Shadow of the Day (Wolf Moon Sequel)

Chapter 48: Fine

I didn't sleep much. Tossing and turning most of the night, sleeping on and off, my bed was a mess of sheets and blankets hellbent on choking me. Wyatt was keeping watch as he toggled between dozing, trying to hold me and stroke my hair to soothe me to sleep, and reading The Crucible for English class, a book I had no desire to bother with considering I had enough magic and witch hunts in my own personal life, thank you very much. As he was still trying make up for his poor grades thanks to Caleb, he had little choice in going above and beyond, even asking for extra credit assignments to help in every class.

At around six am, I couldn't stand it anymore. I left Wyatt to read and headed downstairs to grab something to eat and drink, that maybe that might distract me. At the very least, since I couldn't lie still it would give me something better to do than send Wyatt's books flying (again) when I kicked out and turned over unexpectedly.

Startled my dad though when he came downstairs to find me sitting at the kitchen table, nibbling on the corner of a Poptart with an untouched cup of tea next to me.

"What are you doing up?" he asked with mild alarm, like my sitting here was an omen. I had another hour before I usually got up for school, by then Dad was usually off to work as he left before we usually managed to slog out of bed with just enough time to get ready and run for the bus.

"Couldn't sleep," I said. My Poptart tasted like chalk. I didn't really want it, but it gave me the pretense of something to do. Going through the motions of my morning was better than staring at the wall, letting minutes tick past until I went to school.

"Everything okay?" he asked, crossing the kitchen to make his own coffee.

I made some sort of non-committal sound. Nothing was wrong, per se. Ivy's reaction just hadn't been what I expected and I kept waiting for the ax to fall, for her to lose it, run screaming from the scary wolf living in her house. Instead I got a weirdly quiet quasi-acceptance and it left this strange unsettled feeling like something wasn't quite right but I didn't know what. All I knew was that I didn't like it at all.

"I know things are a little weird these days," he said, stirring his travel mug, the spoon clinking against the metal cup. What an understatement and he didn't even know the half of it.  "With me starting to date again and with Joe back in the picture--"

I snorted. Couldn't help it. Dad shot me a wry smile.

"I'm not fond of it either," he said. "And Ivy seems rather unhappy since he came back."

"I know."

"But there's nothing we can do about it but support her," he said.

I wondered if he noticed how poor my reactions to Joe/Devin had been lately, if Ivy had mentioned it to him. It felt rather pointed, but I had been feeling pretty persecuted lately, justified or not, so it could have just been in my head.

"I don't trust him," I said.

He sighed, breath blowing the steam of his coffee in wisps. "Me neither, but as a father, I can't exactly deny him the right to be one. I wouldn't want someone to keep me from you girls."

"You didn't abandon us."

His head tilted, gaze softening. "No, I haven't. But even her mother said she would never deny Ivy to have any information or relationship with her father if the occasion ever arose. It was always Ivy's choice to make. I just want to honor that."

"How did she feel about him? Joe?"

I hadn't cared to discuss Joe before with anyone really, not even Ivy unless I had too. He was a sore spot as he had abandoned her and her mother at the slightest inconvenience and to me that was unforgiveable. I didn't care to cut him any slack, especially not after he showed up with Devin in tow. He became the elephant in every room, none of us sure what his appearance would mean. If Ivy would hear him out and forgive him, if he would want to take her from us, or worse? If she would want to go.

Dad had adopted Ivy once he married her mom, and as far as we were concerned, Ivy was always family, always blood. I couldn't remember a time she wasn't here as we had grown up together as toddlers. She was my sister, regardless of Joe coming to try and stake a claim now. Until Joe showed up, I had forgotten she wasn't actually my biological sister.

"She was pissed, to be honest," Dad said and I laughed. "How could she not be? She was a sudden single young mother and heartbroken. But she knew he wasn't suited for it and knew they were better off without him. An absent father is better than a terrible one, don't you think?"

"Ivy didn't have an absent father or a terrible one. Not when she had you."

"I've made my fair share of mistakes too, Lila. I've always had my doubts about whether I was doing right by you girls or not, especially raising you guys on my own. Hell, sometimes I wonder if moving us here was the right thing to do or not," he said, and the crack in his composure threw me, shining a new light on him. The faint grey hairs poking through his dark brown hair, the tiredness around his eyes, the slump to his shoulders. He had seemingly aged ten years in the ten seconds it had taken me to really look at him. "You were so unhappy and now Ivy is--"

"Dad, moving here or not wouldn't have mattered. We're teenagers, we'd find ways to be miserable anywhere we went," I said, trying to lighten the mood despite how everything seemed to be painted with the same depressing brush and evidently I wasn't the only one feeling it. Now that we had come here, there was no way I could leave or that I'd even want too. Despite all the craziness that had happened, I'd found a good place here with my friends and Wyatt. 

