“Mostly at the children’s cancer hospital. After my mom died, it helped keep me centered. I’ve always loved animals, but my involvement with that came after the...episode with my uncle that I told you about, especially anything against animal testing. Did you know that ninety percent of testing done on animals fails in humans?” She eyes me, grinning. “I even protested once—it was crazy exhilarating, like we were breaking all these rules. It felt good.”
“Better than the time we almost got expelled for going to that rave our freshman year?”
A startled laugh bursts from her mouth. “I totally forgot about that. We were so lucky they didn’t kick both of us to the curb. My uncle was so angry that I was tarnishing his pristine reputation, I was grounded for weeks.” She stares at me, a smile in her eyes. “But it was worth it, wasn’t it?”
“Totally,” I snort, giggling.
“What are you two grinning about?” Jenna says, jogging over. “Kevin told me he saw you head over here.” Her face is normal, but now that I’m sensitive to how she feels about Cara, I know it’s probably for show. Jenna does a great job of hiding her true feelings when she wants to.
“Grab a basket,” I tell her. “Cara and I were talking about a really stupid thing we did freshman year, you know, before you were here to talk some sense into me.”
“Oh yeah?” Jenna says, fiddling with one of the baskets. She smiles at Cara. “Everything looks awesome, by the way, Cara. You’ve really outdone yourself, and made us all look good in the process.”
“Thanks,” Cara says. “It’s kind of my thing. I love charity-event planning. Anyway, that thing we were laughing about? We snuck out to go to a rave. Downtown L.A. By ourselves.”
“Not technically by ourselves,” I add. “We went with two juniors who got expelled for underage drinking. It was a mess. We were both grounded for ages.”
“Wow,” Jenna says.
Cara shakes her head at the memory. “In hindsight, we never were really good for each other—we were far too combustible and always trying to outdo the other. Probably better that things worked out the way they did. Otherwise we’d have set the school on fire or something just as idiotic.”
“You’re probably right,” I agree.
She shrugs, looking for me to Jenna. “Not like you two. You guys are like yin and yang.”
“Not all the time,” I joke, and make a face. “She can be a real beyotch.”
“Says queen beyotch herself,” Jenna shoots back.
“That’s right, minion, and don’t you forget it.”
Laughing, we finish up the baskets with an interesting dynamic blooming between the three of us—if I have to guess, I’d say it was trust, but I’m way too gun-shy to jump to conclusions after one seemingly normal conversation. Still, I enjoy the easy camaraderie for what it’s worth.
“You think he’ll come?” Cara asks after a while. “My uncle?”
“I don’t know. If his spies are any good, they’ll make sure he knows about this.”
She frowns. “But why would he want to expose himself if what you’re saying is true—about the self-experimentation, I mean?”
“Maybe you’re right,” I say gently. “He probably won’t show.”
I exchange a look with Jenna over the top of Cara’s head. Cano wouldn’t miss this for the world—an event in a public park with lots of people would be the perfect place to make a stand. Unless of course he finds out that I’m no longer the queen of Waterfell. Then again, Cano’s vendetta against me is personal. Lo and I cut off his funding by killing Ehmora. We foiled their plans to lead a new generation of hybrids into the world. We hunted him into hiding. Of course he’s going to come. Cano has something to prove and an ax to grind.
“Hey, guys!” Sawyer yells out. “Show’s about to start, come on!”
Turning around, we wave at him where he’s standing with Lo, Speio and Rian. My eyes widen at the packed park grounds, which are literally covered with people waiting for the show to begin. “Seriously, when did they all get here?”
“Some of them have been camped out for hours,” Cara says. “I saw these guys at the Garden in New York last summer. They’re amazing. It’s a global phenomenon.”
“Who are they, anyway?” I ask, peering at one of the promotional posters taped to the side of the entry tent. “They look like they’re ten.”
“Are you serious?” Cara asks. “Do you live under a rock?”
“Kind of,” I say with a deadpan expression, and Jenna snorts out loud.
