Page 49
He hesitated and then shrugged. “Yeah. He inherited all the dark magic, but he felt like our parents sucked when they started getting into the really dark stuff, so he never touched it. And he hates the Teeth, but he also feared him.”
“Whatever! Next time you chaperone, killing each other includes holding hands!” I whirled around and would have stomped off, but I slipped in the mud and landed hard on my back, knocking the wind out of myself. And the rain came down on my face.
I coughed and clambered to my feet, giving Clark a glare. “Do you think you could stop the rain?”
“The weather is a reflection of my emotional state. As long as my wife despises me, how can I feel anything but misery?”
I shook my head and started for the house.
I grabbed a towel for my head and scrubbed my hair dry while I looked for Sage. I found her curled up in her bed in her still-wet clothes.
“Hey,” I said, rubbing her hair with the dark green towel. “So, you and Donny?”
She sat up and grabbed the towel out of my hands, glaring at me. “No! Not me and anyone. I thought he was something special, something good and noble, but he’s just like every other male who betrays a woman. Like Dad! Why are all men such jerks?”
I sat down on the bed next to her and shivered. “Maybe it’s magic. Maybe it makes people messed up.”
“And why did I have to fall for him? Like you and Dad. Even after everything he did and lied about, I mean, he’s not even in the same body, but you’re still going to forgive him, and you still totally love him.”
“I do not!”
“You do! I heard the song while I was cleaning up the blood. That was so gross. Seriously, and Dad’s family did that? Is that how much blood Ray had to clean up? So I get that Donny’s mad. I’m mad at Dad because he killed Donny’s parents. I’m outraged, but at the same time, he’s my dad! I can’t let people kill him just because he works for a company that has no ethics.”
I patted her back and considered. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I do want to go back to being blissfully happy in my marriage. It wasn’t perfect because it wasn’t real, but it was real to me. And I really did love him.”
“You still love him. If he’d stop being an idiot and apologize to you and beg your forgiveness, you totally would.”
“Probably,” I said then sighed. “I don’t think you should stay angry at Donny. I mean, he lost so much, and your dad…”
She sobbed and buried her face in my chest. “I know. I hate him. Why couldn’t he actually be a businessman? Why does he have to be a psycho killer with face-tattoos?”
“And sit in the rain so I worry about him catching pneumonia.”
“And make pancakes magical?”
“And be so hot, even with face tattoos.”
She straightened up, sniffing and shaking her head. “Yeah. I guess it’s hard to love someone when they aren’t perfect, but no one actually is perfect. So we don’t have to be perfect, either.”
“Not that we could be, no matter how hard we try. Let’s go bowling.”
She raised her brows. “Excuse me?”
“Bowling. Let’s go do something normal.”
“But we never go bowling. How would that be normal?”
I shrugged and got up, head still pounding, but less. “I’ll go find the boys.”
“The face-tattoo villain won’t let us go if he thinks it’s not safe.”
“Then the face-tattoo villain can come with us. I’ll take pictures of the dark sorcerer bowling. It’ll be hilarious.”
She sighed. “Okay. But I still hate him. Except that I don’t. I can’t hate my dad when he’s never hurt me, even if he hurts other people.”
“That makes you normal. And everyone has someone who loves them. That’s what they say. Come on. Take a shower and get dressed in dry clothes. We’ll take an umbrella.”
I went to check on the boys. They were in the world room, sliding cars over the floor where there’d been so much blood. “We’re going bowling,” I said. “Don’t go outside and get wet until we go. Have you eaten?” What time was it anyway? Four? Then we could get dinner on the way home. Or get bowling alley food. That sounded healthy.
