“She seems to be doing better,” Peri surmised, also looking out past the doorway.
Alex turned back round, rubbing her head and messing her hair up further. “She’s still not walking on that leg properly.”
Peri’s eyes met hers. “It’ll take a while.”
“I won’t be at work tomorrow,” Natalia said from down the hallway, having a conversation that only Alex could hear beside the caller and herself.
“It’s not an overnight fix,” Peri continued. “But considering what I thought the damage would be like, based on what happened, the wound’s in remarkably better condition already.”
Natalia’s voice dropped. “I’m not sick, Katherine.”
Archie looked to his girlfriend. “What were you expecting?”
“For her to be off her feet for weeks.”
In the hall, Natalia sighed. “Dad already knows what’s going on and why I won’t be there,” she stated. Alex caught the thump thump of the Fairy’s heart as if it were her own. “I texted him. Noah knows too. I’m seeing him tomorrow night if all is well. No. What?” She laughed shortly. “I promise I’m not contagious. Bye.”
Alex heard the phone click off and Natalia reappeared, crossing the kitchen to her previous spot. What had the phone call been about?
“What did I miss?” Natalia asked, laying down her phone.
“Nothing important,” Archie said.
Natalia seemed to accept it, though Alex caught the look Peri gave him. And that got her thinking. Why hadn’t Natalia’s injuries been worse? Going against a Calefaction, with no training, should’ve resulted in almost irreparable damage.
Natalia had gotten lucky. But Alex didn’t believe much in luck.
“I feel like someone’s talking about me.” Jasper came bounding into the kitchen, hair swept off his face. He smelt of cold nights and Alex sensed his heart racing. From the black stains on his shirt, he’d been chasing something and had clearly caught it. He sidled up to Alex. “So? Were you talking about me? If you weren’t, I’ll be sad.”
“Were your ears burning?” Alex teased.
“Like the fiery pits of the Seven Hells,” Jasper winked. Natalia yawned in response and Alex followed her brother’s eyes to her. “Sorry, but are we boring you? If you say yes, I will be deeply offended.”
“Now, would I admit to something like that?” Natalia teased back. “But I do think I should leave soon—”
“Not before you tell me what you were talking about,” Jasper demanded.
“They were teaching me,” Natalia explained at the same time Peri said, “How it’s a miracle the sky hasn’t fallen on you yet for all your devious deeds.”
Jasper grinned. “It’s because I’m charming.”
“Charmingly annoying,” Alex mumbled, knowing it was loud enough.
“You love me though, don’t you?”
Alex scoffed. “They tell me I have too.”
Jasper laughed at that, his facial expression settling to neutral. “Is the practise trial over?” he asked.
Alex flinched. “She’s not going on trial.”
“If it was a trial,” Natalia came in, “I would be ready.”
“You haven’t done anything wrong for it to come to that,” Alex told her. She had first-hand experience on what a trial was like.
Jasper’s attention was focused on Natalia. “Think you’ve learnt enough?”
She blanched. “If I don’t know it by now, then I won’t know it in time.”
“There are always things we forget or learn later on,” promised Peri.
“If you want to leave,” Jasper moved back round the counter, “I’ll walk you home.”
“You’ve just come in,” Natalia argued.
Jasper pulled at his jacket. “And so I’m the best dressed to go out again.”
No one said anything, so Natalia promised everyone she’d meet them in the morning.
Alex wandered to the living room in time to see her little brother and Natalia leave, peering out the window. They walked side by side down the stone steps and as Alex pressed her hand to the cold glass, she could feel their hearts at her fingertips.
◆◆◆
A low fog rolled in from the sea, wrapping around Natalia’s ankles. She walked briskly to keep up with Jasper and hoped she wouldn’t trip over her attempts.
“What’s the Council like?” she asked, needing to fill the silence.
Gold had said the meeting with the Council shouldn’t be a long one, so Natalia and Noah had arranged for a movie night. She was excited to see her friend after so long, but Noah’s text seemed off like he was hiding something when really she was hiding from him. It made her uneasy.
Jasper’s gaze didn’t deviate as they pushed on. “It depends. There’s one Council member to represent each of the seven Creatures. In my experience, they all seem pretty emotionless and void of hearts.”
That didn’t install much confidence.
She wrapped her arms around herself to expel the chill that surrounded her. Hearing the Council weren’t the kindest had nailed home the idea that she was somehow facing a trial no matter how many times the Darby’s told her all they wanted were records.
Out of nowhere, Jasper stopped. Natalia almost ploughed into him, managing not too just because she’d neglected to blink in that second. Jasper’s arm flew out in front of her, holding her back, and her body went rigid with tension. Hesitantly, she bent round his arm and saw the ground break apart.
Black sludge surfaced from the cracks. It circled like a gloopy tornado; the smell of damp dog wafted towards them. Jasper motioned once with his arm and together they both stepped back, forcing Natalia up against the nearest garden fence; the wood pressed uncomfortably into the back of her legs, making her left leg twinge.
From the side of his mouth, Jasper whispered. “Now would be a perfect time for a shield.”
