Whatever peace I found in sleep fled the second I opened my eyes. Why was I lying around in the guesthouse letting men I didn’t know take care of me? Why had Krystal let this happen? I would have been there for her. Where had Anne gotten off to that she wasn’t back yet?

I swung my feet over the bed, searched for and didn’t find my shoes, and eventually padded out barefoot to the main room. The smell of food cooking wafted toward me, and my stomach rumbled loud enough that all five of the men turned to look at me. I swallowed my nerves. They were an impressive bunch, that was for sure.

I couldn’t have decided which one I found more attractive. I tugged on the end of one curl, knowing that my hair must be wildly out of control. It took a tremendous amount of time to tame it every day or I ended up looking like I was a nightmare come to life. Not that it mattered, really. I’d battled back an Original demon and lived to tell the tale. My hair should have been the least of my concerns.

Right then and there, I knew I was in trouble. These men were making me… sort of mushy feeling, and I’d known them only a little over a day. This must be how Anne, Teagan, and Daniella felt, except those were Guards and these were highly skilled workman whom I had no business lusting over since they would be leaving when the job was done.

Gordon took a step toward me. “Are you okay? Wayne said you were feeling better. Your color is good. When we got you in here, I wasn’t sure if you were going to be okay. You kind of became a ghost out there.” He walked the final steps toward me and put his hand on my arm. “Okay, good. You’re solid.”

He smelled fresh and clean. I forced myself to stay totally still instead of throwing my arms around him and begging him to hold me until I didn’t feel like I was going to float off the world. Gordon seemed like the kind of person who was strong enough to keep me where I needed to be. Of course, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know any of them. So I stayed where I was.

“I…” It was usually at night I couldn’t think of anything to say. “I can’t thank you enough. So above and beyond. And trying to keep that gate up in the face of a demon was so brave. You should not have been in that situation, and to take care of me afterward—”

Ren interrupted me, striding over with a mug that he stuck in my hand. It was a strange moment. I hadn’t asked for anything to drink, but now that I held the hot tea, I was certainly grateful he’d thought to brew. He raised his eyes. “Where we are from, people take care of each other. Families look out for each other’s kids. Or at least the best of them do. When someone needs something, they get it. When my parents died, Gordon’s dad invited me to live with them. You needed help. It never dawned on us not to give it.”

I took a sip of the tea to give myself a second to find a response. “That sounds like a really nice way to live. That hasn’t been my experience in life. Let’s hope the rest of your time with us is a lot less drama infested. Shall we? Do you happen to know where my shoes are?”

If I had to flee barefoot, I would, but I really preferred to cover my feet since the grounds would be muddy. I had to be practical, even when I was completely distracted.

I found Krystal in the kitchen. She raised red-rimmed eyes to meet my gaze, and my anger softened. My fellow Sister looked like hell run over. Krystal was tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and curvy in all the right places. I envied her breasts. I might be a little fixated on how tiny mine were.

She threw her arms around me. “You’re okay.”

“I am.” I let her squeeze me for a second. “How did I end up in the guest house?”

Krystal drew back to regard me. “At first, I tried to argue. I told them to bring you into your rooms, but they insisted rather forcefully that they could and should take care of you. I can’t really explain it to you, Mika. I’ve been trying to make sense of it myself. I just… I believed them.”

Well, there was no harm done. Maybe in the pouring rain after the mess of the demon battle and everything that happened, no one was thinking clearly. I didn’t really understand it, but arguing after the fact was pointless. I stepped back. We weren’t really huggers. Or at least I wasn’t. Maybe Krystal was.

“Should we be worried about Anne or Daniella yet?”

Krystal wrinkled her nose. “No. We knew they’d be gone for a stretch. Anytime the trains are involved, things get complicated, and who knows when Teagan will be back from the other Sisterhood.”

She was right. But this was Anne’s Sisterhood. I was hardly able to manage without her. They’d taken their baby or I’d have had to think about him the night before, too. Daniella’s daughters were here, but they were older and could be left for periods of time with the capable child care Daniella had found.

Still, with Krystal powerless, I couldn’t help but feel that all of this rested squarely on my shoulders. While I walked back to my room to take a cold shower, I tried to imagine a place called Peter’s Isle, a spot somewhere on this planet that had no demons. I wondered if the breeze was cool on hot days and warm during cold times.

Were such places possible?

