She was talking excitedly to Petre, and her back was halfway turned to him, so he waited until she had finished. Finally, she sat back in her chair and looked around for the first time at the theater. She barely glanced his way, which he thought was very polite, but strange for a Human. Perhaps she had read up on Kin practices because she was interested in him. That is what he would do, what he planned on doing as soon as he returned home.
He was very encouraged by the idea that she was trying to emulate Kin behavior just to impress him. Maybe…maybe it wasn’t so impossible...
“Excuse me, Nancy,” he began nervously. He kept his eyes on her face, but didn’t stare directly in her eyes. It was the best he could do, now that he considered her a possible girlfriend. Even that was uncomfortably rude according to Kin standards.
“Uh, yeah? What, Simon?” she said, clearly startled by the fact that he was talking to her.
His nervousness doubled as soon as she looked at him, and he wasn’t sure at first if he was going to be able to even respond. Behind her, farther down the row, Willa gaped at him as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing, then she started encouraging him; her friends turned away and laughed into their hands. For some reason, the sight of them gave him a sick feeling; their laughter sounded harsh to his ears, instead of joyful. Something about the tone of it…
He swallowed, sensing a big mistake. Then he listened more closely to what he was hearing around him.
“No way! He’s going to do it!”
“I can’t believe it.”
“Shhh. Just watch. It’s going to be insane.”
“Shhh. Shut up.”
“Simon?” Nancy asked, oblivious to the fact that everyone behind her was watching.
“Uh...you’re not interested in being my girlfriend, are you?” he asked, but in a way that made it clear he already knew the answer was no.
“What?!” She was so surprised, she didn’t have the presence of mind to hide her disgust. She glanced immediately at Petre, and then saw what everyone else was doing. He could hear that her heart was racing to keep up with his now. “No way! Why would you think that?”
“Uh, no reason. Sorry.”
“No offense, but no...just...no way.” She sat back in her seat and stared forward uncomfortably; within a minute, she had switched with another student so that she could sit farther down the row.
Scythe sat staring forward, feeling like he was going to be sick at any moment. He really hated his good hearing at that moment. And his ignorance. Stupid. So stupid.
“You know, dude, you got to just face it,” said Tren, who had switched with Nancy. “No girl is going to want to date you. You...you’re just freaky ugly, all right? I know that sounds like an asshole thing to say, but its true. You don’t look at all Human, and no girl is interested in a Kin for a boyfriend. I’m trying to be your friend here and help you out, okay? Accept it.”
Scythe nodded. He wished Tren had told him sooner. It would have prevented a lot of the ripping he was feeling in his chest.
“Oh, and don’t listen to Willa. She’s a bitch.”
Actually, it’s better this way, he told himself later that night after he had sat by his mother’s bed and told her everything and tried to imagine what she would have said to him.
It was better to be realistic. No Human would be interested in a halfblood, just like no Kin would be. Ever. He didn’t know of any halfblood girls, although he once had a daydream about finding one. In his daydream, she had been so excited to find him, the only halfblood man, and he was happy, too, to have found a woman for his own. His mother had recovered and made the match; she smiled proudly and gave her blessing in the Kin tradition.
But this wasn’t a daydream. This was reality and Tren’s advice was correct. If Scythe just accepted the way things were, he wouldn’t get tricked again, and he wouldn’t have to worry about any of those things anymore. The only trouble with that was if he didn’t make a family himself, he wouldn’t be able to have a family at all, and that was something he had counted on.
On the other hand, he knew that some Humans lived without families. Mr. Winn just lived with his dog. It could be done. It would have to be enough.
After all, what choice did he have?
Tren’s words came back to him. No girl is going to want you.
None at all.
Scythe looked over to where his older self stood by the door. That...that was hard.
Scythe shrugged, “Well, I’m ready to go any time.”
The youth answered, But I’m not ready for you to go.
His eyes stopped seeing Scythe and he looked forward. Then he smiled.
That’s better.
Scythe barely noticed the dizziness.
-----------
In the early morning, before she had gathered the strength to face the day, Mercy turned onto her side, curled up in the blanket, brought her arm up to hug the pillow and sighed. She rubbed her cheek on the smooth pillowcase, enjoying the contrast between the cool, untouched portions and the warmth that had built up beneath her head. It was when everything was so simple and perfect that she allowed herself a particular indulgence: she let herself remember.
It had been a gift among curses. At a time when most of her visions swarmed with hate, fear and pain, one had filled her with joy and purpose. The others she had left behind, but this one she carried with her, always. Actually, it went ahead of her, calling to her, leading her on a long path at the end of which… She smiled and squeezed the pillow tighter.
It was chilly in the gray fog. She had been searching for him for a long time, and, when she saw him standing and waiting for her, she was so excited that she ran to catch him before he disappeared again. So easily, he opened his arms, stepping toward her and accepting her tight hug with a short laugh. She pressed her face against his shoulder and his neck, and felt dizzy with relief.
