Heron Lake Plateau i would swim the deepest, sharkiest oceans to be with you.

He knew she was kidding, but he still reached out to place a paw on her shoulder as though stopping her from getting up and leaving. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I think they'd take the news better if it came from their dearest mother," he teased in kind, but his mind was beginning to turn even as the words left his lips. How would the kids take the news? Would they decide to stay, or would Elwood and Finley have to convince them?

"What do you think they'll say?" he asked. "The kids, I mean. Think they'll be as independent as we want them to be?" Eljay would be the hardest to convince, even though he was the oldest. Tegan and Clover would probably be fine; they were both pretty autonomous, anyway. And he wasn't sure about Tywyll and Cinder, just because they were still relatively young.