Changeling
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I looked at Hunter, trying to control my anger. I knew that he was angry with me for missing the circle, but it was infuriating that he could ignore what had happened between us so easily—that my being a powerful witch meant I wasn't allowed to have human emotions. I had spent the last few days in absolute misery; how could I just go back to the circle like nothing had happened to me?
"Plus there's the fact that I don't love you," I said finally, praying for the conversation to end. "That had something to do with it."
Hunter's green eyes were shaded gray by the pale light. But they seemed to look right through my eyes into me psyche, into the innermost me. He knew I was lying.
"We should be together." His words sounded like they cost him.
"We can't." My throat felt thick.
He looked up at the night sky. "You should come to the circles. If not with Kithic, then with another coven.
My heart hurt. I wanted so much to tell him about my levitating experience. But it was better for him if I didn't share myself with him at all. Suddenly exhausted, I turned to the front door:
"Goodnight Hunter."
"So you say."
His voice rang in my ears as I slipped into the house.
"Morning!" Mary K. sang, unnaturally perky as usual. All of the Rowlandses were morning people, wide awake with the sunrise and ready to go long before my natural biorhythms had kicked me into a vertical position. Before Mary K. and I knew I was adopted, it had been a family joke that I stood out so much. No one mentioned it anymore.
"Morning Honey," my mom said briefly, then turned to me. "Morgan, Dad and I are still concerned about you staying in the house alone. But I understand that if you stayed at Eileen's and Paula's, you would have a longer commute to and from school."
"Much longer," I said. "like forty-five minutes."
"Not that it would kill you to get up earlier," Mom went on. "But your father and I have discussed it, and we trust you to stay here because we know that you would never want to let us down or make us feel that trust was misplaced."
"Uh-huh," I said. Behind Mom, Mary K. watched us with interest.
"But to be on the safe side," Mom went on, "I've jotted down a few house rules. I'd like you to read them and make sure you understand everything."
My eyes went wide as she handed me a sheet of notepaper. I took it from her and slowly read it while Mary K. hovered, barely disguising her curiosity.
It was about behavior they expected me to display while they where out of town. Display? I thought. As if I would be doing everything out on the front lawn. I read further. It basically said no boys in the house, I couldn't miss school, I had to do my homework, call Aunt Eileen every day and check in, I couldn't have parties…
My response was crucial here—I was awake enough to recognize that.
"Well, it looks like you covered everything," I began.
My dad came in then and headed for the coffeemaker. He glanced over at us and made the strategic decision to take his coffee into the living room.
"I mean, it seams fair," I told her. "Pretty much common sense."
"So all this seems okay?" Mom asked.
"Well, sure," I said. "I mean, I wouldn't be having parties anyway."
"Or boys in the house? Hunter?"
I tried not to wince. "We broke up remember?"
"Oh, honey, I'm sorry for mentioning it." Mom said, looking concerned. "Will you be all right alone?"
"Of course I will, Mom. I'm fine."
She hesitated, but I waved her off, plastering a cheerful smile in my face. After Mom went upstairs, I sat with my tea while Mary K. perched on a chair across from me, her big brown eyes asking for details. "What were all those rules about?"
"Oh, about being straight and narrow while they where gone, like a saint."
"Really? So no orgies?"
I groaned. "So funny."
She giggled. "I can't believe they gave you a list of rules. It's not like your Bree."
Bree Warren had been my best friend for eleven years, until Cal Blaire had moved to Widow's Vale. When she first laid eyes on Cal, she knew that she wanted him, but he wanted me, and Bree did not take that well. The story got more complicated from there. She and Cal had slept together before Cal became my boyfriend, and Cal tried to kill me when I refused to practice dark magick with his mother's coven. It had all come to a close one horrible night in his mother's library, when both Cal and his mother Selene, were killed as she tried to steal my powers. Bree and I had been trying to forge an new friendship, but we were moving slowly.
Mary K. was referring to the fact that Bree's parents were divorced, and she lived with her dad. Mr. Warren was a lawyer with tons of money and not much time for Bree. She often stayed by herself in their big house for weeks at a time, which gave her a lot of opportunity to experiment. Bree wasn't really wild, but she was rich and unsupervised.
"No, I'm not Bree," I agreed.
"Are you going to follow the rules or blow them off?"
My sister's sweet expression and innocent demeanor always made me forget that she was very shrewd for a fourteen-year-old.
"Ugh." I put my head down on the table. "They make me feel like I'm ten years old."
Mary K. giggled and put down her mug. "It'll be good for you, Saint Morgan," she said, standing up. "Like penance."
"Good-bye, honey," my mom said an hour later. "Be careful. And if you need anything, call Eileen."
"Sure," I said. "Don't worry."
"I will worry," she said, looking into my eyes. "That's what mothers do."