They both circled back into fighting stances. "By the way, I like your new look." Sirena pointed to Brie's shorts and cotton hooded jacket. "Special occasion?"
Brie blushed, feeling as if Sirena could see right through her. "No, just trying out something different."
Brie attempted to punch Sirena, but Sirena grabbed Brie's arm and threw her body to the ground. Brie arched over her own body obediently, landing on her side in the grass with a heavy thud. She hit the ground with her arm outstretched to absorb some of the impact. The trick with falling, she had learned, was to let yourself fall in a way that you could control. That was how you avoided broken bones.
Still, it hurt. "I'm spending a lot of time on the ground today."
Sirena looked down thoughtfully at Brie, holding out a helping hand again. "Rykken Camacho... he's the poor orphan kid, right?"
Brie stood up swiftly, feeling as if she had to come to Rykken's defense. "He's not poor," was all she could muster. But was he? Brie didn't actually know. She had assumed his foster parents had at least some money; everyone at Punahou did.
Sirena lowered her gaze. "Do you like him?"
"No." Brie paused, considering her words. "I mean, he's not a bad guy. I think the pendant did something to him... it was like his personality flipped when he picked it up."
Sirena gave Brie a stern look that reminded Brie of her mother. "Good—because a guy wearing a pendant that gives you headaches is not boyfriend material." Sirena came at Brie from the side with her elbow, which hit Brie's forearm with a loud smack. Brie bit her tongue to keep from whimpering.
"Besides," Sirena continued, as if the blow hadn't affected her at all. "You aren't normal. You can't date earthlies, at least not seriously."
"Who can I date then? All the Hallows in the New Order want to kill me." Brie abandoned her fighting stance and put her hands on her hips. "Besides, my mom dated James. He's an earthlie."
"And look what happened," Sirena said. "She forced your dad to move out because she couldn't keep her secret from him."
"My mom left James?" Brie couldn't believe it. She had always assumed James left them in pursuit of his career. That's what it always felt like, and Milena had never contradicted the sentiment.
Sirena pursed her lips, abandoning her own fighting stance. She sighed. "Let's go inside."
A pungent odor of animal fur and cigarette smoke filled Brie's nose when she entered Sirena's rental. The kitchen smelled like unwashed dishes, even though there were none in the sink. The dull, yellow lighting only added to the brown, mustard, and tan décor. Muck chic, Brie thought.
Brie's foot squished into a raggedy carpet the color of dried blood. "The seventies called," she said. "They want everything back."
Sirena laughed. "Stop being snotty—I like it here." She gestured to a green, vinyl sofa, where they both sat down.
"About my mom and James," Brie said. "She left him?"
Sirena tensed, staring at a metal wind chime hanging in the window. "Yes," she said finally. "Milena had given birth to you a few weeks before it happened. James was devastated. He begged her for months to change her mind, but she never did." Sirena shook her head. "I shouldn't be telling you this. Milena did what she needed to do to protect her secret and protect you. James was becoming a celebrity at the time and brought so much new, dangerous attention..."
Sirena trailed off, and the two of them sat in silence for several minutes. Finally Brie spoke.
"I know you said the New Order didn't kill my mom. But do you really believe her death was an accident?" Brie asked. She was surprised that she'd asked it, but she couldn't pretend that it hadn't been the question lingering in her mind since the moment she'd heard about the plane crash.
Sirena looked about as surprised as Brie was. "No," Sirena said.
Another several minutes passed.
"Who do you think killed her?" Brie asked.
"I don't know," Sirena said, her expression intense and focused. "A plane crash might have killed an ordinary Hallow, but it wouldn't have killed Milena."
Brie pondered this for a moment without success. Finally she said, "I'm lost. What do you mean?"
Sirena looked at Brie in amazement. "Milena was an innate, Brie. She can't die from something as simple as a plane crash. Her powers would be lessened from having children, but she could have at least healed herself." Sirena folded her arms across her chest. "No, something happened. She let herself die for a reason, and her reasons died with her."