The five contractors followed me around the property. I’d point out what I thought had to be fixed. They would find ten more things in that location alone that I’d not noted, desperately in need of repair. The main house was my most pressing concern, and we saved it for last. The guys had been quiet, commenting only on technical, construction things. It wasn’t until we were at the front door that Gordon asked anything other than about structure and use of the buildings.

“How did you find this place, Mika?” He slightly mispronounced my name. Pronounced Mee-ka, he said my name like he added an extra ee so that it was Me-ee-ka instead. I kind of liked it. I’d hardly heard my name spoken other than with the name Sister attached to it for most of my life. Said by Gordon, it sounded somehow musical.

I pointed to the house. “This specifically or the grounds themselves?”

“The whole thing. How did you guys choose it? Did you search around for a while?” He had a clipboard in his hand, and he’d been making notes and drawing sketches. Most of it looked like a foreign language to me. I had no head for design.

I looked back at the house. “I was still living at the other Sisterhood at the time. But the story is that during the year that Anne was locked in a cage, her Guards were brought here by the spirits. So when they finally rescued her, they returned to this place.”

Ren interrupted. “She was locked in a cage?”

We had to go through the dark to reach the light. “Yep.”

I turned and walked into the house. I didn’t know if I was going to have a dark time—I might have already had mine considering I’d been cursed—but if I still had one coming, there were no Guards who were going to appear out of nowhere to save my life. If I got locked in a cage and couldn’t unlock it myself, I wasn’t getting out.

I walked them through the house, through rooms I didn’t usually go into like Anne’s private quarters. When we were done, I waited for their response.

“We can fix it,” Neil answered for the group, “but we’re going to have to hire some more help on a day-to-day basis. It might be better if you just knock the whole thing down and start over.”

Anne had told me I had the power to make decisions but that seemed too large a choice for me to make. I touched the side of the old house. “She’s from a different time. This was a school. A boarding place where kids from all over would came to learn.” I stepped a bit away. “Until it was overrun by demons and everyone had to leave, it was the gateway to future potential. I hate the idea of demolishing it. She’s been through a lot. Maybe she just deserves a chance to shine again.”

“She?” Lennon raised his eyebrows. “Boats are usually shes. I don’t know if people usually assign a gender to buildings.”

“I like it as a she.” I touched the railing. “Feels like a she.”

“Then a she it is.” Lennon’s grin was huge. “We can do this. If you want us to.”

“I do.” I rocked back on my feet, turning my attention to Ren and Gordon. “How long till we can have hot water?”

Ren beamed, and I was pretty sure that was the first time I’d seen him smile. “Well, I need to get under the house. And that involves a demon, right?”

It was. “Why does that make you happy?”

“I’ve never been under a house with a demon before. I like new experiences.”

Gordon rolled his eyes. “Yeah… he’s slightly out of his mind.”

Neil laughed, shoving both of their shoulders. “She’ll figure that out if she hasn’t yet.”

They were so easy with each other. All of them laughed regularly, and now with Ren’s lips turning upward, they all smiled, too. So few people in my acquaintance found joy in anything. Life was hard and got worse all the time. Where did these five find their hope?

“Should we go look now?”

Ren unlocked his ankles. “I’m game.”

I just bet he was.

I’d not been under the house before. Teagan had been the one who’d discovered Bob the Demon and we’d all been giving it a wide berth ever since. We’d thought that Bob had been disrupting the hot water, but when he’d moved, it still didn’t work.

I crawled ahead of Gordon and Ren, although each of them was only inches behind me and on my left and right. They looked up at the pipes, making verbal notes to each other as they went.

“No one builds like this anymore. I mean, some of the older buildings on Peter’s had similar systems.” Ren must have been trying to explain this to me even though I hadn’t asked. “We’ve seen some similar things in other areas. The farther we got into the Badlands, the older everything seems to get. But this takes the cake.”

I stared at my feet. “You think we should knock down the house.”

Right at that second my powers activated, a flash fire of energy racing through my veins. One second I was normal, and the next I was entirely charged as though I was ready to battle.

“If you let them knock down this house, Oracle, I will have no choice but to unleash my powers on you.”

Gordon grabbed my arm. “Where is the demon? It’s the demon talking to you, right?”

They wouldn’t be able to hear every demon that spoke to me, but this one seemed to be making a point to be understood by their ears, too. That was the least important thing at the moment.

“Demon, I am not the Oracle.”

