by Erin Johnson
I nodded, then grinned at Maple. "And I'll tell you all about it… for a spoonful of that." I pointed at the bowl in her arms.
She groaned, but moved the bowl back to the kitchen island. "Deal… if you can find a clean spoon."
12
Street Food
My left cheek had gone numb, so I shifted on the hard round stool and it swiveled under me. I grabbed the edge of the tall counter for balance, and Hank, sitting on the stool to my right, glanced over.
He grinned. "You haven't even finished your beer and you're already falling over?"
I swatted at his arm and chuckled. "I just lost my balance."
Still grinning, he pushed the paper tray of salted edamame toward me. I shook my head. "No. I'm going to wait for my chicken." I didn't want to fill up on beer and appetizers. Not with the juicy smell of skewered chicken on the grill wafting to my nose. My mouth watered and I swallowed.
"Hey, witches!"
I turned at the familiar voice. Francis and Rhonda sauntered, arm in arm, up to our favorite yakitori stand. Well, Francis floated up, the toes of his black leather brogues dangling just above the shiny stone road. It had drizzled earlier, and now the road gleamed wet, and all the golden lights and lamps that lit this busy area of the night market shone with a happy halo around them.
They ducked in under the short red curtains that hung around the square food stand at our backs. It lent the space the feeling of being inside a tent. I waved and gave Rhonda a hug, then smiled and nodded hi to the vampire. They made their way around the four sides of the square stand, saying their hellos.
Currently, my friends and I were the only diners at the stand. Rhonda and Francis slid onto two empty stools next to Sam and Captain Kenta, directly across from Hank and me. Though the stall was small, the chef and owner, Mr. Watabe, worked in the open square space in the middle of the counters. Smoke rose from his grills, where wooden skewers of chicken, beef, pork, and fish sizzled. It all made it pretty impossible to speak to anyone on the other side without shouting.
Rhonda cupped her hands to her mouth, her gold, teal, and purple nails glittering in the soft light from the overhead paper lanterns. "I heard you ran into your brother today." Bats flitted through the air behind her.
I lifted a brow and exchanged a surprised glance with Hank. I turned back to Rhonda. "How did you know about that?"
She smiled beatifically and waved a hand toward her forehead. "I know much."
Iggy, sitting on the counter in front of me in his lantern, scoffed. "Yeah, okay."
I grinned. "I didn't see Horace. But I got to meet his right-hand man, Leo. He took me to the camp."
Mr. Watabe worked quickly, flipping skewer after skewer to grill the other side. His hands never stopped, but he shot me a side-eyed look. I was sure it wasn't fun having people shout over you. Small ceramic pitchers hovered over to Rhonda and Francis and magically poured them tiny glasses of sake.
"Sorry," I mouthed.
His lips pulled into a smile and he wiped his hands on a towel.
"I'll fill you in soon, okay?"
Rhonda nodded and gave me a double thumbs-up, while Francis looked down his sharp nose at the menu. Wiley, who sat beside Hank with Maple on his other side, leaned forward and crossed his arms on the crowded countertop. It wasn't big to begin with and was littered with bottles of delicious sauces, our glasses of beer and sake, jars of chopsticks, and little dishes with the shells of edamame.
"So, this Leo guy." Wiley raised his brows at me. "You trust him?"
I frowned, thinking it over. "Well, he did pull me from the river—if he intended to hurt me, he could easily have let me drown. And he escorted me back to town safely."
Hank nodded, his deep blue eyes on the counter in front of him. "Right, right." A smile played at the corners of his mouth. "So glad I wasn't there for your near-death experience and forest adventure with a stranger."
I tilted my head and shot him a look.
He reached over and took my hand. "I'm teasing—kind of. I worry about you…, but I'm working on trusting that you can take care of yourself."
Iggy's eyes narrowed and his voice came out high-pitched. "Can she though?"
I clicked my tongue. "Hey."
Maple leaned around Wiley. "I'm worried too! I can't believe you almost drowned."
A groan sounded and I glanced to my left. Misaki sat on the other side of the corner from me with Jun beside her and Ben beside him. The young guard dragged his hands through his perfectly styled black spikes, all the way down through the long "party in the back."
