Chapter Twenty-Nine Feeling Down in the Dungeons
“You can’t be serious.” Luis looks pissed as we walk over to the east door, where my assignment says to meet the rest of the admin building group.
“At least I won’t be by myself for once,” I answer. “More people equals less of a chance I get bit.”
“By the chricklers, maybe.” He snorts. “What about the rest of the creatures?”
“I feel like the theory still stands.”
“Even the ones that get riled up with more people around?” he shoots back. “I can’t believe they gave you the menagerie. Does your family hate you or something?”
“I think so, yes.” But my answer has nothing to do with the task I’ve been assigned and everything to do with who is standing next to the east door, where we’re supposed to meet everyone else assigned to the admin building. Because, as the crowd thins out, I can very clearly see Jude, Mozart, Ember, and their other friend, Simon.
This has disaster written all over it.
“Ready to hammer some stuff?” Eva asks as she comes up from behind me and drapes an arm over my shoulders. “We can take some of our angst from last night out on those boards.”
“We can take it out on the boards,” Luis tells her. “Clementine has menagerie duty. Again.”
She looks astonished. “For fuck’s sake. You’ve really got to stop pissing in your mom’s cornflakes,” she tells me with a shake of her head.
“To be fair, Aunt Carmen said she assigned two of us down there. I figure it’s got to be Caspian.” He’s the only other student they let into the menagerie cages, though he almost never has to do anything because I’m always in trouble. “Maybe they’ll bite him instead.”
“Currently the consensus is it’s because Clementine’s mother is evil and heinous,” Luis volunteers.
“True story,” I mutter as I shove my hands in my pockets and stare at the ground. I can feel the weight of Jude’s eyes on me, but I refuse to give him the satisfaction of looking up.
I’m ignoring Jude. I’m ignoring Jude. I’m IGNORING Jude.
I’m not looking at him.
I’m not touching him, even by accident.
And I’m damn sure not kissing him. Ever again.
“Hold up. Is Simon in our group?” Her voice turns into a squeak as she stops dead. “I can’t be in a group with Simon!”
“It’s fine,” I tell her, putting a hand in the center of her back and propelling her forward. “I’m sure he doesn’t even remember what happened.”
She shoots me a get-real look. “Everyone remembers.”
“It was pretty memorable,” Luis agrees.
“You’re not helping,” I hiss before turning back to my roommate. “It’s fine, Eva.”
“It’s so not fine.” She shudders. “I still blame it on the fact that he’s a siren. I don’t even sing normally!”
“That’s for sure,” Luis snarks.
“Everyone knows it’s because he’s a siren,” I soothe. “I’m sure things like that happen to him all the time.”
“Things like that don’t happen to anyone all the time,” she moans.
Luis opens his mouth, but I shoot him a warning look. He snaps it closed with a roll of his eyes.
“It’s going to be fine,” I tell her again. “I swear. Let’s just get over there and get it over with. The sooner we start—”
“The only way it’s going to be fine is if you trade places with me and one of the monsters in that damn menagerie eats me.”
“You could feed yourself to one of them,” Luis recommends. “There’s a snake one that would probably do the trick.”
Before I can even begin to come up with a response to that suggestion, Jude glances over at us. His silver-green and black eyes meet mine, and every word in my head suddenly disappears. All that’s left is a cacophony of mismatched emotions swirling around inside me, tangled up so tightly that there’s no way I could separate them, even if I wanted to.
Which I don’t—at least not here.
Determined not to get caught up in his bullshit yet again today—twice is more than enough to be humiliated by the same guy in a twenty-four-hour period—I force myself to look away. But not before I note the current tumult in Jude’s normally inscrutable eyes, all the colors swirling together into a gorgeous puzzle I’m desperate to solve.
Too bad that puzzle is currently missing several important pieces—pieces I want but am beginning to think are lost forever.
Hands still safely in my pockets, I move past Jude without so much as nodding hello. I’m still beyond pissed he kissed me and then walked away like it was nothing. Again. I’m even more pissed that I can’t corner him now and demand the answers I spent so much time chasing after him to get.
