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Ruben didn’t answer at first, so I turned my head to see him staring forward, through the windshield. Not angry, just pensive, as though weighing my words. Finally, he responded, his voice soft. “I suppose I never realized it might be that much of a struggle for you.”

“Most people don’t. They don’t know what I am, don’t understand what it means. We all know about Minds, about the risks and problems that go along with them, so we accept the limitations. We know they might need time away, that they might get upset, that they struggle to contain their powers when they are overwhelmed. No one knows about me—not even me, really—so people expect me to be…perfect.” I sighed at that word, at the weight of it. The truth was that I’d never been perfect, even before turning into this. I didn’t think I had a chance at it no matter what happened.

One of the things I’d learned was that some people were built for perfection and some were just built to survive—hopefully. I was the second type, even before Knot intervened and changed everything. Even back then, I’d been more focused on what I had to do, on just keeping up, on things getting away from me and me just trying to keep all the plates spinning.

It was like I lived in a constant state of disaster, and my only choice was to sit back and hope I could manage it all before it came crashing down.

And from time to time, boy fuck did it crash.

The truck slowed, making me glance around and frown.

We were at my mom’s house.

“Um, I didn’t give you directions,” I pointed out.

“Did you notice that I didn’t ask for them?”

“So you’ve known where my mom lived this whole time?”

“Of course. As if I’d ever not know everything about those who I hired, especially those who cause as many issues as you do. I like to keep a close eye on such people.”

“Lucky me… And here I thought I managed to keep my secrets pretty well.” I sat up straighter as I took a look at a number of cars in the driveway that certainly didn’t belong.

What the hell?

The sports car was easily recognizable, of course, since Kelvin’s flashy car stood out. The others, though, gave me a bad feeling.

“That’s Galen’s car,” Ruben said, putting the truck into park after stopping it by the sidewalk. “Did you invite him?”

Something that could only be described as dread rushed through me at the implication. What exactly did this mean? Why would Kelvin and Galen be here?

I cursed softly as I saw my mother walk out of the house, her hair braided and tossed forward over one shoulder. She glared at me, probably because of my lateness, but just like always, an air of softness remained at the corners.

The truth was my mother was the one person who I could disappoint, who could tell me off and lecture me all day, but who I also knew with absolute certainty would still love me and all my mess.

I rolled down the window. “What the hell is this, Mom?”

“What do you mean?”

Right, like her tone wasn’t suspicious as fuck. She’d never been a good liar, and it showed right then.

“Mom…”

“Come on in, the party’s going.”

“What party? I thought it was just a get together.”

“It is a get together—for you.”

“For me?” I eyed her on full alert. “It’s not my birthday. I haven’t done anything worth celebrating.”

“Well, your brother mentioned something a while ago, that we don’t see you as much as I would like, that maybe we don’t pay you as much attention as we should. You sort of breeze in and out and none of us know what’s going on in your life. I realized he was right.”

“So you threw me a party?” I gestured at the sports car. “And why ishehere?”

“Who? Kelvin? Oh, he stops by from time to time since you introduced us a while back. He’s a lovely man. I told him I wanted to have this party and he seemed excited about it. He even gave me a list of numbers to call to invite your friends.”

I cringed at the idea that my mother had actually thrown me some sort of weird surprise party, then also called my ‘friends’ to invite them over? My friends being powerful Spirits, most of whom I was currently fucking—or was soon to be, if the situation continued as it had.