He winced. "I'm really sorry I made you slosh out into the middle of the river like that to splash me back."
Maple clicked her tongue. "Ben. You know you can't tease her like that, you could goad her into anything."
My mouth dropped open.
But Ben's cheeks flushed bright pink and he dipped his chin. "Sorry, Maple." His eyes flitted to her fair face, his schoolboy crush written all over his lovesick glance.
Wiley looked between the two, his eyes twinkling with mirth, then slid a long arm around my friend's shoulders. "Don't be so hard on him—we all know Imogen's a walking disaster." He winked at me.
I planted my hands on my hips, though in the tight space I had to keep my elbows close to my sides. "Hey!"
"Wait." Hank lifted a thick brow. "I thought you slipped."
Heat flushed to my face and I looked down. "I did… while I was trying to chase after Ben."
Hank threw his head back and laughed, a deep sound. He pressed the heels of his big hands to his eyes and I looked up at him, unsure. He shook his head, then dragged his hands through his dark waves. "Life with you will never be boring, will it?"
I smiled, my lips pressed tight together. There was something about the way he'd said that—something about his confidence that we would have a life together—that made little sparkles of happiness fly around inside me.
"If she manages to not fall into a monster's mouth, or follow a stranger to her doom, or set the kitchen on fire, or—" Iggy ticked off the possible methods of my self-inflicted demise on his flaming fingers.
"Hey." I shot him a flat look. "That last one went too far."
Iggy frowned, then his mouth stretched into a wide smile. "Oh, that's right. I forgot you actually did burn down your entire apartment building. Ha!" He devolved into cackles, which my friends fought for a moment, then joined in on.
I folded my arms across my chest and shook my head. "Can't get no respect around here."
Hank, still chuckling, nudged my shoulder with his, and I couldn't hold back my grin anymore. "Alright, I may be a little accident prone."
Iggy cleared his throat. "I'm hungry."
I sniffed. "You're lucky I feed you anything, the way you talk about me."
He shrugged as I fished a sleeve of chopsticks out of the jar, then broke them apart and handed them to my magical flame. He munched on one end. "I only speak the truth."
I rolled my eyes, but forgot all my complaints when Mr. Watabe turned to our counter, small white plates in his hands. My mouth watered as he dished out the steaming skewers to Maple, Wiley, Hank, and me, the counter completely packed. Some dishes had to magically hover around our heads, but I didn't care—just made for easier access to my mouth. We bowed our thanks, then dug in.
I glanced to my left, at Misaki and the other guards who still didn't have their skewers, but they'd told me before that it was a food stand rule—you didn't wait for the others, you ate while it was hot. I lifted my skewer and leaned forward, taking a bite of my slightly blackened chicken. I sucked in some air to cool it off.
"Ah." I pulled in breath around the bite. "Hot."
Hank shook his head, smiling as he waited patiently for his to cool off enough to eat. That was not my M.O. Mine was more, “eat now, deal with burned mouth later.”
"So." Jun clapped his hands together as Mr. Watabe went back to tending to his grill. "Now that we're all here, I wanted to let ever
yone know that I and the rest of our unit will be heading out of town tomorrow."
13
A Vision
I looked up from my yakitori and raised my brows, my mouth full. "Rearry?"
Misaki took a sip of beer, then set down her glass. "Yep. We're headed to Umiru. It's a seaside onsen town."
Hank cleared his throat. "I'm still so surprised at how many towns and people there are here on the island." He shook his head and his voice came out quieter. "We were led to believe it was uninhabited."
Misaki grumbled. "Your father would want you all to think that, wouldn't he."
Hank's eyes grew large and he watched her intently. "You're sure he knew?"
The guard lifted a thick, straight brow. "Ask my grandma. But there were plenty of people who said your father personally visited the island multiple times. We used to be more connected to the rest of the magical world—till one day, they cut us off and sent all the monsters here." She took a long swig of her golden drink.
I reached over and squeezed Hank's forearm. Color had risen into his neck and his throat bobbed, his eyes on the counter but not really seeing. "I can't believe what lows my father is capable of. I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but…."
