Starlight

by Lauren Jade Case

  Peri closed off and Natalia didn’t bring it up again.

  Until night fell around them, they danced and sang and danced some more – mostly forgetting what they could. Each rhythm Natalia knew the steps to, the tunes familiar, and Natalia couldn’t help but wonder if her mother had influenced her knowledge somehow. Had she taught or hummed them to Natalia when she was a baby? But how could she have memories of them when they’d spent so little time together? Natalia’s mother died just two months after giving birth.

  When the majority of the crowd began to disperse, Natalia and Peri linked arms. They found Alex along the way to the house, and she assured them she would be fine with Farai and would make her way home later.

  The girls’ swayed their hips as they walked, music still riddling their bodies. If Natalia could take one thing with her from Atlantis, she wanted it to be the music. How the instruments made her very soul feel alive, how each note was like being summoned by a pied piper that she longed to dance over the hills with, how every end came with a new beginning.

  They passed a house with wooden boards instead of windows. Natalia gasped.

  “Is that…” Peri trailed off.

  Natalia’s eyes travelled along the devastation. “I think so.”

  “It’s no bother,” came a calm, suave voice.

  Natalia twirled, finding a man wearing a black suit standing slightly off to the side. A large purple iris was pinned to his shirt – Natalia knew it meant “wisdom and royalty”. Natalia would’ve guessed he was mid-twenties at most, the street-lamps illuminating his handsome face. He smiled and it made him appear even younger, his eyes alive with some sort of awareness.

  “Is this your house?” Natalia questioned.

  “It is,” he confirmed, his accent definitely English.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said, knowing no apology could reverse what she’d done.

  “Don’t be silly,” the man waved her off. “I’m just hoping you didn’t hurt yourself on the glass.” He watched her intently, waiting for her answer.

  “I’m fine.” Natalia’s scratches had been patched and there really hadn’t been anything worse. She took her eyes off the man and rested them on the blocked-up window. “Were you inside?”

  “No, actually. I was out of town. I came back this morning to find it boarded.” He touched his iris. “I was told what happened, and I know it was an accident. Don’t worry yourself over it. Creatures get into messes all the time. I remember a friend got slammed into a car back in London once.” The man took his hand from the flower and pulled keys from his jacket pocket. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s been a long day. I hope to see you around, have a lovely evening.” He unlocked the door but turned back to add, “Those that didn’t make it to today’s sunrise will not be forgotten. Nothing was your fault.” He ran his eyes over Natalia’s face as if seeing something there, then slipped inside.

  Natalia’s mind flashed with the images of the fallen Creatures but she shoved them away, knowing the man was right. Those incidents weren’t her fault. While they were tragic, that any loss of life was unfair, all Creatures had the same Purpose: to rid the world of Monsters. They’d simply been fulfilling theirs. It just hadn’t gone to plan.

  The girls didn’t speak on their walk, they didn’t need too; all between them had been said.

  Peri barely knocked on the door before it swung open. Archie laughed as he watched Peri sway, promptly helping her inside when she tumbled into the doorframe. When Peri was seated on the stairs, Archie offered a hand to Natalia. She accepted despite clearly not being as buzzed as her friend. But how? Had three cups of that lemon drink been too much? What was even inside it? Natalia had forgotten to ask. Whatever it was, Peri was feeling the effects more than Natalia was.

  Once Natalia was inside, Peri and Archie quickly became distracted with one another. Natalia hid her grin as they walked away, then jumped at an unexpected arm around her waist, a hand brushing her cheeks gently.

  She was spun in their arms and Jasper smiled down at her, tracing his thumbs along her cheekbones. The green of his eyes was enchanting, an encapsulating spell only they could create. His wavy hair seemed longer, not enough to disturb his eyes and cover his entrancing stare, but long enough that it came down to touch the top of them, more so when he grinned.

  “Are you alright?” he whispered.

  She searched his face. “I’ve been worse.”