“I can’t,” she whispered back. Making the previous one had been by fluke and she’d passed out after, which he seemed to be forgetting. The chance of creating one now, without practise or training, was highly improbable. The black sludge twisted together until it towered over them both. There was nothing Natalia could do to protect them without it being an accident. “What is that thing?”
Jasper was using his own body like some sort of shield, blocking Natalia. The streetlight’s glow cast half his face into shadow. “Do you really want to know?”
Do I?
As if any sudden movement would be a bad idea, she shook her head and Jasper turned away again.
He does that a lot, she thought. Jasper often accepted her answers or questions without pressing. She appreciated it, since half the time her statements were rhetorical; she didn’t know why she wanted to understand things, she just did.
The black sludge groaned. The noise was reminiscent of when a large amount of water was sucked through too small of a pipe.
The Monster groaned again and this time, with a pop, a hollow green mouth appeared, followed by two matching eyes and arms sprouting at its side. Then the sludge receded off the ground forming something resembling feet. A thick tar-like substance dripped from its increasingly humanoid physique.
“Try not to let it hit you with its drippings,” Jasper whispered.
Despite their best efforts to remain near silent, the Monster’s eyes found them.
It flew forwards.
Jasper shoved Natalia. Her knees buckled and she tipped over the fence, landing hard, her wrists taking the brunt of the force. She sat up on the lawn just as the Monster lunged at Jasper.
He dodged effortlessly, raising his hands.
The Monster twisted, its eyes faced him while its legs pointed in the opposite direction. The Monster screeched as it began to tear apart in the middle until there was a hole Natalia could see the houses on the other side of the road through. Witch spells were mostly silent these days, Natalia had learnt, and seeing one performed was unnerving.
Natalia looked between the Monst
er and Jasper. Jasper controlled the Monster. The way he circled the Monster was predatory.
Instinctively, Natalia scrambled back. Jasper continued circling and twisting the Monster. There came a grunt from Jasper, like he’d hit a blockage. But with one last forceful push, the Monster ruptured. Black sludge launched everywhere.
A cold feeling spread along Natalia’s shoulders, then subsided.
“Are you ok? Did it get you?” Jasper lept over the fence with ease and landed beside her. When she peered at her shoulders, she found them covered in black dots. Jasper brushed at them frantically before his eyes focused on her face, searching over it. “Does it hurt?”
She looked at his hand. “It feels cold.”
“Did you get hit anywhere else?”
“I don’t think so.”
He let go and waved his hands. At his command, the sludge around them rose into the air. The droplets hung like dead stars, each turning slowly into fine ash with the blow of the wind.
Once gone, Jasper slumped back onto the grass. Natalia looked down at him. His eyes were heavy, his lids near shutting, and sweat had beaded across his forehead and top lip.
“I did warn you about not letting it hit you,” he muttered. It wasn’t unkind, but it wasn’t particularly nice either. “The sludge might feel cold at first but it becomes freezing, deadly so.”
“Like freezer burn?”
“Exactly like that. Siltapolia kill by wrapping their victims in their slime. It gives a calming effect at first. Slowly, the cold damages nerve endings. Then, the Monster’s burn their victims alive. There’s usually just enough feeling left in the poor souls that they can feel their end.”
Natalia grimaced, anxiously avoiding looking at her left shoulder. “I’m glad you didn’t tell me what that thing was before it was dealt with.”
“Siltapolia are still low level Monsters. Quite mindless and the type to do as they please. They’re relatively blind and so are directed by noise. I think they’ve been known to kill other Monsters mistakenly.”
“Saves us a job.”
Jasper put his arms behind his head and smirked. “Us?”
She turned away, feeling her cheeks heat. “I’m considering it.”
“We better hope that tomorrow goes well then, yeah?” He sighed, hauling himself up. “Speaking or tomorrow,” he brushed his trousers free of grass, “let’s get you home.”
Natalia took her time standing. Coldness clung to her neck though she knew there was no sludge or ash there. “Is it really going to be that big of a deal?” she asked him as they walked.
Jasper considered it. “They just wanted records on you, right?” When she nodded, he continued. “Then no. It won’t be much. You might even get the chance to see the City.”
“Gold said it wouldn’t take long.” At least, she hoped it didn’t, she had plans with Noah.
“Hopefully not.”
“Is the City pretty?”
He slowed. “What gave you that impression?”
“The way everyone talks about it.” She shrugged, recounting the conversations that had taken place around her as she’d been learning the gifts and qualities of Creatures. “It seems like everyone sees it as this special place.”
“It is special. It’s the home of all Creatures. Just under half of the entire Creature population live there. If we don’t have residency there, we still go back for celebrations throughout the year. Most Creatures are married there and the burnings of our bodies at the end of our lives happen there too, unless under special request.”
Natalia touched her earrings. “But everyone talks about it like it’s magical.”
Jasper grinned. “Hasn’t everything you’ve come across been magical so far? What makes you think the home of all Creatures would be any less? It’s more.” He stooped into an effortless bow. “And it would be an honour to show it to you.”
She spoke steadily, “I might take you up on that offer.”
