Was it just my imagination, or did they perk up a little as I brushed my fingers over them? I smiled at the thought. At this point, anything was possible.

A loud throat-clearing turned me around to see a woman in a slick business suit holding a clipboard in one hand and a dangle of keys in the other. The realtor? Maybe my luck was shifting. “Excuse me, can I help you?”

“I am here to see the house.” The words popped out of me before I thought better of it. And I held up the sign as if that somehow made it better that I’d pulled it out.

Her eyes narrowed on the sign. “Did you make an appointment?”

“No. I’m sorry, I just saw the sign,” I gave it a shake for good measure, “and was hoping to peek in the windows.” I smiled at her, though, she didn’t thaw for a second. “But you can show me around now. I’m sure you know all the nooks and crannies of the place.”

She plastered on a smile. “My name is Monica, and I am the realtor.” No surprise there, but I nodded and smiled. “I’m actually here to show another client this place,” she said. “You’ll have to come back another time. We can book right now if you like?”

“I don’t mind if she joins us.”

I looked past Monica to the rather broad-shouldered man with the short-cropped dark hair and . . .

“You look good with clothes on.” I tossed the sign to the side as if that was where it went. Best to act casual when you got caught red-handed.

Monica gasped and Crash just stared at me as though I’d sprouted another head. Maybe I had.

“Stars in the heavens,” Monica whispered. “I never in my life!”

And then it hit me that Crash was there to buy my grandmother’s house. That he’d only known it was for sale because of me and my big fat mouth. My eyes narrowed, and if I could have shot him dead on the spot, I would have.

“Sure, I’d love for you to show us both around,” I growled, suddenly thinking that maybe I would become one of those man-hating women who said they all could find a place to rot together. I could bury him next to Himself after I was through with them both.

Monica huffed and brushed past me on the path so she wouldn’t get her shoes dirty by stepping into the garden. Crash took a few steps and then was right behind me.

I deliberately widened my stance. “Seriously? I tell you about my gran’s house and then you go behind my back to buy it?”

His eyebrows shot up. “Behind your back? We are not friends.”

“Sure we are.” His face clouded over and I leaned toward him. “It gives me something to hold over Eammon.”

I was hoping to make him crack a smile.

I wasn’t banking on a full grin. His eyebrows went even higher. “You’d hold it over Eammon that we’re friends?”

Shrugging, I started after Monica in the Suit. “Someone told him that I ended up in your bed with my clothes off, and that I’d made a deal with you. He lost his marbles. Went all white in the face and I thought he was going to pass out.”

Crash’s laughter buoyed me up the steps, and I let the sound carry me into the home of the woman who’d been more of a mother than a grandmother. Her smell was still there as I stepped through the doorway, and it wrapped around me, not unlike her ridiculously tiny arms.

She’d been so thin her whole life, like a bird. A tiny chirping bird with the sharpest of beaks if you stepped out of line.

Monica prattled on, and for the most part I ignored her. I knew this place inside and out, better than any realtor ever would.

Crash walked around the bare entry room, the wood creaking under him with pretty much every step. I left them there and made my way to the kitchen. The smell of herbs and dried flowers still permeated everything. I ran a hand over the butcher block countertop, feeling the grooves from countless times she’d chopped up roots for spells on the same surface she’d then use to chop up chicken. I could still taste the grit on the chicken if I put my mind to it. Honestly, it was shocking we hadn’t ever gotten food poisoning with the cross-contamination I was certain happened.

I missed her so much. What I wouldn’t give for her to hold me one more time, especially this last year, especially now. My throat tightened and I curled my fingers against the wood, scraping it lightly.

“That could easily be replaced,” Monica said, bringing me out of my slip into melancholy.

“I like it,” I said, noticing the catch in my throat and clearing it quickly.

Crash’s footsteps approached and I made my way out of the room and toward the stairs that led to the second floor so they wouldn’t see the emotions on my face. Color me cautious, but I suspected he’d be able to read me far easier than Monica, and I had no desire for him to see me cry.

Monica’s voice cut through the air as she told Crash all about the kitchen, how it could be easily updated. I hurried up the stairs, gripping the familiar banister, the wood warm under my palm.

For just a moment, I was ten years old again, and I could hear my Gran talking to me.

