Page 131 of Kings & Chaos

I heard my mom sigh, the way she did when she said something incomprehensible, then got annoyed when no one knew what she was talking about. “Maria Caruso’s niece? She was Dean Giordana’s assistant,” my mom said. “She’s still working for that… Garcia woman.”

“Interim Dean Garcia,” I corrected, because I knew my mom, and if Interim Dean Garcia had been a man, my mom would have been all up in the titles.

“Whatever,” my mom said, and I could almost see her dismissing the title with a wave of her long manicured nails. “Thepointis, you and Neo didn’t call to tell us your plans. We were hoping to see you for the holiday.”

I shuddered at the thought, suddenly grateful that a crazy killer had forced us to leave Aventine in such a hurry. There hadn’t been time to manage the parental units.

“Sorry,” I said again, realizing that I did that a lot with my mom — apologized when I had nothing to be sorry for. “We decided to do something with friends. We should have mentioned it.”

“Well,” she sniffed, “I’m glad you’re getting along, at least. But I do wish you’d called to tell me your plans.”

I’d already apologized for that part so I forced myself not to do it again.

“Are you at the beach?” my mom asked, moving on. “It sounds like you’re at the beach.”

“Yeah,” I said. “A bunch of us got a house together for the holiday.”

It sounded like a college thing to do, and I knew my mom would picture a weeks-long party of drinking, drugs and sex.

At least she’d have the sex part right.

“How did you pay for it?” she asked.

“Neo covered my share,” I said.

“Oh, well… that was nice of him. Have you had a nice Christmas?”

“Yeah,” I said, “it’s been really nice actually. How about you?”

“Well, I’d like to have my daughter here, but other than that, it’s perfect. Roberto had to leave for a few hours — business — but he got me a tennis bracelet. You should see the diamonds on this thing. It’s gorgeous.”

I ignored the guilt trip and focused on the jewelry. “It sounds beautiful. You should send me a picture.”

“Hold on.” She was always game to chat when Roberto wasn’t around, and a minute later, a photo of her wrist draped in diamonds appeared on my screen

“Wow, that really is gorgeous,” I said. I looked down at my unicorn bracelet — the simple gold chain, the childlike unicorn — and loved it even more.

“Isn’t it?” she said. “Now you send me a picture. Show me what you’re seeing where you are so I can picture it.”

“Um… service is sketchy out here.” Neo was militant about not letting anyone know where we were, not even our parents. “I’m not sure the signal is strong enough to send you a picture.”

It didn’t make sense — I’d received her pictures, so theoretically, I should be able to send one — but my mom wasn’t big on details.

“Oh, that’s too bad.” She sounded genuinely disappointed. “Describe it then.”

I laughed. It was so rare for my mom to show an interest in my life, to even ask me questions. Our conversations were usually a litany of things Roberto had done for her, things he’d bought her.

“Well, it’s a beach,” I said, glad to have so much generic material to work with. “But not a sandy one. It’s rocky. Kind of… wild. There are a lot of trees, and it’s super quiet. Sometimes storms come through, and then it feels like it’s a hundred years ago, no electricity, no Wi-Fi.”

“It sounds cold,” she said.

“It is, but I don’t mind.” I focused on the lighthouse, thought of Emma and the blue lighthouse at the shore, the way we used to pretend we were storybook heroines looking out over the water. “There’s even a lighthouse, like that one at the shore.”

“The blue one?”

“Yeah, except this one is red,” I said.

“It sounds pretty.”

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