Of Blood and Bone (Chronicles of The One #2)(8)

“I’m as smart as you,” Colin tossed back, “and I’ll get older. I can be president if I want. I can be anything I want.”

“In your dreams,” Travis added with a smirk.

It earned him a kick under the table, which he returned.

“A president is a leader, and a leader leads.”

When Fallon surged to her feet, Simon started to speak, to shut things down, but caught Lana’s eye.

“You don’t know anything about being a leader.”

“You don’t know anything about anything,” Colin shot back.

“I know a leader doesn’t go around naming places after himself. I know a leader has to be responsible for people, make sure they have food and shelter, has to decide who goes to war, who lives and dies. I know a leader has to fight, maybe even kill.”

As she raged, shimmers of light sparked around her in angry red.

“A leader’s who everybody looks to for answers, even when there aren’t any. Who everyone blames when things go wrong. A leader’s the one who has to do the dirty work, even if it’s the damn dishes.”

She stalked away, trailing that angry light into the house. Slamming the door behind her.

“Why does she get to act like a brat?” Colin demanded. “Why does she get to be mean?”

Ethan, tears swirling in his eyes, turned to his mother. “Is Fallon mad at us?”

“No, baby, she’s just mad. We’re going to give her a little time alone, okay?” She looked over at Simon. “She just needs some space. She’ll apologize, Colin.”

He only shrugged. “I can be president if I want. She’s not the boss of the world.”

Lana’s heart tore a little. “Did I mention I made peach pie for dessert?” Pie, she knew, was a no-fail way to turn her boys’ moods around. “That is, for anyone who clears his plate.”

“I know a good way to work off that pie.” In tune with Lana, Simon went back to his meal. “A little basketball.”

Since he’d created a half court on the side of the barn, basketball had become one of his boys’ favorite pastimes.

“I wanna be on your team, Daddy!”

Simon grinned at Ethan, gave him a wink. “We’ll wipe the court with them, champ.”

“No way.” Colin dived back into the meal.

“Travis and I will crush.” Travis looked at his mother, held her gaze a long moment.

He knows, Lana thought. And so did Colin, even if anger and insult blocked it away.

Their sister wasn’t the boss of the world, but she carried the weight of it on her shoulders.

Fallon’s temper burned out in a spate of self-pity tears. She flung herself on her bed to shed them—the bed her father had built to replicate one she’d seen in an old magazine. Eventually the tears died away into headachy sulks.

It wasn’t fair, nothing was fair. And Colin started it. He always started something with his big, stupid ideas. Probably because he didn’t have any magicks. Probably because he was jealous.

He could have her magicks, then he could go off with some stranger to learn how to be the savior of the whole stupid world.

She just wanted to be normal. Like the girls in the village, at the other farms. Like anyone.

She heard the shouts, the laughter through her open window, tried to ignore it. But she rose, looked out.

The sky held blue on that long, late summer day, but like her mother, she felt a storm coming.

She saw her father, with Ethan perched on his shoulders, walking toward the barn. The older boys already raced around the curve of blacktop in the basketball shoes their father had scavenged.

She didn’t want to smile when her dad nipped the ball from Colin, held it up for Ethan, then walked Ethan to the basket so he could drop the ball through the hoop.

She didn’t want to smile.

The older boys looked like Dad, Ethan looked like Mom.

And she looked like the man on the back of a book.

That alone often cut more than she thought she could stand.

She heard the soft knock on her door, then her mother came in. “I thought you might be hungry. You barely touched your dinner.”

Shame began to push through the sulks. Fallon only shook her head.

“Later then.” Lana set the plate on the dresser Simon had built. “You know how to warm it up when you’re ready.”

Fallon shook her head again, but this time tears spilled. Lana simply walked to her, drew her in.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

“I spoiled everything.”

“You didn’t.”

“I wanted to.”

Lana kissed Fallon’s cheek. “I know, but you didn’t. You’ll apologize to your brothers, but right now, you can hear they’re happy. Nothing’s spoiled.”

“I don’t look like them, or you, or Dad.”

Lana ran a hand down Fallon’s long black ponytail, then eased back to look into those familiar gray eyes.

“I’ve told you about the night you were born. It’s always been one of your favorite stories.” As she spoke, she guided Fallon to the bed, sat on the side of it with her. “I’ve never told you about the night you were conceived.”

“I …” Heat rose to her cheeks. She knew what conceived meant, and how it happened. “That’s—It’s weird.”