tell you about it. This was not the plan. Your mother was supposed to live long enough to be the one dealing with all of this."
Zzzzzzttt. Five glazed doughnuts landed on the table out of thin air. Betty put her hand over her mug, swirled it around, and I could smell her favorite orange spice tea in the steam that wafted over the table. She took a sip and set the mug down. "Okay. Let's start with you. Do you have any questions?"
I picked up the orange shoebox and set it between the baklava and the doughnuts. "One or two."
"Right." She smiled. "Well, let's start with the obvious. Liv, you're a Magical. Meaning someone with power that extends beyond normal human experience. Congratulations."
"Wow." I wrapped my hands around my steaming mug of coffee, not quite ready to drink it, but appreciating the warmth of it in my hands. "Can't tell you how helpful that heads-up would have been a week ago."
She met my eye, her patience obviously waning. "Would you have believed me if I had told you a week ago?"
I thought about that, and conceded. "Fair enough."
"Okay, then." Betty sighed. "Let's start from the beginning." Pause. "Your father is not Some Guy Named Dave."
I nodded. I'd sort of put that together. At the same time, I didn't want to say his name, so I just kept quiet and let Betty speak.
Betty nodded. "When you were just a baby, your family was in danger. Real, serious, gonna-get-you-all-killed danger. Your father decided to split the family up; it's easier to hide two people than four. He brought your mom and you here to me, and he took your sister and went somewhere else."
I blinked a few times, my mind running back through what she'd told me. "I have a sister?"
She nodded. "Holly. She was a cute little thing."
"Where is she?"
Betty shrugged. "I don't know. The last time I saw either one of them was that night your father brought you and Amelia here to me."
I looked at her for a long moment, remembering the mournful date my mother inexplicably spent staring off into space every year. "October fifth?"
Betty's eyebrows knit. "I don't know. It was in the fall, I think. Why?"
I shook my head. "No reason." I put my hand to my forehead. "I'm a little dizzy."
"Understandable," she said. "Have a doughnut."
I shook my head. "Wait. Okay. So, people were after us? Why?"
"There was something special about Gabriel's power, although Amelia never told me exactly what. But it was dangerous enough that he split the family up to keep you all safe."
"So he ... he never left her?"
Betty looked at me. "He left. Have you seen him for the last twenty-eight years?"
"No. I mean..." I shook my head, trying to get it all clear. "He loved her? He didn't leave her?"
Betty's expression cleared. "He loved her, and you. I've never seen a man so unhappy in all my life as your dad was when he left here that night." She sighed, closed her eyes, and said, "Move the bunny."
"Hmmm?" I said, and then there was a blue zip-zap over the mug bunny's shoebox. I pulled it out just in time for a huge chocolate cake to splat down in the center of the table.
"Wow," I said, setting the mug bunny on the seat next to me.
"Yeah," Betty said, and dug in with one finger, stuffing her cake in her mouth and closing her eyes again. "Mmmm. I make the best chocolate cakes ever. Have some."
"No, thanks."
Her eyes whipped open and flashed with threat. "Have some."
I dug one finger into the cake, and then put it to my lips. At first, I tasted it tentatively, somehow expecting it to zap me with blue lightning or something, but it was just cake. It was perfectly moist, and held the slightest hint of something exotic - cinnamon? nutmeg? - and was, hands down, the best chocolate cake I'd ever tasted in my life.
"Mmmm, good." I licked the last bit off my finger.
"See? Nothing happened to you. It's not scary or dangerous, it's just who we are."
I thought about Tobias, making me waffles last night, using a waffle iron and batter, the way God intended. "I liked who I was."
Betty dug another chunk out of the cake. "Yeah, well, those days are gone, honey." She raised her eyes to meet mine, and her look was serious. "So now, let's talk about you."
Chapter 7
I swallowed a chunk of cake down. "Me?"
She leveled her eyes at