‘Why?’ Xan said. ‘Dee has Danny and Lizzie has Elric. It’s not really normal for sisters to stay together forever.’
‘Well…’ Mare looked around the diner and then leaned forward. ‘In case you’ve forgotten, we’re not normal sisters.’
‘You could be.’ Xan smiled. ‘You have choices, Mare. You’re not trapped.’
Mare blinked at her.
‘I know your powers haven’t made it easy for you, and it’s especially irritating since they’re not particularly good for anything, but you don’t have to keep them, you know. Any time you don’t want them, you can get rid of them. I’ll help you get rid of them. You can be as normal as the next person, all of you, go off with your true loves completely safe, have normal lives, normal children, truly live happily ever after. It’s possible, Mare.’
Mare sucked in her breath. Give up my power?
But there was Crash and the sunlight in Tuscany and even that laughing baby, if she gave up her power…
Xan patted their clasped hands and then let her go, and Mare felt a chill. ‘Just think about it, darling. Take your time. And take this, too. You look cold.’
She tossed the hoodie across the table, and Mare caught it, and said, ‘Thanks,’ fairly sure she shouldn’t keep it, but it was a cashmere hoodie and she was cold.
She got up and headed for the door, her thoughts racing, dizzy with them, and a woman at a table she passed said, ‘That looks like my old wedding dress. Did you get it at Goodwill?’ Mare said, ‘No, this was my sainted mother’s, God rest her soul,’ and slammed out the door, not looking back, shivering with cold now, wondering what Xan had up her sleeve, wondering if Xan was being tricky and pretending that she hadn’t sent Crash or if he really had come back just because he loved her, wondering what it would be like to be free of her power…
She was shuddering with cold now, feeling dizzy and sick in the heat of the day, chilled in the sun, not sure what had just happened.
Something’s wrong, she thought and put the hoodie on and headed for the tattoo parlor.
‘A butterfly,’ Mare said to Mother ten minutes later as she handed her the drawing, still shivering, and now really annoyed about everything. ‘And I don’t want to hear any crap about how it’s the most common tat for a girl. My name’s Mariposa and I want another butterfly.’ She felt like pouting, life was so unfair. Pouting and shivering and throwing up. ‘It’s cold in here.’
‘Feeling testy, are we?’ Mother said, straightening her white lab coat. She looked at Mare strangely, her cool gray eyes level under her neatly razor-cut gray hair, and Mare took a deep breath and relaxed a little. ‘That’s better’
‘Well, it was either a butterfly or the Statue of Liberty.’ Mare dropped her bag in the middle of the floor and stepped over it. ‘I think of her as a kindred spirit.’
‘She stands in one place holding a light for everybody else,’ Mother said, picking up Mare’s bag and moving it to one side. ‘How is she like you?’
‘She’s tall, everybody knows who she is, she’s a classy dresser, and nobody kicks her around.’ Mare hiked up her skirt and sat down with her back to Mother. And in moments of stress, I could beat somebody senseless with that big torch.’
‘Of course,’ Mother said, looking at Mare’s Corpse Bride dress. ‘Where do you want this tattoo?’
‘Right there at the base of my spine. Only tilt it. Like the world’s tilting.’ The world felt like it was tilting. She really was going to throw up if Mother didn’t get a move on.
‘Trailer trash license plate.’ Mother tucked the skirt of Mare’s dress into the neck of the hoodie and then held the drawing up. ‘Very buff butterfly.’ She put it on the copier and punched the button.
‘Yeah,’ Mare said, trying to sound chipper as the copier hummed and her stomach churned. ‘I’m surrounded by jerks. I need a butterfly that can kick a little ass on my ass.
Jesus, it’s cold in here.’ Her skin felt damp, clammy, and she shivered again.
‘Color?’ Mother said.
‘Just black,’ Mare said. ‘If I wanted color, I’d have said color, okay?’
Mother put her hands on her hips and looked at her, as if something was wrong or something.
‘I’m broke, okay?’ Mare said, looking away. ‘Plus, I like tribal. More butch.’
‘Yes, the world needs more butch butterflies.’ Mother snapped on latex gloves and picked up a razor. Anything happen today I should know about?’
‘There’d be a hell of a lot fewer victims if butterflies went armed,’ Mare said, and then Lizzie came into the back of the shop hugging herself and shivering and said, ‘Mare?’ in this tiny little voice, and Mother looked up from shaving Mare’s tailbone.
‘Mother, this is my sister Lizzie,’ Mare said. ‘Lizzie, this is Mother. What’s wrong with you?’
‘Hello, Lizzie,’ Mother said. ‘Lovely to meet you.’
‘You, too,’ Lizzie said, shivering hard, her voice breaking, and Mare realized she was close to tears.
What a wimp, Mare thought and sighed. ‘What happened now?’
‘He’s gone.’
‘Charles?’ Mare said. ‘Well, yeah, I told you, he’s in Alaska. And good riddance-’
‘Elric,’ Lizzie said, and sat down on the floor in a heap, her arms crossed over her chest. ‘My heart hurts.’
‘Oh, okay,’ Mare said. Drama queen. We’re gonna be ass deep in rabbits here in a minute. ‘Deep breaths.’ She shivered as Mother spread cream on her lower back and then smoothed the drawing over it. She was really cold, dammit. And her stomach hurt, probably got ptomaine at the Fork. ‘So what did Elric say when you asked him if he knew Xan?’
‘He said yes.’ Lizzie made a little aching sound in her throat. ‘He said yes.’
‘Well,’ Mare said. ‘Points for honesty. Did he say what he was supposed to do? Like wrap us up and deliver us or something? Because I just met her-’
‘No. He came because I was screwing up… things.’ Lizzie began to rock back and forth. ‘My heart really hurts.’
‘Yeah, I know, I got a stomachache.’ Mare looked over her shoulder to see Mother studying the transfer on her tailbone. ‘How we doing?’
I’m doing fine,’ Mother said and handed her a mirror. ‘Your sister is sick. Doesn’t that bother you?’
‘She gets like this.’ Mare gave the mirror a perfunctory glance. ‘Great.’ She handed the mirror back to Mother. ‘He said you’re screwing up things,’ she prompted Lizzie.
‘I was doing things against the rules.’
‘The rules.’
Lizzie leaned forward. ‘Of the universe,’ she whispered, her face pale and damp.
‘Oh.’ Mare thought about telling her that rules were for the little people, but given the scope of Lizzie’s powers, that could lead to mushroom clouds and planet-sized charcoal briquettes, so she said, ‘So did he help you?’
‘Yes,’ Lizzie said, almost sobbing, ‘but then I told him to go and he did.’ She curled up and lay down on Mother’s floor in the fetal position, still rocking.
‘Quitter’ Mare sucked in her breath as she heard the hum and felt the bite of Mother’s needle. She shivered and her stomach turned over again. ‘Oh, sit up, Lizzie, he’ll be back. He’s your true love. Xan sent him.’
‘I know,’ Lizzie, still in the fetal position, said, her voice breaking. ‘She told me.’
‘She talked to you, too?’ Mare felt disappointed. That was no good, Xan wasn’t supposed to talk to anybody else, only to her, because she was special. ‘She told me we could be normal if we wanted to. Ouch.’ She looked over her shoulder. ‘Hey.’
‘You want painless tattoos, get a rub-on,’ Mother said serenely.