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Incensed by Evie’s supercilious tone, Saskia banged the palms of her hands onto the table loudly. “Don’t you dare try to put your perfect little spin on things. Don’t you dare speak about me as if I wasn’t here. I bet you would love it if I didn’t exist. You always made me feel like an outsider. What was the problem? Was it that I looked more like dad than like you and mom?” She yanked her blond hair roughly. “Well, excuse me! I can’t help if I’m not as perfect as you two. I can’t help if I took after dad instead of our perfect angelus mother. I might not have any of the magic, but I am a person too!”
Storm reached out to put his hand over Saskia’s, stunned that she felt this way. He had never thought that he’d done anything to make her feel like that. She had never expressed this before. But Saskia snatched her hand away from him, and turned her accusing glare on him instead of Evie.
“It’s too late now,” she said. “You left me behind and came to this country for your stupid job. So don’t try to be my perfect big brother, because you are not!”
She looked fiercely at Evie. “And you left too. You went back to Otherworld to get married to your stupid husband and have your perfect little kids and be your perfect family without me. But it’s not perfect, is it? Because we all know that Nash is a horrid git, no matter how much of a pretty facade you try to put on things. Well, guess what? Life isn’t perfect. Look at us for example. One in the realm, one in America, and one running off to London to bury his head in the sand. What is the point of even pretending to be a family? We’re not one. We might as well accept it!” She stabbed the table with her finger for emphasis.
There was a ringing silence.
Diana broke it. “Wow,” she said. “You guys sure have a lot of angst. Storm is so perfect that I assumed it would all be happy families with him. Boy was I wrong. This is amazing. Please continue. Tell me everything. I wish I had ordered popcorn.”
“Nobody is pretending to be perfect,” Evie said in an even voice.
“Gaargh!” said Saskia, shaking her fists in frustration. “Don’t you dare say what you think I want to hear just to appease me.”
Evie ignored Saskia. She was looking at Storm. “For example, if Constantine was perfect he would have returned to the Realm long ago to fulfill his responsibilities.”
Storm felt like she had punched him in the gut. “Evie!” he said in a warning tone.
“Ooh, don’t stop now,” said Diana. “What responsibilities?”
Saskia spoke up with a cruel smirk on her face. “She means his —”
“Saskia!” Storm snapped, his voice is sharp as a whip.
It shocked the defiance out of her. Her expression turned sulky. But that didn’t stop her from saying, “Storm’s an Archon, don’t you know?”
Diana leaned towards Saskia with great interest. “What’s an Archon?”
“It’s the single most important position in the various Otherworld communities,” said Saskia. “Storm inherited it from our patriarchal bloodline. He’s supposed to become an all-powerful angelus and watch over the community like some avenging heaven-sent guardian.” She said the last part in a mocking tone.
“It is no laughing matter,” said Evie.
Diana waggled her eyebrows at storm. “Wow,” she said. “That sounds very alpha male and sexy.”
“In that case,” said Saskia. “Evie must be very alpha male and sexy, because while Storm is not doing his job, Evie is having to do it.”
“That doesn’t sound fair,” said Diana, giving Storm a startled look.
“Oh please,” said Saskia. “Evie loves it. She lives for it. She’d totally be the Archon if she could. She is the eldest, and it should have been her. Too bad she’s just a lowly woman.”
“Evie is far better suited to it than me,” said Storm. “The community is lucky to have her.”
“It’s not so simple,” said Evie icily. “Is it?”
Storm rubbed his forehead wearily. “It never is,” he said.
Diana was looking at him with great sympathy as if she wanted to give him a hug. He was fairly certain she was about to throw her arms around him, and this horrified him. It was the last thing he wanted right now. He stiffened up slightly, and she seemed to get the message.
“So, what about you Saskia?” said Diana, turning her attention to his younger sister. “You’ve talked about everyone else’s problems, but what about yours? Or are you saying you don’t have any? Are you saying that you’re as perfect as you accuse Evie and Storm of pretending to be?”
Saskia looked petulant. “I don’t have problems,” she said. “I just have fun.”
“Ha, fun!” Said Diana. “All play and no work will make Saskia a miserable old hag who wonders how it all went wrong and exactly when it was that she threw her entire life away.”
Jenny burst into laughter, saying, “Nice one.”
But Saskia glared at Diana. “What’s that supposed to be? A vision of my future?”
