Family Magic (3 page)

“We’ve had this conversation.” I tried to
keep my voice low and rational and succeeded not badly. “You know I
don’t want to be a witch. If you would let me give up my powers now
instead of making me wait until I’m eighteen, you wouldn’t have to
worry about it anymore.”

Mom’s eyes brimmed. “So this is my fault? I’m
a terrible mother for bringing you into the world, for cursing you
to be a witch and not letting you go?”

“Oh, for… seriously, Mom, this is getting so
old.” The drama was far too familiar and wore me thin. I tried to
take a step back, but her power caught and held me. No way! I
struggled against her, furious.

“Let go!”

“How can I let you go?” She cried, tears
coursing in elegant lines down her face. How could she be so
perfect in everything, even crying? My anger cranked up a
notch.

“If you really loved me, you would.”

Mom looked like I slapped her. I’d never used
that line before and wished I could take it back, especially since
Dad’s expression matched my mom’s. As a matter of fact, so did
Meira’s.

“Miriam, Syd, I think that’s enough.” Dad
slid an arm around Mom while my sister leaned into his free side.
Talk about a united front. I felt like a huge wall stood between
them and me and knew I was as responsible for its construction as
they were.

Mom cried openly. For the first time she was
a real person in real pain. I felt like crap, but I was determined
to keep the ground I gained. This was my chance to cut myself
free.

“Is it really that horrible?” Mom’s eyes were
red rimmed. I’d pay for that. “Being what we are?”

“I don’t want to be what you are,” I said,
voice barely registering calm. Barely.

“Why not?” Mom’s confusion was genuine. I
knew that.

I had two choices. I could go easy on her and
lie about how I really felt like I always did. Or, I could open my
big mouth and say the exactly the wrong thing, purposely breaking
her heart.

Guess which one I picked.

“I don’t want to be a monster!”

I thought Mom was stunned before. Dad reached
for me, but dropped his hand. Meira started to cry.

“Syd,” Dad whispered, “whatever gave you the
impression you were a monster?”

Was he serious? Had he looked in the mirror
lately?

“Dad,” I stretched out the word, trying to
add weight to it, to make him understand. “You are a demon. Exactly
where is the descriptive confusion here?”

Dad didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. I was
on a bridge-burning roll, uh-huh. Might as well finish the
demolition and ride the flames like a cleansing pyre.

“I hate what we can do. I hate the way it
feels and I want out! Why can’t you understand that?”

I totally lost my temper. Bad to worse in a
mere instant. Why did Mom have to pick right then to challenge me?
Why couldn’t she let it go like she always did? I wasn’t prepared
for this conversation, especially not with her. It would have been
easier with just my dad and me. I could have made him understand.
But my mom and I knew each other’s buttons and which ones were
atomic.

Case in point.

Dad gave me the Father face, the angry Father
face. I knew I finally found his button, too.

“I want you to apologize to your mother,
young lady. This is hard enough on her as it is.”

Hard on my mother? Hard on
my
mother
?! I am
embarrassed to admit I suddenly and completely lost it. I dropped
my robe on the floor in front of them with deliberate determination
and crossed my arms over my chest.

“You have me until I’m eighteen. You know
what happens then. You’ve always known. When the choice is mine,
I’m done with magic, once and for all. If that means I’m done with
you too, I guess that’s the way it has to be. End of story.”

I turned and walked away. I actually walked
away. When I hit the bottom step, my heart felt like it was
breaking, but I would not give in. Would not. I stopped at the
bottom of the stairs, breathing a little heavy, not wanting to look
back, knowing this conversation always ended with my mom crying and
my dad upset. And worse, this time, because I finally told the
truth. But I did turn back, if only for one reason. Dad, his power
to remain with us almost used up, would be leaving soon, and I
wanted to at least let him know I wasn’t angry with him.

“Nice to see you, Dad,” I said and left.

