cousin. What would it have been like if he’d been haunted and hunted by those spooks indefinitely? If there’d been no King and me? No Dreamwalkers?
I looked up at King, and I saw resignation pass across his face. He got it, and unfortunately for him, he agreed. We’d provided a service for my cousin tonight—an important one. Based on how Gran had rated things, Ego being in pain now meant that he was in-tune with the spiritual realm—at least to some degree.
Without what we did tonight, he could’ve lost his mind.
Chance and Jetty ended up cooking a big breakfast. Harry cursed his own rule not to tell Ego of their existence now that he knew he was family and finding out that the prima donna popstar didn’t sleep in but was up with the birds. His presence was seriously cutting in on Harry’s kitchen time.
Elyse shot me several frustrated glances. She was my mentor, and she took my training seriously, and with this Dreamwalker stuff, she was terribly out of the loop. But until Ego napped or something, we couldn’t talk about it.
Stevie whined almost nonstop through our breakfast about how unfair it was that Ego was my cousin, demanding information. He begged Scotty—since he was the brother with the heartbeat—to ask all his questions, so that I could answer them without it looking like I was babbling.
Scotty glanced at Ego’s purple silk pajama shorts set with the matching sleep mask pushed back over his head, rolled his eyes, and ignored everyone until he was done with his meal and doing dishes.Yep. Ego’s ego hadn’t endeared him to my sweet friend.
So yeah, me running out of the house like a babbling fool, begging King to come with me to check on my cousin, ended up being kind of a bad call. We had nothing to say to each other,Ego was confused, the ghosts were bored, and my friends were worried.Yay me.
“You should tell Kingston to tell your cousin the story of how you got together,” Buck whispered in my ear.
I giggled to myself since I’d love the answer to that, but I’d never embarrass King like that. For all I knew, he thought we were fated for the tethering, but he didn’t have any intention of more than that. Although, did I really believe that?
I didn’t know. Too much had happened, and I was so confused.
King cleared his throat next to me and raised an eyebrow. Oh shit. He’d heard Buck. He put his fork down, grabbed my hand, and tilted his head with a soft smile on his face.Ask, he mouthed.
Ha.I knew it. He wanted me. I so knew he wanted me. Turning to Ego, I said, “Want to hear how King became my boyfriend?”
His face lit up. “Yes. I want the full story now.”
I opened my mouth and froze.Oh crap. What did I say? I couldn’t tell him about the dreamwalking or the ghosts or any of it.
Snickering, King wrapped his arms around my shoulders and said, “First, you have to understand, I’m pretty shy. But your cousin was there, all the time, chatting me up, befriending me, listening to me, and hanging out with me. Really, it was just a matter of time.”
Elyse and Gran awed. Chance and Jetty laughed, but my cousin was intrigued, so I told him stories about camping at the pond, checking out haunted places, and having breakfast with his grandmother.
When I was done, he pointed at Rosie. “So this was really all you? You finally helped push them together?”
“Yeah, yeah, she did,” King said fondly.
So not only did we banish some ghosts and I got my man, my puppy-Psychopomp—who needed a name—but I knew even with all the deception and lack of communication, King and his gran were going to be okay.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
HighPriestess
“Their first adventure’s done,my love. How do you feel?” Lee asked.
Duchess appeared in my lap, sensing—as always—when I needed her. Stroking through the gold where her magic resided, I said honestly, “I’m glad they had such an easy time of it, but I hope they don’t misunderstand. And yet…”
“And yet, you’re thankful that the goddess’ first task for them wasn’t hard.”
