Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18
The sign on the shop door is flipped to Closed but the place is packed with people. Lucas reaches out a hand to open the door for me, but I tug his sleeve, stopping him.
Inside that store is everyone I love, minus one: Nana. She is there, not asleep, but dead. I will never see her or hear her voice again, never be able to ask her advice or push her away and pretend I don’t want it. There won’t be anyone to take my side against Miranda, to let me know - kindly - when I’m being a bitch. Most of all, the one person who provided me with pure, unconditional love is gone forever. I can’t go in there. Not just yet.
Lucas looks down, understanding. He takes my hand and leads me to a frozen bench a few yards up the block by the bus stop.
“I’m sorry about your grandmother,” he says, gently rubbing my cold fingers.
I nod, the tears and snot starting to flow again. “I just...I feel like as long as I don’t go in there, it won’t be real, you know? Like maybe the vision I had was just a mix up.”
“Do you think that is truly the case?”
He clearly does not.
I shake my head. “I don’t feel her. We always had a connection, “ I laugh, “which is why I was always in trouble. There was nothing I could do that she wouldn’t know about the second I’d done it. It was kind of a pain, but kind of comforting, too.”
“It must be nice to know that someone is looking out for you.” Not an experience that Lucas has had much of in his long life.
“Yes, Watcher, it’s not nearly as bad as I pretend it is. And now…”
“And now, you will use everything she has taught you to become the person you are meant to be. Using all of your grandmother’s knowledge and her example, you are ready to go out into the world as a truly extraordinary Seeker. It is exactly the way of a parent and a child. The parent provides all the lessons she can until, one day, the child is ready to go out on her own. It is, I have heard, quite scary for everyone involved. But it is part of life.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready.” I feel like, in spite of all the power, in spite of all the things I’ve done today, I’m still going to mess up, still going to disappoint.
“On the contrary,” Lucas says. “You have proven yourself quite ready. And you’re not alone,” he adds. “You have your aunt who, in spite of appearances, loves you. You have Nick, Graham...me. If you wish, of course.”
I cover the two hands he has wrapped around mine with my free one. “Of course I wish it. I brought you back to life, didn’t I?”
He lifts my hand to his lips. “Indeed you did. So now we go forward, all of us, with the memories of your grandmother in your heart, making you who you are, serving as your compass.”
“I guess all that watching makes you pretty philosophical,” I tease.
“I have had many, many years to formulate my philosophies. So what say you? Shall we go inside? I will be by your side, as always, for as long as you wish.”
I’m about to say, “Let’s go,” when the door flies open. Nick steps out, his little sister, Nadia, pushing past him to run at me. I scoop her and her cupcake up and walk over to my friend.
“Tristan.” That’s it. Tears shine in his eyes.
I hand Nadia off to a surprised Lucas who deposits her on his hip and heads to the store.
“That was some crazy shit,” he says, the tears falling now.
“Right? You can’t say I’m boring.”
He grabs me in a bear hug.
“I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you about all that. It happened so fast, I didn’t have time. I should have, though,” I cry into his shoulder. “I put you in danger - and Antonio. God, is he going to kill me? Does he still want to talk to you?”
He laughs into the top of my head. “Of course he still wants to talk to me; I’m fabulous.”
I laugh. “Still, I have to make it up to you…”
“Damn right, you do. But maybe I’ll cut you a little break. You did put me and Antonio together,” he offers.
I step back and wipe my face on my sleeve. “You would have managed that on your own.” I glance over his shoulder toward the shop. “Who’s in there?”
“Who isn’t in there, you mean?” He drops his eyes and takes my hands. “I’m so sorry, Tristan. About Nana. It’s just…” he trails off. “Was it that guy? Eoin?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“But your grandmother knew about all that, no?”
“She did, just not the part where she would become collateral damage.”
Nick smiles down at me. “Nana knew what she was about, Tristan. I’m sure her only regret is leaving you guys. And you’ll always have her,” he pokes a finger into my chest, “right here.”
I nod and clear my throat before I can start crying again.
“Time to face the music, I guess.”
“Won’t be the first time,” Nick says, taking my hand.
“Won’t be the last,” I add.
The two of us head back to the store.
“By the way,” he says, stopping me. “The aunts are inside.” He gives a fake shudder. Nick is totally freaked out by my grandmother’s sisters.
I roll my eyes. “Of course they are.”
