Page 41

FAMILY

I felt so incredibly stupid. I’d thought I was playing the hero, that I was stopping the bad guy, but it was just a trick, a manipulation. Lavinia had tricked me into killing those super-powered ancient supernaturals. She’d tricked me into helping her.

But that’s not what my dad was lecturing me about right now.

“Sierra, you must exercise more self-discipline in battle,” he said. “Not everyone is as resilient as you are.”

“Meaning?”

“I saw the singe marks on Troy Fireswift’s shoelaces. Friendly fire is a very real possibility when you’re too zealous with your magic.”

I could have told him that it was actually Troy’s fault that his shoelaces got burnt, but I was too annoyed with myself right now to argue with my dad. Actually, he was probably only critiquing my battlefield performance to distract me from the fact that I’d screwed up big time.

I sighed.

“I know how you’re feeling,” Mom said, setting a hand on my shoulder.

“I doubt it.” I shrugged her off. I didn’t deserve to be comforted, not after what I’d done.

“I let Troy egg me on. And why? Honestly, because I was bored and arrogant. I thought I knew better than the armies of heaven and hell. I thought I was hot shit. I wanted to be the one to solve this, to be the hero, like in all the stories you and Dad have told me. I wanted to do important, impossible things, just like you. Instead, I messed up. This whole thing is all my fault.”

“Hey, your dad and I messed up plenty of times,” she said. “It isn’t your fault that bad people do bad things.”

“If I hadn’t helped her—if I hadn’t killed the sixteen beasts—the rings’ true power would still be locked.”

“And if I hadn’t thwarted Lavinia’s plans to be Queen all those years ago, she wouldn’t have gone after the rings in the first place,” she countered. “So, you see, if you’re going to blame yourself, Sierra, you might as well blame me too.”

Her words made sense, but even so, they didn’t make me feel any better.

“Don’t you understand? This was supposed to be my big thing, my debut.

My story. My victory.” A heavy sigh seized my chest. “And instead I helped the bad guy. I defeated the beasts. I activated the rings. I put the universe in danger. I might as well get myself a villain t-shirt and make it official. I’m evil. ”

“You are not evil.” Mom wrapped her arm around me, and this time she wouldn’t let me squirm away.

“Good and evil are not as simple as black and white. You made a mistake. I’ve made plenty, and I’ll keep making them.

If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough to make the world a better place.

You will find a way to make this right. I promise. And that journey starts here.”

I’d been so caught up in my worries that I hadn’t noticed where we were going until we were standing there, right outside Calli’s house in Purgatory.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Family dinner,” Mom told me.

I shook my head. “This is no time for dinner parties.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong, Sierra. This is precisely the time for that.” She rang the doorbell. “In bad times, families have to come together. Besides, maybe this will be a nice distraction from everything that’s troubling you.”

“I very much doubt I can be distracted.”

“I learned long ago that there’s no point in arguing with your mother when she’s made up her mind,” Dad told me.

Mom smirked at him. The door opened, and Aunt Gin ushered us inside.

Aunt Tessa and Aunt Bella were there too and Uncle Zane.

Then Calli came out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of hot dinner rolls, fresh out of the oven.

We moved into the dining room, and as we sat down to dinner and dug into the good food and banter, I had to admit that some of the gloom was lifting from my mind.

It was all just so normal compared to everything else that was going on in my life. The taste of gossip was far sweeter than the bitter worry that weighed on me when the future of the whole universe was in the balance.

Halfway through dinner, General Silverstar arrived. The archangel was ancient. He was so old, he was practically a living fossil.

“You would know. Dinosaurs roamed the Earth when you were a kid,” I teased my great-grandfather when he made one of his usual statements about the depravity of modern society.

“Yes, and I must say, I look quite good for someone who is over 200 million years old,” he replied.

His response made me laugh.

“I didn’t think General Silverstar even knew how to make a joke,” I said.

Aunt Tessa winked at me. “Actually, I don’t think he was kidding.”

“Sierra, could you help me with the dessert?” Calli asked.

“Of course.” I followed her into the kitchen.

“How are you?” she asked as she took the cherry pie out of the oven.

“What do you mean?”

She set the steaming pie on the stove. “Well, you are the most powerful magic user in the world, perhaps even in all the worlds.”

I opened the freezer and retrieved a tub of vanilla ice cream. “And?”

“ And it can be a terrible burden to feel you need to live up to such great expectations.”

I frowned. “My parents told you what happened, didn’t they?”

“They haven’t told me anything,” she replied. “Is there something to tell?”

I clutched the ice cream tub to me.

Calli watched me. “No one is expecting anything from you, Sierra, except that you’re happy.

You don’t have to prove anything. You don’t have to save the world every other week.

” She set her hand on my arm and smiled.

“You don’t have to be your parents. You can be your own person.

And whoever that may be, whatever that may be, I know you will be magnificent. ”

I blinked back tears. “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For not talking to me like I’m just a kid,” I sighed.

“What’s wrong, Sierra?”

“I messed up, Calli.” I looked down at my feet. “I messed up badly.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

But I told her anyway, all about Lavinia and the rings.

“I’m the one who messed it up,” I finished. “So I have to be the one to fix it.”

