“Oh, am I interrupting something?” She looked up at the house. “I’m guessing this is your place, Eden?”

“Her name is Olivia.”

Seanna continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “I remember this house from when I was a kid. We’d dare each other to sneak back here, with all the weird statues.” She glanced toward the pond, surrounded by fae and cryptid statuary. “Huh, they’re still here. Nice.”

Her nose wrinkled, like a sullen teenager’s, making sure everyone knew she was not impressed.

“They used to call it the witch’s house,” she said as she walked toward us. “Kids said Old Lady Carew’s ghost still haunted it, and if you saw her, she’d burn your eyes out. They’d dare each other five bucks to come back. I made a lot of money off those morons. Never saw a ghost, though. Old Lady Carew wasn’t a witch. Just a crazy old bat muttering and ranting about omens and portents.” She looked at me. “You’re a Carew, right, Eden?”

“I am,” I said evenly.

“So she’s a relative of yours. Did you buy the place for sentimental value? Or because you belong here, in your crazy relative’s house?”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Gabriel glanced over, alarmed.

“Seriously, Seanna?” I said. “Is that the best you can do? Try again.”

She slowed her approach.

“No, really,” I said. “Give me a real zinger. You can do it.”

Her mouth set in a way that reminded me of her son’s…and yet it didn’t. Gabriel’s lips would compress only for a moment, an involuntary show of emotion. Hers stayed pressed together until she was scowling.

Gabriel had suggested Seanna wasn’t the brightest bulb. That hers was only a feral intelligence—the Walsh survival instinct cranked to eleven. I saw the truth of that as her scowl deepened.

After a moment, she said, “So how are your parents, Eden? Rotting away in prison for butchering eight people?”

I burst into a peal of laughter. Beside me, Gabriel snorted, and Seanna’s head jerked up, as if this was a sound she’d never heard from her son. When I looked over, he wasn’t quite smiling, but his eyes had warmed and he’d relaxed back in the love seat.

“The conviction was recently amended to six,” he said. “And Olivia has heard that particular insult before. After the hundredth time, it does start to lose its sting.”

He pushed to his feet. Seanna looked up, and something gratifyingly like consternation flashed over her face as she realized exactly how big her son had gotten.

As Gabriel advanced, Seanna steeled herself not to step back.

See? He’s not a child anymore. I’d love to see you try shoving him into a cubbyhole now, Seanna. Love to see you try shoving him at all.