Moonset

“Ooh, snarky,” Ash responded, eyes sparkling. “Getting me all hot and bothered,” she said, fanning herself. “Tell me more about these severed limbs.”

I laughed.

“There we go,” she said, ducking her head down so that our eyes met. “Glad to know a wardrobe malfunction didn’t completely kill your sense of humor.”

“It wasn’t a malfunction,” I started, and then stopped, because how was I supposed to explain Jenna’s spell?

“What was it then? Sartorial assassination?” Ash leaned across her desk. “Relax. Jenna dumped water all over you, big deal. Don’t get all emo on me again.”

That was the story they were going with? I exhaled, feeling a tiny bit of my stress fade. “It’s not that. Not just that,” I amended. “I found out some stuff about my family yesterday that’s … stressful.”

“Family stress? If you found out you’ve got another sister like Jenna, that might be a deal breaker,” Ash said. “One queen bee is enough, thanks.”

“Nothing like that,” I said, trying to hold my smile.

“Then what?”

She said it like that was so simple. Like I could lay my problems out and she’d sympathize, we’d have a moment, and both of us would move on. But the reality of the situation was living under Moonset’s shadow was a complicated life—one that no one outside the five of us could really understand. Especially not a normal person who thought magic was nothing more than card tricks and sleight of hand.

I shook my head, conjuring up my own sleight of hand to hide my thoughts behind a smile.

“Nothing major. Nothing that should ruin the day anyway.”

She settled back, looking pleased with herself. “Excellent. Then as a reward, I’m going to let you buy me coffee.”

I looked at the clock on the wall. “Are we even in the same lunch period?”

“I mean later, Lysander. Tonight.”

Like a date? Instantly the cool and calm conversation was gone, and in its place was something heavy and terrifying. My heart became an overwhelming cadence. Tonight implied a date. Didn’t it? My mouth dried out, all the moisture in my body rushing to my hands, which were clammy and gross.

“Sure,” I said, looking away again. Hoping for indifferent, praying for casual, but my voice cracked right in the middle. I coughed, cleared my throat, and prayed for death. It was the only solution now.

Ash didn’t laugh, like I expected. Not that I expected her to mock me or take huge amounts of enjoyment in my suffering, but I expected at least a little tinkling of laughter. But there was nothing. No reaction at all. I looked up, saw her tucking a book back into her bag. “Great. I’ll see you at the coffee shop after school? Six or so?”

“Uhm, yeah. Sure. Six sounds good.” I could go home with the others and figure out a way to ditch them all by then.

Suddenly, everything was looking up.

It was easier sneaking away from everyone than I thought. Mal was watching a football game on our TV for some reason, and who knew where the others were. I left a half hour early, figuring the walk would do me some good.

By the time I finally walked into the coffee shop, it was almost dark already. That was my least favorite part about winter—the fact that the sun set so early. It was just barely past six when I walked inside, but the sky was already overcast and nearing black.

“Running late, Caliban?” Ash was set up near the front corner, framed by glass windows on one side and green and black walls on the other. It started to snow a little bit as I sat down across from her. There were already two coffee cups on the table, both still steaming. She hadn’t been here for very long.

Caliban? That was a name I didn’t recognize. “Shakespeare?” Because it would be just like

Ash to shift conventions without a word.

“The Tempest,” she smiled. “You should know that.”

“If we don’t read it in English, I don’t know it,” I admitted.

“Heathen.” But she smiled as she said it. “So how was the rest of your day? I see you found pants. Always an improvement.”

I looked down, and then focused on the cup in front of me. “Do I even want to ask?”

Her eyes twinkled.

“Is there even any caffeine in this? Or is it all sugar and syrup?”

She lifted her cup to her mouth and took a sip, but her eyes never left mine. It took a minute before I realized I was being prompted yet again. She glanced down at my cup, and her eyebrow quirked in challenge.

It wasn’t until I’d taken a sip of something that was a little bit pumpkin and a little bit spicy (and better than I will ever admit out loud) that Ash cleared her throat. “So what did you do that made Her Highness so angry?”

I eyed her warily. “Don’t let Jenna hear you call her that. She’s already amassing a hit list around school.”

Ash leaned back in her chair, the very picture of composure. “I’m not scared of your sister, Justin.”

“You should be,” I muttered. All I needed was a war between Jenna and Ash.

“You’ve met Maddy, right?” Ash asked. “She’s like Jenna-on-training-wheels. Trust me, I know exactly how to deal with girls like Jenna. She’ll crush anyone she thinks she can crush, and never look back.” As if realizing that sounded a bit harsher than she planned, she added, “I get it. Having to start over at new schools, build a new reputation. It’s got to be tough.

Everyone copes differently.”

“That’s just Jenna,” I laughed. “It’s not about school or anything like that. She has to be the star, and if she’s not, she has to destroy whoever’s in her light.” I realized how that sounded, and I shook my head. “Sorry, I don’t know why I said that.”

Ash leaned forward, tucking her hand under her ear. “People need to vent sometimes. It’s okay. I can’t imagine it’s easy to live with a sister like that.”

“It’s not so bad, most of the time. It’s just that she tends to go out of control, and I’m supposed to be there to pick up the pieces. It gets annoying.”

“It’s not your job to clean up after her,” Ash said quietly. “You’re not her parent, Justin.”

“Yeah, but I kind of am. I mean, we’re all we’ve got.” After a moment, I rushed in to cover. “I mean, we’ve got our foster family and everything, but it’s been the five of us for so long that we’re really … close.”

“Yeah, but it seems like all you do is cover for her. Even now, you’re venting about how hard it is to live with Jenna, and you’re making excuses for how she acts,” Ash pointed out. “You’re allowed to have a life of your own. It doesn’t have to be all about Jenna—even if she expects it to be.”

The truth was that I wouldn’t have the first clue about how to do what Ash was suggesting. I’d spent so much time running behind Jenna that I never had much time to think about my own life.

Everything I did involved the others. Covering for them. Helping them. Keeping them out of trouble.

A few minutes passed, and I didn’t say anything else. I was too busy thinking, wrapped up in seventeen years of thoughts. Who was I, if I wasn’t Sherrod Daggett’s son? Or Jenna’s twin, or

Mal’s little brother?

“I didn’t mean to make it all maudlin,” Ash said, trying to force a laugh. “Come on, Lady

Macbeth, let’s have a smile.” She looked down at my cup. “Did you want extra whipped cream?

I could do that, if you like.”

I didn’t reply right away, and before I knew it, Ash was gone from the other side of the table, only returning a minute later with an industrial-sized can of whipped cream. “The best weapon in a girl’s arsenal,” she smirked before spraying an absolute tower of topping onto my coffee.

The moment the tower started to bend under its own weight and toppled off the side, I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “You’re the strangest girl I’ve ever met,” I told her, and that was the truth.

“I’m an enigma,” she admitted. “I don’t like being predictable.”

“See, I prefer predictable. I just don’t get too much of it.”

Ash grinned, but there was a moment where the smile faded, where something else floated to the surface.