“You’re very much like your mother, you know,” she said after a reflective pause.

“Leda also always puts the weight of the world on her shoulders. But, please, whatever you do, remember that you aren’t alone.

You can always count on your family. You can call on us anytime, anywhere, and we will come. ”

“Thanks.”

“So,” she said, nibbling on a tiny piece of pie crust that had broken off from the pan. “How do we stop Lavinia’s plans?”

I shook my head. “If only I knew.”

“There’s something else bothering you,” Calli commented. “Something you have not shared.”

“How did you know?”

She chuckled. “I have been a mother for a very long time, Sierra. Mothers can sense these things.”

I wondered if my own mother knew I was hiding something from her. But what good would come of telling her? It would only make her sad. She would never act on it. She would never put herself above everyone else.

I could tell Calli, however. And so I did. I told her everything I knew about the Cure.

When I was done, Calli paced back and forth across the kitchen a few times, then turned to face me. “You want to do the spell, don’t you?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Who am I to decide all of this for everyone?”

The ring of the doorbell drew us out of the kitchen. My mom’s cousin Aerilyn had arrived.

“Hey, Foxy,” she greeted Zane with a wink, leaning her back casually against the wall.

“No, I will not have sex with you, Aerilyn.”

“I wasn’t asking.”

“You never ask.” He sighed. “You insist.”

“Really?” Mischief twinkled in her eyes. “That doesn’t sound at all like me.”

“No, of course not,” he replied, heavy on the sarcasm.

“Not to worry. I’m immortal. I have all the time in the universe.” She took the plate of pie Calli handed her. “And I’m persistent.”

“Annoyingly persistent,” Zane grumbled.

“Stop flirting with me, Zane Pierce. It only makes you look desperate.” She winked at him. “But such dalliances will have to wait, I’m afraid. I’m here on official business.” She looked at my mom. “Leda, Grace sent me to serve as Sierra’s bodyguard.”

“I don’t need a bodyguard,” I protested.

“Yes, clearly.” Aerilyn smiled at me. “You certainly have never thrown yourself into mortal peril.”

“Did Grace send you to protect me?” I asked her. “Or to make sure I didn’t mess up anything else?”

“It wounds me that you would even need to ask that, Sierra,” Grace declared as she and Faris walked into the dining room.

They must have been standing in the front lounge, just waiting for their chance to make a dramatic entrance. Deities. They always had to be the center of attention.

“We are aware of Lavinia’s plans. And the unfortunate turn of events,” Faris added, glancing at me. But then his eyes were back on my mom. “She plans to take revenge on you?”

“Very likely.”

“Leda,” Faris said with a dramatic sigh. “You do excel at making enemies.”

Her eyes locked with his. “Look who’s talking, Pops.”

“I will send more soldiers to protect you and the rings.” Faris glanced at Grace.

“It will be difficult,” she said. “My soldiers are otherwise engaged.”

Faris’s eyes drew together. “You aren’t planning on attacking me again, are you, Grace?”

“Don’t be so self-centered, Faris. Not everything I do is about you.”

“Then what is it about?” he countered.

“If you must know, some of my facilities have experienced recent break-ins. My soldiers are busy investigating.”

“Thefts?” he asked.

“Vandalisms, actually.”

His lips thinned.

“You’ve experienced something similar, haven’t you?” Grace said.

“Yes.”

“There’s also been vandalism at the New York University of Witchcraft.” I looked at Bella. “Right, Aunt Bella?”

“Actually, as it turns out, the vandalism was used to cover up something else,” she said. “Theft.”

Faris and Grace both frowned.

“The thieves vandalized the premises so we wouldn’t be looking for a thief, so we wouldn’t realize something had been taken,” Bella continued. “But I am very meticulous in my inventory-keeping. Things are missing that weren’t found in the debris.”

“What was taken?” my mom asked her.

“Fire lily extract.”

“Fire lily extract?” I chewed on that. “Isn’t that used as a catalyst for explosives?”

Bella nodded. “Yes. But there are other uses.”

“Was there anything missing from your facilities?” I asked Faris and Grace.

“You shouldn’t be getting involved in this, child,” Faris told me.

“Answer my daughter’s question,” Mom snapped.

“I have no idea if anything was taken. My soldiers told me it was vandalism, likely some boorish agitators trying to make noise to get a little attention for themselves.” He stroked his chin. “I will call them to see if anything turned up missing from the facility.”

Grace grabbed her phone. “I will do the same.”

“There’s something else,” Bella said as Faris and Grace went off to make their calls. “I was going to wait until after dessert to share this with you, but given what else is going on…”

“What is it, Bella?” my mom asked.

Bella pulled out her phone. “The thief was very careful to avoid the university’s security cameras—and even destroyed some of them—but we did manage to catch a face on one of the hidden cameras.”

We all gathered around to see what was on Bella’s screen.

“It’s her.” Mom looked at Dad. “It’s Lavinia.”

“Ok,” he replied, his tone perfectly level.

At times like these, my dad didn’t have room for emotion, only strategy.

“We need to figure out exactly what Lavinia stole from all the facilities she broke into. We need to know what all those things make when combined. And then we need to stop her before she makes her next move.”