Beautiful Monster

by Heidi R. Kling

  I told her what I saw and she immediately looked at Jude. His eyes were violet now too.

  “Are mine?” I asked. “Did mine change?”

  “No,” Lily shook her head, a confused shadow crossing her face.

  “I wonder what’s going on?”

  “Maybe it’s the stones we’re sitting in?” Jude surmised a guess.

  “Strong guess,” I noted. “Let’s see what happens if we leave the area.”

  We packed up our stuff and left the inner circle. As soon as we were outside, I checked them both. Still a lovely violet.

  “And mine still aren’t changed?” I asked, hopefully.

  “No.” Jude slapped my shoulder in a friendly sort of way. “Sorry, old chap.”

  “Well, it’s probably just the island. I mean, it’s a magical island, right?”

  “Right.” They both nodded together a little too easily.

  “Let’s finish our lunch and then get to exploring,” Lily said. I was grateful that she was changing the subject. Their growing bond was enough of an issue—I needed their eyes to magically match like a hole in my shoe. But whatever. Lily and I were Rognaithe, soul mates. There was no denying that.

  Together, the two of us would break the curse. We were the bonded ones, not Lily and Jude. No matter what their eyes did.

  After lunch, I spun out the map and, after determining that the chain of islands across the way was definitely similar to the chain of islands on my map, Jude and I decided to go back and get the dinghy and drive it around the cove, pick up Lily, and go exploring. She wanted to check out this part of the island and wanted to explore alone.

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  “Positive.” She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and waved goodbye to Jude who I was surprised didn’t angle for at least a hug before we left. “It’s so gorgeous here—I never get to travel. This is amazing.”

  “We won’t be more than an hour or two. Meet you at the edge of the cliff. Stay back from the water; it’s high tide soon.”

  “Yes, mom,” she said, with a sweet laugh.

  Those violet eyes were stunning. I couldn’t wait to get back to the Sea Witch tonight and take a closer look.

  LILY

  I watched the boys hike over the hill away from me. I watched them until they disappeared, leaving in their wake a specific kind of emptiness. A specific loneliness you feel only when you watch people you love walk away from you.

  People you love.

  One person I loved. Logan. I pulled off my hat and readjusted it. I wish I had a mirror.

  What was going on with my eyes? Jude’s were gorgeous. Violet. A rich, velvety violet. I could barely tear myself away from them when they met mine. But what did they mean? That his darkness was lightening here? Was my magic as dark? I certainly didn’t feel dark anymore. All the anger from the boat dissipated.

  I tried out my theory.

  Standing in the center of the stones, I thought about Orchid.

  Pictured her betraying me, with Logan in the meadow and then later as she caused his blood to fall on the dirt.

  Nothing.

  No anger at all, just a memory—almost like a dream. Or recalling a movie I watched five years ago.

  Holding up my palms, I gasped as they lit up with light. Sparkling light—like glitter. I took a deep breath of foreign sea air and never felt anything like this. I loved Melas County. Loved Iris, Daisy, and our bungalow. I loved Logan and the beach and our little California town, but I never felt as warmly soothed as I did at this moment. On this island.

  In a place I’d never been, a place I’d never even seen a photograph of, I felt the strange comfort of home.

  14. MY OLD MAN AND THE HOY

  ………………

  LILY

  I hiked maybe a mile or two before a vibrantly green valley spread out before me like a painting. After a whole day of encountering no trace of human life, I was shocked to see girls about my age, some older, some younger, dancing as if in an animalistic trance.

  Seemingly immune to the chilling wind and storm clouds above the valley, they wore thin dresses of white and, as I crept closer, I could see they had ink symbols painted across their lithe, muscled ropes of biceps and across their bony chests. These girls were dancers. They danced in a circle, rhythmically, powerfully, moving with a fluidity and confidence I’d never seen. Certainly not in Melas. Our coven would go chant in the woods on occasion, but those dance steps were light, the steps of younger girls.

  These girls I watched now were the opposite sort. And their song! It was both low and high, bold and ethereal. Behind them, a row of men banged tribal drums, their long hair flipping this way and that as they pounded the leather and the girls danced and danced and danced.

