“It’s good to have me back and you know it,” Anna states as she feigns interest in her nails.

Nadine barely flicks a glance toward Anna, seeming very unimpressed with the ghostly company I keep.

Something crosses her eyes, and she cracks her neck to the side as she tucks my book under her arm.

“You raised us when everyone else left us to rot,” Nadine tells me like I’m somehow unaware of that. “So I’ll pay this debt with a warning, January Violet Carmine. You are of our blood, and for that, Idun will punish you twice as hard as she’s likely plotting to punish you right now. And she’ll punish you through my favorites first. Because she knows they’ll hurt you the worst,” she adds very seriously.

“Hmm. She almost sounds like she cares about the Simpletons who are going to own their very own beds for the first time ever,” Anna states, words dripping with sarcasm. “I wonder if she poops food since she talks shit.”

I palm my face, as Nadine works to not acknowledge Anna, her jaw ticking.

“Really, Anna, I’ve got this all by myself.”

Anna pulls her fists up like she’s a thirties boxer and dances around us the way she probably thinks boxers dance.

“But my zingers are on point today,” she argues, taking a few phantom jabs. “And I’m your intimidation factor, since you don’t really have one otherwise.”

“Are you serious with this?” Nadine asks me very pointedly, as though she’s warning me that I’m looking worse by the second.

“Believe it or not, I really miss her when she’s gone.”

“The dead should not influence the living,” Nadine bites out like I’m crossing a very personal line, her tone going cold and angry.

My brow furrows, as my lips purse, and Anna’s eyebrows go up as she lowers her fists. “Everyone says that to us, Violet, but you never listen to me unless I tell you what you want to hear,” Anna dutifully points out.

“That’s because, even when you’re not in a delusional state of mind, you’re still delusional,” I say, really too tired to be carrying on a conversation with Nadine and Anna at the same time.

“Maybe the dead should influence the living, since the living should be old and dead too by now,” Anna says as she sulks and turns away.

I redirect my attention to a very impatient and cold-eyed Nadine.

“You’ll end up being your mother’s child for sure if you continue to listen to the dead,” Nadine states like she’s filling in a missing piece of the puzzle for me.

It actually does…

I file the information away, since I haven’t enough brain power to keep vertical for much longer.

“Yes, yes. My mother is absolutely horrible, and you’re secretly just another misunderstood Portocale victim. Glad we had this chat,” I tell her as I throw up a thumb and smile, and then turn to walk off.

“So you only judge the Neopry family, while you fuck my daughter’s monstrous castoffs. Why am I not surprised?” she drawls.

My steps slow, and I find myself idly wondering if she’s even worth the effort, since I’m really busy today.

“You showed up here to tell me how stupid and disgustingly Portocale I am, but I have a lot of people who are going to get to sleep in their new rooms with their own actual beds tonight. It’s sort of a big deal, and I have to make sure the place is clean so that it feels like home.”

I glance over my shoulder to find her glare still scathing.

“I’m not judging the Neopry family. I try not to judge people at all, because I’m never going to understand all the very complicated dynamics of this lengthy entanglement between all of you. But you? You, I admit…I judge the hell out of you.”

Her scowl wavers just a little, a hint of confusion crossing her features.

“Idun tortured them, and you wouldn’t even fight for them to have a bed for comfort while they licked their wounds, even after they finally had a home,” I say as I face her fully again.

Anna’s smirk grows devilish, as she takes a seat like she’s finally interested in this conversation enough to listen. That incorporeal bitch.

“You put bars up instead of doors, because they might panic if the thunder rumbled too hard and turned them into a stupid monster that smashes up all your pretty things.”

Nadine’s jaw trembles just barely, and I almost stop, because I’m worried that my own exhausted emotions are affecting hers right now, instead of this being a genuine reaction.

“You grow cold when you realize how powerless you are to stop the things that shred your heart, Ms. Carmine. You judge at too young an age to fully comprehend your inevitable future,” she bites out, even as her eyes glisten just a little.

“Oh, you have to wait until you’re really old to judge, Violet. It’s a rule around here. I heard that too,” Anna says very seriously.

I cast a dry look in her direction before shaking my head at Nadine.

“I didn’t come to argue. In fact, I hope you keep this na?ve notion of yours alive while it lasts, and maybe you have enough self-righteous Portocale blood in your body to be stubborn enough to make it work for at least a little while,” Nadine goes on in a more tired tone as she looks away, unable to muster up more anger in the moment, it seems. “I came to warn you to change article-one, section-two, addendum fifteen,” she says.