Avery’s voice broke. Avery knew she shouldn’t trust him, but she wanted to trust him, and she’d give him a chance.
“We need to talk. Alone.” She finally said. Unable to sit still anymore, she began to walk toward the beach leaving Mason to slowly follow.
Fourteen
“You do know what ice cream is, right?” Avery finally felt the need to ask after Mason continued his stare down with the double chocolate mint scoop of ice cream in her hand.
She’d been watching him since they’d arrived at the Edy’s shop just off the beach. She’d walked them far away from Chase’s place, knowing her brother had a habit of eavesdropping, and stopped at a stall that seemed like a good place to talk. People were all over the beach, but none really lingered in ear shot while paying more attention to the wanna-be singer belting out off-pitch songs or the model worthy girls prance in their skimpy red bikinis.
It was scolding hot and thickly humid outside, and there was little shade over the patio furniture where they sat. She would have even sprung to pay for his ice cream too, just to get any relief from the weather, but he’d adamantly refused.
“Yes.” He scoffed but never moved his eyes away. “Does it seem like an appropriate time for ice cream?”
The mood killer making her scowl, Avery glanced out towards the beach line.
“Well, we’re two weirdos wearing Alaskan coats on a hot day. Yes, eating some ice cream would help us blend in a bit.”
“We’re not the only ones with coats.” Mason said.
He apparently didn’t like being called a weirdo even if his choice of an ankle length trench coat was ridiculous. He’d picked out a jacket with awkward crosshatching patches that didn’t quite pull together right. The gawkiness of it actually gave him some strange charm and fit him as a harpie. It didn’t help blending in though, and Avery knew it would attract odd looks.
“Fine, don’t have one.” She said with a childish hotness and began to eat before the treat completely liquefied in her hand. She might have been stalling from the serious, looming conversation, but Mason wouldn’t let her forget it.
He leaned over the table, nearly flipping the flimsy metal, and whispered.
“We’re still in danger Avery. They could have followed you here.”
She sighed, already uncomfortable in the glaring sun and this was only making her more frustrated.
“I think you missed the point of this Mason. I’m not telling you a thing until you tell me the truth, the whole truth.”
“I have.”
“I’ve talked to your sister!” She spoke above him. A few passing heads whirled at the increased volume and Avery reluctantly shut up and leaned back in her seat. Only when the tension drained long enough did a white faced Mason speak.
“What’d she say?” He asked in a tentative voice. His demeanor shifted again, slipping away from the hot headed Mason she knew to something of a more vulnerable one.
His eyes had even glazed and his shoulders slumped, drawn into his chest. His wings twitched under his coat and he kept shaking his knee until the nervous activity made the table tremble. Avery mulled on her answer for a moment.
“She told me about the night Jericho died. That it wasn’t an accident.”
“It was an accident.” He interrupted.
Glowering, Avery set the ice cream cone flat on the table. Wrapping her arms around herself, she scrutinized him harder.
“It was.” He seconded his own comment when she refused to answer.
He explained further. “Okay, how about this. I’ll tell you my version and then you compare.”
When she nodded, he launched into the story.
“I fell in love with Adalyn. But she was betrothed from a young age and as long as she was, we couldn’t marry. And then Eva came along... she told me if I called our father out into the open, she’d steal that stupid amulet. Then she would break up Adalyn’s engagement with her connections.”
Avery stuck a finger up to stop him and said something about the next part.
“You hired the Band to kill him?”
“No. You’re wrong again. You can’t listen to Eva! Eva lies!” He growled.
The allegation sounding so familiar, the déjà vu threatened to make Avery nauseous. Eva said Mason lied. Mason said Eva lied. It felt like she was dealing with children but lacked the parenting skills to get the real scoop.
“Breaking up someone’s engagement doesn’t mean killing them. It’s easy in the harpie world. They’re all about banishment. All she’d needed to do was give any reason for the authorities to believe Adalyn’s fiancé was less than... honorable. Like if he’d associated with the Band of Thieves. That rumor alone could have done it and that did. The fact that he showed up dead almost a week later had nothing to do with me.” Mason protested vehemently.
“And what about Jericho?”
Mason leaned back in his chair and cast his eyes towards the cracked concrete patio.
“I didn’t call Jericho out to get murdered, Avery. I would never have thought, no matter how insane my sister would turn out to be, she would have let that happen. They were only supposed to take the amulet. He fought them over it and then they killed him. It happened so quickly. I didn’t think he was ever in any mortal danger. He should have just given it up.”
