Silver Smoke (#1 of Seven Halos Series)

by Monica O'Brien

  Thessa stood up, motioning for Sirena to follow her. Brie stood up also, but Cora shook her head slightly, almost imperceptibly. She whispered something Rykken couldn't hear, and Brie looked at Rykken.

  So they had caught him.

  Cora left, and Brie motioned Rykken over to where she was sitting.

  "Hey," she said. "Where's Pilot?"

  "No idea." He sat down in the chair next to her. She wore her cheer uniform, which Rykken still hadn't gotten used to—it went against everything he knew about her.

  "I thought you two were inseparable," she said.

  "I've barely seen him all week."

  Brie frowned. "Pilot said you had extra polo practices though."

  "Nope." Rykken watched Brie fiddle with a bar of chocolate and the tip of a stick she found. "Are you trying to make a s'more?" he asked.

  Brie looked up from her work. "I've never made one before," she confessed.

  Rykken bit back a laugh. Brie caught him, and smiled. "What?" she said. "Do you think we throw bonfires in Central Park?"

  "Maybe homeless people do." Rykken took the stick from her. "First of all, you don't stake the chocolate, you stake the marshmallow."

  He slid two marshmallows on the stick and handed it back to her. "Then, you hold them slightly over the fire, but don't let them catch the flames. I hate blackened marshmallow."

  Brie nodded, fluttering her eyelashes lightly. "I'll keep that in mind."

  The flames reflected in Brie's eyes, the orange patterns clashing against her green irises. Rykken knew she was just being nice. Still, they were having a conversation, a feat Rykken didn't want to take for granted.

  "So, how much did you overhear earlier?" Brie asked. Her eyes darted between the marshmallows and his face.

  Rykken felt like a deflated balloon—her question confirmed his suspicions that she was only talking to him to get information. "Just the part about your mom searching for an unknown object," he said dully.

  "And the part about your dad tracking her across the globe."

  She nodded her head thoughtfully. "You shouldn't eavesdrop."

  "Okay Miss Headphones-in-the-Car." He looked up to watch her reaction, but she seemed calmer than normal. At least she wasn't gearing up to yell at him again.

  "I did that to protect my family." She peeked out at him from behind a wall of hair, which fell in waves onto her shoulders. "I stopped when I realized how honest and good you are."

  The tone of her voice was intimate, and it confused him. "Do you really believe that?" he asked.

  She shook her head slightly, her forehead creasing in confusion. "To Pilot," she amended. "You're honest and good to Pilot, not me." Rykken sat back in his chair. "But I haven't exactly been kind to you either."

  "We can change that though."

  A soft smile spread slowly across her face. "Hating each other hasn't worked out so well for us, has it? Neither has ignoring each other. All that's left is being friends."

  Rykken swallowed. That wasn't all that was left, but he didn't bother to correct her. He rested his chin on the rim of his thumb and index finger. "I'm sorry I was eavesdropping. I did it because Pilot wants me to keep an eye on you when he's not around." It wasn't the whole truth, but it sounded like something Pilot would ask of him.

  "It's okay," Brie said. "Whatever you overheard tonight, you're misinterpreting it anyway. I'd appreciate it if you didn't repeat it to my brother."

  "It sounded serious though. If you need someone to talk to—"

  Brie looked up at him. "Maybe," she said. Rykken tried to keep his features in place to hide his surprise. She smiled at him again, ducking her head. "I do need someone to talk to. And I feel like you're a part of this anyway."

  "Okay," he said, pushing his shoulders back. He normally tried not to look at her too much, but tonight it was almost impossible to take his eyes off her. "Let me know when you're ready."

  Brie turned her marshmallows in the flames. "Since we're having such a good conversation, I need to ask you something. When you were wearing the pendant, did it leave any... physical evidence?"

  Rykken's throat tightened. "I thought we were past the pendant stuff. Pilot and I haven't found the book or the pendant."

  "I've looked too," she said. "No luck."

  He ran his fingers through his hair. "Then it's over. We need to put it behind us."