“Clementine—” he starts, but his use of my real name just annoys me more. It’s like he’s trying to piss me off all over again.
“Hey, you,” Simon says, smiling at me as I walk toward him, his eyes the same shade as the ocean under a full moon. They’re as clear as Jude’s are tortured.
“Hey.” I surreptitiously hold my breath as I move past him—you can never be too careful with sirens—but that just makes him grin more wildly. He knows exactly what effect he has on all of us, and he likes it, no matter what he pretends to the contrary.
As I get closer, he winks at me, but I just roll my eyes in response…and still don’t take a breath until I’m several yards away from him. That doesn’t stop his scent from lingering in the air around me, though—clean and warm and provocative in that way only a siren’s can be. Is it any wonder Eva lost her head the last time she had a group project with him?
“Hi, Eva.” Simon’s voice is innocent as he greets my friend, but there’s an amused look in his eyes that says he does, indeed, remember. Even before Mozart starts humming “Kiss the Girl” from The Little Mermaid.
Eva’s normally bronze cheeks turn the color of our uniform shorts, and she does an abrupt about-face on the heel of her prized red-checkered Vans. “I need a new group!” she calls out to my uncle Carter as he walks by.
“No changes,” he tells her sternly, his goatee quivering with resolve. “We have to have a record of where everyone is at all times as the storm moves in.”
“She’s fine with us,” I tell him as I start herding her back toward the others.
He gives me a serious look. “Just make sure you both stay with Jude while you’re in the menagerie, Clementine.”
Yeah, I’m so not doing that. “What about the keys? I only have one to the chrickler enclosure.”
“I gave them to Jude,” he answers. It looks like he wants to say more, but then my aunt Carmen calls to him, and he starts walking away. But he only takes a few steps before turning back to remind me, “Stay with Jude. He’ll keep you safe.”
I want to ask why he gave him the keys and not me, but he’s already halfway to my aunt.
“Did you hear what Mozart was humming?” Eva whispers once my uncle walks away.
“If it’s any consolation, it’s not the first time someone has serenaded him with that song,” Ember comments from where she’s lounging against the wall, arms crossed and legs kicked out in front of her. “And probably not the last.”
“I loved it,” Simon adds with another smile so sexy it gets my own heart pounding even though I have absolutely no interest in the guy.
He moves closer, and I go back to breathing through my mouth as Luis makes a little choking sound deep in his throat. “Sirens really don’t play fair,” he growls.
Eva, in the meantime, looks like she’s about one second from breaking into song again. Her lower lip quivers, and she turns desperate eyes to me.
“Help,” she whispers. “I’m begging you.”
Jude interrupts with a growl. “Knock it off, Simon.”
“I’m just having a conversation,” Simon answers, all innocence—as long as you don’t pay attention to the wicked gleam in his eyes or the twin spots of color on his own dark-brown cheeks. The guy really is diabolical.
“And this damn hurricane is just a rainstorm.” Luis snorts.
“Look, can we get on with it? The sooner we get started with this assignment, the sooner we’ll be done,” Ember comments as she pushes off the wall.
“I already told you guys I can handle it,” Jude tells her, fiddling with the large key ring that will open every pen in the menagerie. “Stay outside like your assignments say, and I’ll run down and take care of the menagerie. It won’t take me that long.”
As if. The guy really is a piece of work.
“To get eaten, maybe,” I scoff. “No way are you going into some of those cages alone.”
“What cages are these exactly?” Izzy asks as she and Remy walk up to us. Like almost everybody else, he’s dressed in fresh, non-uniform clothes—not that I’m jealous over here in my wet, clingy shirt or anything—while her miles of red hair are somehow tucked up into a purple New Orleans Saints cap.
“In the menagerie.” Mozart shoots them both a mischievous grin. “Are you guys on admin building duty, too?”
“We are.” Remy’s dark brows hit his hairline. “But I thought we were just boarding up some windows. We’re on petting zoo duty, too?”
“I guess you can call it a zoo, but petting is highly discouraged,” Luis tells him.