The last time I had even heard the word Oracle—before the contractors said it yesterday when describing the baby the Sisterhood took from Peter’s—I had been in the old Sisterhood. Charged from divinity with the ability to find newborn Sisters, the Oracle had a very unfortunate life. Although The Oracle was a Sister, she didn’t actually fight demons. She lived secluded and waited for divinity to show her where newborns with the gift were born. Then, other Sisters went out with their Guards, forced the parents to give up their child, and returned with the baby. It seemed like a special kind of hell.

I was absolutely not the Oracle.

The creature grumbled, it might have been a laugh. “If you say so, Sister Mika. How little you humans know of yourselves. Years pass—so many they can’t be kept track of –and you all always remain the same. If you take down this house, I will be forced to rise. You don’t want that. We have co-existed and will continue to do so as long as you don’t take down this house.”

Well, that was interesting. It made little sense. “This house matters to you?” I was admittedly attached to it myself, but the demon was really invested in it, too. “Why?”

“That is not for you to concern yourself with, Sister Mika. Just know you don’t want me to rise. I am not interested in the affairs of the humans and the demons. Don’t make me change my mind. You beat the demon the other night. You cannot win against me.”

I didn’t know if that was true or not. Demons lied. Bob might be a strange demon, but a demon, nonetheless. That being said, the way my powers burned, I’d encountered the demon of all demons. He was certainly very powerful.

“You’re smart. Follow that train of thought.”

Teagan had said he read her mind. It looked like he was doing the same to me. I sighed. “Listen…”

“They can come down and fix the plumbing. I won’t bother them. If they need me to move, I’ll know and move. They have to fix the house, these Guards of yours.”

For all that this demon was able to read minds, it really didn’t know what was going on. “They’re not my Guards.”

“Sister Mika, the demon that came the other night was only the first. They will keep coming until things are settled. He couldn’t get through the gate because of my power. But they will not always be that easy.”

Easy?

“Yes, foolish human, that one was easy. Fix this house.”

I’d thought things couldn’t get any more stressful; I was wrong.

I sipped some tasteless tea and watched from the window while the guys worked in the front yard. Neil and Wayne had gone to get wood while I’d been under the house with Gordon and Ren. Lennon had joined them when they got back, and now everyone was either cutting wood, measuring siding, or writing in a notebook.

It was hot and humid—I supposed that was why they were all shirtless.

I set aside the tea and pressed my forehead against the window. No one could see me—I didn’t think. The windows were tinted in the hallways. Men didn’t usually interest me, and I’d always assumed it was because at the other Sisterhood Katrina had insisted we take men to our beds whether we wanted them or not.

I’d managed to avoid her charge, but doing so had been practically a full-time undertaking. But here were five guys, who had nothing to do with demons, had managed to grow up without seeing them, and were fearless around them. They were handsome, unbelievably so, and they were making me think about things I had no business contemplating when I had a demon under the house and, apparently, a lot more to come.

Neil raised his eyes to the window, and for a second, I wondered if he saw me. Then he dropped his gaze before he stepped away from his sawing. He wiped his brow. Yes, it was very, very hot out there. They had to be sweltering.

Taking the stairs two at a time, I got to the kitchen. The tea was tasteless, but it was cool. I grabbed some glasses and brought them out. Usually after the rain, it cooled. but that hadn’t happened. Instead, it seemed almost worse than before the storm.

All five of them turned to me, and I held up the pitcher and glasses.

“Thank you,” Ren called out. “That’s incredibly nice of you.”

“Hey,” Neil said, “can you come with me for a second? I want you to look at something. Unless you’re busy.”

That was the problem. There was really nothing left for me to do. Without demons to fight and routines of meditation and silence to follow like we had in the other Sisterhood, I was really at odds. Krystal stayed to herself. I didn’t know if she was trying to get her powers back or not. Or if that was even something she could work on. I wouldn’t pry; powers were private.

I couldn’t get the place ready for Teagan and the influx of Sisters she’d bring back with her until some things got fixed.

“Sure.” I stepped toward him and let him guide me toward the guesthouse. They’d moved some of the furniture around. The table was away from the window and the chair faced the opposite direction. It would be easier to sit at it now. It was sort of… homier.

The guesthouse had been empty as long as I’d been there, and it was nice to see some life inside of it. Empty rooms were everywhere, and sometimes I thought I could hear the ghosts of the past when I wandered through them.

“How do you see this place? I need to know. We’re basically going to have to reconstruct within old construction. So piece by piece, how does this compound look to you?”