  "Rykken," she said. The way she said his name was so tender and vulnerable and sweet, he could kiss her. "Sirena told me she something on your chest."

  Rykken's stomach dropped. He had spent hours in the shower, trying to scrub the crescent moon and star from the area right below his heart. When the mark didn't lighten, he tried to put it out of his mind—it was barely visible at practice, and no one had really noticed it besides Sirena.

  Brie stared at him. He realized too late that she'd been watching for his reaction, despite his lack of words. "Can I see it?" she asked.

  "Not now," he said.

  She kept staring at him. "Has anything... strange happened to you since the pendant?"

  "Like what?"

  "Like, are you able to do things you haven't been able to do before?"

  Rykken was startled by her question. "No." He leaned across his chair, until he was so close to her he could smell the smoke from the fire on her hair. "Brie, what's going on? Why are you asking me this?"

  Brie's eyes flitted around his face, as if she were trying to look at every inch of it within a single second. "No reason," she said, but he recognized her disappointment in his answer. She pulled the stick with marshmallows on it from the fire. "Now what do I do with these?"

  "Brie," Justin said. Rykken glanced up. Justin towered over them, his hands on Brie's shoulders. He bent down. "Come over here and hang out with me for a little while," he whispered into her ear, loud enough for Rykken to make out every single word.

  "In a minute," Brie said. "I want to finish making my s'more first."

  Rykken didn't look back to see Justin's reaction; he heard the annoyance in his tone. "Save me a seat for later then. I'm first up when we tell campfire stories."

  She nodded and turned back to her marshmallows, oblivious to the effect she was having on both of them.

  "You should go," Rykken said, trying to keep the pain out of his voice.

  "Why?" Her eyes burned into him, like they were fueled by the heat from the bonfire. "I'm making s'mores with you right now."

  Still, he couldn't have her. He took a graham cracker and split it in half, placing the stabbed piece of chocolate on it. He sandwiched a mushy marshmallow between the crackers and pulled the dessert from the stick.

  "Here," he said, handing her the s'more and taking the stick from her. "Now, you should go."

  She looked at the s'more in her hands, the corners of her mouth reversing directions. "What's your deal?" Her bottom lip quivered, anchored on one side by her front teeth. "One minute we're having a deep conversation, and the next you pretend you can't stand me."

  Rykken looked away; there were a million ways to answer the question. You're my best friend's little sister. You're dating one of my friends. Of course, none of the answers were things he would ever say out loud to her. Instead, he fiddled with his own marshmallow, eating it straight from the stick. It was browned perfectly, with a slightly crusted outside and a gooey inside.

  When he had the courage to face her again, Brie was still staring him down, waiting for an answer.

  "I didn't know it came across that way," Rykken said.

  She ran her fingers through her hair angrily, flipping the front pieces to the back. "I don't buy it Rykken Camacho." He studied her face—her green eyes, her small nose, her full lips, her smooth cheeks. He could smell the vanilla on her skin, the chocolate on her breath.

  He pushed her out of his mind, and focused instead on the steamy, violent patterns the bonfire made against the midnight blue sky.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Brie shaking her head as she got up and walke
d in Justin's direction.

  *****

  Pilot held Kennedy's hand as they walked along the beach. He had spent every waking moment with her aside from school and practice. Now, it was near impossible for him to accept that she was leaving. He brushed her hair away from her neck and cupped her face in his palms, pressing his thumbs against her cheeks. She looked back at him with the smokiest eyes, smudged in black makeup. He leaned in and kissed her. When she pulled away, she rested her head on his chest. "I'll be back in Honolulu soon."

  He ran his fingers through her hair, which shone a bright white underneath the blaze of scattered street lamps. "I can't wait."

  "Do you have your campfire story ready?"

  "Yep. I'm going to tell the legend of the Selkies and the Shark-Men."

  "Cool. I brought you something for your performance," she said. He looked into her eyes, but she looked away quickly. She wore a skin-tight black dress forming a deep V at her chest and thigh high black boots.