The store is absolutely packed. Nick’s family is there. Antonio is there. The kids from the hive are there. Jannelis is curled up in a ball on a sofa in the corner. And, in addition to the aunts, Miranda and Graham are waiting for me. Everyone is holding some kind of hot beverage, although I’m fairly sure my aunt’s mug holds straight up alcohol.
It seems the aunts have pulled some hocus pocus and made everyone believe that we were all at a rave in a warehouse, a warehouse that blew up after a gas explosion. They are all more than a little bit dazed and totally happy to still be alive. Mostly, with the exception of Nick and Antonio, no one’s memories of the details is too sharp.
The aunts, dressed like they’re headed to The Met, sit around some pushed together tables with teacups and scones in front of them. They nod at me as I pass. Somehow I think we will be having a chat in the not so distant future, but there is Miranda to deal with first.
From the looks of her, I can’t tell if she is furious with me for letting Nana die or happy I’m not dead. Her aura would tell me, but I steadfastly refuse to read it, the same way I hope she never reads mine.
Lucas accompanies me on the long walk to her side.
Graham immediately steps forward and wraps me in a hug. “So happy to have you home,” he says, squeezing. He steps back and turns to Miranda who is still frozen.
She raises an eyebrow and drops it again. “If I tell you how happy I am to see you, will I have to hear about it forever?” she finally asks.
“Did you say something? I didn’t hear you.”
The corner of her mouth lifts in a grin. “Nice work not screwing up.” It’s as close to “Great job!” as I’m ever going to get, but it doesn’t matter. I know what she means.
“And?” Now that I can destroy Miranda with a flick of the wrist, I’m feeling courageous.
“And I’m glad you’re not dead. Speaking of which, the aunts say you killed that son of a bitch?”
“I did. But…” But if I listen to him, he isn’t the one I should be after. The real person pulling the strings is my mother. The door opens and a couple of parents come in to collect their definitely kidnapped, nearly killed teenagers. They utter thanks and goodbyes and disappear into the Sunday afternoon crowd of shoppers.
“We need to talk.” I grab my aunt by her the sleeve of her immaculate cream colored silk blouse with my filthy, bloodstained hand and tug her into the kitchen.
Yoriko and Hector rush forward to simultaneously hug me, scold me for running off to a rave, and offer their condolences on the death of my grandmother. The two of them aren’t totally up on everything we do here, but they know we are special and have never asked questions - at least not to us. After more hugs and a few tears, they head off to the dining room to make sure the aunts are OK.
“Miranda, I need to ask you something and you have to answer me truthfully. And just so you know, I don’t think you could lie to me without my knowing anymore. A lot of things changed in that place.”
She nods. “No doubt. So ask away, niece. I will answer if I can.”
“Just as I was about to...eliminate the Ripper, he told me something. He told me that he wasn’t running things over there, that there was someone else…”
My aunt leans back against the work table, folding her arms across her chest. “You don’t think he was just trying to mess with you?”
“That’s why I’m asking you. I mean, he knew I was going to kill him. It seemed like he was saying it more to leave me with something to think about than to save his life.”
“And did he say where you could find this person?”
“He didn’t. Just that there were others more powerful than he was, and someone who was above them all, calling the shots.”
I focus on Miranda, looking below the surface, checking to see if she is trying to hide anything from me. It goes against our agreement not to pry, but there’s no room for agreements now, not after everything that has happened.
Miranda’s eyes flick to mine. She knows I’m holding something back.
“Out with it, Tristan. What are you getting at?”
“He did say who it was, though.”
Miranda frowns. “Who? Someone we know? Please God, tell me it’s one of the aunts. I’ve been dying to blast those…”
As much as I appreciate her tirade, I cut her off. “He said it was my mother.”
Miranda physically doubles over like all the air has been knocked out of her. She smoothes back her perfect hair, shaking her head gently.
“No,” she says. Every nerve in her body is tight, waiting to spring. “That’s not possible,” she continues.
“How can you be sure?” I push her closer to the breaking point.
“Because she is dead, Tristan. Remember?” Your mother is dead. With your father. This isn’t possible.”
Her hands clench and unclench at her side.
“Did you see her…” I’m hurting Miranda right now and as much as there have been times where that would have made me happy, it doesn’t now. Still; I need to know. “Did you see her body?”
