Wayward: St. Croix Falls Book 1

by Melody Personette

  Lilac finished her stretching as Mia approached. The girl flashed her a nasty grin. “Ready to be publicly humiliated in front of the whole school?”

  Mia smirked, squaring her shoulders and raising her chin. She was not going to let Lilac scare her away. “Are you?”

  Lilac sneered and flicked her ponytail as she spun on her heels and marched to the starting spot. A tall, graceful girl with corn yellow hair stood in front of them with a flag in her hand. She hopped up and down excited from foot to foot. “You guys ready?”

  “Obviously,” Lilac snapped.

  “Yeah,” Mia said, ignoring the fact that she hadn’t had time to stretch like Lilac had. It didn’t matter. Mia could still beat her. This was going to be a piece of cake. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Angie and Kai standing to the side, Kai watching with excitement while Angie’s expression remained cautious and concerned. Beyond them, Mia’s eyes roamed to where Rhett stood. Still away from the crowd and on his own. Like some kind of social pariah. Everyone ignored him, and those that noticed him stepped away, making it obvious they wanted nothing to do with him.

  “Follow this path,” the girl said, gesturing behind her, “and whoever loops back around and comes through there,” she pointed at a path a few feet away, “wins.”

  Mia turned her attention back to the matter at hand.

  “Alright, on the count of three,” Corn Haired Girl said in her perky voice.

  “One,” she called.

  All the murmurs and whispers died out.

  “Two.” Mia got into position, seeing Lilac do the same from her peripheral vision.

  “Three!” Corn Haired Girl waved the flag.

  Mia pushed off with everything she had. Unlike her other races where she paced herself, Mia knew that wasn’t going to work with Lilac. Lilac didn’t seem to have any qualms with running out of energy and speed near the finish line. She quickly surpassed Mia, who ground her teeth and put on a burst of speed to fall into stride beside her. Like before, Mia could almost feel the Earth beneath her. The dirt and trees and creatures. She could feel the energy spring up from the ground and fuel her legs and body. They got to the corner all too soon and Mia made a sharp turn, knowing she could make it. The turn gave her a second of an advantage as Lilac fell a few strides behind her. Just enough for Mia to grin and speed up. She could do this. Why did anyone doubt her?

  They’d never seen her run, she reminded herself. They had no idea that this was what she was best at. This was what she loved. And now they would all know it too.

  Her grin widened as she saw the opening coming up. It felt like it came up too soon. She couldn’t be going that fast, could she? Mia knew she was faster than the average person. The fact that at some of the races she had to slow herself down and force herself to get second or third place made it obvious she was fast. But this fast? That didn’t seem possible. And yet here she was. Running like the wind with the forest on both sides blurring past her.

  Suddenly Lilac came up beside her. Her hand shot out. Cheat. Mia scowled and jumped out of the way without losing her footing. She buckled down and pushed herself even harder until she knew – could feel – Lilac several strides back from her. Just enough for Mia to win. It would be a close call, but she would win.

  And with a massive grin, that was just what happened. Mia flew out of the woods and into the parking lot to the sound of shocked cheers and laughter. She kept going, taking a moment for her to slow herself down. One time, she’d made the mistake of putting on the breaks too soon and she’d nearly flown head over heels into the dirt. Mia slowed to a stop and bent down with her hands on her knees, gasping in air.

  “You did it,” Kai shouted somewhere in front of her. “You actually beat her.”

  Mia wanted to say, “did you ever doubt me,” but she was too out of breath. Before she could even lift her head though and grin up at him, a hand shot out and grabbed the front of her shirt. “You’re a cheater,” Lilac snarled into her face, shoving her and making her lose her footing.

  Mia gasped in surprise as she tripped and hit the ground hard. Lilac loomed over her. An animalistic, inhuman growl came from deep in her throat.

  “I didn’t cheat,” Mia gasped out. “I won fair and square.”

  “You’re dead,” Lilac growled. “You made me look bad in front of everyone.”

