Arabella Saves the Day #3
“You’re exactly the kind of girl I hate,” she said.
Here we go. “What kind of girl do you think I am?”
“The kind of girl Phillip would simp over.”
Right for the jugular. “Is that so?”
“I bet you’re rich and popular. You’ve never been picked on in your life. You were probably the queen of Heritage when you went there. I don’t know what your magic is, but I’m sure it’s something elegant and pretty.”
Don’t laugh, don’t laugh…
“You come here wearing designer clothes with your little manicure, playing at some kind of detective, and you talk to me like you know me. You don’t know shit.
You have no idea what it’s like when people think you’re a violent freak.
When they watch you non-stop because they expect you to explode and ruin everything.
So don’t talk to me like you fucking know anything about me. ”
Inside me, the Beast uncurled, a phantom woven of multicolored strands, each thread a different aspect of my power. There was only so much screaming I could take.
“Done?” I asked.
“Yeah. We are done here. Feel free to fuck off.”
“I didn’t go to Heritage. I went to Donovan, and now I have to take Path to College courses, because my grades are shit.”
She blinked.
“I had to beg my mother to let me go to Donovan. They’d homeschooled me for a long time because my mother worried I would snap and level the school.”
Tia frowned.
“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “Let’s make a bet. You and I spar, and if I win, you’ll tell me what you’ve done with Phillip. If I lose, I’ll leave.”
Tia laughed. “You’re out of your mind. I’ll destroy you, and then your House will make a giant deal out of your broken legs. You see that bag? It’s full of sand. Ray has to push it back, and he is huffing and puffing after the first five trips. You and I aren’t on the same level, Princess Baylor.”
You’ve got that right.
I reached deep inside me and yanked on the thread of magic I wanted. It was a deep, crimson red.
“It’s a very nice punching bag,” I said.
“Like I told you, not on the same level,” Tia snapped. “So—”
I punched the bag. The synthetic leather cylinder shot across the gym like a cannonball. The heavy bag flew to the end of the track, snapped off the chain, and exploded against the far wall in a cloud of sand.
Tia and Ray stared at me, mouths open.
I shrugged my shoulders and smiled. “Any time you’re ready, Princess Madero.”
The metal cistern was eight feet tall and probably about five feet wide.
It sat inside an old barn on a farm near Bellville, on a ranch owned by House Madero.
Once used as a fermentation tank for wine, the reinforced stainless-steel tank was built to withstand quite a bit of pressure on its own, but Phillip must’ve really pissed Tia off, because she’d wrapped several metal fence posts around it.
I knocked on the tank. “Phillip?”
Something scrambled inside the tank, and a voice dulled by metal screamed, “Get me out!”
“Let’s chat first.”
“Are you fucking crazy? Get me out of here! My family--”
“Your family doesn’t scare me.”
“You—”
“If you would like, I can come back in half an hour after you’ve calmed down.”
He shut up.
I didn’t want him to see me. Getting high school guys to listen to you was a struggle in the best of times, and Tia was right.
I was the kind of girl that Phillip would simp over, and I looked young enough that he’d probably try.
If I let him out right away, Phillip—high-caliber alpha male that he was—would likely say or try something, and I wasn’t in the mood for his nonsense.
I had to calibrate my strength to spar with Tia, and that fight didn’t let me go all out.
It was fun, but I was still twitchy. I had pulled over to the side of the road on the way here and yeeted a very large rock to bleed some of it off.
The itch was still there, though, and if Phillip irritated me in my current state, I would end up throwing him around like a ragdoll.
Hi, here is your precious offspring, still alive but slightly floppy. Don’t worry, broken bones heal in time. Yeah, no.
“Are you still there?” Phillip asked in a small voice.
I needed to sound older, like someone with authority and experience. I would have to channel Nevada for this.
“Much better,” I told him. “Let’s have a conversation.”
“Who are you?”
“Not important. Suppose I let you out. What’s the next step?”
“I’m going home!”
“And then?”
“And then my family is going to cut off House Madero’s balls.”
I brushed the dirt off a nearby bench and sat on it. “I liked your mom. She is very nice and she is very worried about you, so I’m going to give you a little reality check. Your family isn’t combat-ready.”
“My dad is a Prime!”
If only Beast had a magic thread for patience. “Your dad calibrates industrial cooling for Seaton paint factories. Your family hasn’t fought in a feud. Ever.”
“So?”
