by Laure Eve
‘I don’t think I can help you get to her.’
‘That’s not why I’m talking to you,’ he said quickly.
‘Then why?’
He waved his hands defensively. He was all elbows and long piano fingers. ‘You’re new. There are things you don’t know, okay? You should be warned before you get in too deep. Trust me, I know what it’s like to get in too deep with the Graces.’
‘Oh really? How come?’
‘Because I’ve been best friends with them my whole life. Until recently.’
His black hair was lank, his face pleasant enough. He was pale. Average. If you were feeling generous, you’d call him interesting in a consumptive, vampirish kind of way. He seemed so normal, but I knew that outsides sometimes didn’t match insides. I watched him glance up and down the street again. We were next to an empty café, its horribly cheery striped awning flapping sadly in the wind. It was a primary-colours, mothers-with-prams kind of a place. No one our age would be caught dead in it. He gestured.
‘Can we just, like, sit down inside for a minute?’
He’d played me well, I’d give him that. When he pushed open the door and disappeared inside without even waiting to see if I’d follow, it was because he knew I would.
CHAPTER 13
Marcus bought us both hot chocolates with marshmallows floating on their thin surfaces. We sat in the back, tucked into a corner table and away from the street view.
‘You’re wondering why they’d be into someone like me,’ he said, without preamble. ‘We kind of grew up together. My dad used to work with Gwydion.’ He smiled at my surprise. ‘It’s not a secret. You’re new, that’s all.’
‘Were you friends with all of them?’
‘Fen in particular. But you know how it is. If one adopts you, they all do.’
I knew.
‘So what happened?’ I said.
Marcus looked away.
‘Summer told me that you and Thalia were together for a while.’ I was trying to be kind.
His head reared. ‘She told you that?’
He seemed surprised they’d trust me with such secrets already, and I couldn’t help feeling a little bit proud.
‘Why don’t you just tell everyone?’ I said. ‘They wouldn’t treat you the way they do if they knew you were actually involved with her.’
‘It’s not up to me,’ he muttered. ‘It’s Thalia’s business. I’m not about to stab her in the back like that.’
‘But—’
‘Look, I don’t care about the rumours,’ he snapped. ‘I don’t care what anyone else thinks about me.’
The unspoken hung in the air. The Graces’ opinion was the only one that mattered. He remained loyal, maybe hoping it would eventually win their favour back.
Well, good luck with that, Marcus.
I remembered Summer maintaining a staunch silence in the cafeteria that day he tried to talk to Thalia in the lunch queue. They didn’t join in everyone’s mocking of him, but neither did they do a damn thing to curtail it. The power lay with them, but they didn’t use it. What did that mean? Were they punishing him? Were they crueller than I wanted them to be?
‘You think it’s stupid,’ he said, softly, looking at me. ‘Are you going to tell everyone what Summer told you?’
‘Of course not,’ I began.
‘Why not?’
Because I don’t know you and I don’t owe you anything.
‘Because you feel the same loyalty I do,’ he finished for me. ‘Because that’s how they make people feel.’
‘They don’t make me feel anything.’
‘Please. They totally manipulate everyone in this whole town.’
‘How on earth would they do that?’
He licked his lips nervously. ‘You know. The witchcraft stuff. Black magic.’
‘You really believe in that?’ I said in my best poker voice.
‘Are you saying that after hanging out with them, you really don’t?’
I was silent.
He looked triumphant.
‘So what else don’t I know about them?’ I asked casually.
Marcus stared at the far wall, drumming his fingers on the table. Tap tap tapping. A lot of nervous energy wrapped up in that slim frame.
‘For starters,’ he said, ‘the Graces might be one of the most powerful families you’ll ever meet. I’m talking about money. Old money, and fingers in every pie you can think of. Half the government has a connection to a Grace, somewhere down the line. I mean, it makes sense – the water witches are best at being charming and persuasive. Persuaders can become leaders, and make the right people change their minds about things—’
‘That’s kind of paranoid.’
‘Not really. That’s life, for rich and powerful people. You have no idea what they could do with a wave of their hand.’
‘Come on. They’re rich, so what? They don’t run this town.’
‘Yeah, they do. You just don’t see it yet.’ He laced his fingers together in his lap. ‘Fen and I used to talk about it a lot. He said being a Grace is like being in a cult. When you’re in it, you can’t see why anyone else would live or think or act any other way. It’s only when you start to surface that you realise how screwed up it can be.’
‘So, what? They brainwash everyone? They’re just that powerful?’
‘Why not? You’ve seen how everyone hangs on their every word, right? And they have all sorts of strange things going on, like arranged marriages with other families, just as old and moneyed as they are. They treat their own family members like prize horses. And they treat everyone else like cattle. It’s so “keep it in the family”, and they hate anything that threatens that.’
‘Fenrin isn’t like that. Summer’s not like that. Thalia—’ I hesitated.
‘Fen is like that, actually, and it’s something he really hates about himself. Summer’s the same, for all she plays the rebel. Thalia, are you kidding? She’s her mother mark II.’ He sighed. ‘Cut her in half and you’d see “Grace” the whole way through. Like rock candy.’
