“Hey,” said Joel, taken aback to see Kaden standing over him.
“Hi,” said Kaden. His cool grey eyes landed on Joel’s notebook. “What is that, English Lit?”
“Yeah,” Joel answered.
Silence.
“Do you want some of these?” Kaden asked, shaking the M&Ms again.
“Okay, sure.” Joel held out his hand cautiously and Kaden tipped the packet, pouring a heap of colourful chocolates into Joel’s awaiting palm.
“I got them from the vending machine.”
“Oh, nice,” Joel said dumbly. What else was he supposed to say to that?
“I don’t really know what to say to you,” Kaden admitted. “I thought these might help break the ice.” He summoned an uncomfortable smile and drummed his fingers on the back of the chair in front of him.
“Yeah,” Joel muttered, looking down at his notebook. “I don’t really know what to say to you, either.”
Kaden offered the M&Ms again, and Joel accepted.
“Well . . .” Kaden exhaled slowly. “I guess I should go. I just wanted to, you know . . . say hi.”
Joel popped an M&M into his mouth and bit down on it.
“You don’t have to go,” he said without thinking.
Kaden’s eyebrows rose. “Really?” He tugged absently at the hem of his navy polo shirt.
“Yeah,” Joel said, carefully crunching the candy. “You can sit here, if you want.” He eyed the chair opposite. “There’s a good view of Blackheath Rise from this window.”
Kaden obliged, taking a seat on the other side of the table. He rubbed the nape of his neck and then adjusted his chair. “So . . .”
“So,” said Joel, staring at his hands.
“You play soccer, right?” Kaden asked.
“Yeah.” Joel brightened, looking up now. “Do you?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
Silence.
Joel tried again. “So you, um . . .” he trailed off fruitlessly. What conversation could he possibly make with this guy? So, you wanted to kill me was the obvious remark that came to mind. Surely there was less dangerous conversational territory out there. “So, you know my mother?” he finally managed.
Kaden gave a surprised laugh. “Yeah. I hear you know her, too.”
Joel grinned. “I wouldn’t say I know her, exactly. We’re more like acquaintances who shared the same food supply for nine months.”
Now Kaden’s laugh turned melancholic. “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think anyone really knows her. We’re all just acquaintances.”
Joel studied him across the table, taking note of his features, the angles of his face, the straight line of his nose. “You look like her,” he decided finally.
Kaden tilted his chin upwards. “You think?”
“What, you think you look more like your dad?” Joel flinched a little before the words were even out of his mouth. Despite his mother’s absence, it was strange to imagine her with another family. It was even stranger to think of her with another man—one who’d obviously fathered her child, no less.
“I don’t know who my dad is,” Kaden said simply, then shrugged. “But I’m fairly sure he has dark hair.” He raked a hand through his own jet-black strands. “I don’t get it from her, that’s for sure. I’m not blonde like your brothers.”
My other brothers, Joel thought instinctively.
“Well, I’m not blonde, either,” he said, pointing out the obvious. “I get my hair from my dad. His is brown, too. But I suppose you already knew that.”
“Yeah.” Kaden looked down at the table. “It’s cool that you know who your dad is.”
Joel pursed his lips. “I might know who my dad is, but I don’t know where he is.”
Kaden chuckled. “Sorry,” he added as an afterthought. “Is it okay to find that funny?”
Joel shrugged. “Sure. It’s side-splitting, actually. Between the two of us, we don’t know where any of our parents are.”
They both laughed now, and it was an odd release. Joel heard the tone of the other boy’s laughter and noticed how familiar it was. How similar it was to his and Evan’s. And Ainsley’s too, for that matter.
Kaden pressed his palms flat to the table. “So, Isla says I can crash in her dorm room this week. It’s empty while the workmen are doing the repairs. She says Ms Joy won’t be there while the work’s being done, so no one will find me.”
“You don’t have to leave the mansion,” Joel told him. “You can stay for a while. You know, until you can figure something out long term.”
Kaden’s brow furrowed. “Your brothers don’t want me there.”
“They’re your brothers, too,” said Joel before he could stop himself.
