“Sure.” Patty grimaced. “I need tampons.”
“Ugh,” Jenny said. “Me, too.”
We left the drug store.
“Do we hold up our bags and a wyleen grabs them?” I asked. The ones slithering above us appeared overloaded already.
“No, silly,” Patty said. “We ring the bell.”
“How?” Jenny asked, glancing around. “I don’t see one anywhere.”
“Pull elemental magic and think, bell.” Patty said.
Simple. One wish, and something dropped from the ceiling and clunked into my head. Had to say, I was getting tired of things falling on me as I negotiated my way through this magical world.
Patty clapped her hand over her mouth but it didn’t stifle her laughter, and Jenny’s eyes gleamed. I snickered, too, because it was funny.
“Ring it,” Patty said.
I reached out—
“How pedestrian,” someone said from behind me.
Didn’t need to turn.
“Anything else to add, Alys?” I shot her full-on scorn. “Or did you only drop by to sneer?”
“Ring it with your mind,” she said in a slow, exhausted voice. “Jeez.”
“How would I know that?” I focused on the bell hanging nearby. Ring, and a tinkle shimmered through the air.
Magically appearing, a wyleen dropped down in front of me, its beady black eyes narrowed on my face.
“Drop your bag over its head,” Patty said.
“Thanks,” I said as the wyleen dipped forward and then shimmied the bag down its neck. My purchases settled in the middle of the creature, sagging its golden belly, creating a small U. I leaned closer to Patty. “Do we tip them?”
“Why would we do that?” Alys asked. “It’s their job.”
“Because it’s nice?”
She huffed.
“It’s nice of you, but you don’t need to,” Patty said. “They’re paid well.”
As our bag-loaded wyleens swished and swirled back to the ceiling, joining the others, we strolled through the mall, stopping for ice cream cones. Alys and Moira, unfortunately, stuck with us.
“Where’s Donovan?” Alys asked after we’d sat at a table outside the ice cream shop to eat.
Jenny had dug her spoon into her chocolate sundae but held the bite mid-flight, her mouth open as if frozen. Her gaze remained pinned beyond me before her eyes cleared. She dropped her spoon and put her hand over her belly. “Don’t feel good.”
Turning, I peered in the direction she’d been looking just in time to see Ashton duck into a clothing store. What was he up to, now?
As a prefect, was he trained to create wards? I’d have to ask Cloven.
“Fleur?” Alys snarled.
“What?”
“Where’s Donovan?”
“With his brother.” Lately, where else would he be?
Jenny stood. “I’m going to run over there…” She pointed to the clothing store. “Ashton said…” Definitely weird. Jenny shook her head as if her brains needed a reset. “I just remembered I need to buy some…socks. Yes. Socks.”
“Want us to wait for you here?” Patty asked. She took a big bite of her strawberry frozen fruit bar.
“Um…” Jenny shot over her shoulder. “You don’t need to. I’ll catch up.”
“Thought we weren’t supposed to go off alone?” I said.
Patty shrugged. “I guess it’s okay. Seems like a silly rule, anyway. Kids from the Academy are everywhere.”
“Back to Donovan,” Alys said. “I had dinner with him and his brother last night. The king—Niles—is so nice, isn’t he? A mix of sweet and lordly. But you’d know that. I’m sure you’ve had dinner with them yourself.”
A pinch settled in my chest, but I had no reason to be jealous.
I pressed my back against my chair and contemplated getting up and dumping my cookie dough cone because my belly was rumbling again. “Nope. I haven’t.”
Patty glared at Alys, who completely ignored the imaginary daggers shooting her way.
“But…” Alys’s eyes widened. “Wouldn’t you be the first to be invited? You’re Donovan’s girlfriend, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” I lifted my chin, hating that stupid comments like this from Alys could feed my insecurity.
“Then why…Oh, yes!” Alys said. “That assassination attempt messed things up for you, didn’t it?”
I blinked fast, unable to say a damn thing. I trusted Donovan, but I did worry about Niles. How far would his brother go to keep us apart?
