by H. D. Gordon
I wandered into the lunchroom, ready to eat my troubles. Once I’d grabbed some chicken tenders and a side of the school’s surprisingly delicious french fries, I found Sam in the courtyard, waiting for me.
She looked up from her iPad, ran her eyes over me once, and said, “Snap out of it.”
Laughing, I took a seat on the bench beside her, happy that spring was finally arriving and the weather was nice enough to eat lunch outside again. It wasn’t just the weather, though. Samantha Shy always had an immediate uplift effect on my mood.
“What are you talking about?” I said.
Sam continued to tap away at her screen. Without looking up, she answered, “I can see the turmoil turning in your head. I can see you slipping down into one of your moods, so snap out of it.”
Shoving some fries and half of a chicken tender into my mouth with what I thought was impressive synchronicity, I replied, “Gee, thanks, best friend. I feel totally better now.”
One side of Sam’s mouth lifted in a smile, and she pushed her glasses up on her nose. “You’re welcome, and don’t talk with your mouth full. It’s gross.”
Globbing on the ketchup, I shoved more fries into my talk-hole. Around them, I said, “Then I would hardly be able to speak at all.”
Sam’s blue eyes flicked over to me, mischief flashing behind them. “And that would be a huge loss. Like, huge.” Sam laughed, but sobered as she looked at me again. She gave me a nudge with her shoulder. “Dude, loosen up, I was just kidding.”
My shoulders had gone tight, my back rigid. It was not Sam’s jest that had caused this. It was the girl who’d just entered the courtyard. I’d only set eyes on her once, but there was no way to mistake her.
Her hair was a shiny jet black that flowed all the way down to her small waist, and her eyes were nearly as dark. Around those eyes, black liner made her gaze capturing, and her red-painted lips and super-swag way of moving had all the boys in the courtyard staring.
Sam followed my gaze. “Who’s that?” she asked.
“Her name is Raven,” I whispered, “and last time we saw each other, she told me to leave Grant City.”
I saw Sam’s aura shift as she recalled when I’d told her about Raven, the chick who’d threatened me and informed me that my identity as the Masked Maiden was known before taking off in a van full of kidnapping lapdogs.
“What’s she doing here?” Sam asked.
As Raven made her way over to us, I stated the obvious. “I’m pretty sure she’s here for me.”
CHAPTER 2
My teeth gritted as Raven approached the bench on which Sam and I were sitting and took a seat beside me, plucking a french fry off my plate and popping it into her mouth as if we were old friends.
I had to force myself not to snap my jaws at her hand like a rabid dog and jerk the tray out of reach. Unsurprisingly, this stealing of my food angered me almost more than the threat she’d issued a few months ago.
“Those are actually pretty good,” Raven said in her sultry tone, and reached for another.
Now I did jerk the tray out of her reach. “Then go get your own,” I snapped.
Raven’s full red lips pulled up, and she leaned in a little closer, the scent of her perfume making me pull back. “That’s not very nice,” she said, “especially from someone who calls herself a hero.”
My confusion was beginning to outweigh my annoyance. “Keep your voice down, you evil succubus.”
On the other side of me, Sam let out an involuntary giggle, and Raven shot her a look that had her swallowing it back down. This really hadn’t been a joke on my part. Raven was indeed of the Succubus race… It had taken me a little while after meeting her to figure it out, but as I studied her aura signature now, I knew I was right.
“I would watch the way you talk to me, fairy,” Raven replied, her voice low. “Unless you want everyone to find out who the Masked Maiden of Grant City is.”
“If you were gonna do that, you would’ve already done it,” I said, “so why are you really here?”
Leaning back and crossing her leather-clad legs, Raven tossed her dark hair over her shoulder and surveyed the courtyard. “To keep an eye on you, of course, and against my own recommendations, to try and get you to see reason.”
“Are you joking?” Sam asked, speaking up for the first time. “You can’t actually have come here to try and woo Aria to the Dark Side. You must be as dumb as you are crazy.”
