Read Online 2 Lady Luck Runs Out by Shannon Esposito - Free Book Online

father know I was going to be in danger somehow? Does that mean he is watching us from... wherever he is? Or, it could have been just a dream. But deep inside I knew it was more than that. I didn't know what to say. I needed to do something normal. "I'll get that tea now," I whispered.
    I leaned against the stove for support and waited for the kettle to whistle. So many emotions were moving in and out. I tried to just let them flow, feel them and then release them, but the frustration was not cooperating. I moved here to be normal. To have normal friends, a normal quiet life. But, here was my old life and my crazy, absentee father sticking his nose into my new world. No, I wouldn't let that happen. I had to think.
    If it was true that I was in danger then it probably came from me trying to solve Rose's murder. I would just have to do that quickly and then Mallory wouldn't worry about me and she could go home.
    When I finally returned to the living room with a new resolve and two steaming tea cups, Mallory had her arms crossed, staring at me. Lucky had moved to the back of the sofa and was pulling at Mallory's hair tie. Mallory seemed too focused on being annoyed with me to notice.
    "You know, maybe the reason I was sent here to help you is because you won't help yourself. Don't think I haven't noticed that you're not practicing at all. Are you completely shunning everything that Grandma Winters taught you? Everything that our family is about? Father may not be around but he did give us these gifts. The magick is part of our heritage."
    According to Mom and Grandma Winters. I still wasn't completely clear on the whole nature of what our father was and what we were. It all seemed like a bad fairytale.
     "Mallory, that's not fair. We're human, too. Why can't I just embrace that part of our family?" I put down the cups and fell on the sofa next to her, the frustration reaching new heights. "Will you just try to understand my point of view, please? We were never given a choice growing up if we wanted to be normal or not. But now, I feel like I do have a choice. I have a fresh start. I can be normal here in St. Pete and that's all I want. Plenty of people live without magick and do just fine. They have friends, hobbies, completely full lives without feeling the need to manipulate nature to get what they want." I saw Mallory's eyes widen and then narrow, but it was too late. I couldn't stop myself. "How do you even know we're supposed to have these gifts? How do we know that those people calling us witches weren't right? Maybe father isn't...  maybe these gifts aren't from a good place. Maybe they are—"
    "From the devil?" Mallory almost choked on the words, the same ones that people had spit at us growing up, tears springing to her eyes. I immediately wished I hadn't said anything. Too late. "Oh, that's rich, Darwin. Wow." She yanked at her hair tie and her hair tumbled around her shoulders like soft flames. Lucky mewed.  Mallory threw the hair tie onto the adjacent love seat and Lucky leaped over the end table to retrieve it.
    "No, I didn't say that." I took a shuddering breath. I felt her sense of betrayal blowing through me as waves of heat. Tears were blurring my own vision. I didn't really know what I was saying. I hadn't allowed myself to face my doubts before, to really examine the reason I wanted to leave that side of our family legacy behind. But, I couldn't do it right now either, not under the assault of Mallory's emotional storm. It was too painful. Outside the French doors, the sky growing lighter. "We'll talk about this later. I have to get ready to open the boutique." I stood on shaky legs and went upstairs, feeling drained and sad.
     
     

 
    CHAPTER ELEVEN
     
    The week was a whirlwind. My relationship with Mallory strained against the walls we both had erected and the conversation we were both avoiding. Luckily the pet boutique was slammed. We didn't even have time to go through the applications our