Chapter 26: Chapter Twenty-Six

The trees of Bear Mountain were a welcome sight. As we gunned along the familiar streets, a sense of determination came over me. Being back on home turf felt like taking a shot of tequila; whatever shit a city slicker like Geiser threw at me, I could handle it.

I directed Lucas to my aunt and uncle’s house. The van spluttered to an abrupt halt in their driveway and its engine let out a sigh. After the bumpy journey it felt good to finally be stationary.

“Well, that was eventful,” Aaron said.

“Stressful is the word I’d use,” Cora replied.

He shrugged. “Give me cops and high-speed getaways over spore dispersal any day.”

“The main thing is, we all made it out alive,” Retta stated. “Apart from this Persian throw.”

She held up the blood-soaked rag. I was pretty certain there wasn’t a dry-cleaner in existence that could deal with that kind of staining.

Lucas narrowed his eyes and nodded at Nik, sprawled against the cushions. “Can we get him out before he bleeds on everything?”

I rolled my eyes and opened the van’s big sliding door. “I’d never have guessed you were so precious.”

Golden afternoon light flooded inside. I peered out and saw the front door to my aunt and uncle’s house was standing open. My cousins Juniper and Birch were already running out to meet us. The sight of them made my heart sore like a demon-dog with a bone. I leaped out the van.

“Theia,” Juniper cried, slamming into me and wrapping me in her arms. “We heard what happened on the news. Are you okay?” She held me out at arm’s length, scanning me up and down for injuries. She looked perturbed at the state of me. “Get inside. We’ll put some of Grandma’s healing balm on your injuries.”

Behind me, my disheveled friends were climbing out the van.

“I brought my crew,” I said.

Juniper narrowed her eyes and scanned them with a skeptical expression. “Come in,” she said, warily. Then in a teacherly voice, she added to me, “You have a shit ton of explaining to do.”

We dragged our exhausted asses inside the house. The smell of Aunt Shanaya’s pungent perfume immediately hit me, filling me with nostalgia and melancholy.

“Mom and Dad are on a work trip,” Juniper said, herding us into the living room. “Thank god. I’d hate them to get embroiled in this. Whatever this is.”

We sank into the couches. I realized then that while it might have been the afternoon, as far as Cora, Aaron, and Lucas’s circadian rhythms were concerned, they should have been in some major stage-three deep-level sleep. They looked frazzled.

“You guys need to go to bed,” I told them.

“Nah. We just need caffeine,” Cora contested, clearly trying to keep up her support.

I shook my head. “No way. I’m not having you three pass out from exhaustion. You’ve been up for hours.”

“We’re college students,” Aaron said. “Sleep deprivation is our modus operandi.”

“I’ll sleep,” Lucas countered. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head, his huge muscles bulging as he did.

“You all will,” I told them firmly.

Juniper, for all her skepticism toward the bedraggled moon-class strangers I’d just rocked up to her house with, wasn’t about to slip on the excellent host front. She leaped up, beckoning Birch to do the same. “Come with us. There are enough beds for everyone. Just be quiet on the stairs. They’re creaky and Grandma gets cranky when her afternoon nap is disturbed.”

I watched Cora, Aaron, and Lucas trudge up to bed.

Once they’d gone, I found a little pot of Grandma’s healing balm in a drawer and handed it to Nik. He started slathering it on the wound sliced into his abdomen. It looked terrible: red, angry, and very painful. If only we had an Adarna Daimon to hand. Or a hospital. But since we were now fugitives, a pot of stinky herbs was about the best we could hope for.

“So,” Retta said in a firm voice. “I think we need to address the elephant in the room. Or should I say the Vanpari in the room.” She flicked her cool eyes over to Nik.

“Really?” he replied through a wince. “You want to have this conversation now?”

“You lied to us,” Retta replied without missing a beat.

My eyes widened. She was pretty brazen. I couldn’t help but admire her ability to just come out and say the thing that I was too caught up in Nik to say myself.

“I didn’t set out to lie,” Nik said. “I just didn’t know how to tell you. With everything that’s going on right now, it doesn’t feel safe to just say that stuff aloud. What if you guys had turned on me? Exposed me? It would have put me and Mom in danger.”

“So it was about protecting your mom?” I asked.

“Partly,” he said. “We’ve always had to hide her being Vanpari because everyone will claim she used manipulation powers to become moon mayor.”

