The End of Magic (The Witches of Echo Park #3)(85)

"Or mine!" Ginny chirped, not wanting to be outdone by her sister.

"That's because they love each other," Niamh said. She assumed this was true. The others had said Dev and her partner, Freddy, really did care for one another, and no one had a reason to lie.

"They hold hands and kiss each other sometimes," Ginny agreed. "That means they love each other."

"Maybe," Marji said, looking skeptically at her little sister. Then she turned her attention to Niamh. "Do you love someone?"

"Uh," Niamh began, not sure how to answer such a loaded question.

"I do."

Ginny shook her head, her long dark hair flopping behind her.

"She does. She likes Thom-"

"Ginny!" Marji screeched, covering her sister's mouth with the palm of her hand.

"Stop it-" Ginny said, pushing Marji's hand away, a deep frown distorting her face. "Mama says you're not supposed to touch me when you're mad!"



       
         
       
        

"That was a secret, Ginny!" Marji squawked, humiliated that Niamh knew the secret identity of her crush.

"Thomas seems very nice," Niamh said, trying to be diplomatic.

"He's old," Ginny said, matter-of-factly.

Niamh laughed because Thomas looked like he was about twenty-five years old. Ginny's perception of him being elderly was humorous. She tried to think like a kid, to imagine that anyone over eighteen looked "old"-but it was hard to do. Still, she remembered other things from her childhood. The good parts of being a kid and the awful things. But those memories were at a remove-like her parents yelling obscenities at each other while their twin daughters played under the claw-foot table, Fisher-Price Little People sprawled all over the floor, the last remnants of a plastic doll apocalypse.

"Having a crush on someone is nice." Niamh finally decided on a neutral response.

Marji remained stubbornly silent in her humiliation.

"He smells old, Marji," Ginny said, and Niamh had to bite her tongue. She appreciated Ginny's bluntness, but she doubted Marji liked it very much right now.

The girls' dynamic really reminded Niamh of the relationship she'd shared with Laragh. Spending time with Dev's daughters made her miss her sister so much. She fought back the lump in her throat, not wanting to cry in front of the kids-Goddess, she'd already cried so much recently, she just couldn't take another round of tears.

Marji noticed her distress, her dark eyes suddenly round with compassion.

"You miss your sister," the girl said.

Niamh wasn't sure how Marji knew about Laragh, but in that moment she didn't care.

"Yeah, I miss her a lot."

Ginny climbed to her knees, then scooted over closer to the bed. She put her smaller hand on Niamh's larger one.

"Marji talks to ghosts."

Niamh couldn't help herself. The little girl was so earnest that she had to laugh.

"I'm not joking," Ginny continued, but she didn't seem to be offended by Niamh's laughter.

"I don't think you are," Niamh said. She'd realized all the emotion she was feeling had to get out somehow-and it was either laugh or cry. She'd chosen laughter.

"She misses you, too. She says you always stole the green man from her and she forgives you." 

Niamh hadn't doubted Marji before, but now she knew for a fact that Marji was somehow communicating with Laragh. The little green plastic man with the blond hair and loopy smile had been both of their favorites. They used to fight over him all the time when they were small-and the only way Marji could've known this was to get the information straight from Laragh's mouth.

"Where is she?" Niamh asked.

But Marji shook her head.

"I don't know. I just hear her voice. I don't see her."

"But Marji sees ghosts, too, sometimes," Ginny chimed in, not wanting to be left out of the conversation.

"Tell her I love her," Niamh said.

Marji nodded, listening.

"She knows you do."

The door opened and Dev came in, her shoulders hunched with worry.

"All right, little bits," Dev said, stepping into the middle of the room and gesturing for the girls to get up. "Time to go."

The girls hopped to, clinging to their mother now. Niamh climbed to her feet, leaving behind the pink canopy bed and the white wicker furniture of the child's bedroom and following Dev and the girls to the door.

"Where are we going, Mama?" Marji asked.

"A place where there are lots more of us," Dev said, taking Marji's hand.

"Me, too!" Ginny said, taking Dev's other hand.