Grandad scoffed. “I’m a Nilsson, Dani-Girl, one of the oldest families in Sweden. My ancestors were responsible for carving the dragons for the ships that crossed the great sea. You don’t think I recognize a dragon when I see one?”

Dani spluttered, “But we’re not . . . you never . . . you could have . . . What?”

“Way to go, Dad, you broke her brain.” Trudy cackled.

“There’s a lot more to the world than you or I could ever see, Dani-Girl. Hell, your great-great-great-grandmother on Abbigail’s side could make little balls of light with her hands and toss them around like a hot potato. She used to do it as a party game at Christmas.”

“WHAT?!” Dani shouted.

“Granny Newtsund said it was the oddest thing you ever saw.” Grandad’s train of thought was interrupted by a crash from the background of Trudy’s kitchen, followed by Trudy sighing and telling Jackson to get the mop. “Whoops. I better go clean that up. Jackson’s knocked over the maple syrup jug again. Love you, Dani-Girl.”

Dani stared, still open-mouthed at her screen, then turned to Zed and cried, “What the hell?”

Epilogue

Dani

Dani carried a shipping box through the entrance of Zed’s tidy stone house, and gave Zed a smooch as he took it out of her hands and carried it to the spare room.

“Last one?” he called.

“Last one!” she assured him.

Dani’s moving into Zed’s house-slash-cave had taken all of fifteen minutes. She had a total of five bags, including her purse, and six boxes. After he answered several questions about Dani’s great-great-great-grandmother, the light ball tosser, Grandad had been happy to ship some of her things from home, the little knickknacks and bits of nostalgia that she hadn’t been able to pack around with her while she traveled—her yearbooks and the little wooden llama figurines she’d collected since she’d received one as a birthday present from a Peruvian shaman named Alois. Grandad had also included several framed photos of himself and Gram, Trudy, and her family. There were no photos of Journey and she was fine with that.

She hadn’t heard from her father since his whiny call from the ashram. She suspected Zed had something to do with his lack of contact. She was also fine with that.