He started the car. “It appears that some people need to be reminded that I’m a part of the Senate.”
“That’s what you get for running away,” I said lightly.
He slipped off his jacket. “I didn’t run. I had a secret mission. There’s a difference.”
“If it looks like running, and it sounds like running…” I trailed off, staring at his T-shirt. He looked so much younger all of a sudden, and almost… normal.
“Something wrong?” he asked. “Why are you staring at my body?”
“I’m not… I am absolutely not staring at your body. I’m looking at your shirt, and—”
“The shirt that is on my body,” he deadpanned.
“Seriously, what happened to you on holiday? You’ve come back all weird.”
He gave me a startled look. “A lot happened, Ava.” He cleared his throat. “I’m hoping the protection will ensure we’re not interrupted on the hunt. And that nobody gets any ideas into their heads about taking down the werewolves while we’re on the road.”
“Good plan,” I said, but I still wasn’t sure about the natural witch.
And why did he change the subject anyway?
“And your own place could use an extra touch,” he said.
“Mine? Why?”
“I know that Esther is staying there,” he said. “The Senate could interfere on the shifters’ behalf. Or worse, the shifters themselves could find a way in. If we’re ever going to find out what’s going on, we’ll need as little distraction from the shifters as possible. I need your head in this completely, and if you don’t have to worry about anyone you care about, then I’ll have you.”
“That’s… okay, fine. I won’t turn down a little extra protection.”
We drove in silence after that, mostly because I was distracted by thoughts of Peter’s kiss. I had no idea how I was supposed to feel about it or why I would even think about it while in a car with Phoenix, on a serious mission. I kept sensing the fae glancing at me, and my cheeks burned. Maybe one day, I would stop being a big kid about my love life.
Obviously not today.
We finally arrived at the children’s home. On the basketball court alongside the building, a number of young people were screaming, laughing, and throwing basketballs at Alanii, who managed to dodge every single one of them. I jumped out of the car and hurried over.
“I don’t think that’s quite how it’s played,” I said when she spotted me.
Alanii’s purple-and-black hair was tied back into a cool multi-coloured French plait. She grinned and called out for a break. “We make our own rules around here.” She nodded at Phoenix, who was slowly making his way over to us. “Is it just me or did he get hotter?”
I looked at her in surprise and found her checking Phoenix out. “We are so not having this conversation, Alanii.”
She grinned at me and greeted Phoenix when he grew closer. “Nice to see you again.”
He gave her a warm smile. “I need help from a witch. Is she around?”
Alanii rolled her eyes. “She’s sulking in the common room. Be careful. She booby-traps everything in sight since she started school.”
“Not happy?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Not even Noah can cheer her up.”
“Is he around?”
“Just got in from work an hour ago, and he’s still buzzing from it. Which doesn’t help.”
“We’ll find her,” Phoenix said, laying his hand on the base of my back to lead me inside the building. “She’ll never stop talking otherwise,” he whispered in my ear when we reached the front door.
“I heard that!” Alanii shouted after us.
We headed to the common room, where Noah, his hair falling into his eyes, was leaning over a bunch of screws and parts. A box full of bits and pieces stood next to his feet. Working in the garage had apparently given him a fever for taking things apart to see how they worked.
“Busy?” I asked.
He looked up and beamed, a distinct change from the violent, unhappy boy I had once felt sorry for. “Not for you.” He dropped his screwdriver and wiped his palms against his jeans.
“Working man,” I said, lightly thumping his shoulder. “How’s the garage? Dave treating you okay?”
“Yeah, it’s great. He says I’m a natural. I love it.”
“You’ll be moving out next.” I glanced at Phoenix. “I have a building that would be amazingly good as a kind of halfway house. The ones with jobs could stay there, with supervision, until they’re ready to go it alone.”
“You want him to move out now!” a female voice screeched from across the room.
Noah rolled his eyes. “Here we go.”
A blond teenage girl I had once found in an… awkward position with Noah strode across the room. The television flared in volume then completely shut down.
“Hey!” somebody protested.
“Calm down,
Ari
.” Noah sounded bored.
Phoenix frowned. “Ari?”
“She changes her name every month,” Noah said scornfully.
“Shut up!” she shouted, but when she reached him, she wrapped her arm around his shoulder. She glared at me. “Stop trying to take him away from us.”
