by Hero Bowen
“We can’t just leave her out there, Mama,” Grace said quietly. “It’s not safe. The Wishmaster—”
“I kick ungrateful beast out again,” Basha shouted. “You do this once more, I kick you out too!”
Grace seemed to shrink into herself again, and Nadia saw red. After all the groveling Grace had done to “keep the peace,” how dare Basha treat her like that? Screw staying calm.
“You want to die alone, is that it, Babcia?” Nadia said in a low voice. “Just go ahead and push away everyone who’s ever given a shit about you, then.”
Basha wouldn’t even look at her. “I am only one who does what is best for rodzina.”
Nadia jumped up, shaking with adrenaline, as if everything she’d ever wanted to say but dammed up for years was finally ready to rush forth. She’d regret her own outburst if they got kicked out again before she could get what Kaleena had asked for. But the past three days had been a microcosm of the last three years: a constant cycle of Basha’s sneering disappointment, Grace’s cowardly silence, and Nadia always, always pushing her own life aside to do what they wanted.
“You do what’s best for us, do you? Then why did you lie about my car accident? Why did you lie about the Wishmaster not wanting to grant me a wish?” She tried to speak with a controlled calm. “Maybe I’m wrong, but the thing is, I don’t think I am. You’re all about control, Babcia. And I think you’ve been controlling me, all this time, since that accident.”
Basha stared at Nadia, her hand quaking on the glass ruby at the top of her cane. And in that silent fury, Nadia heard everything she needed to know.
They had lied. Kaleena had told the truth.
“Who told you such story?” Basha spat at last.
“I ran into Croak.” Nadia let her anger fuel a plausible lie. “He saw me get kicked out and thought he’d twist the knife a little harder by telling me what he’d heard from the Wishmaster. So thanks for letting me learn about it in the worst possible way.”
“Nadia—” Grace began.
“You made me think that I owed you something, when none of this debt is mine.” Nadia pointed a defiant finger at the blackboard and its chalk tally. “I know you lied to me about the debt—both of you. You said you got into this mess because I needed a liver, but that’s not true, is it?” Her voice cracked, but she didn’t care. She wanted her grandmother to see her pain. She wanted Basha to take accountability for the torrent of confusion, heartbreak, and betrayal that collided within her.
“I never wanted to lie to you!” Grace cried, leaping to her feet and reaching for Nadia.
Miles stood and put himself between mother and daughter. A simple gesture, but one that meant a whole lot to Nadia. She didn’t know if she could handle her mom touching her and trying to calm her down when she wanted to stay mad.
Nadia swallowed thickly. “Then why do it?”
“Because the debt was too much. We needed your help, and we’d never have hope of paying it off if it was just your babcia and me,” Grace replied, the words rattling off her tongue in desperation. “We didn’t want to tell you about the debt at first, but then after your car accident, your babcia told me it’d be better to keep you in Savannah anyway. You had all these . . . ideas of going to live in far-off cities, and she said . . . she said you wouldn’t be safe there. She said you’d only be safe here, and that we had to make sure you didn’t leave. Can you blame me for wanting to keep my daughter home instead of a thousand miles away?” She visibly floundered, looking to Miles as though he could—or would—help her out of this hole.
“You put the weight of our family’s survival on my shoulders, when I hadn’t done anything to deserve it,” Nadia seethed, balling her hands into fists. “You laid on the guilt to stop me from wishing for myself, and not once did you show a sliver of remorse. You were happy to make me run around, stealing wishes for this damn chalkboard, when that debt wasn’t even mine! Wasn’t the accident enough of a trauma, without you making me feel guilty for getting injured?”
Grace tried to get past Miles, but he moved and blocked her. “The accident was part of why we had to keep you in Savannah. If you’d gone off the road in Maine or something, we wouldn’t have been there to support you afterward. And that would’ve been hard on Nick too, caring for you all by himself. It wasn’t just about the debt. We wanted to protect you. Don’t you see?”
