Dash to Pieces – 11.10
Author: Wildbow

Dash to Pieces – 11.10 | Pale

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Avery carried a box of Sheridan’s things down to the living room, stacking it.  Declan followed behind her.  “What’s the promenade?”

“Ugh.”

“Sounds lame, but Verona is being cagey.”

“Verona!” Avery shouted upstairs.

“Yeah!?”

“Did Declan finish his summer school homework?”

“Coming through,” Dad said, as he brought a big, cardboard box with the proportions of a door through.

“-ooks like he half assed it at the end!” Verona called down.

“Declan asses everything!” Kerry called up.

“Please tell your friend to watch her language,” Dad said, huffing a bit as he straightened up.  He looked over at Declan eyebrows raised.  “You finished?”

“He half-assed it,” Kerry butted in again.

Dad looked at Avery, unimpressed.  Avery shrugged.

“Verona tutored me,” Declan said.

“And what was I doing?” Avery asked.

“Torturing me,” Declan told her.  “Slight but significant difference in spelling.”

“I want some credit,” Avery told her dad.

“Then learn to teach,” Declan retorted, snotty.  “Dad, some of Rowan’s stuff has weights or big books in it and so you gotta lift it.”

“I want credit,” Avery said, again.

“Hold on for three seconds.  I want to keep things moving without grinding to a halt here.  Dec, is the box reinforced?  Double boxed?  Taped up?”

“Iunno,” Declan replied, with a shrug.  “Avery.  Promenade.  You said.”

“What’s this?” Dad asked.

“I want credit,” Avery said, again.

“Declan whole-assed this one answer!” Verona called down.  “It’s word salad!”

Their dad shot Avery a stern look.

“Watch your language, Ronnie!  I’ve got a kid sister!” Avery called up.  “And explain the Promenade to Declan since you brought it up!”

“Come on up!”

“I’m going up,” Declan said.

“Wait.  Declan, if you did finish, I’m glad.  I thought we’d be moaning and groaning through that after dinner, again, seven to nine thirty.  We’ll have to go over it after if you hurried through parts, but it’s great to think we can enjoy some of our evening.  Good work.”

“Thanks,” Declan said.  He jogged upstairs.

“Avery, thank your friend for helping out, whatever magic she worked.  And thank you for sitting down with him and working at it.”

Avery nodded.  It felt perfunctory and bare-bones.

“Do you think your friend would be willing to tutor him on a more regular basis?”

“Ennhh,” Avery groaned.

“I know Verona wants more money for her projects but she’s not… she’s a weird student with slightly above average grades, I think.  She taught him stuff about sorta-cheating by interpreting the test or assignment and figuring out the teacher and then worked backwards.  But I think he got a bit of it by the end.”

“That’s a step forward from where we were at.  Do you think she’d be up for tutoring, maybe at ten dollars an hour?  Would her mom be okay with that?  Or would I talk to Jasmine?”

“I don’t know.  I can ask.  I think we might want to focus on other stuff this summer.”

“Okay.”

“Avery!” Verona called down.

“Go.  Thank you again for looking after him and giving it a shot.”

Avery nodded quickly, then took the stairs two at a time to go up.

Verona and Declan were in Rowan and Declan’s room.  Rowan’s side of the room was pretty bland, and some of the stuff had been taken down off the walls, but there were still some movie posters.  Declan had some stuff from game boxes and even the pamphlets with game instructions spread across his wall, filling up blank space.  Right by his pillow were taped checklists or things he was trying to do in his games.  Like he could go to sleep and think about accomplishments or something.

The initial moving process had meant that stuff was boxed up with the idea of getting gradually sorted out.  Everything nonessential was going out first, which meant decorations from Sheridan and Rowan’s spaces, books they weren’t going to read in the next while, winter clothes, and stuff.  Rowan had barely gotten started, but he could drive and was willing to do a run of boxes later.  So whatever.

This was weird and disorienting.

“Before I say anything, my dad might want to hire you as a tutor,” Avery told Verona.

“Huh?  Huh.”

“That okay?  It’s not even worth bringing up if you hate the idea,” Avery told Declan.

Declan glanced at Verona.  “Sure.”

“My dad suggested ten dollars an hour-”

“Cool,” Verona said.

“-but I think he’s desperate enough for help, he might be willing to go higher.  Twelve or fifteen?”

Verona’s eyebrows went up.

“Y’know, if you want me to keep quiet about you guys pulling this…” Declan mused aloud.

“You can keep quiet because I can talk to Amber about you going to Salt Lake City with her.”

Declan made a face.

“So.  Promenade?” Avery asked Verona.

“Didn’t want to start without you.  You know more of the details than I do,” Verona told Avery.

“I’m really interested in seeing how you explain this.”

“Is it a game?  If it’s a game why haven’t I heard of it?” Declan asked.

“Aren’t there like, dozens of new games released every week?” Avery asked.  “You can’t possibly know every single one in every single language, everywhere in the world.”

“I can try.”

