Winging It (12 page)

I mean, not one living soul.

It was really cold, the sky inky black and the windows on every side dark. The only motion was a fistful of dry leaves blowing down the gutter. The pulse of music behind me sounded as if it was coming from another world.

It had been snowing when we arrived, but there was no snow now. Where had it gone?

I looked harder. I could have stepped into a cemetery, or a dead zone, which made no sense. It wasn’t that late, and although the club wasn’t in a fabulous area of town, there had been some other businesses in the vicinity.

Now every shop window was boarded up. Not as if businesses were closed for the night – as if they were closed for the duration.

Abandoned.

But we’d been in the club for only an hour.

The hair stood up on the back of my neck. What was going on? I looked down at my hand and guessed.

I tugged the ring off and the street looked as I had expected it to. Quiet, but not deserted. Pretty much as it had been when we’d arrived. Snow falling thickly all around. I couldn’t see the spells from Jared, but I could hear the music.

I shoved the ring over my knuckle again. Instantly, the desolate scene appeared.

This was way better than the eye game.

But it must be happening for a reason.

I was reassured to see the happy confetti of sound generated by Jared traveling out into the night. It was brilliant against the shadows.

But I also noticed now that orange spears of light were emerging. I recognized them as Mage binding spells. They were spilling out of sewers and manholes, from basement windows and vents, spreading into the night like a net. There were zillions of them, more with every passing second, and I had the sense that they were breeding. They trussed up the confetti spells and tossed them into the gutter. They would imprison anyone trapped within them. I’d watched them do that in the spring.

But now they were coming for me.

Suddenly, a raven cried far overhead. At least I thought it was a raven until I saw Kohana leap from the roof of the building across the street and spread his arms wide. I knew it couldn’t be anyone else but him. My
Pyr
sense of smell gave me that clue.

He shifted shape in midair, becoming a dark Thunderbird. I’d seen him in this form before and I knew he was fast. He gave a cry as he targeted me, his claws outspread and his eyes gleaming.

‘I knew you would come to him,’ Kohana cried. ‘I knew when I heard his music that you’d be here.’

It wasn’t a crazy assumption. Kohana had seen us together at boot camp.

I pivoted and tugged on the door of the club, but it had locked.

I looked up and saw Kohana closing in fast. He didn’t want to chat. I pulled at the door again in desperation, then pounded on it. The music ensured that no one heard me.

I was tempted to defy my dad’s edict, but he’d know I shifted and then he’d know where I was, and then there would be hell to pay on a number of levels. Exile wasn’t a tempting possibility for my future. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, so I made a quick decision.

I closed my eyes, summoned every scrap of Wyvern within me, and wished with all my heart to be someplace else.

Someplace safe.

I was immediately engulfed in the blue shimmer I knew so well, its light skimming over my skin like an electrical tide. I closed my eyes tightly against its brilliance just as I heard Kohana shout.

He didn’t sound happy, which I took as a good sign.

It was dark. Fuzzy. A bit stuffy.

I could hear the music, but it was muffled. I was hyperventilating but not shredded.

I’d take good news as it came.

I smelled a chocolate bar and felt a lipstick under one foot. The scent of a familiar perfume gave me an idea of where I was, but it wasn’t until I felt the case for her contacts that I knew my precise location.

In Isabelle’s purse.

Which meant that I’d changed to salamander form en route.

This spontaneous manifestation stuff still had a whiff of the random about it. When I forgot to concentrate or was tired, odd things happened. I mostly went where I wanted and became what I wanted to be, but every once in a while, stuff happened.

Like ending up in salamander form in Isabelle’s purse.

Really, if I was going to be in salamander form anywhere, I would have voted for being in Jared’s pocket. Although, given that he was onstage and being watched by several hundred people, that probably wouldn’t have been very discreet.

‘Where did Zoë go?’ Isabelle shouted at Meagan.

‘She said she’d be back in a minute. I thought she’d gone to the bathroom.’

Isabelle swore with an earthiness that made me blink. It does sound better with her accent, but I recognized that she was worried about me.

Which meant I had to get out of her purse, and do it without freaking anybody out.

