by J. A. Curtis
I threw my backpack in Brawny Girl’s face and charged to the right, driving myself like a wedge between Chels’s two cronies. My right elbow slammed into one girl’s jaw, crushing her against the lockers. The other girl, I shoved with my left arm as hard as I could, sending her tumbling backward over the locker-room bench. I sprang forward, my eyes on the locker-room door. But the wiry girls were fast. They had probably been waiting for me to run.
A weird shifting sensation I had grown accustomed to trusting came over me—my ability reminding me of skills I had possessed in a past life. A hand clamped down on my shoulder. I reached back, grabbed the girl’s arm, and bent over, flipping her over me and onto her back. I drove my heel into her stomach to keep her down. The other girl slid an arm across my throat from behind. I placed my feet on the edge of the locker-room bench and shoved with all my might, sending the girl careening into the lockers. I threw my head back at the same time. There was a crunching noise, and the girl gasped. She released me, and I scrambled out of her reach, sprinting for the door. Brawny Girl wouldn’t be far behind.
I burst out the door into the sunlight. A hand caught my arm, arresting my escape. “Where are you going, little girl?”
I spun and rammed the heel of my hand into the nose of whoever grabbed me. The hand dropped, and I heard a loud curse. I looked down, took in the jersey and the meaty arms of the kid now bent in half. The jersey said it all. He was on the football team. When he looked up, blood poured from his nose, and he glared at me.
“Get her,” he said.
Eight bulky kids circled me. Seriously? She had sent the freaking football team after me, too?
“Not very brave,” I taunted. “A bunch of big, strong guys ganging up on a girl.”
“Don’t listen to her.” Brawny Girl had caught up. “She’s not as helpless as she looks.”
“Helpleth or not, getting you out of duh way will put me back in her good gratheth,” the guy with the busted nose said. “Maybe she’ll even ditch duh guy she jutht dumped me for.”
His eyes held a cool indifference.
A foot kicked me in the back of the legs, and I pitched forward onto the ground. The eight kids drew a tight circle. Their leader looked on, still nursing his nose. One guy drew back his foot and aimed at my face. I curled into a ball, my arms up to shield myself.
The boy’s foot came forward, but he missed. His body seemed to bend grotesquely backward, then he landed on the ground with a thud. I parted my arms to get a better look. Arius stood over him, his fist connected with the kid’s face several times before another boy launched onto Arius’s back. Arius sent his elbow into that kid’s face, hitting him hard in the right eye. The kid stumbled back, dazed. Another guy charged forward, but Arius caught him by the arm, twisting it behind him until it dislocated. This one cried out, and Arius thrust him away in disgust. The rest of the football buddies attacked Arius at the same time. He disappeared beneath a dog-pile of bodies.
I jumped to my feet and grabbed a boy off the pile, dropping him with a fist to the throat and a knee to the groin. I went for another one, but a hand closed, tangled in my hair, and jerked me back so hard I fell to my knees.
Pain shot up my neck, and I twisted to see who had ahold of me. I met the scowling face of Brawny Girl. She hadn’t joined the dog-pile, and in my attempt to aid Arius, I had forgotten she was there.
She slammed a knee into my stomach, knocking the air from my body. I gasped for breath as she dragged me by the hair away from the dog-pile.
As easily as a tennis racket, she swung me into a large stone column between the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms. Pain sliced through my head and for a beat, I couldn’t see anything. My body crumpled.
Red was the first color I saw when my vision returned. A piercing pain throbbed in my temple. I reached up and wiped blood from my eyes, clearing my vision enough to see Brawny Girl standing over me. One fist grabbed my shirt, lifting my limp body while the other cocked back to pound me in the face. Part of me felt like laughing. Did she think she could cause me more pain?
“What’s going on over here?” a voice said. “Break it up!”
“It’s the vice principal!” someone shouted.
Brawny Girl dropped me into the dirt and took off.
“Come back here, you degenerates!” the vice principal shouted.
