by D. R. Perry
The blacktop parking lot and glass veneer of Walgreens focused the heat. I imagined this was how a bug felt under a magnifying glass in the sun, wielded by some sociopathic little tyke. My mind dreamed up a kindergarten-aged version of Alex Onassis.
"Ugh." I shook my head and wrinkled my nose, wishing I hadn't thought of him. Maybe Izzy was right to stay unentangled romantically. Breaking up had side effects, apparently.
"Yeah, I know." Izzy pointed at the door. "If you can't take the heat, get into the Walgreens."
"Peep!"
Ember soared toward the door, dipping and weaving through the air in front of it. There was nothing quite like worrying about my familiar crashing headlong into a plate-glass window to motivate me, so I opened the door and let her fly through, following close behind.
The welcome blast of cold air blew my hair away from my forehead. When walking into a warm building after being outside in frigid temperatures, people exhale. But opposite conditions were opposite, so I breathed in as much of the artificial coolness as possible. Then I tripped over my own feet and landed flat on my face on the doormat.
"Oh, no!" Hurried footsteps chased the exclamation.
The set of hands helping me up was also nice and cold, but they didn't belong to Dylan Khan. My rescuer was Brianna Collins, and it was awfully nice of her. Nobody was obliged to pick a klutz up off the floor, so I appreciated it.
"Thanks, Brianna." My face was red and flushed, but I still hoped everyone in the store thought it was just because of the ungodly heat outside. "Flip-flops conspired against me just then. Sorry."
"Aliyah, seriously?" Brianna shook her head. Was her face a bit ruddy, too? "No need to apologize. I'm sorry."
"Sorry." I brushed off my hands, besmirched by the welcome mat. Or maybe the unwelcome mat, all things considered.
"Jeez, this is getting old, and you've only been doing it all summer." Izzy pulled a bottle of Sprite out of a cooler nearby, then handed it to me. "You just apologized after being told you don't need to apologize. Somebody's Canadian." Izzy's forehead wrinkled as she patted her satchel of tarot cards. "Like, for real. Someone in here."
"Did somebody call for aid from the Great North?" A grinning face peeked out from behind a Hallmark display. "Hi!"
Grace Dubois waved, a card in her hand. She gulped before lowering it, and I saw a pastel floral illustration on the cover. A streak of gray rounding the corner on the floor distracted me. Lune was here too, and clearly happy to see Ember. The dragonet landed, and they hopped around on the floor together.
"So, the Ambersmiths let you go out today?"
"Yeah, it's a supply run." Grace sauntered from behind the shelf, pushing a collapsible shopping cart piled high with snacks. "Everyone down at the shop is hungry, thirsty, and tired, so they sent me out."
"I've barely seen you since my birthday back in June. They must be working you hard. We missed you." The silence that followed that statement was less than comfortable, but I wasn’t sure why.
"Yeah, I get it." She chuckled, glancing over her shoulder. Her knuckles whitened around her grip on the cart's handle. "Anyway, I should check out and get going."
"I'll help." Izzy stepped up, grabbing an arm full of assorted sodas from the cooler and walking them up to the counter. An apologetic wince twisted her expression. "Gives us time to chat."
"Thanks. I hadn't gotten the drinks yet." Grace nodded once. "I appreciate it."
"Right. It's almost like I'm a mind reader or something." Izzy chuckled. And just like that, the tension between my friends broke.
Everybody laughed. Izzy had that effect on people, getting them to laugh with her instead of at her. And if there was one thing Grace loved in this world—besides Lune—it was a good laugh.
As Brianna rang up Grace's purchases and they did the whole transaction, we chattered away about the heat. I couldn't believe we only talked about the stupid weather. Something still felt wrong, like my friends were avoiding some subject. I figured it couldn't hurt to mention someone we all had in common.
"So, how's Dylan?"
Everybody shut up. I just stood there blinking like an idiot, because I would never have guessed he was the forbidden topic.
Your circus, your monkeys.
"Was he fired or something?" Could Dylan Khan, the hardest-working teenager I knew next to Grace, have lost his job? It was the only reason I could think of for all the awkwardness.