"Hey, he tricked everyone, not just you."
He shook his head. "He must've erased the island from the maps, and the minds of everyone in power who knew about it, and over the last thirty years people just… forgot."
"What a dillweed." Wiley slammed a fist on the counter and our plates rattled. He grimaced. "Sorry. I just get so angry when I think that so many people were killed and hurt and for what? A few losers who wanted even more power?" He glanced at Hank. "No offense."
Hank raised his brows and scoffed. "None taken. He is a dillweed."
On the other side of the stand, Sam pushed his thick glasses up his nose. He raised his voice to be heard over the sizzling food and the chatter from the crowd that milled the night market around us. "I wouldn't mind sssome ssseaweed."
Misaki cleared her throat. "Back to our trip to Umiru…."
"Sorry," Hank, Wiley, Maple, and I chorused as one.
Jun chuckled. "Don't be. It's just, we're all going down to the seaside for the manta monster migration and—"
"The what now?" I took another bite of chicken and closed my eyes. Delicious… or should I say, oishi.
"They're like even bigger, giant manta rays!" Ben spread his arms wide and nearly knocked Jun's beer over. He winced and shot a self-conscious glance at Maple.
"The people in Umiru have a festival every summer to watch and celebrate their migration around the southern tip of the island. Thank you." Misaki bowed at Mr. Watabe as he handed her a plate piled with skewers. He handed more off to Jun and Ben.
Jun nodded and lifted a skewer of fish to his mouth, pausing to speak. "The creatures themselves glow, but they also attract tiny glowing magical plankton that live off them. When the manta monsters swim and fly through the air, they trail the glowing plankton."
Ben had a dreamy look in his eyes as he munched on a mouthful. "Ig's bootiful."
"Oh, yeah." Iggy opened his eyes wide. "What wouldn't be beautiful about a sea churning with bacteria."
I shot him a look, then turned to the guards. "It sounds really magical. So you're going down to watch?"
Misaki shook her head and held a hand to cover her mouth as she spoke through her food. "To guard."
"The glowing plankton attract a lot of hungry fish, which encourages a lot of fisherman to head out into the water. But"—Jun tipped his head to the side—"the little fish attract much bigger fish… and monsters. So the guard heads down every year to lend a hand on the boats. We protect the fishermen and their catches from bigger predators."
My stomach tightened and I set my skewer down next to an empty one on my plate. "That sounds scary."
Misaki shrugged. "Eh." She took another bite. I shook my head at her in awe. Alright, Wonder Woman.
"It's actually kind of fun." Jun grinned. "The festival's a good time, and summer at the beach? What more could you want?" Jun's smile faded and he laced his hands together. "The only problem is, my family's tea shop needs to deliver a huge order while we're down there."
Hank raised his brows. "Is tea a large part of the festival?"
Jun shook his head. "No, it's for all the onsens. They do tea baths and pools." He grinned. "And it takes a lot of tea to brew a cup big enough to hold several people."
Misaki chuckled but rolled her eyes, and continued to munch on her yakitori.
"We can escort the shipment there," Jun continued. "But once we arrive, we'll be working night shifts and I won't have time to do the deliveries."
Misaki looked up. "In years past, we've had enough guards that we take shifts, so some of us get a couple nights off to enjoy the festivities." Her face darkened. "But with everything that happened with Kai and… Sora and Reo, we're understaffed. The other units are needed here in Kusuri, so we'll be working the whole time, and Jun's not going to have any time off to make deliveries."
I nodded. "That's too bad."
Jun took a deep breath, his eyes tight. "My parents have talked like they're going to make the journey and do the deliveries themselves, but my mom's health isn't great and I'm worried if she—"
I cut him off. "No, she shouldn't have to do that." I glanced to my right at Hank, Wiley, and Maple, then back to Jun. "Why don't we tag along and do the deliveries for you?"
Maple let out a sigh. "Oh, I'd love a change of scenery."
I glanced at her—she looked desperate, her brows pulled up in the middle. She must really hate having to share that cramped little kitchen.