Raven’s dark eyes flashed to Sam, swirling with a dark purple that made my best friend snap her mouth shut and swallow hard. Succubi were not known for their tolerance. “All that brain in your own head, human, and you still don’t know when to keep your mouth shut.”
I held my hand up, trying to maintain my cool. “Let’s not go threatening Sam,” I told Raven. “That won’t end well for you.” I let out a slow breath. “Why don’t you just leave? I’m never joining your team of evil nerds, okay?”
Raven rolled her eyes, relaxing on the bench beside me as if we were enjoying a picnic. “Instead, you join a team of wannabe crime-fighting nerds. You might as well have gone back to the Brokers.”
My hand reacted to this so fast and of its own accord that there was little I could do to stop it. The girl had pinched a nerve, and a subsequent knee-jerk could not be avoided.
I gripped Raven’s arm so hard and so fast that she didn’t even realize I’d moved until the pain flashed over her face. Through gritted teeth and red lips, she bit back a pained growl and said, “Let me go, fairy. That hurts.”
I continued my hold, just shy of strong enough to crack the bones beneath her flesh. “Don’t talk about things you don’t understand,” I said, my voice strangely flat to my own ears. With some effort, I finally released my grip. An angry red handprint stood out on her creamy olive skin. I didn’t feel bad for it.
“You sure seem to know a lot about Aria,” Sam said. “What are you, a stalker?”
Without sparing Sam a glance, Raven said, “Is the human still talking to me? It sounds like she’s still talking, but it could just be the breeze.”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. I stood and brushed fry crumbs off my jeans, nodding my head for Sam to follow. “Whatever,” I said to Raven. “You want to hang around Grant City High School, have at it. Let’s go, Sam.”
As Sam and I walked away, Raven mumbled under her breath, knowing I would hear what she said with my sensitive ears, the smirk on her face to prove it. “You will join us, Aria Fae,” she said. “Or he’ll kill you. You should’ve run when you had the chance, but it’s too late for that now.”
Jaw clenched, I made my way into the school building, these words ringing in my head.
***
The school day seemed to drag on after this. I went to my classes, and was relieved when I didn’t see Raven in any of them. I could sound all bravado to her face, but the fact that she was here, watching me, knowing my secrets, had me on edge like a cliff.
The bigger worry, of course, was whom exactly she was working for. It seemed to me that since I’d arrived in Grant City, I’d tackled some bad guys, but never the bad guy. It was kind of like I’d been cutting the tops off the weeds, rather than ripping them out at the roots, and like weeds, as long as I kept doing this, they would only keep coming back and continue growing.
Who was the entity behind the kidnappings Dyson Gracie had been orchestrating? Who was the person who’d sent Raven here? Who was the hand moving the pieces around the game board of Grant City?
I didn’t have the answers to these questions, but I was smart enough to know that there were indeed answers. I just needed to find them.
And manage to graduate high school and plan for college at the same time.
“You’re doing it again,” Sam said, approaching me at my locker, where I was shoving my books onto the top shelf with a touch too much vigor.
“Doing what?”
Sam pushed her glasses up on her nose as she leaned back against the locker beside mine.
“You’ve got that contemplative look on your face that always precedes a depression. Snap out of it.”
“Easy for you to say,” I replied, grabbing my skateboard and shutting my locker.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I shrugged, pushing my way through the flow of students and feeling more annoyed with my best friend than I knew I should be. “You know what you’re doing with your life,” I said, trying not to sound snappy. “And here I am, lost at sea without a floatation device and bleeding from the chest, surrounded by starving sharks.”
Sam hurried in and around people to keep up with me. “Uh… Okay, Edgar Allen Poe, nice imagery, but a little dramatic, don’t you think?”
Stepping out into the open air felt good, and I tried to let the spring sunshine lighten my mood. Sam was right. Sam was pretty much always right, but that didn’t make any of this easier to swallow.
“I guess you’re r—” I began, but was cut short when I noticed Raven across the lawn, talking to one of the school coaches.
