“She said no, Sabrina,” Jake exclaimed, though speaking still hurt his voice.
“None of you care!” Sabrina raged at her family. “None of you care whether Mom and Dad ever wake up!” She raced upstairs to the room where her parents slept, nestled herself between their bodies, and cried into her hands. Her old thoughts of anger toward Everafters surfaced. Most were betrayers, others couldn’t be counted on. She wept openly, not caring if Mirror or anyone else for that matter heard her railing at the world around her. Mirror’s face appeared briefly in the reflection but then faded away. She silently thanked him for letting her be alone. She lay there for hours, her face and neck drenched in tears, until eventually she was too exhausted to continue.
After a long while she got to her feet and went out into the hallway. There she found Granny, Uncle Jake, Briar, and Elvis sitting on the hardwood floor, obviously waiting for her. They all had expressions of concern mixed with forced smiles.
Granny took Sabrina by the hand, “Sabrina—”
Sabrina pulled away. “I can’t take a lecture right now.”
“I was going to say I was sorry. I know how heartbroken you feel. We feel it as well, dear. We had the same hopes that you did.”
Sabrina nodded, sadly. “Where’s Daphne?”
“She’s in your room,” the old woman said.
“You might want to leave her alone,” Uncle Jake said.
“Why?”
“She’s a little angry right now,” he replied.
“I know how she feels,” Sabrina said, ignoring the warning. She turned and walked down the hall and entered her bedroom. There, she found Daphne sitting at Henry’s desk, braiding her hair into her familiar pigtails. She had taken off Sabrina’s clothes and was now wearing a pair of cotton candy–colored pajamas with little stars on them. Her face was cleanly scrubbed of the lip gloss, and she had folded Sabrina’s clothes neatly and set them on the bed.
“Are you OK?” Sabrina said.
“We don’t have to talk about it, Sabrina,” the little girl said. “In fact, I’d rather not.”
Sabrina was taken back by her sister’s attitude. “You’re angry about the weapon. Well, I can explain—”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Daphne interrupted.
“Well, I think we should. I want to explain my side of what happened.”
Daphne burst into tears. “How are you going to explain that you stole from me, kept a secret, and lied about it? How are you going to explain that you . . . that you betrayed me?”
“You don’t even know what betrayed means!”
“Yes, I do!” Daphne said, heaving a new paperback dictionary at her sister. “I looked it up.”
Sabrina bent down and picked up her sister’s dictionary. “Yes, I lied to you. I stole the key and snuck out and took the weapon without you knowing. You were too young to have that kind of responsibility and you refused to see the danger we are in, so I did it.”
“You treat me like I’m a baby, Sabrina. I’m not a baby!”
“I have a reason to be angry, too! You’ve been walking around here for days, wearing my clothes, mocking me. I’ve seen you roll your eyes and your snarky comments. You think it’s nice to be made fun of?”
“I wasn’t making fun of you, Sabrina. I was trying to be more like you. You’re my role model,” Daphne said. “I was dressing like you and wearing my hair like yours ’cause I was trying to grow up a little. I wanted to be more like my sister. But not anymore.”
Sabrina looked at the stack of clothing on the bed.
“I think I’ll go back to being myself. I like me,” Daphne said.
Sabrina searched for words, but they were jumbled like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that didn’t fit together.
“I wasn’t making fun of you. I love you. Though, I don’t like you very much,” the little girl said. “And it’s obvious to me that you don’t like me much, either.”
“That’s not true!” Sabrina said.
“I’m not going to bother you anymore. I’m sleeping in Granny’s room tonight. Tomorrow, Mr. Boarman and Mr. Swineheart are going to come over and build me my own bedroom,” her sister said. She finished with her hair and got up from the desk. “Hand it over.”
Sabrina shuffled her feet. “What, the kazoo?”
“You can’t handle it. It’s magic, Sabrina. Give it to me.”
“But—”
Daphne shook her head. “Don’t argue with me. Just hand it over.”
Sabrina dug into her pocket for the kazoo. Her fingers tingled when she touched it. It made her feel good, but she knew that feeling was false. She knew her sister was right. She took it out of her pocket and handed it to Daphne.