Free Darksider: Reveler Series 3 by Erin Kellison Page B

papers and an open laptop. Looked like the nerve center for her new jewelry biz.
    The front door opened again behind them, this time with a rush of energy and sound. Smallish kids—Sera had no ability to gauge their ages—ran inside. One was crying, the other was hollering for Gram.
    Harlen grabbed the tearful kid up. “What’s up, sugar?”
    “Cookie.” Looked like some of that cookie was brown mush on the little girl’s chin.
    Two seconds later, Harlen’s sister, Jessica, came in the house. She took one look at Sera—who tried her smile again—then transferred her attention to Harlen. “I was going to chew you out, but this—” she waved toward Sera “—trumps all.”
    Jessica put her arms out for the little girl, who refused to budge and buried her face in Harlen’s neck, slobber notwithstanding. Harlen got all the girls.
    Jessica sighed. “Please don’t spoil her. She’s crying because she ate her cookie. That’s right. Because she got a cookie and ate it.”
    “Give her another one,” Harlen said.
    “No,” his sister answered. “How are you, Sera? What’s with the—” She gestured to the bandage on her forehead.
    “I was clumsy.”
    “Hmm.” And that was the end of the pleasantries. “Are you two a thing, then?”
    Sera blushed. “We’re just barely reconnecting.” But, yeah, she was sticking as close to Harlen as he was to her.
    “Then I’ll need a word with you.” Jessica was smiling, but it was scary. “I’ve had it ready for a long time. Practiced it even. Almost hunted you down, but Harlen said you’d left for New York—”
    Sera was spinning. Why was Jessica so mad at her?
    “Jess,” Harlen cut in. “Stop it. It’s not like that.”
    “If you’re reconnecting , it is like that.”
    Nothing made sense. Not even what Jessica was saying. New York? As in Hyde Park, for culinary School?
    “This is my life,” Harlen said. “Stay out of it.”
    Jessica stepped up to him. “Your life happens to include a family who cares about you. Sucks, but there it is.”
    Sera’s face burned. Her heart was pounding. They all hated her. Like, wow . No one had ever really hated her before. Felt like she was on fire, and covered in acid.
    “Seems like everything is fine here.” Harlen detached the little girl from his neck. The kid bicycled her feet in the air to get back to him but ultimately, had to writhe and suffer in her mom’s grasp instead. “Please apologize to Isabelle for me.”
    Sera felt Harlen take her by the arm and propel her toward the door. She had half a mind to go back and endure whatever Jessica had to say just to find out what she’d done. The breakup had been hard on both of them. They had to understand that much.
    But Harlen had her on the front walk already. She’d get her answers from him just as soon as they were in the car. “Don’t go inside, Pop,” he yelled toward the garage. “Ma and Jess are dangerous. Head to the cabin. Run for the hills.”
     
    ***
     
    Harlen was driving, but he had no idea where to go. He couldn’t take her to his apartment. Per Chimera regulations, his residence had to be unknown to all and secure, so that when he was Darkside working, he wouldn’t be vulnerable while sleeping. So he took the on-ramp to head back to Sera’s place. Everything had been fine at Sera’s place.
    A sideways glance found Sera deep in thought, an expression of consternation on her face. “She said that you told her I’d gone to New York. She had to mean culinary school, right? When we broke up? That was a mutual decision. Did you tell them that I broke up with you?”
    Gah. She wasn’t going to let it go. “No,” he said. “Besides it was years ago. Years.”
    “And you were already gone by the time I left for CIA. So…”
    Fine. This was stupid and unnecessary, but she was going to pick at this until she knew, anyway. He gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white. “I came back.”
    “But you did join the