Timespell (10 page)

Kaitlyn slammed her locker shut. “Done deal. Invisibility, freezing time—I want it all.”

Angie glanced at Julia, wordlessly urging her to come closer. She put a hand on Julia’s arm.
What are you thinking?

That this is too weird,
Julia said.
I don’t know whether it’s worth it anymore.

I wish my grandmother were still alive,
Angie said, continuing to brush her hair.
I wish we had more time. More real time.

What do you think Indira would say?

Angie knew. The magic of the Fates was more important than her own personal feelings. It was so rare to find the final Daughter. So difficult.

Yeah, I figured as much.

Julia broke the connection and Angie began counting out her brushstrokes, going from scalp to tip three times on each side of
her head. Three was such a wonderful number. Everything came out right in threes ....

Everything except finding the third Daughter.

She stopped brushing. Kaitlyn paused in her eyeliner application. She met Angie’s eyes in the mirror and smiled.

Kaitlyn’s smiles were never pleasant.

“I want to know more,” Kaitlyn crooned, dipping her liquid liner brush into a small, black bottle. “It’s not really fair that you two have been doing this for ... how long now?”

Angie set her brush down as her stomach knotted. “I’ve known all my life. Julia found out a few days after her sixteenth birthday, when I marked her.”

Kaitlyn spread a thick line of eyeliner across her lid. If they were ever summoned to Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra would be proud.

“So, now what?” Kaitlyn asked, dusting her face with a long-handled makeup brush. “We get sealed and get to keep our powers?”

“Yes. If we choose to be.”

“What do you mean, ‘if’?” She paused again, a blur of powder drifting in the air in front of her. “You’ve known about the magic all your life, but I’m barely finding out about my power. I’m not giving it up at midnight. It’s mine now.”

Angie didn’t answer. She made sure her locker was in order, then shut it and spun the combination to zero. “Let’s get out of here.”

She didn’t miss the way Kaitlyn’s eyes narrowed at her in the mirror, but she didn’t care. Her head was a mess. She needed something else to think about, something to cool her blood, which had become thick and heavy in her veins.

“Where should we go to unfreeze time?” Julia asked.

“Wait, why don’t we have a little fun while time’s frozen?” Kaitlyn said, her eyes glittering.

Angie measured her words. “Let’s check the staircase by the science labs. It’s usually empty.”

“Good idea,” Julia said, picking up the crumpled printout of Kaitlyn on their way out.

“Hel-lo!” Kaitlyn called. “Don’t act like I’m not here.”

Julia spun around, a blur of wild auburn hair. Her skin took on a vibrant rose color and her brown eyes flashed. “Why not? You do it to other people all the time! And I’m so disgusted with you I can’t stand to look at you, much less seal myself to you!”

“Julia,” Angie almost yelled. Why couldn’t she at least try to make this work?

“I don’t know how you stand her, Angie.” Julia turned a fake-sweet smile onto Kaitlyn. “Hey, Kaity-cakes, where would
you
like me to unfreeze time? Is there a throne or something you find especially comfortable?”

“You little reject.”

“Oh, get over yourself.”

“Stop it,
please
!” Angie yelled. “Let’s unfreeze time and get through the day.”

Kaitlyn crossed her arms under her chest. “I want to be sealed. Now.”

Angie exchanged a glance with Julia. “We have to think things over.”

“And by ‘we,’ you mean the two of you? Give me a break.”

Angie reached the stairwell. “This is too big of a decision to make right this second. I’m sorry, Kaitlyn.”

Julia placed her hand in Angie’s waiting palm, but Kaitlyn glared fiercely. “No.”

Angie clenched her jaw and forced herself to take a deep breath. “Kaitlyn, please give us your hands. There’s nothing for us to do here.”

“There’s
so
much to do!” Her eyes gleamed with malice, sending a chill up Angie’s spine. “Just watch me.”

Angie knew the kind of harm Kaitlyn was capable of, and it would be worse than pushing a few people around in the locker room. With time frozen she could really hurt someone and completely get away with it. Angie’s heart sank. For the third time
that day she grabbed Kaitlyn’s arm and forced her power, drawing it out of Kaitlyn, feeling her resistance, knowing it was wrong to overwhelm her this way. What choice did she have? It wasn’t just her and Julia anymore. It never would be again.

