by D. R. Perry
" I'm sorry, it's kind of my job to be a jerk. My manager really doesn't like it when parental units ask to speak to him." He shrugged. "Them's the breaks, I guess."
"Oh, good gracious me, is it really so awful working here?" Cadence folded her pale hands, then used them as a pedestal to rest one side of her head on. She blinked, her turquoise eyes like the sea. Which makes sense, ‘cause she’s a mermaid.
"Yeah, this is the best and worst summer job in Salem. But what can you do?" He shook his head. "This job is sort of a requirement for me."
"I guess everyone wants more money." Cadence sighed, sounding sympathetic. Practically everything she says, whether word or noise, comes off sounding like exactly what you want to hear. It's all part of her mermaid mojo. "Easy come, easy go."
"She wouldn't know anything about that." Noah turned his head, pausing beside the Skee-Ball machine. "Cadence's family is super-important. Rumor has it, they've got mountains of clams."
"Noah!" I tossed my crumpled straw wrapper at his head, and for once, he didn't manage to duck in time. "It's my freaking birthday, and you weren't invited, so just leave already."
"Whatever." Noah rolled his eyes for the five hundredth time that day. "You'll have to put up with me and my attitude at home later." He faked a pout. "So there."
And with that, my obnoxious older brother flipped his jet-black shoulder-length hair to one side, slapped his last token on my table, and sashayed toward the exit.
"What's his problem?" Izzy scooped up the token, bouncing it in her hand.
"I don't know. But you'd think he was my younger brother, the way he tags along everywhere we go." I chuckled. "And that attitude."
"He's your brother?" The curly-haired guy blinked. "That guy there?"
"Yup."
"I'm sorry."
"Oh, it gets worse." Cadence sighed, batting her eyes.
Why was she flirting with this guy? It shouldn’t have mattered to me. She was the flirt of the group. I'm awkward and gangly, and Izzy just isn't interested in boys. Or girls either, for that matter.
"Do you know they're going to the same prep school in the fall?" Cadence dropped this line while somehow managing to brush right past the heartrending elephant in the room.
Which was that we three besties would suffer social amputation from each other, come September. But I couldn't blame her. I'd have tried forgetting that too if I could. That was impossible because Izzy, Cadence, and I had an epic friendship history that had started in kindergarten. We thought it would never die, but Izzy didn’t talk about it all last year. For a divination psychic like her, that silence was a literal bad omen.
The Arcade's newest summer employee stood there with his mouth open like Cadence had slapped him in the face with a fistful of minnows instead of dropping hints about our educational apocalypse. He stared at me with eyes like fancy cups of coffee on saucers.
"First you tell me you're Noah Morgenstern's sister, then I find out you're starting Hawthorn Academy right along with me this fall?" He grinned. It looked so good on him, I wondered whether he was using a glamour or something. But he couldn’t be. Changelings didn’t go to Hawthorn. "Hi, I'm Dylan Kahn."
"And that's important because?" Izzy snorted. I noticed her hand inside the little black backpack she always carried. She was probably about to consult her cards. My psychic friend Isabella Mendez always brought sass along with her predictions.
"Because I don't know anyone here in Salem." He leaned against the table, speaking to me instead of my friends. "It's one reason I had to get a job this summer. My parents won't let me be a total introvert anymore."
"That's the lamest pickup line she's ever heard." Izzy slapped the card in her hand on the table face up. Thank goodness she didn't mention how it was almost the first pickup line I'd heard.
"Or maybe it's not a total failure." My psychic friend parted her fingers to show us the Two of Cups. It wasn’t even reversed.
"Oh, Izzy." Cadence clucked like a mother seahen. "I don't think your card has anything to do with this fellow."
Dylan's jaw eased, like the words were a refreshing sea breeze. But then, my merfriend continued.
"Even if he is trying to flirt with our birthday girl," Cadence said, winking, "I've got mermaid's intuition that something else is going on here."
"Uh." Dylan's hands wrung the hem of his Salem Willows apron.
"Why?" Izzy tilted her head, eyes on the mermaid.
"Because that's the same card Noah got when he found Lo—" Cadence emitted a squeak like a dolphin's.