“Am I missing something?”
“Nope, she’s just not kidding.” Jenna shakes her head, grinning at me. “She totally lives under a rock. You have no idea. This girl knows nothing of pop culture whatsoever. Swimming and hockey, that about sums her up.”
“Never heard of the X-Factor?” Cara asks in disbelief.
“Don’t watch TV.” We have one TV in our house that’s probably still wrapped up in its box from the store. It’s just not part of our world. No electronics are, which is probably why I misplaced my phone. I still haven’t found it, come to think of it.
“Wow, that’s just wrong,” she says as we walk over to join the boys.
“What’s wrong?” Lo asks, grabbing me about the waist in a hug.
Something like envy flashes across Cara’s eyes, but it’s replaced with an overbright smile. “That Nerissa doesn’t watch TV.”
“I don’t, either,” Lo says.
Cara shakes her head. “Says the boy who was addicted to So You Think You Can Dance all summer.” Lo flushes, and we all jump on that bandwagon, poking fun at his expense.
“Show us some of your moves, Lo,” Speio teases.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” Lo shoots back.
“Dance-off, dance-off, dance-off,” Jenna, Cara and I start chanting, just as the first act comes on the stage and a loud whooping makes its way across the grounds.
“I’ll catch you later,” Cara whispers to me. “I’ll keep my eye out for my uncle, but I really think it’s a long shot.”
“Where are you going?” I ask, surprised.
“Nowhere, I just thought...” She trails off lamely, and I realize that she’s referring to the pairing up of all our friends—me with Lo, Speio and Rian, and Jenna and Sawyer. She’s the odd man out.
“Hang on one sec.” I disengage myself from Lo and glance over to the beach. I shape a barely audible pulse toward Echlios, who is keeping an eye on me from afar. Despite my recent abdication, he’s still taking his royal protection duties very seriously. He eyes me, frowning, and I nod, repeating the request.
“What are you doing?” Cara asks.
I cough loudly. “Nothing, something was in my throat. I was just trying to see if I could see a friend of mine. He’s here from out of town.”
“Nerissa,” Cara says sharply. “You know I’m a big girl, right? And I have a lot of friends of my own. So you don’t have to play matchmaker—” Her voice cuts off rapidly as she follows my stare, settling on the tall boy walking briskly in our direction. “Who is that?”
I grin at her jaw-dropped expression. The closer he gets, the more her mouth falls open. Stifling a laugh, I have to admit it—Carden looks good in human form. More than good. He’s tall and lanky, taller than Lo even, and literally glowing with good health. Jade-green eyes sparkle in his tanned face, and his hair is a deep bronze color. I tried to convince him to leave the orange, but he didn’t go for it. Add that to the fact that he’s wearing a pair of low-slung jeans, flip-flops and a plain white tee, and he’s about as wholesome as you can get. Fresh meat, as they say.
“That’s my friend,” I say tongue-in-cheek. “The one you don’t want to meet. His name is Carden. Want to know more?”
“Is he from here?”
“Nope. He�
�s just visiting. First time to the big city. Feel like showing him around?” I can’t resist teasing her just a little. “I mean, unless you have other more important things to do. I thought I saw Lila walk by a few minutes ago.”
She glares me into silence just as Carden reaches us and she sticks out her palm with an ear-to-ear smile. He’s so tall that she has to arch almost all the way backward to see his face. “Hi, I’m Cara. Nerissa’s friend. She’s told me so much about you.”
“Has she?” Carden says with a smile that could melt the polar icecaps, far less a formerly icy high-school princess. “I’m Carden.”
“I know. Our names are really alike,” she stammers, at a loss for words, and stares at the ground, blushing furiously.
I can empathize. When Carden first transformed to human form, I honestly could not stop staring for a full minute. Speio had to nudge me and tell me to wipe the drool from my face before Lo saw me, which of course he did. I stood there like a deer in headlights until Echlios of all people cleared his throat. The thing about Aquarathi transformations is that we manipulate our bodies to mimic human form, but our level of physical strength inherently affects human muscle tone. Let’s just say that Carden is incredibly fit...like chiseled-from-rock fit.