“No, I just see two really shitty people who’ve put someone they’re supposed to love through hell for their own benefit.” An angry tear rolled down Nadia’s cheek, and Miles gave her a look that told her he was fine with leaving whenever she wanted. In the back of her mind, Nadia knew they had to stay until the mission was finished, but she needed real answers more than she feared Kaleena’s wrath.
Grace gave a strangled cry. “Nadia, honey, it’s not like that.”
“Then explain it to me,” she shot back.
Grace buckled. “I didn’t want to do it,” she whispered. “Like I said, when you had your accident, we . . . we were already in debt to your sister. We hid it from you because we didn’t want you to worry.”
“Say no more!” Basha barked, but Grace continued regardless, swept up on a wave of obvious guilt that needed relieving.
“Your liver is an ordinary transplant. You got lucky with a donor on such short notice, but not through wishing,” Grace choked out, sobbing into her hands. “Mama came up with the idea of using it to keep you in Savannah, to help us with the debt. I wanted to ask you for help, hoping you’d volunteer, but Mama said guilting you would keep you from leaving and saddling the two of us with all that debt to recover on our own.”
“Quiet, dziecko! You go too far,” Basha spat at Grace.
Nadia bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from unraveling. “And what did you do to Kaleena, huh, to make her lay a debt like that on you both? Did she find out a lie like this too?”
Basha slammed her cane into the floor. “She is no innocent! She did her duty for rodzina and did not like outcome, so turned on rodzina.” Her mouth twisted in a grimace. “I no force her to do anything she wasn’t prepared to do. We were all in danger. We had no choice.”
“What duty? What are you talking about?” Nadia asked, confused.
Both Basha and Grace hesitated.
“Did this have something to do with Adrian?” she pressed, her voice tight. “Did Kaleena kill him?”
Dominic had certainly seemed to think so, and while Nadia had once believed that Kaleena wouldn’t take such drastic measures, the day’s events had been more than enough to convince her otherwise.
Basha lifted her chin. “Adrian did not like us speaking out against his wickedness. He want us gone. He fear I try to dethrone him.” She sniffed. “Is what I wanted. I no lie. So, I make wretched dziecko take care of problem. I ask her to use potent wish she wanted to keep for herself. We were running out of time, and she got rid of him. I no expect her to demand debt in return—selfish beast. I no expect her to be Wishmaster either. Was supposed to be me, or someone with experience. She take the title for herself, and still does no forgive me. Where would she be if no for me, hmm? All this mess—is her doing.”
Grace leaned on Miles like she couldn’t hold herself up. “It had to be done to save our family, honey. You have to understand the kind of threat we were under during that time. Adrian wanted to eliminate us, not just control us. We had to act, or you and your sister would’ve been his next targets, once he stole our used wishes and the wishing box from us.” She paused. “I would have done it, but I had no wishes left. My third was stolen by your deadbeat father.”
“So . . . you never had a third wishing slot you could’ve used to save me in the first place?” Nadia trembled all over with a rage more overwhelming than anything she’d felt before. But there was pity too. Pity for her sister, and the things that’d driven Kaleena to become the cold woman she was now.
“Oh, it’s all so crystal clear. She had an unused wish ready, didn’t she?” Nadia continued
, everything coming together in her mind. “The one she’d been saving since she nearly got strangled by that drunk guy. The one she used to obsess over, dreaming about how she’d spend it, and how she’d word it when she did. She held on to that wish for years, and you made her spend it to find a way to kill Adrian. I’m right, aren’t I?”
It was no wonder Kaleena hated Basha. Hell, Nadia was having a hard time finding a single redeeming quality. That wish had meant everything to Kaleena, considering how she’d fought so hard to get it. Most seventeen-year-olds would’ve spent it there and then, but not Kaleena. She’d been as meticulous then as she was now, and she’d vowed to Nadia that she wouldn’t waste it on something trivial.
“I’m going to save this until I know, without a doubt, what I want to do with it,” Kaleena had told Nadia after taking the wish into herself. “And I’m going to word it so perfectly that the Wishing Tree won’t be able to mess with what I want.”
In fact, Basha had only let her keep it, without raining down a hailstorm of consequences, because Kaleena had promised not to use it until the right time came. Evidently, to Basha, that had been mistranslated as “when the right time came for the family to force her into using it for their own ends.”
