Poisoned Garden

by Tracy Korn

  But I wasn't running.

  Chapter 21

  I darted through the closing door just in time. The only thing I could think to do was run to my dorm and lock the door behind me. Maybe I'd even wedge a chair under the handle so Alita couldn't get in. I reached for the key in my pocket, and immediately face-planted in the grass. I rolled over and over for several seconds until I finally stopped and tried to get to my feet, only I was already upright, and already on my feet. Everything in my head was on a weird five-second delay.

  "Halsey!"

  "Halsey, wait!"

  I heard a few different voices call my name. And then I heard their footfalls over the grass as they began running in my direction.

  I didn't think beyond getting away from them, so again, I ran as fast as I could.

  And again, I wasn't running. I was flying.

  It only lasted a handful of seconds before I crashed into the ground again, but I'd somehow managed to make my way over the orchard trees. I was expecting a hill past the orchard, but instead I found the beach. I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, or maybe it was a different orchard?

  Take a deep breath… I remembered Leo saying. You can't fight a tidal wave.

  "The seawater!" I said out loud, and although the words sounded strangled, at least they were words instead of the screech. I took another deep breath, but the fear of being discovered in whatever half-state I realized I must be in was terrifying. No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't calm down long enough even to try to reverse the sensation of my skin being set on fire. I couldn't retract the feathers I saw in place of my fingers, and I couldn't stop the blood-freezing horror I felt at the sight of something new—a bony ridge had developed all the way up my arms, and dark gold feathers began creeping over my shoulders like they were trying to close the gap with the partial wings on my back.

  I had to get to the water. It had stopped my skin from burning after I'd eaten the hurricane berries. It has stopped the shift altogether and reversed it.

  "Halsey! Stop!" Leo shouted behind me, but I was only a few yards from the water. "Halsey! It's not the same water!" he shouted again, but it was too late. The surf washed over my feet, but instead of it alleviating the burning feeling like it had before, it made it worse. Ten-thousand times worse.

  I screamed, a mangled half-screech sound, and stumbled backward. As I scrambled back from the water, I turned to see Leo lowering himself to the beach. His arms just seemed to pull out of the black, armored wings that were kicking up sand and debris as he touched down. They disappeared the second he landed, and the final whoosh of air blew what was left of my shirt in every direction. I looked down and wrapped my deformed arms around myself upon realizing the buttons of my shirt had all been torn off and the sleeves had split all the way up each side.

  "You found her!" Rhea said, but when I looked up, it wasn't Rhea I saw. At least, not completely.

  Her long, blonde hair started to reappear over the armored gold scales that had just been covering her head, throat and torso. They caught and reflected the last of the setting sun in the same moment her red and gold shimmering wings also began disappearing behind her. But before they were gone, I could see they were feathered like mine. She stood there bare chested and completely unfazed by it as she pulled a wadded tank top from the pocket of her skort and slipped it over her head. "Is she all right?" she asked as Leo scooped me up and carried me back from the surf toward her.

  "I think so. She just got caught mid-shift."

  "Oh no, her legs…" Rhea said blowing out a breath. I couldn't see what she was talking about, but at the mention, the searing pain ran through me all over again.

  "Go to the admin house and bring the water," Leo said, and before he could finish the sentence, Rhea was already taking off her tank top and shoving it in her pocket again. I watched in fascination as her skin hardened into the shimmering golden scales it had been a minute ago, her hair disappearing in the same interval her beautiful red and gold wings appeared. In an instant, she shot over the trees and out of sight. She was the most stunning thing I'd ever seen, except for Leo's black dragon—but I'd only seen parts of that through the trees.

  I was suddenly very much aware of the gnarled, monstrous appearance of my arms, and I was paralyzed with fear for what my face must look like because my nose and mouth tingled, and I could breathe like I never had before. Each inhale felt like five, and the surge of energy after each one was almost too much to bear.

  "Don't…look at me," I said, my voice hoarse and strained as it tore from my throat.