“You said partly,” Retta commented. “So what’s the other part?”

I caught Nik looking at me.

“I didn’t want you to think any less of me,” he said.

I quickly looked away, feeling a huge blush warm my cheeks.

“So this was about impressing Theia?” Retta said with a smirk. “Ironic, considering she has a thing for your type anyway.”

My burning cheeks became roaring infernos.

“You can talk,” I teased. “You have a thing for Sirens.”

“Every woman, man and frickin’ grandma has a thing for Sirens,” Retta replied.

My attempt to deflect the attention from me was clearly working. I ran with it. “Then why’d you end it with Lucas?”

“I had to. Mom was mad about us dating.” She lowered her voice. “Not that he knows that’s why. He thinks I just went cold on him.”

“Your mom didn’t want you dating a Siren?” I asked. “Why?”

Retta flashed me her you’re-an-idiot look. “Because they live in the ocean, dummy. Beyond needing a lifelong magic spell to prevent drowning, ’land folk’—as they refer to us—aren’t welcome down there.”

“Land folk?” I echoed with a wry chuckle. “Is that on your list of offensive terms?”

“Yes. Because it’s intended to be offensive.”

“But if Lucas is living overground, he can only be part Siren, right?”

“Wrong,” Retta replied, with a wicked glint in her eye. “He’s all Siren. Believe me. I’ve seen e-ve-ry bit of him.”

Her gaze went very far away. Nik coughed a laugh into his hand. She snapped back to reality.

“Anyway, his parents only let him study overground because it looks good on his résumé. And he’s only here to get a break from them and the overbearing underwater society.”

None of us “land folk” really knew how Siren society worked. They were notoriously private. After disagreeing with the terms of the peace treaty, they’d pretty much cut themselves off entirely. No one even knew how big their population was these days.

“But after he graduates,” Retta continued, “he has to go back to the murky depths.”

“What if he wants to stay overground?” I asked. “I mean, he probably does, right? To stay with you. He practically foams at the mouth every time he sees you.”

“Well, I am gorgeous,” she said, earning herself an eye roll from Nik. Then she sighed. “But that’s just not how it works. He has to go back and, I dunno, do his duties or whatever.”

Listening to Retta’s explanation made it clearer why she’d warned me off getting in too deep with Nik. There would be consequences. A sun Mage-Elkie and a mixed Mage-Vanpari were never going to have a happy ending. In this current climate, it didn’t even seem possible to have an innocent romance between classes. Not that romance was on the cards for Nik and me anymore. We’d been squabbling like two crotchety grandmas ever since the party.

Just then, Juniper and Birch came back into the living room. Birch was carrying a tray with a coffeepot and mugs on, which he placed on the table.

Lips pursed, Juniper poured us all a mug each. I could just see the cogs in her mind turning. She was about to rake me over the coals. If it were coming from anyone else, I’d get annoyed, maybe fire back a witty retort that I’d be sure to regret later on. But Juniper was a beautiful person, inside and out. Intelligent. Caring. Bold. Determined. She was basically everything I hoped to one day be. When Juniper had something to say, it was worth listening to it.

She sat back in her armchair and sipped her coffee, studying me with intense crystal-blue eyes. Then, in a calm voice, she said, “Tell me everything.”

I took a deep breath and described Geiser’s myriad attempts to do me in, from Trevor’s attack in Battle Class, to the assassination attempt, and the final Vanpari attack. With each story, Juniper’s expression became more perturbed. Birch went the other way, his excitement mounting like I was explaining the plot of an action movie he was about to be cast in.

“So now the cops are after you?” he asked me, his eyes sparking.

“I don’t think so. We made it out the city before the roadblocks were in place. Hopefully they think we’re stuck there, hiding out, and won’t think to come looking here.”

“But, you’re, like, a wanted person?” Birch prodded.

“I guess so.”

“Neat. Out of the cousins, I really thought I’d be the first one to get in trouble with the law.”

Juniper flashed him stern eyes.

“Come on sis, we were all thinking it,” he said, with a shrug.

He went over to the TV and turned on Werefox News. It was going over and over the completely inaccurate events of Heidi’s party, while red ticker tape at the bottom of the screen spewed out wild accusations against Nik and me. Somehow they’d realized there was a connection between Nik and the Vanpari Five. A photo of Nik looking menacing appeared dramatically on the screen with the words “Vanpari Six?” appearing over it.

