at Relics and Runes.” She waved her hands. “Um, I’ll be fine, Mom, really. I just won’t be home… right away.”
“Well, how long will this project take?” The perturbed look on her mother’s face made her feel nine years old again and like she was thirty seconds from being sent to her room.
“I think Avery wants to explore a few opportunities before she goes home,” Raven said. “I think it will be good for her.”
Sarah gaped, shifting her gaze between them incredulously. “Okay.” She closed her eyes and nodded. “Enough said.” Turning on her heel, the older woman exited the store and strode down the street without them.
Avery tossed up her hands. “She’s practically signing the place over to me already!”
“You don’t want to go back, do you?” Raven peered knowingly at her sister.
Clarissa, who’d been shopping near the back of the store, joined them. “Why did Sarah just hustle out of here like the place was on fire?”
Avery rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “She’s upset that I’m not going back to New Orleans.”
“You’re not?” Clarissa glanced at Raven for answers and got only a shrug in response.
Avery turned and her two sisters followed, threading their arms into hers at the elbow.
“It’s just… It’s just…” Avery couldn’t find the words.
Raven shot her a serious look. “This is about more than the Three Sisters, isn’t it?”
Pop. Avery felt something inside her give way, and all her blood seemed to rush to her head. Her ears grew hot, and a desperate wave of emotions barreled through her. Resentment, anger, longing. She gasped. Tears flowed from her eyes like a dam had broken.
“Oh my… Avery, what’s going on?” Clarissa put an arm around her shoulders.
“I am tired of always living someone else’s life!” she blurted.
Raven glanced both ways, but they were alone. She steered Avery out of the store and paused on the sidewalk. Thankfully their mother wasn’t out here. She must have ducked into another store up the street.
“Tell us more,” Clarissa said.
“I don’t want to hurt Raven’s feelings.” Avery wiped her tears frantically. “Don’t make me go there.”
Raven gave Avery’s shoulder a squeeze and glanced toward Clarissa, who seemed equally concerned and confused. “Avery, you are experiencing pain. It’s running out your eyes and down your cheeks. You’re shaking. Let it go. Let me be responsible for my feelings.” Raven wiped a tear from her cheek.
She wanted to warn Raven to brace herself, but the words poured out without a moment’s hesitation. “It’s just, I spent so many years while you had cancer being a buffer between Mom and Dad, trying to be the perfect daughter to make up for the grief they were experiencing as you slowly died in that hospital bed, plus picking up the slack at the Three Sisters when Dad left and Mom was so depressed she couldn’t get out of bed.”
“I know. I’m so sorry—”
“And then you got better, and I thought, okay, I can go back to college and pursue my dreams. But we didn’t have any money then, and honestly, even if we had, I didn’t have any dreams.”
“Everyone has dreams,” Clarissa said breathlessly.
Avery shook her head. “No, Clarissa. Sorry, but you’ve never been a caregiver. I’d been playing the role for so long I forgot my own dreams. I’d let them all go. And then Raven got married and then there was the baby and oh God, the magic. The dragons. Aborella!” Avery buried her face in her hands before wiping the tears from her eyes. “It was all about you, Raven, and them. It was all about Charlie.”
“Oh, Avery—” Raven’s frown became more pronounced, but Avery couldn’t stop now.
“And now, now after everything, it’s all about you, Clarissa.” Avery tucked her hair behind her ears and stared at her brand-new sister.
Clarissa’s mouth formed into a perfect O.
“I’m sorry. I love you. You are the best thing to happen to me in a long time. But yesterday when you hugged Mom, I realized that I am now part of your story. I’m a cog in the wheel of both of your lives.” She glanced between the two of them. “Whether I’m watching Charlie or serving at the bar or working at Relics and Runes, I’m living someone else’s story. When do I get to write my own?”
The tears came faster, and Raven rubbed Avery’s shoulders. Clarissa seemed unsure where to put her hands and moved them from her hips to her stomach and back again.
“Okay. Okay. That’s good, Avery,” Clarissa said. “Let