  "Stop, Halsey…" he said, pulling me against him as he kneeled beside me and buried his face in my hair. He kissed the top of my head, lingering there as heat radiated from him, and with everything feeling like it was already on fire, I pulled away before I changed even more.

  I looked down at my legs for the first time, and saw that my feet, ankles, and halfway up to my knees were covered in burns. How could that have been just from the seawater? At the sight, the intermittent feathers over my thighs and shins started to recede, and the tingling in my lips and face stopped. I held out my hands, which were also no longer covered in feathers, so I immediately brought them to my face to make sure everything was the same.

  No beak…no feathers except for what felt like a few near my temples, but even those were receding.

  "What's happening to me?" I said, my voice breaking on the last word.

  "The shift recedes if you're hurt so it can heal you from the inside," Leo said. "It channels it's energy to repair your injuries."

  "What?" I asked, breathlessly watching the grotesque ridges in my arms get smaller until they disappeared entirely. I gripped my elbows, pressed my fingers into the joints to feel for the bones that were just there, under my skin. They were gone, and so were the burns on my legs, feet, and ankles.

  A sudden gust of wind came off the ocean, blowing the shreds of my shirt back, and my bra was gone! I pulled down the pieces of my shirt and crossed my arms over them, all at once feeling my center of gravity shifting again like that night with the hurricane berries.

  I stumbled backward and fell, the weight of my wings too much to stay upright.

  "It's OK, Rhea will be here with the water soon. You can put my shirt on then." He smiled. "Don't worry, it's clean. Dragons are obsessive about hygiene."

  A laugh bubbled in my chest. "How…?" was all I managed to say before the threat of tears closed off my throat again. My sandals were gone, and in an effort to regain my composure, I tried to occupy my mind with pinpointing when I must have lost them. Oh, and when my bra had disappeared. I would be instantaneously struck dead of embarrassment if it were hanging off the dessert bay in the dining hall right now.

  "Your wings just shot out pretty fast, and they're sharp at first…" Leo said, running a hand between the tatters of my sleeve. "The first time I shredded a shirt to ribbons, I had no idea how it happened either." He went on, and I looked at him, amazed again at his insight as to what to say to me right now. He pulled in a long, easy breath. "But…you don't have to be embarrassed, I mean, if you are. I was just going by the way you're clinging to the scraps of your shirt like that." He nodded to what was left of it. When I risked a glance at him, he was smiling, and his eyes warm and kind. He raised his brows and nodded. "Hey, Sylphs and Salamanders walk around the island topless all the time. Nobody cares. The only reason it's not happening now is because it's honing week. New Bloods have enough to stress about without adding public nudity to the picture."

  At this, I did laugh, and after a deep breath, I felt like I might be able to say more than one word at a time without bursting into tears.

  "Why won't my wings turn back like everything else?" I managed, glancing at the lower half of them reaching several feet into the sand. "And what's wrong with them?"

  "They're just stuck. You started to shift, but…just got caught in the tidal wave." He winked. "You don't lose your arms to them until you completely shift. It starte
d to happen here," he added, moving his hand over my bared shoulder.

  "Then those bone ridges…" I shook my head, barely able to bring back the image without shuddering.

  He nodded. "It's the bridge of your wing—kind of like a frame, or a rudder. It's how you move them up there." Leo looked to the sky, then back to me. "But you can have both arms and wings if you know how to stop your shift." His dark eyes shadowed, and a few seconds later, his wings slowly emerged again, first the bridging bone he'd just mentioned, but this one stopped at his shoulder. Then, the smaller network of bones branched out behind him until it looked like a matrix of webs.

  "Oh my god," I gasped, watching the velvet black skin appear at each joint, then spread over the expanse of interlaced bones until finally, the armored, black-mirror plates appeared over the jointed area like vented shields, which expanded until all the small bones were covered too. The last pieces to form were the serrated edges, long and elegant like feathers, but visibly sharp on both sides.

