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“Can I help ya, Miss?”

I whipped around to see the other couple concluding their business and heading out, leaving only us in the store. “Yes, I am looking for someone who might work here.”

“Oh?” He raised an eyebrow, rolling up his sleeves over his elbows.

“Yes, Clemmons Braht. Is he under your employ?” I let my gaze peruse the items in the glass case between us, masking the importance of my question.

“He is, but…”

What a stroke of luck that I didn’t have to visit every single store this morning. “But?” I pried.

He took a moment, exhaling strongly. “The boy might have run away. He didn’t show up for his shift the past two days, and his parents say he hasn’t been home. I’d just paid him his weekly dues, so my money would be that he found some trouble to get into and he’ll turn up when he’s done. Nice kid, but he’ll have to search for another position after a stunt like this.”

“Sorry, when did he miss his shift?” Any attempt to feign disinterest suddenly vanished.

“Yesterday and the day prior.”

“The entire duration of both?”

He gave a soft chuckle. “That’s what missing shifts means.”

I cracked a smile, acting like a silly woman who often forgot herself. “Do you happen to know his address? He has something of my brothers that I’ve been sent to retrieve.” The lie rolled off my tongue, smooth as silk.

He found that an acceptable reason to reveal the boy’s address, so I bid my polite farewell before rushing out. Thank goodness Chol and I had set a time to meet tomorrow, because something was off about his information.

After confirming with his parents that Clemmons hadn’t shown up for his shift, I returned home only to be greeted by one of Kenzie’s screaming tantrums rattling the walls.

“It has to be perfect!” she shrieked from upstairs, the entitlement winding its way down the stairwell to my ears.

The front door closed behind me with a thud, and Melody said from the living room when I came into view, “It’s been a rough morning.” She tried explaining away her sister’s meltdown, as she often did.

“You don’t have to make excuses for her, you know,” I said as I joined her, wedging myself into the chair meant for one person. She laughed at my hips nudging her until we essentially overlapped each other, quite uncomfortably. She went quiet, and I could tell by the lack of expression on her face she’d fallen deep in thought. “What’s going on?”

Blinking herself back to the present, she assessed that we were alone before she whispered, “I’ve been practicing.”

“Practicing…what?”

“My magic.”

Of all the things I could have guessed she’d say, that would have been furthest on the list. Melody had always chosen to keep a lid on it, preferring to act like she hadn’t been blessed at all. “And?”

With a gleam in her eye and a tilt to her grin, she said, “Watch this.”

She held her palm flat, arm stretched in front of her, and closed her eyes. My heart suspended in time, waiting to see what she’d learned that’d made her so proud. White lightning sparked around her hand before a thin, white, cloudy barrier burst forth into the room. The couch across from us, with its draped white sheet, threw itself back an inch, scraping against the floor, sheet billowing.

Between us, there was no sound but my astonished exhale. “Melody,” I whispered, staring into her brilliant blue eyes with a smile on my face.

“I know.” She inspected her hand, as if it were a foreign thing. “I want to go back to that meeting.”

“Then we’ll go back.” I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, pulling her in close. “I’m proud of you, Mel.”

“It feels…good. To not hide it away. Nora, it’s almost like a part of me had been sleeping, but also locked behind a massive steel door, buried underground. I’ve carried so much shame and resentment, but I’ve always felt it.

“Not a minute goes by where I’m not aware of it coursing through me, trying to suppress the power it carries, trying to shove down my thoughts of it. Something happened when I saw that group, like the steel door had opened, and part of me woke up. I feel…clear, for the first time in a long time. Maybe even ever.”

I couldn’t fight off the guilt that threw its punches. I’d never asked her about it, not since we were kids. She so easily wore a suit of poised propriety, I honestly forgot she had magic most of the time. My job now wasn’t to apologize or put the spotlight on me. Instead, I tightened my grasp and said, “Then let’s get you above ground, hm?”

Beneath my fingertips, her muscles turned to liquid, and she rested her head against mine.