I Wish... (9 page)

"And queens rule everything instead of kings." I sighed. "So it's a safe guess that my father is from Desire?"

"You don't know who your father is either? Didn't they tell you anything?"

I laughed. "I didn't even know my own name before a couple of weeks ago. Why? Do you know who my father is?" I asked hopefully.

Ben shook his head. "I have no idea. People guard secrets pretty closely here. But knowing your Family, it's pretty much guaranteed that your father is a local."

"You've lived here pretty much forever, do I look like anyone in town, do you think?"

He snorted. "There are a lot of good looking people in town, but is anyone as gorgeous as you are? Unlikely."

We sat in awkward silence and seemed to remember at the same time that I was still holding his hand. We both stood up and looked everywhere, but at each other. I wanted to ask him what this meant, if this afternoon changed anything between us, but I was too scared that he might tell me no. Instead, I said. "I've got to go."

"Uh, yeah. Me too. I'll see you around." He stammered.

I waved and then turned on my heel and jogged out of the clearing.

I was almost home when I saw Krista walking towards me. "Hey!" She waved.

"Hi. What's up?"

"I thought you might want someone to talk to about what Mother told you."

"Your mom didn't say anything to me."

It was impossible not to answer her grin with one of my own. "Not mom, 'Mother'. That's Ramona's new title now that she's our Matriarch."

I thought back to all the times someone had referred to their mothers. I wondered how many actually meant their Matriarch. It leant a new layer of meaning to all the conversations I'd had. "I wonder if Shep meant his mother or his Matriarch?"

"For him, they are the same person."

We started walking together. "I can't believe any of this is true."

She picked up a long thin stick and let it trail along the sides of the trees we passed between. "It's hard for me to imagine that nobody in the outside world knows about witches. I can't imagine a life without magic."

"So what do you do? What's your ability?"

Krista shrugged. "Nothing special. Animals tell me things."

I stopped walking. "Really? You can talk to animals? That's amazing!"

"I don't talk to them. They tell me things. They don't understand me, or like, do my bidding." In an uncharacteristic gesture, Krista rolled her eyes.

"Still, very cool." She nodded acknowledgement and started walking without me. I jogged a few paces until we were side by side again. "I just saw Ben... I just realized I don't even know his last name."

"Foster. Ben Foster. I like him. He's quiet, but he's not fake like a lot of the people in this town. I really respect that."

"He told me that he's from a weak Family." We were close to home and I wanted to finish this conversation so I sat on an ivy covered log.

Krista realized that I wasn't beside her and joined me before she said, "He lives with a woman who has adopted several kids that the Hunter have brought her. I think he's supposed to have a lot of power potential, but he doesn't have town bloodlines so no First Daughter will ever agree to marry him. He might find a Second Daughter from a good Family, but he seems pretty disgusted with all the strong Families on principle or something."

"Whoa, I think I have the gist of what you're saying, but you're kinda losing me on all the daughter talk."

She bounced happily. "Oooh, I've been able to play teacher about anything before. Ok, so First Daughters are like royalty in Desire. It works like old timey kings and castles. The oldest son takes over the kingdom. Except here it's the girls in control."

I nodded as I digested this new information. "Alright, I follow so far. So Second Daughters are the second daughters? Are there Third and Fourth daughters?"

Krista laughed and clapped her hands at my ignorance. "Second Daughters is a catch all term for any woman who isn't a First Daughter. If you aren't in line to become the Matriarch of your Family, you're a Second Daughter."

"And Second Daughters can marry whoever they want?"

She looked sad for a moment. "As long as whoever they want to marry isn't the son of a really powerful Family. Men carry the potential to do magic and sometimes they pass on the type of magic their Family specializes in. So in that way guys have it easier. The fourth son of a strong Family has more freedom and worth in Desire than the Second Daughter of a Coven Family.

I sat quietly for a moment as I turned it over in my mind. "And Ben won't talk to me because I'm a First Daughter?"