Grace nodded feebly. “And Adrian had a thing for her, so we knew he’d allow her past his defenses.”
Nadia gasped in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? What the hell is wrong with the two of you? You used her as some kind of honey trap!”
Basha sniffed and observed the facets of her cane-topper. “I did what rodzina needed for protection in long run.”
“I didn’t want to do it!” Grace repeated, clutching on to Miles’s shoulder. “Your babcia made me. She was the one who coerced your sister into making the wish, and then sent her into the lion’s den. I would never!”
Basha shuffled forward a couple of steps, shaking her cane at Grace. “Ungrateful liar! You knew stakes—he die or we die. You wanted him gone. You convinced that wretched girl! You no blame me, when you did as much as I did!”
“I would never put my girls in harm’s way,” Grace shot back, blubbering. “You told me lies to get me to help you. And then you pressured me while I was out of my mind with worry, when Nadia almost died. I didn’t know what I was agreeing to!”
Nadia wanted a concrete answer to what Kaleena had actually done, but they were hurling insults in such vague terms that it was impossible to decipher. And though she had a million questions, she didn’t have time to ask them now.
Miles caught her eye and nodded toward the clock on the den wall, clearly sharing her thoughts. Kaleena had given them until the hour to grab the item and hand it off to her, and they were fast running out of minutes.
“Quiet!” Nadia roared.
Basha and Grace fell silent, both blinking in shock at the unexpected outburst.
“It’s obvious we’ve got some healing to do.” Nadia chose that moment to approach Basha and touched the top of her hand that held so tightly to the ruby head of the cane. Basha didn’t pull away, and the fizzing spark leaped between them, unnoticed by the older woman. “And I didn’t come here to start a slinging match. I came here for the rodzina—to warn you.”
Basha’s eyes crinkled. “What kind of warning?”
“The Wishmaster said she’d give me another chance,” Nadia replied, aiming for calm, “but she let something slip that I thought you, specifically, would want to know.”
Basha tilted her head. “What she say?”
“The Wishmaster has already been here and taken ‘what she wanted.’ I don’t know what that is, but I’m guessing you do.” Nadia drew her hand away from her grandmother.
Miles hurried up to join the charade. “You should’ve seen her face! I haven’t seen someone that smug since the Grammys.”
Basha didn’t appear to be listening to him, though. The old woman had paled, glancing distractedly at the kitchen door.
“I’m sure the Wishmaster was only bluffing,” Grace said. “There’s no way she could’ve gotten inside without an invitation, and the house would’ve hit back if there was a break-in.” She paused, her expression anxious. “But maybe we should take stock of our valuables so we can all rest easy.”
Nadia focused on her grandmother. “Mom’s right. You should.” She sighed, making it just dramatic enough. “I’m going to head out and leave you to it. I only stopped by to give you that warning and make sure you were both all right. See, Babcia, I still care about the family, no matter what’s been done to me.”
And my sister.
Nadia bit her tongue on the last part, in case she gave away the anger and hurt that still simmered inside. A betrayal of such magnitude, regardless of Basha’s platitudes about “good intentions,” wouldn’t be forgiven quickly. Nadia wasn’t even sure it could ever be forgiven.
Grace pushed Miles out of the way, letting Nadia know she meant business. “Why don’t you stay awhile?” she blurted out. “If the Wishmaster has been in the house, we don’t know if she might come back. You’ll be safer here, so . . . please don’t leave right away. You could even spend the night, unless you’ve developed a taste for rock star mansions?” She flashed a wink at Miles, but it came off fake, like she was trying to maintain a mask of bravado that was rapidly slipping.
“What about Miles?” Nadia had a feeling she already knew the enthusiastic answer, though the prospect filled her with discomfort. Honestly, she wanted to be anywhere but here, with so many thoughts and questions buzzing around in her mind. But Kaleena had been clear: if Grace offered up the chance for Nadia to stay overnight, she had to accept, if only to lull their mother into a false sense of security while Nadia took the item.