“Then it’s settled. I’ll be your personalised guide once all the Council nonsense is done with. I will admit I haven’t had time to prepare hats and collectable badges for the tour. But I know the City well enough and won’t get you lost.”
“It would be your responsibility to find me if I was to get lost.” The space between her shoulder blades itched and she fidgeted to free the irritation. When it was gone, it was replaced by a twinge in her leg. She studied the ground. “Why are you so willing to help me?”
Jasper ignored her question as if he’d not heard and began knocking on a door. Natalia glanced at him and blinked, realising it was her door he was knocking on.
For a few beats she was dumbfounded. How did he know where she lived? Then it twigged. He’d been here before. He’d fought off the Calefaction here, saving her life. That had been mere days ago.
So much had transpired since then. Now it was hard for Natalia to know where she stood exactly in the world, caught between the Human life she’d had and the Creature one she was being given.
The door swung inward, revealing Natalia’s dad. Tony smiled, looking them both over and moving aside so they could step into the always cold hallway. She slipped off her shoes and jacket which, upon removing, she noticed had tiny holes burnt into the right shoulder.
“Drink?” Her father asked from further down the hall.
“No, thanks,” Jasper answered. “I’m just here to help pack.”
“I’ll have my maltesers hot chocolate?”
Her father smiled and left.
Natalia shuffled past Jasper, brushing against him by accident in the narrow hallway. The contact sent a zap up her arm where they touched. She half ran up the stairs to hide her face full of bronze and dived into her room.
“You’ll only need the essentials,” Jasper announced from behind.
Natalia spun to see him rooting through her wardrobe. Besides Noah and her father, and one person she’d had a relationship with before, no other boy had ever been in her room, but then, nor had any girl – she didn’t have many friends who visited.
Jasper drew out an overnight bag and threw it into the centre of the room. “That should be big enough,” he decided. “Unless you plan to bring the kitchen sink and a horse?”
“Does it look like I can afford a horse?” Natalia replied, holding out her arms. She didn’t think she’d be staying overnight. It was only meant to be a couple of hours, right? Would she have to cancel her plans with Noah after all? Or was this to bring a change of outfit?
Her walls were painted dull orange, the same colour that had been there since she was a baby. The peach window curtains were the same too, as was the flimsy wooden furniture that the room could barely contain. The double bed was the newest piece.
She gathered up socks, dumping them into the bag, and glanced at Jasper as he reached into the wardrobe, only to pull back like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t.
She went to ask what he was doing when her father appeared with a steaming mug in hand. Natalia collected the drink, forcing Jasper further into her room. “Thanks dad,” she said.
“Is Gold meeting you here or…” he trailed off, confusion written into his eyes. Natalia blinked, realising they’d specified a time – dawn – but not a place.
“We’ll work something out,” Jasper declared.
“You’re coming too, dad,” Natalia added.
He tipped his head and Natalia saw the faintest grey at the roots of his hair. “I wanted to talk to you about that.”
“What, dad?”
“Katherine.”
“Oh?”
“She was here earlier. I didn’t know, but—”
“Dad,” Natalia cut in. She placed her mug on the closest cabinet top and dropped her voice, hoping Jasper couldn’t hear – Jasper began to whistle as if to block himself out of the conversation. “If you’re about to tell me that Katherine is some kind of Creature, I don’t want to hear it. That sounds horrible, I know, but I already have so much to process. If I have to
learn one more fact or detail about someone right now, I’ll scream that I’ve gone crazy.”
He surrounded his daughter with his arms, surrendering her in a bone crushing hug. “You’re not crazy,” he whispered. “But I do understand. It was a lot for me too.”
“Whatever you have to say, can it wait?”
“Of course it can!”
He kissed her head and moved away. Natalia nodded and her father kissed her once more before leaving, pulling the door as he went.
She immediately collapsed onto her bed, defeat hammering inside her head and heart like a drumbeat she didn’t want to become familiar with.
Jasper’s face appeared above her. “Do you need a minute?”
“I think I need more than a minute.” She fixed her eyes on him. She could only imagine what she looked like at this angle, but Jasper looked no different besides some tangles of hair dangling into his face. “Can I ask you something?”
“I’m sure you’re capable of doing so.”
“What was it like when you first learned about this life?”
Jasper tapped Natalia’s legs so she sat up, allowing him to join his side. “It was different for me,” he said. “I was raised around magic and Creatures, seeing Monsters when I was still being carried by my mother.” His green eyes roamed over her. “I can see it in you, you know. That you don’t really know what’s real and what’s not. All I can say is that you’ll get there. I had my whole life to learn, to get where I am now, and I’m still learning. You just need time and a little confidence, and you’ll come around to believe.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe,” she argued, dropping her gaze. “It’s that I have too much to suddenly believe in when before I thought the sun rose in the morning and set at night, and that Humans were the only beings beside animals to exist.”
Life kept throwing new directions at her and she didn’t know which way to turn. There was an up, down, left, and right. But now there were diagonals too.
Yes, things took time. Time she’d barely had. She knew eventually things would settle and then she would have the freedom to understand more.
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