Jun let out a heavy breath and looked relieved. "Really?"
I nodded.
"I was hoping you'd offer." He grinned. "It should only take a day, and then you can all enjoy the rest of the weekend and the festival."
I smiled at Hank, then Jun and Misaki. "It sounds lovely."
Jun, all smiles, dug into his yakitori in earnest. The steam from the skewer fogged his glasses.
Misaki leaned over. "You think the rest of your gang will be up for it?"
I glanced through the smoke that filled the center of the square where Mr. Watabe cooked. Yann, Annie, Sam, Rhonda, and Francis all happily chatted and sipped at their sake. My lips quirked to the side. It was surprising to me that, in just over a month, the place had started to feel like a second home. Our gatherings at the food stand reminded me of our happy hours at the Rusted Wreck back in Bijou Mer—though Mr. Watabe had way better food.
I nodded. "I'm sure they'll be up for a trip to the beach." That, too, would be like our seaside village back in the Water Kingdom. My stomach tightened with a wave of homesickness.
"Good." Misaki grinned. "We'll stay at the Doragon Spa. It's a resort."
Hank and I exchanged looks. He lifted a brow. "Sounds fancy."
She nodded and took a swig of beer, her foamy glass nearly empty. "It's the nicest, most famous onsen in Umiru. The owner, Miss Sara, is family friends with my grandma and she always sets aside a room for us guards."
"Wow. That's nice of her."
Misaki set her glass down. "Yep. It'll be a little tight with all of us, but we'll sleep during the day anyway, so you guys can have the rooms to yourselves at night."
Maple gripped Wiley's arm. "Oh, I'm so excited."
Misaki grinned. "And you have to try some of the spa treatments."
My head whipped around to look at Maple and we exchanged gleeful looks. I balled my hands into fists and glanced over at my friends across the way. "I can't wait to tell everyone."
Iggy sniffed. "As if our famous seer doesn't already know." He imitated her, touching a flaming arm to the center of his forehead.
I waved a hand. "Oh hush."
As if right on cue, Rhonda slapped her hand to her glowing forehead and would've toppled backwards off her stool if Francis hadn't thrown a lithe arm around her shoulders. She remained motionless, her ey
es unseeing for several long seconds.
"Do you think she heard me?" Iggy whispered, grimacing. Rhonda sucked in a breath and slumped, her chest heaving.
"Woo. That was a doozy." She fanned herself as Francis steadied her. Even Mr. Watabe paused his constant work to listen, and the bottles and spatulas magically buzzing around his head froze as well.
"What'd you get from the beyond?" Wiley leaned forward.
Rhonda brushed her braids back from her face and cleared her throat. Her voice still came out as stuffed-up-sounding as ever. "I saw bacteria…"
I lifted my brows at Hank. The glowing bacteria, maybe?
"…and received a warning." Rhonda raised her brows and looked dramatically around the food stand at each person. "Beware the street food stall."
Everyone remained motionless as her words hung in the air. I glanced down at my skewers, picked clean. My nostrils flared. Hank cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable, and Iggy burst out laughing.
"Oh." Rhonda chuckled and smiled and patted Mr. Watabe's hand where it rested on the counter in front of her. "Oh, I'm sure the spirits didn't mean this street food stall."
He grumbled and turned back to his grill. As soon as he'd turned from her, Rhonda grimaced, grabbed her plate of skewers, and tossed them over her shoulder into the crowd of shoppers behind her.
"Hey!" someone yelled.
Rhonda whistled innocently.
"Oh, I should probably mention." Misaki continued to munch on her skewers, apparently unfazed by Rhonda's prediction. Conversation gradually started up among my friends again. The guard kept her eyes on her plate as she continued, off-handedly, "Miss Sara, the spa owner… you might hear some people around town call her the 'black widow.’ Don't worry about it, but I just didn't want you to be caught off guard."
I frowned at Iggy, who looked as concerned as I felt.
I scratched the back of my neck, where some curly, loose tendrils had escaped from my bun. "And uh… why do they call her the black widow?" I tried to match Misaki's casual tone.