Storykiller (42 page)

“Are you going to ask Robin to The Mask?” Before Tessa could answer, Micah answered for her, practically swooning in her seat, “You should
totally
ask Robin.”

Tessa chewed her lip. She still wasn’t sure Robin Hood would be into going to a high school dance. Micah picked up on Tessa’s hesitation. “Or, I mean, we could all just go together, make a night of it.”

She elbowed Brand. “Right, Brand?”

“Yeah, sure. Micah and I went together last year and you know what they say, ‘Three’s Company,’” he smiled.

Micah elbowed him again. “Dumbass, that’s not the saying.”

“Sure it is, that old TV show.”

“Yeah, it’s the TV show, but the saying is ‘two’s company, three’s a crowd.’”

Brand scrunched up his face. “Well, that’s stupid,” he said. “Three is totally company.”

Micah rolled her eyes.
“Whatever. So what do you say Tessa?”

Tessa nodded. Maybe a dance was just what she needed. “I’ll ask him. It would be fun.”

It turned out that despite the possible end of the world just about everyone was indeed going to The Mask. Micah and Grey had decided to go stag, together, which seemed to contradict itself, but Tessa wasn’t going to ask. Brand was somehow going with Snow, which nobody wanted to know about, and for once he didn’t seem anxious to tell a story. And Robin had been surprisingly on board.

Once Robin had agreed, Tessa had to admit she was getting really excited about it. She and Robin had kind of skipped right over dating what with all the training and life-threatening violence. This wasn’t only her first date with Robin, it was actually her first date ever.

After school the day before the dance, Micah realized Tessa didn’t have a costume or dress and dragged her (quite
literally) to the mall to shop for something to wear.

“I don’t understand,” Tessa said, running her fingers over the brightly-colored dresses. “I thought it was a costume party.”

Micah shrugged. “It’s a Masquerade, so some people do really elaborate costumes, others do dresses and tuxes with masks, it’s
a pretty good mix usually. We can hit the costume shop next,” Micah said. “But I bet the costumes will be pretty picked over at this point. Still lots of good dresses though,” she said, pulling out a pretty lavender dress and holding it up to Tessa who shook her head no.

“No pastel,” Tessa said. Micah chuckled and put it back on the rack.

While Tessa tried on a simple short black dress, Micah sat outside the dressing room, letting Jeff, currently a small green gecko, run over her fingers.

“So how’s it going with Robin? You guys seem pretty googly for each other.”

“Googly? That doesn’t sound like me,” Tessa said from inside the dressing room.

“Then you haven’t seen you and Robin,” Micah teased.

“Haha,” Tessa said sarcastically. After a long pause, she opened the door. “It’s too tight,” she said,
and turned so that Micah could see it wouldn’t zip up.

“I’ll get you another one,” Micah said, and Tessa looked in the long mirror.

“No. I don’t like it, it feels too—somber,” Tessa said, leaning against the wall of the dressing room. She picked at the edge of the dress. “Things are getting pretty serious,” she said, and then closed the door again.

Micah perked up. “Like
how
serious?”

There was a long pause behind the door. “I hate this one,” Tessa said finally and opened the door. “It accentuates the scar.” She gestured to the edge of the dark purple dress and self-consciously raised her hand to the Shiki scar, faded now, but permanently fixed on her face. Micah cringed a bit. The scar made Tessa no less beautiful, but Jeff had made it and it was a permanent reminder of that terrifying day.

“I thought you’d come to terms with the scar,” Micah said, tentative.

“Some days are better than others,” Tessa said, drawing her finger across it. She shifted gears again and said, “Like, serious, serious.”

“Hott.” Micah said under her breath.

“HEY!”

“Sorry,” Micah said, shrugging. “What do you expect? Dude is freaking hott.”

Tessa closed the door again, pulled the purple dress off and threw it over the door. “What about that blue one—the strapless with the short skirt?”

Micah put Jeff in her sweatshirt pocket. “Yeah, I’ll bring it to you.”

