“Not remotely,” he said, looking over his paper at her. “Just a happy coincidence.”
She glowered and he grinned.
“You did good,” he said as she turned away to join Dawn.
“Whose keys do you want to get?” Becca asked.
“You can take mine,” Jackson called, and Becca paused, waiting for Dawn to get the keys and come running back.
“About time,” Dawn said. “I’m getting stir crazy.”
Becca watched where Billy and Robbie were setting up their trailers in formation with Bella’s and Jackson’s and shook her head. She didn’t want to be here for this.
“Let’s go,” she said. “This is only going to be awkward.”
Dawn nodded.
“Done.”
It certainly wasn’t any better than Becca had guessed. Aaron fought with everyone, including Bella and Jackson in full view of everyone there. No one would tell him why they were there - not that any of them knew, other than Bella and Jackson - and no one would tell him what they were waiting for.
And he didn’t let it go.
He kept asking, even as everyone had already made it clear they weren’t going to say.
“How much longer?” he asked.
No one could tell him.
No one knew.
The next day was much the same, and the one after that.
Finally, the third day of simply sitting in an empty field, Bella came out of her trailer and sat in front of the clearing where they’d made their campfire.
“Tonight,” she said. “Tonight at midnight, under the peak of the full moon.”
“You’re going to try to break it,” Aaron said.
“Break what?” Bella asked.
“Whatever it is that’s going on. The curse that’s on the queen of this tribe. You think you can break it.”
“I do,” Bella said.
“Then why do you need me here? You have the most gifted little sister our people have seen in two generations, and Quinn besides. My magic isn’t that strong. Why am I here?”
“Because you are a part of the magic,” Bella said. “If I am going to live, you have to be here.”
Becca saw Grant wince. Technically, them being here was what put Bella at risk, but Becca wasn’t sure she understood what was causing that well enough to be sure that another queen would have been safe, where Bella was. Maybe Bella had been stronger than the curse all this time, and it had just gotten worse when Grant had joined the tribe.
“Tonight,” Aaron said.
“Tonight,” Bella said, looking up at the sky. “Tonight we succeed or we fail.”
Sunset was forever coming. Everyone was edgy, even Billy and Jackson, and Dawn spent the entire day squirreled away in her trailer, either working or hiding, Becca never did get a good feel of it.
“Can we talk?” Grant asked as the sun got close to the trees on the edge of the field.
“Yeah,” Becca said. There was a sense of pause, just now, and now was the time to do the things she might not get to, later. He was so easy to talk to, usually, but this wasn’t going to be one of those talks.
They started for the tree line, legs brushing through tall green grass as they walked, and for a while they were quiet. The grass was damp and had a clean scent as a cool night breeze lazed across it. Somewhere behind her, Becca could just pick up the smell of the campfire.
“I think I’m in love with you,” he finally said.
“I know,” she answered.
“Have you ever been in love?” he asked her.
“No,” she said.
“You’ve kissed other boys,” he said.
“Of course,” she said. “You’ve seen that.”
“But you won’t kiss me.”
“Because you love me,” she said.
“The one in New York. Does he love you?”
She didn’t know the answer to that. It was possible.
“Maybe.”
“Did you kiss him?”
It wasn’t any of his business, but she’d never kept anything like that from him. She didn’t like secrets.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
She felt her defensiveness trigger and she shook it away. He was working up to something. She just needed to let him get through all of the garbage he hadn’t had the guts to ask before.
“Because it was fun,” she said. “And because it wasn’t going to break his heart if it didn’t mean anything.”
And because he was hot as anyone she’d ever met. Okay, that just wasn’t helpful to say out loud.
“And did it?”
“No.”
“Do you want to be in love?” he asked.
“No,” she said.
“Ever?”
Huh. She took her time, letting the grass tangle across her toes as she walked, thinking about it.
“My mother loves my father,” she said. “But it doesn’t mean a lot to either one of them. I don’t know if I want that. Jackson and Bella love each other and they mean everything to each other. And I don’t know if I want that, either.”
He was still watching her, but he wasn’t jumping in. They walked some more.
“I don’t know,” she finally said. “I think maybe, but I don’t know when, which means I don’t know if I actually want it or if I just don’t want to say no to it.”
He nodded.
“I think I might love you for the rest of my life.”
“Oh, don’t say that,” Becca scolded. “If you love me now and then some day you meet some fantastic woman that you love completely, you’re always going to have this little idea in the back of your head that you’re being unfaithful, even though you never promised me anything.”
“Would not,” Grant said quickly and she grinned.
“Would too,” she said. “That’s just who you are. If you say you’re going to love someone your whole life, and then you love someone else instead, you feel like you broke your promise. One I didn’t ask for.”
Grant was quiet for a minute.
“Mom says I’m just like my dad.”
Becca let that one land. Aaron had loved Jasmine. Really loved her, in a real relationship, where they meant everything to each other. And then she’d cut him off because she thought he might have cheated, and he’d taken a wife, married someone else.