She stares at the floor. “No,” she finally answers without looking at me. “I didn’t. We didn’t. They told us the car had gone over the railing and exploded at the bottom of the cliff. The fire was too much for the bodies. There were some skeletal remains. They identified them using that.”
“Which a truly powerful Seeker - Ripper - could have manipulated.”
Miranda finally looks at me, green eyes flashing. “Tristan, this is crazy. He was just messing with your head.”
I hold her gaze. “I don’t think so, Miranda. I’ve really tried to consider all the possibilities - including that he was just trying to freak me out or convince me to work with them - with my mother. But that building we were in? There was no way Eoin was the one who put that destruction in motion. He was too busy with me. And the energy his death released was pretty powerful, but it also dissipated fairly quickly.”
Miranda’s jaw muscle works as she absorbs what I’m saying, as even she begins to see that this is a real possibility.
“And?” She asks. “What else makes you think this might be true?”
“Honestly, Miranda, his offers were pretty persuasive. Once you have the magic flowing through you full force, it’s easy to get carried away by the feeling of power. You think you’re invincible where once you felt helpless, like you’ve always answered to everyone else’s whims. Suddenly the idea of being in control, of magnifying your power a million times over by combining it with someone else’s, is a very real temptation.”
She looks at me and behind her eyes I see the tiniest bit of fear. My aunt is afraid of me.
“So why didn’t you take them up on their offer?”
“I thought about it - for like thirty seconds - but as you know, I don’t trust anyone. If I don’t trust normal human beings, why would I trust killers? It didn’t seem like a good deal. Somehow I figured they wouldn’t need me anymore one day and I would find myself in the exact position I was trying to avoid. Besides,” I shrug, “you also know that that kind of power is the sort of thing I would want to keep for myself. Why share?”
She snorts. “It does sound like you - and for once, I’m glad you’re so stubborn and suspicious.”
“My mother, then? You guys have never talked about her much. Does this seem like something she would go for?”
Miranda pauses and I suspect she is reluctant to answer. Saying yes would mean badmouthing her only sibling, the sister she has thought was dead for the last sixteen years.
“Your mother was very, well, delicate is the word, I guess. She was sensitive and caring. She never managed to develop our hard shells. You can imagine what kind of problems that caused for her. When someone calls you a witch, you push it down, think of a way to take out some small revenge when you can. Taryn wasn’t like that. Each insult ate away at her just a little bit. That’s why we were so happy when she met your father. He was kind but strong. He fought her battles and protected her. She was his knight in shining armor but…,” she considers. “Nana always suspected the damage had been done. That underneath the happy exterior she presented to us and your dad, she was a very broken woman.”
“Being offered the opportunity to right those wrongs, then?”
“Let’s say I wouldn’t count it out as impossible.” She sighs and rubs a hand over her face. “What are you going to do?” she asks. “Do you think you will look for her?”
And then what? I decapitate my formerly dead mother? I’m not sure there is enough therapy in the world to fix that.
“I don’t know,” I answer. “I haven’t had time to think about it yet. I wanted to check in with you first. Then I have to discuss it with Lucas.”
She raises her eyebrows. “Lucas? Is he sticking around?”
I can feel my face getting hot again, a lopsided grin breaking out in spite of myself.
“Oh good lord. Don’t tell me you and the Watcher have fallen for one another.”
“I saved his life,” I try explaining. “That’s one of those relationship building events, don’t you think?”
She rolls her eyes. “And when did he develop an aura?”
“I may have shared my blood - to bring him back from the dead.”
Miranda’s face goes even whiter than her normally snowy complexion. “You what?”
“He was dead. Now he is alive.”
“Tristan, I...that’s not natural. You can’t just bring people back from the dead. You don’t undo their destiny.”
Something twists in the pit of my stomach as she articulates the thing I have been holding in the back of my mind.
“Well, I have,” I state. “And I guess we will all learn to live with the consequences. In the meantime, this consequence will also be living here with us.”
“Not in your room, he’s not,” Miranda says. She stretches herself out to remind me that she has about four inches on me, but I’m not that easily intimidated anymore.
“He will stay,” I respond, straightening myself up, “where I decide he stays. Which,” I add, “will be the couch for now. In the meantime, you should try to suppress your own aura, because he seems to be able to read ours, as well.”
“Wonderful,” she says. “Now let’s get rid of the aunts and figure out the next steps.”