"Holy—"
"Mother—"
They were all cut off as I bolted out of my seat. Something touched my shoulder, and not just any something. It felt cold and slightly sticky, like a spiderweb, but it wasn’t one. It was too thick and had sinew in it; strength, direction, and purpose. I sucked in air, just knowing I'd let it out in a scream the next instant.
If Salem Willows management would chew me out over flipping the bird, they might ban me all summer if I cussed a blue streak in there, so I did the only thing I could think of.
I bolted.
The Salem Willows Arcade had wide-open doors, like an auto garage except there were Skee-Ball and claw machines and video games inside. That made it easy to flee the scene plus what- or whoever had me by the shoulder. I didn’t even have to dodge too many people because elementary and middle schools were in session for another week.
Anyway, all this was beside the point because my attempted escape wasn't working.
The wind rushed past my ears, but behind me, something whooshed overhead. It was like getting dive-bombed by a seagull looking for errant tater tots, and the thing was still on my neck. I ran faster.
My feet just barely hit the pavement as I hightailed it out of there. I wasn’t using magic. I conjure fire, not air. It was just a side effect of trying so hard to get away. The moment I reached the edge of the grass near the veterans’ monument, I stopped, dropped, and counted on my friends to help me with whatever creepazoid had me by the shoulder. And also, the hair.
Except they didn't. Instead, I heard a trill from Cadence and wheezing snorts from Izzy. They laughed, which meant I wasn’t in mortal danger, so of course, I lifted my heavier-than-usual head to see what was so funny.
And that was when I realized something was sitting on my head. Maybe more like perching. I almost batted it away when a red-gold scaled head, upside down, dangled in my face.
"Peep?"
"Sorry, I don't speak dragonet." I waved my hand. "Shoo!"
Yeah, that's right. A dragonet had goosed and chased me. And after all that, the little magical critter wouldn't leave me alone. The tiny winged lizard didn't shoo, scram, skedaddle, or get off my head. Just hung there, peeping in my face.
At least the critter held on with its claws retracted.
I waved both hands over my head this time. I didn't want to hit the dragonet but wanted its grip on my hair to release. The pulling sensation hurt a bit. I was rewarded for my effort by the critter plopping into my lap, strands of my obnoxiously brassy blonde hair dangling from the creature's toe scales. Both my pride and my intentionally messy bun were a wreck.
My friends had stopped laughing, at least. That was a good thing because I'd have told them to shut their traps. The dragonet sat up in my lap, tail flailing as one wing extended and the other dragged like a flag in a rainstorm. My stomach sank as I wondered whether this innocent creature had been injured because I’d freaked out.
"Poor thing, your wing's hurt." I reached out, offering it my arm because everybody knows you don't just grab animals or put your hands near their mouths. "Come on, I know just where to bring you."
The dragonet hopped up on my arm, favoring the injured wing. Rounding in the hindquarters suggested she was female and young—like me. I blinked my stinging eyes, hoping I could stop crying. I wasn’t one of those super-expressive people, and I almost never tear up while reading or watching a movie.
Somehow, I
practically felt the magical critter's pain and misery. No, that wouldn't do. Ember was her name. A wave of relief washed over me as I examined her injured wing, which was twisted, not broken, with a small red sore. Ember would recover if she got proper care.
"Where are you going, Lee?"
"To see Bubbe."
My friends followed as I headed toward my grandmother's office. None of us drive, and Salem Willows was a ways from downtown, but the dragonet's injury wasn't immediately life-threatening. Getting there in time would be a piece of cake.
We crossed Fort Avenue a block early to avoid Irzyk Park, also known as Tank Park because its main feature was a decommissioned military vehicle. The local shifter gangbangers hung out there, and Noah always told us to stay away. Cadence's parents agreed.
Cadence looked over her shoulder at the thankfully vacant area, something she’d never bothered with until just a couple of weeks ago. I hoped she wasn’t thinking of introducing herself to the Tanks. That was what they called themselves. At least there was no such thing as a shark shifter, but you wouldn't have guessed that if you saw the way my aquatic friend stared.