Moira frowned. She popped the last bit of her cone into her mouth and chewed. “I swear. I only let her off the leash for a second.” Her elbow gouged Alys’s side, making the blonde release an ooph. “Leave it to you to take the opportunity to bite.”
“Moira,” Alys ground out.
“Alys,” Moira mimicked. “You’re being mean. Again. Didn’t you say you wanted to go to the salon for a cut?”
“Yes.”
“Then why are we hanging out here?” Her gaze softened as it swept across me and Patty. “Nothing personal.”
Mostly. Moira might try to keep Alys in line but she wasn’t part of the outling fan club, either.
“Good point.” Alys stood. “Unlike some of us, I prefer to have my hair done by a professional.”
“Personally…” I ran my fingers through my hair—light blue today. “I love what Medusa does with mine.” Plus, Medusa was sweet, despite the snakes writhing on her head, which she couldn’t do anything about. I’d never want to hurt her feelings.
“You do know she could turn you into stone,” Alys said.
I took another lick of my cone that tasted better already, now that Alys was leaving. “Why would she do that? We’re friends.”
“She was friends with Perseus, too, and look what happened to him.”
“Let’s go.” Moira tugged on Alys’s arm. “We don’t have much time, just forty-five minutes until we have to meet at the Hub.”
We stared after them. Good riddance.
“Should we go find Jenny?” I asked, standing. I could polish off the rest of my cone as we walked.
“Sure.”
But when we entered the store, she was nowhere to be found. Ashton wasn’t, either.
“Huh,” Patty said. “She must’ve gone somewhere else.”
Another prickle between my shoulder blades sent me spinning around. Eben stood near the entrance, sifting through a bunch of shirts on a spiral rack. He didn’t look up.
And I shouldn’t feel weirded out to find him here. We were bound to run into each other sometime.
“Where can I buy a concealer?” I asked, eager to leave the store and Eben behind, though I wasn’t sure why. I had no reason to fear him. “Any idea where I could find one?”
“Yours broken?” Patty’s gaze skimmed my hair. Ester had given me a concealer. When I twisted the stone, my hair changed colors. “We could send it out to be repaired. Better than going to…” A shudder rippled through her. “Her.”
“I need a new one. One that’ll do something different. Something that’ll sweeten someone up.”
“Don’t even bother with Alys. She’s stuck in a mean girl rut. Is it for the king, then? That guy needs a ton of sweetening.”
“Something like that.”
Patty linked her arm through mine as we walked. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed how Alys’s comments about D made you sad.”
“He’s just…busy with his brother.”
She leaned her head on my shoulder. “I promise. It’ll get better.”
“Can’t wait.”
“This is just a little break. That’s good for relationships.” Unlinking her arm from mine, she walked beside me. “Things aren’t always perfect for me and Bryce.”
Her words came out casual but the tight lines on her face suggested otherwise. “You two having problems?”
“At the moment, no. Yesterday? I wanted to smack him. That slake thing…”
My feet
ground to a halt, and someone behind me swore before darting around us.
Ashton. “Maybe don’t turn into a pillar, huh? People are walking, in case you didn’t realize.”
When I scowled, he stomped away.
Jenny was not with him.
Patty laid her hand on my arm. “About D. Hang in there.”
Did her advice come from something she’d seen in my future? “What do you see?”
“For you and D?” She stared past me, toward the end of the hall. “It’s confusing.”
“It might make sense to me.” Please don’t tell me he’d choose Niles.
“I’m not sure what I see applies to Donovan. I think it mostly relates to you.”
“And?” Did I truly want to know? Like with Stone Selection, I had a choice. I could let her speak and live with a future I couldn’t change. Or I could let fate guide me.
“It’s just one thought, spinning through my mind, over and over.”
I held up my hand. “Maybe I don’t—”
“You need to start carrying a vial of dandybucklion anti-venom.”
“Talk about mysterious. Why dandybucklion anti-venom?”
