Of Sorcery and Snow by Shelby Bach Read Free Book Online Page B

We wouldn’t even have to move from city to city for Mom’s movies anymore. She could just use the Door Trek system to travel the country. But mymom would never go for that. If I told her the truth about EAS, she would only see that world as a place where the Pied Piper kidnapped children, wolves invaded Golden Gate Park, and the Snow Queen tried to kill me for having some sort of freaky destiny—not the place with easy magic transport.
    When Amy came back carrying a red folder decorated with a silver door, I knew what Mom was going to say next: “You wouldn’t need to go to EAS anymore.” That was putting it in a nice way. Staying in San Francisco meant she never wanted me to go back to EAS again.
    â€œYou could join the soccer team,” Amy added.
    I had been into soccer—before sword training took over my free time. They still thought I was the same as I’d been at eleven, but so much had changed since then. They didn’t know me at all anymore.
    â€œAnd I’ve been looking at houses!” Mom reached across the table and opened the folder. Inside was a stack of glossy flyers. She pushed one in front of me. “This condo isn’t even that far from here. Four bedrooms! I thought we could go to the open house on Sunday.”
    Then I understood. The grocery store incident hadn’t caused this conversation. It had just given Mom the excuse to bring it up. “You’ve been thinking about this for a while.”
    â€œYes.” Mom hesitated. “Since February—when your dad told you about, um, his news.”
    Dad’s news had been big. I’d known that it was going to be something major as soon as he called. He never called me unless we set up a phone date ahead of time. He also didn’t normally waste long seconds taking deep breaths that whistled over the mouthpiece.
    Then he’d said, “Guess what? Brie’s going to have a baby!”
    I had been so surprised at first. I think I’d only said, “Huh?”
    Dad hadn’t noticed. “This summer. This June . That’s what the doctor said. You’re the first person we called. We haven’t even told Brie’s parents yet.”
    â€œCool.” I tried to remember what I was supposed to say. “I mean, congratulations.”
    â€œThanks. Thank you. I’m just—I’m overwhelmed, you know?” Dad’s voice had gone all crackly, which meant he’d either had a bad connection or he’d gotten choked up. “Hold on. I’m going to pass the phone to your stepmother. She wants to talk to you.”
    Brie hadn’t been able to contain herself either. “We don’t know if the baby’s a boy or a girl yet, but we are so excited. And scared, to be totally honest. Rory, I need to ask you something.”
    â€œOkay,” I’d said, still reeling.
    â€œI want you to think about what kind of big sister you want to be,” Brie had said. “Because I think it would be fantastic—and your dad thinks this too—if you were really involved. I just know that your little brother or sister is going to love you. I want you guys to meet right away. Maybe you could come down for the birth? What do you think?”
    I’d thought, I really need to get off the phone , but I hadn’t said that. I don’t remember what I’d said. I just remember what happened after I’d hung up.
    I had burst into tears, run upstairs into my bedroom, and slammed the door.
    That had led to a few late-night phone conferences between my parents on the how is Rory handling the baby news? question. They didn’t know I’d overheard them, but it was hard to ignore my parents working together without shouting.
    What Mom and Dad didn’t know was that after I’d locked myself in my room, I’d called Lena on my M3 and told her. She’d understood why I’d freaked. This was yet another way my life paralleled the