“Yes, you can. I gave one to each of my girls when their weddings were coming up. Marion has the ring, George has the earrings, and Natalie is getting the bracelet. I want you to have the pendant. You don’t want Curran to wear it instead of you, do you?”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

I opened my mouth.

“Yes?”

“Mahon doesn’t even like me. He barely tolerates me.”

“Of course he likes you. I like you, too. Now, he didn’t always think you were a suitable wife for his special son, but he always liked you.”

Could’ve fooled me. “What changed?”

“We saw you carry the djinn,” Martha said. “We were both there and we saw you give it up and hand it to Curran and then we saw him give it back to you. What the two of you have is a rare thing. We don’t love Curran like a son. He is our son, one of our children. Mahon may be an old stubborn bear, but he isn’t blind or stupid. He knows Curran won’t do better. We are lucky to have you for a daughter-in-law.”

It was the stupidest thing, but I felt like crying.

She took the chain and put it into my hand. “You wear it. I want you to.”

•   •   •

THE CHAIN FELT nice around my neck. I liked the weight of it. I helped with the dishes. Curran came back in at some point and helped me put the plates away. Then we said our good-byes and stepped outside.

If I could’ve hugged this evening, I would’ve, and I wasn’t the huggy type.

“Who came to visit?” I asked as we crossed the road to our lawn.

“Jim.”

I knew that tone of voice. That was his Beast Lord voice, neutral and calm right up to the point when it exploded into a roar.

“What did Jim say?”

“What did you say to him?”

Careful. Thin ice, proceed with caution. The last thing I needed to do was explain to him why I wanted to take Erra’s bones out of storage or what I would be doing with them. “About what?”

He stopped in front of our house. “Don’t play with me. What did you say to him about us getting married?”

“Nothing. We didn’t discuss it.”

“You said something, because he dropped everything and drove all this way to tell me not to marry you.”

“What? Why?”

“Because he’s concerned my feelings might not be my own.”

Jim, you jackass. I knew he was paranoid, but this was completely crazy. “Whose feelings does he think you’re having?”

“He thinks I’m being influenced by your magic.”

“Oh. Good to know. The magic that I’ve never been able to use on anyone else to make my life infinitely easier? That magic?”

Gold rolled over his eyes. “What did you say?”