Kaden tensed. “I’m not one of you. I’m not a Tomlins; I’m a Fallows.”
Joel looked down at the table, tracing the patterns of the knotty pine with his eyes. “Not really, though. Jefferson’s not your real dad.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Kaden’s fists clench.
“That’s a good thing, though, right?” Joel added quickly. “Better to not know who your father is than to stake claim on Jefferson Fallows, right?”
Kaden didn’t answer. Instead, he trained his focus somewhere beyond the window.
Joel followed his gaze. “What do you think he’ll do to her?” he murmured distantly. “When he finds her, I mean.” It was a question that had been playing on his mind ever since Kaden had first confronted them at the party. Jefferson was out to get Evangeline—that was what Kaden had said. The Fallows were out for her blood.
Kaden turned back to him now, he didn’t need elaboration. “Kill her,” he answered. “Slowly, probably.”
Joel swallowed against the dryness in his throat. “Jefferson hates her that much?”
Kaden nodded.
“And what about you?” Joel pressed. “Do you hate her that much?”
Kaden gave Joel an incredulous look. “Do you?” he returned the question.
Joel shook his head. “I can’t,” he said weakly.
“Then you know how I feel.”
Joel licked his lips. “But Jefferson . . . Can you stop him?”
Kaden snorted.
“Right,” said Joel, understanding. “Can we stop him? Can we help her, or warn her, at least? Someone must know where she is.”
Kaden’s eye narrowed. “No one ever knows where she is. Not a single person.”
Joel glanced out the window just as a breeze rocked through the trees. “Five,” he mumbled to himself. “Venatus. There are five of us.”
“Huh?”
“There are five of us,” Joel spoke clearly now.
Kaden’s brow furrowed. “So?”
“Not a single person knows where she is. But maybe five of us can.”
THE FINAL SCHOOL bell rang, shattering the stillness in the library. Joel and Kaden rose from their seats and headed for the parking lot. They were the first to arrive at the Jeep, and immediately climbed inside to avoid the cold wind that was funnelling between the parked cars. Joel took the driver’s seat while Kaden slid onto the back bench. One by one the others appeared: first Maggie and Isla, then Ainsley. When Evan finally arrived and climbed into the front passenger seat, Joel revved the engine and shifted into drive.
“These people are still here?” Ainsley moaned as he adjusted his position in the back seat beside Kaden and the girls. “Don’t they have homes to go to?”
“It’s only for a couple more days,” Joel assured him.
“Just a few days,” Maggie agreed, leaning across Isla and Kaden to speak to Ainsley. “Joyless thinks the dorms will be ready by Friday.”
Ainsley grimaced. “You’re okay,” he said, thumbing towards Maggie. “It’s the other two love birds I’m not sure about.”
Kaden and Isla frowned at him and tightened their grip on each other’s hands.
“It’s just for a few days more,” Maggie said again.
�
�Anyway,” Joel went on, “turns out, this could be the answer we’ve been searching for. I had an idea.” He turned the Jeep off school grounds and onto the main road. “The Venatus spell—”
“Whoa!” Ainsley exclaimed, giving a swift kick to the back of Joel’s seat. “You’re talking about s-p-e-l-l-s in front of the g-i-r-l-s-e-s.”
“Spelling things out only works if we can’t spell,” Maggie reminded Ainsley. “And also, you spelled ‘girls’ wrong.”
Ainsley crossed his arms and huffed.
Joel steered out onto the main road. “I think we’re beyond watching what we say in front of the g-i-r-l-s-e-s,” he said. “They know everything by now.” In the rear-view mirror he could see the soft gold light that hovered around Maggie. His light.
Evan cleared his throat. “Still, maybe we should have this conversation in private, just between us.”
“Why?” Joel laughed. “I’ll just tell Maggie anyway, and I’m sure Kaden will tell Isla.”
Evan shifted in his seat, tugging at the seatbelt. “Privately, as in, between the three of us. You, me, and Ainsley.”