  "See? You're normal…for being abnormal." Leo slowly moved his hand to my face, tracing his thumb over my cheekbone.

  He leaned in slowly and pressed his lips to mine, transforming the prickling stabs of heat I'd been feeling into a warmth that flooded my whole body. The campfire smell of him filled my lungs as his other hand moved through my hair, and I couldn't get close enough to him.

  "Really?" Rhea's voice was a rock through my small window of calm, and instantly, the little stabs of heat returned over every square inch of my skin. The ridges also appeared in my arms and shoulders again, and pain rushed through me.

  "No…no, no!" I stuttered, trying to press the ridge back into my skin, but it didn't work. I scrambled to my feet, but the wings were too heavy, and I fell backward into the sand again. I clutched at my shirt as everything started going black just like in the dining hall.

  "Halsey! Halsey, take a breath!"

  "Move, Leo!" Rhea shouted.

  A second later, I felt the cool water on my skin and the sense of relief was so strong that tears burned my eyes again. Rhea was behind me in an instant gripping the back of my hair.

  "Hey! Stop!"

  "Leo, I will neuter you—shut-up and stay back! Halsey, open your mouth!" she yelled, but it wasn't until she jerked my hair that I really heard her. "Open your mouth, Halsey! You have to drink this!" I did as she said, and she tipped the bottle to my lips. I swallowed giant gulps of the water, choking on the last one. But the burning everywhere was instantly gone, and I felt like a hundred pounds had been lifted off my chest and back. "There, you're fine now. Take shallow breaths," Rhea added, letting me go. She straightened and rounded on Leo. "And you… Don't even look at me like that. Did you think you were going to kiss her broken shift all better?"

  Leo snapped his wings out, creating a shadow over us all. "Why do you have to be such a bitch, Rhea?"

  "This bitch just saved her ass, you dickwhistle. She doesn't know shit about shit yet and you're all over her. Just do your job!" She launched the glass bottle of seawater at him. It thudded as he caught it against his chest before she turned to run up the beach. She pulled her shirt off, and in seconds, her brilliant wings exploded to either side of her. They caught the next gust of wind that hit us and carried her halfway to the cliff in the distance before she even had to begin flapping them.

  Leo turned his back to me and yelled after her, his wings fully extended as a stream of fire shot several hundred feet down the beach, and a roll of thunder filled the red, darkening sky.

  Chapter 22

  Leo flew me back to my dorm in what seemed like only seconds so I could change out of my tattered shirt. He said it would probably be better if I didn't show up on the cliff wearing his after all, and I knew this had everything to do with Rhea.

  He also opted to wait outside so nobody passing by would see him coming out of my dorm room, especially after Alita's idiotic and untrue declaration in the dining hall that we were sleeping together. And speaking of her, I hoped she wouldn't be inside when Leo and I landed in front of the white-brick dorm house because I did not want to see her face yet.

  I fished my key out of my skort pocket—silently thanking the inventor of zippers for it still being there after the frenzy that caused me to somehow even lose my bra—then I occupied my mind with thoughts of putting the key on a chain as I went inside to dig out the spandex racerback tank-top I knew I'd packed.

  I also took off my stupid skort and put on a pair of black leggings that had a zippered pocket on the side. I dropped my key into that and again, thanked the zipper guy. After a little digging in my bag, I found a pair of socks and my boots, but the passing glance I caught of myself in the mirror stopped me in my tracks.

  I took a long, hard look at the apocalypse that was the state of my hair—four shades of long, purple bangs blown in every direction. It was even purple where it was nearly shaved around the back and sides, so it was now apparently growing straight out of my head this color. I ran my fingers through the top a few times and straightened it out enough that the zig-zagging layers looked intentional and edgy. But reality seemed to slip a little as I watched my hands move through hair that wasn't my hair. Or, so it seemed.

  Maybe this wasn't me. Maybe I wasn't here, I thought.