“Like I said, I can’t see anything else.”
Not very helpful. How could that have anything to do with Donovan? I shrugged it off to think about later.
“So, you sure about wanting a concealer? There is a place….” Patty cringed.
I frowned. “What’s up?”
“It’s just that Katya…”
“Katya?”
As if she’d come to a decision, Patty’s face cleared. “It’s daytime. Nothing can happen, right?”
We were at the mall. “What are you talking about? Who’s Katya?”
“You’ll see. Come on.”
At the end of the hall, we were met with a steel door.
No Admittance Without Prior Approval.
“Did we go in the wrong direction?” I asked, glancing around. None of the nearby stores looked like they offered magical devices.
“Sadly, no.” She screwed up her face then nodded. “Okay. We’re in.”
“In where?”
She pulled open the door and we were blasted with hot air. Little white bugs scurried over my sneakers as if eager to escape…whatever waited for us at the bottom of the set of dark, gloomy stairs.
Chapter 22
Katya’s Kuriosities
“Shouldn’t that be spelled with a C?” I asked. I stared at the large red sign painted with white and black lettering hanging above an ancient wooden door. Bugs—real or created—crawled around the letters. I shuddered.
“Her name’s Katya,” Patty said with a frown. “Why would she spell it with a C?”
“I meant Kuriosities.”
Her lips thinned to a slice. “You can ask her. Or maybe not. She’s a Bespeller, and they’re rarer than, well…just be careful. We need to get in, order your concealer, and get out. Fast.” Taking a deep breath, she waved for me to go inside. “After you.”
Sure. Let me fall into the pit of doom waiting inside. What was I getting myself into?
I swallowed the spit clogging the back of my throat. “Any other place we can buy a concealer?” Some place less…daunting? Concealers were devices that magically changed things. Ester had given me one that let me switch my hair color by twisting the stone.
“Katya is the only one who makes them. That and other bone-bled magic devices.”
Bone-bled? I didn’t want to ask.
Like a rabbit frozen in place as a pack of coyotes descended, Patty’s eyes widened. She stared beyond my shoulder. “Katya’s…”
“Creepy, Patty. Tell me what you mean.” This was just a store. Magical, but so were many of the others upstairs. Why was this one any different?
After rubbing her face, she said, “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
Sure.
“Ah. First Years,” A scratchy, elderly voice said when we stepped inside. She crept forward on—I held in my yelp—eight gray-haired legs. She was a freakin’ spider!
Gulping, I backed away but was snagged by something that sent me whirling around. I shrieked and clawed at cobwebs clinging to my hair, my back, and my face.
“Now, now. Leave that alone. What is it with you First Years? Always getting snagged in my web. You’ll disturb my children.”
There were more spiders around? Spiders’ egg sacks could hold thousands of babies… My skin crawled, and I wanted to smack my arms then clutch my hair and run from this place, shrieking. But I needed that concealer.
Katya crept forward and delicately plucked at the mesh, freeing me from its sticky embrace.
I stumbled over to stand with Patty. Wanted to crawl into her arms and hide, actually.
“Maybe take care next time, love?” Katya said with a chuckle edged with the sting of a wasp. “Who knows what my kids will do if they find you snagged and unable to break free?”
I inched toward the door but Katya scrambled forward and grabbed my arm with a pincer. Tight enough to sting but not enough to break the skin. I hoped. “Not leaving so soon, are you?” She tugged me past floor-to-ceiling cases containing skulls and tall silver vials, until we reached the center of the large room. My knees quaked and my skin prickled with goosebumps, and I was eternally grateful when she released me.
Katya reared back, her head nearly hitting the ceiling. “I’m afraid my days of selling chairs that fart and food that stands up and walks off your plate are over, lovies.”
Patty bowed deeply. “We apologize, your highness.”
I flicked my gaze between Patty and the spider.
Patty elbowed my side. “Fleur!”
“What?” Oh. I also bowed. Never offend a horse-sized spider. Especially one with fangs as long as my forearm.