“I have a guy friend who does these doodles for game concepts,” Verona told Declan.  “And Avery has been helping Jude with working out this huge puzzle thing.”

“Avery?  Why her?”

“Dude, if you don’t get why Avery’s awesome or why she’d be useful for this stuff, I’m not sure I know what to tell you.”

“It’s Avery.”

Avery matched Declan’s expression, making a face at him.

“Here,” Verona said.  She went to the door and bent down to get into her bag.  Declan’s expression changed, and Avery looked at him, followed his gaze-

Avery kicked Declan’s leg.

“What?  Back off,” Declan replied, defensive.  “Leave me alone.”

Verona straightened, holding her sketchbook.  “The Promenade, roughly mapped out.”

It was drawn out, the tiles color coded, the shops marked, with sketches at the side for the various denizens and how they moved.

“Huh,” Declan said.  He tilted his head, looking over at the sketchbook, then walked over to stand beside Verona at the door, looking over the sketch.  “I still don’t see why Avery was part of it.”

“Declan,” Avery said.  “Ease it up a little.  Focus on the problem.”

“Avery was the star, I’d say,” Verona told him.  “We’re still trying to figure it out.  How it’s put together, what triggered what.  Our guys made it about a third of the way in before a train pulled up, big bad Wolf steps out, and it all went to crap.  Massive fight, buildings torn down…”

“Still trying to figure it out… I know what your problem was, if she was the best you had.”

“Declan,” Avery said.  “Don’t be lame.”

“Heal thyself first.”

“That’s not even the phrase.”

“Here,” Verona said.  “You can see my best rendition I could do on the damage.”

Declan looked down and to the side and he was not looking at the art, he was looking down the ‘v’ of Verona’s v-neck top.

“Declan!” Avery called him out.

Declan jumped, then immediately reacted.  “Holy crap, will you climb all the way out of my butthole?  What’s your problem?”

“My problem is you’re-”

“You’re sore because you’re a lousy tutor and Dad didn’t want to pay you!”

“-being a creep.”

“Creep?” Verona asked.

Avery opened her eyes wide and made an exaggerated head motion, looking down and to the side.

“I didn’t look like that or do it like that!  My eyes wandered.  You look at some stuff without thinking about it!” Declan protested.

“You walked over to be next to her and then did it first chance you got.  That was deliberate.”

“Eyes do wander, though,” Verona said, giving Avery an apologetic look.  She turned to Declan.  “But if the eye wanders and you make the situation uncomfortable you gotta fess up, apologize, try harder not to wander, and move on.”

“She’s making the situation uncomfortable!”  Declan pointed at Avery, indignant.  “And I’m not going to fess up to anything when she jumps straight to me being a creep!”

“Go walk over there, sit,” Verona said, indicating Declan’s bed.

Petulant, Declan walked over and sat.  “You girls don’t understand how guys work.”

“Declan,” Avery replied, “you’re ten.  You aren’t a guy, you’re a boy with shitty ideas in his head and a poor sense of boundaries.”

“Okay, okay, okay,” Verona said, interjecting between them.  “Look, Dec, I’ll give you a pass this one time if you’ll cut it out-”

“There were two incidents just now,” Avery muttered.  “If you were going to give him a pass on one there’s still the other.”

“Crawl all the way out of my butthole, Avery!”

“Stop!” Verona told him.  She turned to Avery.  “Thank you, okay.”

Avery huffed.

“Promenade,” Verona told Declan.  “We’re trying to figure out the rules.  I’ve got notes on some-”

“This is random.”

“There’s supposed to be a logic,” Avery told him, arms folded.  “It’s, we think, a behind-the-scenes hub for all the… what do you call them?  The characters who appear in the background or show up places-”

“NPCs,” Declan said, holding the sketchbook and looking between the two pages, his face flushed from the argument.  “These guys?”

“We saw the blue ballerina in another scene,” Verona told him.  “Where she was out of place.  But apparently she’s really dangerous if she shows up in her home zone or whatever you want to call it.”

“A ballerina?  So stupid and random,” Declan muttered.  “What’s this about?  What’s the goal?”

“Get to the end,” Avery said.  “Each Path is an A-to-B thing where you have to figure out the rules and get through, or you can try to use limited things to bail or escape.  But sometimes that’s it.  Game over.”

“Doesn’t sound like a very good game.”

“There are prizes,” Avery said.  “Ones that matter in real life.”

Declan looked up.  Then he looked down at the page.  “Like what?”

“Figuring that out is part of the puzzle.”

“Any ideas?” Verona asked.

“There was one game Amber was playing, it was a thing where you run a tailor’s for adventurers, clothe students at a magic school, design outfits, it was kinda cool except the story was really drawn out and took forever…”

Verona motioned for him to move on.

“…You could go in dungeons to get seeds for making outfits and skin monsters you killed for leather.  Amber made an explosion dress out of salamander stuff and-”

Verona motioned again.

“You could blow up the dungeon and mines and things, and the floor would crack or fall away, but it could never totally break.  The game always left you a way back and a way forward.”