Kaitlyn’s
boots clicked on the smooth marble tile. Home right after school. It had been a while since she had done that. She passed the formal living room and headed for the den, hardly knowing what to do with herself. A few years ago she would have run to the kitchen to see what Irma had made for her snack. She would have rushed to finish her homework so she could lose herself to music practice, or to whichever video game she was in the middle of.

Her dad’s feeble attempts to buy her video games now made her laugh when she remembered his over-the-top rage over how she spent all day playing them. Now he probably wished video games were her only problem. She saw it in his eyes, the way he looked at her, like he wondered how to fix something that was so freaking broken.

Her clicking footfalls became muffled by carpet as she reached the den. The mark on her arm sent a soft, warm pulse through her body. It almost felt soothing. She glanced down at it, pleased at the thought that having a tattoo would bother her parents. She
went out of her way to be a terrible daughter to them. She didn’t give a rat’s ass. They didn’t either, as long as she kept her mouth shut about the things that mattered to them.

But life would be different now, with the magic. If she could figure out how to use it without the little cheerleading princess and her spaz of a sidekick.

She unzipped her boots and threw them in the closet before lying on the sofa. The magic was strong inside her. Alive. It seemed linked to her emotions. She shut her eyes, concentrating on the power she felt growing inside her.

She glanced down at her hands and focused. White light collected in her palms, accumulating in strength and brightness. What could she do with it? Her gaze flitted around the room, landing on a large picture frame hanging on the wall. The girl in the picture had golden-brown hair and held a violin. Her teeth were crooked and her smile was forced as she posed in a frilly, lace-collared dress. Bright green eyes stared back through time.

Release.

A ball of pent up rage rolled through her, shooting out through her palms and blasting out with the magic. Twin streams of light hit the picture dead-center. The frame fell and glass shattered. Kaitlyn didn’t startle at the noise. She didn’t move from the sofa, but stared at the picture as it was, the frame propped at an angle on the floor against the wall. The picture hadn’t torn, but a scratch marred the girl’s face. The sight made Kaitlyn shudder. She touched her hair, which was now as black and lightless as the stylist could dye it. Who was that golden-haired girl in the picture? How had it ever been her?

She grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, not bothering with the mess of broken glass. Nothing was on except reality shows, and she already had enough reality of her own. She paused for a moment on an old anime show that was being re-aired. Girls in school uniforms transformed into superheroes.

Her heart lurched. It seemed a lifetime ago that she and Dawn would watch this together. Images flashed through her mind and
she changed the channel, wishing she could change her thoughts just as easily. Dawn’s face stuck there, like it always did. Dawn, who had been the first to give up playing violin. Kaitlyn had done the same, always faithful to her precious Dawn. Always an idiot. Then Dawn gave up video games and anime and everything else they used to do together.

Whatever. God, junior high. It felt like so long ago, but the memories still hit hard. Dawn had used her. Every smile and whispered word of friendship had all become material for Dawn’s quest for popularity. Painful secrets, special moments—nothing had been sacred. Rumors followed her, words that spoke more truth than she could stomach.

Her gaze returned to the broken picture against the wall. Golden-brown hair. Forced smile. What would have happened if she hadn’t chosen to dye her hair? If she hadn’t changed herself completely, starting with exacting revenge on Dawn? That girl in the picture could have shut down and become invisible, gone back to her violin and fantasy world of anime and video games. She could have made friends with someone new and been a rainbows and sunshine idiot all over again. Angie had tried to be her friend, briefly, but Kaitlyn wasn’t about to trust anyone ever again. Especially not goody-goody Angie. The little cheerleader did everything she could to rub it in Kaitlyn’s face that she had the perfect life.

The picture stared back at her with green eyes that were too wide and vulnerable. Kaitlyn lifted her chin. Her eyes never looked like that anymore.

