These Lying Eyes (27 page)

A
nxiety rode Mina until horticulture, even with Max smiling at her. She played with her magic, ignored her teachers and avoided Peter. She refused to hear his awkward attempts at amends and see the way his face tightened every time she looked passed him.

In her last class, Penny directed Mina into the office. As she walked through the door, Penny gave her a red velvet bag, motioning for her to open it. Mina pulled out an object wrapped in muslin. She slowly unwrapped it to find a silver necklace. It was a thick locket on a long chain, etched with a sort of orchid on one side and a small, delicate looking flower on the other. The locket was large, a couple of inches across and even longer.

Mina opened the necklace to find a book of pictures burned into parchment just as her face had been burned into her Book of Shadows.

Mina turned the thin, silver framed pages. The first was Sarah, holding her cat. Next the triplets, each on their own page, Ams, Annie, Aly. Kate and her boyfriend Geoff together. Her parents together. Each of her brothers followed by the sprites.

“They’re beautiful.” Mina touched Annie’s giggling face.

“It’s a mother’s locket.” Penny said, pulling one from beneath her shirt. “But lots of the Hidden wear them, mothers or not. Having someone add you to their locket means you’re precious to them. Penny’s locket was on a chain with several rings that held green gemstones, and a small silver figure.

They’d given her pictures of everyone that she would have wanted.

“Only your younger sisters and Erik are part of the spell, but Grace thought you’d like to have them all.”

Mina closed the necklace and put it around her neck. It was on a long chain and reached past her chest.

Penny closed the shades to the office, rolled back an area rug, uncovering a pentagram chalked on the floor. The circle was just open. Mina stepped in side of it. Penny closed it with the vine of ivy.

Then, Penny had Mina hold the locket in her hand and prick her thumb with a needle. As Penny hummed, walking around the circle. Mina said a few simple words, the names of her siblings, and the spell snapped into place with a burst of wind.

“All you have to do to activate it is grasp your magic, rub some blood on the locket, and say your missing sibling’s name with the clear intent to find them. Once you do, a ball of light will appear leading you along their trail.”

“It
is
unlikely you’ll need this spell, Mina.” Penny said as they made their way back to the classroom. .

Mina nodded. Maybe her worries were unnecessary, but she’d sleep better tonight with the locket around her neck.

* * *

“How are we today, Mina?”

She didn’t answer. It had become fun to watch the Doc’s face tighten, and the money her mom paid Mina to go today would buy the boots she’d been coveting for a year. But, now that Mina no longer
felt
crazy, the Doc was supposed to help how? She sure hadn’t helped when Mina had confessed that she’d been worried about being insane.

Stupid cow.

“Mina?”

Mina stretched her neck until it hurt and still she kept the pose watching the Doc through a slit in her lashes.

“Mina?”

She licked her lips, letting herself relax.

“Your parents are paying quite a bit for these appointments.”

She finally opened her eyes and stared at the Doc. They were paying more than the Doc knew.

Doctor Seal met Mina’s gaze, saying entreatingly, “Won’t you let me help you?”

Mina had about as much faith in the real feeling behind that plea as she did in Christmas elves.

“How?” It was the first word Mina had said to the Doc, today, and Mina knew she was opening a door that she wasn’t interested in passing through. But honestly how?

“Tell me about things.”

Mina stared at the Doc, considered, but no. She closed her eyes and waited until the appointment was over, and she could meet Max at Carousel Park.

* * *

Mina dropped next to Max on the sleigh seat, joining the continuous dance of the carousel. She’d left Doctor Seal on the phone with her dad, so there was little desire to hurry home.

There was no one but them and a little girl in pigtails on the carousel. The attendant changed the traditional inane melody to big band music for Mina, and she listened to the wail of the trumpet while they spun. The little pigtailed one couldn’t see them, so Mina pulled her magic onto her fingers, letting it flow up her hand like a glove. Max read the biography of Malachi Smythe next to her.

