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“I have a birthday present for you,” Ava whispered.
Sarah nearly dropped the large wooden spoon she’d been stirring with. She whipped her head around to make sure no one else was within earshot in the expansive kitchen. Edward never left them completely unguarded, especially when he wasn’t going to be home. He’d taken all the top members of the pack out to his favorite steakhouse that night, which was why he’d wanted that blue shirt. Sarah knew he’d only gone out to rub her faults in her face once again. It washerbirthday, andsheshould be the one out at a restaurant with her pack around her. Edward would take every chance he could to make sure she knew just how much shame she’d brought him.
They were relatively safe for the moment, at least. The guards Edward put in place wouldn’t notice anything as long as Sarah was doing what she was supposed to. “I don’t need a birthday present, sweetheart. I don’t want to risk anyone having any reason to punish us more than they already have.” Or at least, she didn’t want Ava to be punished. The poor girl was serving a prison sentence simply for existing, which was unfair enough.
“But up here is where it’s the most fun to do it,” Ava insisted, her brows knitting together as she bounced on her toes with urgency. “It won’t be the same if I wait.”
Sarah added more lemon juice to the tuna salad and gave it a stir. The huge bowl of it would feed most of the pack during the next meeting. Sarah and Ava would be lucky if they got any. She transferred it into a large container with a lid and then rinsed out the bowl, using the spray of the water to help cover her voice. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“Just let me show you. It’s better that way. I’ll be quick,” Ava insisted.
Though she couldn’t imagine what Ava was up to, Sarah could see how important this was to her daughter. The girl had so little else to look forward to, so how could she refuse? Sarah glanced at the kitchen doorway once again to make sure no one was coming. “All right.”
“Okay. Look at that bottle of dish soap.” Ava bit her lip in excitement.
She did as she was told. It was just a plain bottle of blue dish soap sitting next to the sink, awaiting the special coffee cups Edward loved, which all had to be washed by hand. “Okay.”
“Keep your eye on it.”
“I am,” Sarah promised. What were normal teen girls having fun with these days? Playing on their cell phones and constantly snapping photos of themselves, from what Sarah understood. Dish soap wouldn’t intrigue them.
Ava pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She held out a finger, rolling it through the air and then flicking it to the right. The bottle of soap disappeared.
Sarah blinked. She slowly set the bowl she’d been rinsing down in the sink and took a step closer to the counter, sure that she’d missed something. Reaching a hand out, she touched the corner of the sink where the bottle had been only a moment ago. “What happened?”
“Look over there.” Ava was practically giggling now.
She swerved her eyes to the right to find the bottle several feet away on the counter. A little bubble hovered near the top of it and popped.
Sarah’s knees grew weak. She leaned against the counter as she studied her daughter. She’d seen Ava every single day of her life, and during those days, they spent hardly any time apart. This was absolutely unbelievable. “Did you just do what I think you did?”
Ava nodded her head vigorously. “Yeah! Isn’t it amazing?”
“I…” Sarah searched for the right words. She was blown away and never expected anything like this. “Yes. But how? The most I’ve ever seen is when you made a little spark of light on the tip of your finger when you were afraid of the dark.”
She’d been terrified for her daughter once she’d seen the evidence that Ava had inherited more from the Glenwood lineage than Max’s bright blue eyes. If Edward or any of his accomplices found out, it would surely be the end of her.
That terror took over her once again, now that they were talking about far more than just a spark of light. Quickly, Sarah hustled Ava into the pantry. “Did you really just use magic in there?”
“Yep! I’ve been working on it whenever you weren’t looking. I wanted to wait to show you until I could do something special.” Ava studied her fingertip. “I know it’s just a bottle of soap, but let me know if you need to get anything from the top shelf.”
Sarah clasped Ava’s hands between her own. “No! Don’t get me wrong, Ava. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. But if you get caught—”
“I haven’t yet,” her daughter insisted. Her enthusiasm had now turned into determination. “I’ve already done it a bunch of times, which is how I knew it would work this time.”
“And that’s how you’ve been able to hide Edward’s cell phone or make him think he’d lost his keys again,” Sarah realized. Ava’s pranks had always made Sarah worry, but now she was even more concerned. This wasn’t simple teenage rebellion. It was something much more, something that could possibly enrage Edward Greystone into doing something drastic.
Ava, however, was too happy with her accomplishment to be thinking of such things. “Do you remember when you used to tell me all those stories about witches and magic when I was little?”
“How could I forget?” Sweet little Ava, tucked up against Sarah’s side in that musty basement. She’d been so small back then. Even her voice had been tiny, and Sarah loved nothing more than when the two of them could steal a few moments to snuggle up and talk. “You loved those stories.”
“And that’s what I thought they were,” Ava continued. “I thought they were fairytales, just something from a book. I didn’t realize until recently that they were true. There really are people who can harness magic, who can make the world change. I’m one of them, Mom. I can feel it inside me.”
Her throat was tight. “What’s different? I mean, what’s different now instead of when you did the thing with the light?”
Ava lifted her hands in the air. “It’s just a feeling about it. It’s something inside me. I don’t really know how to explain it.”
Sarah bit her lip. She’d helped her daughter learn to walk. She’d taught her how to read and write. Then there had been her first period. Those challenges now sounded so simple compared to what she had before her now. “I wish I knew what to tell you, but the truth is that I don’t know much of anything about it.”
