by Emma Savant
Then I glanced at my watch and swore under my breath.
6
The kitchen was alive with noise and light when I arrived. Streamers hung from the tops of the cupboards, and a demolished cake sat on the table.
“Scarlett, you made it!” Rowan said.
Rowan was one of the other novices, a Dagger just a few months younger than me. She was also our resident baker. She shoveled a giant slice of cake onto a paper plate and handed it to Rose, who handed it to Carmine, who handed it to Grandma, and so on until it reached my hand.
“You missed presents,” Clancy said from the table, where she sat next to my mother. It was always weird to see Clancy out of her white doctor’s coat, and weirder still to see her bright-red hair tied back in two braids and covered with a polka-dotted handkerchief.
I sidled across the room to Mom, almost tripping over a few of the younger girls who’d settled on the floor for an impromptu picnic, and dropped a kiss on her head.
“Sorry I missed the party.”
“Target took her time?”
I nodded. “Two hours before I could catch her in the act.”
Mom squeezed my hand. “Your mission takes priority,” she said. “Always.”
I knew that. Every Dagger crammed into the kitchen knew it, and so did their daughters and daughters’ daughters.
The knowledge didn’t quite squash the feeling of inadequacy in my stomach. Grandma had made it here on time. Every other Dagger seemed to have finished her mission in plenty of time for presents and cake. I was the only one who couldn’t seem to balance the sides of my life.
It was only a few more minutes before people started excusing themselves and trickling off to bed. I helped Rowan clear the piles of wrapping paper and take down the streamers while the remaining Daggers talked, then ran up to my room and back down with a small package in hand. I met Mom at the bottom of the stairs.
“Happy birthday.”
I handed her the package. She carefully ripped the paper off to reveal a small deck of tarot cards tied together with a crimson ribbon. Their backs were patterned with tiny scarlet flowers.
“Is this the Red Cap deck?” she asked, turning the bundle over.
“Found it at an antique shop downtown.”
She gave me a hug. She’d been looking for this deck for years, and I’d finally managed to cash in some favors and track one down. The art on the cards was by a Glimmering artist from the last century, and the cards themselves had been enchanted with voices that provided various interpretations based on how the cards were laid out in a spread. The deck was well-known, but it was hard to find a complete set.
“You’re a gem,” Mom said. “Thank you, love.”
She walked up the stairs. I knew I should go to bed, but the unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach just wouldn’t subside. In between Grandma offering to let me slack off at work and me missing the party, the day had felt like a flop in a way even a successful mission couldn’t fix.
I needed to get out and take some time for myself. Before I could think too hard and talk myself out of it, I slipped back out the door and made my way to the woods behind the mansion.
The trip to the werewolves’ den wasn’t long, but the thin path that wound through undergrowth was hard to see in the fading dusk. I used the flashlight on my phone to illuminate the way, and the harsh beam sent shadows dancing up the tree trunks on either side.
But I knew these woods, and I knew exactly what kind of monsters I’d find at the end of the path.
The warm glow of their campfire appeared first. A few moments later, the shadowy figures of the people around it came into view at the same time as their voices rose to greet me. They were laughing and joking, and I turned off my flashlight and stopped for a moment under the trees to observe them. Brendan was there, and Cate, and Alec, and two other wolves I’d met only recently, Chelsie and Bryce. Cate held a stick over the fire, toasting one of the biggest marshmallows I’d ever seen.
They looked up when I stepped into the glow of the fire.
“I thought I smelled you,” Brendan said.
I flipped him off and sat down on a log next to him. “Heard you were doing s’mores.”
Alec handed me a bag of the giant marshmallows, and Chelsie passed me a stick. I held the marshmallow high over the fire and watched its white sides dry and gently brown.
“We were just talking about Bryce’s new boss,” Alec said. “Guy has a severe dog allergy.”
“He sneezes every time I get too close to him,” Bryce said, looking pained.
I laughed. “Even when you’re in human mode?”
“I’m always in human mode at work,” Bryce said. “He’s Humdrum, so I can’t even explain.”
“Bryce was just telling us that he’s started posting signs in the break room about not wearing perfume or strong deodorant to work,” Cate said. “Poor guy has no idea what’s going on and is just grasping at straws.”
Bryce grimaced. “I’m going to have to find a new job.”
I tried to stifle my laughter, but it just came out as a snort instead. Brendan smirked at me, and I waved him off.
“I can help,” I said. “We have some really good anti-allergy potions. I’ll bring one up tomorrow. Tell him it’s a home remedy or something.”
He didn’t seem convinced, but he didn’t have to be convinced. The potions had been chasing away sneezes since Grandma’s mom had developed a cat allergy back when Grandma was young. The thought of the Daggers not being surrounded by cats twenty-four seven had been so appalling that half the coven had pitched in to come up with exactly the right brew.
“Speaking of.” I pulled a vial out of my pocket and handed it over to Brendan. “Clancy gave me an elixir for next time you visit the hospital.”
Only two of Brendan’s pack were still at the Glimmering hospital, recovering from the wolfsbane bombs Sienna had released into their den. He took the vial and pocketed it, and Cate’s eyes narrowed.
