“I think the hardest thing I have to accept is that I’m not the same person I was. I look back at the person I was before, and I don’t even recognize them.” Kendis shrugged. “Everyone back home expects me to be the boy who lived, and I don’t know how to tell them that the person I once was died in the Forbidden Forest that night.”

Her mind healer, Healer Bulwark, was a pretty woman in her late forties or early fifties with wavy salt-and-pepper hair, light copper skin, and a kind smile. She wore a long tunic and a broomstick skirt that reminded Kendis of Professor Trelawney. Healer Bulwark examined the floating parchment, her quick-quotes quill scribbling down every word as it scratched over an ever-expanding scroll.

“This is a common thing that many people in your situation face,” Healer Bulwark said. “You have been through many traumatic issues, not to mention that you have spent most of your adult life here in L.A. The wixen community doesn’t really know the new version of you.”

“I sometimes feel disconnected even with Hermione and Ron,” Kendis quietly confessed.

“It’s perfectly normal to grow apart from your childhood friends,” Healer Bulwark pointed out.

“But I don’t want to. To me, Hermione and Ron are not just simply my friends, but they are my family. My siblings in all but blood.” Kendis turned away from Healer Bulwark and froze.

Standing there was an elderly man with gray hair, copper-brown skin, and dark eyes in the corner. He was not looking at Kendis but at Healer Bulwark with such a forlorn look on his face that she felt a pang in her heart.

“Kendis?”

Kendis snapped her gaze back to Bulwark, who didn’t seem alarmed that there was a man in the corner watching them.

“I—” Kendis turned to the man, but there was no one there.

This was not the first time this had happened. For the last month or so, Kendis had been seeing spectral figures everywhere she went. A woman in the middle of the grocery store, a translucent group of children playing on the street, and a man who looked like he had a gunshot wound in his chest, blood splattered on his white T-shirt.

“Are you alright?” Healer Bulwark asked.

Kendis resisted the urge to look back at the corner and did her best to smile, even though she knew that Healer Bulwark would see right through her. “I’m fine.”

Healer Bulwark didn’t say anything, but Kendis could tell by the look on her face that she didn’t believe her.

“Let’s talk about your husband.” Healer Bulwark changed the subject.

“What about Tony?”

“How are your friends taking the news of your marriage? You haven’t really talked much about how this new change in your life is affecting you.”

“They have largely accepted him,” Kendis shrugged. “I think their trip up here a few weeks ago really made them see how serious the both of us are about each other. I think they were doubtful for a moment there. I also think seeing how supportive he has been through this helps.”

“And the rest of your friends and family?”

Kendis sighed. “I didn’t tell Tony, but I got a Howler from Mrs. Weasley.” She winced as she recalled how Mrs. Weasley shouted at her about how irresponsible Kendis was being and how disappointed she was in Kendis for getting married without her.

Kendis was a grown-ass adult, but Mrs. Weasley still managed to make her feel like a scrawny eleven-year-old.

Kendis shook her head and pushed that thought aside. “As for the rest of my friends? They are reserving their judgment until they meet him.” Kendis shrugged.

“Do you plan on taking him home soon?”

Kendis nodded. “Yeah, Tony is going on a business trip in a few days, but I think we should set something up for next month or so.”

“And what about Tony?” Healer Bulwark asked. “How is he handling being married? It must be such a big change for both of you to be married, especially after being single for so long.”

Kendis looked down at her engagement ring sitting on top of the new gold wedding band Tony bought for her a few weeks ago. Getting used to prioritizing someone other than herself was still so strange. They had only decided to take their marriage seriously a month ago, and that was if you added the month they had been at odds before that.

They had been married for such a short time, but at the same time, it felt longer to her than that.

“I can admit I am still adjusting. I split my time between the shop and his house. And it’s so bizarre to wake up most mornings with Tony beside me, but I like it. It’s a relief to feel Tony so close, and I don’t take it for granted.”

