by Maria Dean
"I thought she was a witch," Lorenzo butted in.
"That too," Astrid said. "But that's unrelated." She took another drink of her coffee. "Finally, my mom is an Alice. So I guess I got it from her." Astrid shrugged. "If I have a kid, they'll probably have some sort of weird power. I don't know if they'll be an Alice, but they'll sure as hell be weird."
"I don't know," Lorenzo said, "I kind of like weird."
"Is that really what you're going with?" She asked him, smiling.
The dumb grin on his face said he knew it was bad. He didn't care.
Lorenzo offered to give her a ride home, but she turned him down. There was something about walking home at night that comforted her. After promising him she'd text him when she got home, Astrid hopped the next bus and headed home. In order to get home as fast as possible, she should've transferred buses. But something about that night made her decide to walk the second leg of the way.
Her path took her past a street of high-end houses. The street was lit up way better than the block where she lived, and kids could still play outside without having to worry about dangerous characters. She stopped outside of one house, noticing an engraved nameplate on the mailbox. It was unmistakable, unless there were multiple Nicole Russos in the Twin Cities. The golden plate was adorned with a metal dragon, cementing the fact it was definitely one of the Russo granddaughters.
Astrid was tempted to go up and say hi to Nicole. She was very kind, and if Astrid was going to be forced into the family by the brothers, she might as well get to know their cousins too.
Something flashed out of the corner of her eye. Astrid hid behind the massive mailbox and peaked around the side. She could barely make out two men trailing along the side of Nicole's house. They were dressed completely in black and were holding phones up to the house.
They were casing the house, Astrid realized. Someone was trying to break into Nicole's home.
Astrid bolted away from the house. She booked it down the street, her briefcase bouncing to and fro as she ran. She didn't have Nicole's number, but there were seven Russo cousins in total, four of which she could easily contact.
"Hey baby, what's wrong?" Nova asked her when she stormed inside. "Something happen at the office?"
"Someone's stalking one of my friends," she answered. Astrid sent a text to Lorenzo, explaining what she saw. He responded and said he'd contact Nicole about it when she was back in town. "Of course she was out of town. That's why they'd go for her!"
Nova tried to calm her down, to no avail. "Calm down honey, your energy is giving me a migraine." Astrid glared at her aunt. "Sorry. Bad time. But from what I understand, the Russo cousins are wealthy as all hell. I'm sure your friend has a great security system."
"I hope so," Astrid replied as she dropped into an armchair. "Hey," she said, trying to change the topic so she didn't panic, "did you know being a dragon is genetic? Like, if I married one of them and had a kid, it'd probably be a dragon?"
"Are you thinking of having a dragon baby?" Nova teased. "You know, that family would be great in the baby gift department. Get you some of those Gucci baby shoes."
"God, Nova, don't be ridiculous," Astrid started. Her aunt tensed, but she smirked again. "It'd be Armani."
CHAPTER 3
Nova insisted on staying with Astrid for the rest of the week. She claimed she wanted to explore the 'witch scene' in the Twin Cities, something that Astrid was not sure actually existed. Her aunt swore by it and kept up her claim by disappearing every night, only to come back at the crack of dawn bursting with energy.
"Astrid," Nova tried to nudge her awake one morning. "There's an entire underground network of magic parties here. You need to go with me."
For a woman who raised her, Astrid was shocked that Nova didn't realize she hated parties. "Go to sleep, Auntie," Astrid murmured. She turned over in her bed, trying to get at least another hour of rest. "I have work today."
"No, you don't," Nova tutted. "It's a Saturday! You can come with me to pick up ingredients from the market!"
Something told Astrid that the ingredients her aunt was talking about weren't for dinner. "I have plans," she lied. "I was going out with a friend." To her credit, Astrid had considered asking Irene if they wanted to hang out with her. It would've been a good change from the normal Russo cousins that plagued her.
Her aunt, however, had other plans. She yanked the blanket off of Astrid's bed, leaving Astrid cold and annoyed. Then, Nova pulled the blinds up and flipped on all the lights. "You're waking up, sugar. That's the end of that."
