Tethered 02 - Conjure (10 page)

“All right, talk to you later. Love you,” I said.

Mom hung up halfway through her “I love you too.”

I tossed my phone back down on the table and closed my eyes. Sighing loudly, I wondered why on earth I’d just said that. I didn’t actually plan on staying here and going to Craven like everyone else, did I? What if the Hotfoot spell kicked in and I ended up back on their porch before dinner? How would I explain my sudden change of heart, then?

Hotfoot spell
. That reminded me—I was supposed to be feeling something from it by now, wasn’t I?

Focusing on myself, I did a check and came to the conclusion I felt nothing like what Vera had described when she was under the power of hers.
Vera
, I picked up my phone to call her, but a knock at the front door stopped me. I set my phone down and got up to answer it.

Callie stood at my door with a bag of goodies from Paisley’s in one hand and a stack of pictures in the other. With everything that had happened last night, I’d completely forgotten she was supposed to be coming over with pictures of my mom for me to look at.

“Morning,” she said softly. A wide, infectious smile twisted her lips as she shifted on her feet and shook the bag in her hand. “I brought breakfast.”

“Hey, thanks,” I said as I let her in.

She held the bag out to me and I took it. “It’s some pastries from the shop.”

I opened the bag and the heavenly scent that was Paisley’s goodies floated to my nose. Inside, there were two delicately wrapped chocolate éclairs. My mouth began to water at the sight of them.

“I wasn’t sure if you liked chocolate or not, but I’m a diehard fan so I went with what I loved,” Callie said, her cheeks flushing slightly.

“Are you kidding me? If I could live off of chocolate and bread alone, I would,” I insisted as I started back toward the kitchen where I’d left my tea.

“Mom found a few pictures she wanted me to show you of your mom,” Callie said as she followed me. “And I have to say, you really do look like her. She was beautiful.”

“Thanks,” I said, hoping she didn’t notice the odd edge to my words.

A fluttering feeling entered my stomach as the thought of seeing what my biological mother finally looked like began to sink in. I’d waited my whole life for this moment. Growing up, I’d even sat in front of the mirror in the bathroom staring at every tiny detail of my face—the slant of my eyes, the curve of my nose, the way my top lip seemed to protrude a little farther out than my bottom, the placement of each and every minute freckle—wondering which of my attributes I’d inherited from her. Now I would finally know. The image of her I’d had created in my mind for years was about to be shattered and replaced by the real thing.

It was both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

I sat down at the table and picked up my tea. As I took a sip of its smooth liquid warmth, I tucked my leg beneath me. Callie set the stack of pictures down on the table and picked up the book I’d been looking at. My eyes zeroed in on the picture at the top of the stack. It was one of two girls standing outside of a school. They both had dark hair and wide smiles. The one on the right looked like a younger version of Mrs. Yates, but it was the one on the left that made my breath catch in my throat.

There was no doubt the girl was my mother; the similarities between us were uncanny. The list I’d compiled over the years as I’d stared at my reflection in the mirror ticked through my mind as I checked things off one by one. Same shade of hair. Same nose. Same eyes that were a mixture of both brown and green. It was as though I were looking at a picture of a teenage girl who could be my sister.

“I’ve read this book before. It’s pretty cool,” Callie said as she flipped through it. “My mom uses it to do Tea Reading sometimes.”

I pulled my eyes away from the picture to glance at Callie. “Tea Readings? What’s that?”

“Oh, it’s when you use loose-leaf tea to tell someone’s fortune.”

“Your mom can do that? How does it work?” I was mystified.

She wiggled the book in her hand. “It’s all in here. And yeah, she can. It’s actually pretty fun. Do you wanna try it? I taught myself about a year or so ago.”

“I’d love to!”

“Cool, we’ll go to my house in a bit,” she said. She set the book on the table. “Do you want to look at the pictures I brought now or eat first?”

“Both,” I said, reaching for the éclair I could still smell and taking a tiny bite. Bliss exploded on my tongue.

Callie scooped up the stack of pictures from the counter and leaned toward me a little more.

“This is my mom with yours. It was their junior year in high school, I think,” she said, holding the picture out to me. “That’s the school in the background.”

“Your mom was so young looking,” I said.

“I know.” She took a bite of her éclair. “Does your mom look like you imagined her?”

I hesitated in answering. “Yeah, I guess she does.” The image I’d created in my head had already been replaced and I wasn’t sure what my made-up version was anymore. I didn’t know if I’d even been close.

“You look just like her, you know. You guys have the same eyes and everything.”

“I know.”

“Is it weird seeing her for the first time?” Callie asked softly.

I shrugged a shoulder and took another bite. “Kind of, yeah. It’s a strange feeling really. I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Here’s another one,” Callie said, holding out another picture. “This is one of the entire group. There’s Kace’s dad. That’s Adam’s mom right there, and mine and your mom’s are beside her. Admer is the one standing off to the side a little.”