“Do you plan on moving in with him soon?” Healer Bulwark asked as the parchment grew another inch.

Kendis shrugged. “I don’t know.”

She loved Tony, but Kendis had spent a decade making a place for herself, and Kendis was uncomfortable in Tony’s home. She felt like something would break if she breathed too hard on it. His futuristic home felt more like a showpiece than an actual home. The only place that felt like Tony’s was his workshop.

Besides, Kendis hated that her magic use was so restricted there. She missed having the freedom to do magic whenever she wanted to. And Tony could do so much in the warded room that she made for him at her house. Kendis made a room that was not only protected from magical interference but was completely free of magic. Tony had installed self-sustaining generators in the room to power his work setup since there was no way to install electricity, and Kendis’ appliances were magical in origin.

“We are compromising, and it’s hard to navigate a marriage between a Muggle and a wixen,” Kendis reluctantly said. “But Tony is worth it, and I’m willing to do the work to make our marriage work.” Besides, her friend Seamus was the son of a wizard and a Muggle, and his parents had been together for thirty years.

“Marriage is hard,” the healer replied. “It’s all about compromise and learning what battles to fight. But you have to remember that you and Tony have only been married for such a short time, and that you have to cut both of you some slack. With time, grace, and communication, things will get better. But you have to be honest with Tony.”

Kendis bit her lip because that was the biggest problem.

She hadn’t been completely honest with Tony. Not about his possible future role in The Great Crucible, not about the predestined business, or accepting her role as Master of Death.

She hadn’t told Tony not because she didn’t trust him. Kendis trusted him with not only her life but her heart. But this was so much bigger than Kendis or Tony. Would this be too much for Tony? Would he be angry? Or disappointed in her?

Kendis felt her heart squeeze as she thought about the possibilities.

“And that is all of our time for today,” Healer Bulwark said as she banished the quill and rolled up the scroll. “Your homework is to talk to your husband. Tell him what you need and listen to what he needs. I’ll see you next week.”

Kendis sighed in relief and stood up. “Thank you, Healer.”

Healer Bulwark gave her a small smile and waved as Kendis turned and walked out of her office. Kendis slipped out of the lobby area and into El Caldero proper.

The Los Angeles wizarding district was a huge mall made of white , pristine walls and glass, and with endless floors. As she walked past Healer Bulwark’s private practice and across the gleaming marble floors, her thoughts kept going back to Healer Bulwark’s words and the man she saw in the office.

Am I going completely mental?

Kendis sighed as she walked past the shops, restaurants, and offices and down the magical escalator to the ground floor. She would normally take time to wander the mall and pick up some new books or potion ingredients, but she wanted to go home.

Well, today home was at Tony’s Malibu mansion. Alke was already there under JARVIS’s watchful eye. Her dog was either playing in the room Tony set aside for her or making a mess of his expensive shoes. It was yet another change she had to get used to. When Alke first came to the mansion, her baby had been so cautious.

The mansion was much bigger than her ranch-style house that sat across from Enchanted Engines. Even though Tony had been wary of Alke at first, the ridiculous man had decided to bribe her with her own enclosed patio, a luxurious dog bed, and all the expensive treats.

And in return, Kendis would always go down to the workshop and spend time with the bots. If Alke was her baby, then the bots were Tony’s kids, and she was determined to spend time with them and get to know them.

Kendis would always go down into Tony’s workshop when Tony had to go into the office and play with them. U, Dum-E, and Butterfingers loved when she played ball with them, and she had taken to reading books to them.

The three bots looked the same, but Kendis managed to tell them apart by their personalities. Dum-E had the energy of a golden retriever mixed with a tragic Victorian orphan. They were easily excitable but got sad at the smallest correction.

