Jennie answered his previous question instead. “You askedhow I found you. Truth is, I wasn’t looking for you. I knew what train you were on, checked the schedule and route, and figured out the earliest point where I could meet up with you.”
“I haven’t seen you in years. Haven’t heard from you.” Malcolm bit back the hurt and resentment that came from being abandoned by the older sister he’d loved. They were in danger, and such feelings were for later, if ever.
“That couldn’t be helped.”
“Because you had to see the world,” he said.
Jennie sniffed derisively. “I wasn’t taking a holiday, Mal. I’ve been everywhere. I’ve studied and I’ve trained. Educated myself about the true things that were the seeds for so many myths, including witchcraft.”
“Including vampires.”
“Them, too. That was a little harder. There aren’t many people alive who’ve met one. In this country, there isn’t anyone, now that Maggie’s dead.”
Malcolm knew they needed hours to have this conversation, maybe days, and they didn’t have that kind of time. He’d resented her for a long while, even as he’d missed her.
“Why?” he asked. “I know what you said to Violet, that Maggie didn’t pay attention to you, but that was just Maggie.”
“I know it’s hard to understand.” Her smile had sharp edges. “But we had a bond. She made me feel like I was the sun in her sky—when she wasn’t making me feel like shit. She told me folktales and stories about witches and monsters and tricksters and women in love. She’d talk to me about the power a woman could wield. She was proud of me, Mal. Right up until the day she wasn’t.”
Malcolm knew the way their mother could turn off her love, as easily as twisting the knob on the kitchen faucet and stopping the flow of water. But this seemed like something even more than that.
“Maggie told me I didn’t have witchcraft in my blood, so I should figure out a way to be useful,” Jennie went on. “Can youimagine a mother saying that to her daughter? Put aside the witchcraft—she dismissed me and told me to find a way to make myself worth her attention. I’ve spent years trying to do that, and now here I am, taking care of Momma’s special boy.”
He bristled. “I never did anything to you aside from being an annoying little brother when we were kids. But half the time, the way I remember, it was you and me against Elias. I thought we were close.”
Jennie closed her eyes again, as if she didn’t want to look at him while she spoke.
“I was her daughter and firstborn,” she said. “What she could do… I told you, it’s more than words. Anyone can sing the lyrics to a song, but some people are born with a beautiful voice and an ear for music. If you don’t have those gifts, no amount of training will change that.”
Malcolm watched the way his sister’s eyes moved beneath her lids, and the twitch of her upper lip. No matter how hard she’d become, how formidable, there were deep wounds inside her. This hurt.
“She thought it would be me,” Jennie said again. “When she realized I didn’t have the… theharmonywith the secret world, which is how she sometimes referred to it, I don’t have to tell you what her disappointment felt like to me. You know how much she could hurt us just with the way she spoke, the way she looked at you… or looked past you.”
Malcolm feared she would flinch, but he reached out and took her hand. Jennie allowed it, but a moment later, she extricated her fingers from his grasp. Whatever spite she felt, she didn’t want to surrender it.
“That’s why you said I was her golden child.”
Jennie opened her eyes and turned to him, gaze sharp. “She thought you were. For a month or so, she concentrated on Elias. Little tests he never noticed. I guess he had a trace of it, but she decided it had to be you.”
She gave a quiet, brittle laugh. “I hope like hell she was right.”
Malcolm thought of the blood and the screams from that night. He’d seen far more killing, far more death in the war, but this was much worse. That had been combat, terrifying and heartbreaking, but eventually, the two sides would always put their weapons down, mourn the dead, and rebuild. These creatures were obviously incapable of that.
“If she was wrong,” he said, “I’m pretty sure we’re going to die.”
Jennie laughed again, this time a bit more brightly. “Let’s hope you’ve got the stuff, then, little brother.”
“I hope Violet figures out how to get us out of here,” he said. “Or it won’t matter.”
Jennie exhaled, relaxing a bit. “You really love her, huh?”
“Since the day we met,” he said, then realized the implication. “I’d never have let it go anywhere. Swear to God. But Elias abandoned her—cast her off like garbage—and we grew close. We sort of held each other up, took care of each other, and Maggie at the same time. She knows me like nobody ever has. She—”
“Okay, lover boy. You can shut up about how perfect she is. If you’re worried about me judging you or taking up against you on behalf of Elias’s honor, don’t fret. Elias has grown up to be an alcoholic whoremonger, and I wouldn’t wish marriage to him on my worst enemy. As for Violet, she’s gorgeous and has some real backbone. If I’d been left alone with her for a year or so, I’d probably have fallen in love with her, too.”
“Oh,” Malcolm said, blinking. He cocked his head. “Oh!”
Jennie narrowed her eyes. “I’m going to do my best to put aside the bitterness I’ve been nursing all this time, at least until we put Maggie in the ground. I don’t know what that’ll mean when it’s done, but I don’t think you and I are gonna be best friends.”