I heard more scrambling and feet grinding in dirt, running away. Slowly, excruciatingly, I turned my head. The dog-pile had disappeared. No one remained except for Arius and a guy Arius had about the chest.
They lay on the ground, Arius under the kid. I could tell from the bloodiness of the boy’s face, that Arius had used him as a shield from the other boys’ blows. The boy moaned, barely conscious. Arius heaved the boy off him, dumping him to the ground.
I expected the vice principal to come into view any second, demanding answers, demanding to know who we were. What would he do when he found out we didn’t have any parents to call or to come pick us up? Probably call the police.
Wolpertinger landed on the ground next to me. “Did you see what I did? Pretty convincing, wasn’t I? Did you see how fast they scattered?”
“What are you talking about? What are you doing here?” Arius asked. He came to my side and knelt next to me. He hadn’t escaped the fight unscathed. A large bruise began to bloom under his right eye, and his lip was split and bleeding. Dirt covered his clothes.
“You told me to keep a lookout,” Wolpertinger said, standing up a little straighter. “I’ve been hanging out here at the school during the day. Humans are so fascinating. I’ve also been working on a few impersonations. Yesterday, I saw a man breaking up a fight. He said, ‘Hey! What’s going on over here! Break it up!’”
Wolpertinger’s impersonation matched the VP’s voice exactly.
“The degenerates part I added on my own, but I think it was a nice touch,” Wolpertinger said.
“You saved the day,” I croaked.
“I know! I’m so amazing!” He paused, peering at me. “Hey, Mina, you don’t look so good.”
Arius touched my forehead, and I cried out. He went and grabbed his backpack, pulling a clean shirt out, then wrapped it around my head and tied it. I hated the pressure and wanted to tear it off, but I knew Arius was trying to stop the bleeding. So I tried to endure the agony.
“We need to move,” Arius said. He looked at Wolpertinger. “Do you know what Kris looks like?”
“The girl who drove you to school yesterday?” Wolpertinger asked.
He nodded. “Go get Kris, tell her to pick us up outside the school.”
“Got it,” Wolpertinger said.
“And good job, Wolpertinger,” Arius said.
Wolpertinger’s feathers puffed, and he took flight.
“Put your arms around my neck,” Arius said to me.
He slid his hands under and around me and lifted. My head spun and ached, and I put my arms around his neck to make sure I wasn’t about to topple out of his arms. I couldn’t hold my head up. I laid it on his shoulder. If I wasn’t in so much pain, I’d probably enjoy being wrapped up in his arms.
I glanced over at the kid Arius had used as a human shield. He still lay on the ground. For a minute I worried he would remember and tell someone about Wolpertinger, but then I decided he was too out of it to even notice.
“What about him?” I muttered to Arius.
Arius didn’t glance at the kid as he carried me past. “What about him?”
“He might be seriously injured,” I said.
“Then he won’t be violently assaulting other people.”
I could tell from his tone that he didn’t care what happened to the kid.
“He’s not like us, Arius,” I said. “He doesn’t get another chance at life. This one is all he has.”
We rounded the side of the school, and I lost sight of the kid. We passed a girl sitting on a bench outside the gym, waiting for her ride. She looked at us in surprise, but her expression changed to horror as she took in my bloodied
face.
Arius paused. “There is a kid back there who might need some help. You might want to call somebody,” he said to the girl. Then he shrugged. “Or don’t, your choice.” With that, he continued on his way.
“Thank you,” I said.
Arius grunted.
We met a freaked-out Kris, a little ways outside the school. She was shouting something about a talking rabbit, but when she saw me, her tirade ended.
Throwing her door wide, she circled the car, pulling some old raggedy towels out of her trunk and spreading them across the seat before she opened the door so Arius could load me inside. Arius got in on the other side, lifting my head so it lay in his lap.
Kris got back into the car and pulled out onto the road. “I’ll drive to the hospital.”
Arius’s head jerked up. “No hospitals.”
“What do you mean, no hospitals? Look at her. This is an emergency.”