“You’re thinking of the Wolf destroying a lot of the Promenade?” Avery asked.

Declan turned the book around, showing Avery the image Verona had drawn of the ruined Promenade.  Verona would have had to have drawn that from memory, because she hadn’t been drawing while everything had been happening.

“You’re really good at art,” Declan said, still in a bit of a pouting tone.

“Thank you, Declan.  Nice of you to say,” Verona told him.

“If it’s a puzzle and you can destroy stuff or make the Wolf destroy stuff, and if the game is made so you have to be able to finish or escape the puzzle, then you can destroy everything and look at what’s left.  Those are the things essential to finishing, right?”

“That’s a thing,” Verona told Avery.  “It’s good thinking.”

“Might not go over so well with the residents, who I’m bound to encounter elsewhere,” Avery mused.  “And there’s no guarantee that there has to be a way forward.”

“But you could ask Jude if he remembers what stuck around or held together.  If anything stands out…” Verona suggested.

“Yeah.  Okay,” Avery said.  She looked at Declan.  “Good.  I’ll ask Jude.  The big thing we’re wondering is about the Wolf showing up.  We don’t know what triggered it.  But once she showed, it all went to pieces.”

“Time limit?” he suggested.

“I dunno.  Time didn’t matter, exactly, and a huge part of what we were doing was moving around, moving so people were near the-”

“Clocks, yeah,” Declan said, tapping the page.  He frowned down at the page.  He looked up.  “What is this?”

“Something unfinished but big,” Verona told him.  “And we want Avery to be part of the first group to figure it out.”

“Huh.  ARG?  Or early access game?  Trying to be world’s first for a raid?”

“Not sure I know what half of that means,” Avery said.  “Anyway, I’m helping out a bigger group…”

“No limits on team size?”

Avery shrugged.  “I guess you could send a hundred people as long as they didn’t get in each other’s way.”

“I wouldn’t want that to be a thing,” Declan said.  “If I was making the game.  Too easy.”

“With all the different rules and hidden stuff it’s not easy,” Avery replied.

“I’d make it so that if you have too many players trying, the bad guy comes in.”

“We were all, hm, in play, for a short bit before.”

“Time limit then,” Declan said.

“Time was stopping.”

“Could’ve been a clock going, so you can’t take forever with your turns,” Declan replied, shrugging.  “Or there’s a clock ticking in the background and each person you bring in over the limit reduces the time.  Send in one person, you have an hour, send in two, you have half an hour.  Send in…”

“Twenty and we have only a couple minutes?” Avery asked.

“Yeah.”

“Maybe.  I’m not sure there’s that kind of intent or design behind it.”

“Isn’t everything human influenced in some way?” Verona asked.

“What the heck are you guys talking about?” Declan asked.  “Was this made by AI?”

“It was made by something,” Verona said, sagely.

“That doesn’t clarify anything!”

“Declan!” Dad called up.  “Can you bring some more of Rowan’s boxes down, clear some space, and we’ll see about setting up your new bedside table?”

Declan sighed.  He shouted, and Verona covered one ear, making a face at the volume.  “We’re talking about stuff!”

“I’m not leaving the boxes lying around past dinner, because one could fall on Kerry or Grumble, so either make the space now, or it’s going in the basement and you can wait a couple weeks!”

Declan groaned.

“It’s a bedside table,” Avery commented.

“With a recharging station built into it.  Just put your phone and stuff on top and it recharges.”

“Spiffy,” Verona commented, picking her notebook back up after Declan put it down, and going to the door to put it in the bag.

“It is spiffy,” Declan said, in that pouting, petulant tone, again.  “I’ll be back.  Try making more sense when I’m back.”

Declan grabbed a box.

“What other puzzles were there?” Verona asked.  “There was the theme tying together the edge, the ropes for the way out, the clocks…”

“Yeah,” Avery said, ducking her head to make sure the bottom of the box Declan was carrying didn’t look like it was going to fall out.  She switched to using her Sight to make sure there wasn’t anything Rowan had a major attachment to, which she’d been doing for Sheridan-

The connection snapped out.  Declan’s attention going to Verona, who was by the door.  He ‘stumbled’ past Verona, who winced as his arm and shoulder scraped past her.  Verona met Avery’s eyes.

“Declan!” Avery raised her voice, dropping the Sight.

“Oh fuck offff.  Fuck you.  Are you PMSed?”

“Apologize!” Avery said, hurrying out of the room, getting in front of Declan before he could go downstairs.  “Now.”

“I’m carrying something heavy, if you’re going to have a little freak out then have your freak out after I’m not going to hurt myself.  Move!”

“You little penis, my friend has been super cool to you, giving you time out of her vacation to help with your school stuff, talking to you about stuff I wouldn’t have.  She gave you a lot of credit, she showed you respect, and she even gave you a pass on being leery.  This is-”

“I didn’t do anything, you’re making crap up!”

“It was transparently obvious, you little troll.”

“It was obvious, Dec,” Verona said.

