by Megan Linski
“I know what you need,” Liam said as a light smile touched his lips. “Let’s go have some fun.”
Yeah, I knew what it looked like. Sophia Henley and Liam Mitoh, holding hands in the hall. Big whoop. Luckily, everyone was at dinner, so nobody saw us together. But I knew if they did, it would be a huge deal.
I knew what most guys in my situation would do. They’d take her back to the Toaqua dorms for a quickie in the pool.
But Sophia didn’t need a quick bang. She needed to feel normal. And I really needed that, too. It’d been a long time since I’d felt any sense of normalcy.
We left the school grounds and headed into Kinpago. The village was pretty crowded this time of day, with everyone going home. I made sure to drop Sophia’s hand the moment I sighted any people. She frowned, but the look in her eyes told me she got it. Esis chittered from her shoulder like he disapproved, but he could bug off.
“I’m starving,” Sophia told me as the variety of delicious smells wafting through the square filled our noses. “What’s good around here?”
“You pick. Any place you want, except that one, that one, and that one.” I pointed out over half the restaurants in the square.
“You’re picky.” She giggled.
“I prefer traditional Hawkei dishes,” I told her. “But I chose last time we ate, so I’m nice enough to let you choose this time.”
“Such a gentleman.” She scanned the square before her gaze settled on a tiny Italian place in the corner. “I want pizza.”
“Of course you do.” I smiled at her, because she was so utterly predictable.
“You don’t? Who doesn’t like pizza?” she said, astonished as we headed into the restaurant. I held the door open for her as we went in. It was empty in here, except for the waiter perched by the host station.
Sophia was still gaping at me and my hatred of pizza when we slid into a booth. Esis had an equally shocked expression, which didn’t surprise me, because he was a garbage disposal. Anything you gave the little fur ball he sucked down in a manner of seconds.
“I really hate Americanized food. Like, buffalo burgers are fricken amazing, but it has to be not processed. I can literally taste the chemicals.” I made a disgusted face. “Good thing the tribe grows and prepares most of our own food, because otherwise, I’d starve the way our food system in the US is.”
“So you’re not a fan of fast food?” Sophia asked. Esis jumped down from her shoulder and onto the table.
“Ew, don’t even mention it. You’re gonna make me puke.”
She laughed. “I love drive-through chicken nuggets.”
“Stop.”
The waiter stopped at our table. I didn’t know his name, but I knew he was from school, because I recognized him from my Survival Instincts class. He gave us a bit of a look— the Koigni girl and the Toaqua guy together— but I guessed he wanted a tip more, because he just dropped off the menus and said, “What can I get you to drink?”
“Water,” both of us said at once, and we looked at each other.
The waiter walked off, and Sophia opened the menu. “What do you want?”
“Like I said, your choice.” I crossed my arms and didn’t even look at the menu. “This little outing is to make you feel better.”
“Like you couldn’t use it, too,” she grumbled under her breath. Esis bared his little teeth at me, and guess what? I bared mine right back.
“How about we just share a pizza? Half and half?” she asked.
“Fine by me.”
The waiter came back and placed the waters on our table. “What would you like to order?” he asked us, like this was the last place he wanted to be.
“We’re going to share a medium— uh, I mean, large,” Sophia stuttered as Esis screeched loudly. “On my half, I would like pepperoni, sausage, bacon, green pepper, onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, and pineapple.”
By the ancestors, that sounded so gross. Esis clapped his hands happily and jumped down onto the table.
Sophia looked at me. I opened my mouth and said, “Just the crust, thanks. No cheese, no pepperoni, no sauce, nothing.”
“Are you crazy? You can’t just get the crust,” Sophia said, shocked.
“Watch me.” I stared back at her with a smirk on my face.
The waiter gave me a look like I was nuts, but wrote it down. “Anything else?”
