by Gabby Fawkes
“Theia!” Nik screamed. “A little help!”
I looked toward the buffet table. There were only two Vanpari still standing.
They grabbed Nik by the ankles and heaved him off the table. His back slammed into the ground. I winced.
I bolted for them, so fast I practically flew. I barrel-rolled into one of them. We went tumbling across the dance floor toward the DJ decks.
As soon as we stopped rolling, I leapt to my feet and swirled on the spot, searching through the strobe lights and dry ice for the Vanpari. He loomed up in front of me and slammed me hard into the wall, winding me.
Just then, bright colors somewhere to my right caught my attention. My eyes flicked toward them and I saw Heidi in her fuschia dress, cowering behind the DJ booth cradling her bright blue jay.
“Heidi, run!” I screamed.
She seemed paralyzed with fear.
When the Vanpari saw her cowering, he backed off. Which made it pretty obvious I was the intended target and Heidi wasn’t supposed to come to any harm. Even so, she didn’t need to see this. The trauma would stick around for years. Of course Geiser hadn’t factored his kid’s emotional health into the whole plan. Narcissistic psychopaths weren’t exactly known for it.
“Go!” I screamed at her again.
Heidi finally sprang up. Holding her blue jay in her hands, she darted for the archway exit.
But Nik and the Vanpari I’d left him to fight were right by it, pummelling one another, thrashing out blindly with fists and feet and teeth. Nik was using his Vanpari powers, moving like a blur, so fast it was impossible to keep track of him.
It all happened in a split second.
Nik had hold of the Vanpari’s arm and leg. He swung them, like a wrestler, in a wide arc.
The Vanpari collided with Heidi. She dropped the blue jay. Instead of flying away, the helpless newborn creature plopped to the floor. It let out one pitiful mewl of terror before the Vanpari staggered back and stomped it under his boot.
Heidi dropped like a stone.
24
“Drive, drive, drive!”
I leapt into the back of the van, dragging Nik in with me. Aaron yanked the door shut behind us and Lucas gunned the van, speeding us out of Geiser’s driveway.
As Nik collapsed to the floor of the van, a gash in his side started spurting blood all over the mandala cushions.
“Why’s he bleeding?” Cora cried, her eyes wide.
“Bleeding? Who’s bleeding?” Lucas exclaimed, his hands tight on the steering wheel. “In my van? Dude, that is so not cool!”
Retta grabbed a throw and pressed it into Nik’s wound. She looked up at me. “What happened?” she demanded.
“Don’t use that!” Lucas cried, turning to look over his shoulder. “That’s genuine Persian!”
“Focus on the goddamn road!” Retta yelled back. “Your hippy cushions can be dry cleaned.”
“As long as we don’t plough headfirst into a hydrant,” Aaron added, gripping the sides of the van as it swayed side to side perilously.
Lucas turned back to the front. We veered left, then right, weaving through the heavy traffic of New York City, speeding for the freeway that would take us to Harriman.
The stress of the situation clearly wasn’t doing Nik any good. His owl started flapping around above us, hooting in distress.
Retta ground her teeth. “Someone shut that damn bird up!” Then she glared at the back of Lucas’s head. “There’s only so much squawking I can cope with.”
Cora coaxed the owl down and cradled it in her hands. As the owl relaxed, the grimace on Nik’s face loosened too. For the first time since we’d leapt into the back, everyone stopped yelling.
“Okay, someone really needs to explain what happened back there,” Cora said.
“To state the obvious,” Aaron replied, “they clearly got attacked.”
“What happened to the goddamn plan?” Retta demanded. “Get in, get Nik, get out? Did you get sidetracked by the volovants?”
My chest sank. I felt bad enough already. I didn’t need yet more shame piled on my shoulders.
“It wasn’t that easy,” I said. “Someone wasn’t being cooperative.”
“Are you blaming me?” Nik cried. “Seriously? The bleeding guy?”
“I know who I’m blaming,” Retta interjected, flashing me angry eyes. “We told you to let us come in with you, Theia. We frickin’ told you it was dangerous!” She flapped her wings with annoyance.
