The Blue Woods (24 page)

I looked up.

“Please give Monsieur Wolfe and his family our sincerest condolences.”

“I will. Thanks.” I laid my hands flat on my desk, rested my chin on top of them, and didn't hear anything Madam Dubois said for the rest of the period.

I texted Bree the minute school let out.

I'm coming over.

The reply came soon after.

The house is being watched. There's a car that drives by every half hour. I'll let you know when it's clear.

I waited outside the school, my phone in my hand so I would hear it the moment it went off. Jenny offered to wait with me, but I sent her off to Joe's with Carly and Melissa to make peace. Several minutes after they left, my phone buzzed.

Coast is clear. But hurry. Back door.

When I was within a few yards of the door, it cracked open. “Get in, get in.” Mrs. Wolfe waved me in, and I ran full tilt until I was inside. She peered for a moment across the backyard and down the street before she shut the door behind me. “Did you pass anyone up the street?”

“No.”

“Good.” She gave me a quick hug. “It's good of you to come, Alessia. I think the kids could really use a friendly face—besides mine.” She tucked my arm into hers, and we walked slowly toward the front of the house. “Listen, don't press Bree for too many details. She doesn't want to talk about it.”

“Did she tell you what happened?”

Mrs. Wolfe nodded. Before we reached the part of the house that opened into the kitchen and living room, she pulled me to a stop. “Travis was killed by the magic of the site,” she said. This I knew; Nerina had said the Rabbit had forced the magic on him before Bree could stop it. “But before he could do any damage to the Benandanti, he asked Bree to . . . end his suffering,” Mrs. Wolfe went on. “Which she did.”

I sucked in a cold whistle of breath. My heart thudded against my ribs, so hard the force reverberated into my throat. That, Nerina had left out. Maybe she didn't know.

I closed my eyes. Of course Nerina knew. She knew everything. But I could see why she hadn't told us. I almost wish Mrs. Wolfe hadn't told
me
. It was bad enough to lose your dad—even one as crappy as Mr. Wolfe—but to lose him at your own hand was the stuff of nightmares. “No wonder she's a mess.”

“She needs to forgive herself,” Mrs. Wolfe said. “What she did was an act of mercy.”

Not to mention an act of enormous courage on behalf of the Benandanti. But I highly doubted Bree saw it that way.

In the living room, Bree and Jonah sat on the couch, a party-size bag of Cheetos between them. “Welcome to Depression Manor,” Bree said. “Wallowing required.”

Mrs. Wolfe patted my arm. “I'll get you a soda,” she said and whirled into the kitchen.

For a moment I just stared at the Wolfe twins, side by side on the couch. I tried to remember the last time I'd seen them together; it had been weeks ago, before Bree had become a mage. They looked like a matched set of porcelain dolls, perfectly mirroring each other in every detail right down to the hollow look in their emerald eyes. I forced myself to go to Bree first and leaned down to give her a hug that she barely returned. “I'm so sorry, Bree.”

“For what? For my dad dying? Or for the fact that I killed him?”

I drew away from her, trying to keep the shock off my face. “For . . . all of it.” I grabbed her hand and squeezed. “I'm not going to pretend I know what you're going through. Losing a parent is different for everyone.” I'd learned that in the days and weeks after my dad had died: how much I hated when people told me they understood what I was feeling. No one did. Grief looked different on everyone, inside and out. “But I'm here. If you want to talk. Or not talk.”

To my surprise, Bree squeezed my hand and raised her eyes to mine. “I know you are, Alessia. Thanks.” She cleared her throat and pulled her hand away to reach into the bag of Cheetos. “What's going on over at Benandanti Central? Is Nerina about to lose her shit?”

“Nerina is always about to lose her shit,” I said. I glanced at Jonah. I knew he was on our side, but I didn't know how much information we should share. Whatever he knew could be tortured out of him. “I think the
Concilio
is regrouping after Tibet, trying to figure out the next move.”

“They should go after Friuli,” Jonah said. “Our
Concilio
isn't there at the moment.”

“Really? I'll tell her.” I crossed to Jonah's side of the couch. He patted the space next to him, and I squeezed in between him and a plush throw pillow with a pheasant on it. “Thanks.”

He snaked his arm around me and drew me in close to his side. I snuggled in tight and turned my face up to him. He bent over and kissed me, his mouth warm and sweet. I put my hand on the back of his head, tangling my fingers in his hair. “Thanks for coming over,” he murmured against my lips. “It's been lonely and sad around here.”

“I missed you too,” I whispered back. I pressed my face into the side of his neck, breathing in deep the scent of spice and pine.

“If you guys are going to act out
Fifty Shades of Grey
, please go upstairs,” Bree said from her end of the couch.

“Actually, I'd prefer if you
didn't
do that and stayed down here,” Mrs. Wolfe said as she came into the room with a cup of soda and a plate of cookies.

“Mom,” Jonah groaned, drawing out the syllable. “Don't be gross.”

I took the soda that Mrs. Wolfe offered me and snagged a cookie from the plate as she put it on the coffee table in front of us. For a brief, beautiful moment I could see how life would be if we were all normal, if Jonah was just some boy I was dating and we were just two regular teenagers hanging out at his house after school, if there wasn't a car that drove by doing surveillance on the house every half hour, if there wasn't a life-and-death war tugging us apart. I bit into the cookie, let the chocolate chips dissolve on my tongue. I wanted that life, to be that girl.

Jonah sucked in a hard breath, his body trembling against my side. I stared at him for a moment, but when he drew his arm away from my waist and pressed his hand to his chest, I knew. I knew that there would never be one minute when we could just be normal, never one second to be just us.