But Arius was adamant. “No human doctors. No hospitals.”
“I will not let Mina bleed and die on the back seat of my car all because you are too afraid—”
“She won’t die. She’s a faerie.”
There was a moment of tense silence. Despite my pounding head, I held my breath. Even though she was helping us, Kris had refused to talk about anything that concerned faeries.
She dove into the argument. “I’m sorry, I don’t know faerie biology—”
“No. You don’t,” Arius interrupted quietly, “or our history. Faeries are creatures of magic. It’s in our blood.” He touched my face, his fingers gentle. “Humans aren’t magic. But they can access it through a faerie’s blood. In the past, they hunted us, captured us, drained us of our blood. They would bottle it, store it, use it in potions for their own selfish purposes.”
The car had gone silent. I stared up at Arius with wide eyes.
“But faeries can’t die by simple blood loss,” he continued. His fingers stroked across my skin, and they came away coated in red. “All they had to do was keep us too weak to fight back, and they had a never-ending supply of faerie blood. And magic. Magic they used to fight us and all magical creatures. Magic they would use to destroy us.”
Kris’s voice trembled as she spoke. “You can’t expect me to believe—”
“How sure are you of that story?” I asked.
He looked away. “That one was actually told me by the domovye.”
“What? Domo...” Kris paused again, her frustration coming through. “Even if that was true,” she said with forced calmness, “which I’m not saying it is—these are modern-day doctors who know nothing about f-faeries.”
“Exactly,” Arius said, his eyes traveled over my face. I closed my eyes and wished the pulsing agony in my head would stop. “I brought some healing remedies with me. I’ll take care of her. She’ll be all right.”
“Mina—” Kris started.
“Arius is right,” I said.
Kris sighed. “Magic or not, you better not get blood all over my room.”
14
Winged Flight
Arius
“Duty comes first.”—Nuada
MINA LAY ON THE FLOOR of Kris’s room as I finished wrapping the bandage around her head. Then I stashed the medicinal kit Caelm had insisted I bring with us into my backpack. I’d made a poultice from the small amount of healing herbs he’d packed in the kit. As always, Caelm’s teaching paid off. I grabbed the wet cloth sitting next to me and touched it to her face, brushing off the last smears of blood. Wolpertinger sat perched on the windowsill, watching anxiously. I gathered the blood-stained shirt and towels that Kris had brought from her car to protect the bedroom floor. She’d gone downstairs, green from the blood, to figure out what to do for dinner.
“It may just be me, but I don’t think Chels is quite ready to lead the Haven,” Mina mumbled, her eyes closed, but they slitted open to observe my reaction.
I wished she was wrong. But after today? After what Chels had done? She was anything but fit to lead. “Why did she go after you?”
Mina grimaced but shook her head, then grimaced again, raising her hand to the stark white bandage. “Did you ask her to Homecoming?”
I frowned at her avoidance of my question but nodded. “She gave me her address and phone number. I wrote Kris’s number when she asked for mine.”
“If we’re not going to tell her she’s the queen, there’s no reason for you to go with her.” She looked at me as if asking a question.
I grunted. “She probably doesn’t want to go with me anymore anyway, since I fought the attackers she sent after you.”
I didn’t regret it, but going from a girl kissing me to being her enemy all in one day left me off balance.
“Then we can check on her once in a while. When she’s ready, we’ll reveal the truth.” Mina dropped her hand to the hardwood floor of Kris’s room and drummed her fingers across it. “But it may be a few years.”
My shoulders dipped. “I suppose that’s our only option for now. I’ll start packing up.”
“You should text her to make sure she knows it's off.” She looked a little too pleased with that statement.
The clothes we brought with us from the Haven were scattered on the floor. I grabbed a T-shirt and pants, slinging them over my shoulder. “I’ll ask to use Kris’s phone when she comes back.”
Somehow, I knew things wouldn’t be as easy as dropping in and sweeping Chels off to the Haven. I’d thought that with Mina, and then Dramian dropped in and everything got way more complicated. Introducing someone as volatile as Chels into the faeries’ midst and granting her supreme authority could be disastrous.
