“So where have you been?” Nora asked, heating a pot on the stove.
“Here and there.”
She shot me a look. “Really, Kennedy? That’s all I get?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I went to Connecticut for a couple months. That didn’t work out. New York was all right for a while, but things went south there too. And Rhode Island was quite frankly a nightmare.”
“When did you get back to Massachusetts?”
“Last month.”
Nora’s back was to me, but as she poured milk into the saucepan, I could tell from the rounding of her shoulders that she was disappointed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek, trying to keep my emotions in check. “I didn’t want to get your hopes up. If I had my way, I wouldn’t be here at all.”
“Because of Mom?”
“That’s one reason.”
Nora stirred a clump of cocoa powder into the milk. “I don’t get why you won’t just stay here. You said yourself that it’s easier here.”
“Because of you,” I reminded her. “I can’t live here. I’m just stopping in, Nora. As soon as I save a little money and find a new place, I’m leaving again.”
“But what if—”
“What if what?” I interrupted. The slow burn was building again. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to entertain Nora’s imagination, but the more I dreamt of an alternate timeline in which I wasn’t miserable twenty-four seven, the more it hurt me to know it wasn’t real. “What if Adrienne suddenly decides I’m not a plight to this family? What if Dad finally stuck up for me? What if I found a job that didn’t involve mopping floors or making copies? Yes, Nora. Then I might stick around.”
Nora turned the burner down to let the milk simmer then crossed her arms as she leaned against the kitchen counter. “I was going to say what if I helped you?”
A breadcrumb littered the preparation table, having escaped the attention of the maid earlier on in the day. I flicked it across the room. “How are you going to do that?”
“You know.”
I looked at my little sister. She was determined. I’d give her that. She squared off her shoulders, lifted her chin, and held my gaze. If I didn’t already know that I was a hopeless case, I might’ve believed she could do what she proposed. But she couldn’t.
I sighed. “No.”
She stomped her slippered foot. “Why not?”
“Don’t whine,” I scolded her. “And don’t you dare stomp at me like a two-year-old who wants a piece of candy. I said no. Drop it, Nora.”
A year ago, she would’ve kept arguing with me. When she fell quiet instead, it was a mark of the passing time. Maturity had captured her in physicality and emotion. I pined for her youth. Everything was so much simpler when you were small and ignorant of the world. She calmly studied me from across the table. The milk bubbled on the stovetop. Then Nora circled around to my side and hugged me from behind, perching her chin on my shoulder. I stiffened, unfamiliar with this new tactic of hers.
“Kennedy, I just want to see you get better.”
I folded and patted Nora’s hand. “I know you do. Now go get the hot chocolate off the stove before it burns.”
“Oh!”
She danced away to rescue the milk, separated it out into two handmade mugs, and decorated the top with marshmallows and spices. Then she sat down next to me at the table and offered me one of the drinks.
“Thanks,” I said, warming my hands around the steaming mug. I blew across the surface of the chocolatey liquid, causing the marshmallows to swim about in a swirling pattern. “How’s that going, by the way?”
“How’s what going?”
The first sip of hot chocolate scalded my lips. I pressed my palm to my mouth. “Ow. The, uh, stuff. You know.”
Realization crossed Nora’s face as she drank delicately from her mug. To answer my vague question, she rested a hand over my own. As soon as her skin touched mine, my stinging lip stopped throbbing. A calming sensation flowed through me from the tips of Nora’s fingers, soothing not only the minute injury but the soreness of my overworked joints as well.
“Better?” she asked.
“Much.”
“I broke my wrist the other day,” she informed me. “And healed it in under a minute.”
“Nora!”
“What? It’s not like I did it on purpose. I fell off Ainsley.”
Ainsley was Nora’s horse, whom Nora rode well if a bit recklessly. “In the yard?”
“No, the meadow,” Nora replied. She arched an eyebrow. “Don’t look at me like that. No one was around.”
“Nora, if anyone saw you—”
“I’d be whisked away to some facility to be studied and probed by creepy scientists,” she finished, rolling her eyes. “You tell me the same thing every time, Ken.”
This was our secret. This was what bonded me and Nora in a way that no other person, including her mother, would be able to understand. Because something lived inside Nora too, but where my force was dangerous and vengeful and bold, Nora’s was soft and sweet and lovely. I’d discovered her gift by accident. When Nora was ten months old, my father and stepmother had left her in my care while they attended some gala or another. I cooed at Nora on the floor of the living room, dangling a designer baby rattle above her head as my father helped Adrienne slip on a fur coat over her exquisite beaded ball gown.
“Try not to kill her,” Adrienne had hissed before following my father to the sleek black car waiting for them in the driveway.
But it wasn’t Nora that ended up in danger. As always, I’d managed to flirt with fire, burning my wrist as I warmed milk for Nora on the stove. An ice pack did nothing, but as soon as I picked up Nora to put her to bed, my blistered skin smoothed over. There was no trace of the burn at all. From that day on, I kept a close eye on my little sister, hiding her ability from others, including her own mother.
“You have to be careful,” I told her. “No more experimenting.”