Butterfingers, Kendis thought, was like a toddler with a criminal record. For all that Dum-E got the blame, Butterfingers was just as clumsy as their sibling. But instead of getting sad, Butterfingers often played like they were innocent. It wasn’t like they were malicious about it, but Kendis was pretty sure that Butterfingers was convinced that “learning from mistakes” meant collecting as many mistakes as possible.

U, on the other hand, was shy and was often overlooked because Dum-E and Butterfingers had such loud personalities. They were the most careful but also the most judgmental. The weight of U’s pauses was a silent language all their own. Kendis once witnessed Tony debate with U for at least an hour, and Kendis nearly laughed herself sick when he actually lost an argument based on U’s judgmental pauses alone.

For the bots being advanced A.I., they all had the mentality of four-year-olds, and so her favorite activity with them was reading to them. She would head to her library and check out new books to read. Most of them were about good robots because the bots deserved books that made them feel a little less alone.

Over the month and a half since she started visiting the mansion on a regular basis, Kendis read Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman, Clink by Kelly DiPucchio (which she would go to her grave before she admitted to crying over) Doug Unplugged by Dan Yaccarino, and The Wild Robot by Peter Brown.

Kendis had just picked up The Robot and the Bluebird by David Lucas from the library the other day, and she couldn’t wait to read it to them. With that in mind, Kendis quickly made her way to El Caldero’s Apparition point and Apparated to her house.

Kendis decided to take her black GMC Sierra 1500 Elevation that she bought for trips where she had to haul Alke or bikes around the city. She shot her Kawasaki ZX-6R a longing look. It had been weeks since she had a proper ride, but life had been too hectic for her to get time to ride.

With a sigh, she got in her truck and started the long drive to Malibu. It would have been simpler to Apparate to the mansion, but with as much scrutiny as she was under, Kendis decided the longer way was much safer.

The traffic up the 405 was hell as usual, and Kendis gave a sigh of relief as she made her way through the long way around that led to Tony’s workshop entrance. She normally would just go through the front, but there were probably paparazzi camped in front of the mansion’s gates.

Kendis parked right next to Tony’s white Audi R8, grabbed her tote bag, and got out. The robots all came out of their charging stations and rolled over to her excitedly.

Kendis laughed and patted each bot on their heads. “Hello, Dum-E, Butterfingers, and U.”

U gave a soft whine and poked her softly in hello with its robotic fingers.

“Hello, Kendis,” JARVIS greeted her.

Kendis looked up to one of the cameras in the ceiling and waved.

“Hello, JARVIS, how are you today?” Kendis asked with a smile.

“Good afternoon, Kendis,” JARVIS replied. “I am operating within optimal parameters, though Sir appears to be attempting to reclassify coffee as a food group again, so my day has not been without its trials.”

“Typical Tony,” Kendis snorted. “And how is my baby doing?”

“Alke is asleep upstairs in her room.”

“Oh, that’s good. That gives me just enough time to read to the bots.” Kendis said with a smile, and the bots swung their arms and beeped excitedly. She took the book out of her tote bag and showed them the cover. The cover had an illustration of a block-shaped red robot carefully holding a blue bird in its hands.

“I got a new book today!”

Dum-E actually spun in circles, and Kendis had to stop Butterfingers from bumping into the Audi. U poked her again as if they were telling Kendis to get on with it.

Kendis laughed as she walked over to the sitting area and sat down on Tony’s comfortable leather sofa. She opened the book and held it up so all the bots could see it.

“There was once a robot with a broken heart,” Kendis read out loud. “Who thought he was no better than rubbish. Then one winter’s day, a Bluebird appeared, fighting against the freezing wind, and together they set off on a memorable journey.”

And as she read to the bots, who were fast becoming dear to her heart, and her dog slept upstairs, Kendis was finally able to push aside the stress of the press conference, her session with Healer Bulwark, and the mystery of the ghostly specters. She just allowed herself to feel the comfort of JARVIS’s silent presence and let the eager attention of the bots soothe her weary spirit.