Faith gasped, her hand covering her mouth.“That’s so pretty.You’re a real-life mermaid.”
“A siren,” Declan agreed.
I tucked my shirt back in as Declan latched my overalls.“I’m not, but I do have some traits from my dad.”
“Arwyn Cassandra Corey, would you like to explain that tattooed octopus tentacle I just saw?”Mom glared at my back.
“What?Me?A tattoo?”I stepped around Declan so the wall of him was between Mom and me.“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Faith giggled.
“How did you even do that without being trapped in visions?”she demanded.
Declan stared down at me, his eyes twinkling.“You’re an adult in the process of creating another person.You can probably tell her now.”
My shoulders slumped.Mom still looked too scary, so I told Faith, “I’ve been pretty insecure about the scales most of my life.When I was a teenager, I decided I wanted a tattoo to help camouflage them.Mom, as you can see, was adamantly against it.”
“For obvious reasons,” Mom cut in.
“So I began researching spells that could give me the tattoo I wanted.It took forever, scouring grimoires, before I found one I could alter to work for me.I worked very hard on it and maybe put a little too much magic into it.”
Blowing out a breath, I unlatched both shoulder straps of my overalls and let Declan lift my shirt up in the back.Both Mom and Faith gasped.
“It’s so realistic,” Faith whispered.
“This is Ursula,” Declan said.When he touched my back, both Mom and Faith yipped in surprise.
“It moves!”Mom shouted.
Faith gasped again.“Where did she go?She got tiny and disappeared.”
I nudged Declan to pull my shirt down.“That’s because Mom scared her.Nice going, Mom.”
Mom rubbed her forehead.“You have a living tattoo running around your body and have since you were a teenager?How did you do this?”
I shrugged.“I have it all written down in one of my notebooks.”
Faith raised her hand.“Can you make me a?—”
“No,” Mom and I said together.
Mom paced away.“Honestly, Arwyn, the things you get up to.I think it may be better that I never knew.”
When Mom’s back was turned, I looked at Faith and gave her a subtle thumbs-up.She grinned hugely, noticed Declan’s furrowed brow of disapproval, and quickly walked back to the couch to pick up her empty can and put it in the recycle bin.
“We should probably get going, Aunt Sybil.I still have homework to do tonight.”
After they left, I filled Declan in on today’s revelations.
“Servants?”he asked.“That’s creepy.If there are no more sorcerers, what does that mean for Swans?”
I shook my head, plopping down on the sofa beside him.“No idea.With any luck, the loss of the grimoire and the sorcerer to teach an apprentice, maybe we can break that connection between the families.”
“Are we sure Calliope didn’t train anyone else?”He wrapped his arm around me.“Or that other one?Abigail?You said she taught the cousins when they were little.Do they only pick one apprentice?”
Groaning, I leaned into him.“We can hope.”
He stroked his hand up and down my arm.“New topic.You said you wanted to see your raccoon friends.We can order pizzas and hang out here until they arrive before we go home.”
