The drive to Lucky Penny’s Cafe passed in relative silence, aside from the occasional clunking of her engine. Her phone had stopped ringing.

  Luc didn’t know whether that was a good thing or not. The guilt eating at her stomach didn’t help matters, tearing up her insides. Or maybe it was the fact that she hadn’t eaten.

  She slowed as she reached the parking lot, hesitating before pulling in. She was already late. Her mother would be furious, and Luc would have a terrible time at work, like she always did. She should have stayed back at the farm, eating cake and having a good time with all of her…

  Well, she guessed she had to call them friends.

  With a sigh, she put the car into park and turned it off, following it by dropping her magical girl form and stopping the ambient magic from flowing off her body. Without her magic, she was still wearing the same outfit she’d left school in, and Penny would probably yell at her for that too, but Luc didn’t care.

  She was at work, and that was all that mattered.

  The car door slammed shut, and the building’s front door blew open. Malachi stood there, holding the door open, eyes locked onto Luc with a frantic look on his face.

  God, are things really that bad?

  “Where were you?” he demanded. He stepped outside, letting the door swing shut behind him and marched across the parking lot to her.

  She shrugged. “I got busy. I’m here now.”

  “I tried calling you,” he said.

  “Okay.”

  “Luc, I called you,” he said again, the words heavy with meaning.

  It took a moment for the words to sink in, and the world went cold. It seeped through her skin and into her blood, winding each way with each heartbeat to her heart.

  “What broke?” she demanded, rolling up her sleeves. She couldn’t be more than an hour late, Penny couldn’t have done anything drastic in that amount of time. Whatever had broken, she’d have it back up and running before tomorrow.

  Malachi stared at her, mouth working as he tried to answer, and Luc’s stomach sank further. “The espresso machine, but—”

  “But what?” she demanded. She didn’t have time to sit here and wait for him to spit it out. Whatever had to say, he could just say it.

  “She bought another one,” he spat out. “I tried to stop her, get her to wait until you got here, but you weren’t answering your phone and you know she doesn’t listen.”

  The shout welled up in the back of Luc’s throat, stuck there and building up until she could scream. What the hell was wrong with her mother? Fixing and building was everything that Luc did, it was her entire being. Why couldn’t her mother ever remember that?

  And where had she even gotten the money? Luc knew she’d maxed out her credit cards months ago, and no bank in town would give her another loan.

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  Luc raced for the door as the thought finished processing, throwing it open so hard the glass rattled inside the frame. Inside, it was quiet. The espresso machine sat on the counter, taunting and silent. Just looking at it, Luc knew she’d be able to fix it. Anything short of an explosion, she’d be able to repair.

  Where the hell was her mother?

  “Mom!” she shouted, her voice carrying through the building.

  Only silence answered her back.

  Her vision blurred as she marched forward, blood roaring into her ears and tinting her vision red. At the same time, her heart sped up in a panic that drowned out all else. Maybe the cafe had money she didn’t know about, but the only money she was aware of was their rent money.

  Not rent for this goddamn shithole. Rent for their house. For the place they lived, that Luc had been scrambling every day for months and months to keep over their head. Taking job after job, no matter how gross, frightening, or demeaning. Never having a day off, working herself to the point of exhaustion. She barely slept more than five hours a night. Junior year, she’d made straight A’s. Now she couldn’t even remember what her grades were.

  Her mother couldn’t do that. She wouldn’t spend their rent money on this failing restaurant, would she?

  Luc was pounding on the office door before she even realized what she was doing, so loud it filled the whole building. She didn’t give a fuck about customers, she’d never given a fuck about customers except to keep her mother happy. Where the fuck was she?

  The door pushed outward, forcing Luc to stop hammering it and take a step back. Penny’s face screwed into rage at the sight of Luc, youthful face twisting into something monstrous.

  “Where the hell were you? You can’t fucking be late. You’re coming in tomorrow.”

  Luc forced her hands down to her sides, arms rigid and shaking as she restrained herself. “What money did you spend?”

  Penny scoffed. “You don’t get to question me about money. This is a business. We have expenses, expenses you don’t care about. I’m doing everything here to keep a roof over your head—”

  “What money did you spend?” Luc roared, unable to take it any longer. “Because I’m the only one in this family making any goddamn money! You fucking spend every penny you make on useless fucking shit.”

  “We need an espresso machine.”

  “I could have fixed it! I can fix it! Why can’t you ever remember that?”

  “You can’t fix anything,” Penny snarled. “You ruin everything you touch. You ruined me! Do you know where I would be right now if it wasn’t for you?”

  Penny might as well have slapped her. That’s what it felt like as she sucked in a breath, lungs hollow, staggering a step back.

  “I’m sorry I’m such a goddamn mistake,” Luc spat as she backed away. Penny’s eyes remained locked on hers, the expression of rage not changing. She meant every word she said, and Luc knew it. She’d always known it, Penny just hadn’t had the guts to say it before. “Have fun with this mistake. I won’t be here to bail you out of it anymore.”

  She spun around, nearly running into Malachi. He must have been watching the entire time but she didn’t care, not even as her eyes began to burn.

  “Luc…” He reached after her halfheartedly.

  She smacked his hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

  Luc made her way to the car, fumbling her way into the front seat as the first tear broke free. Each breath shook as she took out her phone, fingers trembling against the screen as she went to check their joint bank account.

  Empty.

  There was still money in her personal account, but not enough. Not enough for rent, or any of the other bills they needed to pay. And did she even want to keep paying for that goddamn house?

  It wasn’t hers. Everything was under Penny’s name.

  Luc wasn’t an adult. She was still seventeen, still stuck underneath her mother’s care, if it could be called that. She was stuck. There wasn’t anywhere she could go.

  But she couldn’t stay.

  If her mother wanted to ruin her life for a second time, that was her choice.

  Luc wiped her face with the back of her trembling hand, swiping away the tears. She transformed once more, turning her car on and heading home to pack and figure out exactly what she was going to do.