Free Family Magic by Patti Larsen

She tried to whisper. It came out a
little louder than she intended. We both laughed, glancing at the
partially open door.
    “Say it!” I demanded in a whisper when no one
came to shush us. “Say uncle!”
    Meira giggled silently, her red-tinted face
even more crimson from the effort of holding it in. She squiggled
and squirmed underneath me, trying to catch her breath.
    “Never,” she hissed.
    I sat up and whacked her with my pillow. She
squealed for real this time. She grabbed one of the decorative
throw pillows Mom insisted accompany the stupid chandelier.
    “Cheater!” She shrieked, smacking me with the
satin monstrosity.
    I popped her a good one, sending her tumbling
across the bed.
    “Brat!” I retorted.
    Meira lunged with her pillow, but missed and
ended up on the floor. We both froze at the heavy thump. I heard
quick steps come to the bottom of the stairs.
    “You girls better be in bed,” Mom called up
to us.
    We giggled.
    “If I have to come up there…” The threat was
an empty one. She hadn’t come up to stop us in years.
    Still, we held silent, as much a part of the
game as the rest of it. Finally, Mom’s footsteps retreated back to
the kitchen. Meira gazed up at me from the floor and laughed.
    I scooped her up and planted her on the bed
beside me. She stretched out facing me. I flipped the covers over
us. She snuggled into my neck.
    “That was fun,” she said.
    “So I can blame you if Mom decides to come
check on us?”
    Meira batted her lashes, Miss Innocence.
“She’d never believe it was my fault.”
    I didn’t mean to but with everything that
happened in the last few hours, I took her words personally.
    “Right. Of course. It’s always me screwing
up. I forgot.”
    I rolled over onto my back, focused fury
settling on the stupid pink chandelier. I jumped up, stood on the
bed and grabbed onto it. I pulled, but nothing happened. Meira made
a noise, something sad and afraid, but I ignored her completely.
Mad, beyond frustrated, I gave it a good yank. The whole thing let
go. I hunched on the bed covered in pink crystals, stars, wires and
a large chunk of ceiling. I’m surprised my mom didn’t come running,
but I guess it wasn’t as noisy as it looked. Dust hovered
everywhere. Meira stared at me, tears pouring over her cheeks.
    “Syd,” she cried. “I’m sorry! Don’t be mad
anymore.”
    She covered her little face in her hands and
sobbed. The giant heel I turned into reached out and grabbed her. I
pulled her into my lap amid the mess I made and hugged her
hard.
    “It’s okay, Meems, it’s
okay,” I rocked her and stroked her hair until she fell quiet. She
pushed tears from her cheeks. The fear I saw in her face made me
cringe, even though I knew she was less afraid of me and more afraid for me.
    “Why don’t you love us anymore, Syd?” Meira
went limp against me, her hurt a physical thing that made me want
to take everything back.
    “It’s not that,” I told her, stroking her
hair back from her cute little horns. “Of course I still love you.
What’s not to love, huh?”
    She slid her hair over her horns to hide
them. “That’s not what you said before,” she whispered.
    I ran back over the conversation in the
basement and winced. Oops.
    “Meems…”
    She sniffled and wiped her nose with her
sleeve. “You hate us.”
    “No I don’t.”
    “You think we’re monsters.”
    Oh crap. “Meira, look at me.” I forced her
face up and stared her in those huge, demon eyes. “I don’t hate
you, okay? Nothing you could ever do would make me hate you. And I
don’t think you’re a monster.”
    “I have horns,” she whispered. I flinched.
How much damage had I done to my little sister? How had she gotten
into the middle of my battles with our mother? For the first time I
was painfully aware Meira probably suffered way more than Mom and
I. She was going to carry our garbage with her for the rest of her
life if I didn’t do something about it right then and there.
    I