“I think we’re good,” Sophia said. The waiter walked off, and Sophia laughed. “That’s going to be one lopsided pizza. I don’t even know how they’re going to cook it right.”
“Hopefully the little Fire critters in the back will figure it out.” I shrugged.
She gave me a scathing look, one that I found quite adorable. “Is it your purpose to make life as difficult as you possibly can for everyone else?”
“Just the ones I find annoying.”
“So… everyone,” she said flatly.
I grinned. “Maybe.”
This was ridiculous. The stupid grin hadn’t left my face since we’d come here. I probably looked like one happy idiot. I hadn’t smiled so much in months. It actually made my face hurt a bit. It was like my mouth had forgotten how to do it.
The sweet look fell from her face as something crossed her mind— I saw it in her eyes. “You never answered me earlier. About Haley. Do you think it’s something I should be worried about, her spying on me?”
This again? I had hoped she wouldn’t bring it up. The memory of her tears from earlier caused the grin to slide from my face. I didn’t want her to start crying again. I hadn’t known what to do, and I felt like shit, like it’d been my fault she’d started crying. It’d been terrible.
“Don’t worry about Haley. She might be stalking you, but so what? Everyone is watching us now. The tournament is only a few weeks away,” I told her. “Doya probably told her to spy on you to get ahead in the tournament.”
“I don’t know,” Sophia said slowly. “It sounded like whatever Haley was supposed to be watching me for, it was pretty specific.”
“Doya could be sending Haley after you to get into your head,” I said. “You can’t let that happen.”
“That could be true,” Sophia mused. “Doya’s team is cheating, by the way. They’ve had more than three practices.”
“That’s a big shock,” I replied sarcastically. “What else is news, the sky is blue?”
“Shut up.” Her cheeks turned pink, but she laughed. “I thought I should tell you, I finally got together with Imogen. She’s been doing some research, and she found out that Esis is actually a rare animal called a kurble.”
“A kurble,” I repeated. “Sounds like something Imogen made up.”
Esis let out a little growl. He put his head down and charged at me. He head-butted my arm with his stubby little horns, but I pushed him away.
Sophia didn’t confirm or deny my claim, which made me think that whatever Imogen had found most likely had come from her head. But I was curious and felt like playing along, so I asked, “So, do kurbles have any special magic?”
“Uh…” Sophia glanced to Esis before shaking her head quickly. “Nope. No. None that we found.”
“That’s disappointing,” I said. “We could’ve used some in the tournament.”
Sophia nodded slowly. Sophia went on and on about kurbles, but most of everything she said was stuff we already knew about Esis just from being around him. I was hardly paying attention to what she was saying. I got that it was disrespectful, but I kept on getting sucked into her eyes.
While Sophia was gabbing, Esis did something weird. He waddled in front of me, puffed up his chest and fluffed his tail, expanding his ears and screaming.
“What the hell is he doing?” I asked, thinking he was gonna self-destruct.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Sophia said, petting him. “It’s just something kurbles do. I think it’s a mating call, though I don’t know why he’d be doing it now.”
I swear to the ancestors Esis was wiggling his eyebrows at me at a very
suggestive way. I was gonna kill this little shit. Next thing I knew, he was gonna start tossing roses and singing a serenade.
The server emerged from the kitchen and placed the pizza on our table, giving us a weird look. “Enjoy your uh… meal.”
Our pizza looked so stupid. One half was literally nothing but bread, and the other half was loaded with every disgusting thing Sophia could bear to pile on it, including, ugh… pineapple.
But it was us, kind of. Sophia kept talking throughout the meal, but I stayed quiet. I wasn’t much of a talker, and it was nice to hear her voice instead of the one inside my head.
By the end of the meal, I was pretty sure Esis had eaten more slices than either of us had. The server came back to an empty tray. He poorly hid his disgust as Esis burped happily and put down the bill.
Sophia reached out, but I snagged it before she could. “I got it,” I told her. “I offered.”
