“Come on,” Grandma said, “she’s begging for it.”
I glanced up. Hillary was in the back, inspecting a triple-balled creation of Frieda’s.
Exactly who had
“When are you going to set an example?” I asked Grandma’s second in command.
Ant Eater ate her other bonbon and stuffed the tulle into the couch cushions behind her. “When were you going to tell us about the creepy observatory you found?” she asked, chewing.
I stiffened. “Who told you about the occult room?”
She smiled, showing chocolate teeth. “Pirate mutters a lot.”
Unfortunately.
“I was going to tell you all when we had time.” I glanced at Grandma. “And when you weren’t drinking tea.” It’s not like I was holding it back.
Mom shrieked. All three of us craned our necks around. The bald witch was trying to walk the length of the room balancing an antique mantle clock on her head.
“Luna!” I gasped.
She startled and the clock fell. Frieda caught it at the last minute, but that wasn’t the point.
“Control them,” I ordered to whoever would listen.
My mom gasped again, and I saw that someone had added
Not that I was against Officer Naughty, but—
Ant Eater stood. “Listen to me, missy—”
“No,” I said, drawing close. “You listen to me. Mom might not do things the same way we do—or anyone for that matter—but she’s rented us an incredible old mansion, she’s doing her very best, and you have to respect that. And her.”
Grandma sighed. At least she looked guilty. “We tried, Lizzie. You saw us try.”
“Try harder,” I told her.
“Hey,” Creely nudged me, “anybody up for some tea?”
I gave her a sour look. “You can’t get my mom drunk every day.”
The engineering witch had to think about that one. “Why not?”
Poor Hillary was busy fixing her schedule board, scrubbing like she was trying to dig through it with her eraser. I made my way over to her. “You doing okay?”
Her mascara was smudged and there were faint circles under her eyes.
“My society friends will be here in a few days. We don’t even have half the wedding favors we need.” Her voice went up a pitch. “And I can
“That’s fine,” I said, resisting the urge to rub her back a little. We didn’t really have that kind of relationship. Which was sad when I thought about it.
“You need to help me. You need to support me.” She started in on the board again. “And I’m beginning to suspect your new friends are seriously unbalanced.”
“I’m not going to argue with you there,” I said.
Ant Eater had Grandma in a discussion over in the corner while the rest of the witches had taken it upon themselves to start up an arm wrestling tournament.
“They’ll stick to the schedule. I promise.”
She let me take the eraser from her hand. “It’s the only way I’ll survive this,” she said, making an attempt to smooth her hair.
Planning. Order.
I’d helped her keep it that way for most of my life.
And I could do it now.
“Give me a hug,” I said, not allowing her much of a choice. I could feel her relax and was about to claim a small victory when the doorbell chimed. Three long bongs sounded throughout the downstairs.
Hillary drew back, sniffling a little. “I wonder if the band is here early. That would be nice,” she said, dabbing at her eyes with the tips of her fingers.
“Nope,” said a biker witch, who had leaned back dangerously far in her chair to peer past the curtained front window. “If I had to guess, I’d say it’s the Greeks.”
“That’s impossible,” Hillary said, frantically checking her schedule, “they don’t arrive until tomorrow night’s ouzo and olive bar reception!”
Frieda leaned over to take a look. “Well, there are twenty or so of them outside.”
“And no one is opening the door,” I said, hurrying for it.
“Twenty?” Hillary would have shrieked if she weren’t about to hyperventilate. “It should be five. Dimitri’s sisters, their godmothers,” she ticked them off on her fingers like that would change anything. “…some nice man who wrote to say he’s lactose intolerant…”
I opened the door to an invading army. They’d taken over the porch. And the steps. And the driveway beyond.
“Lizzie!” Dimitri’s younger sister, Dyonne, wrapped me in a hug. His other sister, Diana, had me from the side.
Some old Greek woman joined on in the other side. And a guy with a mustache behind her.
It was a big, fat Greek sandwich. And Frieda had it wrong. There weren’t twenty random relatives outside the door. There had to be at least thirty-five.
Chapter Eight
Holy Hades. What were they doing here?
“Dyonne!” I clung to Dimitri’s spritely, shorthaired sister while Diana let me go enough to kiss me on both cheeks.
“Traditional Greek greeting,” Diana said, “grab whatever part you can get.”
I grinned. “As long as you left Zeus at home.” He was a monstrous horse. Diana liked to ride him in the house.
She laughed, tucking her long, dark hair behind her ears. “I’ve mellowed out a little.”
“She’s lying,” Dyonne said proudly, finally letting me pull back.
Hey, who was I to judge? They’d lived their lives under a demon’s curse, knowing they’d fall into a coma when they reached the age of twenty-eight and die twenty-eight days later. While some people—most—would have responded by withdrawing, these two had gone out of their way to eke every bit out of life.
Dimitri and I had saved them, but it was up to them to make a new life for themselves.
“Glad to see you haven’t lost your edge,” I said.
“Don’t speak so soon,” Diana’s coin earrings dangled as she snuck a glance at the mass of relatives behind her. “We were trying to escape early.”
“Before the new clan followed us,” Diana added.
“You might want to work on that,” I told her as assorted relatives started pushing past.
Diana leaned in close, her hair brushing my shoulder. “They caught us at the airport. While boarding.”
“We tried to call,” Dyonne added, “but nobody had an international cell phone. And then, by the time we got here, it was all we could do to rent a bus.”
I glanced past the crowd to see a gray rental coach with its luggage doors open. The poor driver dragged suitcase after suitcase out of the bottom, aided by several muscular Greek men, jockeying for position.
Oy vey. “I see you still have your suitors.”
The strongest females ruled Griffin clans, and since Diana and Dyonne were the only ones left of their