“OW!” Nik screamed as Retta accidentally took her anger out by pressing down on his wound.
“Shut up!” Cora yelled, cutting me off before I had a chance to, well, blame him some more. “No one’s blaming anyone. Geiser’s the bad guy. This was all his plan.”
My mind flashed through the moments of the attack, and the horrible sight of Heidi plummeting to the ground. My heart clenched.
“Oh God, I hope Heidi’s okay.”
“Heidi?” Retta asked. “Geiser’s daughter? She got hurt?”
“Her familiar got stomped on. Familiars and Mages are psychically linked. If one gets hurt, so does the other.”
Cora’s red feathered wings flapped in distress. “Is she going to die?”
“Mages can survive their familiar’s death,” Nik said, his pained voice coming through gritted teeth. “But not unscathed. They can go mad, even end up with brain damage. If it’s newborn and the Mage is young…”
He trailed off.
I let my head drop. This was all my fault. I was the one who’d told Heidi to run. I’d been trying to protect her but I’d just put her right in the path of danger.
Suddenly, Lucas yelled out from the front. “Cops!”
The van made a sudden sharp turn to the right. We all tumbled into one another, elbows and knees knocking. Nik screeched out in pain and his owl took to the air again, flapping around, hooting in distress.
“Whoa, sorry!” Lucas called behind him as the van righted itself. “They were putting up roadblocks.”
Roadblocks? There was only one need for them — to stop people from leaving the city. And not just any people. Us.
A terrible sense of doom settled over me. “Turn on the radio,” I said.
Lucas turned the dial. The nasally voice of the local news reporter came through the speaker.
“We’ve just had news come in regarding a Vanpari attack on William Geiser’s home. Supposedly his youngest daughter, just fifteen years old, was injured in the attack. We’re going live now to the Manhattan Hospital where William Geiser is about to make an announcement to the press.”
Everyone in the van fell silent. A chill ran down my whole spine as I pictured Geiser on the steps of the hospital, Mom by his side, a tender hand on his shoulder, Conrad on the other side doing his best impersonation of a person who cared - while secretly trying his best not to smile.
The next voice that spoke was Geiser’s. “This afternoon, a group of Vanpari stormed my daughter Heidi’s egg-hatching ceremony in what the police have told me was a targeted attack. For the Vanpari to choose my daughter’s egg hatching celebration for this vicious attack shows just how callous these moon-class gangs have become. Both my biological daughters have been injured.” His voice cracked, right on cue. “Emerald will need reconstructive surgery. Heidi is in intensive care.”
At least my right hook had been strong enough to mess up Emerald’s precious face. But Heidi? That poor kid. She didn’t deserve any of this.
Anger peeled through my body.
Gesier continued, “It is with great sadness that I must announce my own step-daughter, Theia Foxglove, was leading the Vanpari who attacked us, and our close family friend, Nikolas Storm, son of the moon mayor, was working alongside her.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. Every pair of eyes in the back of the van locked on me and Nik. He’d gone as white as a sheet. No doubt, I looked the same.
“Well, shit,” Lucas said, his eyes flicking to the rear-view mirror. “What a ball
ache.”
My whole body went numb. I shook my head and it felt like it was moving through gloopy molasses.
“He’s pinning it on us,” I stated, my voice flat.
Retta grabbed my hand. The anger she’d thrown my way — rightly, I could admit now — had been replaced by unconditional support.
“It is time for Mayor Benson to step down,” Geiser’s voice continued through the radio. “His ineffective running of this city has allowed moon-class gangs to run rampant. It is time for a strong leader who will finally enforce the laws of the Twilight Curfew, so that no other family need suffer the way mine has on this very dark day.”
I looked down at my broken bow in my lap. Geiser had destroyed everything. My whole life, whatever relationship I had left with Mom, my bow and now my reputation. He’d tried to take my life but failing that, he’d gone for the next best thing: he’d made me a fugitive.
He’d done everything in his power to crush me. And he was going to keep throwing things at me until I was dead. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to let him win.
