These Lying Eyes (25 page)

She couldn’t focus on the Book of Shadows which had belonged to Violet Heyer. Violet with curly hair, curly handwriting, and a wide spread of freckles. The picture didn’t have color, but Mina was sure Violet had mousy brown hair and eyes the color of sapphires. Her face was kind, and Mina wanted to know more about the witch, but the nap had only added dreariness to her exhaustion.

Jocelyn arrived with a smoking mug. “Drink this,” he growled.

“What is it?” Mina asked, not waiting to sip it. She held the first swallow in her mouth. A warm milky mouthful tinged with spices and sweetness filled her mouth. It tasted of cinnamon, nutmeg, and perhaps white chocolate.

“It’s energy and recovery draught all swirled up in a nice mug of milk and spices. It’ll help you to shake off your aches, access your magic again, and be of better use to your sister. Though it will make you sleep for a while.”

“Should I be doing something?”

“Sleeping, recovering.” Jocelyn tapped the mug and then pushed it towards Mina’s mouth. “I will help Grace.”

“Thank you.” Mina gulped the warm potion and curled up on the magenta velvet couch below the sun roof.

Jocelyn waved his finger, and a thick quilt covered Mina’s body tucking her into another nap, but this time it felt as though she was accompanied by the ghost of Violet Heyer, and instead of being terrified, Mina was comforted.

Chapter 22

M
ina woke with a soft touch on her foot. She gasped, fell off the couch; all of her muscles shouted as she put her arms under her as if she were about to do a pushup and scowled at Jocelyn.

“Dude!” Hitch said.

Jocelyn glanced at the sprite before looking down at Mina and nudging her with his shoe.

“That was overly dramatic.” Jocelyn growled, stroking his beard and watched Mina as if she were a bug. Zizi landed in front of Mina and pushed her curls out of her face gazing into Mina’s eyes. She shivered after being snapped out of her dreams.

“We’ve figured something out. We don’t need you here. You’re distracting Grace, and this is a fairly complicated spell. Only, soft, too kind, Grace wants you to eat before you go home.” He nudged Mina’s arm with his toe again.

“Back off.” The buzz of the Zydekaune accent was unusually evident, and Zizi clenched her fists.

Mina tried to wipe the sleep from her eyes and clutch her dream at the same time.

“What?” Mina looked around taking in the multitude of bookshelves and the man. “Oh…”

“Food’s upstairs girl.” Any kindness she’d experienced from Jocelyn was clearly over.

“We get it.” Hitch flew in front of the man’s chest, deliberately too close. And Jocelyn left, shooting another black look over his shoulder.

Once he did, Hitch looked at Mina and said, “You have that appointment.”

“Oh right.” She whispered. “The doc.”

Mom had asked Mina with her trembling, keep-the-peace voice to go to the appointment that afternoon. Dad, Mom promised, was finding another shrink for the family appointments. Mina could switch fully then, but until he was successful…

Mina rolled off the couch, ignoring the rush of nausea. The Doc. The prying. The reports to her parents. Gah.

“Is Poppy with Sarah?”

Zizi nodded.

Mina rubbed her eyes, pulled her legs to her chest, and wondered what Grace had come up with. Two pencils were stuck into Grace’s chignon. Her fingers and her pants were covered in chalk, and there were so many books floating around the librarian that Mina didn’t see how Grace could keep track of them.

Mina rose and paused. Along the back of the couch was the flock of miniature dragons. A delicate purple one met her eyes, and she thought she felt the touch of its mind against her own. It flew to her shoulder, butting its head against her neck.

A second landed in her hair, she thought it was the black one from the night before. Two more chose her free shoulder, mottled green and brilliant blue.

Mina dislodged the dragon in her hair with a gentle shake of her head.

“Grace wants you to drink that.” Hitch pointed to a large mug. Mina lifted it, sniffed and took a careful sip. Almost immediately the fogginess in her head began to fade, and with the clearness in her mind, a resolution was formed.

* * *

“How are things going for you.” Dr. Seal’s intense blue eyes, yet again, pressed the feeling of creepster onto Mina, making her feel as though the Doc wanted to ruffle through Mina’s mind.