“You think he feels like he cheated on Jasmine?” she asked.
“Maybe,” he said quietly.
“You can love me,” Becca said. “As long as you know that I don’t love you, not as a man, and as long as you never ever make a promise to love me unless I ask for it.”
“Yeah,” Grant said. “All right. But I want something else.”
“Oh?” Becca asked, half expecting him to ask for sex. Boys were unpredictable.
“Yeah,” he said. “When you decide that you want to be in love, give me a chance.”
He stopped, and she turned to face him, feeling confused and a bit out of her league.
“I don’t know if I can promise that,” she said. He dropped his head but didn’t lose eye contact.
“You think you could never love me?” he asked.
Well, that, sure, but…
“Because what if I don’t know I want to love someone until I do?”
It was unintended, but she knew it was there. The insult. That if he were somehow better, maybe he could have won her.
She couldn’t avoid it. Because it would break him if she just turned up one day and told him that she’d met the one, and he was left standing there with her empty promise. She wouldn’t do that to him.
He licked his lips.
“Okay,” he said. “Yeah. I understand.”
“No,” she said. “It’s not about you.”
It sort of was. That might have been a lie, but it was a lie to… Well, it was a lie she felt like she had to tell. He turned away and she stepped up to walk next to him again.
“If I can,” she said. “If something changes that�
�s about me and… Well, you know. I will. Okay?”
“I’m not staying,” he said.
“What?” she asked. “Because I won’t give you dibs?”
He laughed a dark sort of a laugh and shook his head.
“No,” he said. “No. I wanted to talk to you because I’m leaving. I’m not leaving because of you.”
“Well, why?” she asked again more emphatically.
“Because I make Bella unsafe,” he said. “Unless they really do something amazing tonight and I… I know that she’s safe, I’m going to go home with my dad. I’ll see if another tribe will take me, but if they won’t… I’ll understand.”
“Will you stop trying to fall on your sword?” Becca asked, grabbing his shoulder and spinning him. “This isn’t about you.”
“It is,” he said.
“You think they haven’t figured it out?” Becca asked. “I told Dawn we knew that the curse had come back because you were here and Jackson said it was about time someone figured that out.”
“Quinn knew immediately,” Grant said.
“Quinn guessed immediately,” Becca said. “And she just said it to be mean. You know her.”
“She isn’t mean,” Grant said. “You just don’t get her.”
“And you do?” Becca asked.
“I’ve been riding and living with her for a year,” he said. “She does what she does because she thinks she’s helping.”
“Does not,” Becca said. “She does it because it amuses her.”
Grant grinned.
“Well, yeah. That, too.”
“This is your home,” Becca said. “We are your home. You can’t just run away.”
“I can,” Grant said. “If I’m destroying my family.”
“They know,” Becca said. “And they kept you here. If you and Bella think that the curse might still be active, they can’t just stop looking for how to break it. Because you might be at a festival and we might be there, and, bam, now Bella’s dead because a dart hit her in the eye.”
“A dart in the eye,” Grant said flatly. Becca shrugged.
“They’re all random.”
He shook his head.
“So I should leave her in major danger because at least she knows about it?” he asked.
“Yes,” Becca said. “Because she can deal with that.”
“What if, checking to see if the curse is gone, it gets her?” he asked. “What if I stay and she dies?”
Becca frowned.
It was a strong argument.
“I think we’ll know,” she said finally. “I do. I think it won’t matter.”
“I hope so,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. He sighed. “I hope so.”
Bella was pacing a circle when they got back. She would have been out of sight to the rest of the camp, but Grant and Becca could see her, silhouetted against her small fire, as she walked.
Becca looked at Grant, who appeared ready to pretend like he hadn’t seen and come in another direction, but she took his hand and dragged him in to where Bella was walking.
“Is everything okay?” Becca asked.
“It’s a big cast,” Bella said. “A lot of details.”
“You’re doing it?” Becca asked. “Why not Quinn and Dawn?”
“It has to be me,” Bella said.
“Are the others coming?” Becca asked, choosing her words carefully in case Aaron was somewhere in earshot.
“Late,” Bella said. “They’ll be here before midnight, but not by much.”
Becca nodded. It was going to be close. She frowned. She had a niggling need to tell Bella something, but she couldn’t see why.
Speaking out of turn.
She went and peeked around the corner of the trailer, finding Aaron on the far side of the campfire, arms and legs crossed, looking sullen and on edge. Bella had stopped pacing and was watching her. Becca glanced a quick apology at Grant then dipped her head toward Bella, speaking with as low a tone as she could.
“Do you think that Aaron feels guilty?” she asked.
“About losing the queens?” Bella asked. “I expect he does.”
“No,” Becca said. “About marrying Grant’s mom.”
Bella straightened, looking surprised.
“Why would he? Jasmine was the one who ended it. Are you suggesting she didn’t?”
“Because I would,” Grant said, almost begrudgingly. Bella sent him a sharp look.
“Why?”
