Cruel Magic (Royals of Villain Academy #1)
Eva Chase
Chapter One
Rory
If I’d known my parents would be dead in an hour, I’d have done a few things differently that Sunday morning. Made sure to fit in a hug or two. Offered at least one “I love you.” And not dredged up the same old argument we’d been having for the last half a year, which didn’t end up mattering anyway.
But I didn’t know, so I took what appeared to be my moment. The three of us were sitting around the square white table in the breakfast nook just off the kitchen, warm California sunlight streaming through the broad windows. Dad was finishing up his French toast and eggs equally drenched in syrup, a contented smile curling his lips. Mom poured herself another cup of coffee and inhaled the steam with a pleased sigh.
I dabbed my last corner of toast in the runny yolk left on my plate and washed it down with a gulp of my own bitter coffee. “I was looking at the listings online,” I said. “There are a few apartments not too far from here that I can afford.”
Mom let out a very different sort of sigh and gave me a look full of fond exasperation. “We’ve talked about this, Lorelei. You should be saving that money for your future.”
She only pulled out my full name when she intended to end the conversation. I barreled onward. “I’ve really appreciated having the basement. You know that. But I just turned nineteen. Isn’t my future supposed to be starting now?”
The first time I’d brought up the idea of moving out, they’d offered me the small basement apartment they’d been using for storage as a compromise. But the whole point had been to get a little independence, and it was hard to feel like an adult with my parents literally over my head. After being homeschooled most of my life, now that I was attending a few classes at the local college—and seeing how my classmates lived—it was becoming more and more obvious that I had to make a real break if I was going to figure out my future for myself.
Unfortunately, while I was making more than enough to cover rent and the rest, an artist with no credit history didn’t look like the safest bet to potential landlords. To get a lease, I was going to need Mom or Dad to sign on as a guarantor. Which meant, somehow or other, I had to convince them it was a good idea.
Dad leaned his elbows onto the table. “You know the drill,” he said with a teasing glint in his eyes. “Pros and cons. Go.”
We’d been playing that game whenever I’d proposed something my parents weren’t sold on since I was seven years old. I’d like to think I was pretty good at it by now.
“Pros,” I said, ticking off fingers as I went. “It’d be an important transitional step to becoming a completely independent adult. I’d be forced to learn how to look after myself. I could get a place that’s closer to the college so it’d be easier for me to participate in the extracurricular stuff there and save maybe an hour in transit. I’d be building my credit score and a rental history. I’d have more space and more freedom to… to figure out who I am without you looking over my shoulder.”
I hadn’t let myself say that part before because I’d known it’d make Dad wince the way it had just now. Mom set down her coffee, knitting her brow. “You should feel like the apartment is completely yours, hon. We don’t want to stifle you.”
“I know.” My hands fell to my lap, and I twisted one of the glass beads on the charm bracelet they’d given me for my tenth birthday and that I’d added to every year since. Each charm was a symbol of a love or a dream I’d shared with them. Why couldn’t they understand this longing? “All you have to do is look out the window to see who’s coming and going. Sound travels up. Even if you’re not trying to monitor what I’m doing, I can’t forget that you’re right here.”
“All right,” Dad said. “That’s fair enough. Maybe we should have taken that more into consideration. And then cons?”
I held back a grimace. He wasn’t going to let me fudge this list. “I’ll be spending money I could otherwise be saving. If I have a few bad months in selling my figurines, I’ll have to dip into the savings I already have. I won’t be able to just pop up here and grab something to eat if I’m feeling hungry and lazy, but maybe that’s a good thing?”
“It won’t be as safe,” Mom said. “You’d be living around strangers.”
“I’m going to have to sometime, aren’t I?”
“It’ll be extra stress when you have your studies to focus on,” she went on. “And you’ll have a lot more pressure to keep going with your current job because you need that money, even if you decide you want to try something new that’s more of a risk. In some ways, you’ll have less freedom.”
“It’s not that we’re trying to keep you here forever, Rory,” Dad said. “We just want to make sure you get the best start we can give you. Why not wait another couple years until you can really launch a career for yourself, and in the meantime we can try to find ways to help you feel more independent here?”
It was hard to argue with that. There were tons of cons. I didn’t know how to express how important the one main pro was to me in a way they’d accept without hurting them a whole lot more than I wanted to.