What was it about people who wanted to pry into your life? Even if they were supposedly helping?

“Fine.”

“What did you want to talk about?”

Mina leaned her head back, stared at the ceiling, and thought about how angry she was that she was in this office. How her Dad’s momentary softness had beguiled her and this visit was worse than the one before. How she was sure that a relative was trying to kill her sister. That she feared they’d switch to a triplet or even Erik before long. How she was a witch now, and she knew about an unseen world that was available to everyone if they would only look.

Look and trust.

“Chocolate.”

“Chocolate?” Dr. Seal asked. Her narrow lips were very expressive. And right now they were sending a mean little message.

Mina hid her satisfaction as she started talking about the variations of chocolate and her preference. Milk. Unless it was expensive. Dark chocolate was amazing if it wasn’t cheap.

* * *

Mina parked her Vespa outside, under the overhang of the house, so it was protected, but she didn’t have to open the garage to use it.

“Are we going to have to start taking things away from you?” The anger on her Dad’s face was tight and powerful. He stood next to the wide porch, and he’d been waiting for her.

“Like what? My self-respect? Oh shoot. You already got that one.” She knew when she’d planned at Grace’s that Dad would be mad, but he seemed almost frenzied.

“Stop being overly dramatic.” His voice made Jocelyn’s seem kind.

“Stop being bi-polar on me. I can’t anticipate you. Mean, mean, mean, nice for weeks and then mean again.”

“You are hardly abused.”

“Who said I was?” Mina shouted. “I never did. I don’t complain. All I want is to be treated like your other kids!”

“Then act like them!”

“What? You want me to sneak out for parties on the beach like Kate did? Sleep with the boyfriend I don’t have in the tree-house like she did? Flunk out of my classes and then cheat on my final papers like Jase? Be a giant jerk all the time like Erik? Why can’t you be happy with me? I’m smart. I ace my classes. I work ahead. I’m not a criminal. I’ve never done drugs. I’ve never had booze. Why can’t you look at me and see someone who isn’t trash?”

The fury in Dad’s face colored his face a brilliant red. His eyes were stuck on the tree house as he yelled, “I have had…”

“Enough.” Mom’s voice was quiet and full of steel. Mina and her dad turned to Vienna Roth in shock. Her face was white, her cheeks flushed in fury, and her lips were pressed together.

“Mina you will go to your room. You will go now. Lucas you will calm down.”

“Did you even…”

“You will not destroy our relationship with our daughter. Wilhelmina Franzizka Roth, go to your room. Now.”

Mina rushed past her parents, slammed the door, and raced through the house. She stood in the center of her room panting. The sprites had taken to the shelves to give her time to just breathe.

But minutes later, her door opened. Erik, Sarah, and the triplets entered without speaking. Sarah had a platter of sandwiches. Ams carried a bag of cookies. Annie and Aly held hands and carried their blankets and were crying. The sound of their parents yelling at each other filled the house.

No one said anything as they entered Mina’s room. Sarah set the sandwiches on the table, turned on Mina’s radio—loud—and grabbed a spare blanket to spread it over the floor. She knelt and patted the ground next to her until the triplets, Annie and Aly, still crying, joined her on the floor.

“You know more about me than that,” Erik said, handing their little sisters a half of a sandwich.

“So.” Mina, not eating, just pressing her face into her knees.

“You didn’t say anything.”

“You still live here.” Mina didn’t bother to elaborate. She didn’t need to. Kate and Jase were in college and spent much of their time away, even holidays, if school or work demanded it. Now they were in Europe and would be fine until Dad’s fury abated.

“Kate’s revenge will be fierce.” Erik said, running his hand over his face at a particularly loud shout from their dad.

“Probably.” Mina agreed.

“I’d sleep with your door locked.” Erik’s voice paused when a particularly loud shout filled the room and made Aly hiccup.

“Yeah,” Mina said. “I’ll do that.”

The argument faded before long, but their parents didn’t come looking for them. It was late when Erik, Mina, and Sarah each carried a triplet to their bedroom. The door to the office was closed, but angry music came through the door.

“Thank you.” Their mom’s voice was stark and low in the darkness of the living room as they shut the triplet’s bedroom door.

