After a good twenty minutes of trying--and failing--to get useful information out of Kyton without letting on that I had a problem, it was time for breakfast. We brought the food to the dining room and set the table. Gold-edged mirrors lined the walls, reflecting light off the chandelier and making the long room feel more like a place for dancing than eating.
I wished it was just a place for dancing. Then we wouldn't have our usual family breakfast in it, and maybe my hands wouldn't be shaking. Punishments were usually doled out during dinner, but I'd skipped it last night. I was in for a world of hurt at breakfast. At least Mom still didn't know I was learning magic, but leaving the estate would still get me into serious trouble.
What if she didn't know about that? Dad had seemed kind of sympathetic yesterday, so maybe he hadn't told her about my little expedition.
Alice strolled in the dining room, grinning. My 13-year-old sister might've been adopted, but she was a carbon copy of Mom. Not in looks--she was as blond and petite as Mom was dark-haired and curvy; rather, they had identical views on magic. I guessed it kind of made sense because Alice was a nomahu, but she always took things a step too far. It was like she loved watching me get in trouble. One way or another, seeing her grin was never a good sign.
"What?" I asked.
She shrugged and went to the far end of the table. Like she did every breakfast and dinner, she counted three chairs from the end and sat in the fourth. And like always, she stared at Kyton as if he was the only guy on Earth. It was embarrassing enough when I hadn't talked to him much. Now that I knew him a little better, it was even worse. Part of me wanted to say, "He's way too old for you. And by the way, he's an Otherworlder."
But I didn't, of course. That would've been unfair to Kyton. He'd worked hard to keep his secret, and he had a good reason to. Besides, it didn't really matter if she stared at him. He never gave her a second glance. I mean, he was polite and all when she talked to him, but he never said or did anything that made me think something inappropriate was going to happen.
When I glanced Kyton's way, he went from looking at me to straightening out a crease in the blue tablecloth.
He nodded at the crease and smiled at me. "Perfect. I'll be cleaning the kitchen when you're done with breakfast. Please don't make me track you down."
I rolled my eyes. "I'll find you. But you know, you could just stay for breakfast."
Alice nodded, curls bouncing. "Yeah, Ky, you should totally stay for breakfast."
His smile faltered, and he edged toward the door. "I really have to clean."
If I had a strangely young admirer, I guessed I wouldn't want to eat breakfast with them, either. I'd better help him out.
"On second thought, you're right. The kitchen's filthy."
When Alice turned to glare at me, Kyton mouthed "thank you" and darted out the door.
Alice huffed. "I'm sick of you staring at my man like a lovesick puppy. You're making him uncomfortable."
"I'm making him uncomfortable?" The nerve of that girl.
"Why else would he turn down an invitation to eat breakfast with me?" She picked up a spoon and examined her curls in its reflection. "I am gorgeous, after all."
Before I could argue, Mom marched in. Straight-backed in a white blouse that contrasted with her olive-toned skin, she sat on Alice's left. Her brown eyes, so often filled with loving concern, turned cold as they bored into me.
"Sit."
I sat across from her as the rest of the family filed in. Leo stalked past me and leapt onto a chair with a swish of his tail. He placed his huge, spotted paws on the table and glared at Mom as if daring her to tell him to get down. I didn't blame him for being defiant. Since we'd moved here, he'd been treated like a real familiar, not a misbehaving house cat. Though, the privilege might've gone to his head a little.
Dad hurried to sit across from Leo and shot him a look. With a distinctly un-catlike sigh, Leo moved his paws from the table to his chair. Dad heaped bacon onto the leopard's plate before loading up his own with pancakes and syrup.
Mom cleared her throat, and Dad stiffened with his fork halfway to his mouth. Hesitantly, he put the fork down until Grandma was seated next to him and Grandpa took his spot at the end of the table. Jack hopped from Grandma's lap to the table. Under Mom's horrified gaze, he bit the top pancake of the communal stack and dragged it over to Grandma's plate.