Mason’s voice sounded particularly raw and his eyes had glazed over with thought. She almost didn’t want to interrupt whatever was going through his mind but she still needed to figure things out.
“And that’s when you decided to get it back. Was it to save your father’s legacy after all or did you just want to salvage your relationship with Adalyn?”
He glanced at her wearily.
“Does it matter now?”
“Yes. Because if it was Adalyn then I’m not entirely sure I can trust you anymore. I am the amulet. Are you going to give me to the harpie court if that means you could get Adalyn back and your banishment removed?”
His eyes shot up and he glared at her, clearly offended.
“I said I’d protect you!”
“Yea but you also went out of your way to tell me a whole romanticized story about what happened with Jericho. You’re leaving things out all the time.”
Mason stood up so suddenly, he knocked his seat back and made Avery flinch. Pressing his palms flat on the table, he leaned forward.
“Don’t judge me for leaving things out Avery. I watched you lie to Leela’s face every day about Nate. You’re the same way.”
Avery didn’t know how to react to that so she didn’t. Letting out a deep breath, she looked away from him.
“Fine.” She finally admitted and Mason corrected his chair and sat back in his seat. “But you have to make a deal with me.”
He cocked his head at her proposal and she met his eyes again.
“We have to stop this secrets stuff. This amulet thing is dragging out a lot longer than we’d expected, so we need to trust each other.”
Mason nodded firmly. Before Avery could say more, the seat between them abruptly moved. A girl sat down to join the conversation and it took Avery a minute to recognize her. Adalyn had let down her curly blonde hair and adorned heavier makeup. Wings tucked away under a clenched black coat, she looked small and lean. She frowned at Avery with hot red lips and blinked at her through heavy eye mascara. Mason didn’t even so much as look up indicating he’d known the blonde had been nearby all along.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” Adalyn said stiffly and her eyes flickered over Avery and Mason.
“We’re just figuring some things out.” He said.
“Well then I don’t want to rain on your parade but I don’t think you need to figure anything else out with this girl. We’ll have to find another way to remove your banishment.”
“What do you mean?” Avery snapped out, quickly upset by the comment. Adalyn didn’t even look at her but kept talking to Mason.
“So guess what I found out. Apparently this girl here at
tacked a marshal. He put two and two together. She has magic in her body and she knows you. The police now know that Prince Jericho’s Willow amulet runs in the form of a human girl. Do you know what that means?” She didn’t wait for them to ask. “That means they’re going to think the problem is out of your hands and take it into theirs. Do you know what they would do with a human girl that attacks police? Especially considering she might be working for the Band of Thieves? Whatever they decide, it won’t be good.”
“What?” Mason and Avery must have gasped in unison, but she jumped up out of her seat first.
“I didn’t attack anyone!” She hollered. Hurt and helpless, she was having trouble processing the news.
“Avery, wait! What happened?” Mason spoke above her hysteria.
“It was on the...” She slowed, knowing she had to start from the beginning. “Your sister picked me up and brought me to this place called Hatcher Pass. Her boss-- or some higher up, I’m not sure-- wanted to see if he could use the magic. It’s hard to explain but he almost showed me how to manifest it. I could actually use it.”
She thought it was amazing but Mason’s scowl indicated he did not. He let her keep talking.
“Anyways, then a bunch of police showed up to get the Band. I used the opportunity to run and then one of the police grabbed me. I didn’t want to hurt him, I just wanted to leave. So I kind of...well I guess I did attack him with the magic. But just so he could let me go. I didn’t know that he was hurt.”
Mason took awhile to answer, clearly thinking it over.
“I know you didn’t try to hurt him Avery.” He said at first, at least making her feel better. “But the more you use the magic, the more danger you put yourself in. The last thing we need anyone to think is that you can be a weapon.”
“Yea, but the Band thought it was useless when they saw what I could do. It’s just been growing stronger recently. And the mark is getting worse.” To prove her point, Avery slid off her jacket. In the bright sunlight, the contrast against her pale white skin stuck out even more than usual. “It’s not just my arm anymore. It’s my entire right torso. It keeps growing and getting darker.”
“This is bad. We need to find a solution quickly. If it’s growing this fast, we may not be able to stop it and take it out.” Mason hissed.
Avery already knew that but hearing it sent chills down her spine.
“Mason, we have to leave soon. We can’t deal with this right now, remember? We know where she is so we can come back later when you actually have answers.” Adalyn said, apparently choosing that moment to remind him of some apparent undisclosed appointment. Mason grimaced but agreed quietly.