  He let her face go and surveyed the dust, her dust, coating his palms. “Are you sure?” he questioned. He stepped closer until the tips of their shoes touched. “You seemed flushed.”

  “I don’t think I would be if you weren’t so close.”

  Jasper smirked and Natalia was relieved, like things between them were still normal. After being carried last night, she’d feared what he’d say or how he’d act, as if it might’ve given him an excuse to no longer be around her. Clearly her assumption about the situation had been wrong. And she was glad for it.

  “Daisies,” his eyes left her face for her dress, “for new beginnings.”

  She noticed the flower he wore on his black jacket. “A chrysanthemum,” she commented, running her fingers over the delicate petals. “For joy and optimism. They’re my favourite.”

  “Are they really?”

  “Which bit are you asking about?”

  He smiled, illuminating his entire face. “If they’re your favourite.”

  “My mother liked them too apparently.”

  Jasper brought his hand up to hers, a spark igniting under his fingertips. He guided her hand around his neck, weaving her closer, then did the same to her other hand until her fingers interlocked behind his head. Natalia’s heart stirred like a caged lion, or like a chick waiting to take its first flight; the nerves and the power raced through her until it was all she had to hold.

  “We should dance,” he suggested.

  Natalia’s cheeks dusted again. “Should we?”

  “This festival is about dancing.”

  Jasper slipped his hands around her waist, holding her as if she would hurt him, not as if she herself would break. The entire time his gaze flitted between his hands and her face, making sure she was ok with his actions.

  “Actually,” he continued, “it’s about letting go of your past year and going into a new one with a full heart and desire to reach for what you want. The flower, or flowers, you choose are supposed to represent your ambitions for the new year.”

  Her eyes travelled down her dress briefly. “A new beginning.”

  “Is that what you want?”

  His smile was infectious, so she returned it when she answered. “Yes.”

  “Then you understand your own kind. You understand what you desire and what you want to see this year, making it yours, and so you’ll reach to the stars for it.”

  They began to dance with ease, moving in time to their own cadence without music to direct them. They held one other as if the other completed their secrets and thoughts, ones that they harboured separately yet made complete sense when together.

  “I didn’t know you could dance,” Jasper said. He spun Natalia away and back again, catching her hand on return, holding it to his chest. She could feel his heart pounding.

  Natalia’s stomach squeezed. “You did.”

  “Just an inkling.”

  Her stomach pinched. “It’s more than that.”

  “You are a Fairy,” he said, looking at her approvingly. They stopped dancing but didn’t move away and Natalia’s heart drummed frantically. “I saw your ballet slippers in your room.”

  She unhooked her hand and moved away. Jasper’s hand lingered in the air for a moment before he pulled it to his side. His look of disappointed quickly changed to curiosity when Natalia started undoing her shoes. Her dress skimmed the floor and she threw the shoes into the corner once they were completely off.

  “You’re going to have to help,” she half demanded.

  He visibly swallowed. “What?”

&n
bsp; “You didn’t ask, but you want to see me dance.” She stood taller, her back straight, legs ready to start at a moment’s notice, her arms poised to guide her.

  Jasper’s green eyes glimmered. “It would be my pleasure.”

  She tip-toed to him, putting her hands on his shoulders. “I haven’t tried this since the day you broke into work’s kitchen.”

  She waited for him to say he’d never broken in, but Jasper only grinned.

  The hairs along her arms stood on end the same way they used too. She sucked in a lungful of air, heart hammering, and focused on control. This wasn’t a performance for a stage and that was more nerve-wracking.

  She bobbed to flat feet and then back up to tip-toe. As she stood tall again, she threw her left leg back at a ninety-degree angle from her body – a left leg arabesque. Her skirts rose and she twisted herself around. Jasper’s hand grabbed her ankle while in motion, and she stopped, her body facing away from him.