He stumbled off the couch. “I don't want you to see this,” he muttered and ran up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time. I rose to go after him, but my phone buzzed in my backpack at my feet.

An instant later, Bree's phone went off too. We picked them up at the same time.

We have the Congo. We're going to retake the Waterfall tonight.

The Wild Dogs of Africa

Alessia

“Why the Waterfall? Why tonight?” I asked Nerina the second I was back in Jenny's living room. The Clan was gathered, clustered on the couch and comfy chairs, listening to orders before we all transformed.

“We regained the Congo three days ago—”

“And we're just hearing about it now?” asked Cal.

“That's actually like a freaking miracle,” Bree said from behind me. “Their communication system is—shall we say—antiquated. We barely had electricity when I lived there.”

“As I was saying,” Nerina said, raising her voice, “we still do not possess the Twin Willows and Angel Falls sites. The
Concilio
feels that once we possess all the ‘lesser' sites, the Grove will be easier to reclaim.”

“No, they should go after Friuli,” I said. “Jonah just told me their
Concilio
isn't there at the moment.”

“Yes, because they were just in the Congo,” Nerina said. “So they aren't here either.”

“They
do
have airplanes there,” Bree said. “They could've gotten back here by now.”

“Unlikely.” Nerina waved her hand. “Our orders are to go in now, while they are still licking their wounds.”

“Which is exactly what they're expecting!”

Nerina spun to face me. “Did you not hear me when I said
our orders
? This is what the
Concilio
has ordered us to do, and I agree with them. We go in tonight. End of discussion.”

I backed up until I was in the only empty chair in the room. This didn't feel right. There was a reason Jonah had been Called tonight, and not because he was on patrol, which he wasn't. I gripped the arms of the chair.

“It's okay,” Heath murmured to me. He leaned over the edge of the couch toward me. “If their
Concilio
is there, we'll retreat. You just make sure you look after Cal. This will be his first big battle.”

I swallowed, my stomach a mess of tangles.

In front of the fireplace, Nerina was talking to Bree, their heads bent close together so that none of us could hear what she was saying. I looked over at Cal, whose eyes were fixed on Bree like he was in a desert and she was a mirage. Like the way Jonah had looked at me just a few minutes ago. I forced air into my constricted throat, trying to dispel the heat and fear and nerves that gathered there.

When Nerina was done talking to Bree, I vaulted out of my chair and grabbed Bree's elbow. “Are you up for this?” I asked softly.

Bree met my eyes. “My dad told me to not let his death be in vain. I might be a basket case outside of work, but trust me . . . when I'm on the job I am
more
than up for this.”

“We're all here for you,” Cal said. He'd come up behind me, and I backed away so that he and Bree could face each other. He took one of her hands into both of his, and to my surprise, Bree let him. “Whatever you need.”

Bree cocked her head, and for a moment I saw her trademark spark return to her eyes. “What I need is for you not to get killed. Think you can do that?”

“I'll try.” Cal winked and let go of her hand.

“
Andiamo
,” Nerina said. Everyone arranged themselves in comfortable positions, ready to transform. “
In bocca al lupo.
”

“Wait.”

We all watched Bree pull a small golden Buddha statue out of her backpack and place it on the mantel. “Shen—one of the Tibetan Clan—gave it to me. It'll watch over us while we're gone.”

Nerina nodded impatiently, but Heath got to his feet and walked over to the statue. “That's lovely, Bree. Thank you.” He took her hands in his. “I remember how all the families at the Tibetan site would watch over their bodies while the Clan was out fighting. It was . . . comforting.”

“I sorta thought maybe we could do the same thing here,” Bree said. She looked across the room at Barb and Jenny, who stood in the doorway to the kitchen. “Like, the American version or something.”

“It would be our honor,” Barb said, curving her arm around Jenny. With a start, I realized Lidia was standing just behind them. I met her gaze and gave her a small smile. Things were still a mess with us, but I didn't want to go into battle so angry on the inside. From the shadows of the kitchen, Mr. Salter materialized next to Lidia. My goodwill plummeted. Why did he always have to be here? Why couldn't he leave Lidia alone with me for once?

Lidia pushed past Barb and came across the room to me. “
In bocca al lupo, cara,
” she whispered, her hand on my cheek. Her palm was warm and for an instant I let myself lean into it. “I will watch over you while you are away.”

The Call tugged at my heart, pulled me apart. For one moment, I hovered in the air as Lidia stared up at the magnificent Falcon her daughter had become. I flew across the room and let the very tips of my wings brush her awestruck face as I passed. Barb threw the front door open for us, and I followed my Clan into the night.

If anyone in Twin Willows had actually been out, they would have freaked out at the sight of a wolf, a catamount, an eagle, a falcon, and a stag carrying Bree on its back racing across Main Street. Not to mention a griffin, which wasn't supposed to exist. But it was too cold for anyone to be outdoors. I felt the wind deep in my bones, felt the ice in my feathers as I winged toward my farm. The pasture lay dark and dormant, the burned-out barn like a nightmare shadow against the moonlight. We raced over the stone wall and into the woods, closing in on the birch trees that marked our place of attack.

But as the pale gleam of the birches loomed into sight, I knew at once something was wrong. Their bark was too silver, too brilliant, too much like the glow of the Malandanti's aura.

I opened my mind to find Jonah. The instant I did, his voice ricocheted in my head.
Get out of here! You're outnumbered!

Nerina! Jonah says—

But before I could finish the thought, an unholy sound ripped through the forest. Out of the copse rose a silver figure, its huge scaly wings beating so hard that one of the trees was flattened. I stopped in midair, my heart plummeting as the thing shot upward, high enough that we could all see its form, black and silver against the night sky. A Dragon, its scales shimmering like multicolored fractals, its jaws opening wide.