***

Chapter
Four

I spent the whole of the rest of my evening
fuming and avoiding my mother, in that order. I think she must have
been feeling the same way because we only bumped into each other
once in the kitchen. I did ten minutes of my covenly duty at the
party before heading for my room. I tried not to feel sorry for
myself when I felt the rush of departing magic when Dad went home
to Demonicon. It totally sucked. We didn’t get a whole lot of time
with him anyway. It took so much energy to bring him across that
his visits were short and usually scheduled. And I’d missed most of
it.

Mom came up from the basement while I headed
for the stairs. Neither of us said a word. I have no idea if she
tried to make eye contact because I absolutely refused to give her
the satisfaction of knowing I cared if she looked or not. Yes, I
know, childish. If that was what it took.

I didn’t even have the distraction of soccer.
My team wasn’t playing which meant I was stuck for an excuse to get
out of the house.

There’s only one problem with moping in your
room for a whole day with no one to talk to. You have no one to
talk to. Seeing as Meira was also avoiding me and I didn’t have any
friends to speak of in our new town, it left me, myself, and I with
no other company than my rapidly deteriorating thoughts.

I was never so happy to pull the covers over
my head and call it a day. I felt way sorrier for myself than I
ever had before. Not to say I cried myself to sleep, but there were
definitely tears involved in the whole pathetic process.

My life was so unfair it made me want to
break something.

I was startled out of my mourning by a weight
landing on the bed, followed by a loud hiss barely preceding
something sharp catching the sleeve of my pajamas. A heavy, fluffy
tail whacked me full in the face as the claws retracted and let me
go. I spit out fur and hit the light by my bed, relieved to have
something to finally laugh about as the offended party huffed and
snarled next to me.

The lamp flared to life. I stifled a giggle
behind my hands. My silver Persian, Sassafras, hunched in an
undignified heap next to me. His plush, silky fur stood on end,
pushed-in nose glistened between eyes snapping anger, plume of a
tail thrashing against the patchwork quilt as he growled at me.

“I go away for one day and you lose it!”
Sassafras swiped at me with one paw.

I rolled over onto my side and tried to pet
him. “Maybe if you were here, Sassy, none of this would have
happened.”

I pulled back and sucked on the finger he
scratched.

“Don’t you even suggest this is my
fault!”

“Can we please let it go? I’m tired of the
whole conversation.” I wasn’t in the mood to argue with my cat.

“I happen to be trapped in this stupid cat
body, in case you’ve forgotten,” he said, gaze flashing red fire as
the spirit within him kindled. “Stuck in this house with you. And
you’re making me look bad. How am I supposed to convince them to
let me go back if you won’t smarten up?”

Sassafras was, in reality, a demon teenager,
a boy so horrible the demon elders punished him by placing him in
the body of an ordinary house cat. Okay, maybe not ordinary. He was
a Persian, after all. As much as I wanted to know why and how he
was forced into it, he never said. Not to me and not to the
generations of Hayle witches who had the pleasure of Sassafras for
company over the decades.

“So after what, 150 years or so, they were
finally going to let you out, but because I had a fight with my
parents it’s a no-go? Sass, I’m hurt you didn’t tell me.”

I probably shouldn’t have been teasing him,
but it was way too easy. Sass’s ears flattened to his skull. “Oh,
shut up.”

Truth was, I don’t think they ever planned to
let him out. Which made me feel guilty for being mean to him.

“I’m sorry, Sassy.”

He hissed at me, fat cat body relaxing
somewhat as the initial reaction wore off. The tail continued its
thrashing against the covers.

“Don’t call me Sassy.”

I grabbed him and hugged him to me, burying
my face in his soft, thick fur, trapping him in my arms. I grinned
as he struggled, snuggling him closer.

“Oh Sassy,” I said in my cutest little girl
voice, “you’re my bestest friend ever!”

When I released him, he spun around, shaking
with anger. I tried really hard not to laugh, but it was next to
impossible with him staring me down, pushed-in face a study in
crankiness, fluffy fur quivering. I simply couldn’t take Sass
seriously.

The worst part? Sassafras knew it and
despised it. Was being punished with it. I certainly wasn’t helping
matters any.

I pulled myself under control and tried to
make amends.