“Thanks.” Tessa gave up on a third dress halfway through pulling it on. The blue dress and two others, both red, came
sailing over the door a minute later.

“Nice,” Tessa said, looking at the two others. Tessa unzipped the blue one and stepped into it. “What do you think of this whole Snow and Brand thing?”

“I think it’s fucking weird,” Micah said aggressively. Micah
never cussed.

“He wouldn’t tell you how it happened either?” Tessa asked,
zipping the dress up on the side.

“No, which I find highly suspicious,” Micah said. Tessa peeked over the
door to see Micah slumped down in the big chair.

“You’re not jealous though?” Tessa asked.

“What? No. I mean, that he has a date? Maybe. That it’s not me? No way. That it’s a borderline super-villain, non-borderline complete bitch? No way. I just, I don’t know what he’s thinking and I’m not used to that. Also, have you read
The Snow Queen
story recently? I have, and her whole thing is like kidnapping and becoming obsessed with this innocent young boy…Kai is his name in the story.”

“That can’t be good,” Tessa said uneasily.

“Yeah. I mean, I know she’s been helpful to us, but I’d feel better if we all, Brand most of all, didn’t forget who she is,
what
she is, and what she may be up to. I mean, as much as I hate her guts, even
she
might not realize what she’s doing, right? Like she might not be aware of it. If it’s a compulsion, if it’s just her acting out some part of her Story, that’s how it works, right? Man, this is confusing,” she trailed off, scowling. Tessa opened the dressing room door and Micah brightened “Hey—that one’s brilliant.” Tessa smiled and looked back in the mirror, adjusting the dress.

“Yeah, it even has pockets,” Tessa said, jamming her hands into them.

“Awesome.”

“What do you think Snow will wear?” Tessa asked, crinkling her nose and looking in the mirror again.

Micah rolled her eyes. “I’m sure she’ll just go as her fabulous self. That’s already a costume, right?”

Tessa laughed and then spun around, wide-eyed. “Ohmigod.”

“What?!” Micah asked, alarmed, sitting up and looking around, her
sweatshirt pocket bulging as Jeff shifted into something larger and more dangerous simultaneously with her heightened fear.

“That’s it!” Tessa shouted. She grabbed her clothes and ran toward the front of the store. “C’mon!” By the time Micah was out of the dressing room the store alarms had sounded and Tessa was running back into the store and to the counter. Rather than stripping off the dress, she just paid for it and a blue-feathered mask hanging near the counter. By the time Micah got to her,
the clerk was taking off the security tag.

“Tessa?” Micah asked.

“C’mon!” Tessa shouted again, grabbing Micah’s hand and dragging her forward with her, out into the mall and toward the parking lot, yelling as they ran. “It’s The Mask! He’ll do it at The Mask, on Halloween—when he can blend in with everyone else!”

Since Tessa’s dad was recently back in town, everyone met at Snow’s condo. Ever since Tessa had had her revelation in the dressing room, a plan had been forming in her mind.

But she was going to need everyone, and a lot of damn luck.

Micah had brought excellent Chinese food from her father’s restaurant, and if they hadn’t been planning for a battle that was maybe going to kill them all, it would have seemed like a pretty good time. Tessa felt guilty dragging Grey into this, but she needed as many people with her as possible.

Fenris was conspicuously absent, as per usual.

When the food was finished, Tessa stood up and laid out her plan to the group.
She talked for what felt like forever, and at the end, took a deep breath and turned to face them. “So what do you think?” A sea of blank faces blinked back at her. She got nervous. “No?”

Micah shook her head. “Tessa, it’s kind of brilliant, but there are a lot of ifs. And some of us have—surprisingly large roles to play. I’m not sure, I mean,
should
some of us have such big roles?” she asked, panic creeping into her voice.

“Someone recently told me that sometimes as a leader you have to get out of the way, let others do what they’re good at. I think he was right.”

