Binding the Shadows (Arcadia Bell) (33 page)

Jupe’s breath came a little faster through his open mouth. “Oh, man. That’s cool. Thanks.”

“No big deal,” she insisted again. “What’s up with you, by the way? Your halo looks sick.”

Jupe’s mouth twisted. “Uh . . .”

“Probably just a getting a cold or something,” I offered.

“Yeah,” he said, sneaking me a grateful look. “Probably just that.”

She nodded and tilted her chin my way. “You’ve got news about that Telly kid?”

I waffled.

“You want me to leave?” Jupe asked me. “I will if you want, but whatever it is, I won’t freak out. Dad said you guys had a terrible night.”

“We did. But actually, I want to tell you both something that’s more important than that, and now’s as good a time as any.” The tears I didn’t think I had anymore were already brimming.

“What’s wrong?” Kar Yee asked.

“I need to confess something important.”

Jupe looked at Kar Yee, confused. She shrugged her shoulders in answer.

Here goes nothing,
I thought. “It’s a secret I’ve been keeping.” I looked at Jupe. “Only your dad knows, and a couple of other people.”

“As many secrets as you’ve got, this should be good,” Kar Yee said. “I’m all ears.”

Jupe pushed curls away from his face, an awkward movement. I was making him nervous. Hell, I was making myself nervous. This was so much easier when I’d first told Lon. Then again, he’d drugged me into spilling the beans. I wished I could drug myself now.

“You know how I’ve told you that my parents were bad people?” I said to Jupe.

He nodded.

“They were way worse than your mom could ever dream of being. And I need to tell you both who they really were.”

“Okay.” He was definitely nervous now. Kar Yee, too.

“Are you familiar with the Black Lodge Slayings?”

Jupe’s face twisted. “Uh . . . what? Oh!” Something clicked in his head. “The serial killers. The satanic murders of those occultists, or whatever. The Duvets or something.”

“Duval. Enola and Alexander Duval.”

“Yeah,” Jupe said, brightening. “They were on the news a few months ago. They’re supposed to be dead, but they were on that parking garage footage.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Kar Yee said. “I know who you’re talking about. The murders were all over talk shows back when we were in college.”

I waited for them to start piecing things together.

“No,” Kar Yee said, her jaw dropping in shock.

Jupe shifted uncomfortably. His mouth tightened to a thin line. Breath quickened through his nostrils. “Your parents . . .”

“Were killers. I didn’t know at the time. I thought they were innocent. We all faked our deaths and separated. I’ve been living on my own since I was seventeen under this name.” I looked at Kar Yee. “I met you about a year after it happened.”

She said nothing. Just stared at me, frozen.

“I only saw them a few times all those years. And I believed they’d been framed. But then they got spotted on that parking tape and made the news.” I nodded toward Jupe. “That’s when I met your dad.”

“That’s why he was helping you?” His voice wavered.

Even then, at that moment, I wanted to lie to him. Tell him I was kidding. Tell him everything was fine and that there was no cause for alarm. But I pushed past it and said, “Yeah. I thought he was going to help me prove their innocence, but we ended up finding out they were guilty.”

Kar Yee still said nothing. Jupe shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Arcadia Bell is a fake name?”

“An alias. I’ve been using it since I was a teenager.”

“What’s your real name?”

“It’s Cady,” I insisted as a hot tear fell down my cheek. “I don’t want you to ever think of me as anyone but Cady. No one calls me by my old name. I hate it. I wish I could erase everything from my old life.”

A slow breeze fluttered his curls. “How long has my dad known?”

“Since before I came over that first night and met you.”

“He knew, and he still let you come over here?”

I nodded.

“If he trusted you and he barely even knew you,” Jupe reasoned, “then he could tell you were okay.”

“I suppose.”

“You told me your parents were dead in college,” Kar Yee said. “Then you told me a few months ago that they’d died when you went to San Diego. Now you’re telling me that they faked their deaths?”