  As the song reached its climax, the beats tighter and closer, the girls moved toward each other, arms like wings, heaving chests, wriggling hips touching and pushing and pulling, as they tipped their heads, straining their necks like giraffes searching for a drink in a rushing river and finding it a little overwhelming, then jerking back to the air for more.

  These girls were wild. Who were these people?

  In that moment, I was so mesmerized I wanted nothing more than to rush out of my hiding place and join them in a frenzy that seemed nothing short of miraculous in its unbridled freedom. In that moment of intense, exuberant thought, a girl, with thick red hair looked up the hill and straight at me, her eyes, a bright, brilliant magic amber. They bore into me like the sun itself, and along her neckline, was a strap of thin leather dangling with bones like the ones that had brought Orchid back to life. She faced the dancing girls and made a sweeping gesture with her hand and they all crouched down, long necks tucked to their chests, like ballerinas before their swan dance. She approached me with a tentative curiosity.

  “Your necklace?” I asked, when she was close enough to hear me. Up close, her skin glowed. “Where did you get it?”

  “Where did I get it?” she frowned, her golden eyes flashing, moving, always moving. “They are the bones of my ancestors. They are what hold my form. Make me strong. Ground me to our earth.”

  “Your ancestors?”

  “Of course. They are faerie bones.”

  Faerie bones. “I’m Omra,” she said, her voice like warm honey. She wasn’t speaking English, yet I understood her.

  “Lily,” I said, and a new language poured from my mouth, one I didn’t know yet; I was speaking as though I were fluent. “I like your dance.”

  Omra tilted her head back and laughed. “I know who you are, Lily Rose.”

  Up close, her eyes were like cats’, wide and angled. Her cheekbones were high and her lips full. Her skin wasn’t tan…it was gold. Golden. Omra was golden.

  “You know my name?”

  “Of course,” she moved around me like a wild cat. “We all know you. We’ve been waiting. We’ve been…” She giggled again. Her giggle was more like a purr.

  “I like your eyes,” Omra continued. “They match your name.”

  My hand flew to my eyes.

  “Let me guess, your eyes were different on your island, too.”

  She bowed, a gorgeous dramatic almost-birdlike bow. No…not a bird. Birds are clumpy and awkward compared with the lithe dancer in front of me. She knew things. She knew things about me. She was…almost like…

  “New eyes. New languages. New life, Lily Rose.” Omra curled her lip over the edges of her teeth while her wild eyes—the color of my favorite butterscotch hard candies from childhood—penetrated the air like her dance. “What else has changed for you on the islands?”

  I flashed on Jude and me in the cave and flushed.

  “Ah, you know what I mean, don’t you?”

  “No. Yes. I don’t know.” I could barely get a thought together, she was so mesmerizing. Up close, her ink stretched across her small but perky chest, and along the insides of her dainty, strong wrists. Her skin still glistened wi
th sweat from the dance. “Where do you guys…live? I don’t see any structures?”

  “We live here. On the Isles of the Sisters.”

  “Wait, so we are here? This is the right island?”

  “It’s all the right island, sister Lily,” she said spinning as she spoke. “You knew that it was.” Then she leaned forward with eyes like jewels and a hard mouth breathed the words, “You need to start trusting your instincts and stop fighting the truth.”

  Chills exploded all over my body. I suddenly missed the boys a lot. Glancing back over the hill, I regretted sending them off. “Who are the others? You all live here together?” What if this Omra was laying some sort of trap?

  Clearly, she was some sort of magical creature. The wind was bitter cold. I was dressed in a Shetland sweater, long pants, wool socks, boots, and a heavy jacket, and she didn’t seem cold at all in what was nothing more than a tiny summer dress. “Of course. Why live apart when we can be together? láidir le chéile lag ó chéile Lily.”

  She purred my name like a song.

  My heart stopped. “Stronger together, weak apart—that’s what Jude said.”

  Frowning, her eyes narrowed. “Jude.”

  “Jude. My…uh, friend. Is that a saying here?”

  Her forehead creased deeper. “Jude isn’t part of the plan, Lily Rose.”

  I didn’t like the way she said that. Dark energy pulsed through my veins. “Plan? What do you mean he isn’t—”

  “Omra!”

