Page 45

“Well then,” Callista began to tidy away the ingredients. “The sun is rising. You girls had better go and get dressed for the day. I have a phone call to make.”

I was glad to be released as beneath the bathrobe I was as naked as the day I’d entered the world, and in the absence of underwear, was only too aware of what Ender and I had been doing before our interruption.

“Why was your door locked?” Nova whispered as we headed to the stairs.

I recalled the echo spell on her and pressed my fingers to my lips shaking my head. Her frown was the threat of a storm on the horizon, so I took her by the wrist and drew her down the hallway to my room, and over to my desk. In a notebook, I wrote: “Echo spell.”

Her inhalation was sharp. “WTF?” She scrawled under my note.

“Aunts. Shh.” I scribbled back. “Door was locked because… I wasn’t alone.”

She made a sound like a smothered squeal and snatched the pen from my fingers. “WHO.”

“I can’t say.”

“WTFN??!!”

I raised my eyebrows at her. She raised hers back and jabbed the pen into the notepad.

“It’s complicated,” I wrote. “Very complicated.”

“Cemetery. Now.”

“I need to shower and get dressed,” I told her out loud. “And so do you.”

“Okay but right after,” she threatened me with a glare before going to the door. “No secrets.”

“Same goes for you,” I pointed out.

“I get the bathroom first,” she said as she closed the door behind her.

I used the time to straighten my room, eliminating any sign of my nighttime visitor from the bed, other than the marks tapped into the wall behind the bedpost. As I considered the selection of clothing from my closet, I heard the phone ring downstairs.

“Elenyx!” Callista hollered. “Phone!”

Shit. There was only one place that would call for me, I thought as I hurried through the hallway and down the stairs. I slid past Callista to the antique phone chair where the receiver sat upon the worn wood table waiting for me.

I put it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Elenyx.” Sure enough, it was the manager from the coffee shop. “Kristine has called in sick.”

“Okay,” I glanced at the clock, which kept good time despite insisting on ringing the hour fifteen minutes late. “What shift do you need covered?”

“The late one. I’m sorry. I know you don’t like closing.” The apology was half-hearted. He didn’t care that I didn’t like closing but hoped that in apologizing I wouldn’t decline. “I wouldn’t ask except the other girls aren’t over eighteen and aren’t allowed to close.”

I sighed. I did not like riding my bike home in the dark up the hill. It was bad enough in the day when the cars had a clear view of the road. At night, a bike was all but invisible.

He sensed my hesitation. “Please. I’ll add time and a half for the last two hours.”

“Fine,” I agreed grudgingly. “I’ll do it.”

“Thank you.”

“Elenyx, the bathroom’s free,” Nova called down the stairs as I hung up.

Knowing I had to work the late shift made selecting clothing easy, and after my shower, I pulled on a pair of shorts and a shirt before heading back down for breakfast. Fennel had made oatmeal, and Nova was complaining as she added preserved peaches on top.

“It’s a mess,” Callista announced coming in through the kitchen door. “It’s going to take all four of us most of the day to clean it up. Nova, you’re the best with a paintbrush. After breakfast, you can fetch the cans of paint from the basement and paint over that horrible graffiti.”