  She made a move to grab Mia again, but before Mia could jump away or do anything, a hand shot out and grabbed hold of Lilac’s arm. “Hey now,” Rhett murmured in a dangerously low voice. “Don’t be a sore loser Lilac.”

  Lilac jerked out of his grip and rounded on him, her hands fisted at her sides. Mia had legitimately thought she was going to make a move to punch Rhett. The whole parking lot had gone deadly silent and all Mia could do was sit on the concrete watching the two of them have a stare off. A power struggle between the two of them Mia didn’t quite understand.

  Even with his sunglasses on though, Rhett was the more imposing figure. Lilac was the first to break the contest. She sneered at him and then at Mia. “Whatever, this doesn’t mean anything anyways. You’re still a loser and you still don’t belong here,” she snarled at Mia.

  She then turned her piercing gaze to Rhett. “And you, you should learn to mind your own business and stay out of my way. You don’t belong here anymore either. You lost your right to have anything to do with any of us a long time ago. So back off.” With that, she whipped around and stomped off, her friends scurrying after her.

  Mia watched her go, still breathing heavily when Rhett appeared in front of her and offered her a hand. She accepted it gladly and let him pull her to her feet. “I told you,” he said, smirking. At last he pushed his sunglasses up into his hair, showing off those dazzling, enchanting green eyes.

  “You did,” Mia rasped out, touching her chest where her heart pounded. “For a second there I thought she was going to try and strangle me or something.”

  Rhett snorted humorlessly. “I wouldn’t put it past her. But hey, you won. That was impressive. Very impressive.”

  Mia was already sweating like crazy and hot, but his compliment only made her face warm even more. “Thanks,” she murmured. “Running’s what I do best.”

  He grinned, winking. “I can tell. I’ll let you celebrate with your friends… See ya around Mia.” With that he sauntered off and more than a small part of Mia wished he would have stayed to celebrate with her.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Though Mia feared for her life a few times while getting a death glare from Lilac in the halls, she was infinitely glad she’d beaten her at the race. Everyone at school stopped glaring at her and whispering about her as she passed by. They all accepted her now. A grudging sort of acceptance of realizing she was there and there was nothing they could do to get rid of her. It almost reminded Mia of a dog pack. Once you show your dominance, that you’re not to be messed with, you're accepted. Weird but it works. It made Mia’s life ten times easier and less stressful.

  However, her victory was overshadowed by the fact that her mother and Cillian had grown closer over the past few weeks. Mia still wasn’t sure how this had happened, but whenever she stopped by the store, Cillian was almost always there.

  They had a date apparently which didn’t Mia wasn’t overly happy about. Her mom was super pretty with glossy chestnut hair and creamy tan skin, and the kindest, most compassionate blue eyes… but Cillian? He was a different kind of attractive. The dangerous kind. The kind that Mia wasn’t sure if she wanted her mom anywhere near. Too bad it didn’t matter if Mia wanted her to hang with him or not. She tried to voice her opinion but each time, her mom either laughed it off or waved her concerns away saying she would be fine.

  The morning of their little get together Mia’s mom had left for the bookstore, so Mia got ready for school on her own, unable to stop replaying all the warnings she’d gotten about Cillian. She liked him, and she didn’t think he was as bad as everyone said he was but… Mia didn’t want to bet her mother on that
.

  By lunch time she was ready to ask Angie and Kai what they thought of Cillian. Like for real, all cards on the table, honest opinions. Mia’s paranoia was also just starting to drip away with there having been no sightings and no killings in the last few weeks. It was one less thing to think about. Not that she could or ever would forget the attack and the strangeness surrounding it. How those vines had come up out of the ground from nowhere and tangled around her ankle, how Rhett’s tea had healed her, and the police had been quietly involved. None of it could ever completely leave her thoughts. Mia had tried to bring it up with Rhett a few times since. Every time he shut her down or just plain walked away. But sometimes… sometimes she saw a painful expression on his face like it hurt him to not tell her the truth. Just because he felt bad didn’t excuse him, though.

