These Lying Eyes (21 page)

Adrenaline fled; she slid to the floor against the door, closed her eyes, and tried to ignore the anger making her skin crawl.

Dad knocked on the door.

“Mina…” he called his voice barely carrying through the door. “Mina open the door. Let’s figure this out. Mina we do love you. I love you.”

His voice cracked.

Mina put her hands over her ears to block the sound of his voice. She felt the vibration of several more knocks, the jiggle of the handle, and
finally
quiet.

Curling up on the cold bathroom floor, hoping it would numb her rage, she closed her eyes and tried to find her magic.

Chapter 18

A
touch of lips against Mina’s ear woke her. A voice breathed, “Meenie, you gonna run ‘way to be a whowe?”

Mina’s eyes snapped open.

What. The. Hell.

Back in her room, coaxed their by the sprites in the middle of the night, Mina had hoped to wake to the sound of her family’s car driving away. But instead, Ams, one of the triplets, peered over the edge of Mina’s bed to where Mina buried her scowl in her pillow. Ams’s chubby face barely reached the edge of Mina’s bed; her gray eyes were swollen and red; her white-blonde hair ratted into a ball at the back of her head.

She
could
run away. Turn tricks to feed herself. Eventually get addicted to drugs and die in a ditch.

Y’know.

Or not.

Clearly, however, her parents were
discussing
her as though Mina were incapable of anything else. Why didn’t they just smother her to put her out of her misery? What were they deciding while they cozied it up downstairs? The cover story for Christmas parties, so they didn’t have to confess to their friends that their daughter was a hooker? How long it would take her to get knocked up?

“Meenz izn’t a whore!” Hitch spewed from the top of her corner shelves. A buzzing argument formed the backdrop like a swarm of bees; it joined the sound of ocean winds whipping through the trees, the ever present cacophony of seagulls and the sniffles of Ams.

Ams snorted and blew a bubble of snot. Mina needed to curl back into her dream of surfing with Max and escape this far too real moment. She flopped onto her back, shoving her hair out of her face.

Ams tugged at Mina’s wrist, and Mina twisted around making a face to distract her sister. No such luck. Ams’s fingers, decorated with chipped nail polish, wiped away tears. Ams laid her flushed check on Mina’s neck and mumbled, “I don’t wants you to go way. I wants you to stay forever.”

Mina bit her lip and pet her baby sister’s hair.

“Where’d you hear this silliness?” she asked as if it were all a joke.

She pressed the bend of her arm over her eyes.

“Mommy tolds Daddy that he was a bad-wowd-head and that you was pwobabwy going to weave, and dhen you wouldn’t come home evowh ahgen.” Ams snuffled, her nose traveling along Mina’s neck leaving a sludgy residue.

“Then what happened?”

“Daddy told Mommy somebody had to say somefing, and Mommy said he was stupid ‘gen, dhen Daddy swammed da door and dwove ‘way, and Mommy cwied, and I came up hewe to tew you nots to weave.”

“Stop crying,” Mina whispered, gently patting Ams’s back.

Figured. Mina sat up. “Stop crying.”

“I not gonna stop cryin. Not evah less you say you won’t gos.”

“I’m not going to leave and not going to be a whore, so you’re crying for nothing, silly billy.”

“Pwomise?”

Mina sucked in a breath, let it out slowly, counting in her head.

“Yes. I promise.” She drooped to the side of her bed and then slid onto the floor next to Ams. The day pressed on Mina already; she needed to get away; she needed to think. But how was she going to get past her mom? Mom was probably staked out at the bottom of the stairs.

Mina propped her elbows on her knees and pressed her fists into her eyes.

Behind her, Ams asked Zizi to read a story. Mina had thought Ams imagination explained her seeing Mina’s friends. Only Ams was three, so it was normal. Right? Mina might be the biggest idiot on the planet.

Zizi cleared her throat and lowered her voice. It crept across the bedroom and surrounded her audience, “On the 15
th
of May,” Ams giggled and crossed her legs settling into story position, “in the jungle of Nool.” The wind morphed into the sound of a jungle. A twitter of a bird there; Ams clapped her hands and was rewarded with the sound of water splashing.