There was really only one place to go.

I gnawed on her chocolate bar, which was a British Mars bar. They are so much better than anything we get here that I can hardly believe it. I took a beat to deeply appreciate Isabelle’s tendency to carry such things, then summoned the shimmer again.

It was both easier and harder the second time. The shimmer tends to be more biddable the more I call it, but the shift does kick my butt. Which is a long way of saying that I manifested off balance in human form, then fell into a whole bunch of gear backstage and created an avalanche.

It must have made quite a noise, because when I opened my eyes, Rick and Angie were glaring at me and the music had stopped. Behind the band, I could see members of the audience who’d followed them. Jared winked and offered me his hand, and I was glad to accept his help. Isabelle was behind them, looking both exasperated and relieved. Meagan was swiveling her head between the club and the backstage area, clearly trying to calculate how I had managed to get backstage without her seeing me.

‘Do us a favor, Jared,’ Angie said, her tone impatient. ‘Keep your girls away from the gear. The insurance doesn’t cover whatever they break.’

‘I’ll take care of it,’ Jared said, his hand tightening over mine for a second. It felt good to have someone know that I wasn’t just being a pain, that I hadn’t had a lot of choice. And how sad was it that this teeny bit of attention from him fed my relentless optimism all over again?

The thing was that once again, I had the fleeting – and tempting – sense that Jared and I could make a good team.

Then I was on my feet and Jared gave my fingers a last squeeze, then was gone.

As if he barely knew me.

Business as usual. This was a guy who could seriously deal in mixed messages. I wasn’t sure what to think and I was starting to believe he wanted it that way.

‘I hope she’s worth it,’ Angie muttered as they walked back to the stage. ‘We’d better do another short set, to keep the crowd happy.’

Isabelle took one look at me and saw a whole lot more than I probably should have let her see. ‘Let’s head home,’ she said, all bustling responsibility. ‘It’s getting a bit late and I don’t want Meagan’s mom to be worried.’

She looked pretty concerned herself, her gaze lingering on me, but I was too bagged to care. When the three of us stepped out into the night, the street looked just as it should, and there was no sign of Kohana. I couldn’t see those Mage spells coming out of the sewer grates, either, not even with my ring on.

They must have spun the spells to coincide with Jared’s music. Were there Mages in the crowd all night? Were they using him? I wanted to go back and talk to him, maybe find out what he knew – relentless optimism is tough to beat down – but Isabelle hooked her hand through my arm and tugged me toward the L.

I did, though, have time to confirm that the door didn’t even lock behind us. Weird. Why had it been locked when I was alone outside? Had that been because of a spell? Spun by who? Jared? The Mages? Or Kohana?

Isabelle frowned at me. Her eyes narrowed and then she reached into her purse. She was visibly surprised that the Mars bar had been opened and part of it eaten.

It wasn’t as if she had mice in her purse.

Just an uninvited salamander once in a while.

I smiled, shrugged, and saw her understand.

She slipped her other hand through the crook of Meagan’s arm. ‘So, what did you think?’ she asked brightly, handing the chocolate bar surreptitiously to me as she set off for the main street at a brisk pace. The snow was up to our ankles and Meagan kicked some happily as we walked down the street.

Meagan was excited. She talked about the music and the band and Jared, and more about musical composition again, giving me plenty of time to make the chocolate disappear. No chance of her noticing that I was off my game. I practically inhaled the chocolate bar, throwing it back as fast as a hungry dog.

It was exactly what I needed to feel human again.

Even if I did glance back as we turned the corner, seeking the silhouette of a guy or a bird on a roof.

I didn’t see Kohana.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t there.

What is it about Mages? I had to wonder about the pervasiveness of their spells. I had them on the brain after the events of the evening, but the weird thing was that Meagan did, too.

Was it a coincidence that she talked about Trevor Wilson?

Or was something more sinister at work?

I was crashed on the twin bed in her room and the lights were out. It was late and we should have been asleep, but Meagan was still wound up after the concert. I was fine with her chatting, just kind of dozing as she talked about the music and the band and the syntho drums and, wow, that Jared.

