Wildfire
“And you think this other House . . .”
“House Shaffer.”
“House Shaffer is involved?”
I sighed. “I don’t know. The hex was very powerful. It would take a Prime to get past it. It’s logical that it would be one of the three truthseeker Houses within the United States. They have the most skin in this game, which means it’s either Lin, Shaffer, or Victoria Tremaine. Our genetic profile couldn’t have been up for more than a few hours, and the moment it went up, Shaffer jumped on it. So I let them have the summary. Let’s see what they will do with that information.”
“Was that really wise? What if they share it with your grandmother?”
“Let’s say they do. It will confirm what she already knows. We’re her grandchildren.” I shrugged. “You know she had Dad’s DNA sequenced the moment he was born. She can probably predict our genetic makeup based on that alone.”
My mother frowned. “This worries me. This is the world your father escaped, Nevada. He’d done it for a reason. He hated it. It’s dangerous and he didn’t want to have anything to do with it. He didn’t want his children to be a part of it.”
I felt so tired. “What do you want me to do, Mom? We’re caught in this conspiracy. The only way out is to expose it. It’s a big tangled knot and the truthseeker is a string that’s sticking out. I’m pulling on it.”
“I don’t want you to strangle yourself with that damn string. We should’ve never filed to be a House.”
“Well, it’s too late for that, isn’t it? Mom, I’m trying to survive and keep everyone safe. You keep criticizing me, but there is nothing else I can do. You and Dad must’ve known that one day our grandmother would find us. What was the contingency plan?”
She didn’t answer.
“That’s right. There wasn’t one.”
My mother’s face turned a shade paler. “We could run.”
Not that again. I was so done with this.
“No. You and Dad could run, because it was only the two of you. But we can’t. There is me, Catalina, Arabella, the boys, you and Grandma Frida. That’s seven people. Where are we going to go? How will we hide seven people? Should we split up, so Victoria can get the weakest of us and then use that person as a bargaining chip? You know that’s a bad idea. Your plan was to hide forever. Well, it doesn’t work like that. A magical talent will break into the light. It’s inevitable. It’s a part of who I am. I’m a Prime truthseeker, just like my grandmother.”
Her expression turned harsh. “That’s not who you are.”
“Yes, it is. I’m our best hope. It’s now up to me to keep the girls and Bern and Leon safe. Except you and Dad hid us so well that now I’m untrained. I have never even used an arcane circle until this year. I hadn’t even known that I had other powers besides being a living lie detector. It’s all on me now, and I have no weapons to fight with. You did the same thing to Catalina and to Arabella, and now you and I are doing it to Leon. You can’t stuff us into a glass box and keep us from using our powers, Mom. We will go crazy. How about instead of criticizing me, you just help me? Because I need help.”
I turned and stomped out of the kitchen through the other entrance.
I lay in bed. I’d abandoned the sweatpants as soon as I stomped into my loft, slipped on a pair of underwear, and climbed into my bed, still wearing Rogan’s T-shirt.
When we sold the house and moved into the warehouse, my parents built me a loft apartment—a bedroom and a bathroom, accessible only by a wooden staircase. I could retract the last ten feet of it, which effectively frustrated my sisters’ attempts to bug me when I wanted to be left alone. I even had a window for my bedroom. It was a cozy space, my retreat from the world, my favorite place, where I ran away to when I was tired and overwhelmed. Right now it seemed empty. My bed seemed too big and empty too.
How in the world did I get used to sleeping next to Rogan so fast? I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of nights we slept together.
He didn’t ask for my DNA profile. I couldn’t decide how to feel about it. It depended on why he didn’t request it. Did he not request it because he loved me and didn’t care if we were genetically compatible, or did he not request it because he wasn’t thinking of anything serious like marriage?
Did I want to marry Mad Rogan?
Marriage meant exclusivity, but in the world of Primes, affairs weren’t just common. They were almost normal. I would do almost anything to stay with him, but sharing him with anyone else was beyond me.
Something knocked on my window.
Maybe it was a bat.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
I climbed out of the bed and walked to the window. A small grey rock tapped the glass from the outside. Knock-knock-knock.
I looked down. Rogan stood on the sidewalk.
Well. Think of the devil.
I pulled the latch up and opened the window. The rock streaked to the ground.
“I’m trying to sleep.”
“I said wait for me.”
“I did. I waited for an hour. Then I had to go home.”
“You’re mad at me.”
Thank you, Captain Obvious. “Why would I be mad at you? Is it because as soon as we had sex, you jumped out of our bed and rushed to see your ex-fiancée and was gone for almost two hours?”
“One hour.”
I checked the clock by my bed. “One hour and twenty-two minutes.”
“There was a hysterical child on the other end of the line. When I got there, his sister woke up and started crying. Then Rynda cried.”
“Did you soothe them to sleep?”
He gritted his teeth. “I made sure they aren’t crying.”
“Great. Then the problem is resolved. I’m going back to bed.”
“I asked you to wait for me and you didn’t.”
“Why would I stay there, Rogan? You weren’t there. I have my own bed right here.”
“What exactly did you want me to do? Was I supposed to listen to her scream and tell her to fuck off because I would rather stay in bed with you?”
“So now I’m the bad guy?”
“Well, yes, a little bit. I went to do something nice and you got mad about it. You’re overreacting.”
Ooh, no he didn’t.
“Nevada, as the Head of a House, there will be times I will have to get out of bed, no matter what we’re doing, and go take care of things.”
“Taking care of your ex-fiancée is House business?”
“I’ve known her since we were children.”
“Mhm.”
“She’s practically family.”
“And what am I?”
He realized he’d walked into it.
“As it happens, I’m also about to become a Head of a House. You’re right, sometimes things do come up, and we have to leave and take care of them. I’m not just going to lay all sad in your bed waiting for when you decide that you’re done blotting another woman’s tears. I have profile requests to evaluate and kidnappings to solve.”
“What profile requests?” he growled. “Who?”
“Not you, if that’s what you’re asking. You didn’t check on our genetic compatibility.”
“Who, Nevada?”
“Do you think if you snarl enough, I’ll tell you? You’re not that scary, Rogan, and I don’t respond well to intimidation. Maybe you should lather up some spit.”
“Who was it?”
He was like a dog with a bone. He wouldn’t let go of it until I told him, and it had very little to do with what I wanted to fight about. Fine. “House Tremaine and House Shaffer.”
“Did you say yes?”
“Not to Tremaine.”
“You said yes to Shaffer?”
“Yes.”
He lapsed into silence. His face arranged itself into a cold mask. “You’re right. You are becoming the Head of your House. Might as well start planning now.”
Oh, for the love of . . . “They asked for my basic profile to eliminate the possibility of familial relations, because they’re worried I might be a Shaffer love child.”