Chapter 7 #2
I burst onto the sidewalk, the day too bright, too warm, too promising. I gulped down air as if I was starved of oxygen, each inhale burning.
Javi’s words, Chet’s stare, Ryder’s betrayal, the gravity of the night before crashed into me with a flash of a pearly white object and a flare of tainted magic.
I didn’t know where I was going, I just had to run, had to get as far away as possible.
As I stumbled around like some kind of idiot, my shoulder clipped the person walking past me.
“Ow! Seriously?”
“Sorry,” I mumbled, hand shooting to my arm, rubbing at the soreness.
“River?”
It took effort to draw my gaze up from the ground. When I did, surprise shot through me—the person I’d run into was Javi’s older sister.
I swayed to the side, still unsteady on my feet. “Jade.”
“What is wrong with you?” Narrowing her violet-sparkle-dusted stare, she said, “Are you high or something?”
“Of course not.” I wiped the salt from my face with my sleeve. “Just tired.”
At one point, Jade and I had been friends, but all I got from her now was a frigid glare.
There were bags under her eyes, and her warm copper cheeks were sunken like she was equal parts sad and haunted.
“Shouldn’t you be at Berkeley?” I blurted. Anything to fill the awkward silence, although I’m pretty positive we both heard the frantic pounding of my heart.
“I should,” she said, “but I’m not.”
“Javi’s up.”
Pursing her lips, she raised a brow. “Why do you think I’m here?”
Of course, duh. She must have driven down from school at like four in the morning, right when she got the news. “I’m s—”
“Save it.” Her jaw worked back and forth.
“I need to get inside. I know my mom went to grab him some clothes and his comics, and I don’t want him to be alone.
But I want you to know one thing.” With a slow, controlled step, she closed the distance between us, her stare boring into me with a special kind of fury. “You leave my baby brother alone.”
I didn’t move, didn’t so much as breathe.
“I don’t know exactly what happened that night, but I know Javi, and I know you.” She jabbed a hot-pink nail into my collarbone. “The recklessness isn’t what gets me. It’s the audacity to think my brother wouldn’t come running after you.”
Gulping against a dryness that’d withered my vocal cords, I nodded.
“If you took your head out of your ass for one second, you would have seen how much he loved you. Always there for you, always going out of his way for you, and what does he have to show for it? Four metal plates in his head and six screws in his knee.” A gust of wind tousled her shoulder-length hair, the shiny black strands glistening in the sun.
“Just admit it. You didn’t love him back.
You just used him to fill the hole in your heart. ”
I inhaled wetly, sniffing against another spate of tears.
“Was it worth it?” Her tone was ice.
“No,” I squeaked out.
Crossing her arms, she gripped herself tightly, as if it took everything in her to hold herself back. “What were you even doing out there in the middle of the night—in a full-on tsunami?”
“I didn’t know…” That the demon would be waiting. That Javi would take the shortcut through the Boardwalk instead of going straight to the actual destination I sent him—the Santa Cruz Lighthouse. “I didn’t know it was going to be that bad.”
“We’re in a climate crisis, River. Every natural disaster is bad.”
There was nothing natural about this, about Finis’s serpentine face and the way it twisted in the moonlight, about the dark, demonic magic that’d turned our amusement park to rubble and infected Javi’s mortal body like a poison…
But I couldn’t tell her that.
So, I not only carried the guilt of that night—I also carried the full truth of it.
Jade whisked past me, her flip-flops slapping against the concrete. “I wish you were in there instead of him.”
Me too, Jade. I wished it every day.
As I stepped off the curb, the blaring honk of a horn had my heart jumping, instinct pushing me back. A shuttle accelerated past me, the driver’s curses muffled by the wind.
I wished it had flattened me, honestly.
Another honk. This time more subtle, coming from the parking lot. I whipped my chin in that direction, towards a hand waving out the window of a small SUV. My dad.
Turning on my heels, I headed for his car. I only hoped with Javi waking up and the tearstains on my face he’d just leave me alone.
I opened the door, the AC a cool kiss over my face and hair.
“Hey, Riv.”
“Hey.” I slid onto the seat.
“How was it?”
“Horrible.”
The car reversed.
Muscles rigid, I waited for the questions, the judgement, as I picked at the dirt beneath my nails—but they never came. The faint tune of the radio, the hum of the tires, the hiss of the air were the only things that made it to my ears.
“I’m sorry,” he offered.
“Thanks.” Sliding down the leather, I let my shoulders fall.
Sleep should have come easy after being awake for so long, after hours of running and adrenaline and fighting to survive and having my heart shattered over and over again—but my brain wouldn’t turn off. I couldn’t stop thinking.
I rubbed my forehead, trying to ease the throb that had gathered behind my skull.
Home, I just needed to get home, take a shower, and flop into bed. Nothing could reach me there.
Stabbing pain shot up and down my arm. Gripping my sleeve, I pulled the cuff well past my knuckles to hide the butterfly. This cursed tattoo.
Another secret to keep. Another thing eating me up inside.
It pulsed, a biting reminder of its power—as if the visions weren’t enough. Attempting to shield myself from my dad’s curious gray eyes darting over every minute, I nuzzled into the seat, the Pearl of Truth shining bright in my mind.
I glanced at the sky. Pearl.
Closed my eyes. Pearl.
Took a breath. Pearl.
When Ryder took his blood oath, was it my face that haunted his thoughts?
“Damnit.” I shot up, the seatbelt tightening over my chest.
An awkward jumble of sounds came from the driver’s seat. “Everything alright?”
No. I took a mission bound by blood and magic, and now I was losing it. “Yeah,” I lied.
We turned down a main road. The dizzying push and pull lessened, the swell of impulse fading, the pain dulling into more like a bruise versus a constant prick.
Strange.
My dad veered left, and the feeling came back suddenly, achingly. I sucked in air too quickly and gripped the seat.
We went down another road—right—and with every turn of the engine, it faded. I eyed the street signs, caught a glimpse of the hazy blue horizon ahead. We were headed in the direction of Natural Bridges.
“Wow.” My fingers drifted to my lips. Didn’t mean to say that out loud.
My dad cleared his throat, shifting in his seat.
“It’s a…” I gave him a tight smile. “Beautiful day?”
“Yeah.” His grip tightened on the steering wheel, suntanned knuckles turning bone white, as he unknowingly took me closer and closer to my target. “It is.”
I glanced at where my shirt covered the orange and black of my tattoo.
The Wizard had given me less than twenty-four hours to complete the contract. A favor, I realized. Any longer and the enchantment in the ink might turn my brain to mush.
Adrenaline bloomed in my chest, equal parts maddening and addicting.
Indeed, it was a beautiful day to steal a magical pearl.