“You’re both making stuff up.  You got ideas in your head or you’re trying to get on my case for some reason and you can crawl right out of my-”

“Stop saying that!” Avery told him.  “Start apologizing!”

“Out of my ass!” Declan said, chin jutting forward.  “Stop being a bitch, Avery.  Your friend isn’t attractive enough to deserve half the stuff you’re accusing me of-”

“You’re not sneaky, Declan, you’re bad at hiding what you’re trying to do and I’m really hoping you aren’t pulling this crap at school or with Amber.  Frigging- poor Amber!  Geez, Dec, my friend is being cool to you, Amber is, for reasons I cannot fathom, still wanting to be your friend, and you’re treating her like absolute dogshit, making your friendship a secret, you’re letting the fact they’re girls get in the way of people who could lift you up or help you out or whatever.”

“Just because a girl wants to be my friend doesn’t mean I have to be her friend.”

“Amber is cool, Declan.  You’ve got a friend who is smart, stylish, good at school, she makes video games for fun, which I know is right up your alley, she has what seems like every video game console and a whole library of games.  That’s like crack to you.  You’re a cooler person after you’ve been around her.  I see you go to Declan Two’s house and you come back shittier and unhappier than you were before you went!”

“If you like her so much, you date her,” Declan said, and he managed to make it venomous, taunting.

Avery paused, a little caught off guard.

“Dec-” Verona started.  Avery raised a hand.

“Declan,” Avery told him.  “You’re going to kick yourself so hard, Dec, a couple years down the road.”

“My arms are getting tired.”

“At a bare minimum, apologize to Verona.  You hurt her, pushing past her.”

Declan looked back at Verona.

“Did hurt,” Verona said, pulling back the side of her mouth in a kind of apologetic half-smile.  “When you rammed me with your arm.  Wasn’t very cool.”

Declan’s eyes dropped to the floor, not really looking down because he was holding the cardboard box.  His face was flushed with embarrassment.

“Declan,” Avery said.

He dropped the box, and it was almost like he was aiming for her feet, pushing it out as he dropped it.  She moved her feet and toes back, grabbing the railing of the stairs to avoid falling.  The sides of the box split and the contents crunched, audibly breaking, bits and pieces and childhood knick-knacks spilling out onto the floor.  Pieces of toys from fast food places, those little dispensaries in front of shops, and cereal box treasures.  The battery cover for something electronic spilled out, and was kicked down the stairs as Declan rushed forward and tried to get past her.  She blocked him.

“Apologize!”

“What was that!?” Dad called up.

Avery and Declan shouted over one another.

Kerry came up the stairs, but Dad stopped her and had her go the other direction.

“What on earth is going on?” he asked.

Again, Avery and Declan talked over one another.

“One at a time,” Dad said.

They talked over one another again, in their effort to get something said.

“Declan, you first,” Dad said.

“Why do you keep putting Declan first?” Avery asked.  “You thanked him first for getting his homework done and left me for last, and-”

“Shut it!” Declan told her. “Me first.  Avery’s making crap up, saying I was doing stuff when I wasn’t and saying I hurt her friend when I was carrying a box and her friend got in my way.”

“You aimed for her-”

“Enough, Avery, stop,” Dad said.  “Take a moment.  First of all, I’m not prioritizing Declan here.  I’m trying to accommodate him.  Verona, were you hurt?”

“He rammed my chest,” Verona said, leaning against the doorframe, hands on the either sides of the wall behind her.

“Intentionally,” Avery interjected.  “Pretty obviously, to kind of cop a feel or something-”

“It wasn’t intentional and I didn’t even hit her chest, I think it was her arm, they’re just making stuff up to gang up on me-”

“Enough.  Avery?  Full story, please, your version of events.”

“He leered several times, I called him out on it, we asked him about a side project I’m working on that could use his game knowledge, Verona especially was really cool with him-”

“Not that cool.  Condescending,” Declan said.

“-and then he squeezed up against her in a very obvious move, hurt her, and when I called him out he tried to drop that box on my foot.”

“Liar, liar, liar!” Declan retorted.  “This isn’t fair, she’s trying to get back at me over the whole Amber thing and I don’t even like Amber that much!”

“You like Amber just fine, it’s your friends who don’t like her!”

“It’s been two against one and now it’s three against one and it’s not fair, I haven’t done anything wrong today, they’re making stuff up and getting ideas in their heads and I don’t know why I try!”

“Stop, Declan, stop,” Avery’s dad said, as he kept Declan from charging past him to downstairs.  “Avery, is it possible that you got it wrong or you’re making a big deal out of-”

Avery turned, putting her dad behind her.  She went into her room.  A hand at her back made her flinch, but it was Verona, right behind her.

“Avery, we’re talking!” her dad called out.  “Can we please sort this out?”

Avery stormed into her room, navigating the boxes that sat by the foot of Sheridan’s bed.  Everything that hadn’t fit in the car and wasn’t going to be useful if and when she came back home before the end of the summer.

“I’ve got you,” Verona said.

