Aunt Leanna is the only one here with us in the breakfast nook and she’s making sure to scrape lots of egg and sausages onto our plates.
“All this food will just make me more tired,”
Marley complains.
“I’ll have yours then,” I say, picking up his plate and letting some of his breakfast slide gracelessly
onto mine.
Aunt Opal enters the room. She eyes us steadily, clearly aware that something has happened.
Reading minds is not one of her many gifts, though. I think.
“Anything you want to tell me, Ramya?”
I try to look innocently up at Opal, wondering if this is just like when the teachers at school know someone has done something wrong but they don’t know who it is. They do the whole ‘come forward and make it easier on yourself’ speech, trying to scare the culprit into confessing. When, in actual fact, they have no proof.
They never caught me drawing rude things on the French teacher’s desk, so I’m not falling for it now.
“I slept really well,” I tell her, taking a large bite of scrambled egg. “Thank you.”
She surprises me by laughing under her breath before she moves to the teapot. She pours an enormous cup of tea and then joins us in the breakfast nook.
“What are today’s plans then?” asks Leanna brightly, using her own knife and fork to put some more mushrooms onto Marley’s plate.
“I think,” Opal says between sips of tea, wincing at the sunlight pouring into the kitchen, “it’s time to get back to magic.”
Marley looks to me in excited glee, but I narrow my eyes. “You said last night I had to do schoolwork.”
“You do.”
“And you said we wouldn’t start up again. What’s changed?”
“Well, with Fae stalking about and a Siren calling
the house, I think it would be wise,” she snaps, glaring at me.
“Well, that’s what I’ve been saying—”
“You’re getting what you want,” she says curtly. “Now don’t push it.”
Aunt Leanna reaches across to gently tug my earlobe. “You are such a cheeky one! You’re just like your aunt.”
Opal and I both roll our eyes at that. I look to the kitchen door and frown as I realise that the luggage from last night is gone.
“What happened to the bags?”
Leanna’s smile slips and Opal glances behind her at the door to the hall.
“The suitcases,” I say. “Where are they?”
When no one says anything, I take in the quiet of the house for the first time. No sound of a bath being drawn upstairs or someone moving about in another room.
“Where are Mum and Gran?”
Opal pushes her teacup away from her and Leanna looks down at her own empty plate. I watch my two aunts say nothing for a good thirty seconds before Opal finally releases a sigh and speaks.
“They left very early this morning, on important business.”
Marley suddenly appears to be very hungry after all. He starts to shovel food into his mouth, all while avoiding my eyes. He couldn’t have known they were planning to go, but what he does know is my temper.
“I see,” I say icily. “So, that’s why witch lessons are back on the menu. They’ve done a runner and you
feel guilty.”
“They have not ‘done a runner’,” Opal scoffs. “Your grandmother has her own work to be getting on with and your mum is going to London to join your father. They can hold the fort there.”
I’m not being told the whole story, but when have I ever been allowed that privilege?
“Your mum looked in on you before she left this morning,” Leanna says gently. “But she didn’t want to wake you. She has such a soft spot for you when you’re sleeping soundly and quietly.”
We all stare at her, even Opal.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” she adds hastily. “It’s hard to explain, it’s a maternal thing.”
“Well, I’m so grateful to both of you for tolerating me while I’m awake,” I snipe. “So grateful. Can we get back to flying now, please?”
“Not with that attitude,” Opal retorts.
