“He’s at home. Sleeping again.” Her lower lip trembled. “I wanted to walk you home. It’s almost the end of your shift.”
“No one’s doing a very good job taking care of you, are they?” I told her, kissing her cheek to cover the tears that stung at the back of my eyes. Tay had a good excuse, but it was harder being so angry and having no one to blame. It made my anger taste more like grief. “Let me tell my boss, and then we’ll walk home together.”
The children, shaking off the last of the angry green weeds choking up their legs, escaped. A few stopped and yelled at us from a safe distance. When I squinted at them, trying to clock faces—and families to visit—they fled.
Lidi ignored them, but it wasn’t very effective when high color clung to her cheeks and tears to her lashes. “No one else still has their magic at my age.”
“That’s why they’re awful to you. They’re jealous.”
Gods, she looked like our brother Tay when she gave me that look, as if she adored me, even though I was an idiot. “I’m like a baby. I just have silly magic, anyway.”
“It’s not silly. It’s yours.” I kissed her damp cheek again and set her on her feet. She had to walk herself, or they’d see her as an even easier target.
“I can’t do anything that matters,” she said, taking my hand in hers.
“That’s not true, Lidi.”
My boss had come outside. He stood there glowering at me. “I’m docking your pay for all the beer you spilled.”
“Fine. I’m going home.”
“And I’m taking the tips for all your tables I have to close out.”
“Fine.”Fine, and I’d steal them back.The thought left a sour taste in my mouth, but Tay’s medicine wasn’t getting any cheaper. If it came to my flimsy morality or my family’s well-being, family would always win out.
He huffed at my lack of reaction—or maybe my lack of repentance—and went back inside.
As we were passing the shuttered stalls of the farmers’ market and the neat little herb gardens that bordered the lodging house, an angry figure stalked up the road toward us.
I squinted at them. I needed glasses, but I needed money for glasses, and they were far down my tally of needs. “Is that Julvi?”
“Gordo’s big sister,” she affirmed glumly. Together, we said, “They’re the worst.”
“Gordo’s one of the kids bullying you?” I asked.
Lidi’s small hand squeezed mine, which was answer enough.
Julvi glared at me as she approached, already raising a finger to stab at me along with an accusation; she had to raise her voice to hurl it thatfar. “Your half-sister’s uncontrolled magic hurt my little brother! He’s all ripped up with scratches. She attacked them with thorns!”
“She didn’t start anything,” I said mildly.
“He’s bleeding bad, Cara!”
“Play stupid games,” I said with a shrug.
“You need to get that magic out of her,” Julvi hissed. “It’s not safe for children to have it. Especially since little brats like?—”
“Gordo are in danger, because she can defend herself?” I finished her sentence because I was not letting anyone call Lidi a brat.
Well, except for me sometimes. She hogged the bed we shared.
Julvi’s cheeks blazed. “You just want your little sister to bespecial. You hate that you aren’t special, so you’re living through her. But you’re not doing her any favors, Cara.”
Anger seared through my veins like fire, burning hottest in my cheeks.
But worst of all, I could feel my mark aching like a scab about to be torn open. Like I couldn’t keep it hidden forever. Like everyone might know one day that Iwasspecial.
“You’re not doing Gordo any favors by letting him grow up to be a jackass,” I told Julvi, and she gasped.