"No, nothing like that." Brianna let out a nervous laugh. "Maybe he's working at Hawthorn."
"I was wondering about campus, actually." I picked up a pack of gum and twirled it in my hands, trying to find something to help me feel less awkward. "Izzy mentioned having a swim in the baths to cool off, but I can't go because of probation. Do you think the headmaster would give me permission? And would you be our escort?"
Brianna blinked because she knew almost nothing about Hawthorn’s policies, but Grace shook her head.
"I've no idea. I haven't been to campus all summer."
"Oh. Okay." I tried to keep my expression neutral. Grace had a bad habit of bottling things up, to the point where last year she'd had a mental health crisis. Her counselor was Headmaster Hawkins, so I worried but didn't say anything about it in front of the others.
"I'm still having meetings about school stuff." Grace elbowed my arm. "But at the shop after hours, not on campus. Sorry, I can't help you."
"Well, what about Lee being your escort? He’d do it for Izzy."
I nearly jumped out of my skin because I didn't expect to hear a voice right behind me. But at least it was familiar, so I settled down quickly.
"For crying out loud, Cadence." Izzy snorted. "I don't want to date anyone."
"I'm not saying you do. But he's on campus." Cadence shrugged, her red-orange hair cascading over one shoulder. "Sorry about listening in, but I love swimming, and Lee's cool. We haven't been out since Aliyah's birthday."
"I guess you have a point." Izzy sighed so much she practically deflated. "Sorry I haven't been around."
"Me too." Grace shrugged.
"Yeah, sorry." I grinned, predicting the response.
"Aliyah, stop apologizing!" Izzy stomped her foot. Something had her more on edge than a spinning coin.
There's only one thing to do about that.
"What's your problem today, Iz?" I leaned against the counter.
"Peep?" Ember perched on my head, which probably made me look ridiculous at a serious moment.
"Fine. I'm pissed off. Yeah, I'm being a bitch. Said I was sorry already."
"So talk about it." Grace put a bag of snacks into the cart, sighing. "I mean, you can't ignore all your problems. It's not healthy."
"This isn't the place." Izzy shook her head. "But yeah, I need to talk about next year. Probably we all should. As many of us as possible."
"Even me?" Brianna’s eyes widened.
"Yeah, I guess." Izzy flipped a tarot card on the counter between them, then swept it away before I saw anything besides the Cups suit.
"I work until six." She glanced at the register. "If that's too late, I understand."
"It's not. That's good for dinner at Engine House." I pointed diagonally across the street at my favorite pizza place. "Let’s meet there later. It’s air-conditioned."
"I have to go back to work, but I'll see you later. And I’m bringing Dylan." Grace didn’t smile, but she waved and headed out, pushing the cart.
Chapter Four
Cadence, Izzy, and I headed down Derby Street, making our way toward Winter Island Park. We loved the Willows, but Winter Island had the best swimming area within walking distance.
Tourists blanketed the sand, towel-covered spaces headed up with umbrellas and beach chairs. That never bothered us. As locals, we weren't shy about using our town's resources. Ember got excited as soon as she saw the ocean. She loved swimming.
We dropped our towels and the clothes we wore over our swimsuits, then headed for the water to jump right in. It was cold, briny,
and exactly what we needed on a day where the temperature flirted with one hundred degrees even without the heat index. Cadence swam circles around us because she's a mermaid, which meant she'd turned her legs into a finned and scaled tail.
She splashed water in my face and I laughed. From behind us, I heard a chorus of delighted squeals and gasps. On the beach stood a gaggle of kids about middle-school age. The redhead pointed and the jet-haired girl beside her jumped up and down. The olive-complected boy with them tilted his head, blinking for all the world like a cat who’d just woken up from a nap. The fourth, a pallid younger boy, dropped the book he held. He shrugged at something the other boy said, then retrieved the tome, shaking sand off its pages.
I got the impression the kids were extrahumans. Probably shifters, though the boy with the book could have been a magus or a psychic. Cadence waved, smiling at them and flipping her tail out of the water. Whenever kids noticed her, she always put on a good show. Before the Reveal, she wouldn't have been allowed to swim in public, so I never got on her case for showing off mermaid-style.