“You may rise.” Katya held out one of her pincers adorned with a ring set with a sparkling black, faceted stone that sucked me down, down…
Patty elbowed me again. “Watch out!” She scowled at Katya. “Don’t. I mean it. Behave or I’ll ping Pandia. You won’t enjoy that.”
Katya’s black eyebrows dueled on her brow, forming one thick, scrunched up line.
Patty kissed the spider’s “hand” and, swallowing back the sour taste in my mouth, I did the same. When my lips met her furry forearm, a vibration shot from my lips to my toes.
I gasped and reeled backward.
“Oh!” Katya clutched a pincer to her chest. “You!” She leaned closer, squinting through big black eyes that reflected the cave-like room back at me. “Or maybe not. Although, it could be you.”
“What do you mean?” I did my own hand clenching to my chest thing. As if I stood on the edge of a cliff peering down, I watched her expression, though I felt unable to see because of a deep, murky fog.
“This is Fleur,” Patty said. “Fleur, this is her highness, Lady Katya. She’s the dowager mother of the arachnoid king. And the only sorceress capable of crafting bone-bled devices.”
“Nice to meet you.” Patty was right. We needed to order my concealer and get out of here fast.
“Which of the original six are you descended from?” Katya asked, her inky gaze stuttering across my face as if seeking clues. “Wait. Let me guess.” Scurrying closer, she pressed her pincer against my forehead and, eyes closing, she released a grating buzz. Her lids lifted, and the craftiness in her expression made my knees weaken. What had she seen? “Oh. Intriguing. You’re an outling. But…”
Call me intrigued. Despite my fear, I inched forward, eager to hear what she’d seen. “But what?”
She shook her head and bits of webbing spurted around her. Patty and I dove to the sides to avoid being snagged. “I can’t quite put my pedipalp on it.”
Ever since the ball, I’d been curious about my identity. About my dad, actually, a man I’d never met. Mom had refused to talk about him. I’d only brought him up once, and she’d shouted I needed to let it go; forget he ever existed. She wouldn’t even tell me his name.<
br />
Then she’d locked herself in her room and sobbed.
“You keepin’ secrets?” Patty asked me, inching closer. She plucked a strand of web off my shoulder and tossed it aside, quailing.
“Not that I’m aware of.” My fingers were drawn to my dragonfly pendant.
“Ah,” Katya said, her gaze following my movement. “I haven’t seen one of those in years. Not since…Well, it’s not for me to say.” She pivoted, her pointy feet clicking on the floor. “I don’t want to keep you, lovies. Please let me know if there’s anything you need.”
“I’m looking for a crystal ball,” Patty called out, and Katya turned.
“You hoping to enhance your divination skapti?” I asked.
“Nope.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Thought it would come in handy with my future dating business.”
Katya pointed to a wall hosting a glass-fronted case filled with colorful, sparkling balls. “Over there, love.” She crept closer and loomed over me, making me stumble backward. “How about you, Fleur. What do you need?”
“Um…”
“Oh, I see.” Latching onto my arm, she dragged me across the room, weaving us past tables overflowing with wands and cauldrons and daggers and candles. All the clichéd stuff I’d associated with witches and wizards when I was a kid. We passed big bins filled with pungent spices and savory herbs, the mixed scents lingering in the air and making me sneeze.
“I’m looking for a concealer,” I said.
“Yes, you are. I have a variety of them available. What particular kind do you have in mind? Something to make a boy…”
“I don’t want to make a boy do anything.”
“Unusual and, perhaps, too quick an answer?”
What was she talking about? She didn’t know anything about me and Donovan. Niles would go away. He wouldn’t force Donovan to choose. Things would return to what they used to be between us soon.
Why did I feel uneasy, then?
We passed big glass cases filled with chalices, gold-plated bones, and rings imprinted with symbols I’d never seen before.
When we reached the back of the room, she released me and scooted around a glass-topped counter.
I explained what I needed.
Crystal Wing Academy- The Complete Series Page 39
