Free Crystal Caves by Kristine Grayson Page B

only respond in an emergency. Is this an emergency?”
    “ Yes .” I say. I don’t add that I know it doesn’t have to be an emergency to get to the Fates, considering how many times stupid magical people came to us with stupid dilemmas like how do they deal with their possum familiar when it’s eaten too many cupcakes? That was never an emergency, although Brit didn’t like the way that mage treated his familiar (even if the thing looked like an obese rat). She wanted to spell the mage right then and there, taking away his magical abilities, but Tiff said we couldn’t.
    And I don’t want to think about that stuff. I have to force my mind away from what I know, and back to the conversation.
    “Are you in danger?” Megan asks.
    My heart sinks. No matter how I look at it, I’m not in danger. I’m beginning to think contacting Megan is a mistake.
    “What kind of danger?” I ask.
    “Is someone trying to harm you?” Megan asks, but her tone has settled a little. Do I seem calmer or is it the verbal game I’m playing?
    “Right now, Crystal, is someone trying to physically harm you?”
    I’m gripping the phone so hard it bits into my fingers. “No.”
    She lets out a breath of air that I can hear through the phone. “Good. I was concerned.”
    And she’s not anymore? Jeez.
    “What kind of emergency is this, then?” she asks.
    “I need to go home,” I repeat.
    “We had that discussion earlier today,” Megan says. “You have to wait. It’s not that long—”
    “That’s what Mother said,” I say. “She’s never coming to see you, by the way. She thinks this is all stupid. Me too. We don’t want to be near each other, but you’re making us. That’s why I want to go to the Fates.”
    “Oh, dear,” Megan says. “I’ll come there and talk with you both. Let’s see if we can resolve this.”
    “There’s no resolving,” I say. “I need to go home.”
    “Is Monique making you move out?”
    If Megan didn’t have super powers of empathy, I would lie to her. But I can’t. She’ll know it if I do. (I know this, because she’s caught me in lies too many times.)
    “No,” I say, and I sound sullen even to me.
    “Is she denying you food or a comfortable place to sleep?”
    “No.”
    “Is she keeping you imprisoned in the apartment?”
    “If I say yes to any of this, will I get to see the Fates?”
    “I’m sorry,” Megan says. “I know you want to leave, but we were expecting that from all three of you girls. We know it’ll be hard. That’s why I’m here to talk to you.”
    “Talking doesn’t work,” I say. “It won’t work. Mother doesn’t want me. So let me go home.”
    “I have to speak to your mother,” Megan says.
    “She’s already mad that you called her once today,” I say. “I don’t want to bother her again. Just get me out of here.”
    “I’m sorry,” Megan says. “But part of growing up is learning how to live through things you don’t enjoy.”
    “You mean like being an Interim Fate?” I ask. “Because I hated that.”
    “Crystal…”
    I repeat in the same tone, “Megan…”
    “I would love to help,” she says, “but my hands are tied. Unless something is going seriously wrong—”
    “It is ,” I say.
    “Wrong in the way that would involve the police or child protective services or something,” Megan continues, finally using her patient voice. “Unless something like that is happening, I can’t bring you to the Fates. That was one of our agreements with the Powers That Be.”
    “That we don’t talk to the Fates?” I ask, wondering if those three women had something against me and Brittany and Tiffany because we were Interim Fates. “Is that it?”
    “No,” Megan says. “You can talk to the Fates the way any other mortal can talk to the Fates. If you’re infused with magic or in a magical situation not of your own making, or if your life is in danger, then you can talk to the Fates. Otherwise, someone has to send you there or you have