"Do you think she died to hide something?" Brie asked.
"Of course I do. But Thessa doesn't want me to investigate. She thinks it's too risky."
"We have to find out," Brie said. "She was your sister and my mother."
Sirena placed her hand on Brie's. "We will," she said, squeezing Brie's hand reassuringly. "I've never gone against Thessa's wishes, but I think she's wrong not to investigate this. Milena was keeping a secret, and she died to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Her secret could change everything."
Brie thought of something. "James has my mom's stuff stored in this room at our house. He keeps it locked—not even Annie or the maid goes in there." At the thought of locks, something from the past clicked in Brie's mind. "I... I think James knows more than he's letting on."
"Like what?"
"I think he was tracking her," Brie said softly. "James has a map that covers the walls of his office, with color-coded pins pressed into specific places. Pilot once asked him what the map was for, and he said it was so he could remember all the places he'd traveled on tour. But I remember we went back and found two pins pushed into Antarctica. Why would James have toured there? Pilot and I assumed it was one of James' exaggerations, but now I think he lied to us. What if the map has something to do with my mom?"
Sirena whistled. "Honestly, it sounds a little far-fetched. But it's not like we have any other leads."
Brie rubbed her jaw, feeling her mouth sink into a frown. I wonder what else we can find in his private office." She wasn't sure how many more secrets she could handle.
"I think we should let the girls investigate," Sirena said. "Thessa wants to get more information on James' heritage anyway. Clara already looked into it, but Thessa still thinks he could have some answers."
Brie's frown deepened. She wondered why Sirena had to bring the other girls into this. "Are you sure we want their help?"
"Yes," Sirena said firmly. "Brie, we need their gifts, Clara's especially. We just can't let them figure out how we are planning to use the information."
"Why?" Brie asked. "Why can't we break in and check out the map? Why can't we go look for clues in New York?" Brie burning desire to do something, anything, brought her to her feet. "What are we waiting for?"
"Clara and Cora are best at research, and Thessa has been alive for thousands of years. We need them right now. I can't stress that enough." Sirena ran her hands over her blonde hair. "Plus, before we go, you need to learn how to control your powers. And you have to understand how dangerous it will be. I wouldn't even take you if I didn't have to, but you're as unsafe here without me to protect you."
"Fine," Brie huffed. "Let Clara and Cora investigate. Then as soon as I get my powers under control, we're leaving."
"You seem a little too eager." Sirena stared at Brie with a slight curl to her lip. "Eager gets you killed. You need to learn patience."
"I need to find out what happened to my mother, especially if it helps explain what's happening to me."
"Don't follow your mother's footsteps too closely, Brie. Don't make the same mistakes."
Brie hated being talked down to like a child. She changed the subject. "In the meantime, what do I do about Rykken?" she asked. "I don't think that pendant is safe for him."
Sirena thought for a minute. "I changed my mind about Rykken. I want to see this pendant he found,"
Sirena said. "If it's giving you headaches, it might be related to the mystery with your mom."
The thought gave Br
ie some hope that the time they wasted waiting for her powers to mature might be spent on moving something forward, even if it was something small.
"Cool. So how do we get the pendant?"
"We?" Sirena asked, a small smile on her lips.
"Well, you," Brie said. "Can't you, you know, use magic or whatever to get the pendant?"
"No, that's not how magic works." Sirena twirled her hair through her fingers. "You can't take magical objects by force. They have to be given. Headaches or not, you're the only one close enough to Rykken to pull this off." Her eyes sparkled. "You need to get that pendant."
CHAPTER FIVE
Pilot sat at his favorite library table, staring out the window into the quad from the second floor. The library was three stories tall, and typically packed with overachieving students during third period, but Pilot had gotten there early enough to get the blue table in the corner, away from prying eyes. He normally spent his study hour hanging out with Justin and some of the other water polo guys, but this week he'd spent it reading Hawaiian Myths and Legends and working on his paper, Annie's words ringing in his mind.
