Page 9 of Illusory

“Oh?” Tessa picked up the bowl and slurped back the leftover broth as my mother paused whatever the heck she’d been doing with the books. “So, what did youdothis time?”

Ignoring herrudeassumption that I was somehow responsible for everything wrong in my life, I decided to stick to the topic and just spit out the good news instead. “Well, apparently, I am nowwithwings.”

Tessa stared at me over the rim of her bowl for several beats and then shook her head at me. “You’re so weird, Jemma.”

Exactly. Wait—what?That was not the reaction I was expecting. “Did you hear what I just said?”

“Yes, I heard you,” she answered as she picked up the soup bowl from the table and brought it over to the kitchen sink. “So, you’re on your period. Big deal. That’s life, Jemma, though I have no idea why you feel the need to tell me what kind of menstrual pads you bought, but okay. Thanks for sharing.”

I gaped at her, literally stunned silent at the unfathomable level of idiocy my sister had just reached.

“I was afraid this might happen.”

My head snapped to Jaqueline at the sound of her ominous whisper.Finally—some understanding anda decidedly more appropriate reaction. And then her words fully registered.

She was afraid this might happen? As in she knew?!

“Are you telling me you knew it was a possibility all this time and you never once bothered to mention it to me?” I didn’t bother to wait for her to confirm what I already knew. “How the hell could you keep something this from me?”

“I only suspected there was a chance…because of your bloodline,” she admitted, her eyes weary and guarded. “But I never wanted to believe it.”

“Oh, well since you didn’twantto believe it, clearly there was no need to warn me,” I snapped back sarcastically.

“I didn’t want you to worry about it until I was sure there was something to worry about.”

“Well, clearly there was!” I said, pointing at myself as evidence even though the wings were still in hiding. “You had no right. You should have told me—you could have prepared me!”

“I take it we’re not talking about her period here, are we?” Tessa bounced a look between the two of us as I rolled my eyes at her. “Is ‘wings’ code for something I’m not aware of? I feel like I’m missing some context here.”

“No, Tessa. ‘Wings’ is not code for anything. I’m talking about actual wings that popped out of my back.”

A long pause and then an eye roll. “Right. Of course. Wings. And I’m an undercover unicorn,” she deadpanned.

I threw my hands up in the air. “Is it just me or are you getting stupider with age?”

“I know you didn’t just call me stupid,” she said icily, her eyes narrowing with challenge.

“Well, if the shoe fits—”

“Enough with the bickering,” scolded Jaqueline, her eyes sharp with irritation and something else. Something that looked a lot like fear. “The time for fun and games is over. You both need to get very serious, and you need to do it very quickly.”

Tessa crossed her arms as she examined Jaqueline, her forehead lined with apprehension. “You’re actually serious about this,” she realized as her expression blanched, making her alabaster skin look even paler than it usually was. “But that’s…that’scrazy. Descendants don’t have wings. It’s not possible.”

“Yeah, well, my wings beg to differ.”

Tessa’s gaze jerked to me, her eyes roving over me contemplatively. “Do they really? And are these wings in the room with us now? Because I don’t see any wings,” she remarked and then craned her neck as though she were searching for them over my shoulders. “Are you sure you didn’timaginethem?”

“Seriously?”

“No offense but you’re not the most reliable of witnesses when it comes to matters of reality, Jemma, especially when you’re bloodsharing with yourboyfriends.”

Ouch, bitch.

“You know what, Tessa? You’re probably right,” I said as I hopped up from my chair and grabbed the hem of my shirt, yanking it up over my head in one fluid motion and then tossing it at her face. “Itotallymust have hallucinated the whole thing. Because, you know, I’m such a dumb bloodwhore. And I’mobviouslyalso hallucinating these brand-new scars on my back that showed up right after thewings disappeared,” I said and then spun around to give her a full view of my back, glaring at her from over my shoulder. “Right?”

She slowly lowered my shirt to her side, her eyes wide and fixed on my bare back as she crossed over to where I was standing. “Jesus. H. Chri—”

“Pretty sure these aren’t fromhimif you know what I mean,” I muttered as Tessa poked and prodded the closed wounds on my back with her finger, as though she might be able to dig the wings up out of their hiding place with her fingernail if she just plundered deep enough.

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