  Still looking upset, she spun around, “I will be right there, Omra.” She spoke in perfect diction, slowly and methodically, like she was speaking to a younger child.

  “Her name is Omra too?”

  Omra grinned, playfully. “We’re all Omra.”

  I blinked. “You’re all named Omra?”

  She nodded. “We’re all Omra.”

  “Doesn’t that get…confusing?”

  “In this world,” she said, her eyes boring into me like she was trying to dive into my very soul. “You can find whatever you are looking for Lily. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

  “Good! So can you help me find, well, I’m here with my friends and we’re looking for something—for our hurt friend and…”

  Without letting me finish, she flitted around to go. I could have sworn her bare feet left the earth for a few moments before touching down gently again.

  “Wait! We’re looking for a cure,” I called out, stopping her. She turned around. “To save a warlock—a good warlock. We need to return within seven days—we only have three to go now. How we got here is a crazy long story, but we’re desperate. It will take two days to get back. And that’s if we don’t run into any problems. Can you help me? Please?”

  “Is féidir liom cabhrú leat , lile . Tar liom.”

  I can help you, Lily. Come with me.

  I eyed the bones of faeries draped around her neck. I needed her help; but Logan couldn’t get his hands on extra bones. He’d wake Orchid with them.

  “Lily Rose!” From behind the group of girls came a voice—a man’s voice I recognized, warm as honey and strong as a Harley’s engine—a voice that sent a shockwave of emotions through me.

  I was seeing things. This island was far too magical for my own good.

  It couldn’t be…

  He looked older, hair greying on the sides, eyes worn from the years, but he still looked strong. He still looked like my father. Not the biological one, not Jacob, but the first man I loved. The man who raised me.

  “Dad?” my voice cracked as my father, my true father, Frank, pulled me into his waiting arms. “No. It can’t be. How is this happening?”

  “I’ve been waiting for you. We’ve all been waiting.” He swept his arm to include the Omras.

  “You…what?”

  He stopped in front of me, holding my arms to my sides to keep me from fainting dead away. “I sent the ship to bring you to me.”

  “You sent the ship? You’re alive? You’re okay?”

  I could barely believe it. “I am. I’m proud of you, Lily. You passed all the tests; you and Logan remained in tact. You are the true Rognaithe and I’m here, I’m here now,” he whispered into my ear, kissing my cheek, moist with tears of joy, pulling me into his arms. I hugged him back, of course I hugged him back. Frank. He was here.

  But I had so many questions.

  This was a test? This was all a test? How did Jude fit into it all? Omra said he didn’t belong here. She looked disturbed…and maybe…afraid. And Iris, did she know about this? Frank gave me a few minutes to settle in—we spoke briskly and fluidly—trying to fill the gaps of so many years when finally, stretching an arm around me, Frank faced the flock of Ambers who stood in a straight line, wide and golden eyed.

  “Lile , freastal ar mo faeries.”

  It was only then that I noticed tiny, transparent wings fluttering against the many Omras’ sides flapping excitedly like hummingbirds caught in a rainstorm.

  “Lily, meet my faeries.”

  STAY TUNED FOR FAERIE BONES, SPELLSPINNERS #5, Coming Winter Solstice, 2015. Payback’s a witch.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ………………

  HEIDI KLING WRITES FANTASY NOVELS set in a contemporary world and contemporary novels about girls in fantastic situations. The bestselling Spellspinners series (Coliloquy/Vook) is 9-book series leading with Witch’s Brew. The Gleaning, Devil’s Frost and Beautiful Monster are out now with more adventures to follow. Her debut contemporary, Sea (Penguin), was an IndieNext Pick, Northern California Book of the Year nominee, Gateway Reader’s Award choice and Scholastic Readers Pick. Her forthcoming contemporary novel, Paint My Body Red, launches with Entangled Teen Fall, 2015.

  After earning her MFA in Writing for Children from the New School in New York, Heidi returned to her native California where she pens novels and teaches writing and dramatic arts. She lives with her husband, two children, and the most adorable Aussiedoodle puppy ever, Sailor Lily, on the San Francisco peninsula, right over the coastal mountains from the sea. Sadly she hasn’t spotted a warlock in real life. Yet.