"Not just a First Daughter. You are next in line to a spot in the Coven. That's a huge deal, you know. You can pick from the most desirable guys in school and when you finally get your spot in the Coven, you'll have power that extends outside of town."

"What do you mean?" The impish smile I assumed was a permanent fixture on her face was gone and she was all seriousness now.

"Well, Desire is only so big, you know. There's only so much room. Most of the people who live here are the Matriarchs of the different Families and their immediate families. Something has to be done with the excess of Second Daughters and unmarried men."

"That makes sense. What happens to them?" Dread twisted in my stomach. I was positive she was going to say they were killed.

She was solemn. "They are sent to the outside. Most of them marry important people or find positions of power for themselves. They still answer to their Matriarch and it extends her sphere of influence. And the Coven controls all the Families so really, every time a Second Daughter makes a powerful connection on the outside, it's like they are answering directly to the Coven."

The big bad is the outside world?
I was relieved to hear that nobody was being killed, but what Krista was saying was still very disturbing. "Do you have any idea how far they've extended their influence?"

She shook her head. "Nope. There are a lot of secrets in town. It's dangerous for a Matriarch to let anyone know too much. Families are in constant struggles for position. People are willing to kill for a spot in the Coven."

"That's crazy! Getting arrested seems counterproductive."

Krista shook her head again, harder this time. "People don't get arrested. We have a small police force here, but it's all for show. If justice needs to be handed down, it's taken care of by the Coven. But for an assassination? It happens and the general opinion is that if you're stupid enough to let yourself be killed, you pretty much got what you had coming. Please don't confuse life in the rest of the world for the way things work in Desire. That really will get you killed."

I shivered uncontrollably. "I guess that explains what Ramona was going on about. I didn't take it seriously.

She grabbed my hand tightly. "Promise me that you're taking this seriously now. This is important. If you aren't on your guard all the time, you’ll be an easy target."

Weary, I rubbed my temple. "Ok, fine, I can accept that. A lot of the people I've met so far don't seem like they'd mind killing me so it's not a huge leap."

"Well, when you guys showed back up in town it changed the balance of power. If Ramona wasn't here when Georgina died, my mom would have taken the title of Matriarch and had a shot at a spot in the Coven. Undoubtedly, someone would have challenged her to a show of power, where she'd have to prove that her magic was strong enough to deserve that position. That would give some of the Families that aren't in the Coven an opportunity to take her spot. But nobody is going to challenge Ramona. So yeah, there's probably some resentment there." Her smile was hard.

"I guess that's why your mom hates me."

Krista looked perplexed. "Honestly, I'm not sure why she's being so awful to you. I'm pretty sure her issues with not being able to be the Matriarch are with Ramona though. That wasn't your fault."

"Can I ask you something else?" I felt incredibly awkward, but I had to know.

"Sure, what is it?"

"The reason you avoid me at school? Is it because of the whole First Daughter thing?"

She sighed, "Yeah. The kids you sit with at lunch? Those are all First Daughters or really powerful guys except for Natalie. She's a Second Daughter, but her Family has healing powers so they've taken an oath to be neutral and not form any alliances against other Families. Plus, their Matriarch, Elizabeth is pretty much immortal."

I guess my shock showed on my face because she punched me lightly on the arm and continued. "She has some super regeneration or something. She looks like she's maybe twenty three, but she's been around for something like two hundred years. She's the High Priestess of the Coven. That's the ultimate position of power, right there. But since she doesn't age or die, there's nobody who will ever take her place as Matriarch in her Family so there's not really any distinction between daughters. Really it's got to be pretty nice for them."

"You're a cheerleader. I thought you guys were always insanely popular? Isn't it some kind of rite of passage into the ranks of the cool kids? Next you'll be telling me that everything movies have lead me to believe about prom queens is wrong too."

