She nodded vigorously, still not meeting my gaze full-on. “I’m trying, T-man, I swear.”
“And no guilt.”
Sallie nodded again. “No guilt. That’s a little harder.”
“Her parents made her start wearing a collar when she was twelve.”
She nodded twice. “My mom handed me a box of sanitary pads, a book about understanding my body, and a pink velvet ribbon choker.” She drew another sip of tea, swallowed, and muttered, “And they wonder why I hate pink,” under her breath. “I wore that choker everywhere, even when I bathed, and they replaced the ribbon whenever it got too ratty.”
“Do you have any sense at all of your magic?”
She shook her head, but her body language said otherwise.
“You can tell my mom.” Thatcher’s loving support for his cousin was palpable.
Sallie fortified herself. “Aunt Adelaide always called me her little crow because I wanted to touch all the pretty shiny things when I was a kid and when I got older I liked to make things for people to wear. People and pets. You tell her the rest, T.”
“When Sallie looked in mirrors, she noticed things,” Thatcher said. “Oh, and this all started before she had her first period. Her parents said Sal’s eyes were getting weak so they got her glasses, and she stopped seeing things.”
“What kinds of things?” I asked.
“All the Fae traits,” he answered, putting his mug on the floor. He used his hands to elaborate on the details. “Her ears would extend into points at the top, and her eye color would shift.” Sallie nudged him and wiggled her fingers. “Oh, and her nails. They got sharp, like cat claws but thicker.”
“I was so freaked out,” she whispered. “No one else in my family looked like that.”
“You understand now,” I said, “that no one else looked like the you in the mirror because your parents and Meribah and everybody else were so good at disguising their true faces, right?”
Sallie nodded. “There’ve been a lot of revelations to absorb, Aunt Calliope. I’m going to need time to get over what’s been going on at my house. I’m still trying to understand why my parents hid themselves from me. I’m their kid.”
“Either they were protecting you,” I said, “or—”
“Or weaponizing me.” Sallie grimaced. “They encouraged me to make jewelry, once they saw people actually liked my designs. When I told them I had started to see Harper and Thatcher regularly because of their jobs at the market, Josiah and Garnet were all like, ‘Oh, make them some of your cuffs. Maybe Aunt Calliope will be nicer to us if you cousins get closer, blah blah blah.’”
I could see Sallie’s hurt and hear her anger. I hoped the hurt would keep her on our side and the anger would keep her sharp.
“What about school?” I asked.
“They pulled me out of public school when I was thirteen and said they wanted me homeschooled. Which meant hired tutors. The first year it was just me, but after that, more of their friends took their kids out of the private school for Magicals so by the start of my junior year, there were like a dozen of us.”
Covens were considered full when their numbers reached thirteen members. I would have to find someone to ask if the Fae had a similar structure.
“Mom?”
I knew what was coming, and I would not say no to Thatcher’s request.
“If Sallie stays with us, she can go to school here with me and Harper and Leilani.” He looked at his cousin and curled his pinky around hers. “Safety in numbers and all that, right?”
Sallie nodded, her pinky snug in his.
“And Shamaha told us she was a witch, like you, Mom, and that she had a sub-specialty in mitigating Fae magic.”
The other witch’s talents were intriguing, as was the thought I too harbored the potential to develop other magical specialties. I said, “Tell me more about what she did yesterday.”
Sallie drained her mug and set it on the tray. She wiped her hands down her thighs and looked at Thatcher. “I think I’m okay to explain this, but if I forget something, just, y’know, speak up.”
Jasper brrrp’d from behind Sallie, wiggled his way in between her and Thatcher, and drooled as both teens petted his fur and rubbed behind his ears.
“Jasper’s like a therapy cat,” said Sallie. Jasper opened one eye and glared at me.
“I am totally getting that he has been assigned to you.” I laughed. “You should see the look he just gave me.”
“First Rowan brought Shamaha in here and waited. It was weird to wake up and see a total stranger in the room. I freaked out. A little. Thatch calmed me down, and Shamaha explained she was there because she wanted to watch me transition from being asleep to being awake. Her explanation was that during times of transition, like the transition to getting my period when I was twelve, unstable Fae—her words, not mine—show their true selves. I don’t remember taking my collar off at your party. I don’t even remember much about what happened.”
“Why do your ears look human?”
“Shama asked me what I wanted to do: go full-Fae, transition gradually, or continue to keep the real Sallie Flechette hidden. Honestly, Aunt Calliope, when she was done explaining, I was afraid to embrace any part of being Fae. I mean, look at the shining examples on my side of the family, shit. I also want to find out who and what I really am. Shamaha has me on a, a…what did she call it, Thatch?”
“Time-release spell,” he said, “which is also why Jasper’s here.”
I had decisions to make. “Let me