“It’s not poison,” I said to her.
She held up a hand, and the white remains of a marshmallow glistened on her fingertips.
“I didn’t say it was.”
“Hand me the crackers and chocolate, will you?”
She passed them down, and I assembled my s’more while the group moved on to talking about the garden they were planning to start not far from here. Their last garden had been deep inside their den, but now that they weren’t hiding on public land patrolled by Humdrums, they could expand a little bit.
It wasn’t a permanent solution. I knew Brendan wasn’t planning on staying here long-term, and I couldn’t imagine Grandma would be willing to host the Wildwoods forever, especially with so many Daggers complaining about it at every turn. Still, at least the wolves had a shot now at saving up money for their own piece of land deep in Oregon’s forests.
I didn’t know why I cared so much about their den and garden plans, except that Sienna had destroyed their last home. Now, as her coven sister and blood cousin—not to mention the future Stiletto—I felt like it was our duty to make them feel welcome here for as long as they wanted to stay.
Slowly, the fire died down and turned to glowing coals, and Chelsie and Bryce disappeared into the forest to go for a run in their wolf forms before bed.
Being able to run was important to them. And I understood. I spent so much time sparring and training for my Dagger work that a day without exercise made me want to crawl up the walls.
Cate stood and stretched.
“I’m going to turn in.” She smiled at me and pushed her short brown hair back from her face. “Thanks for the elixir. I hope it helps.”
“Me, too.”
She stalked off into the forest toward the ring of tents. During the day, it was just possible to make out glimpses of the tents through the trees. Now, they were buried in nighttime shadows.
Brendan offered me another marshmallow, and I declined.
“My mouth tastes like a sugar swamp,�
� I said.
Alec laughed and handed a thermos across to me. “Wash it down with some tea.”
“Decaf?”
“Herbal.”
I accepted the thermos and took a long sip. The tea was still hot, and its mild bitterness was a relief after the overwhelming sweetness of the s’mores. I gave it back to him, and the three of us stared at the coals while Brendan poked at them absently with a long stick.
“Why did you really come out here?” Alec said.
I looked up, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Alec, I had come to realize over the past few months, watched people. And anyone who was paying attention could have seen that I was out of it.
“Just needed a break,” I said. “It’s been work nonstop for weeks now.”
“How was your mom’s birthday party?”
“Missed it.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah.”
Brendan raised his eyebrows. “It was your mom’s birthday?”
I nodded.
He pursed his lips a little and glanced over at Alec. “We should have gotten her a present.” He turned back to me. “She’s one of the Cardinals, right?”
“Yeah. Her and Saffron and Cherry.”
“One of your Cardinals is named Cherry?”
I shot him a look. “Yes. What of it?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s just… I think of the Daggers as being these badass women, and Cherry is not a badass name.”
“I don’t know,” Alec said thoughtfully. “You probably have to be extra badass with a name like Cherry.”
I rolled my eyes at both of them. “We all have coven names. To honor the first Stiletto.”
“Little Red Riding Hood,” Alec said.
The way he and Brendan spoke, it was like they thought they were going to get points for everything they remembered about the Daggers. It was endearing.
“Yes, Little Red,” I said. “That’s what most of the Glimmering world calls her, anyway.”
“What was her real name?” Brendan said.
I glanced over at him. “That would be telling.” I winked. He made a face at me.
It felt so nice to just sit around with friends, sharing tea and talking about life. And sure, these friends were part of a group that was historically at odds with my family, and that tension hadn’t gone away—but it was hard to care what the Wildwoods were. I knew who they were, and that meant much more.
“But you’re okay?” Alec asked.
I tossed a twig into the coals and watched as a fresh tongue of fire consumed it.
“I’m okay.”
“That was convincing,” Brendan said.
They were both watching me. Their eyes, which were the exact same hazel but still so different, caught the light of the coals.
“I’m fine,” I said. “I just haven’t figured out how to juggle everything yet, and I feel like I’m not… I don’t know, I’m not proving myself or whatever.”
I tossed another twig onto the coals. This one was damp and smoldered for a moment.
“Sienna was obviously a good choice for Stiletto,” I said. “She handled everything perfectly, and I just feel like I’m not managing things as well as she did.”
“She did turn out to be a murderer,” Brendan said.
I threw a third twig at him. “At least she was competent enough to be a murderer,” I said.
Brendan flinched almost imperceptibly, and I softened.
“Sorry, that came out wrong.”
“Naw, I get it,” he said, waving a hand. He leaned forward and stared into the coals for a moment, avoiding my eyes.
“You’re doing more than Sienna ever did,” Alec said. “She didn’t work at Carnelian, did she?”
“No,” I admitted. “She didn’t have a day job.”
“There you go,” Alec said. “And she wasn’t trying to manage the peaceful relocation of a werewolf pack onto the land of some pretty intense werewolf hunters.”
Brendan pointed at Alec. “What he said. Can we do anything to help? It’d be nice to be useful.” He kicked at the dirt with the toe of his shoe. “Nelly won’t accept anything for rent, aside from all the wolves signing that magical contact that they’d keep their mouths shut about the Daggers. Helping you would be the least we can do.”
