Bitter Demons (6 page)

The ride to the party didn’t help me feel any closer to the futures from Cypress. Meredith droned on and on about what it means to be a future. I felt like I was being lectured the whole time. Caroline was pretty quiet up front next to Mrs. King, but if I had to choose, she would be the future I would prefer to hang out with.

Luckily, it didn’t take long for Meredith to ditch us once we arrived at the Chen’s lake house. The boys from both football teams had arrived ahead of us, and it was obvious a few of them had been waiting for us to arrive. Whatever popularity I’d been experiencing the past few days since the confirmation ritual, Meredith had it ten-fold. Since her mother was still the reigning Prima, she was possibly years away from her final initiation ceremony, but if I had to guess, I’d say she was several steps farther than me in her journey.

Her beauty and allure was lost on me, but as she walked onto the front deck, the sea of guys there literally parted to let her pass. Every head turned and guys jumped at the chance to offer her a drink. Caroline and I stood back on the grass and watched.

“Does that happen everywhere she goes?” I asked.

“Pretty much,” Caroline said. “You should see my mom.”

That last part she said under her breath, but I caught the bitterness in her tone.

“You don’t like them very much, do you?”

Caroline looked up, her eyes wide. She shook her head. “I don’t not like them,” she said. “I mean, it’s my family. I love them.”

“That’s not exactly the same thing,” I said.

She scrunched up her nose. “No, I guess it’s not.”

“It’s no big deal,” I said. “To tell you the truth, I’m not the biggest fan of your sister either. I thought she’d never stop criticizing me. She’s kind of full of herself.”

Caroline laughed. “You have no idea how good it is to hear you say that,” she said. “It’s like everyone’s always under her spell. Guys fall all over her at school. Teachers adore her and she always gets perfect grades. And she’s Mom’s favorite, by far. Meredith is a little princess.”

“But you’re a future, too.” I spotted a couple of white plastic chairs on the lawn and moved us over toward them to sit. “How come you don’t get the same kind of attention? I mean, I’m still new to this whole thing, so I don’t know how it all works or how many steps there are to becoming Prima, but I would think you guys would be about equal.”

She snorted and plopped down in the chair. “Yeah, right,” she said. “I’m a second. Seconds very rarely ever actually become Prima.”

I sat next to her. “Why not?”

“Well, let’s say my mom dies tomorrow,” she said. Pretty morbid thought, but I was listening. “Meredith’s already eighteen and she’s been through the first four steps already. All she has left is the fifth and final step.”

“Which is what?” I asked. This is exactly the kind of information I’d been looking for, and I hoped she would keep talking.

“Initiation,” she said. “That way if Mom died, Meredith could be initiated immediately. Like before the funeral, even.”

“Wow,” I said. I had already been through two steps. That meant just three more total before I was the Prima and Jackson was lost to me forever. I swallowed hard. “That’s wild.”

“The Order is pretty serious about their rituals,” she said. “Getting a new Prima initiated would be the first thing on everyone’s mind. So, like I was saying, Meredith would take over as Prima. After you have that level of power, you’re pretty set, you know? Primas never get sick or anything like that. Even a bad car wreck that would kill most people would barely hurt a Prima.”

I sucked in a huge breath and leaned forward, placing my elbows on my knees. “Seriously?”

She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at me like I was loopy. “Haven’t they told you anything about what it means to be a Prima?”

“Are you kidding me?” I said. “They didn’t even tell me I was the future Prima until earlier this week. And they’ve known for months.”

Her eyes grew very wide at that. “Weird,” she said. “I guess you’ve got a special kind of situation going on here in Peachville, what with the whole no reigning Prima for almost twenty years, but I thought they would have told you everything the minute they discovered who you were.”

She shook her head, as if trying to make sense of it.

“They should be treating you like royalty,” she said.

“I wish,” I said. “Instead, they keep saddling me with all these rules.” I shook my head. I didn’t want to talk about my life in Peachville. “Anyway, tell me what you were saying. About seconds never being Prima.”

“Well, not never,” she said. “Just almost never. Primas don’t die easy, so chances are that once Meredith takes over as Prima, she’ll be in charge for a long time. Long enough to get married and have a daughter of her own. The line would pass down to her daughter automatically.”

“What if she had a son instead of a daughter?”

Caroline laughed and shook her head. “Primas only have daughters,” she said. “So Meredith’s daughter would be next in line for the throne, so to speak.”

“Even if Meredith died before her daughter was eighteen?”