“I really did think they were dead a few months ago,” I argued. “A powerful Æthyric demon took them into the Æthyr. I thought it was safe to assume she’d kill both of them. She killed my dad, but my mom is still alive. Alive there.”

“Alive on the demon plane?” Jupe said.

“Yes. And there’s more, unfortunately.”

I told them everything about the Moonchild powers. The things I could do. About the tail. Jupe listened earnestly, elbows pressed tight against his ribs, every muscle in his jaw flexing. Kar Yee was silent and unreadable at first, but became increasingly distressed. I didn’t stop talking until I’d spilled everything. And then I waited for their reaction.

No one said anything for a long moment.

Kar Yee stared at the ground, unable to meet my gaze. “You lied to me all these years. I gave you a million chances to tell me the truth, but you jump into bed with some guy and tell him?”

“Lon’s not ‘some guy,’ and—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she shouted, finally looking me in the eye. “I don’t need your excuses.”

My chest tightened. “I know.”

“You could’ve trusted me. Why didn’t you trust me?”

“I’m sorry. It was hard for me to trust anyone. I thought I was protecting them. Me. I thought I was doing the right thing.”

She threw up her hands and paced in a circle. “You are living with an illegal name? We share a business! If you get in trouble with the law—”

“I’ve been careful.”

“I don’t care.” Tears brimmed. Hers hands were fists. “Partners don’t lie to each other. If you can’t trust me enough to confide in me, then you shouldn’t be running a business with me.”

“Kar Yee—”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now.” She spun around and marched back toward her car.

“Please stay,” I called after her. “I need to talk to you about it.”

“And I need to go to Tambuku, because one of us has to get it running again.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“Don’t bother.” She got in her car and slammed the door.

That didn’t go well. Not that I thought it would, but it still stung. And it wasn’t over. Jupe stood silent, staring at the dust Kar Yee’s wheels kicked up as she sped away. When he turned to look at me, he wore a pained expression. He almost looked like he was about to cry.

“Please don’t be scared of me,” I said. “I’m still me. I still care about you as much as I did yesterday.”

“I’m not scared,” he said.

I nodded, hoping that was true.

“I’m not,” he insisted. “I guess I feel like Kar Yee. I just wish you would’ve told me sooner. It sort of hurts my feelings that you didn’t. I mean, you could’ve trusted me.”

“It’s not that. I was afraid and . . . I was ashamed of it.”

“You were?” He considered this for several moments. “I guess I understand. That’s why I never talked about my mom much before, well”—he waved a hand—“all of this happened over Christmas. Sometimes I wish I could erase that part of my life, too.”

“At least your mom is trying. She’s a very sad person, and she’s selfish. I don’t know if she’ll ever be okay or stop making stupid mistakes. And I don’t know if you should give her any more chances—”

“I’m not,” he said firmly.

I nodded. “That’s up to you. But I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s a whole different thing with my mom. My mom is just evil. And really, really dangerous. She is beyond redemption.”

“Wow.” He turned away from the wind and kicked at a knotted cypress tree’s roots that bulged above the dirt. “This is the biggest secret anyone’s ever told me,” he said thoughtfully.

“I trust you.”

He gave me a funny smile, tight, but honest—as if he was surprised I would trust him, pleased I did, but still in shock about the whole thing.

I exhaled a long breath and glanced back at the house. “I need to tell you about something else. Remember when I once told you about my guardian, Priya?”

He nodded. “One of the sigils on your arm.”

I pulled a piece of paper from my pocket. “This sigil. It’s his name. And because you’re connected to me through our bond”—I nodded to his hip, where my own sigil was tattooed—“Priya is your guardian as much as mine. He can only stay on earth for a few minutes at a time, but if you are in trouble, you can call him. You’ll need Heka, and you probably don’t have much. You can try to spit on the sigil—”

He made a face.

“Oh, please,” I said, straining to eject a single laugh. “You know you love gross stuff. If the spit doesn’t work, you’ll have to cut yourself and spill a few drops of blood on it. But make a copy of it first so you don’t lose the image. Take a photo with your phone or something.”

