“I’m not playing with Idun, but unless you want me turning my mother loose on you, you’re going to explain who you are.”

Her smile turns more devious in the next instant.

“Fair enough. I hope you’re rather open-minded, my favorite-ever person.”

CHAPTER 7

VIOLET

“The final touches are coming together really quickly,” Shera says like she’s actually surprised, as I collapse to the ground and groan.

So, so close to getting to sleep. Tonight I get to sleep. In a bed. For hours and hours and hours. It’s my reward for giving it up for so long. But all the other Simpletons did it with ease, and I didn’t want to be the one dragging my feet when this was my idea.

I thought my work ethic was stellar until meeting them.

“Almost five solid months of around-the-clock labor is not coming together quickly,” I point out, admittedly a little bit cranky.

She rolls her eyes. “You’re just impatient.”

I smile to myself, just as Anna pops out. Shera, despite her gypsy blood, can’t see her. She hates that she can’t see her.

“The guys are watching Idun TV. I vote you walk through the room naked to remind them you’re their girlfriend,” Anna unhelpfully suggests.

Want to know what Anna has been doing for almost five straight months while my hands are full and I don’t have time to deal with her theatrics? She’s been doing this—trying to make Idun my problem. Just like everyone else.

However, she scares me less. Sort of. She’s still…sort of scary, if I’m honest.

“I thought you got me,” I tell Anna in mock disappointment.

“Got you what?” Shera asks distractedly, as she does something on her phone. But she forgets she’s even talking to me as she adds, “All the beds are arriving in a few minutes, and we still don’t have a fully installed elevator.”

“We have plenty of manpower,” Anna tells her primly, following behind a Van Helsing knight and checking out his ass.

She gives it a little ghostly squeeze, and I roll my eyes because she’s a single, resurrected ghost—for all intents and purposes—and just the phantom hand grab is more action than I’ve gotten since last month.

Again, I’m not entirely sure what Anna is. I don’t think Anna knows either, because…she’s still possibly delusional after all. The more sensible answer is she’s a delusional ghost I managed to resurrect and she’s very much crazier than ever.

Idun TV is the newest growing addiction in the immortal community. It sucks to be a girl who doesn’t want Idun to be her problem.

It’s Idun’s idea of true transparency for everyone to see she’s genuinely changed. She’s put herself on around-the-clock video surveillance that shows her every breath, every text, every phone call—name it. It’s all there.

It’s the fast-track solution to the trust issue surrounding her.

And Shera is currently watching the live feed through an app on her phone.

It didn’t take Idun long to catch up to the times.

“You really should watch sometime. Nadine is on here a lot, and—”

“So far, not a single skin walker has even tried to contact me in any capacity since I left them still hydrating in Ireland and took the Simpletons, who were terrified, away from them. Currently, I can find no reason they’d be my problem,” I absently reply, looking over some of the family tree’s key pieces.

My family really is fucked up.

“You’re still reading the Neopry family history books?” Shera asks with some mild annoyance.

“Since starting this inquiry, I’ve learned my father’s family stemmed from a distant cousin. It—”

“It doesn’t explain why you’re immortal, since all your other relatives died and you can’t die,” Shera cuts in. “It is definitely a conundrum; however, we have more pressing matters to concern ourselves with. Don’t you think?”

She wiggles her phone, as though to tempt me with Idun’s bullshit.

Giving her a dry look, I rise up, standing on the newly finished floors that are slightly dusty because of the rapid construction. My new store will be a lot bigger in here, and Mom can have her house back…when she buys it from me.

“I still have questions, and everyone seems finished with looking for answers. Except me. I’ll find them on my own, and at least this way I don’t have to deal with any confusing circle-talk, just so everyone can dodge answering uncomfortable questions about the past,” I point out.

After a beat, she rolls her eyes.

“Anyway, your mother sent more care packages, and she’s close to setting up a Portocale Council meeting that will present you with an official apology for that pesky little assassination attempt,” Shera quips.

Anna pops up right in front of me, smirking.

“Please let me go to that. Please. Please. Please. I’ve been waiting for so long for someone to actually have to hear about how un-Buffy you are aloud,” Anna chirps. “Also, I’m nosy and want to know how someone apologizes for an assassination attempt, because that’s possibly the only thing more interesting than Idun TV right now.”

She beams like this is the greatest day of her undead life.