The sign on the shop door is flipped to Closed but the place is packed with people. Lucas reaches out a hand to open the door for me, but I tug his sleeve, stopping him.
Inside that store is everyone I love, minus one: Nana. She is there, not asleep, but dead. I will never see her or hear her voice again, never be able to ask her advice or push her away and pretend I don’t want it. There won’t be anyone to take my side against Miranda, to let me know - kindly - when I’m being a bitch. Most of all, the one person who provided me with pure, unconditional love is gone forever. I can’t go in there. Not just yet.
Lucas looks down, understanding. He takes my hand and leads me to a frozen bench a few yards up the block by the bus stop.
“I’m sorry about your grandmother,” he says, gently rubbing my cold fingers.
I nod, the tears and snot starting to flow again. “I just...I feel like as long as I don’t go in there, it won’t be real, you know? Like maybe the vision I had was just a mix up.”
“Do you think that is truly the case?”
He clearly does not.
I shake my head. “I don’t feel her. We always had a connection, “ I laugh, “which is why I was always in trouble. There was nothing I could do that she wouldn’t know about the second I’d done it. It was kind of a pain, but kind of comforting, too.”
“It must be nice to know that someone is looking out for you.” Not an experience that Lucas has had much of in his long life.
“Yes, Watcher, it’s not nearly as bad as I pretend it is. And now…”
“And now, you will use everything she has taught you to become the person you are meant to be. Using all of your grandmother’s knowledge and her example, you are ready to go out into the world as a truly extraordinary Seeker. It is exactly the way of a parent and a child. The parent provides all the lessons she can until, one day, the child is ready to go out on her own. It is, I have heard, quite scary for everyone involved. But it is part of life.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready.” I feel like, in spite of all the power, in spite of all the things I’ve done today, I’m still going to mess up, still going to disappoint.
“On the contrary,” Lucas says. “You have proven yourself quite ready. And you’re not alone,” he adds. “You have your aunt who, in spite of appearances, loves you. You have Nick, Graham...me. If you wish, of course.”
I cover the two hands he has wrapped around mine with my free one. “Of course I wish it. I brought you back to life, didn’t I?”
He lifts my hand to his lips. “Indeed you did. So now we go forward, all of us, with the memories of your grandmother in your heart, making you who you are, serving as your compass.”
“I guess all that watching makes you pretty philosophical,” I tease.
“I have had many, many years to formulate my philosophies. So what say you? Shall we go inside? I will be by your side, as always, for as long as you wish.”
I’m about to say, “Let’s go,” when the door flies open. Nick steps out, his little sister, Nadia, pushing past him to run at me. I scoop her and her cupcake up and walk over to my friend.
“Tristan.” That’s it. Tears shine in his eyes.
I hand Nadia off to a surprised Lucas who deposits her on his hip and heads to the store.
“That was some crazy shit,” he says, the tears falling now.
“Right? You can’t say I’m boring.”
He grabs me in a bear hug.
“I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you about all that. It happened so fast, I didn’t have time. I should have, though,” I cry into his shoulder. “I put you in danger - and Antonio. God, is he going to kill me? Does he still want to talk to you?”
He laughs into the top of my head. “Of course he still wants to talk to me; I’m fabulous.”
I laugh. “Still, I have to make it up to you…”
“Damn right, you do. But maybe I’ll cut you a little break. You did put me and Antonio together,” he offers.
I step back and wipe my face on my sleeve. “You would have managed that on your own.” I glance over his shoulder toward the shop. “Who’s in there?”
“Who isn’t in there, you mean?” He drops his eyes and takes my hands. “I’m so sorry, Tristan. About Nana. It’s just…” he trails off. “Was it that guy? Eoin?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“But your grandmother knew about all that, no?”
“She did, just not the part where she would become collateral damage.”
Nick smiles down at me. “Nana knew what she was about, Tristan. I’m sure her only regret is leaving you guys. And you’ll always have her,” he pokes a finger into my chest, “right here.”
I nod and clear my throat before I can start crying again.
“Time to face the music, I guess.”
“Won’t be the first time,” Nick says, taking my hand.
“Won’t be the last,” I add.
The two of us head back to the store.
“By the way,” he says, stopping me. “The aunts are inside.” He gives a fake shudder. Nick is totally freaked out by my grandmother’s sisters.
I roll my eyes. “Of course they are.”