I pushed my feelings down and looked at Nik. “Do you have Elliot’s talisman on you?” My voice had become authoritative.
He nodded. “Yeah. Why?”
“When we reach Harriman, I’ll use its scent to find him.”
Nik raised his eyebrows. “Elkie can do that? Follow scent like dogs?”
“You can talk, Incisor Boy,” I retorted.
His jaw set firm. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out Elliot’s half moon charm, dangling it in front of me.
I snatched it from him. “See how easy it is to cooperate?”
“Wait,” Cora interrupted. “I’m Celestial. I can use it to conduct a real tracking spell. Like how I did with the bow during the seance. Not that your powers aren’t real, Theia,” she quickly added, probably in response to my automatically insulted expression.
“You’ve got to admit it’s better than you sniffing him out,” Aaron added.
“Sure,” I agreed with a nod, forcing away my feeling of being upstaged by Cora’s Celestial strength. Then I leaned forward and slapped Lucas on the shoulder. “Come on, pretty boy. Let’s put some pedal to the metal, shall we?”
25
The trees of Harriman were a welcome sight. As we gunned along the familiar streets, a sense of determination came over me. Being back on home turf felt like taking a shot of tequila; whatever shit a city slicker like Geiser threw at me, I could handle it.
I directed Lucas to my aunt and uncle’s house. The van spluttered to an abrupt halt in their driveway and its engine let out a sigh. After the bumpy journey it felt good to finally be stationary.
“Well, that was eventful,” Aaron said.
“Stressful is the word I’d use,” Cora replied.
He shrugged. “Give me cops and high speed getaways over spore dispersion any day.”
“The main thing is, we all made it out alive,” Retta stated. “Apart from this Persian throw.”
She held up the blood-soaked rag. I was pretty certain there wasn’t a dry cleaner in existence that could deal with that kind of staining.
Lucas narrowed his eyes and nodded at Nik, sprawled against the cushions. “Can we get him out before he bleeds on everything?”
I rolled my eyes and opened the van’s big sliding door. “I’d never have guessed you were so precious.”
Golden afternoon light flooded inside. I peered out and saw the front door to my aunt and uncle’s house was standing open. My cousins Juniper and Birch were already running out to meet us. The sight of them made my heart soar like a demon-dog with a bone. I leapt out of the van.
“Theia,” Juniper cried, slamming into me and wrapping me in her arms. “We heard what happened on the news. Are you okay?” She held me out at arm’s length, scanning me up and down for injuries. She looked perturbed at the state of me. “Get inside. We’ll put some of Gran’s healing balm on your injuries.”
Behind me, my dishevelled friends were climbing out the van.
“I brought my crew,” I said.
Juniper narrowed her eyes and scanned them with a skeptical expression. “Come in,” she said warily. Then in a teacherly voice, she added to me, “You have a shit ton of explaining to do.”
We dragged our exhausted asses inside the house. The smell of aunt Shanaya’s pungent perfume immediately hit me, filling me with nostalgia and melancholy.
“Mom and Dad are on a work trip,” Juniper said, herding us into the living room. “Thank God. I’d hate them to get embroiled in this. Whatever this is.”
We sank into the couches. I realized then that while it might be the afternoon, as far as Cora, Aaron and Lucas’s circadian rhythms were concerned, they should be in some major stage three deep-level sleep right about now. They looked frazzled.
“You guys need to go to bed,” I told them.
“Nah. We just need caffeine,” Cora contested, clearly trying to keep up her support.
I shook my head. “No way. I’m not having you three pass out from exhaustion. You’ve been up for hours.”
“We’re college students,” Aaron said. “Sleep deprivation is our modus operandi.”
“I’ll sleep,” Lucas countered. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head, his huge muscles bulging as he did.
“You all will,” I told them firmly.
Juniper, for all her skepticism toward the bedraggled moon-class strangers I’d just rocked up to her house with, wasn’t about to slip on the excellent host front. She leapt up, beckoning Birch to do the same. “Come with us. There are enough beds for everyone. Just be quiet on the stairs. They’re creaky and Gran gets cranky when her afternoon nap is disturbed.”