  A few inches of her bare legs peeked out, taunting him. The outfit was a parting gift, like she wanted to remind him how much he wanted to have sex with her. Eventually. He was amazed she could walk across sand in those boots.

  She held up a small, purple pouch by its strings playfully, teasing him as he tried to grab for it.

  He closed his fist around it, yanking it out of her hand. She giggled, and he loosened the strings and shook the contents from the pouch. Inside, there was a small vial of thick, bright red liquid. "Is this... blood?" he asked.

  "Of the archangels and archdemons." She laughed, though she still wouldn't look at him. "It's fake,"

  she said, staring at his chest, her fingers straightening the collar of his polo shirt. "Toss it into the fire at the end of your story. It'll spark and scare everyone."

  He closed his fist around the vial. "I like it. Very theatrical."

  He leaned in to kiss her again, but she didn't respond to the pressure of his lips against hers.

  "What's wrong?"

  "Nothing." She looked him in the eyes, finally. He marveled at the color—they weren't the grayish shade of blue that was more common in eyes, but actually silver, like the color of diamonds. "We're going to keep trying to make this work, right?"

  "You mean because you live somewhere else?"

  She touched the buttons on his shirt. "I mean, no matter what happens."

  He grabbed her hand, holding it flat against his chest, right over his heart. "You know, I could call you in LA. Things could be normal between us."

  Kennedy looked like she might cry. "Things can be normal between us, someday. When you're ready."

  Pilot wasn't sure what to do. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it lightly.

  "You're so hard to interpret," he murmured.

  "I know," she replied. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his chest, his neck, his chin. Her touch sent shivers through his body. She kissed him hard on the mouth, and something about their embrace told him it was the last time for a while.

  When she finally pulled away, she smirked at him, her hand on her hip. "Turn around." Pilot felt physical pain from not having her in his arms anymore. She held her head up, but he could see her smile slipping at the corners of her mouth. He spun around, closing his eyes. He listened to the silence for several minutes, waiting to hear her footsteps headed in the opposite direction.

  When he turned back around, she was gone. He wasn't surprised.

  He made his way to the bonfire, where his entire school was bound to be celebrating the football team's Homecoming victory. It all felt distant to him though. Kennedy had opened him to a new world, outside of football, water polo, and high school. She made him feel whole in a way that no one else had in his life, because he didn't have to be so strong around her. He could be himself.

  He reached the bonfire as the party was dying down. Justin was just finishing up a story.

  "Who's next?" he asked, holding out the flashlight.

  "Me." Pilot took the flashlight from Justin, and grabbed an empty seat next to the fire.

  "A chief from a nearby town, not far from here, came to this very beach to watch the selkies as they danced in the sand, their steps leaving no footprints. A beautiful female selkie held out her hand to him, inviting him to join in their trite revelries. But he refused, as he knew that selkies were much like fairies, and to dance for a minute with them was to dance for a lifetime. He watched from the rocks instead, plotting a way to seduce the female selkie into marrying him.

  "He found her sealskin buried under the sand near the rocks. While she was dancing, he uprooted it and hid it in a wine cellar near his house. In the morning, the woman was trapped; she couldn't return to the ocean without her skin.

  "She married him and they had children. He carried the keys to the wine cellar with him night and day, afraid she would steal them and dig up her skin he so carefully hid from her.

  "He could tell she was unhappy, but he was too afraid to lose her. One day, one of their children stole the key from his father's pocket. The child discovered the sealskin, and not realizing what it was, showed it to his mother. The woman, realizing what had happened, put on her sealskin and made her way out to sea. When her husband came looking for her, she called him out into the ocean. He swam deeper and deeper, trying to reach the love of his life. When he finally did, she held him under water until his body went limp. He never returned to land.

  "She gave the village to her sons, reminding the children that if they ever wanted to call her, they could simply cry seven tears into the ocean and she would return to visit them."