“Wait!” Avery shouted, instantly worried they’d leave so suddenly. “Uh, what do I do if they find me before then?”
“Worst case scenario, I guess you can fight them without using the magic.” Mason finally offered.
Adalyn snorted, rocketing forward in her seat to sit at the very edge. She was obviously expecting a show and based on her smile, a humorous one at that. Avery backed off and hovered, uncertain.
“What do you mean fight them without magic?” She inquired partially dreading his answer.
Mason dropped into a fighting crouch to demonstrate something but all it did was make attention come their way. Avery tried to ignore it, hoping that a six-foot-something guy wearing a trench coat wouldn’t warrant anyone calling the police. Mason didn’t care.
“Look, there are two things you have to remember. Harpies’ biggest weakness is their wings. The wings are both easily accessible and easily injured. If you take their wings out, they can’t fly and that puts you on a more even playing field.”
“She doesn’t have any talons, Mason.” Adalyn prompted and Mason shook her comment off.
“It’s not that hard. You can do it with a harpoon, a knife, a stick-- just get creative.”
Avery was horrified to hear it. She pictured Mason’s injured wing, a harsh bloody red, that barely healed over in a few days time. She couldn’t grab a knife and do that to somebody else. Avery was human, lacked the viciousness of harpies, and the violent images just didn’t sit well with her. If Mason noticed her face turning green, he didn’t comment.
“So, otherwise you have to remember that harpies don’t weigh much. We have a lighter bone density than humans to help compensate for flying. So when it comes right down to it, brute force is a good way to go. Just hit them.”
“No way, I’m not good at that either.” She curled her fists and raised them to make a point. Bone density or not, Avery would more likely break her fists than use them right.
“You don’t have to punch them.” He said.
She dropped her fists, confused.
“Wait, are you telling me to like...use my body as a battering ram?” She tried to understand.
“Yes. But really, it won’t come to that. I’ll protect you, remember?” He chimed.
Mason gave her a smile and Avery’s heart fluttered. Alarmed, Avery squashed the feeling immediately. He hadn’t been hitting on her, just teaching her how to fight, and her heart was over reacting. At least Avery tried to convince herself of that. Feeling guilty, Avery refused to look back at Mason’s fiancé for fear of giving her thoughts away.
“Take this.” Mason came forward and pressed something warm and rock hard into her hand. Barely glimpsing, she recognized it as a sapphire blue amulet.
“A homing device?” She asked.
Mason shrugged.
“No, it’s probably closer to what you call a telephone. We’ll be in touch.”
Unable to stall him any longer, Avery watched them leave.
Fifteen
The suffocating scent of must and mold exploded in the air as she flipped the flimsy browned pages. The heavy text remained legible even though the binding of the book fell apart in her hands. She carefully shut the book and looked over the faceless tarnished cover again.
“Is this all you have?” She peered across the long reference table to where the Emo librarian dabbled on the computer. Headphones wrapped over his ears, Avery was surprised when he could even hear her.
He glanced up at her through the glare on his heavy glasses and shrugged.
“Sorry, but harpies aren’t a hot topic outside of Greek mythology and I already showed you those.”
His attention drifting away instantaneously, Avery cut her losses and gave up. She glanced at the digital clock above his head. A quarter till one meant Chase would get out of class soon. Her brother let her tag along to his school and she’d figured she’d poked around at the university’s library a bit. Shelves packed to the brim made up every layer of the four story building. And even with a whiny helper, the library produced virtually nothing, legend or reality alike, on harpies.
Cradling the book the librarian gave her, she maneuvered past the chattering crowds of students and towards her spot. She’d picked a desk near the back, buried behind the stacks, so she’d have the table with three wooden walls on either side. Initially, she’d thought doing harpie research would be easy, but thus far Avery hadn’t had much luck. The original mention of harpies came from Greek allusions to the subject. And all those books mentioned them as no more than tiny feathered bird creatures.
The only two viable mentions from the first book were about vicious temperament and sharp claws. Maybe she’d have more luck surfing the web for strange encounters and paranormal babble. Angels could have been another subject line she could have followed up. Flipping the new book open, she scanned the tiny text for any hint of something familiar. A single word caught her eyes.
“Magic.”
Excited, she fumbled with her pen cap and readied her yellow note pad.
“Magic had long since been affiliated with creatures such as harpies… the lore gave way to modern thought that theorized that a potential concentration of energy could be used to manifest different phenomenon… in simple terms, a concentration of energy could create magic.” Heart pounding, she couldn�
�t write quick enough and her shaking hand made her shoddy print more like shoddy cursive.
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