“A trip to visit your cousin? You’d want to leave the boys after we’re finally all together again?”
“I want to take the boys. No more secrets, right? We need to come clean about everything. For all we know Christian is some latent magical genius and is about to wreak havoc because he doesn’t know what’s going on.”
He chortled. “I doubt any of our sons are latent geniuses at anything, God bless them.”
She whacked him softly in the arm. “They’re brilliant in every way, just like you are.”
“Now I know you’re delusional.”
She took in a slow, cleansing breath and released it, letting go of all the worries and fears of the last weeks. Pushing out any fresh fears that might take hold from what she was going to propose.
“I’m serious about this, though. If we hadn’t kept everything a secret about their heritage, Owen and Ariana wouldn’t have practiced without supervision. They wouldn’t have needed to find that damn book because they would have already known to leave it well enough alone. It’s clear they’re talented, like your sister and Kostya. Kostya has to stop being afraid and we have to be more open or they may end up going down a road like Camilla did.”
She let him simmer in silence for a few moments, knowing that any mention of his twin sister and what she’d become was a terribly tender subject to him. But living a life of lies and denial hadn’t changed anything. They still almost lost Ariana. Fate was a jerk, that was all there was to that.
“Family meeting, then?” he finally asked. “I suppose a trip to future London is as good a plan as any. It’s not as if we have a home to go back to in this time.”
She swatted him again. “Too soon, Ashford. Way too soon.”
He dropped a conciliatory kiss on the top of her head. “Can we take Farrah with us when we visit Dexter? It might be nice to have some alone time in the future. I do love their cinemas.”
She squeezed him tight enough to make him grunt. “Yes, I sent a messenger after them telling them to abandon your plan to stake out that other portal up north. How could you do that to poor Thomas?”
“Poor Thomas?” he huffed indignantly. “I hadn’t seen him so excited in years as when I suggested he might get to travel again.”
“Then we should take him, too. Let him and Farrah have a night at the movies, too.”
“You’re the brilliant one amongst us, my love.”
“Glad you recognize that as well. Shall we go check in on Ariana?”
He stood, pulling her with him and patting gingerly at his nose. “How will she ever forgive me?”
Tilly stood on her toes and kissed his lips, then his battered, bruised nose. “I imagine she’ll say there’s nothing to forgive.”
Chapter 27
Ariana followed the estate agent, ignoring a slight twinge in her side. She’d been recuperating for a month— or a couple hundred years, depending on one’s point of view— and was ready to consider herself fully recovered from her accidental gunshot wound. And except for the occasional twinges and itchiness where her stitches had been, she was completely fine. She almost couldn’t believe she was really here, looking at her mansion.
It irked her that she had to buy it all over again and after so much time had passed, all the hard work she and her witches had put into it was wholly undone. But a promise to the truth was a promise to the truth and even though this was costing her a pretty penny, she’d never been happier or more at peace.
Her family was all together again and even more importantly, all on the same page. Her brothers practiced silly, rudimentary spells every day between their lessons and it turned out that little Nathan seemed to have a real knack for it. Grayson wasn’t too shoddy and Christian was as useless as usual, causing her to worry about his future a bit, now that he didn’t have the earldom to fall back on.
“It looks worse than it is,” the estate agent said, pointing to the top row of windows, every one of which were broken.
One on the left was boarded up, making Ariana recall the pirate drawings her mother used to make to amuse them. Thinking of her mother made her smile. She was in her element, the happiest Ariana had ever seen her. And it was fun watching her father bumble around haphazardly, trying to get used to everything.
“It actually looks very bad,” Ariana said.
“The roof is sound, the floors are good. Nothing’s rotting, I mean. Of course you’ll need to sand and finish or tear them up completely. It would be a shame, though, since they’re original and really lovely if you can get past the lumpiness.”
Ariana followed her inside after she struggled to get the lock unstuck. They both had to lean on the huge door to get it to open, and were then greeted with the ear-splitting screech of the rusty hinges. The agent looked around, desperate to find something positive to say about the dusty, cobweb encrusted surroundings.
“I’ll take it,” Ariana said before she could think of a single thing.
“You will?”
“It used to belong to my great-great-great… well, an ancestor. I was actually named for her. I have a love of history and want to restore the place to how it used to be.”
The agent pressed her lips together as if to prevent a whoop of joyful disbelief. “I’m sure it was amazing back in its day. I don’t really know why it was left the way it was. It’s been owned by the county for as long as I can remember. You’re sure you want it?”
“I’m absolutely positive.”
“It’s a huge undertaking. I’m not trying to discourage you, but most people don’t even take two steps in before realizing they’re in over their heads. The last real nibble we had was someone
