by Ellie Margot
“Trader?” asked Riette.
“She buys and sells things, people. Whatever will fetch the highest bidding.”
“Sick fucks,” said Mekhi.
Trinity laughed. “Yes, they are. I can’t stomach the idea of them anymore, and I never will again.”
“You don’t have to,” said Cassian. They shared a small smile with each other.
“What was the Siren like?” asked Riette. She took a step closer, and something crawled on the underside of her skin, rippling through her as the heat burned brightly on her shoulder.
“He was your standard Siren, I’m told. Hotter than sin, a killer, but hearing him? I can never un-hear it.” Trinity said as she shook. “I’ve tried.” She looked toward Riette. “They had him in a tank. Like a breathing lung. Thick as anything, with glass, so he could watch us ignoring him, leaving him in there like a fish on display.”
Riette didn’t breathe.
“And he cried. At nights. He sang the song when Leaf Landing was quiet. That’s the only time I heard him.”
“You didn’t help him?” asked Corin.
Trinity turned toward her. “What could I do? If I let him out, he’d die, and if he stayed in there—”
“He’d still die,” said Riette. She gritted her teeth as her hands curled in tighter fists at her side.
Trinity looked back. “Emma liked him, in her own way. She didn’t even sell him when the time came. She left in the middle of the night, taking him with her.”
“Like a fucking zoo animal,” said Riette. She turned away.
“But he sang your song,” said Trinity. Riette turned back. “At night, in the quiet house, he sang that song, and I felt like I was going mad hearing it. I had to put things in front of my door.”
“He needed you,” said Riette.
“If I had any mercy in me, I would have killed him,” said Trinity. “Being sold is no way to live.” She stood taller.
“You said this Emma cared for him?”
“The sale didn’t go through. Everything else is conjecture, but I saw the way she looked at him. It was—” Trinity paused and looked at Cassian. “It was like she couldn’t stop herself from doing it, and that was not Emma. I know that.” Trinity turned away. “Besides, you don’t mess with Sirens. She was foolish. They cause your ears to bleed, give you the sickness. This Siren was sick, but he was still powerful.”
“The playing fields weren’t even,” said Riette.
“And if Emma had any sense at all, she would never let him out of that cage unless she was setting him free. Anything else would be suicide.”
“Shit,” said Mekhi. “You did go through it. Didn’t you?”
“You have no idea.”
Chapter 26
Riette went back to fixing her tent. The others went to their stations, but when hers was erected, she saw a shadow being cast across her enclosure from the outside.
She poked her head out to find Cassian standing there, biting his lip.
“Did you need to come in?”
Cassian looked her over from where she sat on the floor. “Let me see your hand.”
Riette got out of the tent and stood in front of Cassian.
“That sounded awfully close to an order,” said Riette.
Cassian looked behind him and then back at her. “I need to see it.”
“So you are in boss mode?”
“Riette, don’t make this hard,” Cassian said, and he reached his palm out toward her.
She watched him for a moment before she placed her hand in his. The tremor was still there, rocking her hand even as she tried to steady it in his.
Cassian closed his hands around it and didn’t look up at her.
Riette watched expressions form and disappear on his face. The night was dark around them. The air was cool.
She adjusted the shirt on her shoulder with her other arm, but it did nothing to stop the breeze flying in through the hole on her shirt.
Cassian tried to steady her. It didn’t work. He moved her hand closer to his face and watched her skin.
Riette watched with him, and then she saw what had kept his attention. There was a shimmer of light running over her skin. It wasn’t always there, but a tremor would happen, and the ripple of light, like a current running over her skin, would shine and then disappear.
“I didn’t see that before,” said Riette in a quiet voice.
Cassian looked up at her but didn’t release her hand. “We can’t fix this.”
Riette took her hand out of his and put it on her hip.
He looked at her face, her left eye specifically, and his focus on it was making her twitch.
“I’m not a science experiment,” said Riette. There was a forced lilt to her voice, but Cassian ignored it.
“I was hoping somehow that it didn’t happen. That if we came here and we acted normal, we could ride it out, and you would go back to normal.”
“I was never normal,” said Riette, but Cassian didn’t meet her smile with his own.
The others came out of their tents. A fire pit was in the center of their setups, and Guy was tending to it. Trinity stood by him.
Riette watched them. There was less hesitance in her chest when she didn’t face Cassian. It wasn’t his presence that made her feel this way, but she couldn’t pretend when he was looking, and that bothered her.
She needed to pretend to stay sane.
Guy and Trinity were talking. She couldn’t hear them from where she stood, but she saw Cassian’s attention follow her lead. Words were shared between Guy and Trinity. Her face was pulled in a frown, and Guy didn’t look happy. He ran a hand through his hair and spoke again.
Riette wished she could read lips, but when she thought she was starting to get a grip on the task, she spoke instead. “What do you think they’re talking about?”
“I couldn’t tell you,” said Cassian, but he didn’t change his focus.
Riette considered him. “Are you jealous?”
“It’s hardly the time—”
“There’s never a good time for feelings like that. It doesn’t invalidate them.”