I pretty much agreed with the wow part.

I kept thinking about the protective flash of his eyes when I’d told him about wanting a grudge match with Kohana and the wild roller-coaster feeling of our hearts matching their pace. Never mind Kohana’s assertion that he knew I’d be with Jared.

Was Jared trying to protect me by staying away from me?

You know I liked that idea.

A lot.

When Meagan took a deep breath, I suspected she was going to say something I wouldn’t like, but she still surprised me. ‘I’ll bet Trevor knows Jared’s music.’

‘What?’ I was wide-awake at the mention of the apprentice Mage’s name. ‘Why would you think that?’

‘Because he’s so into music. Haven’t you seen how he plays the sax? He closes his eyes and moves with the music. Just like Jared with his guitar. Trevor told me he’s always in trouble in marching band for losing his place in line.’

I rolled over to look at her. Even in the shadows, I could see her eyes shining. In fact, she was nearly radiating. ‘He told you that? When?’

‘Well, he’s failing trig again. I’m still tutoring him.’ She acted as if it was no big deal, but now she was blushing. Then she grimaced. ‘I really don’t understand why he doesn’t see the link between music and math. I’ve been studying it a lot, because I thought it might help him.’

Meagan – good, sweet, generous Meagan – was trying to help a guy who was part of a team bent on world domination. And I couldn’t think of any good way to warn her away from him. ‘Doesn’t sound like he appreciates your help,’ I said, keeping my tone neutral.

She sighed. ‘No. He invited you to his party, not me.’

‘I’m not going.’

‘He asked you out last spring, too. Is it really true that nothing happened?’

‘Nothing happened. I didn’t go.’ I took a breath. ‘I’m not going on Halloween, either.’

‘You don’t have to do that for me.’

‘I don’t like him.’

‘Really?’ She rolled over to face me. ‘He’s so hot, Zoë. And so talented. He’s not like the other guys whose parents have tons of money. You can tell by the way he plays the sax. He’s
sensitive.
’

I did not snort.

‘How can you not like him? Is it because of Jared?’

‘No. I didn’t like him before. Maybe because he was dating Suzanne.’ I looked at her. ‘I mean, that says something, don’t you think?’

‘Lots of guys just see that she’s pretty.’

‘On the outside.’

She mused on that. ‘But she’s probably different to Trevor.’

‘Maybe I don’t like him because he’s not very nice to you.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘He should have asked you to his party, especially if you’re tutoring him that much.’

There was a beat of silence and I could see her blinking at the ceiling. When she spoke, her voice was very soft. ‘Do you think he thinks I’m just useful?’

‘I think he’s just not a very nice person,’ I said, my tone fierce. ‘You deserve better.’

She turned to study me, probably noticing my tone. ‘You really don’t like him, do you? All he did was ask you to his party.’

That wasn’t all Trevor had done, but I couldn’t tell her the truth. That was getting old fast. ‘I can’t explain it,’ I said, which was pretty much true. ‘He just gives me the creeps.’

‘Huh.’ Meagan turned her back again. I could practically hear her thinking. ‘You usually have really good instincts about people. I’d like to just know what he’s thinking, though.’

‘I’m not sure my instincts are good about Jared,’ I admitted. I could do it only because it was dark and I was tired and we were alone.

‘He is so hot, though,’ Meagan said with a sigh. A moment later she sighed again. ‘Guys are so hard to understand.’

I almost laughed – our thoughts were so similar. ‘I know
exactly
what you mean.’

I heard her fall asleep then, and listened to the sound of her breathing for a while. I could hear the snow falling outside, and was thinking about the similarities to the previous spring. Even though I was exhausted, I didn’t really want to fall asleep.

I had a feeling Urd was waiting for me in dreamland.

I kept the ring on my finger, just in case.

Urd apparently had other social obligations. She was a no-show.

I slept hard and dreamlessly. When I woke up, I could hear Meagan doing her piano practice. I smelled fresh coffee and heard her parents discussing the news in the kitchen. Nobody seemed to expect to see me soon, so I pulled out my messenger and did my tabulation of issues outstanding and associated clues.