Astrid groaned. "I'm going to kick you out if you do this again," she said. She rolled out of bed, nearly falling onto the floor in her annoyance. Astrid dragged herself over to her dresser and pulled out a sundress and underwear too tired to bother with anything else. She pulled the orange and white dress over her head and smoothed it out over her body. "I'm still not going to the market with you," she said to Nova. "I have things I need to do today."
"Like what?" Nova asked incredulously. "You really have a friend you're hanging out with?"
Grabbing the bag she kept her mom's notebook in, Astrid looked around her bedroom. Since her first time portalling to another world, she'd learned how to sense the more hidden shimmers. There was one in her room, in fact. She'd explored it only once, finding the other side to be a freezing tundra. Astrid grabbed a jacket to prepare herself for the other-realm and pushed past Nova, walking to the corner of the room. She slipped a pair of canvas shoes on, wishing she had a pair of boots for the winter. That would have to wait. "See you later," she said to her aunt, walking into the shimmer.
The brisk cold was a sharp wake up call. While Astrid was used to Minnesota winters, the sudden temperature drop was more than she was ready for. She took hesitant steps forward as to not slip on the ice. The new other-realm was covered in it. Astrid remembered going to this world once as a child and hating it, because of the eternal cold. The part she'd seen back then was a wasteland, with debris scattered across the icy plains.
The Minneapolis shimmer took her to a different part of the world. She'd stepped out on a froze highway that led into an empty city. The buildings in front of her were archaic, much like those she'd seen in the world of the spritlings. Every stone storefront was iced over, though some of them looked like they'd been recently used. One even had a lamp burning in the front window.
Astrid continued wandering down the street, trying to decipher the signage. Every building had a sign written in strange symbols. She couldn't understand the majority of them, assuming it was the secret language of whoever lived in that realm. Some of the symbols looked familiar. Astrid reached into the bag and grabbed her mother's notebook and a pen.
She flipped through the pages, searching for a glimpse of the language. There was one page that contained strange symbols. Four triangles, two of which were upside down and two which had lines crossing through them. Her mother noted that they were representative of the four basic elements, but that she didn't know anything about them past that. In a blank space under her mother's notes, Astrid sketched in the other symbols she saw. Two of them were recognizable as the male and female signs, but something told Astrid there was more to the story.
When she was satisfied with her records, Astrid moved on from the storefronts. The roadway weaved deeper into the city until she found herself at a plaza in the middle of town. A large stone platform sat in the center, with a set of stairs on every side. Astrid scaled the closest stairway and found the platform was also covered in the strange symbols. They appeared on curved lines, spiraling from the middle of the platform outward. Astrid flipped to a free page in her mom's notebook and started to sketch it out.
Two voices rose out of one of the shops. Astrid moved as fast as she could on the ice, away from the platform, hiding behind a large stone statute. Two robed men exited a storefront, looking around. They had to have seen her. Her outfit alone would've made her stand out. In a panic, Astrid looked around for another
shimmer. She needed to escape and fast. The portal home was outside of the town, but if she was lucky, she could hide in another realm until the robed men were gone.
Astrid looked at the statue in front of her. There was a dragon's face etched on the back of the platform, shining under the city's eternal moonlight she saw the familiar shimmer. Astrid reached out to touch it and portalled out of the tundra, into an other-realm she'd never been to before.
The shimmer dropped her outside of a heavy gate. It was the only thing around for miles, the golden bars stretching out across the plains as far as she could see. While most of the gate looked the same, the entrance in front of her was adorned with more jade dragons. Something about it was startlingly familiar.
A warmth spread out over her body, starting from her chest. Astrid's hand flew up to the pendant and touched it, finding it was overheating. She recoiled and stumbled back into the shimmer, tumbling back out into the strange tundra realm.