Juniper gave him the side-eye. “Theia,” she said cautiously. “What have you gotten yourself into?”

“He’s not,” I stammered. “It’s lies. The whole thing.”

“So he doesn’t know the Vanpari Five?” she asked.

“Well, yes, he does, but it’s not as bad as it looks.” I looked over to Nik, appealingly.

“They were framed,” he explained. “That’s why we’re here.”

Juniper pursed her lips. “What do you mean it’s why you’re here?” she asked sternly.

I took another steadying breath. “The one who ran away is hiding in Bear Mountain. If we can find him, we might be able to convince him to speak out against Geiser.”

My cousin’s eyes bulged with shock. “Have you lost your damn mind?” Juniper cried.

“He’s our last hope,” I explained hurriedly. “He’s the only one who didn’t give a false confession. If he agrees to testify that the Vanpari Five were framed and we provide our photographic evidence and Aaron’s recording, then it might be enough for us to be believed. We could instigate Geiser’s fall from grace and stop him from getting control of the city.”

Juniper blinked slowly in a way that made it obvious she thought I was spouting bullshit. “So let me get this straight. Two fugitives,” she pointed at me and then Nik, “want to find a third fugitive to help them take down a respected member of the government? Or am I missing something?”

My stomach churned. Juniper was so much better at the whole mom routine than my own mom was. I hated her pointing out the flaws in my logic.

“Well, when you put it that way…” I said, meekly.

“I’m not putting it any way,” Juniper snapped. “I’m telling it as it is. That’s reality, Theia. You’re a bunch of kids and he’s someone with power. He wins, you lose. End of.”

“I still have to try!” I yelled back. “I cannot sit back and watch our liberties get stripped away from us. Have this wedge driven between the classes. I have to fight it.”

Around me, silence fell. Nik, Retta, and Birch all looked away. But Juniper kept her eyes fixed on me.

“How?” she asked, simply. “How are you going to fight it? Really?”

My shoulders slumped with emotion. I felt defeated.

Retta puffed up her chest. “First off, she’s not alone. There’s us. And we have contacts.” She gestured to Nik. “The moon mayor. My mom, too.”

Juniper folded her arms, looking less than impressed.

“I’ll totally help,” Birch piped up excitedly.

Juniper’s gaze snapped to him. “No you will not.”

“But I’m good with my bow. I could be lookout while you’re searching the mountains. In case the cops work out you’re not in the city anymore.”

Juniper shook her head fiercely. “No way. Not on my watch.”

As grateful as I was for my gung-ho sixteen-year-old cousin, I didn’t want to drag him into this. I’d gotten too many people caught up in my crap already.

“You don’t need to do anything, Juniper,” I said, sinking my head onto my fist. “But it would help if you were on my side. I’ve spent the last week dodging murder attempt after murder attempt. And I haven’t even had Gus to vent to. That fat camp is like a prison.”

Out my peripheral vision, I caught my cousins exchanging a glance. Right away, I knew something was wrong.

“What is it?” I asked, my back going pole-straight.

Juniper swallowed. “Gus isn’t at fat camp, Theia.”

I frowned. “Where is he?”

“Camp Clearview.”

My confusion only grew. “What’s that?”

“It’s a conversion camp.”

It felt like all the air had been sucked out the room.

“A…” My mouth went dry. “You mean like one of those places they try and talk the gay out of you?” Revulsion swirled through me. My heart ached. “Oh my god, that means his parents tricked him. Those scumbags. We have to do something. Bust him out. Like, yesterday.”

I was up on my feet, ready to fire an arrow through the heart of any homophobe that stood between me and my GBF.

But just as I was about to head for the door, the face of Mayor Benson filled the TV screen. Flashing photographers’ lights illuminated his face and there was a row of microphones in front of him. He stepped up to them and began to speak.

“It is with deep regret that I must announce my immediate resignation from my position as sun mayor. In light of recent events, it’s become clear that the people of New York City are demanding a change. The mayoral election will be called tomorrow. That is all.”

He turned away from the bombardment of questions the reporters were throwing at him and disappeared back into the town hall.

Hovering at the living room door, I looked from Retta to Nik.

“Well that’s just fan-fucking-tastic.”