Nora daintily captured a marshmallow and lifted it to her mouth. “I don’t understand you,” she said as she chewed. “In my opinion, what’s the point of having a gift like this if you don’t use it? Don’t you realize what this means, Kennedy? I could help people. People who thought they never had a chance.”
“Yeah, and those same people will exploit you until you have nothing left to give,” I told her, driving my index finger into the table for emphasis. “And then who will come around to heal you?”
“You, hopefully.”
“I can’t do what you do.”
“I bet you could if you tried.”
I stared into my mug, not really seeing the hot chocolate. All I could think about was Chad’s face as I reverberated with energy beyond my control, filling the room with something fueled by anger and frustration and eternal disappointment. That was not the same power as Nora’s. It was harmful, not helpful, and I wouldn’t subject anyone else to its wrath.
“You don’t understand,” I muttered. Another wave of relaxation washed over me, and I realized that Nora’s hand still rested on mine. I pulled away. “Stop that.”
“Why? You need it.”
Before I could protest, footsteps echoed overhead. My heart stopped. Someone else was awake.
“Kennedy?” Nora said. “Are you okay?”
“Shh.”
I listened carefully. Even from the kitchen, I could hear the steps to the mezzanine creak beneath the pressure of someone’s feet. A shiver crawled up my spine. Nora saw it, realizing what had me so spooked. She sat up straighter.
“Let me handle it,” she told me firmly.
The door to the kitchen swung open. I kept my back to it, staring at the table top.
“Ah,” a cold voice said. “I thought I smelled something foul.”
I looked up. “Hello, Adrienne.”
3
My stepmother didn’t appear to age. She was as willowy and beautiful as ever,
except her beauty was not subtle or reserved like Nora’s. She paraded it for all to see, lest she be mistaken for someone beneath her level of class. Her vanity was evident in every cell of her body, from the firm set of her full lips to the way she arched a single eyebrow if anyone dared to question her. It filled out her figure in all of the appropriate places, allowed her to float instead of walk, and clouded the atmosphere with a sense of superiority that tasted bitter and acrid on my tongue. Even now, in the middle of the night, she possessed a lethal dignity. Any normal person emerged from bed with tousled hair, tired eyes, and a stiff posture, but Adrienne was the epitome of elegance. She lounged against the doorway of the kitchen, and as she crossed one delicate ankle over the other, her red satin robe swished against the smooth skin of her toned thighs.
“Mom,” Nora said. “We didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“And yet here I stand,” Adrienne replied, her fixed stare never wavering from my seat at the prep table. “I thought I might be having a nightmare, but Kennedy has truly graced us with her presence. My, my. What a treat. Is that your filthy bag in the foyer?” She pronounced foyer with a French accent. Despite her impeccable diction, the word sounded pompous and out of place. When I didn’t answer, she continued her barrage of delicately created insults. “Is that the sum of your possessions these days, Kennedy? No wonder you look and smell as though you’ve just crawled out of a dumpster.”
My face burned. She was half-right. The hours of cycling rendered me sweaty and unkempt. The wind had tied knots in my hair and flushed my cheeks. I felt sticky beneath my polyester polo shirt. All I wanted was to strip off my moist clothing and take a hot bath.
“It’s the middle of the night,” Nora said. “Can we wait until morning before we start a war?”
Adrienne sauntered toward us. Every muscle in my body tautened, but my stepmother ignored me to run her fingers through her daughter’s hair. “My darling girl. Why don’t you go back to bed? I would hate to see you tired and worn in the morning.”
Nora gently disengaged from her mother. “I want to stay with Kennedy.”
With a year out of practice, Adrienne wasn’t as talented at concealing her distaste for mine and Nora’s relationship as she once had been. A hint of a sneer touched her lips. “Kennedy and I need to speak alone.”
“Whatever you want to say to Kennedy, you can say in front of me,” Nora said, popping another marshmallow into her mouth. I ducked my head, hiding a smile. Nora had the happy habit of saying whatever she wanted to Adrienne, and the best part was that she never sounded frustrated or mad or callow. Maybe that was why her mother had no choice but to follow her lead. Adrienne saved the truly monstrous side of her personality for when she and I were alone. Nora was no simpleton though. She knew how Adrienne treated me.
Since Nora refused to budge, Adrienne instead exercised her influence by confiscating Nora’s mug of hot chocolate. “This, my love, is pure sugar. Trust Kennedy to fill you with unhealthy garbage.”
My nerves tingled as I carefully crafted a response. “Yes, my ultimate goal is to fatten Nora just enough so that she spills out of her gown at the next ridiculous ball you throw in false honor of whatever charity you think benefits your image most. Your society ladies will look at you and sneer and gossip behind their hands about Adrienne McGrath, the woman who couldn’t find a tailor with enough skill to completely cut off her daughter’s circulation.”
Nora bit her lip. “Kennedy—”
Adrienne raised a slender finger. Nora fell silent. “I see time has had no effect on your lack of propriety, Kennedy. What brings you to our home this time, hmm? Another lost job? Another eviction notice? Another ‘accident’ beyond your control?”