"We're just trying to swim. Why do we have to show off for tourists all the time?" Izzy rolled her eyes. "Do they think this is Tahiti?"
"Come on, Izzy, they're kids. Salem's a magical place." Cadence grinned. "If you'd never seen the tail before, you'd react the same way."
"She definitely did the first time she saw it," I said, splashing at my friends.
"Yeah, okay. You got me there." Izzy rolled over on her back, floating. She gazed up at the brassy blue sky.
The cold water lifted our spirits, and so did Ember. Her swimming antics were hilarious. At times she swam like a duck, wings folded over her back, her peeping reminding me of baby mallards at the end of spring. Sometimes she dived, waving her serpentine tail in the air. At one point she came up with a mouthful of seaweed, spitting and spluttering because that was not part of a fire dragonet's balanced diet.
I laughed so hard I got a cramp and had to leave the water. As a mermaid, Cadence didn't have that problem. Izzy was in a solemn mood, limiting her laughter to chuckles.
I was wringing my hair out at the line the water made with the sand when the two girls who’d been watching Cadence ran up to me.
"Ask her, Hope," the brunette whispered.
"You ask her, Saya." Hope shrugged.
"I can't." Saya blinked.
"Hi, girls." I gave them my friendliest smile. "What can I do for you?"
"I don't know." The brunette’s shoulders shook. She mumbled something else.
"My friend just wanted to know if that's really a dragonet," Hope asked, smiling.
"She sure is. Her name's Ember, do you want to meet her?" My familiar loved people, especially kids.
The brunette only nodded. I whistled, and Ember took off from the surface of the water. She landed on the sand between the girls and me and hopped toward them.
"Peep?" She swayed her head up and down, a serpentine nod.
"Wow." Hope held her hand down. She knew something about magical creatures, then. Saya copied her. I got the impression they'd known each other for years.
Ember hopped up and down, capering and carrying on playfully.
"Cool." The catlike boy sauntered over, grinning from ear to ear. "That's not something we see every day in Newport."
"You’re sure we won’t get in trouble, Cosmo?" Saya glanced over her shoulder.
"Relax. Your bro’s cool. Um, not literally." The boy tried to put his hands in his pockets, but his swim trunks didn't have any. He blushed.
"You guys." The smaller boy tilted his head as though listening to someone who wasn’t there. It reminded me of Izzy's grandfather, who was a medium. "Bob says we gotta go. Sandwiches are almost gone."
"Fewmets." Cosmo glanced over his shoulder. "Race ya!"
Both the boys ran back up the beach toward an umbrella about halfway up.
"Thanks, Miss." The little brunette gave me an actual curtsy. "Ember's adorable."
"You’re welcome." I wasn't sure how to curtsy, so I bowed instead.
"Bye, Ember!” Hope waved, then grabbed Saya’s hand and ran after the boys.
"Hey, Aliyah!" someone called. I turned to see who it was. Waving from under an umbrella was my friend from school, Faith Fairbanks.
We hadn't always been friendly. Last fall, we got into plenty of arguments, but we were past that by winter break last year. That was a good thing since we’d leaned on each other pretty heavily last spring. I headed over to say hello.
She sat with her boyfriend, Hal Hawkins. He looked better than the last time I’d seen him, but that was not saying much. He had a debilitating chronic illness with no cure, but at least he felt well enough to be at the beach that day.
"How are you guys? I've barely seen you all summer."
"Not too bad," Hal said, "The doctors down in Boston have helped a bit. I'll probably go into town every other weekend after school starts to keep up with the treatments."
"So, your mom hasn't been giving you any trouble?" I raised an eyebrow. Hal's mother used to be in charge of his health care, but that had changed recently in family court.
"Nothing that affected my treatment." He grinned. "More of a puzzle. But I'm dealing with it."
"You're going too easy on her." Faith patted Seth, the small critter in her lap. He was a sha, a canine species with undeath magic, affiliated with magi since ancient Egypt. "She screamed at us this morning. Nin hasn't come out of my beach tote all afternoon."
