Truth or Demon Read Free

staying here.”
    “No,” Daisy agreed.
    Madison’s mother was often at the hospital, taking extra shifts because she was the sole support of Madison. But the woman was too savvy for them to sneak a rather … noticeable man into her apartment.
    Heck, Madison hadn’t even gotten away with the Connor Martin thing. Her mother figured that one out fast and vetoed the date. Because he was a senior and the cutest boy at Cambridge High.
    “Well, Poppy won’t let him stay with us,” Daisy said. “As it is, we’re lucky he isn’t in a coma or on his way to prison as we speak.”
    Poppy was a great sister. And she’d been wonderful after the deaths of their parents, taking on the role of both mom and dad, but sometimes Daisy wished she wasn’t quite so uptight. Couldn’t she just go with a strange man/demon staying with them? Geesh.
    “Well, I would have clocked him too,” Madison said confidently.
    Daisy seemed to recall that Madison had screamed right along with her and Emma. Sometimes she was all talk—most of the time, actually.
    “What about you, Emma?” Madison asked.
    Emma was shaking her head before Madison even finished the question, her blond curls bobbing against her cherub cheeks.
    “You know my parents. My mother notices when someone nudges one of the knickknacks on the end tables out of place. And remember when she yelled at my brother for putting his boots away in the front closet with the left one on the right side and the right on the left?”
    “She’d totally notice him,” Daisy agreed. He’d be pretty hard to miss, even if her mother was half-blind. And she wasn’t half-blind. If anything, that woman had the second sight.
    “Plus your dork brother would so narc,” Madison said.
    Emma’s little brother, Harrison, lived to get Emma in trouble, which wasn’t easy, because Emma was darn near perfect. She was actually a lot like her mother—of course, she’d throw a hissy fit if anyone said that. And Daisy would give her the benefit of the doubt—she probably wouldn’t rearrange the shoes to be matched by left and right.
    Not that shoes were the point, Daisy reminded herself. The point was, Emma’s place was totally out.
    “Well, we have to figure out something,” Daisy said. “Because if all the other stuff in that book is true, he isn’t going anywhere until he fulfills the wish.”
    “You know, if I knew he’d really appear, I would never have gone along with your wish,” Madison stated to Daisy. “Not that I don’t like your sister or anything. But wishing for him to find your sister a boyfriend. Really? Can’t she find one for herself? Totally lame.”
    “What would you have asked for?” Emma asked.
    “To get my mother to let me date Connor Martin,” Madison said as if that were perfectly obvious.
    Daisy supposed it was. But wasn’t she wishing for a boyfriend too? Apparently, it was not such a lame wish when applied to herself.
    “I’d have wished to pass French Two,” Emma said.
    That was obvious too—at least for Emma. But Madison rolled her eyes.
    “You think Connor Martin is more important than good grades?”
    Now it was Daisy’s turn to roll her eyes. Honestly, didn’t these two know each other?
    “We still need to find a place for him to stay,” Daisy said, raising her voice to get them back on track.
    The table fell silent.
    Then Daisy straightened. “What about Mrs. Maloney’s apartment?”
    Madison leaned forward, her eyes glittering with excitement. “That’s perfect.”
    The two girls turned to Emma, who didn’t appear nearly as thrilled about the idea. She crossed her arms as if she were cold. Her shoulders hunched. “I don’t know.”
    “But it’s perfect,” Daisy said.
    Old Mrs. Maloney went to Tampa, Florida, for six weeks every year, and Emma took care of her fat, cranky, one-eyed cat, ridiculously named Sweetness. Which meant she had a key to Mrs. Maloney’s place. And Mrs. Maloney had just left last week. That gave them plenty of