I was beginning to see why people didn’t like Marcus. Why he had the ‘weird’ brand stamped on his forehead. He said things other people only thought in the privacy of their own heads, and he seemed utterly fearless about looking like an idiot for it. He knew what everyone thought of him and didn’t care.
I felt a grudging admiration begin to stir.
‘Even if I believed in your conspiracy theories,’ I said, ‘why are you telling me all this?’
His eyes darted to mine, quick, and then away. ‘Everyone in school’s been watching you for the last few weeks. Did you know that?’
I was silent, unsettled.
‘And they wouldn’t have if you’d just been another friend the Graces picked up, you know the way they do.’ He paused. ‘But they don’t have best friends. They don’t ditch people in favour of someone else, the same someone else all the time.’
‘So?’ I managed.
‘So,’ he said, his voice wavering with amusement. ‘People don’t get how you did it. They don’t get you. Everyone’s afraid of what they don’t understand. And fear turns to anger.’
‘And anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the dark side.’
‘You can take the piss all you like. That’s how it works. You’ve stayed over at their house. Do you know how many people in school have done that?’
‘A few.’
‘None. No one since me.’
I felt a thrill scuttle down my spine.
‘So I felt like I should warn you, from one Grace reject to the next, what that’s actually like. Because it feels good now, but when you do something they don’t like, your life is going to go very wrong. And as soon as everyone else notices you’re out of favour, the rumours will start. To be shut out and rejected, when you’re not even the bad guy … you’ll see how it feels. It’s not them. It’s never them. It’s everyone else. While you’re friends with them, you’re under their protection, b
ut as soon as they’re not into you any more, everyone else will punish you for being in with them. It’s just how it works.’
‘I know how bullying works,’ I shot back. ‘I’m not afraid of small, pathetic people who treat others like crap just so they can feel better about their own small, pathetic lives.’
Marcus studied me keenly. ‘No, I guess you aren’t,’ he said. ‘But these are not ordinary people you’re friends with. And this is not an ordinary town because of them. It’s just … it’s hard for anyone to see straight around them.’
‘But you do, I guess.’
‘I do now.’
Now he was on the outside.
‘Does this mean you’re not going to try and get back with Thalia?’ I asked.
His face dropped, hard. ‘That’s none of your business,’ he said flatly.
‘But it seems like you still love her, despite what you say.’
He had clammed up. Maybe he thought I was fishing for the Graces. I wasn’t, exactly – I was curious. Was he just going to passively sit around and wait for them to like him again, or was he going to do something about it?
‘Why did you guys break up?’ I tried.
He was silent.
A drop of suspicion began to bloom. ‘What did you do?’ I said.
‘Still none of your business.’
He’d just spent the last few minutes trying to shroud the Graces in shades of grey, but what I hadn’t yet determined was just how innocent he was in all this. What if he’d done something awful? What was I supposed to think about all the bad things he’d said about them then? How could I find out more about the truth? There was that website, but …
Something clicked.
‘Hold up,’ I said.
He looked at me.
‘You said something about water witches. Persuaders.’
‘Right.’
‘You made that website.’
His face changed.
I thought I was starting to understand Marcus. What a person chose to keep secret could tell you all you needed to know about them. What they showed was who they wanted to be. What they hid was who they actually were.
I leaned back, my chest growing tight. ‘Oh my god. That’s how it has all that private stuff on there about them. I knew it must have come from someone close to the family.’
‘It’s not private,’ he said. ‘Everyone already knows most of it.’
‘Including all the witch types and their symbols? All the anecdotes about family members? I’m supposed to believe they tell everyone about things like that?’
He was silent.
‘Isn’t that kind of like stabbing them in the back? You know, the thing you said you would never do?’
‘It was right after they turned on me,’ he muttered. ‘I was angry. And I wanted to warn people.’
But the website didn’t read like that. It read like someone who was in love with them, their danger and their secrets. I still didn’t know whether he wanted me to stay away from them or to use me to get him back in with them, but either way I wasn’t interested. He didn’t want to help me – he wanted to help himself. I didn’t hate him for it; it was just human nature, but I wasn’t prepared to be used like that. I had my own plan to worry about.
‘Look, I have to go,’ I said.
He looked up at me with a startled rabbit face. ‘Wait a second.’
‘I’m sorry for what happened between you guys, but it’s nothing to do with me, okay?’ I stood, backing out of the tiny corner he’d manoeuvred me into. ‘I can’t help you, Marcus. You just have to let it go. Just leave Thalia alone. Leave them all alone. It’s better that way.’
His mouth opened and closed. I felt a little bad. But I wouldn’t jeopardise my friendship with the Graces because he’d screwed up his.
I turned and walked fast out of the café. Away, away, breathing a sigh of relief.
He was shouting at my back.
‘You think they won’t fuck you over, too? They will. They will.’
CHAPTER 14
It was tough being at a school with no uniform. It was supposed to make you feel adult, but all it did was give me anxious thrills each evening as I went back and forth through my clothes rail until the sound of squeaking metal hangers gave me a headache.
