Winter Falls

by Nicole Maggi

  I swooped around the crown of a pine tree. I want to go to the Waterfall.

  No.

  Why not?

  It’s too dangerous. There’s always a Malandante there.

  So? We went the other night.

  Yeah, but only because I needed to show you what you were fighting for. You’re not ready to return.

  But—

  Just drop it. We’re not going to the Waterfall, and that’s that. Heath wheeled around and raced toward the clearing. Don’t be a brat.

  That stung. I flew above his head, silent.

  When we reached the clearing, I shot up toward the sun, reluctant to go back to my body. No wonder man had been trying to fly since Icarus. This was the most amazing feeling in the world.

  Alessia, come down here.

  I sank slowly to earth and fluttered above my still body. You’re no fun.

  Heath tilted his black-nosed snout up to me. Ha-ha. Don’t you want to know how to transform back?

  If I must.

  Just as you thought about what you want as a Falcon, think about what you want as a human.

  The image of Jonah winking at me in French class flashed in my mind, and the next thing I knew I was lying on the ground, staring at the sky. I sat up and caught myself on my hand as the dizziness knocked me sideways.

  “Easy,” Heath said. He was human again too. “The transformations can be a little overwhelming at first. Here.” He dug into the backpack and handed me a bottle of water.

  I gulped it down. “You said the Malandanti could attack our human forms. What happens if they attack your human body while you’re transformed?”

  “If your human body is killed, your soul can’t return to it.” Heath looked down at his hands. “Your soul will wander the earth, unable to find peace . . . It’s a horrible fate.” He took a deep breath and removed another bottle of water out of his pack. “It’s not just the Malandanti who can kill you. If anyone turns your body while you’re transformed, your soul cannot return.”

  The wind whistled in my ears. I lowered my water from my mouth. “Are you kidding?”

  Heath reached into the collar of his flannel shirt and tugged at a silken cord that I had never noticed him wearing before. He pulled it out of his shirt, showing me the little leather bag that dangled from it like a charm. “This amulet contains the single most important thing we Benandanti own.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “My caul.” He nodded toward the locket around my neck. “That’s yours, right? It protects our human bodies while we’re transformed. But you have to be wearing it, or it won’t be any good to you.”

  “I guess I won’t take it off,” I said, giving the locket a squeeze before I dropped my hand.

  “Good idea.” Heath folded his long legs underneath him so he sat cross-legged like a Buddha. “Now, I want you to transform back and forth three times.”

  Even though I had just done it, I still had a hard time. By the third transformation, my head was pounding. I collapsed onto my knees next to Heath and rubbed my temples. “Does it always feel like this?”

  “You’ll get used to it.” He took a protein bar out of his backpack and handed it to me. “Eat this.”

  After I gobbled the bar, Heath made me transform twice more.

  Sweat prickled my skin despite the cold when I sat up after the second time. “No more,” I gasped. “Please.”

  “Yeah, that’s enough for today.” Heath shouldered his backpack and helped me to my feet. “You did good.”

  I managed a weak smile and followed him onto the path back to the farm. My legs were wobbly, and I still had the sensation of flying, like the way you feel the sea even after you’ve left a boat.

  When we reached the barn, I noticed the driveway was still empty; Lidia wasn’t home yet.

  Heath turned to me. “We need to figure out a way to train without your mom knowing. Do you think she suspects something? You said you asked her about that amulet.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said, toying with my locket. “Should I say something to her?”

  “Absolutely not.” He slid the barn door open. “Not only could it put her in danger, but you cannot—you must not—speak of the Benandanti to anyone. Understand?”

  “I got it,” I said. “The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.”

  Heath furrowed his brow.

  I sighed. “Really, Heath. Get a DVD player.”

  When I stepped into school on Monday morning, I tried to look at everything as if it was the same, but nothing was. Everyone who walked past me was a potential Benandante or a possible enemy. I peered into the faces of the other students, wondering who was friend and who was foe.