Astrid scrambled to her feet and, remembering that she wasn't alone. She snuck past the statue and along the walls of one of the buildings. She inched her way back through the city, passing stores that were now lit up with oil lamps. No, she definitely wasn't alone here. And unlike the realm with Buckweed and Dandy, it filled Astrid with a foreboding terror that the residents of this other-realm weren't on her side. She continued dodging potential discoveries until she returned to the highway she'd started on. The shimmer that could take her home, a distinct golden color, was fading in and out. Astrid guessed it wasn't a very strong portal, so she sprinted toward it to make sure she got home.
Astrid tripped on a rock and fell through the shimmer face-first. She threw her hands out and landed in a plank, thankful for all those times Winston made her do an ab routine with him.
"You're back," Nova noted when she exited her bedroom. "How was it?"
"Cold," Astrid responded as she threw her jacket off. "Hey, you know weird shit. Can you tell me what these symbols mean?" She retrieved her mom's notebook and showed the signs to Nova. "This is what was used as a language in the other realm."
Nova traced one of them. "Well, it's definitely not a language on this earth. But I recognize them." She looked up at Astrid gravely. "Baby, you better be careful. These are alchemical symbols."
Suddenly, Astrid felt colder than she had been when she was in the tundra. "Like the one who tried to kill me?"
The very same," Nova nodded. "I know you're still learning to use your portals. You need to remember that not everyone will be as kind as the Russo dragons or those sprites you met in another realm." She returned to the kitchen where she was cooking up a stir-fry. "While you're still figuring things out, promise me you're not returning to that other-realm."
Astrid didn't think twice about it. "I'm not touching that place again," she said. "I know nothing about the alchemists. The dragons don't trust them, and there's a chance they're involved with some shady pharmaceutical scam. But that's all I can find out without putting myself in the line of fire."
"Then you need to stay out of that spotlight," Nova said.
A thought crossed Astrid's mind as she retrieved her notebook. "Do you think mom could help me? Her notes show she has a lot of experience."
Nova winced. "I'm not so sure about that."
"Why?"
Her aunt turned away. "Astrid, your mom isn't very easy to track down. After she made sure you were safe, she disappeared. I haven't seen her since."
"What do you mean she disappeared? Did she move?" Astrid stepped closer to the kitchen, unafraid to corner Nova. This was Astrid's home.
Nova shook her head. She turned to her niece, her face contorted in fear. Astrid had never seen Nova cry before, though she'd been emotional all her life. This was a complete change. "I mean she vanished. She's gone, Astrid. None of us can find her." A tear rolled down Nova's cheek. "We looked for her for two years. She's just... gone."
Astrid opened her mouth, trying to figure out what she wanted to say. She couldn't speak, so she shut her jaw tight. "She left," Astrid repeated. Nova nodded. Astrid whipped out her mother's notebook and flipped to the last page. There was no indication that she was leaving, just a note about wanting to travel again once her daughter was born. "When I have her, she will come with me on an adventure," Astrid read aloud. "I want her to see the kaleidoscope of our world. We'll be free from the rest of the dangers in this world." She put the notebook down on the counter. "She wanted to take me with her," Astrid said. "Why didn't she?"
"Astrid," Nova started, "she was a different person back then. She and Aaron were still in a honey moon phase. She didn't know what he was involved with."
Astrid looked up, not registering the tears slipping down her face. "What was dad involved with?"
Nova flinched again. "Astrid, I don't think you want to know that. Your father still cares about you. I don't want you to think of him in a bad way. He's still your dad.
"No, you don't get to do that." Astrid didn't recognize the anger in her voice. It didn't feel like her. It felt unhinged and powerful. She stepped forward, backing Nova up into the fridge. "You don't get to just say things and then not follow up. What the hell was dad involved with?" She froze, an uneasy idea creeping into her mind. "Was dad an alchemist?"
"I didn't want to have to tell you, baby," Nova tried to cover her tracks. "But yes. Your father was from a European cabal. He was enterprising and sweet, at first at least."
"So when you said my dad fell in with a difficult crowd, were you lying? He was one of them to start with?" Nova's silence spoke volumes. "Did she know?"