The shadows of Mina’s bedroom made unexpected shapes: the curve of an elephant’s trunk, the swing of a monkey in the tree. They were brought to life by the stalwart promise echoing from wall to wall in a voice too deep for such a small person. Ams sucked in her breath and held still as if distracting Zeez would make the illusion dissolve.

Mina stepped closer, sat on the edge of the bed, and let the scene flow over her.

Except she couldn’t sink into it; Mina tapped her pen on the paper, looked up and found Hitch watching her with a careful expression.

One of her aunts and uncles pressured her dad about the doctor visits. Mina wondered if whoever was putting the spell on Sarah was trying to distract them like Mina was. Only they were using Mina instead of Jase, Kate, and Erik.

As the last words of the story took flight, Mina nudged Ams on the bottom. Her sister looked up expectantly, and Mina maneuvered her out the door.

“I went downstairs this morning,” Poppy said, dropping to the desk where Mina fiddled with her pen. “Your brother got arrested last night. By your Uncle Denny.”

“What?” Her voice was a gasp that interrupted the story.

“Drunk driving.”

“I don’t believe it, and I’m not even a fan of Erik.”

“Well, that’s the thing. He was yelling at your Dad that he hadn’t done any driving. That he’d been drinking at the party he went to and slept in his car. Your Uncle woke him up to arrest him.”

“That doesn’t seem like Uncle Denny.”

“It doesn’t,” Hitch agreed as he landed next to Poppy.

“Then your Mom got a call. The triplets teacher said Ams and Annie should be medicated.”

“That’s insane. For what?”

“Something I’d never even heard of.”

“Are you trying to get at something, Poppy?”

“I am saying that maybe your Dad doesn’t believe what he said last night. I think whoever iz placing these spellz is trying to distract the person who keeps Sarah from fully reacting. Since they don’t know who’z stopping her, they’re targeting all of you.”

“That’z evil.” Hitch said.

They looked at each other and shrugged. It wasn’t as if whoever was doing this to them wasn’t evil.

Poppy flew to the top of the shelves where the sprites kept their things.

“Someone did a spell on our house.” Mina whispered. “Someone put a spell on Sarah. Now they’re maybe ruining Erik’s life. This is all just not ok.”

* * *

Someone in her family had to be the one doing this. But there were so many of them.

Nasty Grandma. Far too many Aunts and Uncles. Mina liked some more than others, but most of them were parents to cousins that saw and played with sprites when they’d all played together. Those aunts and uncles were parents to witches—witches just like her. Like Peter.

Mina pushed Ams out the door and made a list of each family member. It was long, but the people on it were the only witches Mina knew, outside of Grace and Penny.

“One of them is hurting Sarah.” Mina thrust her pen into the pad, and ink bled out in a circle.

“Yes. I think so.” Zizi let an ocean breeze from the open patio doors catch her wings and glide her in a circle. Her wings snapped shut, and the sprite landed on Mina’s shoulder a comforting hand running along her collarbone.

Mina looked at the paper. She dropped her pen to the side, ripped it off the pad, folded it carefully. Someone hadn’t only ignored Mina—they’d done something to Sarah.

Mina’s Sarah—

“Could be a stranger.” Hitch said, but he didn’t believe it.

Neither did Mina.

“Sarah could have angered some other Hidden Witch. We don’t know what she’z been up to.” Poppy said without conviction.

That was true, but there was also her Grandmother’s cabin. Sure, Sarah might have bothered someone outside of their family. But her Grandmother’s things had been rifled. Mina had been attacked by animals that were acting wrong.

A stranger didn’t fit; a stranger wouldn’t know to search Grandmother’s cabin. Those things she’d found were just Books of Shadows and witchcraft equipment. Things practicing witches already had access too. It wasn’t reasonable for anyone outside of their family to want an athame from them when Mina could order one online. Supposedly old athames were valuable but not that valuable.

Someone, however, was messing with Mina’s family.

Hitch retrieved his sword from the sheath he kept on the shelves. It was about four inches long. When he wore it, the blade extended above his head and nestled along his spine. He pulled a stone from a pocket and with careful, precise movements, he sharpened the blade.

His movements echoed her feelings—fury fueled with the idea of someone planning, daring to hurt her sisters, even Erik. A DUI was not a joke.

But she reminded herself, they weren’t defenseless. She had Grace, Penny, Hitch, Poppy, Zizi, and Max.