The store is absolutely packed. Nick’s family is there. Antonio is there. The kids from the hive are there. Jannelis is curled up in a ball on a sofa in the corner. And, in addition to the aunts, Miranda and Graham are waiting for me. Everyone is holding some kind of hot beverage, although I’m fairly sure my aunt’s mug holds straight up alcohol.
It seems the aunts have pulled some hocus pocus and made everyone believe that we were all at a rave in a warehouse, a warehouse that blew up after a gas explosion. They are all more than a little bit dazed and totally happy to still be alive. Mostly, with the exception of Nick and Antonio, no one’s memories of the details is too sharp.
The aunts, dressed like they’re headed to The Met, sit around some pushed together tables with teacups and scones in front of them. They nod at me as I pass. Somehow I think we will be having a chat in the not so distant future, but there is Miranda to deal with first.
From the looks of her, I can’t tell if she is furious with me for letting Nana die or happy I’m not dead. Her aura would tell me, but I steadfastly refuse to read it, the same way I hope she never reads mine.
Lucas accompanies me on the long walk to her side.
Graham immediately steps forward and wraps me in a hug. “So happy to have you home,” he says, squeezing. He steps back and turns to Miranda who is still frozen.
She raises an eyebrow and drops it again. “If I tell you how happy I am to see you, will I have to hear about it forever?” she finally asks.
“Did you say something? I didn’t hear you.”
The corner of her mouth lifts in a grin. “Nice work not screwing up.” It’s as close to “Great job!” as I’m ever going to get, but it doesn’t matter. I know what she means.
“And?” Now that I can destroy Miranda with a flick of the wrist, I’m feeling courageous.
“And I’m glad you’re not dead. Speaking of which, the aunts say you killed that son of a bitch?”
“I did. But…” But if I listen to him, he isn’t the one I should be after. The real person pulling the strings is my mother. The door opens and a couple of parents come in to collect their definitely kidnapped, nearly killed teenagers. They utter thanks and goodbyes and disappear into the Sunday afternoon crowd of shoppers.
“We need to talk.” I grab my aunt by her the sleeve of her immaculate cream colored silk blouse with my filthy, bloodstained hand and tug her into the kitchen.
Yoriko and Hector rush forward to simultaneously hug me, scold me for running off to a rave, and offer their condolences on the death of my grandmother. The two of them aren’t totally up on everything we do here, but they know we are special and have never asked questions - at least not to us. After more hugs and a few tears, they head off to the dining room to make sure the aunts are OK.
“Miranda, I need to ask you something and you have to answer me truthfully. And just so you know, I don’t think you could lie to me without my knowing anymore. A lot of things changed in that place.”
She nods. “No doubt. So ask away, niece. I will answer if I can.”
“Just as I was about to...eliminate the Ripper, he told me something. He told me that he wasn’t running things over there, that there was someone else…”
My aunt leans back against the work table, folding her arms across her chest. “You don’t think he was just trying to mess with you?”
“That’s why I’m asking you. I mean, he knew I was going to kill him. It seemed like he was saying it more to leave me with something to think about than to save his life.”
“And did he say where you could find this person?”
“He didn’t. Just that there were others more powerful than he was, and someone who was above them all, calling the shots.”
I focus on Miranda, looking below the surface, checking to see if she is trying to hide anything from me. It goes against our agreement not to pry, but there’s no room for agreements now, not after everything that has happened.
Miranda’s eyes flick to mine. She knows I’m holding something back.
“Out with it, Tristan. What are you getting at?”
“He did say who it was, though.”
Miranda frowns. “Who? Someone we know? Please God, tell me it’s one of the aunts. I’ve been dying to blast those…”
As much as I appreciate her tirade, I cut her off. “He said it was my mother.”
Miranda physically doubles over like all the air has been knocked out of her. She smoothes back her perfect hair, shaking her head gently.
“No,” she says. Every nerve in her body is tight, waiting to spring. “That’s not possible,” she continues.
“How can you be sure?” I push her closer to the breaking point.
“Because she is dead, Tristan. Remember?” Your mother is dead. With your father. This isn’t possible.”
Her hands clench and unclench at her side.
“Did you see her…” I’m hurting Miranda right now and as much as there have been times where that would have made me happy, it doesn’t now. Still; I need to know. “Did you see her body?”