Suffocating a grin at poor Cara’s misery, I intervene. “Cara’s the one who organized all this,” I say to Carden. “She’s the genius mastermind behind it all.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that,” Cara says with a grateful smile in my direction. “But I am happy with how it all turned out.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Carden says.
“Let me show you around.”
“Sure.”
Watching as Cara takes him under her wing—literally—given how many looks he’s getting from guys and girls alike, Jenna nudges me in the ribs. “You need to keep that in the ocean next time, okay? Just fair warning.”
“No kidding,” I whisper back.
“You know I can hear you,” Lo says drily. “Just as long as he keeps his hands off you, I won’t have to pulverize him.”
I tiptoe to kiss him on the mouth. “You have nothing to worry about. All you have to do is seven thousand crunches a day and you’ll be in his league.”
“Isn’t he supposed to be fourteen?” he grumbles.
“Actually, he just turned seventeen—right in his prime,” I tease.
“I used to be seventeen,” Speio says, his arm around Rian, who’s watching the byplay with curious, if aloof, amusement. “But yeah, not like that. Kid’s got forearms bigger than my thighs.”
“If you like that kind of thing,” Lo says sourly.
“We do,” both Jenna and I chorus, before collapsing into hopeless giggles on the grass. Sawyer and Lo shake their heads at each other and leave us to our antics to watch the show. I grab Jenna’s hand and squeeze. Despite everything going on beyond the event with Cano and the hybrids, lying there on the soft grass with her, I feel a sense of peace. These are my friends—my family—and this is where I belong.
The show is everything and more than it’d promised to be, with the astounding final act bringing the house down. Who would have thought that five teenage boys could create such a frenzy of frazzled teenagers? Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Madame Dumois—my AP French teacher—also enjoying the performance. I grin to myself and poke Lo in the ribs, jerking my head in her direction. Maybe not just for teenagers, then. I have to admit that the band isn’t bad. Their songs are catchy, and they are adorable.
“Next time we get Calvin Harris,” I say to Lo. “Or M83.”
He gives me an enthusiastic thumbs-up. “Sounds good to me. Want a bottle of water? I’m going to get us a couple. Don’t move,” he says, taking my mouth in a hard kiss that leaves me breathless.
At the closing of the final act, Rian walks over to where Jenna and I are prancing around together, her glossy auburn hair falling like a curtain across her face. Her green eyes are intense, observing us for a long moment before she says anything.
I clear my throat, slightly discomfited. “So, did you like the show? You did a great job with the posters, Rian.”
“I did, and thank you. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for letting me be a part of this,” she says. “It’s been interesting.”
“What has?” I ask, struck by her odd choice of words.
“This.” She waves a hand, encompassing all of us. “Your social dynamic...watching Speio with his friends, and you with yours. I’ve never had many friends, so thank you for including me.”
“You’re with Speio, right?” I ask her. “I mean, you guys are together, so of course you’re going to be included.”
Rian smiles a small, tight smile that makes a weird knot form in my belly. “You could say that. We’re having fun. I have plans, and college, and he may not be on the same page as I am.”
“Same page?”
“Future things,” she says.
“Oh.”
“Hey, babe,” Speio says, whirling Rian into a slow spin. “Come over here.”
I watch them, frowning, as they dance together. I never noticed it before, but Rian carries herself very rigidly. There’s no slouch in her spine whatsoever. Every step she makes is precise and calculated, even when she’s supposed to be dancing. I never noticed that about her before.
“What’s wrong?” Jenna says, following my gaze.
“Ever notice anything weird about her?”
“Who? Rian?” Jenna says. I nod. “Like what?”
“Just how she moves. It’s all very perfect. Everything about her is just so, like she thinks about it half a second before she does it. Soren’s been trying for years to get me to walk like I have a rod up my butt.”
