said, aiming my words at the couch, trying to keep them as calm and even as possible.
Sure enough, the sound of the tiny hand vacuum resulted in more whining from foxy. It took three times filling it up and dumping the result into the box to make the entryway passable. The box was more full than it had started, and I tried not to think about how much of Dad was actual dust now.
There was still a fine layer of grime on the whole entry, so I grabbed a rag, wet it, and wiped down every surface I could.
Frankly, the sparkling result was as clean as the entryway had been in decades.
I took the box with Dad in it and found a new spot, on the mantel, for it to reside temporarily.
Just one problem left.
I pulled out my phone, wallet, and everything else in my pockets to set on the righted, cleaned entryway table. That was when I got a look at the card the woman from the shop had given me. Dr. Aliyah Almasi, dead mage. Available for classes, speaking, and containment of the dead.
She’d been offering to banish Dad.
That was when something occurred to me. I dug through my wallet for where I’d put the card from Mr. Emery at the funeral home. Same phone number.
Memorial services and banishment. Apparently the doctor was a full-service dead mage. It did make more sense for a dead mage to see ghosts than a social one like me.
I’d just been thinking about asking Beez if Mal could help, and this dropped into my lap; it was like serendipity. Like foxy coming into my life right when I needed someone.
Ah crap, foxy.
I stuffed the cards into my wallet and put it back on the table, then headed for the couch.
“Hey, buddy, how you doing down there? Can you get out on your own?” A wet, dusty nose poked out from beneath the ancient behemoth of a sofa, and there was another whine. I ran a finger along the top of his nose, since it was all I could get to. “I’m not mad, foxy. Promise. We just need to get you cleaned up.”
The nose pulled back at that, and a moment later, he burrowed out from the back of the sofa. He kept low to the floor, head down, but looked longingly toward the bathroom.
I wanted to pet him, but sure enough, he had ash embedded in his fur. “It’s a good thing you like showers, bud, or we’d be in trouble. Showertime, bud.” I pushed up to my feet and turned toward the hall. Like a furry red snake, foxy slunk along the floor without pulling himself up to his usual height, making a beeline for the bathroom.
“Pretty sure he thought you were gonna toss him out on his ass,” Gideon said, coming up next to me.
I looked over at him, then up. And up. Fuck me the man was enormous. I could almost feel the phantom heat from his body. I suppressed a shiver and looked back toward the bathroom. “In the two days I’ve known him, he’s been better to me than my father was in eighteen years. Combined. Foxy’s only leaving if he wants to. Or I guess if his mage comes looking for him.”
Gideon scoffed and rolled his eyes, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he made a shooing motion toward the bathroom. “Go ahead and get yourselves cleaned up. I’ll be waiting in the bedroom.”
I couldn’t suppress the shiver that caused, so I turned and followed foxy into the bathroom. Another night of Gideon sitting in my bed, telling me about what it was like to “touch the convergence” sounded like an exquisite sort of torture.
I wondered if foxy would look the other way while I rubbed one out in the shower.
Chapter Nine
Gideon was the liveliest of us as we walked down the street the next morning, and I couldn’t even tell him to cut it out. Foxy kept glaring up at me, like it had been my fault he fell asleep on my phone and woken to the alarm in his ear.
I mean, yeah, I probably should have made sure it was on the nightstand and not the bed. Also, I had been the one to set the alarm loud and annoying.
Poor guy had woken with a yelp, jumping straight up onto his feet and immediately tumbling into me like a drunken frat boy, thereby assuring we were both well and truly up for the