The light caressed her face. The weight of the locket warmed her skin below her chest, and she let the ocean air whirl away the foul taste left in her heart after seeing Doctor Seal.

“Come on, then,” Max said as Mina’s eyes fluttered closed. “If you’re going to sleep, it’s clearly time to really ride the carousel. He grinned and with a glint in his eyes, held out his hand. Mina placed her hand in his, and the weight of his hand sent a thrill through her.

Their fingers twined. They climbed onto a prancing unicorn and tiger. And as the carousel turned, their fingers remained linked. The carousel spun and with it Mina’s head. Each revolution showed him looking at her, intense blue eyes, grin—dimple and all. It was too unreal, but there he was, and the last worries from her appointment faded.

They spun, the sky darkened with clouds, adding a wet chill to the air, but they were warmed by the stray sunrays that seemed to search them out. And as they revolved, Mina showed Max the fire dancing on her fingers.

Max took hold of his magic, and she could feel it. She let the fire wrap around their combined hands; never burning them. Their magic seemed to roll between them. Free and easy, and Mina suddenly understood why people studied the Human Element. The not-evil people. It was because it removed the doubts. When you could feel their magic, and they could feel yours, you knew—without a doubt—that the other person was on your side. They were your friend, your ally, your companion.

The feel of their magic combining was its own healing magic, and Mina thought she could go home and talk to her dad calmly. She thought, maybe, she could share with him her feelings and listen to his.

“So.” Max leaned forward and pushed a curl behind her ear.

Mina’s heart tripped.

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Deep manly thoughts?” Mina ran her finger over her cheek where Max had touched her.

“Yes, of course,” he straightened his shoulders and flexed his arms.

Mina laughed, having to let go of his hand because too much laughter escaped. But her worries were fading. With the locket and the potions, and as they left her, there was a void. The laughter, almost disturbing, filled it up and refreshed her.

It must have seemed creepy, but Max just laughed with her. Enjoying her almost hysterical giggles. And then, silence reigned except for the carousel’s repetitive song. Mina leaned her face against the brass pole.

“I’ve been guessing who belongs to the Hidden.” Max mirrored her movement. She knew they were spinning, but with his eyes so close and so happy, Mina could only feel the sense of the game and not the fury at those who hid themselves away letting others suffer. People like her.

She thought, and then whispered in unison with him, “motorcycle chaps guy.”

Starting with the white, puffy haired man who wore motorcycle chaps, they described the lives of their imaginary Hidden, from among the characters who lived in Ocean Haven. With their too-big hair and weird eating habits, the small ocean town was thick with big personalities. They wove stories, loves, and devastation like a soap opera. Mina’s favorite was the one about the little old lady who visited the library and fed her cats fresh fish.

Max spoke about how the woman was an Air Witch, and he wove the image of how she’d disguised herself as a man in World War II and placed magic into parachutes finally becoming an air man and never crashing no matter how much damage her plane took. Motorcycles chaps guy, Mina declared was a fae. He worked metal into shapes only possible through magic. The kid who worked at the gas station and had a bad case of acne was really the victim of a spell gone wrong.

As the day wore on, and the sun began to set, Mina told him about the spells on her family. She watched his face tighten, but he didn’t flee from the magic, and its scary consequences.

Chapter 25

O
n the day of the camping trip, horror crept along her skeleton. She caught herself looking behind her without knowing what she was searching for. Maybe one of the giant spiders that had been haunting her dreams. Another beast that leapt from the shadows with glowing eyes. Whatever it was, it seemed to haunt her movements until she felt that it caressed her jaw or the back of her neck with one long fingernail. A terrifying stroke to let her know that she had not escaped.

She’d been up late the night before finishing cleaning Erik’s room and was then sleepless with nightmare after nightmare. Just being in the daylight felt better, but not enough. Not with the feeling that the monsters from those dreams were hunting her.

Relief flooded her when she caught sight of Max. She saw his broad shoulders first. He was clucking up at a baby scarlet-winged squirrel peeking out from its nest in the tree. He was hugged by a blue t-shirt that made his eyes jump out. He glanced over his shoulder as she came closer; his grin spread wide and then faded into a frown.