Sam followed my gaze, her aura spiking with apprehension as I dropped my skateboard to the pavement and rolled off toward Raven. There was little else she could do, so she mumbled a curse and followed after me.
CHAPTER 3
“Aria,” Sam called out behind me. “Slow down.”
I barely heard her. I was like a heat-seeking missile, locked on target. The sound of the wheels of my skateboard rolling over the concrete made Raven turn toward me. I stopped right in front of her, hopping off the board and kicking it up to my hand in one smooth motion.
Raven didn’t flinch, but rather, smirked, quirking her red lips. “Hey, fairy,” she said. “Better be careful on that thing. You could fall and break your neck.”
“Why were you talking to Coach Sanders?” I asked, ignoring her jab.
Raven laughed, her dark eyes flicking over my shoulder as Sam caught up to us. “Because I’m joining the lacrosse team.”
“Why?”
“Because I have to be here anyway, and I like the sport. Why does it matter to you?”
My eyes were so narrowed it was a wonder I could see out of them. “You’re not human. That’s not fair. It’s cheating.”
Raven’s eyes rolled dramatically enough that I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d gotten lost in her head. “So what? I’ll help the team. I’ll be their best player. They’ll thank me.” She grinned. “I’ll be their hero.” She said this last word with a certain emphasis I didn’t like.
“No, you won’t,” I growled.
Raven laughed. “Oh yeah? Who’s going to stop me?”
“I am.”
Now she laughed hard enough to make my blood boil. “Awesome, fairy. I guess I’ll see you at tryouts tomorrow, then.”
“I guess you will,” I snapped, as Raven tossed her dark hair over her shoulder and walked away.
Sam spoke for the first time beside me. I was so worked up that I hadn’t even noticed she was there.
“Did you just decide to join the lacrosse team?” Sam asked.
I sighed. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
***
The familiar ring of the bell above the door sounded as I entered Roses flower shop later that afternoon. As usual, I was eager to lose myself in the work of flower arrangements and plant care.
Rose, the owner of the store and my boss, stood behind the sales counter, reading a magazine. She looked up as I entered, giving me a smile that didn’t touch her eyes.
“How was school?” Rose asked.
I studied her aura for a moment, feeling the usual pang of sympathy that Rose had been evoking in me as of late. She had been kind enough to give me my job back, hadn’t questioned me on my change of heart, and was dealing stoically with the failing health of her daughter. To say I respected the woman would be an understatement.
“Not as stressful as your day,” I answered. “How is Rachel doing? Any progress with your insurance for the treatment?”
Rose shook her head, and I had to reinforce the wall between my aura-absorbing ability and Rose’s turmoil. I hadn’t even known her for a year yet, but it seemed to me the storm raging within my boss was only increasing in intensity. But because she’d always respected my privacy, I hadn’t tried to pry.
“No,” she sighed. “Those bastards are quick to take your money and slow to give it back when you need it. They don’t cover certain large expenses.”
An idea came to me then, but I didn’t give voice to it. I was going to help Rose, I decided, but I didn’t want to get her hopes up in case it was a task I couldn’t really handle. I had to try, though, because I cared about her, and she was suffering so terribly. Even if I couldn’t read auras, I would know this. Her stress and worry was written in the lines on her face, in the dark bags under her eyes.
“Why don’t you take the day off?” I offered, running my eyes over the orders waiting to be filled. “It’s a slow day, and I can handle everything here. You should go home and get some sleep.”
Somehow, this only seemed to increase the tumult in her soul. I tilted my head as I noticed the shift in colors that I usually associated with guilt flash through Rose’s aura, and came to the conclusion that though her daughter’s condition and Rose’s inability to pay for treatment was in no way her fault, Rose still felt guilty for it.
“I should stay,” she said. “I’ve got all this paperwork to get through.”
Closing the space between us, I placed my hand on her shoulder and met her gaze. “I know how to do the paperwork. Go, please, get some rest.”