As for Ivy? Hopefully once Devin left the picture, things would be looking up for her too. 

It wasn't fair for Dad to be under all this stress though, especially caused by things outside of everyone's control and his own knowledge. Then again, if he knew even a fraction of the truth  of what was going on with his two teenaged daughters, it might send him straight into a heart attack.

"You're probably right about that," he conceded with a chuckle, brushing a hand over his stubbled chin. "Even still, I know there's more than just teenage angst at play here and I worry. I don't want to push, especially Ivy with Joe in the picture now, but..." he lifted a shoulder helplessly. "She won't talk to me about him. I know you girls were upset about me dating already and keeping it a secret, and I'm sure Joe has been a lot for Ivy as well, but...keep an eye on her, yeah? She might not be comfortable talking with me given the circumstances, but you two were always thick as thieves."

So wrapped up in the Devin aspect of it all, I hadn't noticed the strain between Dad and Ivy. I was too focused on keeping Devin and my secrets away from her, and avoiding him myself, that her relationship with Dad had fallen to the wayside when it should have taken more importance. How could I blame her though? When we arrived here, with everything that happened with my friends and Wyatt and Caleb, I had kept my family out of it too, pulled back from them. It was understandable Ivy do the same, the question of family being more muddy for her now.

"Why don't we have a movie night like old times?" I suggested. "It's been a while and we could all use a break together."

He smiled. "That's a good idea. Run it past your sister when she gets up, yeah? I have to leave soon, but I'll be sure to bring home some pizza for dinner and we can make it a good one, maybe cheer her up a little."

After yesterday's nightmare? She probably could use plenty of cheering up and normalcy to forget how utterly not-normal her sister was. And maybe it'll help keep her from drifting from us more. If 'Joe' was going to make his sudden disappearance soon, Ivy was going to need us to fallback on and I had to make sure her relationship with me and Dad was as strong as I could make it. Starting with movie night. 

"Get cheesy bread and french fries too," I added. Surely by then my appetite might have returned and if we were going to do a movie night, we might as well pull out all the stops. 

"Will you still have room for dessert?"

"Don't underestimate my power."

"Got it. I'll swing by the bakery too," he said, grabbing his finished toast and layering on peanut butter. Dad also tended to get up at the last minute and often had breakfast on his way out the door, a habit he had transferred to us. The thought made me smile. Maybe Joe and Ivy shared blood and the same shock of blue eyes, but they didn't share anything that really counted.

"Perfect."

"Alright, I'm off. You two better pick something good to watch," he said, dropping a kiss on the top of my head as he headed out with his travel mug of coffee, his laptop bag, and his toast wrapped in a paper towel. 

"No promises," I called after him.

Left alone in the kitchen, I still didn't get up to rejoin Wyatt or bother with trying to find something else for breakfast. I folded my arms on the table, rested my cheek against one forearm, and stared down at the wooden grain of the table. 

Everything was falling apart around me, but maybe now with part of the truth out then things would be better. I was letting Ivy in like she wanted and soon she would know everything. Mostly everything anyway. I couldn't tell her we were planning on getting rid of Joe. He was going to die no matter what we did, the only difference was whether he slowly lost himself to Devin or if we snuffed him out quick and mercifully and saved someone else from Devin taking over their body and life like a parasite. 

Sluggish footsteps sounded down the hall and then Ivy was there in the kitchen with me, having startled me from my zoning out about demons and secrets and guilt. 

"Oh," she said, hand dropping from where she'd been rubbing her eyes. She was still in her pajamas. It was earlier than usual for her to be up. "I didn't know you were up."

"Couldn't sleep," I explained, straightening up and trying not to look like I was studying her as much as I was. 

She nodded and passed me, rifling around until she settled on cereal for breakfast. I watched her like the paranoid freak I was.

"So...how are you feeling?" I asked. We'd gone a whole night now since the big reveal, and so far, she hadn't run from the house screaming about monsters or trying to find silver bullets, so I had to assume she was either still processing or genuinely okay. Or at the very least, didn't think I was going to turn around and eat her.

What had my life become?