Snowdrop was at the window, in opossum form.  Avery hauled the window open, grabbed Snowdrop, and passed her to Verona.

“Thanks,” Avery said, even if she wasn’t sure what that meant.  Her hand remained on Snowdrop for a second.  A tongue licked her wrist.

Avery grabbed her bag and Verona took it from her as she climbed the ladder.  She got stuff from on top of and the edge of her bed.

“Avery,” her dad said, knocking.

Verona sat on Kerry’s bed, depositing Snowdrop with the various stuffed animals.

“You need to deal with Declan, Dad,” Avery said.  Standing on the ladder, she was of eye level with her dad.

“We need equilibrium.”

“We need you to deal with Declan,” Avery said, again.  “I’m being helpful, I’m trying to be good, I’m babysitting, I’m packing, I was going to help put furniture together, I’m looking after Grumble.  Do I lie?  Am I a liar, Dad?  Do you think I’m fibbing about this?”

“No, I don’t know, right now I’m just trying to establish the peace-”

“At what cost?  Tell me, do you think I’m lying?  Do you think Verona is fibbing when she said he hurt her?”

“Right now I’m just trying to get the situation calmed down, and Declan is throwing a tantrum, and Kerry is wondering what’s happening and you’re- packing?”

“I’m going out.  I want to buy dinner with Verona.  Give me money for tutoring Declan.”

“Avery, if you walk away this situation doesn’t calm down.”

“If I stay he’s probably going to argue and fight until you give up and you settle somewhere in the middle but Declan is entirely in the wrong here.  I know,” Avery told her dad.  “Give me money for tutoring Declan.  You said it was worth ten dollars an hour.  I spent two and a half hours with him.  Some of that was with Verona.  I’ll give her some of the money.”

“Don’t take Avery for granted, Mr. Kelly,” Verona said, holding Avery’s bag.  She took a doodle pad from Avery and slid it into the main compartment.

“Don’t take me for granted and then not give me the benefit of a doubt when it matters!” Avery raised her voice.  She gripped the edge of her bed.  “I spent too long without any friends at all and now I’ve got one and I can’t even bring her around without Declan perving and maybe scaring her away!  Is that what this is going to be for the rest of summer!?  I’m not going to have my friends get pushed away!  I’m not going to stand by and watch Declan slowly turn into some dangerous creep, and if you or someone else doesn’t step in and clue him in then that sure looks like it’s going to happen!”

“You won’t scare me away but it’s not cool of Dec,” Verona said.  “And there’s definitely weirdness there, how he wouldn’t apologize.  You won’t scare me away or push me away, Ave.”

Avery nodded.  She looked back at her bed, searching for the various things she’d stowed, and her eye settled on the friendship bracelet.

It was like, grade school level friend stuff, going by her friendship with Olivia, but it meant something.  Olivia had set a high bar for friendships, early on, and losing that had felt like there would never ever be a friendship as close as that, like Lucy had with Verona, going back to childhood.  So a childish token of friendship almost challenged that.

“The way we improve on the situation is by talking it out, sorting things out, and for that I need you to calm down, come with me, we’ll have a discussion with Declan.  We can even bring your mom on speaker phone.  Let me clear my head and digest what’s going on-”

“I want my money for tutoring,” Avery told him.  She wished she had Lucy’s ability to hold coherent arguments in her head and sound intelligent when she was upset.  Instead, she settled on one thing.

“Come downstairs, sit down, let’s talk this out-”

“What’s Avery supposed to say or do that she hasn’t already?” Verona asked.  “Payment for her time spent tutoring and babysitting is pretty reasonable.”

“Lu- Verona, please.  Let me work this out with my daughter.  I don’t need the extended commentary.  Can I or should I call Jasmine, ask her to pick you up?”

“I’m going out with Verona,” Avery told her dad.  “We’re grabbing food, we’ll talk, I’ll calm down, and I’ll come home.”

“Hopefully to find you’re punishing Declan and he’s willing to apologize,” Verona added.

“Please, no extra commentary.  Please.”

“You could call Jasmine, maybe,” Avery said.  “Bring her in, she could help add another perspective about what Declan’s doing.  Even Lucy, Lucy’s really good at this stuff.”

“I think that’s the opposite of what we need.  Declan is ten and maybe he’s dealing with new impulses, but being challenged as aggressively as he’s being challenged is putting him on the back foot.  I think if we talk with him and sort things out, one on one with me mediating, he’ll come around and apologize.”

Avery floundered.  Just… no.

“Does challenging him softly work?” Verona asked.  “Because I’ve been getting the vibe that this has been an ongoing thing.”

“Verona, please go home,” Avery’s dad said.

“No.  Not while Avery needs backup.”

“I’ve told you in the past that things aren’t cool,” Avery said.  “That he’s weird with his female friends and his other friends are bad influences, and he’s using awful language.”

