Mare titled her head. ‘You know what’s freaking me out? There’s no expression on your face. It’s in your eyes, but your face is like this mask. Is that the surgery?’

‘Botox,’ Xan said. ‘Grace Kelly didn’t have expressions, either.’

‘Grace Kelly was serene, not embalmed.’

‘If you’re trying to drive me off with insults, it’s not going to work.’ Xan reached out and put her hand over Mare’s, twining their fingers together. ‘I’m here to help you, but you have to grow up. Life isn’t a game, Mare. It isn’t about who’s got the best comeback or’ – she gestured to Mare’s wedding dress – ‘who gets the strangest looks in the local diner’

‘Says the woman who’s nine parts snake venom,’ Mare said, taking her hand back. ‘Or whatever the hell Botox is.’

Pauline appeared and slid their drinks in front of them. ‘Anything else?’

‘Got any antitoxin?’ Mare said. ‘My aunt may want to show fury shortly.’

‘Fresh out,’ Pauline said. ‘We got steak sauce.’

‘That will be all,’ Xan said, and Pauline evaporated, probably in fear for her tip. ‘Look, darling, you can be as flip as you like, but I know you. I know you’ve been living with

Dee for too long, I know how she treats you, like a child, patting you on the head, trying to run your life-’

‘That’s not going to work,’ Mare said. ‘You know I’m fed up with Dee, but I know I can’t trust you. Yes, Dee’s a pain in the ass sometimes, but she’s smart, and she’s strong, and she’s right most of the time, and more than that, she’s part of me, she’s a third of who I am, and that means that while I fight her tooth and nail when it’s just us, when somebody comes at us from the outside – that would be you – I am her girl. So if you think you’re going to do an end run around her by hitting at the soft underbelly of the group-’

‘That would be Lizzie,’ Xan said, and sipped her ice water.

‘You haven’t seen Lizzie lately,’ Mare said. ‘What I’m saying is, this isn’t going to work. You can’t divide and conquer. We don’t divide.’

Xan shrugged. ‘Well, at least you have Jude.’

‘Oh, Jesus, kick a girl when she’s down.’ Mare looked at her watch. ‘Damn it. Pauli-’

‘Gotcha,’ Pauline said, appearing with a Styrofoam container with her burger and fries and a lid for her Coke. ‘You got time to make it yet.’

‘What’s wrong with Jude?’ Xan said.

Mare capped her Coke cup. ‘Jude is not my type, and that’s being charitable.’

‘Who’s not your type?’ Pauline said.

‘The Value Video!! VP who’s in town,’ Mare said.

‘The one who looks like Jude Law.’ Pauline nodded.

‘How could he not be your type?’ Xan said. ‘Your entire generation is mad for Jude Law.’

‘Well, some of us felt he lost some luster over the nanny thing,’ Mare said.

‘And besides, there’s Crash,’ Pauline said as Mare put her sunglasses on and slid out of the booth.

‘Crash,’ Xan said dangerously.

‘Christopher Duncan, Mare’s old flame, he’s back in town,’ Pauline said, in her best news-at-eleven voice. ‘He proposed. She’s thinking about it. He wants her to go to Italy but she doesn’t know if she’s going. We’re still waiting for the update.’ She looked at Mare over the tops of her glasses. ‘The pool stands at even money.’

‘There is no update.’ Mare looked at Xan. ‘I’m going to get a tattoo now. You should go back to wherever you came from. We’re not interested.’

‘You lie,’ Xan said without rancor. ‘And you can’t speak for the others. Lizzie might be interested. Even Dee might be tempted by the chance to have a normal life.’

‘Maybe, but not if it means dealing with you,’ Mare said. ‘Enjoy your salad. Tip Pauline good. She’s the sole support of twelve orphan children.’

‘And a dog,’ Pauline said solemnly.

‘And a dog,’ Mare said. ‘Thanks for the speed with the Styrofoam, Pauline. Have a safe trip home, Xan.’

‘Wait,’ Xan said, and Mare paused. ‘This Crash. You think he’s the one you really love?’

‘I don’t know,’ Mare said.

‘Yes you do,’ Xan said and took a deep breath. ‘It’s in your voice. I don’t know how I missed him, but he’s the one. Isn’t he?’

‘Probably,’ Mare said. ‘It’s definitely not Jude.’

‘And you say he lives in Italy?’ Xan said, and she sounded sincerely interested. Sincerely puzzled but sincerely interested.

‘Tuscany.’ Mare settled into the booth again. ‘He came back because he was ready to settle down, not because of your spell, he didn’t have anything to do with you-’

‘That’s where the spell found Jude,’ Xan said, half to herself. ‘I thought it was odd.’

‘Jude’s not my type at all,’ Mare said. ‘Maybe the spell was slow and Crash had just ridden by. He rides those bikes at suicide speeds.’

Xan nodded. ‘That could be. Long distances like that are tricky for finding things. I must have cast that spell a dozen times because the result was so strange.’

‘Well, Jude’s a good-looking guy,’ Mare said charitably. ‘You couldn’t have known he was that much of a loser.’

Xan shook her head. ‘You know, magic. After a while, you start to think it can’t go wrong.’

‘I wouldn’t know,’ Mare said, taking her sunglasses off. ‘Mine goes wrong fairly often.’

‘You did get the short end of the stick, didn’t you, darling?’ Xan said sympathetically, reaching out again and twining her fingers with Mare’s. ‘But from the sound of things, you’re making up for it with your Crash. And if you’re sure he’s the one…’

She let her voice trail off, as if asking, and Mare nodded, feeling warm in the moment, connected to Xan somehow.

Xan nodded back. ‘Well, then, don’t screw it up. Follow your passion, Mare. Sacrifice anything for it. Your sisters, your power… real love is worth anything.’

Mare blinked. ‘Boy, for a minute there, you sounded like a real aunt.’

Xan smiled at her, holding on tightly, the warmth from her fingers spreading. ‘So you’re going to Italy. Tuscany?’

Mare nodded. ‘That’s where he lives. But I can’t go. I-’

‘Of course you can go.’ Xan sounded indignant. ‘My God, Mare, the man you love lives in one of the most beautiful places on earth, and you have nothing holding you here. Why can’t you go?’

‘Well, Dee and Lizzie…’ Mare stopped. She couldn’t go because they had to stay together because they were running from Xan who had just given her a cashmere hoodie and hadn’t taken her soul in return, who instead had taken her hand and made her feel warm and safe. ‘We need to stick together’

‘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.’