  By the end of first period, I was convinced that Principal Morrissey was a Malandante, because he gave me a three-inch stack of e-mails to file according to date. It was truly a diabolical task.

  In the hall between classes, I leaned on my locker and watched kids jostle by. Heath had said it would drive me nuts, and he was right.

  At least I had Jonah to distract me. I slid into my seat in French and watched the door, waiting for him to walk in. As I drummed my fingers on the desk, I finally had to admit it to myself. I had a crush on Jonah Wolfe.

  Just before the bell rang, he sauntered in and took his seat behind me.

  I turned around. “Hey.”

  His lips curved in a half smile. “Hey. Saw you at Joe’s on Saturday.”

  “I saw you too.”

  “Is that the most happening hot spot in Twin Willows?”

  “Pretty much.” I traced a groove in the surface of his desk with my forefinger. “It’s basically that and cow tipping.”

  “Or goat tipping in your case,” Jonah said.

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Because you have a goat farm. Right?”

  “Oh, right.” I faced front as Madame Dubois called the class to order, my face hot. He’d found out something about me. Maybe he did like me. The blackboard blurred as I pictured us snuggled into a back corner booth at Joe’s, his arms around me as I fed him a French fry . . .

  The classroom slammed back into sharpness as reality set in. I would never be that normal girl at Joe’s. I would always have a secret—a deep, dark, and dangerous secret. I hunched over my desk and rested my chin on my folded arms. There had to be some way to make it work, balance it all out. The other Benandanti had to have normal lives too, right?

  All I had to show for French and my next two classes were a bunch of bad doodles in the margins of my notebook. I spent lunch in the library, reading Wuthering Heights rather than endure Jenny’s questions about where I had been all weekend. On my way to biology, I spotted Jonah under the bleachers again, the collar of his jacket turned up against the drizzle. By the time I took my seat in seventh-period government, my mind was a massive jumble of twisted cables and ropes.

  This was my one class I had been unable to erase from Bree’s schedule, and when she flounced in, Jenny rolled her eyes and jerked her chin at me. “Tell her,” she said to Carly.

  “Tell me what?”

  Carly leaned across the aisle toward me. “Bree finally succeeded in getting sent to the principal’s office today.”

  I glanced over at Bree. She was staring out the window, her fingers tapping some secret code on her desk. “What’d she do?”

  Carly’s eyes were wide. “She put up a flyer on the bulletin board in biology looking for human test subjects to replace the frogs we’re dissecting this semester.”

  I laughed. Every year someone protested the frog dissection, but this was by far the cleverest form a protest had taken. “Simons sent her to the principal for that? Seems a little unreasonable.”

  “Yeah, well, they got into it in class, and rather than debate her, Simons just sent her to the office.” Carly shot a glance at Bree, who was still drumming on her desk. “It’s too bad. I think it could have been a lively discussion. More interesting than class, that’s for
sure.”

  The bell rang. I pulled my government textbook out of my bag while Mr. Clemens came around to the front of his desk and sat on it, his legs dangling. For some reason he thought this made him look cool, but really he looked like a dork. “So I thought we would do something a bit different for tonight’s town hall meeting,” he said.

  I slumped down in my chair. I had forgotten about the meeting. Somehow I’d have to work it out with Heath; we had plans to train.

  “At tonight’s meeting, Mr. Wolfe is going to present the Guild’s proposal for the hydroelectric power plant,” Mr. Clemens continued with a little nod toward Bree.

  She kept staring out the window and didn’t even acknowledge him.

  He pursed his lips before going on. “This is such a great opportunity for us to see corporate politics in action. So I’m going to put you in pairs, and each pair will debate a pro and con stance for the power plant. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

  It really did not.

  Carly groaned and dropped her head to her desk. She hated public speaking.

  Jenny turned to me. “Wanna pair up?”

  Before I could answer, Mr. Clemens raised his voice above the low murmur that had broken out in the class. “I will assign the pairs—I want you working with people you haven’t worked with before. When you’ve been assigned, please sit with your partner, and discuss your strategy for the rest of the class.”