“My Mercy,” he had said, and she could hear things in those words she had never heard before: questions and longings. Promises.
She looked up at his face and knew even though she wasn’t touching his mind; somehow, she was touching his heart. He loved her.
The question he offered her by tilting his head down slightly and stopping halfway to her face. The longing huddled in the depth of his eyes.
She knew her feelings, had known them for...well, almost for ever.
She untangled one arm, reached up and cradled his face before lifting her lips to his. Then, she felt it. Too great to be contained by his mere frame, it burst out of him and spread over her: pure, sweet joy. Joy, because she loved him.
Mercy soaked it up, filled her very soul with the beauty of it. She sent her ribbons to wrap around him, to hold him in every way she could…
Then with a start, she pulled away from him.
Mercy opened her eyes, blinking in the morning light, and turning her face into the pillow. She stretched out her body, laying flat on the thin mattress, adjusting slightly until she couldn’t feel that one spring poking into her hip.
She tried to recapture the contentment and excitement of the vision, focusing on the parts that she treasured. She tried to forget the last part, which remained an unsolved, perplexing mystery. As always, she had mixed results, failing and succeeding at both. Finally, she sighed and let it go. She had decided long ago that, no matter what else happened, no matter what the end of the vision meant, she would pursue the destiny that would give him the amazing gift only she could give.
So, she had worked for it, patiently waiting, quietly watching, content for the time being because the time she lived for was approaching. She could feel it, see it, taste it, just ahead. She knew that she was catching up to it, because the she that she was felt nearly the same as the she from the vision.
However, life had shown her that visions could be changed, altered, erased. She had never felt the threat of that before with this vision. It had always stood clearly in front of her. Now, her confidence in it wavered. She had to seek it,
seek him out, if she wanted to find it. Because, in the vision, he hadn’t come to her. She had gone to him. Now that he had gone missing, it felt right to her that she should go looking. No, it didn’t just feel right, it was a deeply rooted compulsion that had taken hold of her the moment she had read her mother’s message.
Find him.
Find him. Right now.
Mercy sat up, immediately grimacing and staring down at the blue welt on her arm that stabbed at her.
She mumbled, “Jerk,” and touched it gingerly with her fingertips. That was going to last a while.
Ah, well, no use crying over it. She got up, returned the mattress to the bed and collected her things. She had to hurry if she was going to get everything done before the bus left. A crazy idea had occurred to her before she had fallen asleep. It didn’t seem any less insane in the morning light, but she was going to go through with it anyway. Since she wasn’t sure how long it was going to take, she had to get moving.
She pulled her heavy suitcase up onto the bed and opened it up. The large case was too much for her to carry around, especially since she might find herself in a few dicey situations between the city and her home. That meant if she wanted to be able to move fast, it had to go.
She emptied the backpack of all her school items with the exception of the small tablet. Her important research, assignments, notes and projects were saved there, as well as her personal information. Well, Karin Horn’s personal information, anyway. There was enough space left in the backpack for the items she would need, if they were tightly packed.
Clothes could stay, because she could pick those up in any town if she needed to. She thought that her thick jeans and long sleeved shirt would be enough to get her pretty far.
Hm, well, maybe one extra shirt. She stuffed the second shirt and a light jacket into her backpack, then looked over the books she had dumped out onto the bed. She picked up one, and put it in as well, along with her small zippered bag of toiletries. Her school supplies, dorm room necessities, clock, etcetera, were replaceable, so she passed up the rest of the items but one.
One family photo: out of the frame and into the outside pocket.
She lifted the bag and was pleased to find it was not too heavy; she put it on, and left the room. She pulled the door closed behind her, but the broken latch caused it to swing back slightly. Down the hall to the right were several people milling about in the common room, eating, chatting, or studying at the tables, so she took the quieter route. She went down the back stairs, pushed open the emergency door and started to cross the grass when she heard a familiar voice.
“Hey, you taking off, then?”
She stopped, turned around and stared at him. She was too surprised to answer.
“Sheesh, I leave for a couple of days, and you get attacked by a geek gang.” Cord shook his head. He was lounging in the shade on the short brick wall that enclosed the building’s immaculately groomed landscaping. He uncrossed his legs, grabbed the duffle next to him, and stood up. “What?”
“I thought you were leaving,” she said with a frown. She hadn’t expected to see him again for a long time, if ever. “Why are you here?”
His eyes led his head with a jerk to stare past her shoulder, and his casual, fake friendliness dropped away instantly. “Apparently wasting my time.”
“Are you checking on me?” She had a hard time believing it; he had made his opinions about her very clear. Maybe he needed more money...
“Obviously. Well, it looks like you survived, so I guess…”
Holy crap. He was there just to check on her. That made two things that didn’t add up. The first was that he wasn’t on the journey she had seen he would take; she wondered in exasperation if she had had another false, useless vision. The second was the ridiculous idea that he cared about her safety in any way. Unfortunately, she couldn’t take the time to work either out, because he started to walk away.