“Even if she died before her daughter was a year old,” she said. “That’s just the way it works. I would still have more power than an average person, but once Meredith has a daughter, I’m out of the running. It’s the reason why people don’t treat me the same way they do my sister. She’s a lot more important than I am.”

Having a sister was more complicated than I ever thought it would be. “That’s just some people’s opinions,” I said. “You’re still important.”

She smiled at me. “You don’t act like a first,” she said. “Maybe growing up away from this whole circus was good for you.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe. But most of the time, I just feel lost. Like I have no idea what’s going on in this town, and no one will straight up tell me the truth. There are just too many secrets.”

“The Order does like its secrets,” she said.

“So what’s your training like?” I asked. “Do you train the same as the rest of the squad? Or do futures learn special skills or spells and stuff?”

The question had been on my mind for a long time now.

“Oh, it’s definitely different,” she said. “We train with the rest of the squad during the day. Probably same as you with practice after school. That’s all pretty standard. But we get extra training at night with our mother and her trainers.”

“Your mother has trainers?”

“Of course,” she said. “There’s so much amazing magic out there. You wouldn’t believe some of the things I’ve seen my mother do.”

“Like what?”

Caroline looked around to make sure no one was listening to us. She leaned closer to me. “Stuff like making a snow storm that covers five counties or levitating high in the air. She’s constantly practicing different forms of magic.”

“Wow, she can control the weather?” I was amazed. There seemed to be no limit to what was possible with magic.

“It kind of runs in the family,” she said.

“Does your mother train you, then?”

“Sometimes,” she said. “I have my own trainer, too. Laura. Don’t you have a trainer of your own? All the futures are supposed to have one.”

I shrugged. I was beginning to think nothing worked like it was supposed to in Peachville anymore. They had been without a Prima for so long that they forgot they needed one.

“Well, what kind of magic can you do?”

I bit my lip. Should I tell her about the glamour? It was the only real magic I knew how to do besides moving things around with my mind.

“Come on,” she said. “You’ve got to be able to do something.”

I stood and held my hand out to her. She gave me a sideways look.

“I can’t show you here,” I said. “There’s too many people around.”

She took my hand and I led her upstairs to one of the empty bedrooms. “This better be good,” she said. “I was comfy out there.”

“Well, I’m sure it’s nothing you can’t do,” I said. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath through my nose. I tapped into the well of energy deep inside and concentrated on a completely new look. Slightly more advanced than just changing my outfit, but I wanted to prove to Caroline that I wasn’t completely clueless.

“Holy cow,” she said. She laughed and grabbed my shoulders.

My eyes opened and Caroline spun me around to face the mirror. I looked exactly like her, down to the red nail polish on her fingernails.

“You’ve got to show me how to do that,” she said.

I smiled, then checked to make sure the door was locked.

Ten minutes later, we came out of the bedroom, mischievous looks on both our faces.

“How do I look?” she asked.

Looking at her was like having an out-of-body experience. She looked exactly like me. Every tiny detail was perfect.

“Gorgeous,” I said with a smile. “Almost as good as the real me.”

“Meet you back in this room at midnight?” she asked.

“See you then,” I said. “Have fun.”

She started to walk away, and I called out to her. “Oh and Caro… I mean, Harper?”

She spun around and giggled. “Yes, Caroline?”

“You might want to stay away from a guy named Drake Ashworth.”

She laughed. “Will do,” she said. “See ya.”

She’d already known how to do a basic glamour, so she caught on quickly to the more detailed switch of changing her entire body to look like me. We were already about the same height, so it wasn’t too hard. We agreed to spend an hour walking around the party, pretending to be each other, then meet at midnight to switch back to our real selves.

It was strange to be inside someone else’s body. Of course, underneath the glamour, it was still me. But my voice and skin and everything were hers. I walked around the party, just getting used to being in her shoes for a little while. People I knew from Peachville smiled at me in that way that said they didn’t know me, but would like to. Even though Caroline thought her sister was the princess of the family, Caroline herself was still a powerful magnet for people. I wondered how many of the five steps she’d been through. I meant to ask her about the details of the ceremonies leading up to the final initiation, but I never got the chance. I would have to remember to ask her when we met back up at midnight.

A girl I recognized from the Cypress squad ran up to me and handed me a drink.

“Do you want any snacks or anything?” the girl said. “I think they have chips and little sandwiches and stuff in the dining room. There might be some cake, too.”

“No thanks,” I said. I took a sip of the punch, but then nearly choked on it. Definitely spiked. I couldn’t afford to drink and end up half me, half Caroline in front of all these people. “Do you know if there are any drinks that aren’t so… um… potent?”