“Oh, I don’t know. You can pet whatever you want down there,” Ember tells him as she heads for the nearest door. “As long as you don’t mind losing a few fingers.”
“More like an entire arm.” The smile Simon sends Remy and Izzy is so warm that I get residual tingles, and I’m nowhere near the line of fire.
“For fuck’s sake,” Jude mutters with an annoyed shake of his head. But he steps between Simon and me, blocking out the siren’s glowing smile with his very broad shoulders.
I’d thank him for the rescue, but I’m still too annoyed over what happened between us in the forest. So I just make a face at him before following Ember toward the door.
Besides, Izzy looks more than capable of handling one little siren. Since I’m not so sure about Remy, I hook my arm through his as I pass and tug him along with me. After talking to him in the hallway today, I can’t help thinking that I probably shouldn’t be heinous to the only other person on the planet who misses Carolina as much as I do.
“I appreciate it,” he murmurs in his thick New Orleans accent. “Sirens are trippy as hell.”
“I think you mean tricky as hell,” I answer as we walk down the hall. A glance over my shoulder—not to mention the heavy weight of his stare burning into the back of my head—tells me Jude is following close behind us, a sour look on his face.
I have no idea what he’s got to be sour about, but considering I’m feeling pretty sour myself right now—at least when it comes to him, thanks to his latest kiss and run—I’m more than fine with it.
Eva is walking several feet away, earbuds in and sunglasses on, clearly a ploy to block out Simon. I start to call her over, but before I can, Mozart falls into step on my other side. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to him.”
“Before or after I serenade him with a Disney love song?” Remy asks dryly.
Mozart shrugs, her sleek black ponytail bouncing with each step. “I’d say the odds are fifty-fifty.”
“I feel like I could do a pretty good rendition of ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me.’” He clears his throat like he’s getting ready to practice.
“Hey, I thought Eva’s ‘Kiss the Girl’ was brilliant,” Mozart says with a grin that only adds to the wildness in her black ice eyes.
“I’ve heard better,” Ember says with a sniff. “She was a little flat.”
“Wow,” I say. “Judgy much?”
“I just call it like I hear it,” she says with a shrug, then falls back so she can join Jude.
Remy lifts his brows in silent question, but Mozart just shakes her head as we walk outside where it, thankfully, has momentarily stopped raining. “Phoenixes can be…temperamental. I’ve learned it’s better not to ask.”
“You’re just a coward,” Ember shoots back, proving she’s still listening even if she doesn’t want to be anywhere near us.
“Coward. Genius.” Mozart holds her hands in front of her, palms facing the sky, and moves them up and down like weights on a scale. “Pretty sure it’s genius.”
Ember flips her off as she and Jude pass us.
“See?” She shrugs. “Temperamental.”
“One of these days she’s going to set you on fire,” Jude comments as we make our way through the gate.
“Please,” Mozart retorts. “I’m a dragon. That makes me the fire, baby! I can take anything she tries to dish out.”
“That’s pretty big talk considering we don’t have any powers right now,” Ember calls back to her.
“See?” She makes a face behind Ember’s back. “I’m always thinking ahead. Genius.”
She’s so ridiculous that I can’t help cracking up. I try to stop—I don’t know her well enough to figure out if it will offend her—but she just grins at me, so I decide it’s okay.
It’s kind of weird that we’ve been in school together for three years now and this is definitely the most words she’s ever said to me. I’m not sure if that’s her choice or mine—from the day I finally figured out he was ditching me, I’ve given Jude, and his new friends, a wide berth.
They’ve always seemed a little intimidating, and my years at Calder have taught me that unless you know someone’s story, it’s always better to let them come to you. But Mozart actually seems pretty cool. So does Simon, as long as I don’t look him in the eye or breathe when he’s around.
And yes, I am precisely aware of how ridiculous that sounds. But Mozart’s comment about getting used to him notwithstanding, sirens aren’t easy to be friends with.
“So what exactly is a monster menagerie?” Izzy asks. She’s the last one through the gate. She doesn’t look worried so much as intrigued as it slams shut behind her.