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I cleared my throat. God, he could read me like an open book! He was a bastard, but maybe I wasn’t far from being one, either. I was the result of my upbringing.
“Don’t you, for once, want to do something good and noble in your life?” I insisted. “The way things look now, you’re going to Hell. I can assure you. I can even tell you what Circle they’ll put you in.”
He sighed, but there was something in his eyes that told me I was finally getting to him. Fear. Thanks to me, he knew Heaven and Hell were real. I’d told them all about the school trips.
“We don’t have the finances to adopt a new kid, buy her clothes, feed her, and send her to school,” he said.
“I’ll take care of that.”
He snorted. “Didn’t your father disown you?”
Shit. I’d complained about it to my mom, and my mom told my dad everything. No matter how cruel he was to her, she still worshipped him or something.
“I’ll find a way. I’m surrounded by supernatural people.”
My guys would have helped me in a second, but I had to remember I’d broken up with them. In a moment of weakness or madness… I wasn’t sure myself. Who else could help me? Klaus came from a rich family, not to mention Lorna. But Yoli wasn’t their responsibility. She was mine.
“I’ll figure it out,” I said more to myself than to my dad.
The winter vacation was over in three days, and Stepan was still unmovable. My mom and I were doing our best, and even Corri tried to intervene on our behalf, but my dad didn’t like pixies. He tolerated her as a pet, but not as an actual being with feelings and emotions who could think for herself. I was getting ready to leave for the Academy, determined to come up with a new plan, when my mom came into my room. Her whole face was illuminated by a bright smile, and I instantly relaxed, feeling like she was about to take a burden off my shoulders.
“He said yes. I want a child so much, and he knows this is his chance to do better. Between me and you, he doesn’t want to go to Hell.” She laughed.
“So? When are we giving Yolanda the good news?”
“You go to school, my dear. Your father and I will book plane tickets to Bulgaria.”
She’d said the last part in an uncertain voice. They didn’t have money to fly back and forth between the US and Bulgaria for the adoption proceedings.”
“Corri, you can teleport other people, right?”
“You know I can. One at a time, though.”
I turned to my mom. “We’re going to learn how to teleport and take other people with us in PE this semester. So far, Professor Charon has been busy teaching the other kids what Morningstar didn’t allow her to teach last year. But Corri can take you.”
“Take us… where? How?”
I rolled my eyes, amused. “Where you need to go. In the blink of an eye.” I snapped my fingers. “Just like that.”
* * *
The look on Yoli’s face when Stepan and Ilena went to tell her they were intending to adopt her. I was with them, a few steps back. Corri was hiding in my bag. Tears gathered in the kid’s eyes, and I might have teared up a little, too.
“Let’s hope that you can dream,” I whispered under my breath.
“Is that really all you care about?” Corri asked, her tiny head peeking out of the bag.
I pushed her back down with my finger. “No. It’s what I choose to focus on, so I don’t get attached.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Yoli was with my adoptive parents, and I was at Grim Reaper Academy. We weren’t cousins anymore, we were sisters. A bit of Lorna magic had helped speed up the adoption process. No one had time for bureaucracy. Between classes and avoiding the guys, what was left of my free time was spent back in Kentucky, with Yolanda. I’d usually teleport there every evening to have dinner with them. It wasn’t long before Yoli figured out something was off. My parents had told her I was studying in Salem, so it didn’t make sense that I could visit them three-four times a week. One night, after dinner, Stepan pulled me aside.
“If you only did this for her, then prove it. Keep her out of your world, let her live a normal life. She doesn’t need to know about Grim Reaper Academy, or that you’re actually teleporting here, not flying. Stay away for a while, why won’t you?”
“Fine.”
So, I stayed away for a while. We were talking and texting all the time, so it was all the same to me. She’d started telling me about her dreams. Childishly, just to make conversation…