“I’m just trying to—”
“I hate it here,” Noah said, his face darkening. “Why can’t you be happy for me that I get to be free? Do you expect me to just wait for you to come home from that school every day? I can’t stay here forever.”
“We’re supposed to be a team,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “All of us. I can’t take care of them all without you.”
He gripped her shoulders and shook her. “We don’t have to take care of them anymore!”
I tapped his shoulder. “Noah, come outside for a minute. Take a break.”
His grip tightened then loosened. He nodded. “Fine.”
I gave Phoenix a questioning look, and he nodded. He would stay with Ari and calm her down.
Noah and I wandered outside.
“That was a bit intense,” I said.
“She wants everything to stay the same,” he complained. “But it can’t. It’s not supposed to. And I just want to… explore.”
“She’s scared,” I said. “Of losing everything she knows. She must have depended on you when you all ended up here.”
“Yeah, but that’s the point. I don’t want to be depended on. I couldn’t sleep properly for a long time, Ava. And now I look forward to every day. You don’t get how different that is for me. I’ll always be grateful to you. If you ever need somebody killed, I would do that for you.”
I laughed until I realised he was serious. My laughter died away abruptly. “That isn’t your job anymore, Noah.”
“I know, and I’m glad. I just need to repay you somehow.”
“But you don’t have to. You have a choice how to live now. It doesn’t have to be all about power or fear or deals. I don’t need thanks. Dave needed help, and you needed an escape. It worked out.”
He shrugged. “It’s just good to get away from here. They all expect me to tell them what to do. Why can’t they think for themselves now? I have to.”
“They’ll learn. They’re still adjusting.”
“Did you mean what you said about the halfway-house thing? I mean, I don’t want to be living here with little kids for the rest of my life.”
“I know. And I did mean it. The Senate might need some persuading, but you have to grow up sometime, right? It’s part of normal life to move out and find your own way. You need more of the normal.”
He kicked a stone. “A kid ended up here a few weeks ago. The parents sent her here because they didn’t want her anymore. Is that what people are supposed to do?”
“No,” I said. “But if her parents couldn’t look after her, then maybe she’s better off here. At least you all get cared for by people like Alanii.”
“She’s kind of cool,” he said. “It’s not like I wouldn’t visit or anything. They’re the only family I have. I wouldn’t
desert
them.”
“They’ll understand that. It’s just because you’re the first. It’s hardest the first time, I suppose.”
A few minutes later, Phoenix came outside with Ari and sent Noah back in. Ari tossed her hair, her arms folded across her chest, but she at least looked a little sorry.
“I’ll help,” she said, giving Phoenix a sharp look. “But you better keep your end of the deal.”
“I will,” he said. “The books are yours.”
“They better be good,” she snapped. “Fine, what exactly do you want me to do?”
“Stop people from harming those we need to keep safe,” Phoenix said.
“Yeah, but there are a million ways to do something like that.” Her face brightened. “I can make them invisible. Not forever, but to prying eyes. I’ve been practising.”
“It’s a lot of space to make invisible,” Phoenix said doubtfully.
“It’s not really invisible,” she said after a moment. “It’s more like the wrong eyes can’t see it. Like, if I wanted to hide something in the house, I might use magic so that only the grownups couldn’t see it.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder with a mischievous smile. “Not that I would ever do something like that.”
“So you can hide the werewolves?” Phoenix asked. “And Ava’s neighbourhood?”
“Piece of cake.”
“Won’t you get tired?” I asked. “I mean, drained because of using so much magic?”
She snorted derisively. “Like you’d know. I have power, and it’s limitless.”
“There’s no such thing,” I said. “Nothing is limitless. Everything has consequences. Everything requires some kind of payment. Are you sure you can do this, Ari? Are you sure you understand?”
“Oh, look at her. Because we lived in Hell, we don’t know anything. We’re just the idiots whose families let them get taken.”
“Whoa.” I held up my hands. “Nobody ever said that. I just wanted to let you know that magic isn’t given freely. It takes, and there’s a cost.”
“Well, maybe I’m different,” she said, pouting.
Somehow, I doubted she was.
Chapter Fourteen
I had to sit in the backseat on the way to the werewolves’ territory because Ari was being a spoiled brat about everything in existence. If Dita ever acted even slightly similar, Anka would have dealt with her quickly. But I had to feel at least a little sorry for Ari. She had been through a lot. Still, something told me she would only get worse if her behaviour wasn’t quashed every now and then. She played a horrendously bad radio station on the way, ignoring Phoenix’s pointed looks when she sang along off-key.
She turned in her seat and narrowed her eyes at me. “Why are you so obsessed with Noah anyway?”
“I am not obsessed with anyone. He needed help, and I was able to give it to him.”
“Hmm.” She kept staring at me.
“
What
, Ari?” I said when it grew too unnerving to bear.
“It just seems like you
really
want him to move out.”
I held her gaze. “Noah really wants to move out.”
Her eyes glittered with anger. “Tell me, because I’m still behind on the terms humans like to use, but would that make you a cradle-snatcher or a cougar?”
“Phoenix,” I said warningly.
“Enough, Ari,” he said. “Stop trying to make enemies.”
She settled in her seat and folded her arms. “I’m just saying. How would you feel if you caught her getting it on with your little boy?”
“Oh, you little—”
“Ari!” Phoenix said sharply. “Two weeks with no common room privileges. Do you really want to continue with this?”
Pouting, she raised the volume on the radio and was soon singing at the top of her lungs again. The car journey felt endless, and by the time we arrived, I was ready to strangle the girl.
“Are we going to actually see the werewolves?” she asked as we got out of the car. “Because I don’t really like them.”
“They won’t hurt you,” Phoenix said wearily.
“The cubs are weird at our school,” she said. “Always biting and sniffing each other. It’s creepy.”
“People think you kids are weird and creepy, too,” I snapped. “So give it a rest if you’re not going to give them a chance.”
“You can’t tell me what to do,” she said. “I can hurt you with magic before you ever touch me.”
“Try me,” I threatened.
“I will when you’re least expecting it,” she said with a toss of her head. “And you’d deserve my worst.”
“Enough,” Phoenix said. “If you don’t want to help, you can go back home with the other little children, Ari.”
She shrugged. “I said I’d help, didn’t I?” She made a face. “You two aren’t any fun.”
“You have to be at least seventeen,” I couldn’t help saying. “Why are you acting like a tween gone wrong?”
She looked furious, but Phoenix got between us and urged us forward. “This is the start of their territory. How do you want to do this?”
“I’ll need to make points at the borderlines,” she said. “It’ll stop people from accidentally wandering in. It’s so big that there will probably be gaps, but it’ll take all day to do it properly.”
“We have all day,” Phoenix said.
She made a face and slipped off her shoes. “One every mile should do.” She stuck her toes into the grass and dug her heels into the earth. “This is a good place to start.” She moved to an old oak tree and wrapped her arms around it.
I sensed a surge in the air, and the world seemed to vibrate a little. She really had been practising.
“It’s done,” she said. “Let’s go.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“I can feel it. The magic is already there.”
“There’s magic in that tree?” I asked doubtfully.
She looked at me as though I were the dirt from her shoe voicing a question. “There’s magic
everywhere
. I see it, and I use it.”
“Just like that?”
“What’s your problem? This is what I do. It’s why they call me a natural. There’s magic already present; I just focused it. Anyone other than the werewolves and us three won’t see past this tree anymore. They won’t even try.”
“That’s impressive,” Phoenix said.
“I told you I can do it,” she snapped.
We got back into the car and drove for about a mile until Ari, who had been dangling her arm out the open window, barked at Phoenix to stop.
Intrigued, I got out to watch her work again. This time, Ari caressed a flower. Again, the same spark of power filled the air. She was very powerful, and I was likely a fool to have pissed her off, but the perverse side of my nature didn’t care at all. I watched her carefully for signs of tiredness, or even pain, but she seemed flawless.
Why does nothing work that way for me?
When I tried to use my own power, half the time it almost killed me. That’s why I had to be so careful. But this kid seemed able to run all day, with her magic permanently switched on.
“I could probably help her strengthen the power,” I said to Phoenix while Ari was busy planting another magical point in the earth. “I am a conduit.”
“We may need you later,” he said. “Besides, she seems to be handling it.” He sounded awestruck.
“But what price is she paying?”
“Maybe a natural witch doesn’t pay a price.”
But I knew that couldn’t be true. It wouldn’t be balanced.
In fact, the longer the day went on, the less comfortable I felt with the whole situation.
“There’s something wrong,” I said a couple of hours later. “No one person has endless power. It’s not balanced. It doesn’t feel right.”
“Nothing feels odd to me,” he said. “What do you feel?”
I screwed up my face and rubbed the back of my neck. “Itchy.”
He raised both eyebrows in concern. “Itchy?”
“It’s making me feel uncomfortable. Something she’s doing is making me feel… not good.”
“Are you all right? You’re sweating.”
“I think we should stop,” I said in a panicked voice. “It’s not right.”
“Ari,” Phoenix said coldly. “Are you doing something to Ava?”
She turned around with a smile on her face. “What do you mean?”
“I’m going to sit in the car,” I said, feeling ill. Either the girl was purposely doing me harm with magic—which I doubted because I tended to make sure I knew what magic felt like when it was being used against me—or my distress was a side effect of her actions. Could that be the payment? If she didn’t pay, maybe somebody close to her always would. That was an unsettling thought.
The same niggling worries haunted me all day. When we left the werewolves and moved onto the cul-de-sac, I went inside my house just to get away from the girl. Esther and Carl were hanging out in my living room.
“You look terrible,” Esther blurted. “Are you okay?”
“Teenage witches abound,” I said, rubbing my temples. I threw myself onto a chair. “I feel gross. She can go on forever, just throwing magic all over the place. She’s not even tired.”
“How can that be?” Carl asked, looking confused. “There’s always a price to pay.”
“Duh!” I held out my hands. “That’s what I keep trying to tell them. But nobody ever listens to me until it’s too late.”
The pair exchanged a bemused glance.
“Oh, shut up,” I said. “I’ve been feeling weird all day. I don’t know if I’m the consequence to her magic or if…” I let my voice trail away, unwilling to bring up the balance. Phoenix was the only one who knew the truth about my indentured slavery for one hundred years, and I really wanted to keep it that way. It came with its benefits, and it wasn’t really slavery, but I still didn’t want to share that kind of information with my friends.
“Or if?” Carl continued.
“Or… if she’s purposely trying to drive me mad. Parker’s fire was a part of him, like it existed because he did, and he got tired from burning fires. How can she be okay after using magic all day? Magic that’s still continuing, for that matter.”
“Where is she now?” Esther asked.
“Oh, making this place invisible.”
“Invisible?” Carl looked worried. “Is that what it’s come to?”
“Phoenix told her to make the shifters avoid it. I probably should have asked for the Senate to avoid the place, too, after what happened.”
“They’re not going to be stupid enough to try to lock you up again,” Carl said.
“Yeah,” Esther agreed. “They’re too afraid of Phoenix for that.”
“But are they more scared of the paragon than Phoenix?” I said. “It really seems like they were more scared of the paragon than the werewolves.”
“That was just panic,” Esther said. “It’s going to work out, Ava. Stop worrying.”
“People are dying,” I said, “and nobody can agree on who’s doing the murdering. All it’s done is turn everyone against each other. I keep thinking about Mac’s body, and I just don’t know how it’s connected to the werewolf killings.”
“Maybe it’s not,” Carl said.
“It’s some coincidence, though,” Esther said.
“Mac’s death was very… it just seemed personal,” I said. “Like, I don’t know how somebody could do that to another person without there being a serious amount of vengeance behind it. The other murders seem more like… hunger than vengeance. I don’t know what kind of person could do both.”
“Doesn’t have to be a person,” Carl murmured.
“Don’t you start. Everyone’s so hot on the werewolves being guilty that they aren’t even looking for an alternative.”
He smiled. “Then it’s lucky the werewolves have you and Phoenix to watch out for them.”
“It’s not all charitable,” I said. “After all, if the paragon gets his way this time, the werewolves will just be the first species to figuratively burn. Val or I could easily be next.”
“I wish he’d go home,” Esther said viciously. “Why is he even here?” Then she clutched her head as another migraine came over her. Her hands turned into paws, and the claws dug into her skin until I gently pried them away. The migraine lasted a long time, too long for anyone to suffer such immense pain, but Esther didn’t complain. She could barely do more than grunt anyway, but she looked determined to get through it. And that was the difference between her and the other shifters. They needed somebody to get them through tough times; Esther was tough enough on her own.
By the time Phoenix came back inside to tell me that the witch was done and he was taking her back home, Esther’s migraine had passed. But I still worried that something was wrong with her, something that could be fixed by the right doctor. But leaving her in the clinic was almost the same as leaving her outside to die alone. The shifters would come for her as soon as she left the cul-de-sac.