Concern showed on his face as he stepped to meet her. She hurried to him—not because she wanted to tell Max about being a baby after bad dreams—but because he was real, tangible, and a light that burned the shadows away just by smiling at her.

“Hey,” she said trying to make her voice bright and failing. She wanted, just for a little bit, to be just a girl meeting a guy. Only she wasn’t sure she was anything more than his old friend. It was only after thinking she’d lost him that Mina had learned that Max was more to her than her old sidekick. But she wasn’t sure what she was to him.

Afraid her eyes were too clingy, Mina forced herself to laugh and tell him, “I moved the wind last night and held fire in my palm.”

Despite the chills left over from her dreams, she was able to pull the cheap plastic lighter from her pocket, flick it, and pull the flame onto her fingers. It faltered in the ocean breeze until Mina focused on it. She held her hand over the fire, closing her eyes, and letting the magic warm her.

Find your magic. Focus your intent. Execute the spell.

Mina concentrated so completely that her muscles clenched from her toes to her teeth. She opened her eyes, turned her palm, and the fire raced up her fingers to shine from her plum fingernails. She flicked those nails, and they were surrounded by a whirlwind that set Mina’s mess of hair flying and made Max’s jacket snap in her wind. And then she threw the fireball to Max. He caught it, held it, before it faded out.

Max grinned, and the sun of his smile eclipsed the dream, pushing aside her fear. He dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out a balled fist. He winked at her, and she tossed him a look of challenge as he revealed a smooth ocean pebble.

He glared at it.

She waited.

Then, it spun in his hand, lifted into the air, and flew at Mina.

Mina squeaked and snagged the pebble from the air more on reflex than any sort of ability. As she did, she lost her concentration, and the flames on her finger tips snuffed out. She stuck her tongue out at him and stuck his pebble into her jeans.

“What’s wrong, Meenz?” Max’s concern showed in the tilt of his head and the squint of his eyes.

It was back in an instant, the invisible monster’s long fingernail seemed to play with her hair. She shivered and pulled the lighter absently from her jeans and flicked it. Her finger played in the flames, but she couldn’t pull the fire onto her hands.

“Bad, bad dreams.”

Max stared at the ground, up at the squirrel, across the meadow behind the tall oak tree. She could almost see his thoughts crossing his face.

“That’s understandable,” he finally said. “You’ve got some stuff going on.”

And even though it was true, the calm way he said it made it seem less.

“Stuff,” she said dryly.

He smirked, just a little, before he said, “You know. Someone put a spell on your sister. You and your sister turned into possessed monster types. Plus there’s that whole Seventh, uncontrollable magic thing. We’re learning magic. Your dad’s on your case. Stuff.”

They walked together in silence, Max pushing the scooter. And the companionable silence did more to make her fears fade than anything else.

“Our shirts match.” Max said, and Mina stopped daydreaming to focus on him again. He’d set his camping bag on the back of the scooter and they moseyed the paths to school. Neither worried about being late even though their first teacher, Mr. Sams, was a jerk. More and more, it seemed that the magic in their lives wasn’t the way Mina could make animals of fire or the way Max could make the earth dance. It was the friendship between them. It was the surprise that loneliness had faded.

Mina’s gray eyes glanced down at her own t-shirt and then examined his.

“We’re corny now, and I’m a little ashamed.” Her face turned up to his. “You know my brother and cousins are totally going to give us crap for this.”

She zipped her hoodie closed covering the snug girly Superman T-shirt.

* * *

Max, Ben, and Charlie showed up for camping together. Mina saw them from the trees near the lake. The sprites were with her. All of her siblings were here except for the triplets, and she couldn’t deny it was nice to be outside of their house. It was toxic there. Dad was still rampaging between her and Erik. The triplets were on edge because of it and prone to tears. Dad wouldn’t have let them come, but Mom intervened again.