Moonset

Their track record spoke almost as loudly as Jenna’s did.

Nineteen

“Now is the time for sacrifice. There is blood in the water. And it isn’t ours.”

Sherrod Daggett

From a speech to his disciples

It wasn’t Jenna who came inside, though. Malcolm came in like the head of a parade. Cole was right behind him, and behind them were the boys from magic class, Kevin and Luca. It had barely been an hour since I’d seen them, but I was still caught off guard. Unfamiliar people in our house. We never invited people back to the house.

Luca. Seeing him and Malcolm in the same room was even more disorienting than seeing him at school. Mrs. Crawford had been right, they had the same look. The same eyes, the same hair color, but Luca was much shorter—only a little taller than Cole. My eyes flashed to Mal.

“You … he … ”

“Yeah, we figured that part out already,” he said. He glanced over his shoulder, but I saw the way his eyes skidded over Luca’s head. There was a strange pit in my stomach that lightened when I saw the stiff lines of Malcolm’s shoulders. Knowing he was tense and uncomfortable made me feel better. Part of me didn’t want to admit it, but knowing Mal had blood relatives freaked me out. We were only a family because we had no other options. Mal, who always had one foot out the door anyway, now had options. So to find out that the reunion wasn’t a thing of instant harmony relaxed me.

“They look like brothers,” Cole chimed in, ever helpful. “Even more than we do.”

“That’s because they’re actually related,” Kevin said, hands tucked into his jacket. It didn’t sound like he was trying to be mean, just stating a fact. Kevin seemed like kind of a dick, but at least he was really polite about it. “Sort of.”

“Whatever,” Luca said, scuffing his feet. “I don’t even know why we’re here.” He wouldn’t actually look at any of us, instead focusing his attention on the decorations sparsely spread around the room, as if they were absolutely more fascinating than any of the people. I eyed him, still mulling over what he’d said to me in the office.

“We wanted to see how you were doing,” Kevin said, turning towards me. “Everything got totally out of control in there. Even Maddy felt a little bad about it afterwards.”

Maddy felt bad? She hadn’t bothered to hide the fact that she didn’t like me very much.

“Really?”

Kevin’s lips quirked. “I said a little,” he admitted. “There’s a much bigger part that’s happy that she basically won the debate and proved you were a danger to the rest of us.”

“I thought you were going to deck me for a minute,” I admitted.

“I was,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, what Mrs. C did was messed up, and Maddy didn’t help matters any, but I thought you were going to hurt someone. You were all red-faced and spitting. You looked insane.”

“I wasn’t insane,” I said.

“You looked like it,” Kevin said. Luca made a noise of agreement. “And if it came down to defending the crazy guy or the people I’ve known all my life, well … you know how it was going to end.”

That I did.

“Maddy doesn’t know we’re here,” Luca put in quickly. “She’d probably be really pissed if she did.”

“I thought she was friends with Jenna,” Cole chimed in, hopping up on the kitchen counter.

“Jenna doesn’t have friends,” I said automatically.

Kevin smirked. “I was going to say the same thing about Maddy.”

“None of us have friends,” Cole said, pulling one of his knees up and resting his chin on it. Oh great, maudlin Cole. It didn’t happen very often, but when it did, Cole was even worse than normal. I glanced at Malcolm, but he was too busy ignoring Luca to pay attention to me.

“We move around a lot,” I explained.

“Well, yeah,” Kevin responded. “Makes a lot of sense. It can’t be easy to keep the Moonset kids under the radar, right? And now you’re here, and … ”

“ … and there’s a warlock already here looking for us,” I interrupted. Malcolm and Luca both stiffened, and again the resemblance was too strong to miss. “Do they tell you guys anything?”

Kevin shook his head. “Not much more than you, I bet. We get a lot of ‘Don’t do dark magic’

PSAs, though. And every time he attacks, we have a curfew for about a week after. Like after last night and then the drawing in the classroom today, they’re not taking any chances.”

“Not that it does any good,” Luca pointed out. “They can’t figure out what he’s doing.”

“What happened last night?” Mal asked, grabbing an apple out of the bowl.

Kevin shrugged, looking to me.

I sighed. “The guy we saw in the diner? The crazy one? He killed himself last night. They think the warlock might have had something to do with it.” There hadn’t been any time to talk to Mal and catch him up with what had happened since yesterday. Suddenly, the tension in his shoulders wasn’t just about his cousin being in my house.

It was hard enough trying to keep everything straight, but harder still to remember what I’d told him or what I’d told Jenna. I’d become too good at holding things back, and every tiny oversight was a huge drama.

“Don’t worry,” Cole said, correctly interpreting the sudden shift in tension, “Justin doesn’t tell me anything, either. He doesn’t tell anyone.”

“Cole,” Mal said, his voice a warning.

“What? It’s true. Everyone lies to us lately.”

“That’s enough!” Mal snapped.

“How long are you out for?” Kevin asked, trying to steer the conversation back to something less personal.

“A few days.” I grabbed one of the apples, too, but instead of devouring it the way Mal was, I tossed it nervously back and forth between my hands. Just to give them something to do. Cole huffed and hopped down off the counter. He crossed the room and headed into the hallway, Luca following after a few moments later.

“He’s not a bad kid.” Kevin watched me as I watched them. “Luca’s got a rough deal. His dad never could cope with what his brother did. I don’t think he ever intended to have kids, either.

Luca was an accident.”

So it wasn’t any easier being from the “good” half of the Denton line. Malcolm was watching them, too, but I wondered if he watched for Cole, or for Luca.

“So if you guys are still around in the fall, you should try out for football,” Kevin said to Mal.

That started a whole conversation about school sports and college teams, and my head couldn’t take it anymore. There was aspirin in the cupboard by the microwave, and I shook a couple into my hand and dry swallowed them as Kevin’s sports talk got a more energetic tone out of Malcolm than I’d heard in days.

“Who’s having the best day ever?” Jenna announced when she swept in a moment later.

“Really, though, Justin. A murder threat?” She laughed, and added in a conspiratorial tone, “It’s much better if they don’t see it coming.”

I sunk down onto the kitchen table. Gloating Jenna wasn’t helping the pounding in my head.

“Get it all out now,” I said, dropping my head onto the table’s surface. Cold, I thought in relief, the wood like a balm against my head.

“What are the Odd Couple doing here?”

I shrugged, but since my head was currently resting against the table, I imagined the effect was wasted. “Don’t know.”

“So you threaten unholy murder and carnage, and that gets you a visit from the welcome wagon?” Jenna