  I stared into the mirror for several more seconds seriously considering the possibility that I was actually in a Red-Fever induced coma. Maybe I'd been dreaming everything that had happened since I found out I didn't get into the Citadel? Maybe I'd just had a psychotic break because of it?

  I mean, it would explain why there didn't seem to be any way off this island. Why was no one talking about that? No one had even said a word about going home for breaks. Did we even have any breaks at this school?

  It would also explain why there was no way for me to queue anyone from home. I could only talk to the people here on this island.

  "Wake up," I said with one hundred percent certainty it would work, and I'd find myself in a hospital bed or something. "Wake the hell up right now, Halsey."

  Nothing. Not a single thing happened other than my edgy unicorn hair falling into my eyes, and I pushed it back in frustration.

  I heaved a long, pained sigh and suddenly remembered something from psychology class. If this really were a dream world, the facts would only be facts if I said they were, right? So, if I'd blocked out the real world because it was too hard to know I didn't get into The Citadel, I was here in this fantasy world because I thought I could control it.

  All right. Then it was time to start trying.

  ***

  Leo had put his white shirt back on and was standing with his hands in his pockets, the bottle of shift-neutralizing water under his arm. His black hair was blowing off his shoulders like some kind of brooding vampire from a gothic novel, and the air was starting to feel heavy with the pending rain.

  "Wow," he said, apparently surprised at my outfit change. "I was expecting just another white shirt."

  "The last one didn't hold up too well," I said, pushing away the constructed humiliation I'd let myself fall into before. If this were a dream, I reminded myself, I wasn't going to choose to feel embarrassed in front of him.

  "Well, not that I'm advocating for the white shirt over your current selection, but we have a little insurance now at least," Leo said, holding up the bottle of seawater.

  I smiled at him. "Sorry about all that by the way," I said, walking confidently toward him. "It all happened so fast, and I couldn't stop it."

  "Halsey…" he laughed. "You don't have to apologize about any of that. I'm the one who should apologize to you."

  I darted a glance at him and huffed out a breath in disbelief. "For what? You just helped me."

  Leo shook his head and lowered his eyes. "Rhea was right. You wouldn't have needed any help like that in the first place if it hadn't been for me. Alita wouldn't have had anything to yell about in the dining hall."

  "If anyone is to blame for that, it's Rhea," I said, anger sparking in
my chest again. "Alita hadn't thought anything until Rhea started taking jabs at us."

  He raised his chin in the direction of the setting sun and let out a long, slow breath.

  "That's actually true, but even so, it's still my fault." He shook his head and studied the ground again. "On the beach back there... I didn't plan it like that, you know? It wasn't the right time. You just got here and have enough to adjust to without me complicating it all even more."

  I let the anger fall away. If this were a dream reality, it was tricky, and I needed to be careful not to let myself get caught up in its machinations again. I needed to act, not react.

  I looked over at him as we walked. "You know what, out of all the things I wish I could erase from reality today, nothing you did is on that list." The corner of his mouth turned up, but he still watched the ground as we made our way to the cliff to meet the others. I had an idea. "We can start over if you want," I said. A curious smile spread over his face as I held out my hand to him. "Hi, I'm Halsey Rhodes. What's your name?"

  He took my hand, laughing a little at first, but then he shook it gently. "Leo Red-Cloud. Really nice to meet you, Halsey."

  "Is that a Native American name?" I asked. He nodded slowly, smiling at my sudden interest. "I read somewhere that in some tribes, mothers named their babies after the first thing they saw when the baby was born. Is that true?"

  Leo took a deep, thoughtful breath. "I've heard that too, but it's more common to be given a name after your personality starts showing," he explained, but then seemed suddenly impatient. "Anyway, we have lots of names—some we earn over time, some we inherit, and some we never say."

  I knew he'd put it that way to sum up his answer, but all it did was make me have more questions. "So, given those three options, did you earn Red-Cloud or inherit it?"

  "Both," he finally said just as we reached the cliff where Rhea, Alec, Bryce, and Alita all turned their eyes to meet us.