Cassian looked down at her before looking back, saying nothing.
“You don’t know much about her,” said Riette. “I don’t mean anything by it, but it’s there all the same.”
Cassian kept his eyes on Trinity from across the flames that flickered between them. “She’s been through a lot.”
“And you like to save people.”
He looked at Riette. “I never can save you.”
Riette had heard the words before, and they still stopped her. “You don’t have to.”
“Your mother could,” said Cassian. “She just might be the only person on the planet that can.”
Riette opened her mouth to speak, but Guy joined their party. There were lines in his jaw from gritting it too tightly.
“You okay?” Riette asked.
Guy said nothing at first, but he looked over his shoulder to where Trinity was walking to join them.
“What’s going on?” asked Mekhi.
“We need to go home,” Cassian said softly after a moment.
“He thinks mother will save me,” said Riette. “I don’t even know I’m in trouble.”
“Whatever is going on inside of you is changing you,” said Cassian.
“Maybe even at a molecular level,” said Guy.
Riette looked at both of them, and then saw Trinity frowning.
“I’m fine.”
Cassian reached out and touched her face. “You’re burning up and glowing. None of this is okay.”
“Well, it might have to be. If Mother can’t fix me—”
“She can,” said Cassian.
“We don’t know that,” said Riette.
“She’s right,” said Mekhi. “She might just kill us for leaving.”
“For all we know, you’re dying right now. In front of us, and we’re not doing anything about it.”
“W
hat’s bringing on the sudden urgency?” asked Corin. “Did something happen?”
“She’s glowing, and her eye,” Cassian said. “Everything about this is urgent. How can you all not see this?”
“Cassian, I’m fine. I’m riding it out.”
“Prove it.”
Riette stopped. “What?”
“You think you’re okay. Show me. Show me you’re in control of whatever is surging through you.”
“I don’t do tricks.”
“Pretend we’re at home in the training center,” said Cassian. “When you were asked to blow stuff up, you did. Do it again.” He walked a few feet away and picked up a rock. He brought it back and laid it at her feet. “Blow it up.”
“Cassian.”
“Riette.”
They stared at each other for a beat, and then Riette sighed.
“Fine, I’ll blow it up. Shit.” Riette closed her eyes and felt the energy pulling at her shoulder from the inside. It had never really left, so the connection was made easily.
When she used the powers of the earth, it was like she was pulling several strings inside of herself. The fire powers were a different breed altogether, but she concentrated on her base earth powers and felt her body hum as the cords inside of her tried to come together.
Where there were normally two lines she had to pull together, now there felt like a third, but it was one that was just out of her reach.
Riette strained. She pulled against the current she was riding inside of herself. There was a humming in her ears. She didn’t hear the sea, but she felt the salty mist on her face, even though she knew that wasn’t possible.
Riette opened her eyes and focused her energy on the rock in front of her. Then she started to feel it, and so did the others. The ground started to shake.
“Uh, Riette?” Mekhi started.
She concentrated on the rock, even as the world seemed to shift around their feet. A spark flew out of her hands unprovoked, and she tried to harness the energy and focus on the rock in front of her.
The zap that left her fingertips was concentrated electricity. The rock exploded under her focus, and the world stopped shaking.
“We’re going home,” said Cassian.
“But we just set up,” said Guy.
Cassian turned toward him and squared up his shoulders. He walked until he was practically nose to nose with Guy.
“Easy, man,” said Mekhi. “I get first dibs on that shit.”
Guy swallowed. “You heard him. First dibs.”
Cassian bit his cheek. “We are leaving. Now. Get us there the fastest way you know how.”
“There’s walking, and then there’s the impossible,” said Guy.
“We need to get there faster than by walking.”
“It’s impossible.”
“Guy, just stop bullshitting. What is it?”
Guy looked at all of them and then stared up at the stars above. Then he let out a breath. “The fastest way is by Angel.”
“Then we’ll take an Angel,” said Cassian.
Guy laughed. He turned toward Trinity, who had been standing quietly, even as her face looked like it would burst into flames.
“Reason with them,” Guy said.
“Not my circus, not my monkeys,” said Trinity.
“Excuse me?” asked Corin.
“It’s an expression,” said Trinity. “Sorry.”
Guy rolled his eyes and turned to the rest of them. “People don’t just take Angels and go wherever.”
“Actually—” Trinity started.
“Fuck. Okay, yes. Some people take Angels, but those people are very fucking important people. Or they’re Angels. Or they’re fucking an Angel, I don’t know, but last time I checked, we weren’t doing any of those things.”
“I thought you called yourself important,” said Mekhi, smirking.
Guy ran another hand through his hair. “Of course I’m important, compared to you all.”
“You act like we’re royalty half of the time,” Riette said. “At least when people hate us.”
“That’s a long list of people that you are working diligently on adding to at every location.”
“We’re the shit, or we’re not,” said Mekhi.
“You smelling like shit doesn’t make you the shit,” said Guy.
Mekhi looked toward Riette.
