Forty-One
I manage to pretend everything is fine until we’ve finished eating dinner. After cleaning up, I give Mom what I hope is a cheerful smile and tell her I’m going to relax in the pool in my bathroom for a while, now that I’ve learned a few spells for changing the scent and color of bubbles. But the moment I’m up the first flight of stairs, I run. My feet don’t stop pounding the floor until I reach my room. My hands shake as I pull a jacket on over my hoodie and snatch a candle and stylus from the drawer beside my bed. I double-check to make sure Bandit is still in my pocket.
Then I freeze, completely lost for a moment as to where to go or what to do.
Mom wants me to kill people? What the freaking hell?
The picture I have in my head of the perfect life the two of us are supposed