Mina’s hand rested on my arm. “One more day.”
“What for?” I glanced down at her bandaged head.
“To show everyone, especially Chels, that she hasn’t beaten me.”
Sometimes I wondered how we had ever not gotten along. A smile pulled at my lips. “Let’s do it.”
She rolled onto her side and pushed up to her hands and knees. Her head hung forward as if too heavy. She rose shakily to her feet. Swaying, she stumbled, nearly falling.
I caught her shoulders. Then again, maybe this wasn’t such a good plan. “Mina—”
Her jaw set. “I’m doing this.”
“What are you going to prove if you can’t stand on your own?”
“Just give me a minute.”
She stopped swaying and lifted my hands from her shoulders. She stayed on her feet.
“See?” She took a step and plummeted forward, landing back on her hands and knees.
I squatted next to her. “There is only so much even you can take.”
“I’ll let you know when that happens.”
“He’s right,” Wolpertinger said. He flew down from his perch on the windowsill and landed in front of her. “The queen won’t respect you in this condition. You’ll just show everyone how thoroughly she whipped you.”
“I’m still going,” she said.
“Stubborn,” Wolpertinger said. “Arius, get her a hoodie.”
“What for?” Mina demanded.
“You can’t go, but your faerie guardian can, and you’ll want to keep out of sight.”
Her eyes brightened as she understood. “Isn’t that cheating? It won’t really be me.”
Wolpertinger’s ears twitched. “Is that why you're doing this? To prove to yourself you can do what you’re not physically capable of doing? Or are you showing Chels and the school that there is a courage that cannot be beaten by the worst form of intimidation?”
We both stared at Wolpertinger. Since when did he have such sage advice? “Hand me a hoodie,” she said to me.
I picked my dark hooded sweatshirt off the floor and tossed it to her. Her eyes blazed with determination.
She sat back and rested her head against the wall, the sweatshirt clutched in her hands.
Kris brought us some warm canned soup. I found it much too salty and incredibly bland. After forcing down one helping,
I handed the bowl back to Kris, planning to eat a few Rowan berries later.
“Sorry you didn’t like it,” Kris said.
I must not have hidden my lack of enthusiasm over her offered food well.
“Tomorrow I’ll break out my abuelita’s tamales,” she added.
Mina’s face brightened. “I love your granny’s tamales!”
Kris laughed. “She always drops some off before my parents leave town. She thinks I’m going to starve on my own or something.”
“Tamales?” I asked.
“They are so good, Arius. You are going to love them,” Mina said.
The earnestness on her face surprised me. Was it a human thing to get so passionate over food?
I stepped out to change my blood-stained clothes in the bathroom. When I returned, I found Mina in clean clothes, and Kris lounging on her bed with an empty bowl in her hands.
“Anybody going to tell me what happened?” Kris broke the silence.
“It was Chels,” I said, settling down next to Mina, who sat on the floor, resting her head against the wall. “She sent a pack of kids to attack Mina after school.”
“She did?” Kris looked taken aback.
“Are you surprised?” Mina asked. “You said she was the bully of bullies.”
Kris bit her lip, then said, “Chels is the queen of destroying your life and making you look like a social pariah. But she’s never physically assaulted anyone before. At least not that I know of. She will harass you or have others harass you. She will turn your friends and teachers against you—I’ve even seen her turn parents against their own child. But she’s always known which line not to cross to keep from being suspended.”
“Looks like she crossed that line today,” I said flatly.
“Anyway, we’re sorry, Kris, but we can’t take her. Not now at least,” Mina said.
“I’ll need your phone to let her know Homecoming is off,” I said.
Kris nodded in disappointment, handing over her cell phone. “I get it.” She gave a small smile. “Worth a shot.” She eyed Wolpertinger, sitting on the floor with a bit of trepidation, as if afraid he might speak to her again. “So... you’re leaving?”
