The Best Sisters

In second period Ellie pulls me aside from drills.

"What the heck were you thinking lying to Davy?" she whisper-yells while sneaking glances at Coach to make sure he doesn't notice us slacking. "There is no way he wouldn't find out that Mom isn't taking you shopping this weekend. They talk about the party nearly everyday."

Shoot. She's right. I groan, running my hands over my face. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by everything that's been going on lately.

"Lucky for you, your sister is a genius."

I peek through my fingers, hopeful. "Wha—what did you do?"

"It wasn't too hard to text Mom and subtly hint that you might not have anything 'appropriate' to wear on Sunday and that you would be totally free on Saturday to remedy this travesty."

"Oh my goddess!" I pull my amazing sister into a tight hug. "Thank you, Ellie! You're the best!"

Ellie flips her golden locks playfully. "I know. You may worship me forever."

"Seriously, I will."

"However, I, for one, am still going to the game. So don't blame me if you get stuck wearing something atrocious to your own sweet sixteen, because your fashionable, bom-tastic sister wasn't there to reign in Mom."

"I'm pretty sure Mom was going to make me wear a wedding dress anyways, so I wasn't expecting much to begin with."

Ellie giggles. "She's not that bad. Mom hasn't made you wear a dress in like… at least three years."

"Berkleys!" Coach Yukiya's stern voice cuts through our conversation. "Get back in formation! If I see you slacking again, it will be a flying lap!"

"Happiest three years of my life," I mutter as we run back to the court.

I don't have much hope that I will see Alastair during study hall, but I head to the back of the library anyway.

Someone is playing "Chopsticks" like a juvenile middle schooler and I can hear a girl giggling in the same room, but the other practice rooms are empty. Even though I didn't expect to see him, I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.

"So, you're the one that made my brother laugh," a girl says from behind me.

I jump, quickly turning around to face Alastair's sister. She has the same glossy black hair and freckled complexion, but her eyes are a stormy grey unlike her brother's striking purple. I curse as I try to remember her name. I'm sure it started with an "A" just like her brother. Amy? Alice?

"Uh… yes? I'm Cameron." I am about to extend my hand for her to shake, before I realize that's really weird. Instead I scratch the back of my neck awkwardly. The witch's eyes light up in amusement at my fopaux. Curse my mother's "Luna training".

"You're funny. I like you," she says bluntly.

"Uh… thanks?"

"Adeline."

Adeline! That's it! "Right. Thanks, Adeline."

"Come on. I'll take you to him." And without further ado she turns to walk away.

I stare for a moment before hurrying after her. As I fall into step beside her, she proceeds to interrogate me.

"You're turning sixteen Sunday, right?"

"Uh… yeah."

"Who's your mate?"

"Um… I don't know."

"Who do you want it to be?"

"I don't know that either," I answer honestly.

"Do you want to be my brother's mate?"

"What?! Tha—That's not even possible! Only—only werewolves have mates."

"So? I asked if you wanted him to be your mate, not if you thought he would be."

"Well… I—I don't know if I even want a mate."

"That makes sense. I wouldn't want one either. In the coven we have sex with anyone we want to." I sputter at this information coming from the mouth of this baby-faced freshman. "Monogamy just sounds weird," she says matter-of-factly.

My mind reels. "I—I think I would like to have just one person, um… but, uh, maybe someone I choose?"

"So you do want to be with my brother." It isn't a question.

"Uh… won't he hear us talking about him?"

"So he told you that, huh? Interesting. But to answer you, probably not."

"Probably not?"

"Yeah, I'm like 87% sure my block is working, with a 3% margin of error."

"Block?"

"Yep. I'm not a true psion like Alastair, but I've been practicing blocking him out of my head since I was ten. Of course, it has become increasingly difficult as he approaches his marking day. I predict an exponential growth in his powers starting in his birth month at which point my effectiveness will decrease by 12 to 27%."

"That's… very specific."

"Alastair helps me run experiments on our powers." She pulls out a notebook from her shoulder bag and flips about half way through, gesturing to what appears to be a proportions statistical analysis. "The insights I gain from testing my abilities on a willing subject have been invaluable in increasing my effectiveness. I suspect my success rate would be higher when facing a psion unfamiliar with me, but I have no way to test my theory."

"Psion?"

"A magic user with psychic abilities, like telepathy."

I hum in understanding, finding Adeline a surprisingly interesting person to talk to. "Alastair didn't mention that anyone could block his telepathy, just that it was easier for him if he knew the person well. Do others in the coven know how to block him?"

Adeline shakes her head. "Only our uncle and me. Blocking is incredibly tricky and requires a lot of practice. Most witches don't see the utility of learning, because psions are incredibly rare. To my knowledge, none of the other coven members have bothered to learn how to do it, because Alastair's the only psion they've ever met. Not even my mother has met another one."

"What about non-magic users? Can anyone learn to block?"

"So you don't want my brother seeing all your dirty thoughts about him?"

I flush red. "No, that's not—"

She just waves her hand in front of her face, brushing off my protests. "I wouldn't worry too much about that. Werewolf minds are the hardest to access for Alastair. Although… It was an anomaly that he was able to hear you all the way from a separate car this morning. Did you have anything with lavender in it for breakfast?"

"Uh…" Lavender?! Like his smell?

"Lavender tea? Lavender smoothie?"

"Um… no? Why?"

Adeline just shakes her head absentmindedly. "Oh, we're here."