She gives me a stiff smile and pats back  her hair, which is a golden shade I know she still uses like money to earn  the attentive gazes of many men. “Haven’t seen him today.”

“Let him know I’m looking for him.” I turn  away.

“Adam, darling. Wait. I know you’re angry  with me.”

I tense up. “Forget it.”

“I can’t forget it.”

“I don’t want to interrupt your meeting.  You’re having one now, right?”

She glances back toward the door to the  basement, the one part of this house I’ve never been invited to see. For  years, it’s only been a mysterious locked door leading to the place she  holds her secret meetings.

Her secret magic meetings. The same ones I’ve always laughed at behind her  back.

Now that my eyes are fixed, I’m not  laughing quite as loud.

“You should be careful,” I warn her. “I  don’t know what you all get up to down there...or why you need the bodies  you don’t send on to the medical school...”

“Darling, please forget all of that.” She  gives me a tense smile that fans fine lines out around her eyes. “It’s my  little thing. Nothing to worry yourself about.”

“I never said I was worried.”

She presses her hands to my cheeks and  looks deep into my eyes. “So much like your father, always trying to do the  right thing, to convert me from my wild ways.”

The subject of my father’s always been a  sore point. Mostly because she’s told me next to nothing about him other  than the fact he’d left her. I wasn’t even sure if he knew I existed.

“Not like James’s father,” she says, her  expression darkening.

She hates Thomas Kraven and has for  nineteen years since he got her pregnant and discarded her. He already had a  wife and two mistresses, so he didn’t want any more obligations. When she  threatened to go public with James and tell everyone that he was Thomas’s  child, he’d made it clear that both she and James would die if word got out  about his bastard. He would never acknowledge James as his son, and Kara  would never get any money from him.

He was a cold and heartless man—and very  dangerous. Kara never doubted he’d follow through with his threats.

My mother has changed since those days.  Now she took money for other people’s bodies...but not her own. At least,  not to my knowledge.

“You need to let go of the hate you have  for him.” This isn’t the first time I’ve told her this.

“I can’t.”

“You’re not even trying. It’s consumed you  all these years.”

Something in her eyes sparks. “Perhaps  it’s finally time for those who’ve wronged me to get what they  deserve.”

A shiver goes down my spine when she talks  like this because I know she means every word.

“I love you, Adam.” She pulls me into a  hug that I try to return. “You’re the only one who cares if I live or  die.”

“James does.”

“James is just like his father. Arrogant,  selfish, a user from the day he was born.”

Always exaggerating, my mother. “From the  day he was born? An arrogant, selfish infant?”

“You know what I mean.” She pulls away,  her eyes damp with tears. “You’ve always been my favorite.”

“Don’t say that.” I hate it when she  dismisses James as if he’s meaningless to her.

“But it’s true. Your father was my one  true love.”

“A man who abandoned you and never looked  back?”

“He had his reasons. One day you might  learn what they were.”

“Yeah, right.” I had to get out of here.  “If you see James, tell him I’m looking for him.”

“Yes, my darling.”

She hasn’t even noticed I’m not wearing my  specs. Hasn’t noticed that I can see without bumping into things for the  first time in ages.

Her favorite. Sure, I am.

As I reach the front door, I freeze when I  hear a sound.

Raised voices coming from downstairs. One  I recognize immediately as James’s.

But Kara said he wasn’t here.

Instead of leaving, I turn and slowly and  quietly move toward the door leading to the basement. Kara’s already gone  downstairs, but she left the door slightly ajar behind her.

I push the door open farther and take a  step down. The stairwell leads to a short hallway and a room beyond. It’s in  there that Kara must have her meetings. It’s there that I’m drawn to as if I  have no choice but to see for myself what’s going on.

“Get away from me!” James’s voice is  raised, angry.

“Stop acting like a fool,” our mother  replies. “You agreed to this.”

“Agreed? To join your little soirée? Yeah,  I agreed to check it out. Wanted to finally see what you all get up to every  week. But if your friend touches me again with that, I swear I’m going to  cut off his hand.”

“James,” Kara soothes, her words strong  and steady. “To be welcomed as a new member of the group we must first draw  these symbols on you.”