He also thought about the girl he saw at the restaurant. Pilot loved a good horror movie; he liked to be scared. But he was still freaked out by the handwritten messages the platinum blonde girl from the Waikiki strip had left him, no matter how hot she was.
Still, he couldn't pretend he didn't want to see her again. Every time he pictured her, she had that mysterious, unnerving grin on her face. He wished that he could talk to her, just once—
"I think you have something that belongs to me."
Pilot jumped out of his chair, spinning around quickly. As if someone had answered his thoughts, it was her, standing in front of him.
He wished he could shake the shock off his face and play it cooler, but he messed up the moment he opened his mouth. "What are you doing here?"
She shushed him. She leaned in like she might kiss his cheek, but instead she whispered, "I said I'd find you, didn't I?" The soft purr of her voice tickled his ears. A sweet scent of mint and green apples lingered on her breath.
Pilot had spent the whole week thinking about her, but now all he felt was anger. "Who are you?" he asked.
Her silver eyes bore into his. "Relax," she said, gesturing to his chair. He sat down. "My friends call me Kennedy." She sat on the library table, placing her black boots on the chair next to him and pulling out a pack of Mentos.
"Want one?" she asked. He shook his head. She held the pack to her lips, using her perfectly straight, white teeth to rip the wrapping off a quarter inch from the top. She popped the top piece of candy into her mouth, rolling it with her tongue slightly before biting down.
Pilot gulped. He couldn't figure out this girl in the slightest. "How did you find me?"
Kennedy's coy grin unwound him further. "Magic."
"Tell me the truth," he demanded.
She cocked her head to one side, her eyes never leaving his as she slid neatly into the chair next to him. "Why?" she asked. "The truth isn't as fun."
His expression didn't change. Nearby, the rustling of page-turning and the zipping and unzipping of backpacks distracted him. Students clicked and typed on their laptops like the good little students they were. He needed to be doing the same, and yet here he was, getting engrossed in a mystery of a girl.
He tried to look menacing, but Kennedy laughed at him. "Will you lighten up? I asked one of those cute water polo boys if they'd seen you, and they led me right here."
Pilot breathed a sigh of relief, turning her perfectly reasonable explanation around in his mind.
"What about the number thing, and the note...?"
"The number was written in invisible ink. I figured you'd find the second note after the ink had already faded." She smoothed her black skirt with her hands, but it still barely covered the top quarter of her thighs. "It was a little prank, that's all." Her eyes landed on the black leather notebook sitting at his table. She picked it up. "Pilot—"
"How do you know my name?"
Kennedy raised her eyebrows, tugging at the Mentos wrapper with her teeth again. "Everybody in the entire country knows your name." Pilot said nothing. She reached into her purse, pulling out a magazine and thrusting it across the table toward him.
Pilot looked down. On the cover, there was a picture of Brie in a blazing blue dress placing a single red hibiscus on his mother's coffin. He was there, too, in the background of the image, standing tall with a stoic expression of support. The headline was about the siblings' recent free ride with James' car.
Pilot opened the magazine and flipped to the article. "Under pressure from Milena van Rossum's death, Pilot and Gabriella van Rossum lash out by stealing James van Rossum's Aston Martin Volante," he read out loud. "There's a lot of 'van Rossum' in that sentence."
"A car accident is the first stop on the path to ultimate destruction," Kennedy said mischievously.
Pilot tried to settle down. Everything she'd told him so far made sense; her story checked out.
Besides, she was a gorgeous girl who had gone out of her way to get his attention. He could tell he was blowing it with her by being defensive.
He shook his head. "I'm so sorry," he said. "I'm such an idiot. Paranoid."
She batted her eyes at him. Did girls still do that? She did.
She popped another Mentos into her mouth. "I didn't realize my little joke would freak you out so much."