“Because he loved her,” he said. “And he was with someone else.”
Becca looked quickly at him, hoping it hadn’t cost him too much. When she looked back at Bella, the woman’s focus was somewhere else.
“Of course,” Bella whispered. “Of course. Why didn’t I see that? It makes all the pieces fit.”
She spun, her black hair trailing out behind her like a cape, and started up the steps into her trailer.
“We have to redo everything,” she said. “We were completely wrong how it worked.”
Becca waited, then shook her head and looked at Grant with a shrug. He looked a little worried and she shook her head.
“It happens,” she said, motioning toward the campfire with her head. “Let’s get some dinner.”
“Becca,” Bella said, sticking her head back out of the trailer. Grant started to go on without her, but Bella spoke again too quickly for her next words to have been secretive. “Jackson said you invented a magic in New Orleans. Congratulations. That’s a big step.”
Becca ducked her head, embarrassed, and nodded.
“Thank you,” she said.
“You what?” Grant asked. Becca motioned again.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s eat, and I’ll tell you about it.”
Engines coming up the road, attached to headlights that raked across the field and zeroed in on the campfire like eyes in the dark, searching them out. The Makkai who were already there all gathered, a sense of anticipation building among them as the two trucks got closer.
The campfire had been silent for more than an hour, and Becca was nervous.
She didn’t even have a part in what was going to come next, and she was nervous.
She’d never seen Bella worked up like that before. And when Patricia got here… She didn’t want to think what Aaron was going to do. He was like a bird on a wire, flustered and edgy every time someone bumped into him.
The engines stopped and doors opened. They weren’t going to set up camp yet. They probably sensed as well as the Makkai who were already there that important things were underfoot, and the golden rule of always tending to the trailers first was going to get broken tonight.
“Aaron?” a voice called in the darkness. “They have you caught up in all of this, too?”
“Who is that?” Aaron called back, his voice hoarse.
A woman’s body, thick with childbearing age, silhouetted in the headlights just before they turned off. It took a moment for their eyes to adapt to the new darkness, but then the campfire behind them lit her face.
Patricia might have been a handsome woman, in her prime. She might have been skinny, too; Becca had no way of knowing, now. She was well on her way to being a crone, now - early, from the age on her skin.
“Patricia?” Aaron asked. “No. No, I am not doing this.”
“Take them,” Bella said, her voice firm but hauntingly empty. Billy and Jackson took Aaron’s arms and started to drag him toward the fire, and Robbie managed Patricia on his own. Becca was startled. She hadn’t seen any of the planning for this happen.
She looked at Grant with wide eyes that matched his, and she could see his indecision as two Makkai men dragged away his father.
Who did he trust more?
Finally he came and held her hand.
“Stand with me,” he said. She nodded and they followed along with the rest of the Makkai to the fire. From nowhere, there were three tall posts in the ground at the points of a perfect triangle. Robbie tied Patricia’s arms behind h
er back around one of the posts as the woman squawked and fought. Aaron was putting up a much better fight, getting in a swing that connected with Jackson’s face. The tribe was divided, not understanding well enough what was going on to pick a side. Too many of them had known Aaron as a protector.
Then the circle went quiet as Bella stepped up to the third post, putting her hands behind her back around the wood and waiting as Dawn quietly stepped forward and tied her wrists.
“This is madness,” Aaron howled, but some of the fight seemed to have gone out of him. They tied his wrists and stepped back as he struggled against his ropes.
“Dawn, Becca is going to be behind me,” Bella said quietly. Dawn’s lips disappeared between her teeth and her eyes flew wide open, but after a long pause, she nodded, coming to stand in front of Becca. Becca slipped her hand away from Grant, not sure what was going on, but she knew which side she was on. Dawn put a bag the size of a slice of bread into her hands.
“We just do what we’re told,” Dawn whispered, taking both of Becca’s hands for a moment. “It could go a lot of ways.”
Becca nodded, watching as Quinn and Dawn took spots behind Aaron and Patricia. She followed, going to stand behind Bella.
For almost a full minute, the only sound was the fire popping and spitting on a piece of green wood, throwing sparks up and out. There was a long hiss as a pocket of damp opened, maybe a bug, and then Bella spoke.
“Long ago, this tribe was divided,” she said. “The queen, the protector, and the little sister were divided, and the tribe followed. It suffered for this, and tonight we end it.”
“I don’t want to be a part of anything with her,” Aaron said.
“It was twenty years ago,” Patricia said. “How could it possibly be relevant to anything that’s going on today?”
“You killed her,” Bella said, her voice rising more like an incantation than an accusation. She rolled her head to look at Aaron. “I couldn’t figure out how it happened, until your own son told me.”
“What?” Aaron yelled. “Grant, what did you tell her? What have you been saying?”
“Put the cherry diamond powder around the stakes,” Bella said, and Dawn and Quinn reached into their pouches. A beat late, Becca did, too, finding powder in the bottom of the bag. Diamond was powder you didn’t mess with unless you had to.
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