As she drilled into me, blood pounded in my ears. Quick shallow breaths made their way in and out of my nose, fighting through the constriction at the back of my throat. My knuckles popped as I involuntarily curled my hands into fists.
“It’s funny, isn’t it?” Adrienne went on, closing in on me. Her perfume smelled like rotting flowers. “You can’t help but declare your displeasure with this house every time you visit, and yet, when no one else will take you in, you continue to return to it.”
“I’m not displeased with the house,” I reminded her, my tone gravelly as I grappled with the fire spreading in the pit of my stomach, “but rather the people in it.”
“And yet you seem to get along with my daughter just fine,” Adrienne pointed out.
Nora looked from me to her mother and back again, her teeth clenched in uncertainty. Once Adrienne and I got started, there was no stopping the amount of wrath we were able to generate between us. I felt bad for Nora. This was another reason I didn’t want to be in this house. Nora had a decent relationship with her mother. It wasn’t fair for her to have to play referee for the two of us.
“You forget that Nora is also my sister.”
“Half-sister.”
“Thank you for the reminder,” I spat. “Though I don’t understand how a girl as kind as Nora ever survived your poisonous womb.”
Adrienne laughed outright. “You righteous bi—”
“Mom!”
Nora stepped in front of me to prevent her mother from advancing any farther. My knees pressed against her back. That was how little room was left in the space between me and Adrienne. My fire fizzled out as Nora obstructed the view of my stepmother. From this perspective, I could only see the outline of her cheekbone from over Nora’s shoulder. The escape from her glare alone was enough for me to catch my breath, but I suspected that Nora was multi-tasking. Serenity pushed against my kneecaps where my jeans met the small of Nora’s back. As Nora placated her mother, she flooded me with the resilience I needed to brush off Adrienne’s malicious comments.
“It’s late,” Nora said. “Everyone’s tired and cranky. Why don’t we all just go to bed and talk about this in the morning?”
We all knew that sunlight would do nothing to improve the situation, but it was better to defuse the bomb waiting to go off in the kitchen before it was too late. In addition, my father would be awake in the morning, and the staff would return to wait and dote on our privileged number. With the extra bodies, I might stand a chance at defending myself against Adrienne’s ire.
Adrienne stood down for no one but her daughter. She deflated in Nora’s presence. Delicately, she tucked a strand of Nora’s hair behind her ear. “Of course, honey. I trust you’ll show Kennedy to her room? Not that she’s forgotten where it is, I imagine. The sheets need a wash, but I’m sure she won’t mind.”
“Did you plant barbs in the mattress?” I asked over Nora’s shoulder.
Nora whacked me behind her back so that her mother couldn’t see, but a small ring on her index finger raked against the bone of my wrist. I winced, and Adrienne performed her signature eyebrow raise.
“If it were so simple to be rid of you, I would’ve tried that years ago,” Adrienne replied.
Nora cleared her throat. A warning sign.
Adrienne gave an overdramatic sigh. “I digress. Off you go. Perhaps the dark will whisk Kennedy away with it. Wouldn’t that be something?”
I opened my mouth to retort, but Nora dragged me from my seat at the prep table, past her mother, and into the hallway beyond the kitchen. It was an impressive feat considering the difference in our statures. I was more than happy to leave Adrienne alone with her devious thoughts. She’d probably thrown away my mug already. Heaven forbid she deigned to wash a dish.
As we passed through the foyer, I grabbed my duffel bag from the floor. Now that I looked at it through Adrienne’s eyes, the olive drab fabric was too ragged and dirty to mingle with the rest of the immaculate house. I lugged it up the staircase, following Nora to my old bedroom. I left my self worth on the floor below, and with every step, I withered and aged with the knowledge that lush carpets and hand-carved balustrades did not shape the image of a person. According to Adrienne, I would remain as unworthy of this family as I always had been.
The room itself might have been considered lacking compared to the rest of the house. There was a canopy bed and an overbearing wardrobe and a writing desk, all of which far surpassed my idea of luxury, but the walls were devoid of art or decoration and the maids were instructed not to clean or tend to any other of the room’s naturally occurring faults. The air was stale from lack of movement, a fine layer of dust coated the top of the dresser, and the stiff royal-purple duvet on the bed smelled faintly of cedar wood and moth balls. As Nora propped open the windows, allowing cool air to rush in and refresh the musty room, I drew out the top drawer of the wardrobe and overturned my duffel bag inside. Then I kicked my sneakers off and threw them onto the tile floor of the adjoining bathroom. The lush creamy carpet might not have been vacuumed in over a year, but innate guilt prevented me from wanting to sully it with the dirt and leaves from my shoes.
My ancient teddy bear, Boots, sat in the middle of the bed. Nora relocated him to peel the duvet off and ran her palm across the silk sheets underneath. She lifted a pillow to her nose, frowned, and stripped off the cover. “The sheets are all right,” she said, plumping the pillow before moving on to the next one. “But the pillows are a little funky. I’ll have Helen wash everything tomorrow.”
Witch Myth Super Boxset Page 46