“Seriously, Sass, I’m sorry. But I didn’t
have a choice. They backed me into a corner.”

He huffed a breath and wrapped his tail
around his paws, deep in his haughty cat manner. The tip of his
tail continued to twitch, but the rest of him appeared under
control.

“You always have a choice,” he said. “And now
I’m suffering the consequences.”

“Like what?” I felt less than
sympathetic.

“Like spending the last two hours comforting
your traumatized sister.”

Oops.

“She won’t talk to me.” I wasn’t proud of it,
but there it was.

“Can you blame her?”

“No,” I said, falling back into miserable. “I
didn’t want to have that talk in front of her, but… they wouldn’t
let me go. I didn’t think it would hurt her that much.”

“Now, that’s hardly surprising,” he said.
“Thinking isn’t exactly your strong suit, is it, Sydlynn?”

Sass lifted one forepaw and began to lick it
with delicate strokes of his very pink tongue. I think his show of
superiority calmed his nerves. I wrinkled my nose at him and rested
my head on my arm. There was something about the act of watching
him I found soothing.

“Not last night, at least.” I reached out one
hand and touched his tail. He batted at me out of principle and
started washing his other paw.

“Both feet in your mouth this time?”

Sometimes his arrogance pissed me off. Not
tonight. He was right and we both knew it. Instead of giving him
the satisfaction of a reply, I kept watching him. “You are so cute
when you do that.”

Sass froze and glared, dropping his paw with
a flicker of guilt in the twitch of his whiskers.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He
stalked down the bed, back to me. “There’s nothing cute about
me.”

I stifled a giggle as the offending paw came
up again. He compulsively licked away at the imaginary dirt.

“Oh Sass, I needed this. Thanks.”

Sassafras turned back to me, curious.

“Tell me you didn’t make your mother
cry?”

I buried my face in the quilt. Sass groaned,
large ears twitching as he made his way back up the bed to me.

“I didn’t mean to,” I said, muffled by the
heavy blanket. “She’s just… so… ah!”

“You
never
mean to, Syd.” His voice was
soft by my ear.

I turned my head and we were eye to eye.
“Yeah. I know. Maybe if she’d drop the company line we’d stop using
each other for target practice.”

Sassafras curled up next to me, tail swept
tightly to his round cat body, eyes careful.

“You know you can’t keep doing this. You need
to accept who you are and take responsibility for your actions.
You’re almost a grown woman. No one is feeling sorry for you
anymore.”

“You’re awfully opinionated for a fur ball,
Sass.”

“I have been guiding Hayle witches for
generations,” he reminded me at his most haughty. “You are the only
one who refuses to pay attention and take her rightful place.”

“With all the joy that implies,” I said.

“It’s your birthright,” he said. “There is no
one else, Syd.”

“Meira is more than strong enough. And she’s
willing. So there, cat.”

Sass growled low in his throat, glaring at
me, tail twitching again. “Do you really think they will allow a
witch with a physical manifestation to take over the coven?”

“Sorry?” I felt goose bumps rise on my arms
as his power snapped in anger.

“Honestly, Sydlynn,” he said, “you are so out
of touch with the network.”

“Duh. My point exactly.”

His amber eyes fixed on me unblinking in his
cat way that made me squirm in discomfort.

“Your sister will never lead this family,”
Sass told me, so matter-of-fact I was forced to listen. “If you
choose to step aside, the coven will leave Hayle control
forever.”

“As if. Sass, you are so paranoid.”

“I know them far better than you do,” he said
with some bitterness. “Witches do not accept outsiders easily and
resist any change to their natural order.”

“So? I don’t care, remember? I want out.”

“Then you are effectively handing over the
strength of the most powerful coven in the West to whoever is
deemed worthy at the time,” he said. “Do you understand what that
means?”

“You’re obviously going to fill me in.”

“You’ll be cutting your mother’s throat,” he
said. “And any other Hayle witch remaining alive.”

I made a face at him. “They would never hurt
her. You’re so full of crap.”

I started to get up, but his paw hooked my
sleeve and pulled me back down.