“You’re welcome,” Sarah said, lingering and waving Mina out.

“Mina,” Mom said as soon as Mina tried to fade. “We love you.”

Mina hadn’t forgotten her fury. “I’m not going back.”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

“Whatever.” Mina ran up the stairs. In her room, the sprites waited for her. But Mina slipped into the bathroom to shower the taste of the hurt away. It didn’t work. When she’d returned to her room, the covers of her bed were pulled back, the lamp was on next to her bed, but the overhead light was out. The sprites were on their little beds on the top of her shelves, and Mina climbed into bed.

“We potioned your brotherz and sisterz,” Hitch said, voice low.

“Thank you.” Mina replied softly, burying her face in the pillow and forcing her mind blank.

* * *

The first thing she knew was the burning. She had to move.

Move. Move. Move.

Faster.

If she hurried, they would make it stop.

Her hands were a blur in front of her. She couldn’t see what was happening. All she knew was that she mustn’t stop.

Go, go, go.

“Mina!”

Go, faster, don’t stop. Hurt, hurt, hurt.

“Mina!”

Run, move, jump, hurry, hurry, hurry. Everything was blurred in darkness.

“Shiz, Mina!” A small body latched onto her wrist. “Poppy, Zeez, the same we did with Sarah.”

“We don’t have Mina this time to hold her down!”

Her fingers curled. She had to go. Make them stop. Stop them. She couldn’t see them, but she could feel them.

Her wrist pulled away from her. That little body swung her back. Burn, burn, burn.

The pain. Oh, the burning.

She would crush it; she would pull off that body, and she would crush it. Her fingers curled; she would dig her nails into its body. She would feel its spine between her teeth.

She almost had it when two more bodies grabbed her other hand; her head arched back and she shrieked. The sound was loud, high, animal, and it wasn’t enough.

Go, go, go.

But she couldn’t. The burning intensified. Worse now.

It hurt. It must be stopped, but she had to get there. They would make it stop.

There was a buzzing in the air. She shrieked, biting out, seeking back and forth for anything. But they avoided her. They held her back. Those little fierce forms. One was on each hand, holding her back, stopping her from running. One had disappeared.

Hurry, hurry. Burn, burn, burn.

“Don’t go near her face, Zeez. She’z biting.”

“We’re the stupidest spritez on the planet.”

“Bind her feet.”

Burn, burn. The pain. Must hurry. It would stop, if only she could get there.

She kicked her feet, but she couldn’t reach anything. She kicked, and she swung.

“We have to keep her in the air. It is the only way.”

She couldn’t see now. The dark had gotten worse. All was black. She shrieked, but then, something was in her mouth.

There was pressure against her legs. Against her burns. And then she was moving. Faster and faster. But she wasn’t touching anything.

Go, go, go. But it was the wrong way. She shrieked and shrieked again against the gag.

There were more hands. Bigger ones. They touched her, and she called for those who would make it stop, but they didn’t come.

It hurt.

Burned, burned, burned.

She must hurry. If she got there it would stop.

Go, go, go.

“Oh, Mina. Oh, no.”

The gag came out, and she could shriek again. It was more animal. A high pitched bear.

It demanded. Let me go.

Hurt, hurt, hurt. Burn, burn, burn. Go, go, go.

“Take her feet, Grace.”

She was lifted. The hands hurt.

Hurry, hurry, hurry. It was bright. It hurt her eyes, even through the darkness. Hurry, go, burn.

“Set her inside. What should we use to close the circle?”

“Salt, sage, and apple blossoms.”

She tried to move, but her feet were still pressed together. She tried to worm, but then, before she could move far, a light rose up around her. She pressed against it, wiggling and shuffling, and as she did the burning stopped.

A jagged breath escaped her. Now it was ants. They were crawling on her. Biting her. She could hear a voice that spoke thunder, it spoke the rush of wind, and it snapped as lightning, and when it did, her eyes worked again and the ants left her.

Mina looked around. She was in the great conservatory at Grace’s.

“Grace?” Mina pressed her hand against the wall of light between her and her friends. It burned, but she hid it.

“It’s still on her.” It was Penny, and her voice was tight, angry.