Joel sighed. His focus returned to the road as they began to drive through downtown Blackheath, passing shops and diners and insurance brokerages. As Joel neared a stop sign on the far side of the downtown, he caught sight of Alleged Third-or-Fourth Cousin Opal and Alleged Aunt Topaz coming out of Denver’s Burger Shack. Pippin waddled along between them, his mass of blonde curls bouncing in the wind.
They waved when they saw the Jeep. Joel and Evan waved back. He spun the steering wheel to the left and rolled into the restaurant’s parking lot, pulling up beside them.
Joel wound down the window. “Hey,” he called, reaching out to Pippin.
Pippin’s expression broke into one of glee as he squirmed free of the two older women and clung to the Jeep door.
Joel swung the door open and Pippin climbed onto his lap.
“What are you doing here?” Joel asked the alleged relatives, pleasantly surprised to see them out of the mansion, doing normal things with Pippin for once.
“I had a reading,” Topaz answered, her shawl wrapped around her hunched frame.
“And I came for backup,” Opal explained gruffly. “Figured I’d get a free cup of joe for my troubles.”
“Could have done with my lucky charm, though,” Topaz grumbled. She glanced into the back seat at Ainsley, who beamed at her in return. “I keep telling you, you shouldn’t force school upon that child,” she pronounced, turning her beady gaze upon Evan now. “It’s a waste of his time.”
“Your time, you mean,” muttered Joel as he smoothed a few of Pippin’s curls.
Evan cleared his throat. “Thanks for taking Pippin out. He seems happy.”
Pippin grinned.
“Have you guys eaten?” Joel asked.
“No . . .” Topaz’s expression changed, becoming miraculously amiable all of a sudden. “Not yet. Why do you ask?” She hobbled closer to the Jeep, her face hopeful.
Joel glanced at Evan. “You wanna go in?” he asked, nodding towards the diner.
Ainsley cheered but Evan looked uncertain. “Can we afford it?” he asked Joel under his breath.
From the back seat, Kaden spoke up for the first time. “It’s on me,” he said. “To say thanks for letting me crash.”
Ainsley rubbed his hands together. “Well, okay!” He gave Kaden a hearty slap on the shoulder. “Stay as long as you want.”
Joel caught Kaden’s eye in the mirror. “Are you sure?”
Kaden shrugged. “I’ll charge it on my card.”
Ainsley’s lavender eyes widened. “You’ve got a credit card? Now that is useful information.” He smiled innocently. “I mean, in case of emergencies and all,” he added, flashing Topaz a quick thumbs-up.
Topaz leaned through the open driver’s side window to assess Kaden with her unblinking eyes. “What about us?” She pointed between herself and Opal, fluttering her stubby eyelashes and baring her sparse, stained teeth into what was intended as a smile.
“You guys too,” Kaden answered. “It’s on me.”
“That’s very generous of you,” said Evan in a tight voice.
“Yeah,” Joel said brightly. “Thanks, Kaden.”
One by one, they stepped out onto the tarmac and began walking towards the diner.
The bell chimed as Joel opened the diner’s door. Drinking in the intoxicating aromas of french fries and freshly brewed coffee, they piled into a large corner booth. All nine of them squeezed onto the long curved benches. The mood was surprisingly high as Isla handed out the laminated menus and Ainsley stuffed sugar sachets into his coat pocket.
Joel looked around the table, feeling more content than he could remember. Here were his brothers, Evan and Ainsley, smiling and laughing, and Pippin, slotted neatly between the older alleged relatives. There was Maggie, chatting happily with Isla. And then there was Kaden, grinning as he watched Evan and Ainsley play fight. He was the missing piece of the family that Joel hadn’t even realised he’d wanted. Another brother. Another part of himself.
The colours surrounding his friends and family were gentle, and he was about to order a double cheeseburger. Life didn’t get much better than that.
WHEN THEY LEFT the diner that evening, the sun had begun to set and the forest surrounding the parking lot was dimmed by a navy hue.
The aunts had taken Ainsley and Pippin back to the mansion in Topaz’s beat-up old truck, and Evan, Joel, Kaden, and the girls were driving home in the Jeep. Spirits were still high, and for the first time since Maximus had left, Joel no longer felt hungry. He no longer felt empty, either.
