Page 35 of Heart of Mischief

Charlie scrubbed the fifth option from her mind as soon as it appeared. No, she wouldn’t prefer to attend homecoming with Elias over this. Not unless the date included slicing off his legs again—his real legs, this time. And perhaps other parts of his body, too.

Henry squawked, running twice around her left ankle.

“Yeah, yeah,” she muttered.

With one last deep breath, she raised her fist and knocked twice.

“Yeah,” Mason called from inside. He probably assumed she was their mom.

He’s in for a surprise, she thought as she turned the handle and pushed the door open.

Mason was sprawled out on his bed, face illuminated by the laptop before him. Weeks had passed since Charlie had entered his room, but it looked the same as she remembered: a Kendrick poster on the wall, underwear on the floor, a rarely used desk, a closet door hanging open, sweatshirts and T-shirts spilling out, and a small locked cabinet in the corner that she knew from experience held a rotating supply of room-temperature vodka (“In case of emergencies,” Mason always said).

Henry scampered into the room from between her legs, eager to poke around.

“Is this about dinner?” Mason asked, slowly peeling his eyes away from the computer screen. “Because I’m not hungry. I think I have a…” When his gaze landed on Charlie, he snapped his jaw shut.

“Hey,” she said.

Mason dropped his gaze back to the computer, voice flattening. “What do you want?”

“Well.” Charlie shut the door carefully behind herself, then took a tentative step toward Mason. “I don’t know if you recall, but we had a few surprise visitors at school today, and—”

“Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t try to make a joke out of seeing Sophie today.”

“I wasn’t—gods, Mason. Of course I wasn’t making a joke out of it. I was trying to… I don’t know.” She rubbed her temples. “Obviously, seeing my dead twin isn’t funny to me. I’m just as rattled as you are. I—”

“No,” Mason interrupted. “You’re not as rattled as I am. And you know why?”

Charlie did, but she said nothing. Over in the corner, Henry found a pair of Mason’s boxer briefs and leaned down to sniff them.

“Because that wasn’t your first time seeing her.” Mason paused. “For all I know, it wasn’t even your second.”

“Well,thatis utter bullshit,” Charlie said. “Of course I haven’t seen her since that first time. If she had shown up at my window in the last three weeks, I would have told you. I would have—”

“Would you have, though?” Mason pushed his laptop aside, raising his voice as he slid off the bed. “Wouldyou? Or would you have wanted to keep her all to yourself, because she’syourtwin sister,yourlittle secret—”

“Is that seriously what you think?” Charlie asked. “You think I washoardingher?”

Mason crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow.

Charlie wanted to scream. What was this? What twisted web had Mason knotted up in his mind? That his own sister was that selfish? That she had kept the continuing existence of his little sister a secret, just so she could have Sophieall to herself? It was ridiculous. She had done it toprotecthim, godsdammit.

She closed her eyes and exhaled.Do not engage, she reminded herself.You came here for a specific purpose. Fulfill that purpose, then get the Hel out of here.

When she opened her eyes again, Mason still had his arms crossed, waiting for Charlie to deny his accusation. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction; if he wanted to take an act of kindness and twist it into something awful, that was his prerogative. She would move on. She would do what she came here to do, then they could go back to politely ignoring each other, the way they had since Sophie died.

“Look,” Charlie said, fighting and failing to keep her voice low. “I know you’re upset with me. I’ve tried to talk to you about this so many times, but—”

Behind her, the bedroom door opened.

“What on earth is going on in here?”

When Charlie turned around, she found her mom standing inthe doorway, one hand on the knob, looking between her children in bewilderment. Charlie swallowed, glancing at Mason. He wore the same look of shock and panic that she knew must be on her own face; neither of them realized how loud their argument had been.