"First Daughters from powerful Families get what they want. Boys, material things, positions on sports teams or entry into exclusive organizations. Nobody in Desire would dare deny a First Daughter from the twenty or so most powerful Families anything they want. If one of them wanted my spot, I'd be gone. Regardless of how good I am or how hard I've trained, I would be gone tomorrow if Lydia Spencer said she wanted it so."

I clenched my hand into a fist. "That's awful. No wonder there is so much resentment here. The way the people in charge behave is completely reprehensible."

Krista got to her feet and pulled me up. "Sure, but nothing will change that. Not when the people in charge can set you on fire or mind control you to walk off a cliff."

"Something has to be done. People can't live forever in fear."

Her honey colored eyes were sympathetic, but her tone was firm when she said, "Don't ever think that way. Being a hero might work in the movies, but it will make you a target here. There's no happily ever after for most of us, but you'll be one of the chosen few someday and that's as close to happy as anyone can ever be."

"Krista?"

"Hmm...?"

"Sit with me at lunch?"

She looked horrified that I'd even suggested it. "No way. And you can't sit with me and my friends either." We can associate after school because nobody will question Family business, but if you turn your back on the rest of the First Daughters..." She shuddered. "You're either going to get me and my friends on someone's bad side or get yourself killed. It's not worth it."

I sighed; my will for resistance was sapped. "Fine. We won't do that then."

The house was in sight when she said, "So you never did tell me what your Talent is."

"I can wish for things."

She smiled mischievously. "Really? I have an idea."

***

Chapter 5

"We could always go for a half-naked man to rub lotion on us while we sun ourselves in the Bahamas."

Krista and I were back in our room lounging on her bed. We shared a pillow and our legs were in a tangle. She was flipping idly through a magazine while we tried to think of something to wish into existence. Her suggestion of a man was tempting, but I didn't want to involve anything living until I had a handle on how my power worked.

"I was thinking something a little more low-key like an apple or something."

She dramatically faked a yawn. "Boring. Where is your sense of entitlement? You aren't spoiled enough for a First Daughter, by far."

"Fine, no apple, but no people either."

"So how is your power supposed to work?"

I shrugged. "Not sure. I guess I just say... well, my special words, and whatever was wished for appears. There was also talk of alternate realities or time lines or something. I'm a little nervous about this, to be honest."

"Special words? You mean 'I wish'?"

Even though I knew now that the words weren't actually obscene, I still fought against embarrassment and dismay that she'd said them out loud. "Those are the ones."

"It seems easy enough to me." She flipped over on her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows. Suddenly she pointed at a picture in her magazine. "That's what you should wish for."

I looked over her shoulder. "I told you I'm not going to wish for a man."

She did a double take of her magazine page and then said in an irritated voice, "No, not article about how to snag the man of your dreams. The picture of that dress."

I looked closer where her finger pointed. It was a photo of a celebrity in a gorgeous black dress created by a famous designer who went by the name of Viola. It looked a little bit like something I imagined a Roman princess would wear and showed an awful lot of skin. The woman wearing it had a similar body type to mine, including a regrettably small-ish chest. If my wish was for that dress there was a decent chance that it would actually look pretty good on me.

"Sure, I think that would be ok."

Krista sat up and began the bouncing that I'd come to associate with her happy excitement at the prospect of potential trouble. "How are you going to do this?"

It'd be nice to know that myself.
"I guess I'll just do it."

I took a deep breath and sat on the edge of the bed beside Krista. One of my legs was trembling at an alarming pace and I couldn't seem to catch my breath. I wondered if I needed to take special care with my wishes to be extra specific. I learned a lot from reading The Monkey's Paw. But my attempt to discover flaws to my reasoning didn't turn up anything. It was just a dress after all.

"I wish that I had the black Viola dress from the magazine that Krista and I were looking at." The blush was predictable. I suspected that I might never feel comfortable saying those words. As an afterthought, I added, "Please."

For a moment nothing happened. Krista and I looked at each other, questions on our lips. Then, without warning, it happened. Reality ripped in half.