Avery walked through the office door, pushed it shut with his heel, and slumped into his chair.

  Casey glanced over at him. Waves of exhaustion were rolling off the man. Since the Book had triggered his awareness of his gift, his sense of other people was much stronger, but he didn’t think he needed magical empathy to recognize that Avery was struggling. It was written across his face. “You should go to bed.”

  Avery stared for a long moment at his PC screen without even logging in. “There’s work to do.”

  “You were technically dead two weeks ago before the ghost of an elven four-year-old resurrected you. I think that means you get some sick leave. Go. To. Bed.” Casey let a note of irritation creep into his voice.

  Avery barely reacted to Casey’s annoyed tone. His mood felt alarmingly flat to Casey’s senses, where he’d been amped up with anxiety earlier. Without looking at Casey, he said dully, “Tara called me a ‘pretty boy,’ and I’m not even sure how she meant it, so I don’t know if I should be pissed or not.”

  “She what?”

  Avery related the conversation, concluding with Tara’s line — the last bit delivered with what Casey knew would be a pitch-perfect mimicry of her tone.

  “What do you she meant?” Casey said, knowing that Avery had probably been stewing over this for hours if he was bringing it up now. He’d been explaining social interactions to Avery since Avery had still been in diapers, but over the last few years, Avery gotten better at reading people. Somewhat.

  Avery shrugged. “Still flirting a little, maybe? But she could have been meant to be mean about it, too.”

  “Flirting sounds right to me, in that tone of voice,” Casey agreed. “I doubt she was making fun of you. She likes you; she’s not the type to insult people she likes.”

  “I hope you’re right. She needs a helping hand,” Avery said, fidgeting unhappily. “She’s so alone.”

  Casey considered saying something about Avery’s state of mind, but it was likely just exhaustion fueling his depressed tone. He’d be fine once he collapsed and slept about forty-eight hours straight. From experience, Casey suspected that was exactly what he’d do within the next day or so.

  Instead of nagging him more, Casey simply said, “Yeah, we know, Avery. We’re working together to help her. To that point, the title company called and talked to Shana. You can close on the house next Monday.”

  “That’s fast,” Avery looked up, surprised enough to show some curiosity.

  “We’re waiving inspections, since we already know the whole dang place is a disaster, and you don’t need a loan. Mark’s motivated to sell. It’s just a matter of waiting for paperwork.”

  He nodded. “I’ll let her know.”

  “... Tara?”

  Avery ran a hand through his normally perfect purple curls, rumpling them. Then he patted them back into place. “She’s terrified, Casey. Who knows what would have happened if anyone else had bought that property? When we went out there this morning...”

  “This morning?” He knew that Avery had been to the house twice yesterday. It seemed excessive to go again so soon.

  “Simon and me. We saw her, and I loaned her the Starlink dish.”

  “You’re not hyper-fixating on her, are you?” Casey said, words blunt. Avery was spending a of time focused on Tara. “I’m worried about you.”

  He’d seen Avery get into this state before, and there were usually two results. Either the person he was lasering in on got mutually obsessive right back at Avery, or they decided he was far too intense and told him to fuck off. Tara would be a spectacular example of the latter if Avery weren’t careful. His brother respect boundaries, and would immediately back off if told to, with considerable horror at offending (or sometimes even scaring) a potential partner. He just tended to be a in a relationship. His emotions were always very strong, whether positive or negative.

  Unfortunately, the ‘mutually obsessive’ partners didn’t tend to be emotionally healthy individuals, although that wasn’t always immediately apparent. Those relationships always ended swiftly, often in drama. Avery wouldn’t put up with disrespectful behavior from anyone, but especially a partner, past a few firm warnings.

  After due consideration, Avery admitted, “...probably. Yeah. I’ve liked her. I had a huge crush in high school because she was just so and that voice of hers... Have you ever heard her sing?”

  Casey shook his head. Theater hadn’t been his thing, and he had been two grades ahead of her.

  “I thought she sounded a bit like a young Cher. All I wanted to do was harmonize with her. I only got to do so one time for that school play audition, and it was so much fun... the teacher had us do a couple of songs from the play, and then she asked us to sing ‘Barcelona’ by Queen together.”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  His face twisted into a scowl, lips thinning for a second. “I thought asking Tara to sing that song was cruel. Her voice is fantastic, but it’s not an voice. She didn’t have the training for it, and the teacher demanded I sing Freddy's part to my full range and power. I should have said no and sang at Tara’s level, but I was afraid Tara would think I didn’t like her voice.”

  He trailed off and looked sideways at Casey. “I think she had a fun time, though. She grinned at me a bunch, and she looked at me like she was me, you know? I was so pissed when she didn’t get cast in anything.”

  Avery stared at the wall for a moment. Casey guessed he was seeing some old memory, not the present. He finally admitted, “But, most of the time, she just didn’t want to talk to me, and you told me to back off because she was giving clear no’s and obviously didn’t want to be friends.”

