“Like what?” I ask innocently.
“The way you’re acting, I’m tempted to ask if you burnt the house down. Luckily, I can see it’s still standing. What did you do?” She takes a sip of the water, her eyes never leaving mine.
I shrug nonchalantly. I don’t have a good lie ready and it’s better to let her fill in the blanks herself than to come up with something too outlandish.
“Did you and Mom get into it again?”
“N—Yes,” I sigh. “She reached out, I didn’t respond. So I guess we kinda are still in it, at the moment.”
“Bug,” Laney groans. “She’s our Mom. You have to forgive her.”
“Why do you always expect me to forgive them for being horrible to me?” I snap. “I get they’re perfect parents to you, but they’re fucking ridiculous to me. I’ve never done anything except try to be happy with who I am and they treat me like utter shit for it, Laney.” I hadn’t planned on committing to this cover story quite so hard but for Goddess’ sake, she always defends them no matter what they do to me. I’m tired of it.
“You’re right.” Laney sets the water down on the counter and braces herself against the edge. “I’m sorry.”
“Come again?”
“I’m not repeating it,” she laughs. “But yeah, I get it. What she said was fucked up. I’ll stay out of it.”
My eyebrows shoot up my forehead in shock and Laney shakes her head.
“For now!” she adds. “If you and Mom haven’t made up before we go for Yule, I’m putting you in timeout.”
A quiet crunch comes from somewhere nearby and I quickly busy myself with putting the dressing back in the fridge.
Laney crosses her arms, turning to rest her hip against the counter.
Crunch.
“Alandra,” she chides. “What was that?”
Crrrrrrrunch.
“What was what?” I ask, trying my best to look puzzled.
“What’s going on?” she asks again, frustration building in her tone. Beezlebub chitters away from his perch on the door and Laney cocks an eyebrow before taking a step toward the pantry.
“Wait!” I rush out, groaning when a smile splits her face.
“Bug . . . what’s in the pantry?”
“Nothing! Why would anything be in there?”
“Bug.” She narrows her eyes, trying to take another step toward toward Luna’s hiding spot but I quickly maneuver in front of her.
“It’s a raccoon!” I blurt out.
“A raccoon?” Laney rolls her eyes. “Why would you put a raccoon in the pantry?”
“I uh—I left the back door open and it snuck in, I guess. I came out to find it chowing down on my chips on the table, so I shooed it into the pantry. I panicked.”
“You shooed a raccoon—who had already eaten some of our food—into a closet full of more of our food?” Laney’s face breaks out into another smile as I nod. “I put a protection spell around the house to keep out pests when we moved in, remember?”
Shit.
Laney laughs as she pushes past me and twists open the pantry door. In the middle of the small room, Luna sits on her knees, a bag of chips in one hand, a chip close to her mouth in the other. Her eyes go wide as she looks up toward Laney.
“Hello,” she murmurs, climbing to her feet slowly. The half eaten bowl of salad sits on the floor, abandoned for the bag of kettle cooked potato chips.
“Hiiiii,” Laney drawls out before turning to me. “Is this her?” she mouths as Luna sweeps past her, chips and bowl of salad in hand, toward the dining room table.
I shrug, unsure of what to say or do.
“Eeeeep!” she squeals, then half jogs over to the table to introduce herself. “I’m Laney, Bug’s sister. It’s so nice to meet you!” Laney holds out her hand and Luna looks from me to her, suspiciously, before finally taking it in her own.
Laney pulls her hand back with a gasp. “Holy shit. Where did you find her? That’s some serious magic!” She shakes her hand out and takes a seat at the table, slowly unwrapping the scarf from around her neck.
“I uh—” I really don’t want to lie to her. I know she’s going to find out.
“We just met,” Luna interjects. It’s the truth, at least.
“Well, Mom and Dad are going to love this,” Laney coos.
“Love what?” Luna asks, her eyebrows furrowing together.
Laney giggles and I groan. Fuck. I really shouldn’t have let her think that I had that kind of company earlier. This is going to get super awkward super fast and there’s nothing I can really do about it at this point.
“Well, you know, with Bug being a little magically challenged and all—”
“Laney!” I snap. My cheeks heat under the no doubt singeing red blush that’s creeping across them.
“I just mean they’ll be happy, especially considering your last girlfriend was human. That’s all.” She shrugs and begins wringing her scarf in her hands. I know she didn’t mean to embarrass me, but holy fuck, who does that?
“Girlfriend?” Luna lays a hand on her chest and laughs and I feel the blush creep farther down my cheeks. “Oh. I’m not—well, you see—we just met.” Luna grabs the bottle of French dressing from the table, pours more onto her salad, and picks up her fork, as if dismissing the conversation.
“Ohhhh,” Laney sings with a goofy grin. “Far be it for me to judge. We all go through our whoring phase.”
“What?” Luna asks and my heart pounds against my chest as her hair begins to swirl. Her magic feels like all the air is being sucked from the room as it rushes toward her, feeding her, feeding the power that grows inside her with every word she speaks. “I’m not a whore,” she growls.
Laney’s eyes go wide and she backs away from the table. She hasn’t even raised a hand defensively. Something in her probably recognizes that she’d lose the fight. Her fire magic is fucking brutal . . . but the kind of energy Luna is throwing off would scare anyone away. Anyone except me, apparently.
I lay a hand on her shoulder. “She didn’t mean offense.”
“I really didn’t. Bug, who is this?” Laney crosses her arms and Luna goes back to her salad, taking a big bite of the soggy greens covered in too much French dressing.
“Well,” I begin, taking a step around the side of the table toward my sister. She’s going to lose her shit and I know it. “I may have accidentally summoned her last night.”
“Summoned? What do you mean? I checked the altar before I went to bed and the only spellwork was for the Moon blessing—” Laney’s eyes go wider. I didn’t think that was possible, to be honest. “Holy fuck! Alandra Michaels, did you summon the Moon? Into our house?” Laney’s voice gets higher with each word she speaks and I find myself cringing and taking a step back.
“It wasn’t on purpose,” I point out quickly before taking another step behind Luna. The original plan was to be between them when this realization hit. But now, I’m reconsidering that. At least if I’m behind the big bad Moon spirit—Celestial, whatever—Laney won’t try to throw any magic at me. I’ve lost a few good hoodies to her fuckery in the past and this seems like one of those occasions.