“House Madero is a combat House. Violence is basically their brand. When violence fails, they apply more violence. They are the people other Houses hire to fight their feuds for them.”
“They are fucking hicks. I’m not scared of them.”
Ugh. “And that right there tells me that you have no experience.”
“And you do?”
“I do. My sister once put Frank Madero in the hospital, so I know exactly what I’m talking about.”
That and Connor beating the hell out of Tia’s dad were the reason Tia’s stepmother met with me instead of brushing me off. Apparently, the only way to earn the Maderos’ respect was to punch it into them.
“We have friends and alliances. My aunt is from House Seaton! My dad knows people.”
This kid was so irritating. “I’m sure he does. I once saw a recording of Dave Madero ripping a person’s head off. Picture it in your head. He grabbed a grown man by his neck and twisted the skull off like it was a bottle cap.”
Silence.
“You attacked his daughter.”
“That’s not what happened!”
I picked up one of the fence posts and twisted it in my hands. Annoying. So annoying.
“House Madero knows their rep. They understand that if any violence happens in their vicinity, people will blame them whether they did it or not. All members of House Madero wear bodycams. The cameras activate automatically when the Maderos leave their compound, and turning them off sends an alert to the family. I bet you didn’t know that, did you? ”
The cistern went quiet.
I pulled up a video on my phone. The recording was paused, and on the screen Phillip, a thin blond kid, was caught in mid-shout, his mouth open and his face weird.
Tia hadn’t disabled her bodycam. She also thought I had seen the footage, because she figured out that I’d talked to her stepmother, who had access to it.
Mrs. Madero had gotten worried and came to the gym just as we finished our light workout.
Tia became heated with her stepmother, and Mrs. Madero explained that she hadn’t watched the footage, because she respected her daughter’s privacy.
Then Tia needed a moment and went to the bathroom for a while.
I got my footage and Phillip’s location and got out so they could have their family time.
I restarted the recording and turned the sound up.
“Stop! We’re not done!”
“We are so done, Phillip. We are over.”
“Tia! I said you can’t leave! TIA! I said STOP!”
On the screen, a sheet of blue ice shot from Phillip. For a moment it blocked out the view and then Tia’s fist smashed into it. Cracks fractured the ice wall. She hit it again, then again, and the ice bubble burst.
“You iced her.”
“I didn’t hurt her! I just didn’t want her to leave!”
“You encased your girlfriend, the person you’re supposed to love and care about, in a block of ice, because she broke it off with you after you embarrassed her in front of everybody.”
“I didn’t mean...”
“Phillip. This is not high school. This is big-boy, adult shit. You attacked a member of a combat House. There are consequences. This could start a feud. Your mom and dad can’t get you out of it, because if this comes out, they will be too busy screaming while Dave Madero twists their heads off.”
Silence.
“He can’t do that. There are rules,” he said finally.
“Oh good. How could I forget that House Madero is famous for their rule-following. Let me explain to you what will happen: this footage goes public. Dave Madero gets his brothers, and the five of them go over to House Seaton. House Seaton views that footage and realizes that you are at fault. Sure, they can feud with the Maderos, but it will be dangerous and expensive. You are not worth it.”
“My dad—”
“Will be very upset, but he has to think about your mom and your two brothers. Why should they pay for this mess you made? If Dave is feeling charitable, you will be jailed. Your family will still likely pay a massive restitution.”
“She put me in here! Doesn’t that count as kidnapping?”
“It does, but I just recorded you saying that you wanted to kidnap her first.”
“I didn’t!”
I replayed the recording for him. “I just didn’t want her to leave!”
Silence.
“Why are you doing this to me?” he asked.
“I’m not doing anything. You did all of this to yourself. You didn’t even ask me if Tia is okay. Being iced hurts. Ice that cold burns when it touches you. I know you can’t feel it, because you’re an ice mage, but surely somebody explained that to you before.”
I added the second fence post to the first one and knotted it up.
“Is she okay?” he asked.
“No. She is hurt and angry.”
More silence.
“Something bad is happening to you, Phillip,” I said. “Tia told me that when you first started going out, you were a kind kid. Now you’re stalking influencers and reading books written by losers.”
“Areston isn’t a loser.”
“Of course he is. Anybody who has to beat his own drum that hard is a loser. Who is the scariest Prime you can think of?”
“Mad Rogan.”
Serendipity. “Do you see Mad Rogan running around Houston telling people how alpha he is? Do you think he’s on Herald, talking about peak protocols?”
“That’s different.”
“How?”