The hibiscus-printed bag leaning against the umbrella pole quivered slightly. Ember peeped softly at it. A few little squeaks came from its open top, but Hal's familiar didn't emerge. Nin was a Pharaoh’s rat, something like a cross between a mongoose and a ferret with space magic.
"Fair point." Hal gestured at an insulated bag between them. "Would you like an apple?"
Hal looked younger than the rest of us, in part because of his illness, but he acted more like an adult, probably for the same reason. And suddenly, despite the salt air and all the swimming earlier, I wasn't hungry. But the offer of food reminded me of something.
"We're going to Engine House for dinner like around six o'clock. If you guys are still in town, do you want to come?"
"That sounds great." Faith smiled, a rare expression for her even on a good day. "My train back to New York doesn't leave from Boston until ten."
"Sounds great. See you then." I waved, then headed back down the beach and toward Izzy and Cadence, who were still in the water.
I didn't know that dinner would be more awkward than awesome.
I got to Engine House first, so I went straight to the back toward the largest table. This one had a booth along the back wall with tables and then chairs on the other side. We’d need as many seats as possible. Instead of perching, Ember swooped through the air, making figure eights. Other patrons at the restaurant watched the show she put on.
"You must be excited, huh?" I smiled at my dragonet.
"Peep!"
"It's been a while since you've seen Gale, I totally get it." I didn’t need to go into detail about how I missed her friend’s magus, which was inappropriate. Dylan was with Grace, so only Ember knew about my feelings for him. And my brother Noah, who’d guessed it last year and hadn’t mentioned the matter since.
Not that I had any idea what to do about them besides keep my mouth shut. My dating experience included a discussion with Logan where we agreed to stay platonic and a dating-by-default situation with Alex the mega-jerk.
I’d ended things with Alex by asserting myself. Izzy and Cadence had helped me realize what was wrong with that relationship. To say Alex hadn’t been happy would be a massive understatement. He’d practically vowed revenge at the end of last year. My friends and I, even the ones from town, had to watch our backs.
They'd be on campus for extramurals between all three of our schools, a simultaneously exciting and scary prospect. Most of my friends from school and town got along, but Izzy and Grace hadn’t
stopped competing all summer. Cadence had just adopted a blasé attitude toward everything except boys.
Maybe that was the point of this dinner, part of the reason Grace recommended we sit down and talk. Hal and Faith might inject some solidarity into the group. They had been good at that last year. I'd do everything I could to help us avoid trouble once school started. My friends deserved no less.
One good thing about my seat in the back was visibility. I could see all the windows from here, and saw when Brianna approached the restaurant, tucking her Walgreens apron into the satchel over her shoulder. She pushed through the door, ducking slightly. She didn't need to since the door was tall enough, but I understood. She was self-conscious about being tall and lanky.
"Hey, Aliyah!" She scooted into the booth to sit beside me. "I know I'm early, but that's when they let me out, so here I am." Her grin seemed real, but the little laugh sounded nervous.
We'd hung out during breaks from school last year. She was not quite this awkward then, but maybe the impending extramurals had her on edge. School wasn't easy for Brianna. She'd mentioned getting flack about being a goblin changeling before.
"Hey, yourself." I smiled back. "I already ordered a pizza mountain and two pitchers of soda, but if you want something else, you can add it to the tab. My grandma just paid me for helping out in her office."
"No, I'm good, thanks." Brianna folded her hands on the table, looking down at them. "Anyway, before everyone else gets here, I was wondering—"
She didn't complete her sentence because Izzy showed up. She sat directly across from me in the chair by the window. Right away, she looked over her shoulder, jerking her thumb at the door.
"Cadence is here, but she's outside talking to some bruiser." Izzy rolled her eyes.
"Oh, that's Bar." Brianna jerked a thumb at the door, where Cadence chattered animatedly at a tall, wide, and solidly built fellow with a thick steel bar piercing his septum. "I bet you can see why they call him that."
"Yeah, I get it." I wondered where I'd seen that guy before. "He looks familiar."