“Wait,” she said, reaching out and deliberately passing his arm to take hold of his duffle strap to keep him from leaving, “How’d you know about last night?”
His cool guy persona jumped right back into place. “Oh, well, its funny what happens in the minds of men. They get handed their asses by a little thing like you and they find themselves in need of a lot of booze to wash away the shame. Booze and pretty, non-harpy types that don’t kick them in the balls.” He shrugged, “I happened to be in their place of choice and heard them talking it up, so I thought I’d better just check in on you.”
She immediately felt ashamed for assuming he would never look out for her. Near to that shame, hardly acknowledged, was a small part of her that was also genuinely touched. “Thanks, Cord.”
“Yeah, whatever.” He looked across the grass in the direction she had been heading. “That’s not the way to the bus stop.”
“No, I’m going to...uh, well...do a little research, before I go, because it looks like I won’t be back.” Actually, she definitely wouldn’t be able to come back after the stunt she was planning.
“Library’s over there,” he nodded his head in the other direction.
“Okay, I’m going to steal it, or maybe he’ll give it to me,” she shrugged, “I’m not really sure.”
He stared at her and then shook his head before saying, “Okay, let’s go.” He started walking and she matched pace with him.
“You’re going to help me?”
“Probably. I’m not really sure.” He mocked her perfectly.
“Okay. Actually, I’d appreciate that, thanks.”
“Science building, right?”
“Yeah. Listen, I know you’re going to take off again, but there’s something you might want to know about Scy…”
“How do you know what I’m going to do?” he asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.
“Uh, well, you said you needed space, right?” She stumbled through the words, thinking that things would be a lot easier if she could learn to lie better.
“You had a vision about me, or something?”
She didn’t answer right away, because he had always hated to find out if she or her mother had seen him in one of their visions; it was almost as if he thought they were trying to control him or were spying on him somehow. When she couldn’t think of a way out, she sighed, “I just know that you’re going on a...I don’t know...like a personal journey, by yourself. That’s how I knew you’d need money the other night.”
He grit his teeth but didn’t respond.
“So, that’s why I was surprised to see you. It looks like it might be a bad one, after all...not the journey...the vision, I mean...because, well you’re still here...Um…” Why was she rambling? Probably because she was thrown off by the uncharacteristic things he was doing.
“Getting to the point.”
“Anyway, I’m glad you came by...and thanks for checking on me, that was really…”
“Quicker.”
“Look, Scythe has disappeared. He took some job...we don’t know what...and he hasn’t checked in.”
“So what? He’s a big boy.”
“For over a month. Not a word. He’s never done that.”
“So that’s why you’re leaving?”
“That, and the visions, yes.” But mostly that.
“Sounds stupid.”
He was so irritating. “Well, I’m leaving, and I’m going to go home and find…”
“You’re going to run off and get yourself killed, or worse, is what you are going to do. Then he’s going to be really pissed. At me.” He hit his head like he had just had a revelation, “Wait. Now I’m having a vision! Then I get to take off on my personal journey, which will closely resemble a manhunt, at the end of which I get to die for real this time. Genius.”
His sarcasm set off several of her worst traits. “I am not that stupid. I’m going home the normal way, which shouldn’t be too much of a problem, and then I’m going to help my family find him. Don’t...damn it...don’t overreact.”
What made
his comments even more annoying was the fact that she was worried about making it all the way home by herself. It was a long trek, and there were a few shady areas she would have to pass through. But, damn it, she was more than capable of handling herself, as he knew from experience. “I can take care of myself, Cord and, if I have to, I will do whatever it takes to get home.”
He would know that she was talking about defending herself with her power. She wasn’t fond of using it, but if she were pressed into it, they both knew she would. She would even use it to kill, if it came down to defending herself seriously. Well, she was pretty sure she would...
He kept his comments to himself because they had arrived at the Science B building. She pulled him away from the main entrance and around the side where a small structure had obviously been tacked on recently. They entered through a small door next to a sign that said, “Lab Annex D.”
They passed by a small reception area, where some students were studying at a few tables, sipping drinks and munching on junk food they had nudged out of the vending machines with their cold little noses and some coins they had picked up in the maze.
“Human E.F.M. Project” was printed on the white sheet of paper stapled next to the door she was disappointed to find open. Mercy peered inside, suddenly nervous now that they were there. Her sketchy plan had involved breaking in during off hours and taking what information she could get her hands on, which was why she had come during the time when Doctor Everett’s class was in session. She also hoped coming that early would help her avoid the men who had come after her the night before. She had to quickly change gears, though, because there were two people in the room, and one of them had already noticed them.
“Karin, come on in. I expected you earlier, actually.” Alan Gibbs handed the student a bundle of papers and said, “We’ll have to go over this tomorrow, sorry.” He ushered the disappointed young man out the door and held it open for Mercy and Cord. “Come on in,” he repeated, waving them in with his hand and then closing and locking the door behind them.
Halfblood Legacy Page 19