"Cadence, quit it." Izzy, direct as ever, called the mermaid on the carpet.
"Just making sure the, um, unsavories aren't watching." She pointed out a crow perched on top of the tank. "Which maybe they are."
"Sure, whatever you say." Izzy snorted. She did that an awful lot, but I hardly blamed her. If she were a beverage, Izzy would be water. Direct, to the point, and exactly what you needed most of the time. Cadence was more like a cosmic coolatta.
Ember peeped again, clinging to my arm with little talons that were sharp like a baby's nails. I understood her renewed distress as we approached a busier area. Magical critters could camouflage themselves, but dragonets needed to fold their wings in order to look like mundane lizards. She couldn’t, and that put her on edge.
Everybody had known about magic since before I was born anyway, so I wasn’t worried about getting in trouble. Just about Ember getting nervous and hurting herself.
The only way I could help was by adjusting the strap on my bag so it hung partly in front of Ember's back and hindquarters. This settled her a bit, which was good because the last thing I wanted to do was drop her.
"Just a few more blocks, okay?" One corner of my mouth twitched, but I couldn’t quite manage the reassuring smile Bubbe would have worn.
Ember blinked, then lowered her head to rest it on my arm. I took that as a good sign.
At the corner of Forrester and Hawthorne Street, we stopped for traffic and then crossed. Half a block down, we took a right after Izzy's house and headed behind it to number ten and a half. Bubbe's office was on the first floor, and my family all lived upstairs in the top two stories.
My arms were full, so Cadence opened the door for me. That was nice, even if she added in her signature flourishing curtsy to show off as I passed her. There was only one reason she'd showboat like this—someone was watching us. I looked over my shoulder.
All I saw was another crow perching on the awning of the antique shop across the street. Or maybe the same one; I know magical critters, not mundane birds. If it were a bad omen, Izzy would have said something. There was no time to ask Cadence about her sudden-onset aviary obsession with an injured dragonet in my arms.
Chapter Two
Bubbe was in the back when we got inside. I knew because I heard her singing to one of her patients behind the door separating the exam room from the waiting area. That was no problem because she'd see we came in on the magipsychic security system. My grandma was pretty high tech for an older lady who’d learned her magic decades before the Great Reveal.
I sat down to wait, Ember cradled in my arms, and a less on-key rendition of the same tune Bubbe sang in the other room coming out of my mouth. It was a good thing I didn’t want a performance art career. Some extrahuman folk have had great success along those lines, but I'd never be one of them, and that's okay.
I didn't want to be Irina Kazynski or Lane Meyer. Instead, I wanted Bubbe's job, which was helping animals. I just had to get a B+ average or higher at Hawthorn Academy so I could get into Providence Paranormal after I graduated.
Ember got downright clingy, tail curled around my arm like a copper bracelet as she leaned against me. She used my breastbone as a pillow, and it was absolutely adorable.
"You've got a new scaly bestie." Izzy peered at me from behind one of her tarot cards. I had no idea which one because it faced her. She put it away. "Familiar material."
"Yes, Isabella, you soothsaid all of this at the Arcade if I'm not mistaken." Cadence nodded in a way I assumed she believed was wise. Her chestnut curls bounced, making her look about as sage as a sorority pledge. Maybe that was a bad analogy, and not just because my Mer-friend looked nothing like Barbie. The gal from that movie about the blonde law student was in a sorority, and she had a giant brain, right?
"Maybe." Izzy shrugged. "That two of cups might have meant something else, but this is a sure thing. You and the scaly critter might already have a bond."
"That is so cool!" Cadence bounced on her toes. She did the same thing with her tail when she was in the ocean.
But my seagoing friend was only this expressive with positive emotions. All her turmoil (which I suspected was vast) stayed hidden. For about the millionth time, I wondered how she handled life with a foot on land and a fin under the sea. I probably wouldn’t manage going between an exclusively magical school and my regular townie life as handily.
I was very thankful for my friends. We always got through everything together, before. For a hot minute, I dared to think this year would be no different.
And then all my gratitude toward the universe and its ineffable movements crashed around me as I remembered how I'd barely have time to see them once this summer was over.