  Jenny gave a dramatic sigh when her name was called with Josh Baker, the most obnoxious jock in school. “Great. I’ll have to do all the work.” She pushed away from her desk with a violent shove and moved over to him.

  I was happy to see Carly paired with an outspoken member of the debate team; maybe she’d get some help with her public-speaking phobia.

  As the number of students left in the class began to dwindle, my stomach bottomed out. Soon there was only one other person left.

  Bree Wolfe.

  Chapter Eleven

  The Presentation

  The town hall meeting was more packed than I had ever seen it. Apparently a lot of people had a lot to say about the power plant proposal. Carly had actually made it to this meeting; she waved to me, then turned back to the partner Clemens had assigned her. Jenny’s parents were even here, talking to Mr. Salter at the front of the hall. I spotted Jenny in the back row next to Josh. He was talking loudly on his phone about the last Red Sox game. Jenny mimed blowing her brains out.

  I scanned the hall but didn’t see Bree. Great. Maybe she wasn’t even going to show up. I slid into a seat toward the back so I could keep an eye on the door and chewed on my cuticles. Heath hadn’t been happy to cut our training short and insisted on continuing our session after Lidia went to bed. I was in for a long night.

  Mr. Wolfe appeared in the doorway, deep in conversation with his assistant. The sharp angles of his face were creased as the assistant whispered in his ear. Mrs. Wolfe trailed behind them with Bree. I craned my neck. Jonah wasn’t with them. He didn’t have government this semester, but I thought he’d at least be here to support his dad.

  Bree saw me, jabbed her mom’s arm, and plunked down into the chair next to mine. She didn’t say anything, just pulled her feet up and rested her chin on her knees.

  I stared at her for a moment, trying to think of something friendly to say, but the only thing that came out was a strangled “Hey,” which she didn’t return. I blew a breath out through my lips and watched Mayor Lawson struggle with an ancient tripod screen at the front of the hall.

  On a desk in the middle of the aisle, Mr. Wolfe set up a sleek laptop that looked like something from Star Trek.

  Mayor Lawson approached the podium. “I think we’re all excited to get this meeting started.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “I’m sure you all remember Mr. Wolfe from last week’s meeting and his assistant, Pratt Webster.” She nodded to Mr. Wolfe and bustled off the stage.

  Pratt—nice name, I snorted—dimmed the lights. Mr. Wolfe plugged a flash drive into his computer, and the screen lit up with the glittering black-and-silver logo of the Guild.

  “Welcome to the future,” Mr. Wolfe boomed, his voice echoing in every corner of the hall. The slides changed rapidly, each an image of happy people in happy towns. They smiled at us as they drank fair-trade coffee or displayed cacao beans they had harvested themselves. “All with the help of the Guild,” Mr. Wolfe told us.

  I felt myself lulled by the brightness of the images; the edges of my mind dulled like an unused knife. I glanced over at Bree. She slinked low in her chair, headphones stuck in her ears. I clenched my jaw. She wasn’t even freaking listening.

  I stared back at the screen. Computer-generated images of the proposed power plant flashed before my eyes. The building was silver and modern, all sharp angles that felt wide awake, in complete contrast to the sleepiness of the rest of the town.

  Mr. Wolfe listed how many jobs the plant would create and how much business the plant would bring to the town. He rattled off numbers and figures and percentages that got all jumbled in my head.

  The final slide appeared on the screen, a Photoshopped image of the Twin Willows sign on the road just outside of town side by side with the Guild’s logo. “Twin Willows and the Guild, working together to lead the race for clean energy.” With a flourish, Mr. Wolfe shut the laptop. “Any questions?”

  A couple of people raised their hands, but their questions were vague, and Mr. Wolfe projected a colorful chart that seemed to satisfy everyone. There was a general positive murmur in the hall. I could see why; there didn’t seem to be anything bad about the power plant. Even Jenny’s parents were nodding and smiling.

  At the back of the hall, Pratt hit the lights. I blinked, trying to dispel the large spots that danced in front of my eyes.

