Owen hummed. “True, but Sam also grew up with you and has spent a lot of time in this house.”
That made sense. He'd been in and out so much he'd learned long ago about my family and me being witches. “Are you going to be okay here for a week? You’ll have to go get groceries or at least be here for delivery. Alfred knows not to answer the door.”
“Ava, I’ve been a necromancer longer than you and know how to take care of a ghoul, a magical house, and an animated, fleshed-out skeleton who has been dead for thirty-some-odd years.” Larry had been a big surprise. When my fat, old, immortal Maine Coon cat, Mr. Snoozerton, led me to a little white dead kitty and asked me to animate her. I figured out I had the power to do more than animate. I could heal the dead. Something as yet unheard of, or only heard in rumor. I'd given it a shot on Larry, a skeleton I'd accidentally animated over the winter.
And he'd grown his flesh back. All of it. To the point that now he looked perfectly human. Alive. And according to Zoey, 'freaking hot.' “And don’t forget two immortal cats. One of which can talk quite well.” I frowned. “Maybe I’ll call Wade and just have him pack up the house.” Leaving this chaotic menagerie to Owen suddenly seemed insane.
Owen broke his unspoken rule of not entering my room and crossed over to me. "Ava. Stop." He took my hands, forcing me to look at him. “You are going. Everything here will be fine. Not to mention, Sam will be here if I need anything, and the coven said they'll help if anything weird happens.”
I snorted. The coven—my coven because I was the High Witch in charge—loved all the weird stuff that happened in my life. They'd probably be all over it with glee. Not that I blamed them. The insanity that was my life was, most of the time, pretty damn cool.
Owen let go of my hands and moved to the door. “You’ve put this off long enough. It’s time to let go.” His words reflected my earlier thoughts almost exactly. That had to mean something. And he was right. I could do this, but boy did I need a nap. And I didn't think I'd be getting one any time soon.
After saying goodbye to everyone in my house—two humans, one small human, one ghoul, one animated dead person, who may or may not be a ghoul now, I wasn't sure, two immortal cats, one devil, who had appeared... I wasn't sure when, but there he was, and one self-aware house—Owen drove Wallie, Zoey, and me to the airport. When he pulled through the drop-off lanes, I spotted Drew and my heart did a little dance while my eyes drank in the sight of how sexy he was in his sheriff’s uniform. I'd been planning on sending him a sweet text right before I put my phone on airplane mode, but this was so very much way better.
Heart soaring, I got out of the car, and Drew quickly pulled me into his arms. His mouth claimed mine, and I melted into him like I was meant to be there. Like I'd always been meant to be there. Pulling back, I smiled up at him. “I thought you weren’t able to come.”
He shook his head and traced my jaw with his fingertips. “I still can’t. I've got to run, but I wanted to see you off.”
Laughing, I tucked my arms around his waist and hugged him tightly, relishing how much taller Drew was. And bigger. I liked feeling small as I hugged him.
Drew had been with me when I'd gotten the call from Clay's Uncle Wade that the house had sold. Drew had insisted that he would come with me and wouldn’t hear any arguing from me. However, plans changed. He had to help out with a case in Acadia National Park and couldn't leave town. There'd been a murder, so he was assisting the Rangers.
Pulling back, I smiled up at him. “I’ll only be gone a week.” But that felt like forever, knowing Drew wouldn’t be there. Or maybe I just dreaded the coming job. How strange to feel so lost without Drew. I hadn't felt that way in a long time. I'd learned to be pretty self-sufficient.
He eyed me closely and frowned. “Have you been up all night?”
I gasped dramatically. “Who, me?” I looked around at the people milling about the drop-off area. "Surely not."
A crooked grin formed on his handsome face. “You finished the book.”
I flashed him a brilliant smile, beaming with excitement. “I did. And I’ll sleep on the flight, then again when I get to Philly.” The flight would be way too short to sleep long. It wasn’t even two hours.
I wasn’t meeting the new owner, Hailey, for a couple of days so I'd have time to nap, pack, and get my emotions in check before letting a stranger into the house. Into her house, now.
“Make sure you get some sleep. After you've rested, call me.” He kissed my forehead.
I wrapped my arms around him again and held him for a moment. “I will. I promise."
Wallie stuck his head out of the automatic door. "Hey, Drew." He raised his eyebrows at me. "There's not a big line at security. Let's go."
After waving him back inside I popped one more kiss to Drew's lips, then grabbed my small suitcase. "Bye," I called.
I walked back through the double doors, not turning until I had to. Zoey grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the gate. "I read all about flying online. We check in, get our tickets, then go through security."
"Zo, I checked us in at home," Wallie said. "We have all our tickets. Straight to security."
She gulped audibly. "Oh. Time for that?"
Throwing my arm around the young girl, I turned her toward the small line at security. "Stop fidgeting," I said softly.
"I can't help it." Her barely audible whisper was more of a squeak. "What if something goes wrong? I don't exist, at least not as far as the humans are concerned."
"Stop talking about that now." We were too close to the front already. "And chill."
She'd put a ball cap on to hide her ears just in case they made an appearance. We had a glamour on her, but I didn't want to trust that it would definitely, one hundred percent work.
"Okay, take off your shoes and put them in these buckets." I set an off-white tray in front of her. "And put your backpack in there, too."
I'd already coached her not to wear jewelry or a belt, so once the shoes came off, we were good.
"Miss?" A tired-looking woman leaned over. "Hat off, please."
Zoey smiled at her with wide, nervous eyes. We hadn't been able to do anything but glamour for her tiger eyes, which hadn't shifted back to human since I animated her. If that slipped, well, we were just screwed.
I breathed a sigh of relief when the hat came off and there were no ears. "It's okay," I murmured. "Step into that machine and it just scans your body to make sure you don't have a weapon."
This was the big test. Would the machine be fooled by a glamour? I had no idea. If her ears popped up or tail popped out, we were screwed with a capital F.
But it seemed to go well. Then, as Zoey stepped through to the other side and I walked into the scanner for my turn, Wallie hissed at me. "Mom! Her tail."
Turning my head back to Zoey, I gulped when her tail appeared out of the bottom of her skirt. In her relief to get through the scanner, she'd let it slip.
And the agent was turning toward Zo. The whole thing happened in slow motion, like in a movie.
"No!" I yelled and dropped to the floor, pulling all the attention on me. The agent who had been about to look at Zo rushed to my side, as did Wallie. All eyes swung around to me, including Zoey, peering over the agent's shoulder.