She stares at the floor. “No,” she finally answers without looking at me. “I didn’t. We didn’t. They told us the car had gone over the railing and exploded at the bottom of the cliff. The fire was too much for the bodies. There were some skeletal remains. They identified them using that.”
“Which a truly powerful Seeker - Ripper - could have manipulated.”
Miranda finally looks at me, green eyes flashing. “Tristan, this is crazy. He was just messing with your head.”
I hold her gaze. “I don’t think so, Miranda. I’ve really tried to consider all the possibilities - including that he was just trying to freak me out or convince me to work with them - with my mother. But that building we were in? There was no way Eoin was the one who put that destruction in motion. He was too busy with me. And the energy his death released was pretty powerful, but it also dissipated fairly quickly.”
Miranda’s jaw muscle works as she absorbs what I’m saying, as even she begins to see that this is a real possibility.
“And?” She asks. “What else makes you think this might be true?”
“Honestly, Miranda, his offers were pretty persuasive. Once you have the magic flowing through you full force, it’s easy to get carried away by the feeling of power. You think you’re invincible where once you felt helpless, like you’ve always answered to everyone else’s whims. Suddenly the idea of being in control, of magnifying your power a million times over by combining it with someone else’s, is a very real temptation.”
She looks at me and behind her eyes I see the tiniest bit of fear. My aunt is afraid of me.
“So why didn’t you take them up on their offer?”
“I thought about it - for like thirty seconds - but as you know, I don’t trust anyone. If I don’t trust normal human beings, why would I trust killers? It didn’t seem like a good deal. Somehow I figured they wouldn’t need me anymore one day and I would find myself in the exact position I was trying to avoid. Besides,” I shrug, “you also know that that kind of power is the sort of thing I would want to keep for myself. Why share?”
She snorts. “It does sound like you - and for once, I’m glad you’re so stubborn and suspicious.”
“My mother, then? You guys have never talked about her much. Does this seem like something she would go for?”
Miranda pauses and I suspect she is reluctant to answer. Saying yes would mean badmouthing her only sibling, the sister she has thought was dead for the last sixteen years.
“Your mother was very, well, delicate is the word, I guess. She was sensitive and caring. She never managed to develop our hard shells. You can imagine what kind of problems that caused for her. When someone calls you a witch, you push it down, think of a way to take out some small revenge when you can. Taryn wasn’t like that. Each insult ate away at her just a little bit. That’s why we were so happy when she met your father. He was kind but strong. He fought her battles and protected her. She was his knight in shining armor but…,” she considers. “Nana always suspected the damage had been done. That underneath the happy exterior she presented to us and your dad, she was a very broken woman.”
“Being offered the opportunity to right those wrongs, then?”
“Let’s say I wouldn’t count it out as impossible.” She sighs and rubs a hand over her face. “What are you going to do?” she asks. “Do you think you will look for her?”
And then what? I decapitate my formerly dead mother? I’m not sure there is enough therapy in the world to fix that.
“I don’t know,” I answer. “I haven’t had time to think about it yet. I wanted to check in with you first. Then I have to discuss it with Lucas.”
She raises her eyebrows. “Lucas? Is he sticking around?”
I can feel my face getting hot again, a lopsided grin breaking out in spite of myself.
“Oh good lord. Don’t tell me you and the Watcher have fallen for one another.”
“I saved his life,” I try explaining. “That’s one of those relationship building events, don’t you think?”
She rolls her eyes. “And when did he develop an aura?”
“I may have shared my blood - to bring him back from the dead.”
Miranda’s face goes even whiter than her normally snowy complexion. “You what?”
“He was dead. Now he is alive.”
“Tristan, I...that’s not natural. You can’t just bring people back from the dead. You don’t undo their destiny.”
Something twists in the pit of my stomach as she articulates the thing I have been holding in the back of my mind.
“Well, I have,” I state. “And I guess we will all learn to live with the consequences. In the meantime, this consequence will also be living here with us.”
“Not in your room, he’s not,” Miranda says. She stretches herself out to remind me that she has about four inches on me, but I’m not that easily intimidated anymore.
“He will stay,” I respond, straightening myself up, “where I decide he stays. Which,” I add, “will be the couch for now. In the meantime, you should try to suppress your own aura, because he seems to be able to read ours, as well.”
“Wonderful,” she says. “Now let’s get rid of the aunts and figure out the next steps.”
Comments
Post a Comment