Her eyes glittered. We left the restaurant and looked around. By this time, it was dark. The crowds had thinned, and most of the adults had gone home. There were more students out this time of night, looking for places to hang out and something to do. We needed to go somewhere more private, before we ran into someone we knew.
“Come on,” I told her. “I know a great place. Follow me.”
Her eyebrow raised as we headed out of town. Usually by this point I’d be exhausted, but I was having a good day today. My body was actually cooperating for once, and I wanted to take full advantage of it… before I paid the price tomorrow.
I took her into the woods, but it was away from the castle instead of towards. Eventually, we reached a part of the forest that was so overgrown we had to stomp on the brush to clear a way through.
“Nashoma led me here a long time ago,” I told her. “I didn’t know why, or what for, but I’m pretty sure we were the only ones who knew about it.”
I parted the foliage in front of us and let her step through. Her face brightened in wonder as she looked around, a wide smile spreading across her face.
Behind the overgrowth was a clearing, a small meadow of blooming white flowers called fairy lanterns spreading throughout the emerald grass. A stone beach nestled up against a deep pool, sapphire-colored and so clear you could see the bottom. A large waterfall poured down on the other side of the pool, the top cascading down from a mountain stream somewhere above us. Fall was mild here, so the trees didn’t have a lot of color, but they made up for it by having magical butterflies as large as my face nesting in the trees, their wings glowing a crystalline blue. Grapevines twisted up the trees, and the moon shone through a hole in the top of the forest canopy, casting everything in a silver glow. The only sounds were the rushing of the water and the symphony of crickets in the bush.
Sophia looked brilliant. If I could make her smile like that every day, I’d never have to do anything for the rest of my life. That much would be enough.
“Liam, this is incredible,” Sophia said. She put Esis down and spun in a circle around the clearing. “It’s like a fairy tale.”
I said nothing. I gently lifted my hand and turned it to the side. A wall of water rose from the pool, but it was soft and quiet. Within the water was a bunch of beautiful, colorful fish. They had broad and silky tails like betas, but had patterns on their bodies and heads like koi. They were neon and glowed in the dark underneath the color of the moon. I wrapped the wave around Sophia to give her an aquarium. Sophia laughed and reached out with her fingers, touching the wave.
When her fingers ran through the water, I gasped audibly, though she didn’t hear it. To touch an Elementai’s element was like touching their spirit— and she went right through whatever I still had. Despite her being across the clearing, her skimming the water felt like she was caressing my face.
Esis became alarmed and started batting at the water with his paws to try and reach the fish, but only ended up splashing himself. His touch was like an itch.
The fish in the water nibbled at Sophia’s hand. She giggled, and I slowly brought the wave back. I returned the water and the fish to the pond and looked at her.
“Your element is so beautiful, Liam,” Sophia said in a breathless way. “I wish I could do something like that.”
“You’ll be able to, one day.” I walked over to a tree with large, twisting branches. I held my hand out and helped her climb it. We scaled upward until I pointed out a thick branch that I liked to sit on, one that would support our weight. As we climbed, the butterflies scattered and began dancing all around us, giving an elaborate show. Esis followed, climbing the limbs easily and squeaking.
I hadn’t counted on the branch being so small. I’d only sat up here by myself, but it definitely wasn’t big enough to hold two people. The end result was that Sophia was pretty much sitting on my lap.
“Oof. I’m sorry,” Sophia said as her ass plopped down against my leg, and she blushed. “There really isn’t a lot of room up here.”
“Yeah.” She was like, literally leaning against me and everything. I had nowhere to put my arms. They were above me, holding on to some branches when she sat down, but I couldn’t hold them like that forever. I gave up and just put my arms around her, because, you know, it was more comfortable.
Yeah, sure. Whatever you say.
Sophia didn’t seem to mind, but her magic gave her away. Her shoulder was pushing up against a tree branch, and it was starting to crackle.
