CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Morning comes after I wait. While I've lost the need for as much sleep since developing my powers, when I first got turned, I still needed a full night of shut-eye. That means Miranda does, too.
Breakfast is being served. The human cook, Caroline, is shuffling around downstairs. I open my closet to find a few spare dresses waiting for me, cheap ones really, that must have been in the spare room since the beginning. I throw on the first one, a chocolate-colored getup that doesn't do Miranda's dark hair and pale complexion any good. It's a bit too long, but I'll deal with it. Miranda needs to look awkward.
I'm almost shocked when I see my normal reflection staring back at me in the adjoining bathroom. I've gotten so into my role I forgot that only others see me as the unfamiliar girl. I can't fool myself, at least not yet. Another shock is how fast I've mastered this whole deal. Dad thinks we came right from the first Nightside, but didn't we all at some point? If it's one mutation, then it all came from one person, right?
How does that explain my powers eclipsing even Dad's?
Either it's because I'm super angry or because of something else I haven't imagined yet.
I head downstairs, ready to navigate the shark-infested waters of breakfast. The other Nightsides have seated themselves, and I wander in like I'm not sure where to go. Walton has saved me a seat across from him, and I take that as Riley strides into the room and sits at the head of the table.
The meeting goes as I expect. Riley tells the coven I'm missing, that I ran away, and demands to know who left from the mansion on Friday. He hints that someone is trying to alter his and my reality, and he's pissed, rising from the table as his voice quakes the silverware.
“We need everyone on board and working together if we're going to survive the Convening,” he finishes. “We can't have Nightsides working against Nightsides. I know that not all of you approve of me and Olivia being together, but trying to tear us apart with your mind manipulation is unacceptable!”
The other Nightsides cringe, and I do, too. His anger is genuine. The manipulator is at this table right now.
Stanley squirms in his seat.
Riley's helping me to weed him out.
But Daeshawn squirms as well, and Walton makes a tiny frown. The two younger guys, Matt and Cameron, just sit there like deer caught in headlights. Those two don’t hang around much and have been so busy flirting with women around town, they haven't even crossed my thoughts.
“Unacceptable,” Riley repeats, not pausing on me. “If I do not convince the High Council that I have control of this coven, then they will kill us, and they will do so brutally. Did you know that beheadings are common?”
No one has anything to say to that. Riley's been reading about past Convenings, then.
Then Riley takes a breath and paces back to his chair. “Someone drove Olivia away.”
“Maybe it was her father?” Lola asks.
“No. It was not her father, or she would have left sooner,” Riley says, deflating. He sits and cuts at his sausage, taking out his anger on the breakfast. “She panicked after we felt someone trying to control us while we were training. Someone has been following us around for some time, for who knows how long, and they had better stop, right now. If I catch who tried to make Olivia attack me and Lily, I will see you out of the coven. Permanently.” Riley flicks his serious gaze around the table.
He's taking control. Riley has what it takes to be a leader.
We might survive. If the High Council saw this, they'd approve.
“Now enjoy breakfast and continue training this afternoon,” he says. “All of you. We're in this together. You only have to act like servants in front of the High Council, but we all need to be ready to act.”
I sense gazes on me. I've been too quiet.
“Training?” I ask, adding a nervous squeak to my voice. “What's going on? What did I walk into?”
“Oh. I'm sorry, Miranda,” Riley says. He gives me a rundown of Truebloods, Nightsides, and the Convening as if I've never heard it before. “I'm sorry you came into this. Maybe Walton or someone else here can train you. Unfortunately, you must go to this event.”
I rise. “But I thought this was safe?”
Riley speaks to everyone. “It will be, if we all work together. Whoever is plotting against me and Olivia, know that if you plot against one member of this coven—the Johnson coven—then you plot against yourself and everyone else here.”
He leaves it at that, and Caroline comes out and serves the next course of breakfast. She doesn't pause on me at all. My new identity is becoming effortless. I don't know how the other Nightsides can't feel the wooziness coming from looking at me, but it's my hope I have more talent in that area than Dad ever did.
Riley doesn't look at me during breakfast. I try not to think of Dad. He's not here. But now's not the time for questions, hurt, and confusion.
I've got to train with Walton and listen to everyone else in this mansion.
* * * * *
That close distance I've been fearing with Riley has come, but not for the reason I expect. For the next week, I don't attend school. I just take Walton's lessons about blood magic and mind manipulation like a good, new student. He walks out with me to the woods and has me train with rabbits, not with deer, but I can't help but remember my first, and only, training session with Dad. We got a deer.
I pretend to struggle with the rabbits at first, and then I master forcing them to hop to their demise.
“Very good,” Walton says. “You're progressing normally. Most Nightsides don't receive training and never know they have these abilities. They end
