A Pocket Full of Posies (Book 3)

Chapter Twelve

Finally, I'm free. After my date with Carmen went without a hitch a few days back, Kato and Sefu have deemed it safe enough for me to stop confining myself to the walls of this house. I feel like the family kitten, free to roam now that I've consistently shown my ability to pee inside the litter box, and return home safely after being tentatively left to explore the back garden.

I can't wait to show Annabel the Second around. I've still got to stay near someone with a blessed stone twenty-four seven unless inside the house, but that's fine with me. I suspect Lina played a pretty big part in my release, and like the good Samaritan I am, I've fully committed myself to her therapies and chats I find horrifically intrusive.

In celebration of my freedom, the ghoul patrol and I are all heading out to get sloshed at Ava's family pub. That may be a slight exaggeration. I'm pretty sure my no alcohol rule still stands. I'll try to charm my way around it, but Mosi's working tonight, so I'm not holding out much hope for myself. Maybe I can sneak in a hip flask.

I'm fully aware getting drunk is something I shouldn't want to do in a million years right now, given the whole evil brother who wants to ensalve and/or murder me is on the run thing, but I've been on such a high recently. I thought blocking out the banished voices would require a constant state of conscious effort, but sometimes without even realising I'm doing it, I'm not letting them in.

It's like there's a wall in my mind, one I've envisioned as a literal wall. If I start thinking too much about that wall, then it breaks down, and they start screaming. Similarly, if I don't think about that wall at all, they start screaming. I've got to strike the balance.

I'm hoping it'll eventually become like breathing where my natural state of being is to forget it's even happening, and only when I focus my attention hard enough do I remember it's real. A guy can dream, eh? The banished voices are at a state of incoherent mumbling at the moment, which is tolerable. I don't want to have to worry about that changing at any point tonight, so I'm going to drink some of Chiku's anesthetizer anyway.

It's an uncharacteristically cool evening for springtime, but once we're all huddled inside Ava's little car, I crank down the window. The cool air feels otherworldly against the freshly shaven skin on my face.

"Close the window, it's freezing," Jamie whines from the back of the car.

I ignore him. I lean out of the window ever so slightly and tilt my head back on the headrest. I shut my eyes. The engine revs, and as Ava starts driving, a gentle breeze runs through my hair. As mediocre as it sounds, I've missed shit like this, missed just driving in Ava's car with everyone.

Annabel doesn't fit, so she's going to meet us there, given it was that or the option of cramming herself into the boot. Jamie complains again from the back, but I don't care enough to hear what he actually says. Hell, I've even missed Jamie's constant whining.

I've almost fallen asleep by the time we park up outside Ava's family pub. It's that bit safer than most places in the city given the blessed caves underneath, which I suspect is part of the Medakis' reasoning for letting me have this knees up tonight. We head inside the building, and a wave of nostalgia hits me. It feels like years since I was last here when, in reality, it's been what? A few months?

I'm staring at the walls, the booths, the bar, the beer mats, the everything so intently as we wander inside that I don't register Annabel waiting for us by the bar as we approach it. She shoots me a grin, just as Mosi spots us approaching.

"What can I get you kids?" he asks with his usual big smile.

"Whisky on the rocks," I pipe up in the most casual voice I can muster up. "Annabel will have a Fruit Shoot."