These Lying Eyes (23 page)

* * *

Ben, Mina’s cousin, joined them in their booth almost immediately. He had a basket of fries, sodas for all, and he ate while Max debated the menu.

“What do you think you’re doing?” A sharp voice pulled Mina’s eyes from the ceiling where she’d been forcing herself to look to keep from caressing the magic books while Ben was around.

Yet another cousin, this time Felicity. She was a year older than Mina and usually ignored her. Thankfully, Felicity’s angry eyes were directed at Ben. Though from what Ben said, Felicity spent most of their shared shifts mad at someone. Even furious, her eyes were as blue as the summer sky, and her lips, like Mina’s, were full and wide. Unlike Mina’s, those lips were pulled into a tight, angry frown.

“Taking a break.” Ben said lackadaisically as he swirled a fry in a mound of ketchup.

“Are you kidding me?” Felicity smacked Ben on the back of his head. “We’re short-staffed. You already had your break. There are two tables waiting for their orders to be taken and two orders ready to be delivered. And,” she smacked his head again.

Ben grabbed her wrist, held it for a moment staring at her, and then dropped it.

“Just because your dad owns this place doesn’t mean I have to do everything,” Felicity said.

“Fine.” Ben downed the rest of his coke.

“Fine.” Felicity scowled as Ben slid out of the booth. Then she turned those eyes and those lips on Max.

Max smiled at her, but there was no sign of his dimple. Mina tried not to show her satisfaction.

“Hey, Max.” Felicity smiled a flirty little smile, and Mina tried not to think how Felicity was so much prettier than Mina. What with how she was pale, drawn, and too thin.

She flounced away, and Ben rolled his eyes.

“Clearly, my dad’s not here. Felicity thinks she’s in charge. My life is really just an endless revolution of happiness and joy.” He rolled his neck, and stretched his arms high, before pulling out his pad to take their order.

“You coming to the camp out next weekend?”

“Is that this weekend?” Mina asked.

“Yes, and you’re coming. You, Max?”

“Obviously.” Max said. “I’m gonna beat you up at the camp out to add to your ‘felicity’.”

“Dude. Nice.” Ben stood. “And, please, you’ll be lucky to not be curled into a ball crying because one of the little ones—maybe Sarah—teaches you what its like to deal with the Reiniger family.”

“Sarah’s a Roth.” Mina said. “And, as you know, we’re better than the rest of these schmo Reiniger’s. I want the chili cheese platter with onions, extra cheese and jalapeños, and I want an apple pie shake and ice water. And I want you to put in our order before you deal with those off-season folks.”

Ben wrote it down as she spoke, “Meenz, you’re rusty at this whole family camp out thing which is pure shenaniganery and nothing else.”

“Felicity will be all cranky if you don’t get that dude’s soda. He is, b-t-dub, totally eyeing you with the meanness.”

Ben didn’t look over his shoulder. “He’s already PO’d. The cook put mayo on his burger, and the guy had to wait for another. No tip left to work for.”

Max grinned, “I gotta get my math homework done, man. But, I will take the Cheesy Wil, fries, and another coke.”

Ben cracked his knuckles, sighing dramatically.

“He wants chocolate cake too,” Mina said, making Ben wait as he was about to leave. “And,” she said as Zizi pointed to the menu. “I want a fruit cup and extra cherries on the top of my shake.”

Ben groaned and walked away, grabbing the mad dude’s cup as he went by.

“Thanks, Mina,” Zizi said.

“Did you hear that?” Max asked as he opened one of this books.

“What?”

“It was a sort of…a cross between a bee and a voice.” Max shrugged, flipping through one of the books Mina had covered for him.

“Max! That was Zizi.” Mina bounced as she said it. Then she set her hand out, palm up, and Zizi stepped onto it, forming poses. As Mina slid her hand forward to show him.

He shook his head, a disappointed look on his face.

“Still, it’s happening,” she whispered as Ben dropped their food onto the table.

Max eyed Ben, murmured a thanks and immediately delved into one of his covered books. But as soon as Ben disappeared into waiting on others, Max shot Mina an excited look.

