Darkest Day (24 page)

“He was at Maddie’s house,” Suze said. “You know that blonde girly with the—”

My inner anger meter went from calm to furious. “What? How the—what the—” Needing an outlet, I stomped down the hall to the kitchen and back.

“Mackenzie, darling. You must calm until a solution is found.”

I couldn’t. I itched to run, to channel my energy, what little I had, into something more productive. Something with bite. Something that would really scare the truth out of Maddie. “Where is she?”

“Where is who?” Alina asked.

On a pivot, I said, “Maddie. Where is Maddie, Suze?”

He pointed toward my front door.

“Take me there. Now. The fastest way possible.”

Suze turned to Alina. She nodded. “I’ll tend to Winn. When all is well, I’ll call.”

• • •

I
held on to Suze, standing on the porch at Maddie’s house, breathing as deep as possible to keep from throwing up again.

“You keep that green color and you’re not going to make anyone think you’re mad,” Suze said.

“Shut up.” My retort came out a whimper.

I’d traveled the demon way with him only a few times, and when I’d said ‘fast’, he’d delivered. Sucking in air and blowing it out helped steady me. A little.

“We coulda taken the Hummer, you know,” he said.

With effort, I straightened, easing myself to a complete stand. “Okay, I think I’m good.”

One lip pushed out. “But you lost your mad.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Trust me. I didn’t lose my mad.” With a step toward the front door, I reached up and pounded my first on the wood.

Suze leaned in close. “You coulda used the doorbell.” His chunky finger pressed the button.

“Fists are better. And it’ll prepare me to pound on the little—”

The door opened, Moira standing inside. “Mackenzie. What’s—”

I stormed right past her, searching for Maddie as I entered. When she didn’t appear, but the doctor from the hospital sat on the couch by himself, I turned back to Moira. “Where is she?”

“Where is who?” she asked.

“Don’t give me that. Where is Maddie? Where is your daughter? Where is my former friend?”

Moira’s eyes blazed with an intensity I figured reflected in my own. “Just a minute. I’ll get her.”

No sooner did she say the words than footsteps bounded above us, across the ceiling, softening for a moment before traipsing their way down a set of stairs I located at the back of the living room.

Maddie dropped to the first floor right in front of me. “Oh … hello …
Mac
.”

“What did you do to Winn?”

She zoomed away, right into her mom’s arms.

As she did, Suze moved to my side.

“Tell me. What did you do?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Maddie flicked her hair at me.

Without proof, I had no way to pin her to Winn’s sudden illness, for lack of a better term, or to mine, but I knew. Something deep inside told me so. I did, though, know about another. “I know you drugged Caroline.”

Maddie’s eyes opened wide. They darted to her mom and back to me. “What
are
you talking about? Why would I do that?”

Winn.
“I don’t know. You tell me.” I pointed a finger at her.

“I have no reason to do that to you, Mac.” A sheen of irritation ran along the current of sweet words.

“Me? I didn’t say me. I just said Caroline.”

Maddie pushed up against Moira.

“What did you think you’d accomplish with the sleep-aid drink? Huh? Make Caroline and me crash so you could … what? Take Winn from me? Like you all but said you would at his house?”

A small gasp left Moira.

“Seems like a good answer to me,” Suze said.

I glared at him, returning to Maddie. “Seriously, Maddie. What gives with all this? All the underhanded, back-stabbing stuff?”

“I want to know, too.” Suze said.

“I don’t—”

“Stop!” I threw my hands up. “Stop
lying
.”

“That’s enough, Mackenzie.” Moira stepped away from Maddie toward me. “I’ve let you go on long enough, but at this point, I have to ask you to leave.”

“No,” I said to Maddie. “I’m not leaving until I get answers.”

The man on the couch rose. “Maybe we should call the police …”

Moira waved him down. “That won’t be necessary. I’m sure we can work this all out at a more appropriate time of night.”

Glaring at Maddie, I said, “Did you, or did you not, make a sleeping draught and make Caroline drink it?”

She hesitated, her body twitching slightly. “I did not make her drink a sleeping draught.”

“That’s not what I asked, and you know it. Did you watch her drink it?”