  As Mr. Wolfe came down from the podium, Mr. Salter shook his hand. That was quite a change from the attitude he’d had in Joe’s the other day.

  I furrowed my brow, watching them until I felt a nudge in my side. I turned to Bree.

  Her earbuds draped around her like a necklace. “Let me guess,” she said. “You want the pro position.”

  “I guess so,” I said, “but how did you—?”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take the con stance.” Bree stepped over me and left the hall.

  I watched her go, the back of my neck prickling. My brain felt odd, like I’d just woken up from a long afternoon nap. I grabbed my bag and went over to Jenny.

  She cast a dirty look at Josh, who was on his phone again, and pulled her jacket on. “Worst assignment ever.”

  “Hey, at least you’re not stuck with Bree,” I said. “I don’t know why she has to be so difficult. I mean, she—”

  Jenny elbowed me hard in the ribs, making me yelp. She jerked her chin at something over my shoulder.

  I turned, rubbing my side. Mr. Wolfe strode toward me, his assistant in tow. “Thanks,” I muttered to Jenny.

  “Miss Jacobs,” Mr. Wolfe called. “A word.”

  I hugged my backpack to my chest. Had he overheard me bad-mouthing his daughter? “Um, sure.”

  Mr. Wolfe tucked his little flash drive into his breast pocket and smiled at me. It was an odd smile, with no warmth behind it. “Did you enjoy the presentation?” He straightened his cuffs. “What do you think of the plan?”

  “It’s good, I guess.” He was asking me, of all the townspeople? “I mean, clean energy is always good, right?”

  “Exactly.” Mr. Wolfe narrowed his eyes. “By the way, your family owns the goat farm just outside of town.”

  I nodded even though he hadn’t said it as a question.

  “I’m having a second presentation in about a week for anyone who missed this one. It would be wonderful if your father could come.”

  “Her mother owns the farm,” Pratt said. “Mr. Jacobs died last year.”

  My gut twisted as it did every time my father came up in conversation. I blinked. “How did you know that?”

  Pratt
shot Mr. Wolfe an annoyed look and started playing with his BlackBerry. “A good assistant is always one step ahead of his boss.”

  “Yes. Well. So sorry about your father,” Mr. Wolfe said, although it was obvious he couldn’t care less. He handed me a business card. “Would you make sure your mother knows about the presentation, then?”

  “Um, sure.” I stuffed the card into my jacket pocket. “She’s usually pretty busy, though. I can just tell her about it.”

  Mr. Wolfe leaned in toward me, his mouth curved up but his eyes sharp. I smelled peppermint on his breath. “I’m sure you can, dear. But we’re trying to reach out to all the town residents personally.” He smoothed his lapel. “Have a nice night, girls.”

  Jenny and I watched him leave, Pratt right on his heels.

  “Well, you gotta give them credit,” Jenny said.

  “For what?” I asked.

  “For connecting so strongly with the community,” Jenny replied.

  The back of my mind itched, like I’d forgotten to do something. But I couldn’t remember what it was, so I squashed the feeling.

  When I got home, Lidia was cooking in the kitchen. I left Mr. Wolfe’s business card on the coffee table in the living room and went up to my room.

  A piece of paper peeked out from under my pillow.

  Training after Lidia goes to bed. Meet me in the clearing, transformed.

  —H

  I crumpled the note and tossed it into the wastebasket. Now that I was home, away from the distractions of the meeting, Jenny, and the Wolfes, my body tingled with the desire to transform, to soar into the air and be free of everything on the earth below me. I pulled my books out of my bag to start my homework, but by the time Lidia called me to dinner, I had barely gotten anything done.

  The clock seemed to tick forward three minutes and backward two as I counted the hours until Lidia kissed my forehead and wished me good night. I waited until the light under her bedroom door disappeared, then shut my own door and locked it. I opened my window to let in the night, and before I could even lay down on the bed, the shift overtook me and I flew out, over the hill and toward the stars.