Bitter Demons (8 page)

"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.