any


    Lanie


    | kept my voice steady. “What do you mean, my love? What magic?”


    Wolves didn’t have magic. Vampires didn’t, either. Not like Witches or even Fae. But my dear Ste wasn’t


    of those. She was, as her siblings had pointed out, different.


    ina shrugged and helped herself to a spoonful of her brother’s chocte ice cream. “Her make the


    teachers say funny stuff.”


    “She,” | corrected absently. “She makes the teachers say funny stuff?”


    “She makes,” ina repeated.


    “Like what? Jokes?”


    Isaacughed, his little face tipping upward. “No, Mumma! Silly.”


    “Her...she,” ina said, “thinks at them.”Belongs to ? n0velDrama.Org.


    Her brother picked up the exnation. “Her thinks make them do it.”


    “She thinks for them to say silly stuff, and then they do it. That’s kind of like a joke,” ina says, her little face scrunched up in


    thought. “Is that a joke, Izzy?”


    “No, Allie, a joke is ‘knock-knock, who''s there,” her brother said with absolute confidence.


    | loved them so much it almost hurt. | checked to see if Ste was still in her room. The door remained


    shut.


    “Can you give me an example?” | asked the twins.


    “What''s a zample?” ina asked with a frown.


    Again, her brother had an answer. “It’s that red fruit from a tree, duh.”


    “That’s an apple,” | told him and caught ina’s hand before she could use it to smack him. “No hittin


    | had to cover my mouth against augh, not wanting them to think | was making fun of them. They wer both so adorable |


    wanted to squeeze them, but at the same time, | really needed them to tell me what they


    meant.


    “| want you to tell me something Ste thought to a teacher and made the teacher say,” | told them.


    “Her say... mean she say, to me and Izzy, do we want Ste to make the teacher say a funny,” ina


    promptly replied.


    va


    “| say for her to make the teacher say...” Isaac doubled over inughter at the memory. “She make her


    say...


    @ALLI— IL.


    one thing | was learning about motherhood, it was that it would never be boring.


    “He said for the teacher to say she was full of far ts!” ina crowed, also bursting into a flood of giggles.


    fortssss, Mumma!”


    | pressed my lips together to hold back myughter. And the teacher said that?”


    “Ste made her,” Isaac said, still giggling.


    It was better than making the teacher pass wind, but still unsettling to think that Ste was able to exert that kind of mind control.


    Yes, obviously it was the sort of prank any child would think to pull on a teacher, but how many kids were able to get a teacher to


    do something like that?”


    And what would happen if my daughter decided not to y a prank but instead made a teacher do or say something much more


    harmful than a joke about fa rts?


    | blinked, thinking of how I’d ordered Greyson to set Charlotte on fire. It had taken a lot of my strength to make that happen, and


    it was, of course, a much bigger ask than simplypelling a teacher to say a few words. Not to mention that my grandfather


    had needed to step in to stop Greyson frompleting mymand, because I''d been so caught up inpelling him that I''d


    been struggling to control myself.


    If it was hard for me as an adult, how much harder would it be for a child to properly control herself?


    The thought of Ste forcing someone to cause harm pushed a rush of frigid fear straight to the pit of my


    stomach.


    “Eat your ice cream,” | told the twins. | went to Ste’s bedroom door and knocked. “Ste. Come out here


    please.”


    My tension didn’t ease very much at the sight of her suspicious face peeking out from the doorway. Quickly, | shielded my


    emotions, but toote. My sensitive, special daughter had already figured out | was upset about something that had to do with


    her.


    “Your brother and sister told me something, and I''d like to talk to you about it. Come over here.” | to to the couch and we both


    settled onto it.


    “Yes, Mother? What is it?”


    “They told me about what you''ve been doing at school. With the teachers,” | added when her brow furrowed in confusion. She


    still looked like she didn’t understand. “That you think something to them to make them say funny stuff. Is that true?”


    Ste looked relieved. “Oh, yes. It makes Allie and Izzyugh, that’s why | do it. The teachers don’t get


    mad about it, Mother.”


    Likely because they weren’t even aware that she waspelling them, or mind controlling, or whatever it was. She might even


    be making them forget.


    “How do you do it, Ste?”


    “| don’t know, Mother. | just...do it.” Ste shrugged, looking totally unconcerned.


    Can you do it to me? Right now?”


    Ill


    [e)


    “If you want me to” she said. “But you probably won''t like it very much