Mina pressed her lips together to contain the squeal for him and finished covering the other books, so she could jump into
Pursuits of Magic.
It
pulled her in like quicksand. Their assignment had been to read the first three chapters. Mina read them and then reread, making notes in her spiral notebook before transferring them to her Book of Shadows. All the while, they ate. Silent in their absorption. And occasionally Max would stare at Mina’s shoulder, focus, and then shake his head.

“It’ll happen,” she promised. Minutes later she found Max staring at her.

“What?” She whispered when she realized that he wasn’t looking for a sprite and the table next to them was full. She tried to toss her mess of hair back discreetly when his eyes didn’t move.

“You’re so precise. You’ve made neat little notes in your Book of Shadows. You even re-made the diagram.” Max stretched forward to peek into her book.

A blush crawled across her cheeks, and she pulled her book closer to herself.

“No wonder you’re in the sophomore classes.”

“I’m in those because I want to graduate early. The sooner I go to college, the sooner I’m not living with my parents. I’m already looking at colleges. Max,” she leaned forward, “I want to escape my family so bad it’s like a craving I can never satisfy.”

He responded without a pause, “I get that.”

They were leaning towards each other until they were only inches apart. The sudden understanding caused by her statement seemed to link their thoughts, their wants. And with that understanding, there was a tension between them she’d never felt before.

It was only the realization that her breath had to stink with all the onions, chilies, and jalapeños that compelled her to lean back; she tried to pull it off casually but wasn’t sure if she succeeded.

“I really do,” Max continued, “I’ve looked at schools too. Have you seen St. Catherine’s?”

Mina jumped in surprise. “It’s on the top of my list.”

The connection between them crackled as they compared colleges and avoided speaking of their families. Only, each time their eyes met empathy passed between them. Each was certain their reasons for researching colleges early was the same. Because no matter how much they loved their families, they needed to control their own lives. Because the interference from their parents was smothering, and because neither was all that sure they were wanted.

“I wonder if there’s a witch college,” Max said. Their eyes met, and they both reached for their pile of books at the same time.

Max found it in the
Lives of Witches
. There was a whole section on witch education. Avalon University. A Hidden College of Magics at Oxford. Standwitch and Merlayne in a small Southern California Haven. A dozen more. The section described the schools specialties, its location, student life.

They talked, ate, laughed. Mina could have sworn that threads were growing between them. Maybe it was just a dream. It wasn’t so long before they’d be ready for college. They could feel their future hovering on the horizon; they might be able to travel and see not just London and Moscow but other havens. Maybe they’d be able to travel the heights of the Alps on the back of a broom or whatever. Excitement swirled between them. Their conversation faded as they were sucked back into their books, but the feeling of friendship passed between them as soft as a summer breeze.

* * *

Mina glanced past Max and caught sight of Felicity curling her finger.

“I’m going to get some more water,” Mina told Max. “Do you want some?”

Max flashed a dimple at her while he nodded. Mina stood as he turned back to
An Introduction to Magical Races
.

“Mina!” Felicity whispered as Mina walked over.

“Felicity,” Mina said, filling her glass to the rim with ice and topping it with filtered water and a few raspberries. She did the same for Max with half the ice as she waited for her cousin.

“Flirt!” Felicity ordered, leaning forward as if diagnosing Mina with cancer. “Look at him through your lashes, put lip gloss on, and don’t,” her cousin emphasized, “eat so much.”

“Um,” Mina said as she put lids on their drinks, glancing over at Max and becoming almost absorbed in how the light wrapped around him.

“It’s not like that.” A blush highlighted Mina’s face and made a liar out of her.

“It’s like that with
every
boy.” Felicity countered, “If you don’t want some other girl to snatch him from you, then you need to put some effort in. Does your breath stink?”

Felicity pulled a pack of gum from her pocket, even though Mina shook her head.

“Look I know that you weren’t popular in middle school, but you can change all that now. Even despite your little crazy ep. at school. I mean…bravo,” Felicity gestured towards Max.

Mina took the gum from Felicity and looked for a way to explain that he knew she was a freak, didn’t care, and it wasn’t possible to steal a person’s friendship.

