Tristan laughed. “Yeah, you’re right. Besides, we’re not supposed to hit girls, right?”
“Right. Then you would have to get a spanking, too.” Dorian considered Tristan for a long moment. “Who’s your mom?”
The humor drained out of Tristan’s face, and something flickered in his eyes. My stomach formed into a rock. Tristan didn’t remember his actual parents. Like me, he never knew his father. He’d been taken from his mother while a tot, and all he knew was that she was evil.
“Um . . . so . . .” I stammered, trying to think of how to get out of this demand. “So Dorian, why would you say moms give spankings? I’ve never spanked you.”
He shrugged. “I know. Naughty Nick’s mom spanks him. And his dad laughs when he’s bad, and that’s all the time.”
He chattered on about his favorite cartoon. Tristan thanked me with his eyes for distracting Dorian from the question. We both knew it wouldn’t be the last time he’d ask, but at least now we could prepare ourselves for it.
Owen and Dorian were on Captiva later that morning, trying to make peace with the natives—we hoped their sweet faces and engaging personalities could win over the colony residents—when Mom and Charlotte arrived. After I gave them a tour of the house, we sat in the living room and watched Tristan connect a new home entertainment system—a “necessity” by his standards.
“So are you pregnant yet?” Charlotte asked, direct as always.
I nearly spit out my drink. “Uh, no. Why?”
“I told you she wasn’t,” Mom said.
“I hoped you were wrong for once.” Charlotte frowned.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Mom sighed. “I didn’t want to get into it our first five minutes here, but there’s a lot to discuss, honey. The Amadis are getting . . . anxious.”
“Yeah, you said they’re acting strange. So is that why you’re here? To spy on us? They wouldn’t send royalty to investigate a witch, especially right now.”
“Actually that was an excuse to come here and see you. They aren’t aware you’re here yet.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Really? Surely someone in the colony—”
“Yes, someone has reported your arrival. But the entire Western Hemisphere reports to me now,” Char said with a grin, “and I haven’t bothered to tell the council yet. I said I needed your mother because we happened to be in Atlanta anyway, and with her truth-sensing and persuasion abilities, she’d make my investigation easy work.”
I resisted the temptation to read their minds and studied their faces instead. Perhaps I really wanted to trust them, wanted them to be on our side, or perhaps they really were sincere, so I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.
“Okay, so what’s going on?” I asked again.
“The council has broken into factions,” Mom said, not telling Tristan or me anything new. Until her next statement. “Even the most supportive ones are becoming agitated, up in arms about the next daughter. Rina thinks the sooner you get pregnant, the sooner everyone will settle down and unite again.”
“But Rina knows there’s already a daughter,” I said. “Why doesn’t she say so, if that will make everyone happy?”
Mom’s eyes leveled on me. “Alexis, there is no daughter. You need to let it go.”
“There is! I heard it. You need to believe me.”
“You’re jumping to conclusions based on snippets of thoughts.”
My eyes flew to Charlotte and back to Mom.
“Charlotte knows about your power,” Mom said. “I had to tell her so she can help us. Now listen to me. What you heard about Rina, the threat to expose her secret, is not what you think it is. It’s not my secret to tell, but just trust me on this.”
“Well, if it’s not Rina’s secret, it is somebody’s. Julia and her mysterious friend and whoever else are hiding our daughter! If Rina would only listen to me . . .”
“It’s nonsense, Alexis. There’s no possible way. You need to stop searching for something that doesn’t exist.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“I know what you’re doing,” Mom said. “You’re going to Daytona this weekend to question a witch coven. I feel the truth of it.”
I didn’t answer at first. Last I’d heard, we were going to Lake Okeechobee, but apparently Tristan had changed his mind. I looked at him, and he gave me a shrug.
“Okay, so that’s what it is,” I conceded. “So what? We need to figure this out. We need to find this girl.”
“I also feel the truth that you’re searching in vain.