"That's it," Mom said with barely repressed fury. She sat up straighter in her chair. "I've had enough of this. We came here for refuge, not the brainwashing of our daughters."
Grandma's eyes widened, but it was Jack who replied, using an old man's voice.
"What brainwashing would that be, woman--teaching your daughters to fear both her own kind and every other non-magical species? Or would it be teaching them to be accepting of different species and open to developing their natural talents?"
"I- I won't be told off by a glorified rabbit." Mom hit her hand on the table, but it was open and hesitant. "Silvestre, it's bad enough you let that thing eat on the table. If you don't make it keep quiet, I'll-"
Grandma whipped out her wand and jumped to her feet, seeming pleased when Mom shied away. "If you harm one hair of my familiar's head, I'll-"
"Mom," Dad said, squeezing Grandma's arm. "Let's try to stay civil for now. I've found an accounting firm that'll take me on. I start next week, and as soon as I have the money, we'll be moving out."
"I'll stay civil if she will."
"I'm sure she will." Dad gave Mom a pointed look. Her eyes narrowed, but she kept quiet as Grandma sat back down.
Mom glared at Jack, who was quietly nibbling his pancake. Muttering something about knowing when he wasn't wanted, he hopped off the table and out the door, dragging the pancake with him.
Grandma glared at Mom, then beamed at Dad. "Have you started looking for a house already? There's one up for sale on the other side of town. We can go look after breakfast, if you want."
Mom scoffed. "Don't bother. We're moving back to Chicago."
Hadn't she realized by now that we couldn't go back? We'd been on the news when our house burnt down. Everyone in Chicago knew our faces, that we were witches. They hated us.
Dad took Mom's hands and rubbed his thumbs over her knuckles. "Sweetheart, we can't go back to Chicago. The whole city's against us."
"But your job-"
"-is half an hour from here."
"You have to be joking," Mom said, her voice sharp. She gripped a fork like a deadly weapon.
Alice let out a little gasp, revealing half-chewed bacon in her mouth. "We can't go back to Chicago? But what about-"
"Don't talk with your mouth full." Mom's lips pressed into a thin line. "If we can't go to Chicago, then we'll go somewhere else. There are plenty of accounting jobs in Illinois."
Dad took a deep breath. "Wherever I went, I would have to provide my resume. They would call up my old firm, which would tell them why I was fired. No matter where I interviewed, I would never be hired. The firm near here accepts witches."
"But you're not a witch. You gave up all of that dangerous nonsense years ago. They shouldn't hold it against you."
He hadn't exactly given up all of his magic. After all, there was a magical leopard sitting at the table, scarfing down bacon. Though, I had to admit that she was right about one thing. They shouldn't hold being a witch against Dad. But wishing they would accept us wouldn't make it so.
Dad ran a hand over his face. "Maybe they shouldn't, but I can't change what they think."
Grandma humphed. "Most people around here are accepting of magic. They know it's simply a tool, not dangerous nonsense."
"Of course you would think it's-" Mom stopped as Dad cleared his throat.
"We're staying civil until we move out, remember? Now I have a job, it shouldn't be long."
Somehow, I doubted that. When the insurance claim on our house was denied, they'd messed with our credit and our savings accounts. No bank would give my parents a loan, and we didn't have the money to buy a house outright. Grandma and Grandpa could probably help out, but I doubted they would, what with the way Mom was acting.
Mom blurted out what I was thinking. "Do you really think a job at a small, accepting firm near here would pay enough to buy a house? We'll be here for years, unless we waste our money on a bed bug infested motels in this hellhole."
Grandma let out a little chuckle, almost a giggle. She held a hand over her mouth. "A brilliant idea just occurred to me. Why don't we take out a loan for you? You'll be able to buy a house, and in exchange, we get Lilly."
Comments (0)
See all