I almost told him he should wait and speak to Anne. She was due back any day. But then I remembered Anne said this was my project. She wanted me to handle it. Okay, I would do so. “Our vision is to have this place working as a real Sisterhood. It won’t be exactly the same. I don’t have Guards, for example, so we’re going to have to figure out how to handle Sisters without Guards. But Sisters with their real Guards, presumably they’ll be in the main house in their rooms. They’re in love; it’s like family. I… I guess this place could be used as a place for the non-guarded Sisters.” The second, smaller guesthouse could be for actual guests. I mean, how many guests were we really going to have?

He scrunched up his face. “If your Guards suddenly showed up you’d move into the other house? Because you would love them? Why does love determine location?”

“I…” I shrugged. “Look, the truth is I’m like half a Sister. I can’t do what I’m supposed to do because I don’t have the second half of the team with me. We’re supposed to have partners. So, I guess when Sisters start arriving who do have them, they’ll need the space to do things like make love after a battle.”

I’d no sooner uttered the words than I wished I hadn’t said them. My cheeks reddened. A second later, Neil gave me a slow grin. “Is that what they all do? Come back here and make love after battles? So they have to have special rooms to do so? Funny, my experience is people will find a way to do that just about anywhere they want if they are properly motivated. Is it all five together at once?”

I didn’t know all the details of how everyone handled it. “I think most of the time it’s one to one or two to one or such.” I looked away. “Maybe the less said on that the better. I don’t have Guards. So I’m not making love to anyone. The back of the house here could work as a library. We used to have one in the other Sisterhood. There’s so much mystical stuff to learn it’s just ridiculous.” I quickly headed toward that area so I didn’t have to say another word about making love in front of shirtless Neil.

“I don’t know if that part is safe, Mika. We haven’t been going back there because I want to secure the loft.” He charged after me.

I’d no sooner rushed into the room than the loft he’d just mentioned tilted forward. I could get away from demons fairly easily, but a half a ceiling rushing down on me was a different story altogether. In fact, I was fairly certain I would have been killed if Neil hadn’t grabbed me and launched both of us back into the hallway.

He was on top of me. The crash to the floor made my back sore, but not nearly as much as being crushed to death would have. He pushed my hair off my face, his eyes huge as he stared down at me. We both breathed heavily. “Are you okay, lovely? Hmm? Did you get hurt?”

I shook my head. “I’d be dead if not for you.”

“If I hadn’t been teasing you back there, you wouldn’t have run away into that room. We’ll say it was my fault.”

I shook my head again. “I was the one who talked about sex to begin with. I shouldn’t say those things.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Why not?”

“Hey, we heard a big crash. Are you guys okay?” Wayne’s voice sounded. A second later, Neil was ripped off of me, and I was picked up off the ground by Ren. Lennon poked his head in the now loft-less room.

He turned to speak. “Wow that would have been bad.”

“Neil saved my life.” Although he was dusting himself off, Neil’s gaze didn’t leave me.

Wayne patted him on the back. “Good work.”

Gordon backed up two steps from all of us, and Ren set me on my feet, holding me steady for a second like he thought I might fall over. Gordon pointed at the loft room. “We’re doing that room first. She has to be safe wherever she walks.”

“Yes.” Neil nodded. “Mika has to be safe here. Nothing in her life is safe, but here will be. Every blasted inch of it. So that when her five husbands show up they can be safe, too.” He shook his head. “Sorry. Never mind that. Listen, I need to go to town. We’re going to have to get lots more wood, tools, everything. Find some day laborers to show up on and off. Do you want to come, Mika?”

Did I want to come? I never went to town without a purpose, and even then, I was quickly there and back again. I loved the idea, but it wasn’t a reality. “I’m the only Sister here with any power right now. Unfortunately, that means I have to stay.”

He nodded, narrowing his eyes when he did. “What is your favorite food? Just out of curiosity. Is there something you love to eat?”

Gordon slapped Neil on the shoulder. “Did you hit your head? You’re all over the place.”

“I love, just love, warm bread with butter. Cheese. Grapes. Total luxuries. We’d get them in the other place sometimes but it’s not a reality up here.”

Neil nodded, and Gordon took his hand off Neil’s shoulder. Neil spoke fast. “Wayne, stay here with Mika. Okay? The rest of you, you’re with me. We’ll be back by nightfall.”

The world shifted slightly. Like gravity had altered. And I didn’t know why.