  His eyes remained distant as he added, “Before you scold me, I already know there’s a power imbalance between us right now, and she’s in a rough spot. But this whole fucking hot of stinky garbage means I can to her sometimes, and not be creepy or intrusive about it. I’ll take what I can get, and I intend to be respectful the whole time. But maybe — just maybe — she’ll like me if she gets to know me.” Now he focused on Casey, blue eyes suddenly bright. “There’s nothing wrong with being friendly, right?”

  “What do you see in her besides her voice? No judgment.” Casey tilted his head, watching Avery. This felt different than any other time Avery had developed an intense crush on someone.

  “We have so many common interests, CeeCee, she looks at me like she’s attracted. And not like I’m a freak, or a curiosity. And she’s not a chaser. Even can tell the difference there.” Avery folded his arms tightly across his chest. “Fandoms, for example. The few times I’ve managed to get her to talk to me, she gets my jokes when I talk about superheroes or cartoons. She doesn’t change the subjects or tell me I’m weird. I’m sure there’s more.”

  Casey sighed. As he’d suspected, Avery didn’t know as much about Tara as he thought. A shared love of music and Marvel was a start, but with Tara, it might not be enough. “Just remember that she’s been essentially magically assaulted and held prisoner in complete solitary confinement by a sociopath, on top of a pretty awful life before that, and she’s a long way from free yet. I doubt she’s looking for a boyfriend. If she is, think about her motives. Be sure she wants you for .”

  “I know. I know! And I don’t want to be that creepy guy who takes advantage of a girl in a bad spot. For now, I’m just going to help her out. No strings attached. If we end up just friends, that’s enough for meYou know that's how I've always rolled anyway."

  “All of this sucks.” Casey ran a hand over his face. “Regardless of breaking the spell or not, she is going to need normalcy and, you know, a real life. I think it’s good for of us to make an effort to befriend her.”

  Avery frowned. “What does your Gift say about me being able to make friends with her?”

  He tilted his head, considering. The Gift was murmuring gently and approvingly. “The Magic Eight Ball in my head says, ‘Maybe.’”

  Avery blew a sigh out so hard that his curly purple bangs moved despite enough gel and hairspray to make them crispy. “That’s helpful.”

  “That said, do you want me to tell her about you if a good chance comes up, so she knows why you’re occasionally a clueless idiot?”

  “Gee, thanks,” Avery said, his tone amused at being called a clueless idiot. More genuinely, he added, “And, no, I’ll do it myself. My shrink’s been after me to disclose my diagnoses to people earlier anyway, and it means I can check Avery-told-a-potential-partner off the Avery-is-learning-adulting bingo card.” He mimed stamping a piece of paper with a giant marker. “If nothing else, Tara should know upfront rather than later, when my mom tells her. Which she do, and she won’t ask permission first.”

  Casey said, “As entertaining as it would be to introduce Tara to your mom, let’s not do that just yet.”

  “If you do, I’m recording it,” Avery smirked.

  They shared a look of mutual amusement. Then Casey softened his voice. “I just don’t want you getting your heart broken again, Aves. You a partner who will truly make you happy.”

  “What’s your mojo say about her, beyond just ?” Avery said.

  “Not much. I didn’t even know she was in the garage until she moved, and normally, I can tell when a building’s occupied. Simon said she was probably shielding herself. Nadria introduced me to something called a ‘null ring’ after you left, and she might have been using something like that.”

  Casey had picked up a few more things about Tara, but felt they were private, so he left it at ‘not much’ for now. Avery wasn’t wrong about Tara being attracted to him, but he was likely underestimating how scared, angry, and broken she was. “Tell me how it went with Simon?” Avery had heard his warning and had listened. Time for a change in subject.

  “It didn’t. He didn’t want to talk.”

  “It still mattered that you went after him. We need to keep working on him.” Casey shook his head slowly. He was deeply afraid that Simon’s walls were close to crumbling. The man had been under tremendous stress, and his flight from the basement had been telling. He didn’t want to be the one Simon finally broke down with. The geas complicated everything. “Maybe I’ll have Shana try to connect with him.”

  “You’re worried about him.”

  “I’m far more concerned about Tara.” It was Casey’s turn to stare into space. “Simon needs somebody to talk to, but he’s resilient.”

  Avery yawned. “Sorry. I think I’m hitting the wall here.”

  “Seriously. Go to bed. I’ll trust you more to have better common sense after you’ve had some rest.” Casey didn’t bother to pull his punches. Avery responded best to the direct approach.

  Avery pulled his cell phone out and set an alarm. “I’ll crash for a few hours. I’m going to run by Tara’s this evening again...”

  “Not alone, and not without us asking permission to visit with her first,” Casey said firmly. “You took her the Starlink. Did you give her a phone, too?”

  “Yeah.” Avery sounded just a little grumpy. “One of my old ones. You know what my mom is like; she gives me a new one every other month.”

  “See? I know you. What’s the number for it? I’ll text her. I want to talk to her anyway, and if you’re worried about being weird, twice a day, two days running, odd.”

  “She doesn’t like you. I don’t understand why. Be careful you don’t piss her off more until we figure it out.”

  “That’s one of the things I want to chat with her about,” Casey said with resolve. “There’s no reason for her to hate me. I haven’t done anything. I’m going to try to get to the bottom of it. She’s going to have to at least tolerate me!”