Fenrin didn’t seem to discriminate between fashion types, though he’d been through his fair share of surfer girls. Anyway, I was the different one, right? He liked me because of that. I tried to smudge a load of eyeliner under my eyes to give them a smoky, glowery effect, but all it did was make me look tired, so I rubbed half of it off.
This was ridiculous. I’d never been like this about anyone before. I’d never had many friends. I wasn’t good with people, and it was hard to get along in this world if you weren’t. Easier to not put yourself out there, less hurt all around.
But then again, I’d never thought I’d meet anyone like the Graces. I knew now that I’d been holding out for them all along. Were we close? I couldn’t tell. I’d never had best friends before, so I wasn’t sure what behaviour told you that you were. But they were giving me secrets, weren’t they? I needed them to like me, to trust me enough to give me their help, to teach me to be a witch so I could fix everything that was wrong.
Maybe even get my father back.
It was the first and the best chance I’d ever been given, and I had to do everything in my power to use it.
I read a book as I walked into the cafeteria at lunch, letting it dangle languorously from my hand when I looked up to find a spare seat, trying to seem like I was still too immersed in the world on its pages to pay much attention to the world around me.
There they were. All three of them, together in the middle table, surrounded by a parade of gigglers.
Just go up to them like you’re supposed to be there.
Go on.
What if they ignored me?
You just spent the night at their house. How many other people in school can say that?
I walked through the cafeteria, Marcus’s warnings crawling through my head. I passed Niral, sitting with a group at another table, and for a moment I felt panicked, like she could see the binding spell I had done on her playing like a film projector over my head. But all that happened was that she looked up, tossed me a dirty glance and then went back to talking with her friends.
She seemed disappointingly unspelled. I guessed that meant I wasn’t a witch yet – but part of me was glad. It was a petty, angry little thing to have done. I should have risen above it, but instead I’d risked an awful lot to teach a bully a lesson. From now on I’d behave as if I was barely aware of her existence. That was the Grace thing to do.
When I got to their table, I realised my mistake: there were no spare chairs. My face started to burn. It began at my neck and ate away at each section of skin until it reached my forehead.
‘Hey,’ I said, looking at Summer.
She had a drink to her mouth and didn’t reply.
‘Are you passing through on your way to the library, or will you be staying to enjoy this cafeteria’s fine roast beef with us?’ asked Fenrin, who had the suspect-looking meat in question skewered on his fork and a ripple of distaste across his mouth.
The face burn faded, leaving cautious relief in its wake. ‘I’ve got some time. For you, maybe even ten minutes.’
‘You’re a generous soul, Your Majesty. Have a seat … wait, there’s no chairs.’
No one moved.
‘I can stand,’ I said. ‘I’m not going to be here long.’
‘Dean, you were supposed to be gone already. Give River your chair.’
Dean eyed me.
‘Seriously,’ I said. ‘It’s fine.’
No one would risk making a Grace ask twice. Dean got up slowly like he didn’t care. ‘Yeah, I’m so late,’ he said, stilted. ‘See you in biology?’
‘Yeah,’ said Fenrin absently.
Dean shambled off. I took the chair beside Fenrin. It was warm.
&
nbsp; ‘So you’re going to have to tell me the ending of that last film,’ I said to Summer. She was in conversation with Lou, who looked irritated when Summer broke off and turned her face to me across the table.
‘You mean you guys didn’t watch it?’ she asked.
Thalia rolled her eyes. ‘What are you even talking about? You fell asleep.’
‘So?!’
‘So we were under no obligation,’ Fenrin remarked, leaning back in his chair. I watched the way the curve of his shoulder moved underneath his T-shirt, and then forced my eyes back to the table. ‘It was your crap pick, anyway.’
‘Where were you guys? At the cinema?’ said Lou.
Summer shrugged. ‘No, we just chilled out with some films and food at the house.’
I wanted there to be a stunned silence. Instead, I had to settle for a quick, shocked glance between Gemma and Lou.
Good enough. I wondered how long that piece of news would take to circulate.
‘You hear about Jase?’ asked Lou, rapidly changing the subject.
‘Oh my god, that’s bad,’ someone else joined in enthusiastically.
‘Why, what happened?’ Gemma asked.
‘He broke his leg surfing. Had to go to hospital. They said he was screaming and crying like a five-year-old having a tantrum.’
‘Really?’ Summer said. ‘When was that?’
Lou gave her a pleased look, as if she was being wonderfully sly. ‘Yesterday.’
Gemma whistled. ‘That must have hurt.’
‘Yeah, well. I’m not too sad for him, after all that shit he’s been saying about Summer. So maybe he got what he deserved.’
‘Harsh,’ Gemma commented, her eager tone suggesting otherwise.
Now I understood. They thought Summer had made good on her promise to curse him.
I watched her. Her face was carefully blank, and she wasn’t exactly going out of her way to correct them. Had she really done something, or was it just coincidence? The conversation faltered.
‘So how’s the birthday party planning going?’ one of Thalia’s friends asked her.
‘Oh man, it’s such a nightmare,’ Thalia moaned. ‘Just even organising that many people.’