Different.

Chapter 16: A Lesson in Magick

I kicked the door open carelessly, no longer worrying about being gentle with his precious car, and stomped after him with half a mind to wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze until he would undoubtedly throw me back onto the ground.

"I am gonna kick your pretty boy ass!" I screeched after him with his back still turned to me.

"Good to know you think I have a pretty ass!" He called back over his shoulder.

Unbelievable.

***

"You were right to tell me about this."

We were in the throne room with Akshana, explaining all that had happened with my mother.

Akshana, however, wasn't actually sitting in the throne. Instead she was sprawled out on the floor in a pair of loose fitting jeans, her hair falling down her bare shoulders in tight ringlets.

It was the most casual I'd seen her, but somehow she looked more elegant in a tank top than she did in a finely stitched dress.

She looked up from the piles of pictures and papers laid out in front of her and the light above made her hair look woven with scarlet.

"Based on what you've told me and what I've previously learned, Kaylee's mother may be even less safe to be around then she was before."

Her and Alexander exchanged a look that I didn't quite understand, and irritation bristled through me.

"You two obviously know a lot more than you're letting on, so can you please stop talking about me like I'm not in the room and explain why my mom has turned into some sort of sober neat freak?"

Akshana stood and brushed the nonexistent dirt from her legs, eyeing me warily. "There is a lot you don't yet know or understand Kaylee," She said, as if that was an explanation.

"Yeah, no shit. Alexander already gave me the speech, so would you care to enlighten me?"

She pursed her lips distastefully and turned away, running her fingers slowly through her tangled hair and pacing back and forth.

"It doesn't make sense fully to me yet, which is why I'm hesitant to explain seeing as I won't be able to answer the questions I'm sure this will raise but..." She sighed and turned back to face me. "We believe that your mother may be gone, and she may never come back."

My brows furrowed, not at all understanding her cryptic answer. How could she be gone if she's sitting at home right now?

Seeing my expression, Alexander thought it best to step in then. "What Akshana means by that is that there are certain people, ableds I mean, who we like to call inserts. They have the ability to essentially implant themselves into someone else's body, and take control. So based on your description of your mom before, we're guessing that's what happened to her now."

"But why would anyone want to do that to my mother? It isn't like she's some millionaire or superstar or anyone who matters, she lives in a run down two bedroom and drinks herself half to death every day for gods sake!"

None of this was adding up, and I was more than annoyed with the fact that they were trying to plaster answers onto my questions frivolously, although it wasn't as if I had any answers myself. Not that that was news.

"Well...that's where it gets kind of weird." Alexander muttered, rubbing his hand against the back of his neck and looking away from me.

"Oh, you mean more weird than it already is right now? Glorious." I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest.