“Fireworks?” Fray’s thoughts trickle into my head with excitement.
“Yep! He’s setting them up in the back. You’re coming to watch, aren’t you?”
“Definitely,” Fray promises.
Harriet skips around me, boundlessly energetic. I realise her intentions a second too late and flinch at the exploding popper. I snarl in retaliation but Harrie just giggles and runs off.
Fray untangles the paper ribbons from my hair, quietening the beast. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah.”
She brings her face closer and I’m absurdly nervous she’s going to kiss me. When my nerves don’t develop into full blown fear, I decide I could cope with it. As long as I don’t let myself love her, as long as I protect myself from those feelings, we can share a kiss.
I wind Fray’s hair around my fingers. One kiss couldn’t hurt, could it? Fray’s eyes drop to my mouth—
An explosion of sound ricochets around us.
Fray begins to laugh, at first slow and quiet and then a loud howl. She drops her head onto my shoulder and the beast rumbles, pleased at Fray’s closeness.
Another firework screeches a lament and Fray’s head comes up. She grins slyly and takes my hand, dashing across the room and toward the sound without warning.
TWENTY FIVE
THE FALLING MAJICK
The fireworks are mesmerising, a unique combination of pyrotechnics and Majick. Vic adds a burst of Aqua to a rocket and it explodes with water, splattering us. Akasha is propelled into the sky with a bright red firework, smoke-fire-darkness barrelling through the air. It would be risky to expose our power like this, since any Pure in the area can see it, but fireworks are so fancy these days nobody will be able to tell it’s Majick.
I add a surge of Earth to a silver firework and leaves rain down on us, unsinged by the explosion. Fray catches one in her hand and grins at me.
“What time is it?” Mavers asks nobody in particular.
“Ten to nine,” Guy answers, consulting his unnecessarily big watch.
“Right, then. Everyone be ready at nine.”
Fray tilts her head, waiting for me to explain.
“We honour Juno by giving Majick back to the Legend Mirror. We combine our Majick and send it into the sky.”
“Woah.”
“I know. It’s over the top.”
“No.” She elbows me. “I was going to say it’s magical, but I was trying to think of a different word.”
“Enchanting,” Vic offers.
“Yes.” She points at him. “That’s the word. Thank you.”
He sweeps a bow. “You’re welcome, milady.”
Alice frowns at him. “I thought I was your lady.”
Vic’s cheeks become an unflattering shade of red. He whispers something in Alice’s ear that makes her flush the same colour. “Well,” she laughs. “That’s alright then.”
“You’re adorable,” Fray tells the blushing couple.
“Uh. Thanks?” Vic ducks his head, shuffling away with Alice tight to his side.
“He’s embarrassed,” I say. “Alice is his first girlfriend.”
“Oh.” Fray collapses onto a swinging bench and pats the space beside her, yawning.
“Tired already?” I settle in next to her.
“I had kind of a long day. I might have been worrying.”
“About?”
“Meeting your family.” Her eyelashes brush my arm as her head falls to my shoulder. “They’re not as bad as I thought they’d be.”
“Don’t speak too soon,” I murmur. “You haven’t met Rowan or Fearne yet.”
“They can’t be that bad.”
I make a noncommittal sound and point at Mavers and Guy crossing the garden. “It’s time.” I help Fray stand and join my brothers.
“Fray.” Mavers beams. “Welcome to the Academy.”
Fray mumbles a hello, flustering under the full weight of Mavers’s attentive welcome.
“I hope everyone has been friendly to you,” he goes on. “I know we can be a little overwhelming, but you’ll get used to it in time.”
Another person who automatically thinks Fray’s in this for the long run. I don’t know how they can be so certain.
Fray huddles close to me, her hands stuffed into fluffy green mittens, while the Majick of the Red combines. Guy and Mavers go first: Akasha in a swirling sphere brightens the garden, added to by a flurry of plants and flowers Created by Mavers’ unique Majick. Fearne builds on Guy’s Akasha and the Hannam sisters, chanting, Persuade the Majick to take the shape of a star for five seconds—until the Majick’s intensity overpowers them and snaps back into its original shape.
I add a burst of Earth to the growing power, dirt swirling around the orb’s edge, and Vic combines it with Aqua to make mud. Thankfully the mud stays inside the Majick, otherwise we’d be covered in it.
The sphere freezes over, cracking with ice as Amity lowers the temperature. She releases her Majick a moment later with a huff of effort.
When it’s done—with Minnie having no way to contribute her Divine power and the rest of the Red without Majick—Rowan uses Gateway Majick to raise the trembling sphere into the air, three inches at a time. He’s sweating by the time it’s six feet high, and shaking when it has disappeared into the vastness of the sky.
We don’t know what happens to the Majick when it gets that high. Maybe the Numina take it. Maybe it combusts.
“That was awesome,” Fray whispers.
I shiver, on edge for a reason I can’t place.
Thunder swallows all other sounds and now I understand the edgy feeling. It’s my instincts. I didn’t recognise it at first because it’s my Majick, my Dei nature, and I’m so used to calamities being tied to the Manticore.
Fray catches my hand in a death grip.
Light rips the darkness apart. We all look to Mavers for answers. It’s not a firework—that’s obvious—but it can’t be the Majick. Can it? We’ve made offerings like this every Matronalia festival I’ve been with the Red. This has never happened before.
Points of light plummet through the sky. I don’t know what’s going to happen when they touch us. I bring Fray close and cover her head. Her breath whispers over my neck.
The falling Majick doesn’t do anything. It soaks into the ground, slipping off us like water.
“What was that?” Minnie asks at the same time Rowan shouts, “I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Nobody said you did,” Mavers placates.
“It’s her.” Rowan turns on me for no reason. His whole demeanour is threatening.
A growl builds and I let it out. It’s menacing and hostile. I hope Rowan is picturing the same things the beast is.
“Don’t.” Mavers takes him by the arm.
Rowan disappears, using his Majick to slip Mavers’s hold and reappear right in front of me. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Bullshit. You’re unnatural. Nobody should have that much Majick.”
Guy grabs Rowan by his hair. “Back off, or I swear I’ll separate your arms from your body.”
“Bring it.”
“Enough!” Mavers roars.
Amity lowers the temperature around Rowan until he’s shivering, unable to maintain his anger. “You are out of order, Rowan. Go inside.”
“You know I’m right,” he shouts. “Even the Numina are on edge because of her. Did you know she bested Juno in a dream?”
“That’s a lie,” Minnie spits.
“Actually.” I swallow down every fear. If I lie, if I don’t correct her, it’ll just be worse in the future. “It’s not.”
The Hannam sisters take two steps back. Minnie’s face doesn’t change.
“We’ll talk about that later.” Mavers is torn between disapproval and sympathy. “If you want.”
I nod.
“You’re taking her side?” Rowan’s bitterness is strong enough to seep into my mind. “Is that ‘c
ause she’s your golden child or because you’re scared of her? Even you know there’s something wrong with her.”
Fray tears herself from my side and launches herself at Rowan. “Shut up!”
He barks a laugh. “Or what? You’re a Pure. No offence, but there’s nothing you can do to me.”
Fray pulls her arm back and punches him in the jaw. She brings her knee to his crotch faster than I’ve seen a human move, and Rowan shrieks, staggering away from her.
“That,” she hisses, “is what I can do to you.” She whirls around, a hint of elation in her fury. “Come on, Yasmin. Let’s go.”
Mavers calls my name. “No matter what he says, you are welcome here.”
I don’t acknowledge him. I follow Fray through the Academy and along the driveway to her car.
Guy catches up to us. “Don’t listen to him. He’s an asshole.”
“He’s probably right.” The tightness in my throat makes the words strangled. “It is unnatural.”
“No, it’s not,” Fray argues.
Guy touches my arm. “She’s right. You were born with your Majick. It’s not your fault you’re both Crea and Dei.”
He’s right, I suppose, but there’s still truth in what Rowan says. Nobody else has two kinds of Majick, at least now in the Red.
“If you’re gonna blame anyone,” he says, “blame Venus.”
“Yeah.” My dark mood lifts. I smile at Fray, letting her know I’m okay but my heart drops. Her eyes are blazing. Her mind is fiery and confused.
“You’re related to Venus?” she asks curtly. “The Goddess?”
Guy mouths a curse. “Sorry. I’m gonna go.”
I watch him retreat, wracking my brain. I’m sure I told Fray I was Dei, that Venus was my mother. But then I remember—when she asked about my mother I said I didn’t want to talk about it. I still don’t.
I don’t think I have a choice.
TWENTY SIX
THE FALLOUT
I get in the car without a word.
When Fray finally speaks, her voice is like ice cracking. “When were you going to tell me?”
I look at my hands. “I thought I already had.”
“How closely are you related?”
“Venus is my mother.”
The car swerves. There’s nothing in the road to hit, thank Numina.
“Right,” she breathes. “Of course. And your dad is—what?—the first ever Manticore?”
“No. He’s the great-grandson of the original Manticore.”
Fray watches me from the corner of her eye. “And those generations between you—were any of them human?”
This is it, then. The moment she finally understands what I am. What I’m not. The moment she hates me for it.
“None of my ancestors had children with a Pure. I’m … I’m distantly related to Apollo and Mars. And almost everyone is related to Jupiter in some way.”
“So.” She grips the steering wheel with bone-white knuckles. “You’re not human.”
“No.”
She holds her breath for five seconds, releases it, and goes quiet. I watch the seconds tick by for three minutes.
“Stop the car,” I say.
“What? Why?”
“Stop the car. Pull over.”
She’s uncertain but she does as I ask, guiding the car to the side of the road. As soon as it’s stopped, I jump out and walk back the way we came.
I thought Fray knew what I was but I was wrong. She thought I was a Cross-Blood, that I was part human. I can imagine how she feels—repulsed, horrified, and scared.
“Where are you going?” she yells, following me.
“Away.” My voice is thick with tears I fight to keep from spilling. “I don’t want to—” Don’t want to see how disgusted you are of me.
“Yasmin!”
“Leave me alone.”
“No.” She’s close enough now to grab my arm and spin me around. “I will not let you run away from me.”
“Why?”
“Because I—I—”
I rip my arm from her grip and walk away. I can’t listen to Fray pretending to be okay with this. She’s not.
“You’re just going to walk away?” she shrieks. “I don’t get a choice? What if I want a choice?”
“I’m not human, Fray.” The beast rears its head but is smothered by my emotions. I look at my fingers, wishing they were claws. I want to destroy something.
Fray is furious now, uncaringly loud. “Stop running away from me or I’ll—I’ll go back to the Red! I have a ring. I can get in.”
I whirl around. “Why are you following me? I’m dangerous, Fray! I’m a beast and a Dei. I have Majick and claws and—”
She puts her arms around me, silencing me without trying. “Shh,” she whispers. “That’s enough.”
My breathing falters. “I don’t—I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I,” she sighs. “But all this time we’ve been friends, you haven’t been human. So I guess I’ll get used to it. In time.”
“You won’t.”
“Watch me.”
My tears overflow.
“Please don’t cry.” Fray wipes the tears away with her thumbs, her fingers sliding into my hair. “Well, now I’m crying.” I’m not sure what’s happening but it gives me hope.
I’m about to speak when Fray renders me speechless. With her thumbs still brushing my cheeks, she kisses me. Her lips loosen all the tension from my shoulders and the fear from my heart. I can’t think straight but that doesn’t matter.
I curl my fingers around her forearms to keep her near. My heart thrums in my chest, my emotions wrought in three different directions.
I think I might kiss her forever, uncaring of the fact we both need air, but headlights swing onto us. I remember we’re in the middle of the road. I hurry to the side, Fray with me, and the car races past. Its rear lights are disapproving eyes in the darkness.
I bite my lip, nerves twisting my stomach now. I don’t understand how we went from arguing, to crying, to kissing. I’m shaking, and only partly because of the cold.
Fray exhales loudly. “Can you get back in the car now?”
I guess we’re not going to talk about the kiss.
She drops me off at home without another word.
TWENTY SEVEN
THE NIGHTMARE
After what happened with Fray I don’t want to do anything but sleep and nurse my wounds, but Guy has other ideas. He abused the unrestricted power of Akasha to break into my apartment when I refused to answer the door, and now he sits on the end of the bed trying to tempt me with chocolate cake.
“I don’t want anything,” I grumble for the third time.
“Then I’ll stay here all night.”
“Fine.” I pull the covers over my head and wait for him to leave.
He doesn’t.
He falls asleep around three o’clock, drooling disgustingly on my fleece blanket. I roll my eyes at my brother and settle into my mountain of pillows.
Halfway to sleep, with black and grey shapes moving lazily behind my eyelids, I recognise the wrenching feeling of a nightmare yet to come.
I remember I took off the talisman for the party.
Too late.
*
I’m thrown into a room made bright by daylight streaming through a wall of windows. A man and a woman stand before me. One of them is Malach, Fray’s father, and the other is a red-haired stranger. She smiles at Fray, who must be eight years old now, watching the girl like a predator. This Fray might not be my Fray but I feel a protective urge rise in me and emerge as a threatening growl.
Neither Malach nor the woman reacts.
“So you can take her?” Malach is sickeningly hopeful.
“No.” The woman is calculating, searching Fray’s small face. “She’s much better use to me here. Raise her, allow her to become rooted in human community, and then I will come for her.”
“Are you sure you can’t—”
She rounds on him, gaze as fiery as her hair, and I know, by some inexplicable feeling, she’s a Numen. “You will not challenge me. This … child is your mistake, even if she is my gain. You’ll raise her as I desire and you will bring her to me when it benefits me.”
My lip curls back to expose teeth.
“If you choose to disobey me, I will revoke any rewards you are due and sentence you to eternity in the Otherland. Are we in agreement?”
“Yes,” Malach whispers. He lowers his head. “We’re in agreemen—”
*
I’m hauled back to the present. Guy is holding me, his mind overflowing with fear. I let out an angry noise, tear myself free of him, and pace the floor. Malach was about to say the name of the Numen. He was about to tell me who she was, I’m sure of it.
“Why did you wake me?” I demand.
He jumps up, his mouth hanging open. “You were having a nightmare! Was I supposed to let you sleep when you were screaming and growling?”
“Yes.” I drag a hand through my hair. “Someone is trying to tell me about Fray through her dreams. People dream all the time, don’t they? And the dreams never make much sense. But these are memories, and they’re almost chronological, as if someone is showing me them in order. The first dream belonged to Fray—she said it was a recurring nightmare. But these other dreams?”
Guy takes hold of my arms, steadies me.
“I think a Numen is trying to tell me what she is. I think someone’s helping me.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. And I don’t know why they’d help. But in that last dream there was a Numen, a woman with red hair. She was talking about using Fray. I think she’s responsible for Fray’s Majick. I think a Numen did this to her, and I think a different Numen brought us together.”
Guy’s looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Why the hell would they do that?”
“Because of the conflict! They knew something like this would happen, that the Numina wouldn’t be at peace forever. I think someone planned this, me and Fray meeting.” I ball up my hands into fists. “Juno came to me in a dream. She told me I’m supposed to protect Fray. What if we’re been drawn to each other because I’m meant to look after her? I think that’s why the Numen is helping me understand Fray’s past.”
Guy stares for a long minute. “For the record, I think you’re insane. But … it almost seems plausible. If the Numina are at war, both sides will want a secret advantage. But if a Numen is involved and wants to use Fray ….” He lowers his voice. In case they’re listening. “I don’t think they’re the good guys, Yas.”
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