“That was half the boys I knew growing up and all of them grew out of it.  He will be disciplined, but while we’re in this adjustment process and while you’re dealing with all of this upheaval, my big and primary concern is not just dealing with Declan but also making sure that we as a household can address problems as they come up.  You storming out isn’t good or healthy.”

“Me storming out is what I need to do.  Will you pay me for tutoring and babysitting?”

“Not like this, not without calm discussion preceding things.”

“That’s crummy,” Avery told him.  She grabbed one or two more things and passed them to Verona.  Then she got glamour and dropped down to Kerry’s bed, where Snowdrop was laying very still amid plush stuffed animals.  Her back and body blocking the view, she transformed Snowdrop into a stuffed toy, then tossed her to Verona.  “I was willing to move on if he’d apologize to Verona and he wouldn’t.  He’d rather wreck Rowan’s things by dropping the box on the floor.”

“I thought you guys were going to avoid doing this sort of thing with Avery.  Not listening to her,” Verona said.

“Not letting her leave and making sure we have a discussion is me avoiding doing that sort of thing with her.”

“Then listen to what she’s saying when she says she doesn’t want that discussion?” Verona asked, shrugging, holding Avery’s bag and Snowdrop.  She passed Snowdrop to Avery as Avery climbed down the ladder.  “You never answered my question.  What do you think gets said if Avery goes and has that discussion?”

“I think her brother can look her in the eye and say he’s sorry.”

“And mean it?” Avery asked, at the same time Verona cut in with, “Is he already ready to say that or is Avery going to have to sit through you getting him to maybe say something?  Is that something going to be half-assed?”

“Verona,” Avery’s dad said.  “I appreciate the care you’re sharing for my daughter, but-”

“You want her to leave,” Avery said.  “So Declan wins?  So I have to lose the company of my friend who was being cool and helpful, because of Declan?  And he maybe gets punished?”

“You’re free to hang out tomorrow.  We can even invite her over…” he said.

“We don’t have that much time to waste,” Avery said, firm.  Her arm was at her side, and traced a checkmark on her leg.  That one was for jumping the bridge at the Blue Heron.  A leap of courage.  “We’ve got stuff to do.  You fix the Declan thing already.”

“Avery, come down to the dining room, sit-”

“Pay me.  I gave you enough hours out of my today and I didn’t get anything for it,” she told him, pushing his hand out of the way as he reached for her.  She and Verona stepped out into the hallway, then downstairs.  Then out the door, Snowdrop under her arm.

Verona’s hand reached out, seizing Avery’s wrist.  Avery, partway through turning her head, looked at Verona.

“Eyes forward,” Verona whispered, taking her hand away to cover the mouth-mic on her phone.

A bead on the bracelet slowly rotated.

“Right,” Avery whispered.

“And while Doglick slept, we undid all the cans and bottles and things tied to his ankles, tongue, and hands, and made him all cozy,” Snowdrop said.  “And we made sure he wasn’t tied to the thing Bangnut made, that sets all the fireworks off.”

“I think I heard the fireworks.”

“Nah,” Snowdrop said.  “We made sure he wasn’t tied to them.  And he woke up and he was all, ‘what a nice nap, how cool is this?  You guys are so nice to me’.  Wasn’t loud or anything.”

“And the cans.”

“There weren’t any cans, or there weren’t many.  We put those aside for another day.”

“I’m picturing him sort of enjoying the can thing, making a ton of noise, yipping, barking…”

“You aren’t getting goblins at all, Avery,” Snowdrop said, sighing.  “Dum dum.  But what he really enjoyed and expected was those fireworks, he was thrilled, didn’t propel himself into the air, shitting himself, like I did.  I didn’t think the failed attempt was very funny.”

“I’m glad you had fun.”

“But mostly we were hanging out, all of us awake, tummies empty, nothing interesting on the TV.”

“That’s good.  You going to be alert for tonight?”

“Not in the slightest.  I’m overtired.”

“Can you two take it about ten steps thataway?” Verona whispered, hand over the phone.

“It’s cool you’re getting along with your brother.  I can relate, being close with my littermates and all,” Snowdrop said.

“It wasn’t the hugest deal in the end.  Creepy and I’m really bothered he had to make Verona his target, but the fact he played games and muddied the truth and refused to apologize, and then my dad played into it and wasn’t calling B.S. on it… turns it from something concerning to something I really worry about.”

“Can I see?” Snowdrop asked.

More fiddling at Avery’s right wrist.  She let Snowdrop see her wrist, with the various bands and straps that she had there.    The charm bracelet that didn’t have many charms anymore, ever since their talk with the fortune teller, the gift from Verona, the bracelet with the wooden beads with runes scratched and burned into them with what had presumably been a hot needle or something.  And Snowdrop’s target.  The old friendship bracelet from Olivia, enchanted to be a barometer.

Faded except for the orange band.

“You’re alert.  In good fighting shape.  A little more powerful than usual.  Not very you,” Snowdrop remarked.

“Better than the alternative, I guess,” Avery said.