The girl’s smile disappeared and her face went white. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I thought you would want the punch.” She took the plastic cup from my hand. “I’ll go get you something else. I’m sorry. I’m so stupid.”

Dang. Is this how people treated Caroline and her sister all day? That would suck. How did they ever make any real friends when people were always trying to serve them or impress them. When Meredith had called me a public figure, I didn’t realize just how tough her life must be sometimes.

I scanned the crowd, looking for Meredith. She wasn’t too hard to find. She was sitting in the living room on top of a long table. Several guys were standing around her. Her legs were crossed and her palms rested firmly on the table. It reminded me of a modern-day version of that scene from Gone With The Wind when Scarlet O’Hara goes to the barbecue at Twelve Oaks. The boys around here were transfixed.

I walked over to say hello. In truth, I was curious to see whether Meredith would know it was a trick. Would she recognize the fact that the person in front of her wasn’t really her sister?

“Hey,” I said. “Having fun?”

Meredith shot me a look of hatred, as if I had interrupted the most important moment of her life. “Why are you talking to me? Can’t you see that I am having a serious conversation with these gentleman?”

“I just wanted to hang out,” I said. “See what you were up to.”

“Oh god,” she said, dramatically rolling her eyes. “Boys, will you excuse us for a moment?”

I expected her to hop down off the table to come talk to me in private, but instead it was the guys who walked away. They scattered at her command, leaving us alone together, Meredith still high on her mock-throne.

“What have I told you about always trying to hang out with me in public?” she said, shaking her head. “At parties in particular?”

I shrugged. “I don’t remember?”

She sighed, making an aggravated scratchy noise in the back of her throat. “Seriously Caroline, don’t be such a brat. You know I can’t stand it when you act like this. Just leave me alone, okay? Go play with your own maggot friends and stop trying to embarrass me in front of everyone.”

Her words stung. Is this the way she really talked to her sister? There was no sign of recognition on her face. Not even the slightest bit of indication that she realized something was different about her sister.

I could think of a million different things I wanted to say to Princess Meredith right about now, but I didn’t want to get Caroline in any kind of trouble. I didn’t completely understand the dynamics at play here, so it wouldn’t be fair to risk getting her sister or her mother angry with her over something I said.

Instead, I bit my tongue and walked away. Within seconds, Meredith’s horde of boys was back and the sound of her tinkling laughter could be heard above the pounding bass of the music.

I stepped into the dining room and grabbed a plate of snack food. Strawberries. Chocolate chip cookies. Chips and salsa. I’d barely eaten a bite at dinner, and my stomach was rumbling. I stood in the doorway of the dining room, looking out toward the expansive living room, and ate.

It was fun to watch people, but while crowds thronged around Meredith, hardly anyone at all spoke to Caroline. I caught people looking my way, but except for the perky cheerleader who brought me another drink - this time vodka free - no one really said more than two words to me most of the night. I wondered if Caroline really had any friends.

Across the room, a familiar face came into view. My face. Caroline in Harper’s clothing, so to speak. It was so weird to watch myself talking and laughing all the way on the other side of the room. Lark and Allison stood next to her and the three of them would all look in the same direction, then burst out laughing. I knew that game. It was Lark’s favorite party game. Hot or not. She liked to point out people’s clothes or whatever and ask the group if they thought the person was hot or not. Most of the time, Lark’s comments were crazy funny.

For a moment, I envied her for having so much fun and for having friends. Then, I realized it was me over there. I was the one with the friends, while Caroline was the one with all the responsibility and none of the perks or prestige associated with being a future. I kind of felt sorry for her.

A hand touched fake Harper’s shoulder. She turned. I followed her eyes and my breath caught in my chest. Jackson.
Oh god, what if he tries to kiss her or something?

I nearly shot across the room to tell him it wasn’t me, but something about the way he cocked his head stopped me. He studied her, then shook his head and smiled. He turned and scanned the crowd. When our eyes finally met, he lifted his head in a nod of recognition.

My heart thumped hard, and I opened my mouth to get a deeper breath. I lifted my hands up and shrugged. He raised one eyebrow and shook his head again. He said something to the fake Harper, then slowly crossed the room to me.

“Caroline, is it?” he said, bowing slightly.

I held my hand out to him. “Nice to meet you,” I said.

He put his hand high up on the door frame and leaned in so close to me, I could feel his breath in my hair.

“I like your other look better.”