Great. Now she thought he was a wimp. He cleared his throat, wishing he could start the conversation over. "Thanks for finding me. I wanted to meet you at the tonkatsu place, but I didn't have the nerve to introduce myself." Pilot shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "Do you go to Punahou?"
Kennedy laughed. "I graduated from Iolani last year."
Pilot's eyes widened. "How old are you?"
"Seventeen. I skipped two grades in elementary school." She bit off more of the wrapper from her Mentos pack. Pilot wasn't sure where the paper was going; he didn't see any wrappers lying on the table, or a trash can nearby where she could throw them.
"Impressive. You must be smart." Pilot tried to stop staring at her mouth with great difficultly.
"Or persuasive." She laughed again. Pilot wondered if she was subtly making fun of him. Why else would she be laughing every other sentence?
"So we're close to the same age."
She grinned. "Sort of." She held her notebook up. "Now that you don't think I'm some nut job stalker, tell me something. Why did you take my notebook?"
"Why did you leave it for me?" he asked.
She peeked out from behind the curtain of pale tresses that fell across her face. "Because I knew you'd take it."
Pilot tapped his pen against the table. "I took it because I wanted to know who you were." He pointed the pen cap at Kennedy. "Your turn now."
She tucked the black notebook into her purse. "I already answered your question." She rested her elbow on the table and twirled her hair around one of her fingers.
Pilot frowned. "I'm not going to get another answer out of you, am I?"
Her eyes sparkled. "Nope."
He stared at her. Kennedy's cat-and-mouse game was unraveling him in a way he didn't expect. He had never met a girl who oozed with confidence the way she did. She wasn't afraid to be assertive around him, not like other girls his age.
Her eyes flickered around his table, like she was taking in every little detail about his workspace.
She nodded to the tattered book sitting in front of him. "How's your book treating you?"
"This? It's pretty cool." He grimaced as soon as the words came out of his mouth. What a lame response.
She picked up the book, flipping through it as if she were looking for a particular page. "Do you read Greek?" she asked.
"Uh, no." Was she serious?
"Then you missed the best part," she said, laughing again.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
"Your faces," she said, smirking. "You make lo
ts of faces. I bet you don't even realize it."
He puckered his lips involuntarily, and she laughed again. He started to bite his lip, then stopped himself.
"Oh," she said. "Don't be embarrassed. I like your expressions. They're cute." There was a flash of vulnerability in her eyes, but it was short-lived. "Just like you are," she said, "though, I think with that spiky brown hair and those emerald eyes, 'sexy' is a much better descriptor." She grinned at him.
The oxygen from Pilot's lungs vaporized. She likes me. Pilot sucked in air slowly, trying not to show any signs of nervousness. She was nothing like any girl he'd ever met. He felt excited about the possibilities, but also nervous. His emotions had been through the ringer in five minutes with her.
"Here," she said, pushing the book in front of him. She traced some old script with her fingers.
"This is an enchantment."
He looked at the foreign words. "You can read that?"
She stared at him intensely. He tried to hold her stare, but her eyes were like liquid metal and he could feel himself sinking into them. He looked away first.
"Not really." She laughed again. "There's a translation scribbled in the margin." She leaned in closer. "It's a recipe, of sorts. It brings the myths in this legend to life."
Pilot looked down at the story. " The Selkies and the Shark Men," he read out loud. It was one of the stories he hadn't read yet.
"I remember it from grade school. It's the tale of two families that are forever feuding over the land and people of Oahu." Kennedy's eyes gleamed. "It says here that the only thing we need to cast the spell is the gem from the cover of this book."
Pilot flipped the book shut. "But it's missing," he said.
"Of course it is," Kennedy laughed. "Do you think they want just anyone to awaken an ancient feud that's been dormant for nearly a century?"
"Who are they?"
Silver Smoke (#1 of Seven Halos Series) Page 9