“Nice mental image,” Jenna snorts. Studying the object of our discussion, she tilts her head to the side and purses her lips, before leaning in to whisper in my ear. “I see what you mean. She checked out, right? Pure human?”
“Yes.” But we’ve been wrong before. Still, she doesn’t smell like a hybrid. She doesn’t smell like anything. Maybe I’m just overreacting because she’s about to break up with Speio, and because I’m paranoid about Cano.
“Maybe she did ballet,” Jenna suggests. “Ballerinas all walk like that, as if there are invisible strings holding them up.”
“Maybe,” I say. “I think she’s going to dump Speio.”
Jenna shrugs as if she’s not surprised. “I didn’t see it from the beginning. They just didn’t mesh to me—I mean, she’s driven and superaggressive. She just didn’t seem like Speio’s type, but I figured after he dated Cara last year that maybe he liked those kinds of girls.” As if she could feel us staring, Rian turns her green gaze in our direction—an odd, assessing look—before Speio twirls her off in the opposite direction. Jenna and I blink at each other. “Maybe it’s a culture thing?” Jenna offers.
“Could be,” I say. “I hope Speio’ll be okay. He really likes her.”
“He’s a big boy, Riss. I’m sure he can take care of himself, especially when it comes to girls.”
“You’re probably right.”
“Now, if you’ll excuse me...” She grins. “It appears I have a date with destiny.” Jenna shrieks as Sawyer picks her up, spinning her around in the air. She slides down his shoulders and throws her arms around him. A fond smile flutters over my lips. When those two dance, it’s natural and effortless. There’s no pretense, just love.
“What’s that smile for?” Lo says, returning to hand me a bottle of water and nuzzle my neck.
“Just watching them,” I say, nodding at Sawyer and Jenna, swaying to the music. “Did you have a good time? What’d you think?”
“This event was amazing, Riss.”
“I had help. It was mostly all Cara.” I glance around. “Where is she, anyway? Have you se
en her?”
“Not since she took off with Adonis at the end of the third act.”
“I hope she’s gentle.” I giggle at the thought.
“Speaking of...want to take a walk down to the beach?” Lo says against my neck. The look in his eyes makes my knees feel like rubber. I can only nod and thread my fingers into his.
We walk past Echlios and Soren, who both nod when I explain where we’re going. There’s been no sign of Cano, so maybe Cara was right after all, but that doesn’t mean that either of them will let their guards down. With Doras and Echlios on watch, we’ll have plenty of warning if Cano does make an appearance. They’ve glimmered the perimeter of the Marine Center and the park—there’s no way any hybrid can cross it without us knowing.
Down on the sand, it looks like a lot of couples have the same idea we do, and the beach is crowded with people strolling around or sitting on blankets. Lo and I walk until we find a fairly quiet spot, and I kick off my sandals and dig my feet into the crumbly sand. I lean back against him and sigh. The moon is almost full and rising into a brilliantly starred sky. Waves break gently in the distance, their foamy silvery peaks like glittering snowcaps in the darkness.
“What are you thinking?” Lo says, his husky voice making my pulse leap.
“About Waterfell.”
“It’s normal to miss it, Riss.”
I twist my head against his chest so that I’m looking up at him. “That’s just it. I don’t miss it at all. It’s like I’m meant to be here...with you.”
I trace the curve of his cheek with a finger, down to his mouth, letting it linger on his lips before tugging his face down to mine. The kiss is tentative, our mouths barely touching, as if it’s made of something so fragile neither of us wants to break it.
“I love you,” Lo’s lips whisper against mine.
It’s a human expression, but the underlying tenor of his words makes my heart race and my bones feel liquid. My hands slide into the softness of his hair and down the nape of his neck as I slide my mouth across his cheek to his temple and press a kiss there. In turn, his lips and tongue trace the column of my exposed neck, making my skin tingle and a slow burn ignite in my chest. If he keeps going, I’m not going to be able to control myself. The last thing anyone needs is another light show—and one that defies explanation.
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