She stroked the jet black hair she had been dyeing since the summer before eighth grade. She looked like a witch. It suited her. A hard knot of triumph formed where the pain of her memories had been only moments before. She smiled as the magic grew within her. A new source of power. Strength. She would
always
have the upper hand now.

The door slammed and adult voices echoed across the high arched ceiling. Kaitlyn glanced down at her micro miniskirt and
matching black top. Her father hated her in these clothes. What was he doing home? His work kept him out of the house more often than in it. And someone was with him.
Damn.
He always brought guests to the den, with its stupid billiard set and the bar in the corner. A spark of irritation ignited in her chest and her hands glowed brighter. She clenched them tight. Let him see the tattoo. Let him hate it and hate her for having it, but there was no way he was going to find out she had powers.

The voices grew louder. She heard her uncle’s laughter. For a moment her heart seized uncomfortably. Her gaze flicked over to the two figures as they entered the room, both in white polo shirts and ball caps. Her dad and uncle hadn’t been golfing together in a while. She had hoped they had given it up.

She returned her attention to the TV, tuning out their conversation about the stock market and what their portfolios were going through.

“Kaity, you’re home,” her father said when he noticed her.

Way to state the obvious.
He sounded happy to see her. She changed the channel again without looking up.

“Hey,” he snapped. “It’s respectful to answer people when they talk to you.”

The moment crackled. She didn’t need to look at him to know his face had darkened.
Manners, respect, common courtesy.
The old fight would be taken out on her mother tonight. She didn’t care. In another two years she would be eighteen and this whole house and its jacked up problems would be a thing of the past.

“Teenagers,” her uncle said in a tone meant to diffuse the tension.

Kaitlyn turned up the volume, not allowing herself to feel any emotion at the sound of his voice. No disgust. No anger. She and her uncle lived in some sort of opposite world where they both acted as though nothing had ever happened. Which was true, the way mother told it.

“Are the boys upstairs?” her dad asked.

“How should I know?”

His voice rose. “Must everything be an issue? I asked a simple question.”

“And I gave a simple answer.”

“Turn that off and go to your room.”

She didn’t glare at him or argue. There was a limit she wouldn’t go beyond. She had to live here for two more years, after all.

As she walked out she felt her uncle’s eyes on her. Magic pooled in her hands, pumping with heated fury from the rage in her heart. How she hated that man. But she hated her mother more, because she knew. She knew everything, and still she convinced her father that it hadn’t been true. She had protected her brother instead of her daughter, and now they let him in here like it meant nothing.

She rounded the corner and took off, running down the hall and racing up the stairs like a little kid. When she reached the top she wished the stairs went even farther up, right through the ceiling and up to heaven. But there was no heaven because there was no god. There couldn’t be or else the world wouldn’t let monsters near little kids and pretend those monsters were good men.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Why had she come home? Why hadn’t she gone to someone else’s house or hung out until late at night when her family was asleep? She slammed her bedroom door shut. Screw her family. Screw the whole world. She heard her brother and cousin, their voices muffled against the blast of punk music coming through the walls. A small bubble of longing formed inside her and she squelched it. Her gaze narrowed. Longing for what? Friendship? She almost laughed. Calvin and Greg could keep their stupid friendship. So could Angie and Julia and the whole rest of this world.

The only thing that mattered now was the magic. It would give her the upper hand in everything. And she wouldn’t need anyone or anything anymore, if she could only figure out how to use it.

Julia
rushed home and showered off as quickly as she could. Brian was picking her up at six, and thanks to Angie’s way-too-long discussion after school, she only had an hour to get ready. Why did the whole Kaitlyn-thing have to happen this week? It almost made Julia believe the Fates were really out there, conspiring to make her life as crappy as possible.

She toweled off and threw on a bra and panties before digging under her bed for her curlers. Why, why, why had Angie needed to talk about Kaitlyn for so long? There had been nothing to say. Kaitlyn was a capital B who didn’t deserve any powers. Julia plugged in her rollers and took out the hairspray. Crap, it was going to suck becoming normal again. She hadn’t even learned how to push stuff around from across the room. And they hadn’t gotten to try being invisible for very long.