“You’re gonna burn the tree down,” I told her.
“Sorry.” I felt her temperature decline by a few degrees, and the tree stopped smoking. But that hardly helped, because now I was hot, and it definitely wasn’t from her magic.
“Oh, wow,” Sophia breathed, and I looked up. The butterflies had flown up against the sky and had changed their colors, their deep blue morphing to become the background of the starry night. You could see them as their wings beat against the darkness, making the constellations look like they were moving.
“They take on the background of whatever they’re around, when they’re threatened,” I told Sophia. “It’s a special sort of camouflage.”
She nodded. Esis had totally disappeared. I had no idea where he went.
All around, tiny little yellow lights with wings of dragonflies started appearing. They buzzed around us, hovering up and down in a circle where they sat. I hear could hear their little melodic voices as they swarmed around our little spot.
Sophia gave an inquisitive look.
“Fortune Fairies. I told you about them earlier.” I reached out and snatched one from the air. Carefully, I gave it to Sophia. She cupped it in her palms and moved her face close.
“They’re like fireflies,” Sophia whispered. The glow from the fairy lit up her face, and she looked up.
“Supposedly they only come to people with good luck. If they don’t come near you, you’re cursed.” I snorted. “Someone didn’t give them the memo about me.”
She laughed before she opened her hand and let the fairy go. It floated away slowly, humming a pleasant tune. She leaned back and nestled against me, sinking her shoulders into my chest.
Alarm buzzers were going off in my head, but I took that alarm and smashed it against the wall, because, hell, I never liked being woken up anyway, and this was one damn good dream.
This was college. What was the big deal about a little bit of cuddling, anyhow?
My mind wandered. Surely there were people who screwed outside of House boundaries. Dating or marriage, no way, but hook-ups between Houses had to happen. One-night stands. Casual sex.
Bullshit. Your “casual sex” with Sophia would last a lifetime.
Hell yeah, it would. Sleep with her once, I’d never get over her.
I couldn't get over her now.
“Liam?” she asked, looking at me.
“Hm?”
“What are you thinking about?”
Inappropriate things that I shouldn’t be. Things that are forbidden. “Nothing.”
She seemed to sense th
at something was on my mind, because she said, “I know you wouldn’t want anyone to see us like this.”
“We aren’t doing anything,” I told her, which was a lie, because we’d already crossed so many boundaries.
“Right,” she said, like she was trying to reassure herself. “We’re just friends.”
That was like a punch to the gut. It was almost a test, to see how quickly we could go to just friends to something more.
I wanted to say something that would confirm, but all that came out of my mouth was, “You ever had a boyfriend?”
What the hell was wrong with me right now?
She made a face like she didn’t like to talk about it. “A few, but nothing serious.”
“That sounds intriguing.” And it did. She made the entire sentence seem ominous.
“I’m happy high school is over.” She bounced her heel against the tree trunk. “It was nothing but a lot of drama. I had a bad falling out with a lot of my friends. By the time senior year hit, I was pretty much alone. I mean, I hung out with a few people, but I always felt like a third wheel.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” High school had been okay for me. Just fine, nothing memorable. But Sophia made her four years sound awful.
“It wasn’t your fault. I just went along with what was expected of me,” she said. “It’s one of the reasons I avoid conflict so much. There was always so much of it at school growing up. I had a tight-knit group for awhile, but I couldn’t really connect with them. They were all interested in the arts, and I loved being outdoors. There wasn’t anyone I could share that with.”
“It was the Elementai in you. All of us love being in nature,” I told her.
“I guess.” She shrugged. “I always thought it was because I was a weirdo. That I was different.”
That made me really sad. “I don’t think you’re weird.”
“Thanks. Life was just… so boring.” She sighed. “I miss my parents, but even after how hard it’s been my first semester, I don’t think I could go back now. This world is just so full of wonder and amazing things to see. I’d die if I went back there and did the same thing day in and day out.”