I zeroed in on Admer in the picture. He was handsome back then. His face was baby smooth and his hair was a dark brown and cleanly cut. His looks weren’t what caught my attention, nor was where he was standing—off to the side like a loner—it was who he was staring at in the picture: my mother. Had there been something going on between them? Was Kace right? Was Admer my father?

“Did my mom ever date anyone in the group?” I asked, going for nonchalant, but failing miserably.

“Umm, no,” Callie said with a slight amount of disgust entering her tone. “There was only Kace’s dad and Admer. Your mom dated a non-Elemental, Talan. There’s a picture of the two of them in here somewhere….” she trailed off. She shuffled through the pictures until she found the one she was looking for. “Here he is. Wasn’t he a cutie? I mean, even though he was your dad and all.”

My heart stopped for a moment. I braced myself as I leaned in to look at him. It was a picture of my mother sitting on top of a picnic table outside. She was gazing at an opened textbook in her lap. She bit the eraser end of her pencil while she read. The guy beside her held a textbook in his lap too. He was writing something on a piece of paper. I took in his light features—dirty blond hair, fair skin, and a slightly crooked nose. This was my mother’s boyfriend. This was my potential father.

“They must have been studying or something here,” Callie said, breaking the silence in a soft way. “Weren’t they a cute couple?”

“Yeah, they were,” I said. I took the picture from her hand and looked at it closer. I looked nothing like that guy. Nothing. My stomach rolled as I thought of what that meant—my creepy boss was my biological father. This was what my gut told me. I was sure of it now. “Are there any more pictures of them together?”

“Umm, yeah.” Callie flipped through the stack again. “Here’s another one of everyone in the group, but some non-Elementals are added in too. That was my dad.” She pointed to a dark redheaded guy with freckles just like hers. He was laughing, open-mouthed, at something and his arm was draped around her mother’s shoulder.

“I can see the resemblance between you two,” I said, glancing between the picture and Callie.

“Really?” She scrunched up her nose and cocked her head to the side. “Most of the time everyone just says I look like my mother.”

“No, I see it. You guys share the same smile.”

“I think so too.” Her eyes appeared to gloss over as she continued to gaze at the picture. “This is my favorite picture of him. He looks so happy. They both did. I used to stare at this picture for hours when I was little.”

“When did he pass?” I asked, remembering how her mom had said last night that he’d
been
a non-Elemental.

“Before I was born.” Callie licked her lips and blinked a few times, obviously shaken up a bit. “Our moms were pregnant with us at the same time, you know?”

I shook my head and ate the last remaining piece of my éclair. “Really? So who’s older?”

“You.” She smiled. “By a few months. My birthday is July 23.”

“April 17.”

The conversation stalled then as Callie shifted her gaze back to the picture she was holding of her parents.

“What happened to him?” I asked hesitantly, knowing it was a sensitive subject.

She sighed and shifted in her seat. “A car accident, but my mom always told me it was what happens when you don’t heed the consequences of your actions.”

“What did she mean by that?”

“Well, he was driving drunk when the accident happened. I think she meant his death was a consequence of his decision to get behind the wheel after drinking.”

I took another sip of my tea, which was now slightly cold. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Her blue eyes met mine. They were sad and cautious. “Your dad was in the car with him. They both died instantly.”

“Oh.” It was the only word I could form.

Even though I didn’t know the guy in the picture, my heart still managed to lodge in my throat. I couldn’t fathom what my mother must have felt when she’d gotten the news, or Callie’s mom for that matter.

“I think that might have been why your mom left.” Callie crumpled up her napkin and tossed it on the table. “Like maybe she blamed my mom, because it was my dad driving. That’s my theory on it anyway.” She shrugged.

“Wow.” I could understand how a situation like that would spur bitter emotions, but to end a friendship over a tragedy of that magnitude? It didn’t seem mature. “How old where they?”

“Eighteen.”

Jesus, she was my age when she had me. I thought of my life. I wasn’t the most responsible eighteen-year-old, but I was nowhere near ready to have a kid of my own. The reasoning behind her leaving and giving me up for adoption seemed to click into place. Maybe she had felt the same as I did, that she was too young—especially to raise a child on her own, if she chose to never acknowledge the fact that Admer was my father for whatever reasons she had. I thought of my grandmother and wondered how she’d felt. Maybe she hadn’t been sympathetic to the situation. Or maybe she had, but it had all still been too much for my mom.

“I couldn’t imagine going through all of that right now,” I said.

“Me either.”

We lapsed into another drawn-out moment of silence. I flipped through the rest of the pictures she’d laid on the table. One picture caught my eye. It was a candid photo someone had taken of the entire group as they sat outside on the beach. They were all dressed in their bathing suits like they’d been spending the day enjoying the sun. Callie’s mom was being tickled by her dad. Kace’s and Adam’s moms were lying side by side on towels, soaking up the sun, while their dads and Talan ate in the distance. My mom was propped up on her elbows with an open book beneath her. She’d been reading, but just as the picture was taken, she’d glanced at Admer and was smiling lovingly at him. Admer’s bright green eyes were locked with hers and filled with a lustful yearning.