“Well, of course I was talking to the pair of you.” Grace gave Miles a playful slap on the arm. “Apparently, you come together these days.” There was that forced cheer again, with Grace trying to sound more like her usual self.
Nadia ignored the innuendo. “Miles, that work for you?” She let her gaze flit toward Basha. Her grandmother was being way too calm about the idea that something might’ve happened to their valuables. When Basha moved, it would be Nadia’s time to move too.
“Sure, it’d be my pleasure.” He waggled his eyebrows, and Nadia resisted the urge to pull his hood down over his face so she wouldn’t have to put up with his subtle payback.
“You’re a peach, Miles Hunter,” Grace said. “A delicious, delicious peach! And when in Georgia . . .” She edged closer to him.
Nadia folded her arms across her chest, still discreetly splitting her attention. “We’ve got a guest bedroom, but I’ll warn you now—it doesn’t have a lock, so you might want to wedge a chair against the handle to stop unwanted visitors from creeping in.”
“Or you could share, to save on laundry?” Grace chimed in, making Nadia’s eye twitch.
“When have you ever done the laundry, Mom?” she shot back. “Anyway, if you’ve seen his house, you’ll know he likes a lot of space. Too much, some might say. It’s like an aircraft hangar.”
Miles skirted away from Grace. “The guest room is fine by me. I’ll even throw the sheets in the machine in the morning—save you a job.”
“When have you ever done the laundry?” Nadia repeated.
Before Miles could make excuses, Basha hobbled toward the kitchen door, the end of her cane following the stepping-stones of old dents in the floorboards. “I leave you all. I need peace of mind. Is too noisy.”
Peace of mind? Basha wasn’t one to abandon an argument before she’d won it. Perhaps she had the capacity to retreat after all. Or perhaps “peace of mind” was her own personal code for “I need to check on some of those valuables in private.”
“Good night, Babcia.” The words lodged in Nadia’s throat, but she needed to feign politeness, even if she didn’t feel like being nice.
Basha didn’t bother to reply. She just tap-tapped out of the room and into the entrance hall, where Nadia listened for the departing drumbeat of her grandmoth
er lumbering up the stairs.
As the sound disappeared, one word popped into Nadia’s head: showtime.
“I need to take the weight off my feet.” Nadia stretched her arms and padded back over to the sofa, settling onto the comforting cushions. “Wouldn’t it be good if there were a way to just leave your body plugged in somewhere for an hour to recharge?” She cast a pointed look at Miles, signaling to him that she was about to do that “weird” thing she’d warned him about.
His eyelids cranked wider, as if to say, Now?
Nadia gave the faintest nod and faked a yawn, closing her eyes like she intended to doze off. A second later, the cushions gave beside her as Miles dove down, and she heard him pat the empty seat beside him.
“So, Grace, how come a bona fide fox like you doesn’t have a Mr. Kaminski? Let me guess, there’s no man in Savannah who can handle you?” Miles said silkily, not knowing the floodgates he was about to open with that dangerous statement.
But he’d have to fend for himself, as Nadia was already warping away to sneak into Basha’s body.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Her vision settled on the jewel-toned Aladdin’s cave of Basha’s room. The view appeared blurrier than Nadia had expected, considering how her grandmother’s notoriously sharp gaze didn’t miss a thing. At first, Nadia wondered if there were tears at work, fogging up the lenses, so to speak. But even after Basha had blinked a few times, the blur prevailed.
I told you to schedule an eye doctor appointment, Babcia. They do house calls. Despite having everything she’d known ripped out from under her, thanks to Basha’s lies, Nadia couldn’t help the instinctively caring thoughts that came into her mind.
Basha turned and closed her bedroom door, locking it with an antique iron key the size of a tablespoon. As it turned in the lock, she rested her hand against the warm wood of the door and drew in a stilted breath that sounded almost like a sob. In that slow exhale, Nadia felt an unbearable weight press down on her grandmother’s chest. The old woman’s hands shook, and her subsequent breaths rasped out in shallow gasps. Basha hung her head and closed her eyes, a riptide of grief threatening to send her to her knees.