I smiled at them both. I couldn’t think of a single thing in the world they could do to actually help me, but the offer warmed me. It wasn’t like Grandma’s offer to lighten my load at the fashion house, which had felt as much like a gentle admonition as anything else. Brendan and Alec wanted to make my life easier, and they were both waiting for my reply with eager faces, like working dogs dying to learn their next job.
“I need to do this on my own,” I said. “Seek my own fortune, as it were.”
Their faces fell, but Alec revived a little as he handed the thermos back to me.
“You’re doing okay, Scarlett,” Alec said. “And when it gets to be too much, hey, we’ve got s’mores.”
Brendan nodded, put his hand on my knee, and gave me a solemn nod. “So many s’mores.”
7
I knocked on the door of Grandma’s office and pushed it open. Her home office on the second floor of the mansion was more old-fashioned and relaxed than her sleek space at Carnelian. Mom was already sitting in one of the plush armchairs with a mug of tea in hand and a calico cat curled up on her lap.
I was always cautious when I sat in one of these armchairs. I’d taken more childhood naps in them than I could count, and still felt as if I might slip into a doze if I got too comfortable.
Today, though, I was alert enough with nerves that there was no risk of falling asleep.
Grandma sank into the chair opposite me. She and Mom both watched me, and after a moment, Mom said, “Well, you called this meeting.”
No preamble, then. I sat up straighter.
“I have a proposal,” I said. “You’ve both noticed that I’ve got a lot on my plate and have been having a harder time keeping up with everything than we’d all like.”
Grandma nodded slightly. She wasn’t trying to make me feel bad, but the fact that neither of them tried to argue with my statement wasn’t exactly bolstering.
“I think part of the problem is that I have a lot of little missions that aren’t too challenging, and a lot of little tasks at Carnelian. The work at Carnelian is a lot of little tasks. I get that, and I’m happy to do them. But my Dagger jobs could be more meaningful.”
Mom sipped her tea like she couldn’t wait to hear what I was going to say next. I took a deep breath.
“That harpy I handled last week took a lot of time, but once I’d caught her in the act, dealing with her only took a few minutes and wasn’t hard. And the vampire I apprehended last night didn’t put up much of a struggle. He knew someone was coming after him, and he’d already decided to come quietly.”
Grandma pursed her lips a little but didn’t interrupt.
“What I’m hoping is that maybe I could start taking on some of the more difficult coven jobs, but fewer,” I said. “Maybe one job a week that takes all day, or requires that I work with other Daggers, or is a creature I haven’t encountered before, instead of these little missions almost every evening.”
“You want more bang for your buck,” Mom said.
“Basically. And I don’t want you to think I’m complaining,” I added quickly to Grandma. “Because I’m not. I know every job is important. But doesn’t fewer, bigger gigs seem like a better way to train me?”
Grandma tapped her manicured hand on her armrest. “Novitiate missions are small and frequent on purpose,” she said. “Being a Dagger isn’t about the high-profile jobs, it’s about showing up and doing the work.”
“I know,” I said. “And I still will do that. But for now, especially while I’m learning the design ropes over at Carnelian, I just don’t have time to do everything over there plus all the little Dagger jobs and still sleep.” I held up an arm. “If I cut into this
vein, coffee is going to pour out.”
“Sleep is for the weak,” Mom said. The corner of her mouth quirked.
Grandma frowned at her, and I laughed. Grandma was as addicted to caffeine and adrenaline as any of us, but it was more a “do as I say, not as I do” thing with her. I didn’t think I’d gone a month in my entire life without some kind of lecture from her about self-care, getting enough rest, eating a balanced diet, and staying hydrated.
“I will not take that bait, thank you,” she said coolly.
Mom smirked and scratched the cat’s head.
“Have you considered just dropping your work at Carnelian for a while?” Mom looked at Grandma before continuing. “I know you enjoy it there, but your Dagger work is important.”
“I don’t want to drop anything,” I said. “I just want to make my time go farther.”
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from launching into more arguments. They were thinking, and I knew from too many failed attempts that the best way to get what I wanted was to let people think instead of driving them crazy by talking at them. Knowing that didn’t make it any easier to keep my mouth closed.
“I’m not suggesting this be the plan forever,” I blurted. “Just until I get more comfortable at Carnelian. Then I can put more emphasis back on daily Dagger missions.”
I snapped my mouth shut and pressed my lips tight.
Grandma rested her head on her hand and glanced over at Mom. “Do you have any objections?”
Mom shook her head. “It’s up to you. I think scaling back at Carnelian is the most sensible first option, but you and Scarlett are attached to the company in a way I’m not. You’ll have a better sense of what’s needed.”
Grandma drummed on the side of her head with her fingertips like that would make the thoughts go faster. Her crimson nails disappeared into the white waves of her hair.
She let out a deep sigh while Mom watched me with a slight grimace.
“I’ll revise your mission schedule,” Grandma finally said. “Let’s give this a try. If it’s not working after a month or so, we can explore other options.”