  "Not far away in Waipao Valley, Ka-moho, a shark king, married the beautiful princess Kalei and had a son. Ka-moho disappeared shortly after the birth of his son, but not before he warned Kalei not to let their son, Nanaue, taste any human's blood.

  "When Nanaue grew older, he developed an appetite for fish. That appetite grew, and before long, Nanaue could not swim with other men, for they were too tempting.

  "As Nanaue neared adulthood, there were strange disappearances where the family lived. Whenever a man entered deep waters, a shark would appear, dragging them into the depths of the ocean. Their limbs would float to the surface, bitten and maimed at the ends.

  "Kalei became suspicious of the disappearances, so Nanaue left the valley. He moved to Honolulu and married a chief's daughter, and they had children. People suspected he may have supernatural powers, but because he was part of the royal family, no one dared to speak out about it.

  "The selkies and the shark-men were natural enemies. The two royal families feuded, both believing the other's beliefs were wrong. Before long, the fighting turned to war, and the war turned to death."

  Pilot paused, looking ominously around the campfire. He saw the faces of most of the guys from the football and water polo teams. He saw Brie standing still, next to Sirena. The twins stood behind them, spooked. Finally his eyes settled directly across the campfire, on Rykken. His best friend.

  "The deaths spelled trouble for the two tribes. The selkies could no longer stand the losses of their children, so they left the island for good, never to be seen again. Thus, the feud lay dormant, and over time was forgotten. But the shark-men wait until the day the selkies set foot on this land, if only to taste their blood again..."

  Pilot had reached the end of the story. He held up the vial in his hand, thinking of Kennedy. He looked across the fire at Rykken, who was watching him intensely.

  "What is that in your hand?" Cora asked, making her way toward him. Clara was right behind her.

  He threw the vial into the fire, and it exploded, enveloped by the flames. A mist of soft, silver smoke spurred up, climbing its way toward the sky in large bursts.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Thessa marched into Brie's room wearing a pair of jeans, out of step with the R&B Brie blasted from her computer speakers. Her hair and make-up were non-existent—anything but party-ready. "Clara, give me some good news."
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  The twins had arrived earlier to borrow jewelry from Brie for the Homecoming dance. Well, Cora did; Brie offered to loan Clara something, but she said it would be too awkward, whatever that meant.

  "I tried to access his thoughts," Clara said, "but downloads are the hardest for me to do. He's resisted my attempts so far. I can still upload, but only if I touch his skin."

  "Brie, anything?"

  Brie adjusted the straps on her shoes so they didn't pinch her ankle. "Pilot won't talk to me about last night." She didn't quite understand what had happened. The night before, Pilot was telling a campfire story and threw an object—what, she didn't know—into the fire. Thessa was obsessed with finding out who gave the object to him, though she wouldn't explain to Brie what it was or why.

  Sirena tilted her head, her eyebrows raised. "At all?"

  Brie applied mascara to her right eye. "I can't force him to talk to me." The truth was she hadn't pushed Pilot for an answer—it felt fake to her, when she was constantly lying to him.

  Thessa paced the room. "Cora, do you think you can convince him to confide in you?"

  Cora fiddled with the zipper to her dress. "I'll try to get a name from him tonight, but if Brie couldn't get it out of him..." She tugged on the zipper, but her hands were trembling. Brie, feeling sorry for Cora, walked over to the full-length mirror to help her zip up.

  "Thanks," Cora said. She glanced nervously at herself in the mirror, frowning as she took in her figure.

  "You look great," Brie said. "Why are you so nervous?"

  "I haven't had a date to a dance in awhile, I guess."

  Brie laughed. "It's my brother, not a date." A blush of ember spread across Cora's cheeks, and Brie wondered if... no. Cora wouldn't.

  Clara smirked. "It's a mission, Cora. Don't forget that tonight."

  Thessa sat on Brie's bed, folding one leg over the other. "I need to check on something." The twins went on alert, hovering around her. Thessa grabbed Clara's and Cora's hands and the three of them stood in a circle. Thessa mumbled some words in Greek that sounded like a prayer. The twins repeated them back to her in unison.