"He was one of them when they met," Nova whispered. "Calypso didn't know what an alchemist was when they fell in love. He never knew about any of it aside from the fact that we were different from our friends. It was only when he threatened to expose your powers she figured out he was up to something." Nova reached out to touch Astrid's cheek. "Sweetheart, I was going to tell you about your mother eventually--"
"Were you?" Astrid snapped. "Were you going to tell me, just like how you said you were going to tell me I was an Alice?" Nova recoiled. "Or tell me you were actually a witch? Or everything, everything, that you said you were going to tell me, eventually?"
"I don't--"
"No! You don't get to do that! You have always treated me like a child. I am a fully grown woman with a job and a house, and you still can't seem to speak to me like I'm an adult." Astrid's voice was hoarse. "I'm done with you!" She stormed out of the kitchen, shoving the apartment door open and leaving the building.
"Astrid! Come back!" Nova shouted out at her. "Please, just let me explain!"
This only made her run faster. Her pace picked up into a sprint, her canvas shoes slapping against the wooden floors. Slick tears slid down her face, clouding her vision as she tried to flee her apartment. Astrid flew down the stairwell and out into the lobby, not stopping until she crashed into a body waiting outside her building.
"I'm so sorry," she panted. "It was an accident, I swear."
"You're crying." Lorenzo looked down at her, bringing his hand up to her cheek. His calloused fingers brushed a tear off her face. "Who did something to you to make you cry?"
Astrid's body shook. Without speaking, she collapsed against him, her face pressed into his chest. "Get me out of here," she said to him. "I just want to get the fuck out of here."
Lorenzo swept his left arm around her back and pulled her toward his bike. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No," she snapped. "Just..." She sniffled, trying to pull herself together for a moment. "Just get me out of here. I don't know where, but I can't be here anymore."
The dragon shifter said nothing. He handed her the second helmet, apparently prepared for a quick getaway, and got her onto the bike. Astrid wrapped her arms around him without another thought. The bike pulled off the street and sped off the road. The world blurred together around Astrid, the physical pressure from the road combining with the emotional turmoil of Nova's revelation. Her he
art clenched as she squeezed her eyes closed, pulling her body as near to Lorenzo as possible. The pounding of her heart became too much and her lungs tightened. She inhaled deeply, trying to control her breathing. Her chest tightened again and she couldn't keep up with the rate she was losing air. "Pull over," she shouted. "God, please pull over!"
Lorenzo couldn't hear her at first. He accelerated down the road, taking the increased squeeze of her arms as a sign she was into him.
"Lorenzo, please," Astrid shouted. "Pull over!" Her breath caught again and she let go of him, bringing her hands up to her chest and trying to steady herself.
"Astrid?" He must have realized she let go of him. Lorenzo pulled to the side of the road and turned off his bike. "Hey, are you okay?"
She stumbled off of the bike and grabbed his arm to keep herself from collapsing. "You're okay," she repeated to herself. "You're going to be okay."
"Astrid?" Lorenzo helped her kneel. "Hey, take a deep breath there. You're going to be okay." He wrapped her up into his arms and pressed her head into his chest. "Listen to that. Can you hear my breathing?" She nodded. "Okay. I need you to take a deep breath with me. Can you do that?" He inhaled, with Astrid trying to follow his lead. "Let it out," he instructed.
It wasn't the first time Astrid had a panic attack in public. She knew it wouldn't be the last. Lorenzo's quick reaction, however, made things a lot easier for her. She came down from the attack quickly, her breath steadying a few minutes after it started. "I need water," she said finally.
"Can you stand?" Astrid shook her head no. Lorenzo nodded, making sure she was comfortable before entering a nearby gas station. He came out with a large bottle of water and watched her guzzle it down. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"I don't know," Astrid said. "Maybe." She tried to stand, taking his hand when she stumbled. "Can we just go somewhere that's not public?" She looked across the street. "There's a Caribou."