With a deep breath, I pulled some of the worry out of her and replaced it with a little bit of my persuasion. Rose sighed as if exhaling the weight of the world. “Maybe I will go home and try to sleep,” she said. “You sure you can handle things here?”
The affects of absorbing her emotions washed over me immediately, and I felt my stomach twist uncomfortably, but swallowed past it and managed a smile. “I’m sure as the sun.”
A moment of silence followed where Rose only stared at me, and for a second, I thought she was going to break down and cry. Because she was a tough lady, she only cleared her throat and nodded. She retrieved her jacket from the hook in the back room, shrugged it over her shoulders, and moved toward the exit, where she paused and looked back at me.
Looking at her then, it seemed to me the poor thing had aged ten years in the past couple months, or maybe it was my viewing lens that had changed. Either way, something was different.
Rose pushed open the door, the bell above it offering its familiar chime. “You’re too good for this world, Aria Fae,” she told me, and without waiting for a response, she left.
I stood behind the counter, watching as she retreated down the sidewalk and out of sight, wondering why my chest ached a bit at this compliment, wondering at the way in which it had been spoken, wondering why it had sounded oddly like an apology, when Rose in no way owed me one.
CHAPTER 4
Butterflies flitted through my stomach as I pulled my t-shirt over my head and laced up my Vans. Despite the fact that this was part of my usual morning routine, my nerves never failed to flail at the prospect of seeing him. I checked my reflection one last time in the time-stained mirror above the bathroom sink, making sure that my hair didn’t look like Simba’s mane and that I didn’t have any random food caught in my teeth.
Satisfied that I looked the same as always, I pulled on a hoodie and went over to the single window in my studio apartment. Pushing it up, I climbed out onto the fire escape and hoisted myself up onto the railing. Bending my knees, I jumped up to the ledge of the rooftop and pulled myself up and over.
With a sink in my heart, I realized Thomas Reid, my next-door neighbor and friend with which I shared a confusing relationship status, was not sitting in his usual spot on the crate. I narrowed my eyes, glancing around and focusing on my ears.
A grin broke out over my face when I picked up the familiar beat of his heart. Placing my hands
on my hips, I said, “You can come out now, Thomas. I know you’re there. I can hear your heartbeat.”
A small chuckle preceded his appearance, and he stepped around the door that led to the roof, shaking his head. “One of these days, I’m going to surprise you.”
This was a game we played. Always seeing who could sneak up on whom, jumping out and make the other person jolt. I laughed and took a seat on my crate, reaching for the brown paper bag near Thomas’s crate. Moving with impressive speed for such a large man, Thomas snatched the bag up and held it away from me.
“Thomas,” I warned.
Unfazed, he took a seat beside me. “I’m not sharing this morning. I’m going to eat your sandwich and mine, since I’ll never be able to sneak up on you, and you practically make me fall out of my seat when you sneak up on me.”
My jaw hung open, and I watched in horror as he opened a foil-wrapped ham, egg, and cheese croissant and bit into it.
“What kind of cruel and unusual punishment is this?” I asked. “What kind of sick mind thinks of such a thing?”
Thomas laughed, which was becoming more frequent with him. When we’d first met, I went for months without hearing his laugh, and now, I’d sort of made it my mission to elicit at least a chuckle every time I saw him. If I was being honest, it was the highlight of my day.
Around a bite of sandwich, he said, “Well, maybe you’ll think about that next time you go rubbing your Halfling powers in my face.”
I snorted. “You’re just jealous because my abilities include super strength and senses, and all you do is see dead people.”
Thomas shook his head, looking at me through the corners of his bright, hazel eyes. “Is that all I do?” he asked.
I found that I had to swallow before I could take a breath. The man always seemed to be stealing my air away. In answer, I used my superior speed to snatch the brown bag back, tearing into it a little too aggressively and earning another laugh from him. I supposed I looked much like a mischievous little raccoon, and didn’t care a bit. Somehow, the two of us had reached a certain comfort level.