“Hurry up, honey child!”

“Coming,” I whispered as though she were really there.

I paused at the top of the stairs, and movement to my right tugged me in that direction. A swoop of long silk sleeves, bare feet, and a long skirt that swirled. My heart picked up as I chased the image of Gran into her bedroom.

She spun and smiled at me. “Took you enough time.” Her long gray hair was loose, wildly messy as it hung in waves to the middle of her back, and eyes the same light green as my own blinked back at me. That was the only part of her I’d inherited, despite what Crash had said.

“Are you really here?”

“Can you see me?”

“Yes, but I can also currently see a skeleton named Robert from time to time. I just figured it’s because I’m so close to dying, advanced in years as I am,” I drawled.

She snorted and waved a hand at me. “You’re saying that because of the death card? It’s always been attracted to you, since the first time you had your cards read.” She sighed and beckoned me to come farther into the room. “Nothing is what it seems here. There are dangers at play that you can’t possibly understand, and that I’m not able to speak of. They slip in and out of my memories like fireflies.”

“Of course not, that would be totally logical and helpful.” I couldn’t help the bite of sarcasm. “Don’t worry, if some crazy maniac comes after me, I’ll be sure to lock myself in a basement where he’ll never find me. You know, like all the smart girls do in the horror flicks.”

Her glare was sharp. “Don’t sass me. I might be dead, but I can still put you in your place.”

I laughed at her. “Pardon me if I’m not terrified of my ghostly gran. I’ll be with you soon enough—you can smack me around then.”

A frown flashed across her face, there and then gone. “What in God’s name is that supposed to mean? I’ve read your lines; you’ll be long-lived, just like me.”

I didn’t want to dissuade her of the idea. Funny how this felt more normal to me than my life had been back in Seattle. Like that had been the dream for nearly twenty years, a fantasy that wasn’t real.

But here, talking to a ghost in what was now one of many haunted old houses in Savannah, accompanied by a guy named Crash, who I was pretty sure was some sort of critter . . . that felt normal. I sighed. “Gran, Himself is selling the house. If it’s the last thing I do, I don’t want it to end up in the wrong hands.”

She put her hands on her hips. “I would hope not. I left things for you here, but you have to live here to get them.”

I stared at her, feeling my face tighten with irritation I couldn’t hold back. “Couldn’t put them in a safety deposit box? Or tell me where they are, and I can get them now?”

“No. That’s not how this works,” she said. Of course it wasn’t.

“Or leave them with someone for me? What about Hattie?” My voice was rising. Footsteps clattered up the stairs. I didn’t care. “Gran, you are going to be the death of me!”

She sniffed at me and disappeared as Crash and Monica reached the doorway. Monica’s eyes were wide. “Who were you talking to?”

“A ghost,” I said.

Monica’s eyes lit up. “Oh, that’s perfect. I was just saying to Mr. Crash here that I would like to try something new with this place. And it being haunted is perfect! You know that in Australia they sell houses completely different than we do here.”

Crash looked past me, but it was pretty obvious there was nobody there.

I nodded as though I cared to hear how she was going to sell the house that I wanted so badly to save.

Monica all but beamed at me. “It will go on the live auction block.”

14

Sweat and rain ran down the middle of my back as I tried to work through the anger that had caught me by surprise when Monica had announced that Gran’s house was going on the auction block.

The training grounds were slick with mud from a sudden rain, and the dark made the run that much more treacherous.

I did my laps slowly, still walking part of the way. But it was better than the first run. Kind of. The anger pushed me forward, and by the end of the run, the worst of it had passed through me.

“What’s got your knickers in a knot, lass?” Eammon asked as I clumped into the underground training area.

“You’re talking to me now?” I shot him a look. “Very mature of you.”

Eammon beckoned for me to follow him. I considered ignoring him the way he’d ignored me most of the week. Then again, he was supposed to be helping me get through this training so I could make enough money to buy back Gran’s house. Something I wanted more than ever. An auction maybe wasn’t the worst thing. If no one wanted the house it could go cheaper than a list price. Of course, the opposite was true too, and I had no doubt that Crash’s pockets were deeper than my own.

Yes, I had a crap ton of debt, but the debt wasn’t really mine, and I needed to save Gran’s house. I needed to. That was all there was to that.