Moira dropped her head into her hands.

“Lie again, and I’m going to do just like I did last time. At Caroline’s house.”

Maddie shivered.

Becoming an ogre again didn’t fit in my agenda, as I didn’t have a change of clothes, but if scaring the piss out of her needed to happen, I’d do it. “Last chance. You know, ogres eat goblins.”

She backed up into Moira, who said, “Mackenzie! You wouldn’t!”

“Oh, yeah, I would.” I inhaled and prepared to exhale to begin my change. Slow and steady would be my plan.

“Enough!” Moira pointed to the door. “I will not allow you to threaten me in my own house.”

“Look—” Maddie started.

“Be quiet Madeline,” Moira said.

“No! I didn’t do anything wrong. You got sick, Mac, and I wanted to make sure Winn was okay.”

“Quiet, Madeline!”

“So I followed him out to his car.” Her tone came across sincere. “He seemed a little off, so I brought him here, where I knew I could get some help since my Dad’s a doctor. Okay? That’s it. Got it?” She leaned in closer and closer to me as she talked. “And your—” She waved her hand up and down Suze’s form. “—guy, here, took him and brought you back, so now I don’t even know what’s wrong with him.”

“Alina’s going to take care of him and find out what he drank,” Suze said. “Like Mac. Alina figured that out, too. And the purple fizzy one you gave that other one. And your mom already knows about it, anyway, because I dropped you off here that night.” He nodded as if he’d explained everything.

Maddie’s mouth dropped open.

Moira knew. That little titbit had escaped my memory.
A smirk took hold of my lips. “Oh, yeah, sorry I didn’t mention that …
Maddie
.”

Suze squeezed in close to my ear. “You can bring this to the Council if you want since … you know … it looks like
someone
didn’t file a report, otherwise the little girl would know her mommy knew.”

I raised an eyebrow.
A report?
I turned to Moira. “You want me to take this to the Council on your behalf? Or do you want to?”

Maddie’s eyes filled, tears prepping to fall over her lids as Moira shook her head and closed her eyes.

“What a girl,” I said, staring. “Here go the waterworks. You know what? Forget it. Let’s go, Suze. I’ll handle this one, myself. Once I figure out what Winn took and how he got it, I’ll deal with the traitor.” I stepped toward the door, Suze following, but craned my neck over my shoulder. “You know … harm to humans is a number one no-no. Food. Fun. Blah blah blah. This classifies as none of the appropriate categories.”

“Wait!” Maddie said.

“Madeline, enough,” Moira said again.

Suze and I spun and faced Maddie.

“I might know who did … something.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Who, then … and what did they do exactly?”

She bit her lip. Moira’s head continued to swing right and left. “Ridge. He … he was coming back into the prom and being all cocky and self-righteous. He’d disappeared for a bit and came back in. I … I followed where we went and found Winn all confused.”

Liar, liar, pants on fire.
The old melody played through my head.

“You still have her on Caroline’s exposure if you want to let the Council do something,” Suze whispered into my ear.

“Two can play this game, Maddie. You want to go one on one, or one on twelve? Truth now. You. Me. Or we’ll have a chat with the Council about the ingredients in Caroline’s Kool-Aid.”

“Worst case scenario,” Suze whispered again, though I didn’t know why since I assumed everyone else around me could hear him. “They take away her ability to do magic because she gave it to Caroline. Best case, they inject her with a little truth serum so she’ll spill her guts.”

I repeated what he’d said just to make sure they got the gist.

Maddie’s eyes would have bugged out of her head if she hadn’t blinked so much. I expected blood to start dripping from her palms any second with the fists she made.

“You know they can trace magic. And herbs. Medicinal ones especially,” Suze said.

I waved a hand at Maddie. “But that doesn’t matter for you, right? Because
you
don’t know anything.
You
didn’t do anything.
You’re
just an innocent little human girl.”

“I’m not human.” She all but spit the words at me

“Maddie—” Moira began.

