Robin absently realized they had forgotten to buy dry pasta and wondered if he should attempt to make pasta from scratch and cut it himself, or if it was best to go back to the store. It was saferthan dwelling on what Persephone was saying. But he did that too. “Why would it be better now?” he finally asked.
“Both of you grew up.” Persephone, younger than both of them, nonetheless made Robin feel like a child for a moment, which almost no one could do because Robin had been raised by the elderly and had the soul of an old man. Unconcerned with Robin’s scowl, Persephone carried on. “Lucas is calmer, steadier. And you’re, you know, more open.”
Robin gave up on the groceries and put his hands flat on the counter. “Was I closed off before?”
“Busy.” Was Persephone’s somewhat distracted answer. She was smelling the lotion Robin had bought. “You were busy before. Always. But, hmm, also yes. In a way.” She put the bottle down to be serious. “You don’t… look at people directly. Which is fine,” she added quickly, “Janie doesn’t either. Some people don’t and that’s okay. But that also took a while for me to understand, because you’d always look at Lucas.”
Robin put a hand to his chest to tell his heart to calm down. He hadn’t realized how obvious he’d been. No wonder his family had noticed. No wonder Mallory had noticed.
Embarrassing. And that was understating it. Lucas must have been so very confused.
“Like today at the Creamery,” Persephone carried on, a little wound up from sugar and caffeine herself. They shouldn’t have stopped for coffees, but they’d been enjoying their outing and Robin didn’t often sit in coffee shops and talk with friends, so it had felt good. The Creamery had been another indulgence, intended for Lucas’ benefit, but the mention of the ice cream parlor dragged Robin back to the present, where Persephone Greysmith was telling his fortune.
“You did this thing like you do when talking with your customers on the phone. You’re polite but you’re firm and businesslike.”
Robin didn’t see what that had to do with ice cream.
When he said so, Persephone lit up. “That tone exactly!” She pointed at him accusingly. “And you used it with the outsider girl behind the counter, and you asked after Chester Sibley. Really, Robin.” She paused to chide him; Robin had no idea what for. “Goodwin was sitting right there watching us, even! Then you take your purchases and your free scoop—how come you got a free scoop, by the way?”
“I’m just trying to get the best non-dairy flavor options I can,” Robin informed her and he wasn’t lying. Lucas’ birthday was coming up and Robin wanted to get him more of the Pistachio-Cherry, which Lucas had seemed to truly enjoy. But it didn’t exist anymore so Robin was working his way around to the subject with the girl, Mercy, behind the counter. “I’m just being friendly.”
Persephone narrowed her eyes. “And then when we went outside and George Webster was there like he was waiting for us, foryou, you did it again.”
The Websters liked to put on airs, as Flora used to say.
Robin arched his eyebrows. “It’s not my fault he was too scared to go into an ice cream parlor. He’s in his sixties. You’d think he’d be less of a scaredy-cat.”
“Maybe.” Persephone’s lips twitched with a smile. “But he was still clearly waiting for you to say something.”
That made Robin huff. “What was there to say? Am I supposed to explain myself to him like a naughty child?”
Persephone outright laughed for that. “I think he hoped you might.” She sobered a little. “Most would have, or avoided him if it was in their power to do so. And yet you, who used to do that, just stared back. I thought you were going to glance away and say something vaguely civil, but you looked right at him and didn’t say anything. RIP George Webster because that was devastating. Truly a power move.”
“I don’t have any power,” Robin said reflexively.
Persephone stared at him, her expression so sincerely disapproving that she looked like Lucas and their mother at the same time. “Lucas is still too careful with you.” Then she clucked her tongue and was all Mallory. “But don’t mind me.”
Robin would mind what he pleased to mind. “What does thatmean, ‘too careful?’”
Persephone shook her head and came over to put several things in the refrigerator for him since Robin was just standing there. “You really don’t get it? Maybe it’s because when you interact with any coven members, it’s the Hawthornes or the Websters or some other old family. Or us. Being around Mama or Lucas… they have an effect.”
“Yes, they do!” Robin wanted to high-five her, something he had never done to anyone in his entire life. “Thank you. I’ve been calling it ‘The Lucas Greysmith Effect’ for years.”
Her expression became one of polite condescension. “You’re just like them, Robin. You’re one of them. You get that, right?”
Robin gave a start, then frowned for it and for the suspicious silence from the rest of the house that he was increasingly aware of. “Because of my gift, you mean?” he asked slowly.
Persephone’s expression stayed the same. “That, and how it obviously means something, which evenIcould tell. I think everyone else just wanted to forget about it.”
Robin certainly had.
“But they can’t now, because if they get on your nerves, you actually look at them.” Persephone snickered. “Thought George Webster had someone twisting his underwear when you turned your head to look him in the eye. Then there’s that.” She punctuated this with a smack on the counter top. “You aren’t particularly afraid of them. Were you ever?”
“I….” Robin didn’t know how to answer that. Caution and respect were not fear, of course, but only a few months ago, he would have said being afraid of powerful coven members was smart.
“I suppose not,” Persephone decided without Robin’s input, “being from such a family.”
The lights flickered above them. So the spiritswerelistening.