  Mia rounded the corner to her lunch spot. Angie and Kai weren’t there yet which wasn’t a surprise. Kai liked to hang out with some of his friends, which Mia had found out were actually cousins of his, before lunch, and Angie was getting everything ready for the big end of school dance thing in a few weeks. She, of course, was in charge of the whole dance committee. So, for the moment Mia had their little lunch spot to herself. Or at least that was what she’d thought.

  Just as she sat down and started to unpack her food, a gang of girls appeared from around the building, led by the insufferable Lilac. Mia’s nose wrinkled at the sight of the all too pretty girl with her purple box braided hair.

  “Can I help you, ladies?” Mia asked, giving them a rosy smile.

  Lilac flashed her a nasty smile right back, flicking her hair over a shoulder. “Actually, we were just looking for you,” she said.

  “Really?” Mia got to her feet, brushing crumbs from her sandwich from her hands. “What can I do for you?”

  Lilac shared a smirk with her two friends with equally colorful hair on her left and right. “We just wanted to make something clear.”

  Suddenly she was right in front of Mia. In a blink of an eye, she stood toe to toe with her. Mia gasped, jerking backward. Her back scraped painfully against the brick of the school building. “How did you…?” The way she’d moved… it wasn’t natural.

  Lilac’s smirk grew as she traced a finger along Mia’s collarbone where her maroon crystal sat. “Poor little oblivious Mia. Don’t worry, we’ll fix that. Dahlia?”

  The girl to her right with black and green dreadlock braids stepped forward and handed Lilac something. Fear pounded through Mia, filling her with adrenaline. What were they going to do? Stab her in the back parking lot of the school?

  But just as Mia opened her mouth to scream, Lilac held her hand out palm up in front of her lips and blew. Silver dust flew through the air. Just as Mia sucked in a breath for a scream, all the dust got sucked in too, rattling in her throat. Mia gasped and grabbed her throat, hacking painfully. She could feel the silver flakes coating her lungs and flowing down through the rest of her body.

  Lilac laughed. “This is what happens when you mess with me. And tell Rhett he’s not in charge anymore.”

  With another flick of her hair over a shoulder, she swaggered away with her court of girls right behind her. Once they were out of Mia’s blurring vision, she collapsed to her knees. She couldn’t breathe. She felt like the dust was expanding and choking her. Her eyes burned like her tears were liquid fire. Mia gasped, letting out a sob of pain. What was happening to her?

  “Help,” she rasped, falling onto her hands now as she began to dry heave. “Help.”

  Why had they done this to her? What kind of sick drug had that girl just blown into her system? Everything burned. Her face, her hands, her throat. She felt like Lilac had given her flakes of fire to swallow and they now ran through every vein in her body.

  Mia let out a choked sob, her thoughts catching fire as well. Her arms gave out, and she collapsed completely to the ground, curling in on herself. She gripped her head as if protecting the outside of her body would save her from the inward burning.

  Minutes… hours… seconds passed before Mia heard the crash of something hitting the ground and someone scream her name. Delicate hands who shouldn’t have the kind of strength they did were on her and forcing her out of the fetal position. Mia started crying all over again. She couldn’t remember when she’d stopped but now, she couldn’t hold back the fiery tears from leaving her scorching eyes. Mia squeezed them shut but not before catching a glimpse of the worried face of Angie.

  “What’s wrong with her? What do we do?” a male voice asked.

  Another shutter of heat ran from the pit of her stomach down to her toes and up into her head. Mia let out a scream and buried her head in someone’s shirt. Arms wrapped around her. “Oh my stars, Mia. Kai, go get Rhett. Now!”

  Kai took off running while Angie rocked her back and forth, holding her head. “You’re going to be OK. Hold in there.”

  Mia let out a choked sound between a groan and a sob. “It hurts… make it stop…”

  “It’s OK. You’re going to be OK. Rhett will know what to do,” she said pulling her in closer.

  Mia was pretty sure she blacked out because when she opened her eyes next, she was taken from a world of blissful cold and darkness and brought back into a world of fire and pain. She writhed, fighting against the hands gripping her face. “Amelia, you need to open your eyes. Please, open your eyes and look at me. I need to see,” Rhett coaxed, his voice urgent and low and soft all at the same time.