Snowdrop shrugged, releasing Avery’s wrist.  Avery put her hand on Snowdrop’s head, then did the same with the other hand.  She stood, her front to Snowdrop’s back, hands on Snowdrop’s head, chin on her hands, and she sighed.

Verona finished the call.

“That’s a no on a sleepover tonight,” Verona said.  “Jas says as long as your dad is being remotely reasonable, she’s got to let him be the dad.  She’s there for advice if you need her.  We’re good to hang out until curfew.”

Avery sighed.

“Lucy’s coming to hang out.”

“Cool.”

“What do you want to do?” Verona asked.

“Stretch my legs.  Walk, get food.  Could hang out.”

“With Tash?” Verona suggested.

“Tash sucks,” Snowdrop said.

“Or the goblins?”

“The goblins are the worst.  I’m done with them,” Snowdrop said.

Avery sighed, and leaned against the little metal divider that kept cars from running off the edge of the curve in the road and into the ditch.

“Your call,” Verona told her.

“Thanks.  I don’t know.  Shrine work would be good.  We could make more headway tonight than we’d planned.  What were you guys doing earlier?”

“Made your new bracelets, did some stuff that felt very me.  Lucy was saying we should play to our strengths.  It was what I was trying to do with Declan, before he started being a butt.”

“Sucks,” Avery said.  “Some of that advice was stuff I could pass on to Jude.  I’m regretting how I handled that, now.”

“Don’t.  You said it yourself, you’ve tried to be gentler in telling him stuff’s not cool.  If that doesn’t work…”

“I think you’re biased, because you grew up with Lucy and I was channeling her a bit there.”

“Tired of everyone’s crap, calling out injustice?  Sure.  Don’t regret it.”

“Ugh.”

Verona checked her phone.  “Lucy wants to know where to meet us.”

“Downtown?  We can go from there to the shrines, buy some stuff, or we can stop by your place, or…”

“Or something,” Verona said, nodding.

By her place, Avery had meant the House on Half Street.  She glanced at Verona, who was adjusting her bracelet, typing with one hand, and then put her phone away, touching her bracelet again.

Eyes forward, Verona had said.

Meaning they weren’t supposed to react to the fact they were being watched.  The movement of the bracelet felt like something alive, a spider on her arm, tickling fine hairs on her wrist, prodding skin as the cube turned over.  A reminder that someone was behind her, staring, watching.

They walked through the upper end of Avery’s neighborhood, past the school, and up to downtown.  Stores were open and people were gathered both in the restaurants and in the makeshift patios outside.  It was too warm to cook inside, which meant barbecue or letting someone else bear the heat of the kitchens.

The one observer was joined by another.  Avery used her Sight to track the people watching her, and she didn’t get anything substantial.  Too subtle, too secretive.

“While we’re doing what we’re good at, I wanted to make things, get set up,” Verona said.  “Did some spell cards, but I’ll probably go through them tonight.  I’m short on glamour.”

“Want mine?” Avery offered.

“Nah.  Nah.  I’ve got to figure out some other stuff.  I’m liking getting set up.”

“About liking and not liking stuff… was the Declan thing okay?  You were saying I wasn’t overreacting and I shouldn’t regret it, but as far as you go…”

“I dunno.  It’s a thing that happens sometimes?  Once in a blue moon?  Sometimes random strangers.”

“Yeah,” Avery agreed.

“Yeah.  I don’t really get emotional a lot of the time.  But I guess… discouraged?  Bothered you’re bothered, definitely.”

“Discouraged?”

“Or depressed?  Not depressed.  I dunno.”

“Thanks for saying you’d stick around,” Avery said.  She felt a pang of guilt.

Because she wasn’t sure she was sticking around.

“Next time, I should be as far away as possible,” Snowdrop said.  “That way, when something happens, there’s no chance of me going hisss, hissssssss, super hissssss!”  She mimicked a dumb guy voice.  “Where did that random opossum come from?  Aaaaa.  Instant loss for any argument.”

Avery gave Snowdrop a one-armed hug.

They headed downtown, and waited in line for food.  They bought wraps for the two of them and Snowdrop, then headed over to meet Lucy.

At the bottom end of downtown were a lot of shops facing the residential part of Kennet.  Some were closed, but others were lively, and one of the restaurants had railings and dividers bolted onto the sidewalk, making room for various outdoor diners, forcing the three of them to step out on the street.

They were in the middle of navigating around, squeezing against the railing for traffic, when Avery saw a goblin reaching beneath the divider to get dropped fries.  It was Tatty Bo Jangles, the one with droopy boobs woven into a dress.  There were civilians a matter of feet away.

“Daring,” Verona noted.  “Out in the early evening?”

Snowdrop held out her partially-eaten wrap.  Tatty considered, then shook her head, motioning for them to get down or bend down to her level.  She shot a look across the street.

Avery used her Sight, looking, and saw the connection.  It was a tattered, complicated looking band of material, and she recognized it as kin.  Extending to a nearby car.  She switched to her other Sight, looking through Snowdrop’s eyes, and she could see hints of Bangnut inside the car, tearing into the engine.