  When she bounced her left leg, Jasper let go, and she rolled her body. Three times she twisted herself over. Then, she stopped. She spun on her right foot in a pirouette, her hair whipping her face as she went three times round. She drew her left leg to her right, and then pushed it out in another upward sweep, motioning for Jasper to join the dance.

  He pulled her towards him, his hands clawing up her leg, and, as her body flattened against his, he lifted her, spinning; he had one hand by her bent knee that was sticking out and the other at her waist. Natalia was his arms, his face in her neck, his breath bewitching her heartbeat.

  Natalia bent her arms around Jasper’s head, gliding down as slowly as he lowered her. When her feet were grounded, she spun round. She saw in his eyes that if she were to jump, he’d catch her.

  So she jumped.

  Jasper indeed caught her in his arms and she glided through the air. She was a dove above an endless ocean, her mind among the stars as she floated through space, and her heart was not done playing the game she couldn’t lose.

  They repeated the same move twice; both times Natalia spun then jumped, her arms wide, her face to the ceiling, and her body at Jasper’s mercy.

  The third time was different.

  That time, he wouldn’t let her fly above him. She straightened out, wondering suddenly if she’d hurt him. Peering down, there was an incredulous smile on his face, one that said he couldn’t believe what was happening. Natalia shared the smile back.

  He lowered her with incredible mastery, his hands guiding up her legs, her skirts rumpling around her body. Her body pressed against his until her face was inches above his.

  She rested her hands on his face. Just like she’d wanted to since the first moment she’d seen them, her fingers delicately traced his freckles. The more she danced across his skin, the more he seemed to smile. His eyes wandered over her face, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing and wanting more of it, and they lingered on her lips. Her heart thudded like it was struggling to keep up.

  “You’re not bad,” he whispered.

  “Is that all you have to say?”

  “There’s a lot I want to say.”

  A sliver of hair fell near his eyes and she brushed it aside as he lowered her further.

  When at last her feet touched the ground, Natalia drew herself to him, tilting her head. Jasper mirrored her; his eyes continually danced to her lips as if checking something. As their eyes began to shut, their faces, nearing, the door banged open.

  Their faces sprang apart. The lingering touch of his hand against her back sent sparks along her skin, the origin of an explosion bursting inside her chest which had been left unignited.

  Dust sprang to Natalia’s cheeks when Alex, grinning like the devil, appeared in the doorway. “Did I interrupt?”

  “Would you care for my answer?” Jasper retorted, an underlying annoying coating his tone.

  “I wonder if that’s the work of Lemonspark,” Alex wiggled her eyebrows, “or not?” She walked off whistling without explaining what she’d come for.

  Natalia looked up at Jasper, finding him stone faced. “What’s Lemonspark?”

  He broke from his trance and stared back at her, pushing his hair from his face. “It’s a Fairy drink served at the Flower Parade,” he answered. “There are few Crystals that Vampires and Witches can’t use, and the Spark is one of them. Only Fairies can use it. Its magic is added to lemon and other ingredients to make the drink. For Fairies, it’s not so bad. To other Creatures, it gives them drunk-like symptoms without having alcohol, but worse. More intense.” The hand on her back slid up, drawing her closer. “Natalia—”

  “It’s ok,” she cut in.

  Had the moment they’d shared been a production of Lemonspark? She knew she’d had some, that must’ve been what her and Peri had drunk. Had Jasper had a share of some? Had what happened been nothing more than a drunken scene? It stung to think about and tears readily formed in the corners of Natalia’s eyes. But why did it sting so badly? Uncertainty rested inside her heart, a beat she’d never felt before. It was like her heart knew something yet wasn’t telling her head. What was it?

  Once again, there was too much to try and understand. And, once again, Natalia found herself stumbling blindly on a path she couldn’t see the ending of. She blinked away the tears.

  “How about a drink?” Jasper asked, changing the subject. He took his hand off her back and held it out like a gentleman.

  She accepted it. “That sounds like a good idea.” Natalia tried to smile and wondered if it was cracked.