“No, you can’t kill him,” said Riette.
“You know he’s earned it. I can communicate his death warrant without speaking. That should speak for itself. Sparky, have my back.”
“Don’t call me Sparky.”
“You have a fire marble for an eye. You’ve earned it.”
“Call the Angel,” said Cassian. “This ends now.”
Guy grunted and shot a glare at Trinity before walking away from the others and away from the camp.
“Does this mean you’re summoning?” called Riette.
He held a finger up over his head.
“What the fuck does that mean?” asked Mekhi.
“You’re getting warmer,” said Trinity with a laugh, but then she cut it off, and her face flushed again when she looked at Riette. “Sorry.”
Riette rolled her eyes.
“These are worthless if I can’t shoot fire out of them,” she mumbled.
“Maybe next time I tweak out and you channel it?” asked Trinity. “Not that I’m planning on tweaking out—”
“No one plans for that,” said Corin. “It happens all on its own.”
Cassian made a noise in the back of his throat and continued to watch for Guy’s return. When he came back through the woods minutes later, he didn’t come alone.
“Holy shit,” said Mekhi, but it was said like a promise in the night.
Their new arrival was tall, a hair over Guy, and was built like god made of gold with the blond hair to match.
He had a cupid’s bow mouth and sky-blue eyes, with a scowl on his face that could stop paint from drying.
Riette swallowed, and she watched Cassian try to grow taller as he stood with his back rod straight.
Guy walked in front of this stranger with his eyes cast downward.
When they finally got closer, Riette knew the exact moment that the Angel saw her. His sure steps slowed, but unlike the others, he recovered well.
They reached the group a moment later, and the world was silent to greet them. The Angel looked at each of them in turn, pausing only on Mekhi and Riette, with Riette being his attention’s landing place.
“Care to tell me why you all are being graced with my presence?”
Riette laughed at his joke, but his reaction told her it wasn’t one.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t think people talked like that. I mean I do when I’m trying to be a dick.”
“You can’t be a dick,” said Mekhi. “Wrong equipment.”
The Angel looked him over. Mekhi didn’t notice, but Riette did.
“I can be whatever I want. It’s a new world.”
“How can you be a dick without a dick?”
“Want me to show you?” Riette asked.
“As quaint at this is, I promise I had no intention of being,” the Angel paused and looked around, “here. So let’s move it along.”
“We don’t even know your name,” said Corin.
“Aren’t you cute?” asked the Angel, but he sounded like she was anything but. He sighed. “Mark.”
“I’m Riette.”
The Angel looked her over again, and his eyes narrowed when they focused in on hers. “What are you exactly?”
“Are all Angels this blunt?”
“Are all—whatever you are—this inquisitive?” Mark asked as he raised an eyebrow.
“We need your help,” said Cassian, stepping forward.
Mark looked him over. “Cute, but not my type.” He looked toward Mekhi. “Now you? You look like sunshine taking a walk.”
Mekhi swallowed. “Flattered, but I’m with her,” he said, grabbing Corin
by the shoulders.
Mark frowned, taking one last perusal. “Pity.” He turned back toward Riette.
“I prefer to speak to you. This one,” he pointed out Guy, “has been essentially worthless, and I need to not be in the middle of the forest in bumf—”
“We appreciate your time,” said Cassian.
“Of course you do. I’m sure it’s not often you’re in the presence of, well, greatness.”
“You pour it on heavy,” Riette said, but she laughed.
Mark snorted. “You don’t know the third of it.”
“Look,” Cassian started, and Mark rolled his eyes in an exaggerated motion toward him. Cassian cleared his throat. “We need to get to Vitan.”
Mark stepped back. “Vitan?” He laughed and looked at the people in the group. “You’re fucking with me.”
“No, we need to get home.”
“I knew you were Elves. I mean, something is up with the pretty one, but Vitan?” He looked at Riette. “Y’all just can’t afford me.” He looked toward Riette again and shrugged. “I’m sorry,” he added, but it came out stilted, like he wasn’t used to saying it and it didn’t taste right on his tongue.
Cassian moved closer still. He tried to speak quietly. “You need to help us. She’s a very important person.”
Mark leaned in. “And I’m a fucking Angel, honey.”
Riette stepped forward. “What kind of payment do you take?”
Mark considered her. “Well, you all are Elves...”
“You juice?” asked Trinity.
“Don’t say it like that,” said Mark quickly. “It sounds dirty.” He looked at Mekhi. “Dirty isn’t bad in certain instances, but I am one of the classier Angels.”
“Why do I doubt that?” asked Riette.
“You are next level.”
“And you’re too good to look at,” Riette said, and she meant it. There was a blinding quality to his aura, and the face behind it put the best-looking people she knew to shame.
“That’s it. I’m just going to have to keep you.”
“You can’t,” said Trinity, stepping quickly to block Riette from her.
“Calm down, darling. Nothing is that serious. These are jokes.” Mark made a face at Riette over Trinity’s shoulder.
Trinity grabbed Riette by the arm and took her off to the side. “He juices,” she whispered.
