“I made a deal with myself,” he said as he stood just inside the doorway, waiting for me. He didn’t turn my way. “If you still wanted my help, I would accept the magic and a place on your team. I would accept the responsibility to guard and protect you, navigating all the strings attached to this weird house. I decided that if you gave me the honor of choosing me, I would unite this house with the town, and spread out my influence to the surrounding areas. I’d create and run a territory that would help secure you and your home. I decided that I would finally wear the title of alpha, come what may.”
He turned toward me, his large shoulders stretching his white T-shirt and his handsome face showing his grim determination. It was clear he was sacrificing his earlier stance on the magic and this house because I needed him. The guy was as selfless as they came, and if I hadn’t needed him so badly, I would have shooed him out of the Council Room.
I did need him, though. We all needed him—this house, this town, even the tourists. When the crap rolled in, there were very few people who could balance everything effectively and maintain order. Austin was an incredible person and an incredible leader. No matter how many people I summoned, I didn’t think I’d ever find someone better, not with his level of experience. Definitely not with his loyalty and sense of honor. He only demanded of the people he governed what he demanded of himself.
“I am honored you accept,” I whispered, rapidly blinking away the tears clouding my vision. “Thank you.”
He nodded, and his jaw and hands clenched. “The house is trying to make me walk to a specific chair.”
“Oh, wait. Wait a minute!” Mr. Tom said, standing at the door. I hadn’t noticed—he just blended into the scenery at this stage. He was the house’s white noise. “Let me go get the others. Wait, what am I saying—Ivy House, summon the others! It’s happening. Austin Steele is becoming one of us and getting a chair! It’s actually happening!”
“I could’ve lived my whole life without hearing that I was becoming like Earl,” Austin murmured.
Mr. Tom dropped the doll head he was still holding and ran from the room. “Wait for us,” he yelled over his shoulder.
The doll head bounced and rolled toward me, its eyes moving and its stringy red hair flapping around unnaturally.
“No!” I made the door slam, trying to force it out. The edge hit the face and bounced back as if the doll were made of rubber. The head rolled until it was facing me, a little tilted, its eyes staring at me and a sneaky grin on its pink-painted lips. “Gross.”
“I already regret this,” Austin said.
“Ivy House, this isn’t funny!”
Niamh approached the door wearing the black sweats she’d had to order herself, which was probably why they were two sizes too big, and stopped, looking down on the doll head. “What in the… Why is a doll’s head lyin’ around?” She squinted at me. “What’s wrong witch’ye?”
“Throw that thing in the incinerator.” I motioned at the head as Mr. Tom returned carrying a silver tray laden with glasses of champagne.
“Ivy House is taking the piss, is it?” Niamh stepped to the other side of the head and kicked it down the hall. “It seems to have a fascination with rolling doll heads lately.”
“God, I hate dolls,” I said, doing a heebie-jeebies dance. “I don’t actually think your goblin form is worse than the dolls, now that I think about it. At least you know you’re scary—those dolls are masquerading as lifelike babies, and then they come alive and grab knives and attack. It’s just not right.”
“Miss, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re prone to hysterics when it comes to those harmless dolls.” Mr. Tom set down the tray on the small round table by the window, its surface polished and sporting a high shine. “Many of them are cute.”
“Some of them are creepy, though,” Niamh said, walking into the circle.
“Don’t you start,” Mr. Tom said, straightening.
Niamh took a seat in the circle of chairs, the third from the top, the top denoted by a standing, woven flag on a pole that looked centuries old. Mr. Tom took the ninth chair, and when Edgar got there a moment later, his lips turned up in a ghastly grin, he took