“Shut up, Mom.” Her fingers dug into her palms, whitening her knuckles. “I’m the good girl. The complete opposite of you!” she yelled at me. “And all my life, I’ve been reminded that I can’t say anything about what I am, who I am, or anything, because of who my mom is. Nothing! I live like a human and can’t even be true to my heritage.” The sheen of tears evaporated. “On top of that, it’s always Mackenzie this and Mackenzie that. I hear nothing about anyone but you!” She surged forward to my toes, coming up to my nose. “You, Mac.
You!
Why does she always talk about
you
?”

Suze leaned to my ear. “This is where you tell her you’re the Changeling.”

She doesn’t know?
I forced the smile to stay hidden.

Maddie growled. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac. Always something about Mac. Then all of a sudden, she starts saying how awesome it is that you and Winn are together! But, he was
mine
. I’ve liked him from the start of kindergarten, and he wouldn’t give me the time of day. At least, not like that. And he ignored
you
until he found that damn book.”

My book?

“What … book?” Moira asked.

“The one with all the supernatural creatures in it. Or the pictures at least,” Maddie said.

“How do you know about that?” Moira asked.

“Because I took it!” Maddie yanked on her hair. “To see if it had some answers to why Winn decided Mac was better than me. Why he asked her out instead of me. What she had that I don’t.”

Moira gasped.

Suze leaned down to me again. “You sure you didn’t slip her some truth serum already?”

“Wish I had. This might have gone faster. Why’d you think that book would tell you something, Maddie?”

“Because Winn had it and you only showed up because of it. I saw how you eyed it all through dinner that first night. I knew there was something in it, because he had it and you latched on to him. That had to mean something. Something I needed to know.”

“So you took my book.”

“Yes!” Her hands flew into the air. She stopped. “Wait. Your book? What do you mean,
your
book?”

I ignored her question. “Did you read it?”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “What. Do. You. Mean.
Your.
Book?”

“That book is all about me. My history. My heritage.
My
future.”

The eyes got all froggy-large again. Moira stepped up to Maddie and reached out, but Maddie swatted her back. “You’re—you’re the—”

So, she really didn’t know.
“The what, Maddie?” I leaned down toward her face. “What am I?”

“The—the …”

I gave her my best smirk. “Let me put you out of your misery … or better yet, add to it. Yes,
Mads
…” I brushed off a piece of dust from her shoulder. She winced under my touch. “I am the next Council member. Oh, and if you didn’t already know, your mom is
on
the Council.”

Maddie sighed. Moira glared at me.
Too bad for you both.

“You’re an awfully smart smarty-girl, but you’re really, really stupid, too. You seriously never put two and two together?”

She took a step back. “Why … you? You’re—you’re—”

“I’m what? The wrong kinda of person to rule part of your world? Not your kind of leader? Not the right girl for the job? Or just not the right one for Winn?”

Another foot backward.

“Your mom talks about me because I’m about to be her peer. Wrong person to mess with. Be prepared to tell all the truth, very, very soon.”

On a small scream, and with the addition of tears, Maddie ran toward the stairs and bounded up.

I turned to Suze. “Come one. I want to see if Alina’s fixed Winn, yet.”

Suze took my arm as Moira said, “Mackenzie,” in a soft tone.

“You brought this on yourself, you know. Talking about me and all this to a half-human, without giving her the explanation? There’s a reason the secret is secret. I guess, now, I know why Nahir and some of the others want to keep us separate from them.” I angled my head toward where the good doctor sat on the couch. “Can’t say as I blame them.”

“Mac, no.” She reached out and touched my arm. “Don’t go there. Please. I-I only told her the important stuff.”

“Kids know a whole lot more than parents give them credit for.”

“I—”

“Screwed up. Admit it to yourself, and you’ll feel a lot better.” I nodded to Suze, and he sucked us into his vortex of nausea inducing transportation, hopefully back to Winn.

23

Winn

“Someone really drugged me?”

Mac had told me the whole story when I joined her and Alina for breakfast. I still couldn’t believe it, nor did I remember any of it. I remembered going to the prom, the photographs, dancing and waking up. Nothing in between.

“Just a little overdose of temporary memory removal.” Alina glided toward the sink.

“How?”

Mac shrugged, digging into the stack of pancakes she’d doused in chocolate. “Dunno.”