Maggie was now sitting beside him in the front seat, and he slipped his hand around hers while he drove up the quiet wooded road towards the old mansion. She threaded her fingers through his, and he smiled.
Her aura was soft, the pale pink of calm. In fact, that night everyone’s aura had softened to the warm shades of peace and safety. It made Joel aware of just how dark Evan’s aura had been leading up to this. How grey and bleak he had become after Maximus left. Scared, sad, lost. It had pained Joel to see Evan suffering that way, but there was nothing he could do about it. The hurt would just have to run its course. Still, every time he saw that dull shade surrounding his brother, it scratched away at Joel’s heart with cruel, sharp claws.
Maggie shuffled closer to him now and leaned against his shoulder. Her caramel coloured hair settled on his shirt, coiling over the material.
Joel listened carefully, finding the sound of her heartbeat in his subconscious. The rhythm was slow and steady.
Good, thought Joel.
That was all he wanted—for her to feel safe, to be safe. He could be her safe place. And she could be his.
The Jeep chugged into the clearing and the mansion came into view, tall and pointy, its turret roof covered with snow. Topaz’s truck was already parked, and Pippin and Ainsley were clambering out of it.
Joel cut the engine, and everyone climbed out of the Jeep and began towards the mansion. Only Joel and Evan hung back.
Side by side, they made their way across the slushy ground, following behind the procession. The wind moaned, speaking in its distant language as it gently rattled the mansion’s old shutters.
“There are five of us,” Joel said under his breath, just loud enough for Evan to hear. “Five brothers. Five witches. Our mother is out there, and she’s in danger. I know that’s tearing you up inside. It has to be.”
Evan said nothing.
“We have to find her,” Joel carried on. “We have to warn her, or help her . . . I don’t know. Hell, we have to find out who she really is—and how she ended up with the power to astral project.”
“If that’s even true,” Evan muttered. “Our mother is human, she doesn’t have powers.”
Joel pursed his lips. “Regardless, we have to find her, don’t we? We can’t just sit around and ignore this.”
Evan exhaled into the cold evening w
ind. “Venatus is a Four,” he said. “Pippin can’t do a Four. You can’t do a Four.”
“I can try,” Joel said emphatically. “Ruby thought we could handle it, right? She thought Pippin could do it. We have our five now. Five of the same bloodline. We can do this.”
“He’s not our bloodline.”
“He’s not a Tomlins,” Joel accepted, glancing towards Kaden as he disappeared into the mansion behind Maggie and Isla. “But he’s our mother’s son, and he’s a capable witch. You know he is.”
Silence fell between them as they neared the porch.
Joel stopped at the steps. “Evan?” he prompted.
Evan looked at the ground for a long moment. “I’ll think about it,” he finally said in a voice that could barely be heard over the howling wind.
ANOTHER DAY OF school came and went in a blur; Joel’s mind was elsewhere. He found himself sitting beside Kaden in lessons, tossing the ball to him on the basketball court during free period, and saving a space for him at the lunch table. He was curious about his newfound brother. Every day he noticed new characteristics about him, similarities they shared.
He’s me, Joel would muse to himself time and time again. And I’m him.
After school, Charlie and the soccer guys organised a night at the arcades. While Evan drove Ainsley home in the Jeep, Joel walked to the arcade with Charlie and Kaden. Maggie and her girlfriends trailed behind them as they slogged through what was left of the snow. For the most part it had melted, and with the emerging patches of pavement came a new perspective. New ground to work with.
“I got to hand it to you, New Dog,” said Charlie as he gave Kaden a hefty slap on the back. “You did good today on the court. You should try out for the basketball team next season.”
Joel felt a swell of pride. Yeah, he thought. My little brother did good.
Kaden smiled down at the ground. “I don’t know . . .”
“No, you should,” Charlie went on, his aura the light peach colour of admiration. “You’re weedy”—he prodded at one of Kaden’s lean arms—“but you can shoot. So whatever, y’know?”
Blackheath Resurrection (The Blackheath Witches Book 2) Page 14