“Uhhh,” Avery said.

Verona elbowed her.

“It’s cool,” Tatty whispered.

Bangnut pulled things loose.  Oil spattered beneath the vehicle, leaking from the engine to the ground below.

Avery bent down, grabbed Tatty, and then Snowdrop reached out.  Avery passed Tatty to Snowdrop, who put Tatty under her shirt, so they could move away from the diners.  They walked down the sidewalk, waiting for cars to pass.

Avery started to cross, but hesitated out of concern from the Zoomtown thing.  She knew she was better at dodging traffic, but the way they’d learned about other things, these things could have backlash.  A ward that kept things away, but when it broke, it let enemies flood in.  A glamoured magic item that made you beautiful, that left you ugly if it broke.

If this worked the same way- she wasn’t willing to test it until she had to test it.  So she remained on the sidewalk, watched a couple cross the street, and waited for the opportunity to cross.

The couple was going to the car.

“Tatty?” Avery whispered.

Snowdrop turned partially, hiding her front from people, and Tatty poked her head up through Snowdrop’s collar.  She had a sharp nose, and beady little eyes.  “What?  Toadswallow said we could.”

“Could what?”

“Deal with the car.”

“What did you do with the car?”

“Rig it to blow up.”

“What are you-?”

“Let it be,” Toadswallow said.

He stepped out from amid the trash bags, from what Avery’s Snowdrop Sight told her was a warren hole.  He was barely visible in the dwindling daylight, and only his monocle caught the light.

“Let the vehicle burn,” Toadswallow said.

“Why?”

“Don’t you trust me, ladies?” he asked, smiling.  He was testing them.  “Snowdrop, dear.  We were talking about working together.  Is your faith in me so easily broken?”

“Yeah.  Super easily.”

Avery, tense, watched as the couple climbed in, fiddling around a bit with faces lighting up a bit from the use of a phone.  Bangnut escaped the car and ran for it.

“He’s not totally useless,” Tatty muttered.

“Bangnut?”

“Only a bit useless,” Tatty said, quiet.

Avery was distracted by what Tatty was saying, and tracking where Bangnut was going, and she didn’t see the driver go to start up the car.  The key was turned in the ignition, and a bang cut through ongoing conversations on the patio, a loud, deep-in-the chest kind of sound.  Fire erupted at the front of the car, flames licking up out and around the front of the hood.

The couple scrambled to get out, the hood was popped and sprung open, and the guy went into the back.  He found his fire extinguisher in roughly the same span of time that it took someone from inside the restaurant to come out with their own, bigger one.

They flooded the front of the car, dousing it in the chemical exhaust.

In the haze of the exhaust, a rough outline appeared.  Avery used her Sight, and she saw a spirit, dark and hard to make out, with a grim, menacing expression.

“Better here than on the highway,” Toadswallow said.  “One singed vehicle instead of another collision involving many.”

“Was there a way to do this without burning the car?” Lucy asked, as she caught up with them.  Verona offered a partially eaten wrap and Lucy shook her head.

“What fun would that be?” Toadswallow asked.  “But no.  No, it was bound to happen and it was more important that we catch her than spare anyone the property damage.  That is one spirit that Edith was supposed to have dealt with on a permanent level, and look, here it is.  Would you three be dears and go catch it?  Don’t go promising it a shrine.”

“I think we’re close to being all shrined out,” Avery said.

“Just as well.  Just as well,” he said, smiling ear to piglike ear.  “Maybe it has a tidbit of information or three.  Then come, say hello to me.  You wanted an appointment, I’m free, you’re present.  Was it bound to happen?”

“We wanted to talk to Charles,” Verona said.

“I can arrange for Mr. Abrams to show up.  Thank you for listening and giving me the benefit of a doubt.  I’ll do my best to repay the favor.”

It felt weird, that he was saying it like that.  Like it was relevant, like he’d had an ear to the ground and he was speaking directly to Avery and her struggles.  In another context, it would have been a relief.

There was room to navigate that later.  There was a dangerous spirit to catch, and a discussion to be had.

Verona had said they should do what they were good at and Avery’s go-to of escaping away to weird realms wasn’t really in the cards with what they were doing these days.  But catching was something Avery wanted to think she was good at.  Catching up, keeping up, blindsiding.

She wanted to run, to confront problems.  To actually deal with stuff instead of just putting up with it.  She wanted to deal with that nagging issue of being observed constantly, having to keep secrets.  They’d been assuming it was Lis, but now Toadswallow smiled in a smug way, and she had no idea.

“Good to go?” Avery asked the other two.

Lucy and Verona nodded.  Lucy added, “I want the scoop on what happened this afternoon.”

“Let Verona fill you in if she’s okay doing that.  I’m done with the topic for now,” Avery said.

She wasn’t good at staying still, staying put.  Staying at home and dealing with siblings.

It was either run toward or run away, and with all of Kennet in danger, the only good away was leaving entirely, and that was another thing she was putting off, that she had to tell them about.

For now, she gave chase.

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