“I just do that and your guardian will cross over to our world?”

“You just say, ‘Priya, come,’ and he will show up. Don’t be frightened of him. He looks like a boy, but he’s got wings.”

“Oh, shit! No way.”

“And he talks a little funny, but you’ll do fine. Don’t call him more than once every couple of days. He can’t stay long—only a couple of minutes, so you’ll need to talk fast. But you can tell him anything. You can even ask him to send me a message.”

“Why would I need to do that?”

I closed my eyes briefly. “Because I might have to leave.”

“What do you mean?”

“My mom can control me. It’s getting worse. I’m afraid she’s going to make me do something against my will.” I attempted to swallow the lump in my throat.

“But—”

“If I stay, it might put people in danger. I’m her puppet. When I tap into moon magick, she can control me.”

“So don’t. Dad says just because I have a knack doesn’t mean I have to use it. Isn’t this the same thing?”

“Even if I don’t use it, she can get me when I’m sleeping. She’s dangerous, Jupe. You are in danger by being around me. She’s crazy and she wants revenge against me. She will try to hurt you.”

Jupe was fighting back tears. “You can’t leave. Where will you go?”

“To my order in Florida. My godfather might be able to help track down the ritual my parents used to make me this way. Maybe I can use it to fix myself. I don’t know.”

“Just fight her,” he said. “You’re strong. You can fight her.”

“I don’t know if I can, Jupe. And I won’t risk putting you and your dad in danger.”

“Please don’t leave me,” he begged in a rough voice. “Please. Don’t leave me like she did.”

My heart broke into a thousand pieces. “It’s not because I don’t care. I’m leaving to protect you.” I wanted to assure him I’d be coming back—that I could pop down to Florida for a week, pop back up, problem fixed. But I couldn’t lie to him. Not after I’d just broken down and told him the truth about my parents.

He stared at me for a moment, eyes glossy and pained. Then he blurted, “He bought you an engagement ring.”

My body stilled. “What?” I whispered.

“That was the secret I told Kar Yee. That’s the reason Gramma accepted you. Because Dad’s going to marry you and we’re going to be a family and you can’t leave. You can’t leave
us
.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks. “Jupe.”

“You’re still going to leave, knowing that? How could you?”

“I—”

“I won’t let you!” He gritted his teeth. His pupils flicked back and forth like a pendulum.

He was using his persuasion knack.

“You won’t leave us. You’ll stay here. You won’t leave!”

I turned my head away, an instinctual reaction, as if that could deflect his knack. He’d never used it on me. I wasn’t sure how it would feel. But I knew it had to feel like something more than this . . . this nothingness. I looked up at him. It didn’t work. I could see it on his face, the way it fell.

And then it hit me. He’d tried to use it on Lon. On Yvonne. On me.

Dr. Spendlove, Jupe’s Earthbound psychiatrist, had told Lon that most knacks like Jupe’s have a restriction, he just wasn’t sure yet what it was.

I was pretty sure we’d just uncovered it.

“Oh, Jupe,” I said. “Your knack doesn’t work on people you care about.”

He made an anguished noise in the back of his throat.

“I’m so sorry.” I reached out to touch him.

His face twisted as he bellowed a loud, incoherent growl. He was confused and frustrated and hurt. So was I. And I didn’t know how to make it any better for either one of us.

He lunged and shoved me, hard. Shock ripped through me as I stumbled backward. Before I could recover, he was racing across the driveway.

“Jupe!” I called out.

But he didn’t listen. He just ran as fast as he could toward the house. The slamming front door sounded like a small explosion.

I fell apart, crouching at the base of the cypress tree. I didn’t think I could hurt any more than I did at that moment

Jupe needed some time to cool down. And he and Lon had to escort the Giovannis to the airport. When they were done, Lon and I had agreed to sit down and sort out a plan for Dare . . . a plan for Florida. And though I was too shocked to process it, I’d eventually have to tell him I knew about the engagement ring.