Yeah, but just little powers, I told myself. The chances of your magic going all scary and dark while changing clothes are probably pretty slim.
Stil , it bothered me how easy it was to slip back into the habit of using magic. So I wrestled my hair into a demure braid the old-fashioned way, even though it ended up looking pretty sloppy. I decided not to wear makeup, figuring the more innocent I looked, the harder it might be for him to ground me, or shoot hel fire from his eyes, or whatever it was that angry demon dads did.
Before I left, I grabbed the gold coin from underneath my pil ow, then looked around the room. No hiding places immediately jumped out at me, so in the end I added a pocket to my dress and slipped it in.
Dad was standing in front of the big windows when I got to the library, his hands clasped behind his back in the classic "I am so disappointed in my offspring"pose.
"Dad? Um, Lara said you wanted to see me."
He turned around, his mouth a hard line. "Yes. Did you have a nice time with Daisy and Nick last night?"
I fought the urge to reach into my pocket and touch the coin. "Not particularly."
He didn't say anything, so we just stared at each other until I started feeling fidgety. "Look, if you're going to punish me, I'd real y rather just get it over with."
Dad kept staring. "Would you like to know how I spent my evening? Wel , not evening, real y, so much as very early morning hours."
Inwardly, I groaned. Mrs. Casnoff sometimes pul ed this maneuver: she'd say she wasn't mad, and then proceed to list al the ways my screwup had inconvenienced her. Maybe they taught it at those fancy schools non-reject Prodigium got to go to. "Sure."
"I spent those hours on the phone. Do you know with whom?"
"One of those psychic hotlines?"
Dad gritted his teeth. "If only. No, I was busy assuring no less than thirty influential witches, warlocks, shifters, and faeries that surely, my daughter-the future head of the Council, I should add-had not injured over a dozen innocent Prodigium while attempting to escape a nightclub during a raid by L'Occhio di Dio."
"I didn't hurt them!"I exclaimed. Then I remembered just how hard they had hit the wal , and winced. "Wel , not on purpose,"I amended.
Dad dropped his head and pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers. "Damn it al , Sophia."
"I'm sorry,"I said miserably. "Real y. And I tried to help them. I dropped al of the Eyes that were coming after them."
"No,"he said, raiding his head. "No, this is my fault. I should've dealt with this as soon as you arrived."
"With what?"
"Come with me. We have an errand to run."He swept his arm out like I was supposed to leave the library first, but I stayed right where I was. I felt total y confused and off-center. When Mom was mad at me, she just yel ed and got it over with.
I swal owed. "Wherever we're going, I want Jenna to come too."Whatever Dad had planned, I didn't think it was something I wanted to deal with alone.
But Dad gave this mysterious little smile and said, "I believe Miss Talbot has company."
"What are you talking about?"
"It was my understanding that she and Victoria Stanford had grown close while Jenna was in Savannah last year. Fortunately, Miss Stanford was granted a few weeks vacation from her duties for the Council. I thought she might want to spend some of that time here with Jenna."
"You flew Vix out here?"
He turned back to the window and nodded at something outside. "Her flight got in late last night."
I went to stand beside him. There on the front lawn, Jenna was walking arm in arm with a very pale, very beautiful girl, their heads close together. Vix looked sixteen, but since she worked for the Council, she was probably older. One of the perks of being a vampire, I guess. Jenna was laughing.
My throat felt tight with a feeling that was part happiness for Jenna, part jealousy that I'd have to share her, and part anger.
I remembered the look on Dad's face on that first day, when Jenna had leaped to my defense, and he'd said Mrs.
Casnoff had cal ed us what?
A formidable team.
"Wel played, Dad,"I muttered.
I expected him to deny it, but instead he said, "Yes, I rather thought so myself. Now come along."
I cast one more glance at Jenna and Vix, hoping to catch Jenna's eye and wave, but she never looked up.
I'd thought I was getting a pretty good handle on the layout of Thorne Abbey, but as I fol owed Dad down one massive corridor, then another narrower hal way, and final y up a flight of stairs, I got disoriented al over again.
Dad final y stopped in a section of the house that looked like it hadn't been used since Alice was here. The furniture was covered in heavy drop cloths, and a thick layer of dust and grime coated the portraits on the wal . In front of us was a heavy oak door, and when Dad pushed it open, I half expected someone's crazy locked-away wife to spring out at us.
But as I looked into the dim room, the only person I saw was me. Wel , lots of mes.
Nearly every square inch of wal was covered in mirrors of al kinds: huge mirrors in ornate frames that looked like they weighed three times more than me; tiny, round mirrors that only reflected little pieces of me; old mirrors, so warped and spotted that I could hardly see anything in them at al .
Dad crossed the room to open some gray velvet drapes, but when he tugged on them, the fabric fel away from the windows in a moldered heap.
"Oh, wel ,"he said, surveying the mess. "It's my house anyway."He raised his eyes to me. "I'm sure you're wondering why I've brought you here."
I moved to the center of the room, my strappy sandals clacking on the marble floor. "I'm assuming this is where the punishment part comes in,"I said. "So do I need to clean al these mirrors, or do I have to, like, stare at myself until I feel shamed or something?"
Surprisingly, Dad gave a tiny smile. "No, nothing quite that abstract. I want you to break one of the mirrors."
"Excuse me?"
Dad leaned back against the now-drapeless window and folded his arms over his chest. "Break a mirror, Sophie."
"With what, my head? Because I'm pretty sure that'd be corporal punishment, and Mom would not be cool with that."
"With your powers."
Ugh. I took in the dozens of mirrors and muttered, "I think I'd rather use my head."When Dad didn't say anything, I sighed and turned to face him.