Free Of Sorcery and Snow by Shelby Bach

worried me. Maybe I didn’t want to see her face when she realized how much I’d kept from her.
    â€œIn your new high school, you can go to all the dances. Maybe I’ll even let you and your friends take a cab there, so you won’t have to get dropped off by your mother. Seriously uncool,” Mom said. She was clinging so hard to the dream of staying here. Sadness rushed in and smothered the guilt.
    With me gone, she was going to worry anyway. It was better that she worry just about the dangers she already understood, rather than the magical kind that would scare her more. I couldn’t tell her yet.
    After two whole years, one more week wouldn’t make a huge difference.
    Mom parked in front of the blue-and-gray house with the bright red door, the Door Trek one that would take me to EAS. You couldn’t hear any music, but that didn’t tip her off. Seeing that no other cars were lining up to drop their kids off didn’t bother her either. When I’d told Ellie that my parents were supersuspicious of my after-school activities, she amped up the don’t question anything enchantment so much that even Melodie was affected. Last time we’d carried her through this way, she had gone as still as a statue for almost a minute, and when she woke up, she’d said she had forgotten for a moment that she was a magic, talking, moving harp.
    When I got out of the car, Mom did too, and she hugged me hard. “Who’s my favorite daughter?”
    She hadn’t said that in a while. Maybe she thought I’d outgrown it, but I still liked hearing it.
    I relaxed into her, dropping my chin on her shoulder, trying not to wonder if she would hug me so hard after I came back. “But I’m your only daughter.”
    â€œThen it’s a good thing you’re my favorite.” She smiled, tucking some hair behind my ear. “I know it’s hard to imagine a different life. We’ve gotten into a good routine. If we make a change, it’s new and different and scary. But just remember: It was new and different and scary when we started moving around, and we handled it just fine. We’re brave enough. We’ll survive.”
    I hoped she was right. I hoped it was true for coming clean about EAS, not just staying in San Francisco.
    â€œNothing lasts forever,” she said, hugging me again. I wasn’t sure she was going to let me go. I wasn’t even sure I wanted her to.
    Remember the dream, I told myself. Remember the kids.
    â€œI’ll tell you all about it when I get back,” I said.
    Mom’s face brightened, hopeful, and I hated myself instantly. The right thing to say had come to me so easily. I was getting as bad as Chase.
    This was the last lie. It had to be. I couldn’t stand being such a terrible daughter anymore.
    She patted my bare shoulder. “Have fun, sweetie.”
    I trotted up the front steps to the red door. Mom’s camera flashed three times, like my own personal paparazzi, the parental version. I turned back to wave, and I wondered if she would show those pictures to the cops—evidence of the outfit I was wearing when I went missing. I wondered if later she would notice the guilt on my face.
    Nothing lasts forever. Not even Mom’s trust in me.
    I stepped inside and tripped—right over Chase.
    He sat on the floor, staring into his M3. He obviously didn’t care if he got his suit all dusty. It was dark in this corridor so often that I memorized the carvings on the walls by feel alone, but he’d managed to flip the lights on.
    â€œYou’re late,” he said without looking up. It looked like someone had attacked his shaggy blond hair with a wet comb. “Miriam went to the ball ages ago, and Lena just left to set up the illusion in the workshop.”
    It took me a few seconds to switch gears—to start worrying about the quest instead of Mom. “She couldn’t set it up here?” I