  “Drinking nearly always sounds good. But it takes some of us longer to actually get drunk.” As they reached the doorway, Jasper frowned. “I hope that didn’t make me sound like an alcoholic.”

  “I’ll keep an eye on how much you consume,” she promised.

  “You might have to organise an AA meeting.”

  “Because I have them on speed-dial.”

  He grinned and she descended into laughter. Moments later, Jasper joined in. She ignored the part of her that ached as they moved again.

  When they stopped laughing, Natalia could sense something was biting into Jasper’s mind; his smirk didn’t sit the same. But she didn’t ask. He respected her to come to him, so she would offer him the same leniencies. She trusted that he would talk to her when he was ready.

  The kitchen and garden – which flowed much like their Venderly home – were both full of people laughing and talking pleasantly. Jasper took Natalia to the cupboards and offered her several options before she settled on a glass of wine. Sipping it, she allowed herself to fall into the drink, letting it wipe her mind of her aches and worries.

  For the rest of the night, Natalia carried on. She danced with Noah – who now wore a smart shirt and a gerbera flower for innocence; he said it was because he is innocent of the world he now was in. Peri and Archie had twirled her around several times too, sometimes it was the three of them together in a chorus of joy. Her dad even tried to entertain her, managing to stand on the ends of her dress in doing so, but he never stopped smiling.

  She did give in and dance with Jasper again. This time less intimate than the last. They still had fun, evidence written into their smiles, but something remained between them, an essence neither seemed willing to break open over them.

  10

  Minds That Wonder

  Katherine’s Koffee and Kakes was calmer now that the Island’s children had returned to school for the summer season. Adults still came and went, so did the business moguls, but the families would only come on the weekends now.

  Natalia was thankful for the dwindling numbers. The few days she’d taken off had been during the half-term, and when she’d come back, the slog was nearly over. Nearly three had passed since her short-notice trip. Three weeks of running around the neighbourhood at night to build her strength and stamina, and baking in a sweaty shop or reading her nursing notes during the day.

  Mid-March was Natalia’s favourite time of the year. Full bloom spring was near
. As she baked in the back of the café, she could peer out the window and watch birds dive over the island cliffs. There was mowed grass to smell when a door was propped open and the sun would constantly feel warm the breeze.

  “How’re you getting on, Nat?”

  “Fine!” Natalia called back.

  Katherine came into the kitchen anyway. She smiled, her new pink lipstick rich on her lips. “I’m glad you’re back,” she said, sounding honest.

  Natalia took the tray of cooked white and dark chocolate cookies from the oven and let them rest beneath the open window. “I was away only for a few days,” she said. The trip had meant to be a few hours but it’d turned into a mini vacation she’d not packed for, but thankfully Sarah had given her a few things so tide her over at the time.

  “You better not be planning any more last minute road trips for a while.”

  “I hope not,” Natalia half mumbled.

  “In case you do,” the way she said it made it sound inevitable, “I’ve hired another hand.”

  Natalia spun on her boss. “What? Really?”

  For as long Natalia as had worked here, Katherine had gone back and forth about whether hiring more help was necessary. There had been another temporary worker, but they’d left before Christmas without notice.

  Katherine stepped aside. Noah stood there, braces showing as he flashed a dopey grin. Natalia glanced between the two of them. “Hey, princess,” he laughed.

  “He’s been begging me for weeks,” Katherine said, clearly faking being annoyed.

  “Noah!” Natalia cried.

  “Natalia!” He chimed back.

  “There’s something I need to discuss with you both.” Katherine’s voice was solid, almost grave sounding, catching Natalia and Noah’s full attention. She closed the door to the café, obscuring the view of the few customers. “When you left, Nat, I knew where you were going. And why.” Katherine spoke steadily, taking great care with how she worded things. “Not because your dad told me, but because I know the Council.”

  Natalia’s heart froze. “The Council?”