Taking a risk that he wouldn’t reject me, I stroked my fingers through the soft hair on top of his head. “We’re not sure what’s up. Gran keeps saying snippets of things and then kind of rambling off about something else.
“All I know for sure is that Kingston’s dreams have become full manifestations, and that I’m like, the witch he needs with him when… when exactly will I know he needs me?” I asked Gran.
“Not happening. I willnotput him in harm’s way,” Kingston said with a jut of his chin.
Gran didn’t respond to that but turned to Scotty and Stevie. “Hello, boys. It’s so nice to meet you. My husband’s told me so much about the two of you.”
Scotty dove in and hugged her. “Your husband is the best. He’s explained so much to us about how we can co-exist with my brother by my side in his afterlife. It must be nice that he’s stayed with you all these years.”
Chance plopped down next to Kingston. “Did anyone else know that Lee was related to Kingston?”
“I’ve never even seen him before,” Jetty said.
Chance waved that off. “Yeah, but you don’t see all of the spirits I see.”
“But I thought I did on this property.”
Chance shook his head. “No, no matter what your link is to me, they still have to want to be seen. Obviously, he wanted totalk to Stevie and Scotty. Probably stayed away from you since it would’ve been hard for you to keep it from Kingston.”
“I can fix that for you,” Gran piped up. “I can spell the whole property so that whoever owns the estate, and their people, will always see the spirits who live in their midst.” Her lips twitched. “Although, I’d understand if you don’t want me practicing on your property.” She frowned, looking slightly disappointed in herself. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”
My bestie’s eyes practically bugged out of his head. “Wow.” He shook his head so hard his whole body moved with it. Like a dog coming in from out of the rain. “You didn’t make me uncomfortable at all.”
“What’s she talking about?” Jetty whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
“High Priestess, I think that’s an excellent idea,” Harry said, taking over as he often did. “We got lucky that Chance’s gift is seeing and talking to entities and helping them move on, but that won’t always be the case. It’ll be terribly inconvenient to have to train a new owner. Much easier if they have the sight from the beginning.
“As for you not practicing on the property, banish the thought. Elyse could use your help with Sky, and I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to have a witch of your caliber to talk shop with.”
Kingston yanked me down over his shoulder and hissed into my ear, “I don’t understand what’s happening. All I wanted was to know that you’re safe. That’s it. Maybe a straight twenty-four hours of sleep, too. And I definitely don’t want you seeing what I did last night.” He shook his head. “Just no.”
The poor guy’s face looked so panicked, and the energy rolling off him assured me that he was headed toward a spiral of overwhelm if we didn’t do something fast. Moving in front of him, I held my hands out. “Let’s go for a walk around the pond.”
He cut his gaze toward his grandparents, and Lee nodded. “I think that’s a good idea.” Rosie just blew him a kiss, so he placed his palms in mine, giving the impression that I actually helped him lumber to his feet. He tightened his grip on me as soon as he was standing, making me want to shout with joy.
I kept my cool, though. As exciting as all of this was, and as thrilled as I was to be alone with Kingston, I didn’t think this was the right time to beg him for a date and confess my undying love. Or was it? Hmm, I’d need to think about that.
We were halfway across the yard when I heard Elyse yelling a greeting from toward the front of the house. Her and Marc really had arrived quickly. “Where’s the, uh, popstar?” Kingston asked.
My eyes widened. “Oh, shit. Wow. Okay, we dodged a bullet on that one.”
He stopped. “What do you mean?”
“While Ego and I work on his new sanctuary, his personal assistant is working out of a space in NYC. She needed him to go in so they could handle some business, so a car service picked him up at like three AM this morning, and he won’t be back until sometime tomorrow.”
“Ah,” was his only response to that.
As disappointed as I was that he hadn’t met my cousin yet, I knew now wasn’t the time to prod him about getting over here or coming to the castle to meet him. Until one of them figured out we were related or it stopped being fun because no one had guessed yet, I wouldn’t bother him. If they still hadn’t met once everyone knew, though, my feelings were going to be hurt if he didn’t show more interest in him as my family than he had in him as my client.
We’d circled the pond halfway in silence before I felt Kingston start to relax next to me. “How you feeling now?”
He chuckled humorously. “Out of sorts. I can’t believe that my grandparents kept so many secrets from me.”
I leaned into his side. “Are you mad?”
He stopped next to the Hallowed Tree, and his expression screwed up into what I’d dubbed his thinky-face. “I get their reasoning about the dreamwalking. Sort of. I think they should’ve told me before I hit thirty, but whatever. It’s the not telling me about my grandfather still being with us I don’t understand.”
“I’m sorry ‘bout that, King. That would be my fault,” a deep voice said from the firepit area.