Before I got maudlin enough for Izzy and Cadence to notice, Bubbe stepped through the door behind the counter.
My paternal grandmother wasn’t all arms and legs like my mom and me. Instead, she was built along the same lines as Dad, which meant petite yet comfortingly solid. Her hair was bobbed and curly, a trait she also shared with my old man, but unlike him, she dyed all her gray in a variety of punk-rock hues. That week it was bubblegum pink.
Bubbe was my role model in just about everything, though biology had dictated long ago that I'd be nothing like her physically when I'm fully grown. At that moment, I couldn't imagine stronger life goals than following her career path.
She carried a dropper bottle filled with pearly blue liquid, which meant the critter in the back was another magical reptile. Bubbe's always had a soft spot for the critters most people avoid, like serpents, salamanders, spiders, and of course, dragonets.
"Bissel, who have you brought in today?" She peered down at the dragonet in my arms. I couldn't bring myself to roll my eyes at the diminutive, which meant "little bit."
"Bubbe, I'm practically a giant nowadays." The weak protest was all I could muster. I leaned forward, giving my grandmother a better view of my little friend. "Anyway, she's a dragonet. I'm calling her Ember for now."
"It's the wing, I see." Bubbe turned sideways, gesturing toward the door she’d emerged from. "Come along, girls."
I walked carefully past my grandmother and toward the door. Izzy and Cadence glanced at each other, hesitating. They'd never been invited into the back at Bubbe's. When Cadence took a step forward, Izzy put out a hand to stop her, but my grandmother shook her head.
"Isabella, you're like family here. Cadence, too. It's about time you got a look at how all of this works."
"Wow, thanks, Doc Morgenstern!" Cadence clapped her hands. I would have too if mine hadn't been full of small, cute, and scaly. I'd always wanted them to see how awesome extraveterinary medicine is.
"Yeah, thanks." Izzy's bluntness came from being brought up in a psychic shop, watching her parents work while being seen but not heard Of the three of us, she always fought change the hardest.
In the back, there was a hallway with a series of half-doors. What I mean is the doors all had bottoms and tops which open and closed separately. Most were closed all the way, but a few had only the bottoms shut. Bubbe called them Dutch doors.
I turned my head to the right as we passed the first half-open door. Inside was a Grim. Those weren’t the sort of magical animals who can be familiars. Instead, they're pure faerie creatures who usually live in the Under unless they've got an agreement with a psychic Summoner. Some of them were totally sentient like Gnomes or even smarter than average humans and extrahumans like Brownies, but Grims were pretty much like regular dogs. Plenty of folks were scared of them, but I always thought they were awesome.
"Whose is that, Bubbe?" I jerked my chin at the shadow beastie.
"Oh, I'm just sheltering this Grim here today as a favor to a visiting friend." Bubbe reached out and pulled the top half of the door closed. "Just for a rest while my friend is sightseeing. Too bright a day for an Unseelie creature to be out and about comfortably."
"That's awful nice of you, Doc Morgenstern." Izzy smiled, then elbowed Cadence. "So, I guess having psychic friends runs in your family."
Cadence gave Izzy a stiff sort of nod.
"And merfolk, too, Cadence." I reached out to grab her hand, squeezing. Her smile widened as it eased. "Anyway, it's really nice of you to help like that, especially during the summer when it's busy, Bubbe."
"It's not quite so hectic yet." My grandmother dropped us all a wink.
As if to disprove her point, a tinkle of chimes sounded in the air beside Bubbe's head. She tapped one of the moonstone studs in her earlobe and the music stopped.
"Magipsychic earrings! Cool!" Cadence beamed again.
The merfolk had spent most of the last thirty years avoiding us landlubber extrahumans and all the integration we've done with the rest of the world's population. Her family was one of only a few who had living space on land. She said it was because her family did important diplomatic work with the land-dwellers.
My grandmother blinked three times, activating the device that let her see the waiting room. I was shaky on the details of how that worked because I was a future animal doctor, not a magipsychic engineer. Whatever she saw out there had her turning on her heel and power-walking back up the hall. Of course, I followed her all the way out into the waiting room.
