“See you at dinner.”
I watch the house swallow him up before I follow him in.
As I walk down the hallway, I can’t help but glance over my shoulder every once in a while because even the sunshine can’t keep the shadows away at Whitley. Something always seems to be watching me, hovering around me.
Always.
When I find Finn in the library, I tell him that.
He shakes his head, annoyed, yet clearly concerned. Like always.
“Have you taken your pills today, Calla?”
“Yes.” If I don’t, I see monsters.
I see red-eyed demons and black-eyed serpents.
I see fire,
I see blood,
I see terrible
Terrible
Things.
Finn stares at me dubiously.
“Are you sure?”
I pause.
Then I grudgingly pull the two colorful pills out of my pocket.
He glares at me. “Take them. Right now or I’m telling mom.”
When I don’t rush to do it, he adds, “Or I’ll tell Grandmother.”
That threat bears weight, and he knows it. I hurry to get a drink of water, and I swallow the pills while he watches.
“You know better, Calla,” he chides me, sounding more like a parent than a brother.
I nod. Because I do.
“They taste bad,” I offer by way of explanation.
“That’s no excuse.”
“What isn’t?”
Our mother breezes into the library, red-headed and beautiful, slim and glamorous. If I’m lucky, I’ll look just like her some day.
“Nothing,” I hurry and tell her.
She seems suspicious, but she’s in too much of a hurry to ask again.
“Have you seen Adair?” she asks us both. “Your uncle is looking for him.”