I watched Cora, Aaron and Lucas trudge up to bed.
Once they’d gone, I found a little pot of Gran’s healing balm in a drawer and handed it to Nik. He started slathering it on the wound sliced into his abdomen. It looked terrible; red, angry, and very painful. If only we had an Adarna Demonborn to hand. Or a hospital. But since we were now fugitives, a pot of stinky herbs was about the best we could hope for.
“So,” Retta said in a firm voice, “I think we need to address the elephant in the room. Or should I say the Vanpari in the room.” She flicked her cool eyes over to Nik.
“Really?” he replied through a wince. “You want to have this conversation now?”
“You lied to us,” Retta replied without missing a beat.
My eyes widened. She was pretty brazen. I couldn’t help but admire her ability to just come out and say the thing that I was too caught up in Nik to say myself.
“I didn’t set out to lie,” Nik said. “I just didn’t know how to tell you. With everything that’s going on right now, it doesn’t feel safe to just say that stuff aloud. What if you guys had turned on me? Exposed me? It would have put me and Mom in danger.”
“So it was about protecting your mom?” I asked.
“Partly,” he said. “We’ve always had to hide her being Vanpari because everyone will claim she used manipulation powers to become moon mayor.”
“You said partly,” Retta commented. “So what’s the other part?”
I caught Nik looking at me.
“I didn’t want you to think any less of me,” he said.
I quickly looked away, feeling a huge blush warm my cheeks.
“So this was about impressing Theia?” Retta said with a smirk. “Ironic, considering she has a thing for your type anyway.”
My burning cheeks became roaring infernos.
“You can talk,” I teased. “You have a thing for Sirens.”
“Every woman, man and frickin’ grandma has a thing for Sirens,” Retta replied.
My attempt to deflect the attention from me was clearly working. I ran with it. “Then why’d you end it with Lucas?”
“I had to. Mom was mad about us dating.” She lowered her voice. “Not that he knows that’s why. He thinks I just went cold on him.”
“Your mom didn’t want you dating a Siren?” I asked. “Why?”
Retta flashed me her you’re-an-idiot look. “Because they live in the ocean, dummy. Beyond needing a lifelong magic spell to prevent drowning, ‘land folk’ — as they refer to us — aren’t welcome down there.”
“Land folk,” I said with a chuckle. “Is that on your list of offensive terms?”
“Yes. Because it’s intended to be offensive.”
“But if Lucas is living overground, he can only be part Siren, right?”
“Wrong,” Retta replied, with a wicked glint in her eye. “He’s all Siren. Believe me. I’ve seen e-ve-ry bit of him.”
Her gaze went very far away. Nik coughed a laugh into his hand. She snapped back to reality.
“Anyway, his parents only let him study overground because it looks good on his resume. And he’s only here to get a break from them and the overbearing underwater society.”
None of us “land folk” really knew how Siren society worked. They were notoriously private. After disagreeing to the terms of the peace treaty, they’d pretty much cut themselves off entirely. No one even knew how big their population was these days.
“But after he graduates,” Retta continued, “he has to go back to the murky depths.”
“What if he wants to stay overground?” I asked. “I mean, he probably does, right? To stay with you. He practically foams at the mouth everytime he sees you.”
“Well, I am gorgeous,” she said, earning herself an eye roll from Nik. Then she sighed. “But that’s just not how it works. He had to go back and, I dunno, do his duties or whatever.”
Listening to Retta’s explanation made it clearer why she’d warned me off getting in too deep with Nik. There would be consequences. A sun Mage-Elkie and a mixed Mage-Vanpari were never going to have a happy ending. In this current climate, it didn’t even seem possible to have an innocent romance between classes. Not that romance was on the cards for Nik and me anymore. We’d been squabbling like two crotchety grandmas ever since the party.
Just then, Juniper and Birch came back into the living room. Birch was carrying a tray with a coffee pot and mugs, which he placed on the table.