Micah nodded and breathed like she was trying not to pass out. Tessa put a comforting hand on her shoulder and looked at the rest of the group. ”One of the biggest ‘ifs’ in this plan is one we have to solve tonight.” Tessa stood up and drew seven small circles on the map spread out on Snow’s dining room table. “Brand has been searching the city for traces of Circe or The Monster, and we have several good leads for potential hideouts.”

“Based on?” Grey asked.

Brand leaned over the map. “First we used the missing people reports to narrow our search to smaller areas of the city. Then I searched for large properties in the area owned or leased by corporations or individuals with names that fit Story profiles, or were anagrams of Story profiles, that sort of thing. I then cross-referenced that list with city utility bills, looking for anything unusual, like spikes in usage,” Brand finished.

Robin nodded his head. “Impressive.”

“Story upgrade,” Brand said tapping the side of his head.

“So we need a hard target search of those locations tonight to pin her down.” Tessa said.

“So what, exactly, are we looking for?” Snow asked.

“Just Circe,” Tessa said.

“Not The Monster?” Micah asked.

“Just Circe. And whoever finds her calls everyone else to their location. This is locate only.” The group nodded. “If this works, then we go into The Mask tomorrow night with a serious ace up our sleeves.”

“Why not take her out now? Why wait for The Mask?” Micah asked.

“Well, we don’t know where The Monster is, for starters. I want him to get comfortable, think it’s all going to plan. If I spook him now by taking out Circe early who knows what he might do instead, if we’ll ever even find him, and maybe he’ll just continue killing, maybe he’ll never stop.” Tessa took a breath and made sure they were all still with her. They either were or they were doing a good job of faking it. “Okay, so three teams. Snow and Brand, I want you to take the first two locations. Micah, The Shiki, and Robin, take three and four, and Grey and I will take these three.”

“What about me?” Fenris said from the other room, leaning against the wall, as if he’d been there all along.

Tessa looked him up and down. “Good to have you.” She turned back to the group. “New groups. Brand, Snow, and Robin together. Fenris, Micah, and The Shiki for locations three and four, Grey, you and me still for the last three.”

Everyone nodded and nobody spoke. Tessa tried to smile. Leaders needed to instill confidence, right?

As everyone geared up to leave, Snow pulled Tessa aside in the foyer.

“Scion,” she said,
her voice serious. “If I do this tomorrow, I’ll be out. That will be it for me for the fight, you know that, right?”

Tessa nodded, “I know. But you
can
do it, right?”

Snow looked away. S
he seemed more unsure than Tessa was used to seeing her but also more serious. “I can. I’ll have to prepare, and someone will have to get me out of there after, but I can do it.”

Tessa looked at her. “I’m counting on it.”

At the door, Tessa passed Fenris.

“You’ll watch out for her,” she said, giving him a hard look.

“Of course, luv,” he said, unmoving, a handsome but complicated smile on his face. “Just glad I wasn’t paired with boy wonder.”

Tessa rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, I was going to pair you two together so that you could pull each other’s hair like bitchy rival cheerleaders.”

Robin stepped beside her. “Who’s a cheerleader?”

Tessa looked at him. “Nobody. What’s up?”

“Everyone’s ready.”

“Good,” Tessa said. She looked across the room and called to Grey from the hallway. “You ready, partner?”

“Yup.”

Grey tossed her the broadsword and picked up his own sword.

“Let’s do this.” Tessa said to the room.

Robin put a hand on Tessa’s shoulder. “Be careful.” He kissed her and then drew her into a hug, his hand in her hair.

“You too,” she breathed into him.

In the parking lot, Grey pointed to his car at the far end of the lot. “So you and Robin are getting pretty serious,
” he said, as if waiting for her to fill in the blanks.

“Why is everyone so interested in me and Robin?” Tessa asked, exasperated.

“It’s hott. Double “t” hott,” he said, echoing Micah and smiling. “Plus there’s a pool going,” he added as he unlocked the car.