  Mia shook her head, grabbing at his arms and holding them there. They felt cold against her skin. So cold they chilled some of the fire within her. “No, no it hurts,” she cried.

  “I know. Mia please, just for a moment, please,” he begged.

  The desperation in his voice set off alarm bells in her head and forced her to obey. Mia pried her eyes open and like she’d thought, they burned with excruciating pain. She let out a scream and tried to shut them but not before two hands flew out and held them open. Worried and frenzied bright green eyes stared right back into hers, studying them frantically. There was something different about him… His face seemed more angular and when her eyes darted to Angie’s face, she thought it looked… shinier.

  “Rotting roots,” he swore and let go of her eyes. Mia slammed them shut and sobbed, burying her face in his chest. Strong arms wrapped around her.

  “What’s wrong with her?”

  “Someone gave her undeluded silven dust,” he growled.

  The girl gasped. “What do we do?”

  “I… don’t know. But I know someone who will. Come on Mia, I’m going to get you help,” he said, getting to his feet and pulling her into his arms. Mia buried her face in his chest, gripping his shirt like her life depended on it.

  The world around her drifted in and out. She only caught snippets of conversation.

  “We can’t take her to him,” someone whispered frantically. “He’ll ask for something in return.”

  “I don’t care,” Rhett snapped. “I’ll pay anything.”

  Mia drifted into blissful, cool darkness only surfacing every once in a while, long enough to hear pieces of dialogue or feeling someone pry her eyes open to drip something into them. And then Mia was able to fall back into the cold darkness.

  She wasn’t sure how long she slept and when she woke up, she didn’t really care. Mia was just happy that when her consciousness did surface that there was no more pain. No more burning either. If anything, she felt colder than usual.

  Shivering, Mia grimaced and slowly sat up where she’d been laying on a plush black couch. Multi-colored glass lanterns hung from the ceiling illuminating a storage looking room. How had she gotten there? The last thing she remembered was Lilac appearing and blowing some kind of drug in her face. She vaguely thought she remembered people calling her name and someone carrying her. Someone strong and cold, who she felt safe with. Racks of boxes lined the walls and bits and pieces of oddities were scattered across the floor.

  An uneaten Chinese food box s
at on a black table against one of the walls surrounded by papers and bags of herbs and jars full of different colored gunk. Mia rubbed her head and set her feet on the ground. She stood up and swayed slightly as the whole room blurred for a second before coming back into focus.

  Her stomach churned like she might throw up, but Mia needed to know where she was. She scanned the room and found a door behind her. Mia made her way over to the door and opened it to find herself… in the back of Strange and Unusual, Cillian’s shop.

  How in the world had she gotten there?

  Mia shut the door behind her and scanned the shelves for Cillian. Humming came from near the front of the store. She followed the sound to the front desk where she found him hunched over papers scribbling something out. There was something different about both his ears. They were pointed.

  “Cillian?” Mia asked, her voice coming out raspy from all her crying and screaming.

  His head suddenly jerked up and spun around to face her. Horror unfurled inside Mia and she stumbled back a step, her hand flying to her mouth. Cillian… did not look like Cillian. His ears really were pointed and his eyes… they were glowing yellow cat eyes with the slit pupil and all. When his lips stretched into a smile, she saw abnormally sharp canines, like cat teeth.

  All of it looked like a too realistic Halloween costume. “If…if this is some kind of twisted prank, it’s not funny,” she whispered, taking another step back.

  Something deep inside her told her this wasn’t a prank. She would love to believe it was. Mia would love for Lilac to jump out and laugh at her. For Cillian to pull contacts out of his eyes and remove plastic fangs from his mouth, but deep down she knew that wouldn’t happen.

  Cillian’s eyes widened, and he held his hands up. He rose slowly from his chair as if she were a scared animal. “Ah yes, silven dust has that effect. Mia, I can understand how alarming I must look right now but I promise I mean you no harm. I only want to help.”