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Kami glanced at Jared, and then at Holly. Holly had always seemed to like Jared, to think, in her words, that he might be fun. Kami couldn’t blame Holly for the way she was staring at Jared now. The remote look in Jared’s eyes wasn’t fun, it was frightening. Kami understood that Holly might like the illusion of danger and not want danger that was real. She couldn’t blame her for that.
“Only what everybody says,” Holly said, low.
“And what does everybody say?” Jared demanded.
“I’ve never heard anybody say anything,” Angela announced.
“You’re an outsider,” said Holly.
Angela’s face was both angry and hurt for a moment, before she forced her expression back into pure anger.
“You are,” Holly told her, looking desperate to make her understand. “You and Rusty only moved here six years ago. Most of the families have been here for generations and generations. Some have been here since the start.”
“The start of what?” Jared snarled. “Since the Lynburns founded their private kingdom of all the sorcerers together? Since then?”
“They’re just stories,” Holly said. “Stories about settling in Sorry-in-the-Vale because it was a good place, a magical place. Where we were all meant to be, and the price paid is worth it. They’re just local legends, though, just stuff my dad says when he’s drunk. They’re not true. Nobody can really do magic! The Lynburns are gone!”
It was something Kami had heard other people from the Vale say. They said it when they were wishing for crops not to fail and storms to pass, but she realized now she’d heard her mother say it when something happened to scare her, as if to reassure herself: the Lynburns are gone.
As if the Lynburns were genies who could grant wishes, and monsters waiting to leap, all at once.
Jared watched Holly with cold eyes. He said, “Now we’re back.”
At Holly’s feet, her helmet shattered into pieces of crystal and bone. Holly bit her lip and looked to Angela as if she was her only possible source of comfort, as if Kami and Jared were her enemies. Angela stared at the pale and translucent shards on the floor, and her expression grew even more outraged.
Kami got up, with her hands placed flat on the desk. “You’re paying for that, buddy,” she said mildly.
“I don’t believe you can read each other’s minds. You can be a magician or a criminal or a balloon-animal giraffe for all I care,” Angela told Jared, and then looked at Kami. “But you’re my best friend in the world. And that controlling freak is not convincing you that he can talk to you in your head, for God’s sake.”
Kami could not help smiling, even though it made Angela look even more furious. Angela was asking for proof, and that Kami could handle.
“What we need to do,” Kami said, “is run a test. I want you to come downstairs with me, Angela, and tell me something you’ve never told me before. And then Jared will tell Holly what you told me.”
“I will do no such thing!”
Kami tipped up her face to look Angela in the eye. “You’re so sure it’s not true,” she said. “Don’t you want to prove it?”
Angela held her gaze for an instant longer. “Fine,” she snapped, and turned, her black hair flying like a cape from her shoulders. She went for the door, her legs eating up the ground in four long, smooth strides, and stopped beside Holly at the threshold. Angela’s curled mouth softened a little. “You all right?” she asked.
Holly reached out and touched Angela’s hand, fingers twining briefly around hers.
“Yeah,” she said, and smiled back with an effort.
Angie nodded at Holly and walked on.
“This is all going to be totally fine, I have a plan,” Kami assured Holly, brushing by.
“Right,” Holly said. She looked doubtful, but that was possibly because Kami and Angela were abandoning her with a guy who looked on the edge and ready to jump.
Angela did not look doubtful in the least as she and Kami walked down into the shadowy stairwell. Her high-heeled boots sounded like gunshots, going down every step.
“You’re my best friend,” Kami said, looking up into Angela’s stern face. “I could always trust you never to think I was crazy.”
“Your faith is touching but totally misplaced,” Angela said. “I believe you to be a permanent inhabitant of cloud-cuckoo-land, and this year you may be getting elected mayor.” She reached the bottom of the stairs and wheeled on Kami, her eyes boring into Kami’s. “But you can trust me.”
“So trust me,” said Kami. “Tell me a secret.”
Angela hesitated for a moment, looking down at Kami. She still looked furious, but she leaned forward. Her face was still set and angry, but she brushed the hair gently back from Kami’s face and whispered in her ear.
