And I, against my will, am stuck in the center of everyone’s gaze.
I suck in a deep breath, like I’m flailing in the middle of the lake all over again, and try to get it over with.
“She asked what I wanted,” I start. “So I told her. I want to know what to do. How to”—I gesture vaguely at the frost-fringed windowpanes—“fix things. And she said she could answer that for me if I answered something for her.”
Silence. Morgan’s the first to nod.
“Which was?”
I take another deep breath. “She asked me, and I quote,Who do you think you are?”
The kitchen goes silent, save for the sizzling of the pan and the faint hum of the refrigerator.
“A riddle,” Kingston says at last. “Isn’t it?”
“I thought so.” My voice sounds terribly small. “But I didn’t have the right answer—obviously. So I…”
I trail off.So I sank like a stone to the bottom of a freezing lake.
An acrid, scorched smell fans out from the stove.
“Shit,” Kai mutters, and snaps off the burner. It’s too late: the pan he lifts is coal-black and charred.
Morgan sighs. “Here. Let me?—”
“No,” say the rest of us in unison. Morgan scowls, but relents.
I smirk, grateful for the tiny flash of comic relief. “Can anyone in this family cook?”
The three of them exchange a look.
“Yes,” Morgan says at last. “The…cook.”
In the end, we settle on toast. I oversee the bread in the toaster; Morgan butters.
“So when you say you didn’t have the right answer,” Kingston says, after two polite bites of his not-too-burnt slice. “What was the answer you had?”
“I didn’t,” I say shortly. “Not really. I said I didn’t know, I guess?” My memory is a little fuzzy, to be honest. I rub my forehead.
“And then what?” he presses, gently.
“And then…”
And then I fell underwater, got pulled out by Callahan, and proceeded to throw myself at youandyour foster brother.
My cheeks burn.
God, what iswrongwith me?I think. I clench my fists so tightly I swear my fingernails cut into my palm.WhodoI think I am?
“Haven’t touched your toast.” Kai appears in my field of vision, nodding at my plate.
“Oh. Yeah.” I poke at the crust with a fingertip, nudging the slice a half-centimeter forward on the plate. “There. Touched.”
Kai rolls his eyes. “C’mon. Don’t try to get out on a technicality.”
“I thought getting out on technicalities was what we were all about, here,” I mutter. But I submit to taking a bite.
“So that’s it, then,” Kingston says, folding his hands. “You’ve got to answer her riddle.”
