Like joining Kappa.
A few minutes later, Vivi pulled up in front of a squat bungalow with a blue door and yellow shutters a few blocks from the beach. Thick fog was rolling in, and the wind chimes on the porch filled the air with a strange, atonal melody. She turned off the engine and got out of the car, looked in all directions, then walked up the short path lined with scraggly beach roses.
Before she reached the house, the door swung open, and Daphne appeared in the doorway. She had more gray streaks in her hair and deeper circles under her eyes than the last time Vivi had seen her, but otherwise, Daphne Devereaux looked the same as she had when Vivi said goodbye to her in Reno.
“Oh, Vivi, thank God.” Daphne pulled her into a tight hug, then stepped back to examine her daughter. “The cards said you were fine, but I can’t tell you how happy I am to see it with my own eyes.”
Now that Vivi knew the real power of tarot, Daphne’s instincts felt slightly less foolish to her. “Can I come in?”
Daphne hesitated, then glanced over her shoulder. “Now’s not a good time, sweetheart. The place is still such a mess. Boxes everywhere. Why don’t you and I walk into town? There’s an adorable little café I think you’ll like.”
“Boxes everywhere, huh? Does one of them contain the Henosis talisman, by any chance?”
“Vivi, please, I—”
“One of my sisters was taken, and the kidnapper says if we don’t deliver the talisman, she’ll be killed.”
Daphne’s face went white and she brought one hand to her chest. “That’s exactly why you can’t go back to that place. Kappa is a lightning rod for danger.” She moved aside just a few inches, as if still unsure what to do, then sighed and opened the door wide. “You’d better come in.”
Vivi stepped inside and waited while Daphne locked the door behind her, using the regular deadbolt and all the extra locks Vivi knew she’d installed when she’d moved in, as was her custom. Her mother couldn’t change a tire or install an AC unit, but her paranoia had resulted in her becoming a master locksmith. Though now her paranoia didn’t feel quite as delusional as it had.
“So I guess Louisville didn’t work out?” Vivi’s sweet smile didn’t match the edge in her voice.
In the kitchen, a teakettle whistled. “Kentucky has bad energy,” Daphne said as she brushed past Vivi. “Tea? I’m working on a new strengthening brew. Chamomile and sweet basil—”
“Were you going to tell me that you’d moved an hour’s drive away?” Vivi interrupted, following her into the kitchen. It was painted a sunny yellow with cheerful black-and-white floor tiles, but it was so narrow that their elbows bumped while Daphne poured her tea.
“I didn’t want to interrupt your studies.” She pressed the mug on Vivi, who accepted it in spite of her annoyance.
“So you ignore all my texts and calls, basically write me off for going to Westerly, but then you move to the same city yourself?”
“I wanted to be nearby. Just in case.” Daphne shrugged in a forced gesture of nonchalance as she poured a second mug for herself.
“In case of what? In case I got in trouble?” Vivi let out a short, bitter laugh. “The reason the Ravens are in danger is that you stole a valuable object years ago and refuse to give it back. I know you’ve never cared about anyone but yourself, but a girl is going to die tomorrow unless you hand over the talisman.”
Daphne closed her eyes for a second, looking pained. “I think we should sit down and talk about this,” she said quietly, and led Vivi into the small living room, an unfamiliar space filled with many familiar things. Her mother’s favorite knit blanket was draped over a blue velvet trunk Vivi had never seen before. The one shelf on the wall held the carefully selected books Mom lugged with her on every move. And in a glass bowl was the mixture of lavender and cedar Daphne always placed on their coffee table. For a moment, all Vivi wanted to do was inhale the comforting scent of the items that had surrounded her for her whole life, the only source of consistency she’d had growing up.
Daphne sat on the couch and motioned to the spot next to her, but Vivi ignored her and sat in a scratchy yellow armchair instead. “Why didn’t you tell me about any of this?” Vivi asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“I never hid what I was,” her mother replied, suddenly sounding exhausted. “But I couldn’t make you believe in magic, Vivi. You needed to experience it for yourself.”
“Then why did you try to stop me from going to Westerly?”
“You don’t need to be a Kappa in order to be a witch. Those girls aren’t what they seem. You don’t know the lengths they’d go to for more power.”
“Like stealing the Henosis talisman?”
“Who told you about that?”
“Nobody needed to tell me. I saw a photo of you wearing it in the Gazette archives. A photo of you and Evelyn Waters, the girl who went missing.”
Daphne clutched her mug so tightly, her knuckles turned white.
“What happened to her?”
“She died, Vivi. Because she got involved in something she didn’t understand. The same kind of thing you’re poking around in now.”
“Is that some kind of threat?” Vivi asked incredulously.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Her mother set her mug on the coffee table with a clank. “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done to protect you.”
“Protect me by keeping me in the dark? Sounds like a great plan.”
“Yes, if that’s what it takes!”
Vivi rose from her chair, trembling with anger and frustration. “We’ve spent our whole lives on the run, and from what? Nothing bad ever happened to us.”
“Because nobody’s ever found it,” her mother snapped.
Vivi’s frenetic childhood came back to her in vivid flashes. The sudden departures, the midnight packing sessions, the long drives through the night, her mother taking circuitous routes to unknown destinations. When she was young, it had felt like a game. They were spies, on the run from some big bad enemy, sneaking across the country in their own little world. When she was older, it had gotten painful. Always leaving friends, crushes, everyone behind. Dragged away every time Vivi started to feel like she’d found a home.
It was all because of this, she realized. All because of Westerly, because of what had happened at Kappa. “So it’s true,” Vivi said slowly. “You do have the talisman.”
Daphne nodded. “It’s my responsibility to keep it from falling into the wrong hands, a job I’ve taken very seriously over the years.”
“So all this time, all the running, all the moves—was it because of what happened to Evelyn?”
“You don’t understand—”
“Did you kill her?” The words sprang from Vivi’s lips before her brain had time to process them.
Emotions flashed across Daphne’s face. Shock. Hurt. Indignation. Then back to sorrow, the kind of bone-deep sorrow that aged her mother ten years in a blink. “How could you think that?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Vivi said. “I don’t know what to believe anymore. All I know is that I need the talisman to save my friend’s life, but for some reason, you don’t seem to care about that.”