“Achillez tendon.” He spoke with a rare carefulness, growling low, until he seemed wolfish. “The eyez. The baze of the spine.”

He demonstrated as he listed, showing just how he’d disable someone attempting them harm.

“The noze into the brain,” Poppy continued. “The tendonz at the back of the knee. The windpipe.”

“And anything that slows them down enough to keep my family safe.” Mina finished, picturing Ams spinning in the sunlight, Aly and Annie curled into a ball watching My Little Pony, Jase and Erik insulting each other while they played video games, Kate twining her fingers with her boyfriend, and—most of all—ghostly Sarah in the woods.

Chapter 19

M
ina escaped the house over the trellis, climbing down the old fashioned way in the light of the morning. In moments, she’d pulled her Vespa out and followed the twisting roads of Ocean Haven. Using back roads, it took 45 minutes to find her way up to one of the overlooks of Haystack Rock near Cannon Beach. She closed her eyes and let the rare winter sun turn her lids red. Her hair, freed from the helmet, tossed in the wind. Mina let the encroaching sunlight and rush of air absorb her attention.

As Mina leaned against the edge of the barrier designed to keep idiots from falling off cliffs, Poppy lay in the warm depths of the hood of Mina’s sheerling-lined sweatshirt. Hitch sat on her shoulder staring, with Mina, towards the gray water, while Zizi glided around their heads playing in the strong ocean winds.

“Where is your family?” Mina didn’t want to feel the guilt curl around her heart, but it was only hitting her that she knew so little of the sprite’s lives outside of herself.

Hitch placed a careful hand on Mina’s jaw saying, “You are our family.”

“Not your only family.” Mina pushed the base of her hand along her brow. “Poppy has a Grandmother.”

“It’z okay, Meenz.” Hitch said.

“It really isn’t,” she whispered. A seagull cawed on the wind, others answered, and Mina twisted around to slide to the ground.

“Our families live in Cascadia.” Zizi said. “In one of the sprite villages.”

“Do you have brothers and sisters?” Mina loved them like she loved Sarah and Ams; she should already know the answer to this question.

Zeez nodded.

“Tell me about them.”

“Christina is my sister’s name, and she is older than me.” Zizi said. “She travels from human city to human city with her mate and child, showing little Clairezabelle the world while she is little. Christina, Brazden, Clairezabelle, and her stuffed monkey going from place to place.”

“I have a younger sister. Her name is Emily. I call her Luly. She has butterfly wings that are yellow and blue, hair of a deeper blue, and she sings like Disney Princesses. She breaks into song at the oddest moments, making up new songs for every day.”

“Can I meet them?”

Zizi laughed. “They have wanted to meet you for the longest time, but we could not because you did not know what you were, and I thought it might make things harder on you.”

“I’ve got two brothers.” Hitch said. “They’re both jerkz, kinda like yourz. Poppy’z an only child. Her parentz died when she waz little, so her grandma raised her. Grandma Florenza who you met already who alwayz smellz good, likez to paint, and thinkz more spritez should have big people adventurez.”

“Our life is not unusual.” Zizi said, “Most sprites have an adventure before settling into a regular life. Some visit other havens, some live in the wilder parts of our haven, some explore the human world. That is what we chose. We stayed with you rather than weave through the human world because you were fun, and then you were our friend, and then you were our family.”

“But I didn’t even know you had family.”

“We didn’t talk about it did we?” Hitch flicked Mina’s thumb with disgust.

Poppy climbed up the hood until Hitch took her hand and pulled her close to him.

“And then there’s how you and Poppy are a thing now. Which, by the way, gross.”

“Shut it,” Hitch growled. He nuzzled the side of Poppy’s face. “We’re a thing. My parentz don’t know, but Grandmother Florenza knew right away.”

“That’s weird,” Mina said, and Zizi nodded.

“Creepy, really,” Zeez said. “And super weird.”

The light reflecting off the ocean seemed to bend towards them as they spoke. They revisited doctoring her siblings that morning with potions. It was simple really. A drop of three different potions, one on the top of their head, one on each hand, and the third on their eyelids. The sprites did it while Mina waited. Whoever was messing with her family…they frightened Mina enough to be over careful by potioning Erik and the triplets rather than just Sarah.