“I…it’s just…” Mina popped the gum in her mouth. “It’s just not like that.”

She didn’t want it to be like that. If Max could be stolen, she didn’t need him burrowing into her heart.

“Well then expect for someone like that stupid cheerleader that’s been hanging around him or her curvy little blonde buddy to snatch him up.”

Mina looked blankly at Felicity wondering how much time Max spent with those girls. And then she told herself to not be stupid.

“I tried. That’s all I can say. I tried.” Felicity smoothed her pants and then her hair.

“Thanks ‘Licity.” Mina gratefully gathered up her and Max’s drinks and escaped her cousin.

“Is she a good cousin or a bad cousin?” Max asked.

Mina popped the lid off her drink and offered each of the sprites a raspberry. As she did Max’s eyes followed the movement of her hand. She glanced at him questioningly, but he shook his head.

“A good cousin, I guess.” Mina rubbed her brow. “We’re just different.”

* * *

Mina dropped Max off at his house. She watched him walk into his unlit house and shivered as she waited for him to get in ok. In the diner, she read the overview of each of the Magical Elements. Just the couple of pages intro for each one. The last thing she’d read while Max discussed Ocean Haven High’s football team with Ben. Both of her cousins were both standing over them, so she’d had to hide her jump. She felt like someone had jabbed her with a needle as she read about the Human Element of Magic. Even now, she had shivers crawling up and down her spine.

A witch can’t just take magic from anything—especially another witch. Witches aren’t power batteries for each other. Taking magic forcefully voids itself in the energy used. Even still, people learned the Human Element all the time. Life-long friends, trusted coven members, married couples would learn to pass magic back and forth in order to do spells outside of their abilities. They willingly shared their abilities. It was how the havens had been created. The book talked about it like it was a beautiful thing.

It sounded like it was…

Except for that other part. The part where she learned that without consent, there was only one way to just drain a witch like a battery and that was when the other witch cracked you open.

With torture.

Chapter 21

M
ina didn’t sleep. She didn’t even try. She read as much of the books as she could skimming for anything about the Human Element. She surfed the websites Grace included when she’d burned their lesson into the Books of Shadows. Mina read until her eyes hurt. She crawled up the steps to the turret in her bedroom, settled into the window seat, and wrote her notes. As she scribbled away, examining her thoughts and continuing to write, she came to a certainty she didn’t want to accept.

Someone in her family placed that spell on Sarah. She’d decided that before.

But now, she was sure that someone was after Sarah’s power.

The moon set, the stars faded, and eventually, the sun rose, all without Mina sleeping. When she could no longer think, she pressed her face against the glass and stared out, seeing nothing.

Once the clock slipped past 5:00am, Mina dressed. She waited until six to leave, but only because she didn’t want to wake Grace. Once it was late enough, she wound her way, on those twisting Ocean Haven roads towards Grace and Penny’s little cottage. Mina barely noticed the fog, the pack of horned bunnies, or the way the trees seemed to follow her movement.

When she opened the door, Grace’s hair was wet. Surprise was immediately evident, but Grace swung the door wide and let Mina in. Again, the house stretched out. The stove morphed, the pot rack appeared, and on the newly bigger stove, a hot tea pot already waited.

Grace made Mina chamomile tea, not needing to ask before adding an excess of cream and sugar. Even with horror riding her, the tea provided a dash of comfort.

“Well?” Grace puttered around the kitchen, making plates of fruit salad and toast.

Mina didn’t answer with words. Instead, she pulled her notes out from the night before. The drawings she’d printed from the internet. She gave them to Grace and took the apple from her. Peeling it and dicing it for Grace’s salad. Mina followed with pineapple, an orange. She buttered the toast all while Grace perused the appetite killing pictures.

Witches on fire.

Witches on crosses.

Witches hung upside down.

Witches in agony.

Grace’s lips pressed together as she looked the pictures over and then began reading Mina’s notes. Grace paused often, let her eyes rest on the horrifying drawings, and then stare towards Mina. When she finished reading the notes, her fingers lingered on the worst of the drawings—the burning witch.