“Why are they all so tall? Usually I feel tall, but unless your dad is in the room, I’m the shortest man most times.”

“Don’t forget Luis,” I point out just as Luis comes to pat my back on his way by, hobbling a little.

“Why does he have the huge hunch?” Jerome asks me.

“It’s just something to add to his character,” I state idly, sipping my coffee during my ten-minute morning that I take daily.

Damien walks through, landing a quick kiss to my forehead on his way by, as he goes to the coffee pot.

“Can you believe she’s going to cull the cult that’s supposedly linked to feeding her power? The cult who has killed all those Portocales these past centuries?” he asks, not even acknowledging that Jerome is sitting here.

Jerome is used to this, and believes Idun TV is a pilot show they’re somehow involved in.

I’ve been creative over the past several weeks.

“How exciting,” I tell him dryly, as I glance at some of the cabinet choices Jerome scoots toward me.

“Ooh, I like this grayer one,” I tell him, as several shrieks ring out with the saw.

Fortunately, they’re far away. Hence my ten minute mornings in this area.

“And get this, she genuinely thinks we’re stupid enough to buy into all the bad acting. She should have at least hired professionals,” Damien goes on, scoffing as he walks out with the entire coffee pot.

Good thing I have spares.

Giving his back a subtle glare, I mask my features and smile back over at Jerome.

“Get any sleep last night?” he asks. “Because I could have sworn I drove by and saw you unloading a truck at two this morning.”

“Mom drove across two states to get all the quality materials Dad needed. I didn’t want anything getting rained on.”

“When do you sleep?” he asks as I stand and head out, coffee in my hand, daily plan in my head, and a list of tasks to delegate to the massive team assembling for the morning meeting.

I don’t answer Jerome, because the answer is unbelievable. I’ll take a long nap when I’m done.

Shera stops me just as I reach the lobby. “The guy I hired to track down your roots sent over a lot of stuff.”

“Why are you still researching your family trees? I think by this point that’d be considered a fruitless endeavor, since you know everything there is to know,” Anna says from my side, and then snorts. “Get it? Fruitless endeavor?”

When I pointedly ignore her, she snorts again, and then she bursts out laughing.

“Maybe I’ll start a traveling comedy act only certain gypsy bloodlines can see,” she states through her laughter.

“Stick to your day job,” I mutter.

“Excuse me?” Shera asks, since…she can’t see Anna.

“Thanks, Shera,” I tell her instead of answering, as I head to my makeshift office.

“Can I ask what you’re looking for?” she asks with some hesitance, trailing me.

One look into Bobo’s innocent, pure, genuine eyes, and I had a whole lot of questions.

“Answers to questions I never thought to ask before now,” is the reply that absently tumbles from my lips, as I push through the rickety door.

Papers are spread out all over the barely-stable desk inside, and I go to start examining them.

“You know you’re a Portocale-slash-Neopry monster, which shouldn’t be possible but is. I’m not sure how many answers one can gather about something that’s never happened before,” she tells me. “You were a freak born to raise the Neoprys from their graves. Are you saying there’s more?”

Everyone else seems so distracted by Idun that an impossible monster is barely a blip on the radar. Call me arrogant, but I’m more interested in my existence than Idun’s games.

“I’ve spent my whole life searching for answers without knowing where to look or what to look for,” I remind her. “The questions don’t stop, because with answers comes even more questions. That’s life. It’s smart to be curious.”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Anna chirps as she hops up on the table, giving me a mischievous grin. “You don’t particularly like cats or any other animal. Aside from wolves. Think it’s because Idun makes animal shifters? Is it your natural instinct to fear all things that could relate to Idun?”

I glare at her.

Although, she does have a point, now that I think about it.

“That would make Idun a problem for you after all,” she says, her grin growing darker. “What are you going to do about it, Violet?”

We have a staring contest for a few minutes.

“Can I ask what you’re staring at?” Shera asks in a dry, unimpressed tone.

Ignoring her, I continue glaring at Anna.

“Are you just going to let her step in and captivate your delicious harem, while you build a home for her family? Are you that pathetic?” Anna goads, her grin slowly getting larger as she taunts me.

Without any farther provoking, I toss salt at her, and her smile spreads all the wider just before she disappears.

Idun’s not my fucking problem.

Anna, however, is starting to scare me a little bit.

***

Month three…

“I’m saying a ghost doesn’t come back from a final decay without some divine intervention, Violet. She needs to explain herself to me. Not to you. And the dead should not influence the living. You know this,” Mom is saying in her arguing-talk voice from behind me.