Author: Wildbow

Go for the Throat – 23.7 | Pale

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Avery climbed out of the car, taking a cardboard box, while her mom gave directions to the others.  “Rowan, if you could bring the grocery bags in, please and thank you.  Sheridan, it’s your choice if you want to bring the trash from the car and the leftover car snacks or if you want to bring in the big bags from the back.”

“Wonderful, love it,” Sheridan said.

“You really need to work on your lying,” their mom said.

“Take in the trash or be a beast of burden.”

“I’d give you the option of groceries but I think you do intentional harm to things like bread or eggs whenever I do.”

Sheridan ascribed to a philosophy of ‘do a job badly enough and you won’t get asked to do it again’.  Which had backfired more than a few times, but that only made her dig in harder.

“Oh, Grumble’s up,” Rowan said.

Grumble stood in the doorway, only seemingly able to stay upright because their dad was holding onto his armpit.

“Trash it is,” Sheridan said.

“Right,” their mom replied.

“What’s the logic?” Avery asked.

“Because the front hall is going to be clogged, having something lightweight but stinky gets people out of my way.  Having the big bags means I’m standing there awkwardly until the clog clears.”

“You know, you could do mom a solid and take on the burden,” Avery said.

“Counterpoint: if you really think about it, mom’s indirectly responsible for every bad thing in my life,” Sheridan said.

“You used to be such a sweet little girl,” their mom said.

“If you want, I can take the big bags in,” Avery offered.

“Suck-up.”

“I might be a suck-up but you just suck sometimes, Sheridan,” Avery said.

“Don’t, with your injury.”

“Healed.”

“Don’t.”

Avery groaned.

“I’ll come back for the big bags,” Rowan said, grunting as he got all the bags at once.  “Don’t worry about it, mom.”

“You’re lovely.  Here.  Let me take some of those, then.”

They navigated their way up the slightly icy driveway, and then up the stairs.  Greetings were had, hugs exchanged.  It was a bit silly, since Avery had been home a while- she hung back.  But Sheridan and Rowan had stopped in while the kids were sleeping and then left again for a bit.  They accepted stiff hugs from Grumble.

She could imagine it becoming a dumb little ritual, making a big obnoxious show over being apart for a little while.  But Kerry seemed happy over it, and if Avery had to guess, it was the sort of thing that replenished her parent’s Self.  The family being together.

As Sheridan had predicted, there was a clog.  Grumble took one step every three seconds, with assistance, and Avery’s dad supported him, so that basically blocked the hallway.  Avery had to hang out on the front steps to wait until there was room to slip inside, squeeze to the side to let the door by, and then there was Sheridan with the trash and snacks, Rowan and their mom with groceries, and Kerry squeezing between them, while their mom tried to keep Kerry from bowling Grumble over.

“What are we having for dinner?”

“We ordered in, it’s on its way, it won’t be long.”

“You can put the box with the other things we’re moving between houses.”

“Yep,” Avery replied, quick.

“Technically an apartment and a house,” Sheridan said.

“Technically two apartments and a house,” Rowan interjected.

“Technically two apartments, a house, a backyard, and garage.”

“Tech-”

“Guys.”

“-nically two apartments, a house, a backyard, garage, and patio Avery likes hogging.”

“Don’t rope me into this.”

“Miss ‘nobody pays attention to me’ turning around and saying ‘don’t rope me into this’,” Sheridan teased, poking Avery near the armpit with a hand holding a bag of wrappers and things from the car.

“Hey, hey,” their dad said.  “Positive energy tonight.”

“That’ll make me wither and die like a vampire in the sun,” Sheridan said.

As Grumble was guided into the living room, the way through to the kitchen and upstairs got clear, and the clog cleared.

Avery left the box in a corner of the living room with some other boxes of things in transition, and gave Grumble a quick hug she hadn’t been able to manage before.

Still feel weird, like the Wolf is closer when I’m hugging him, she thought.  It was disconcerting.

“Y’arrigh?” he asked.

“I’m good,” she replied.  “How are you?”

“Eh, ‘fben worse,” he mumbled, smiling.  “H’mpart oa mooie cluh nah.”

“Hm?” she asked.

“It’s going pretty well,” her dad said, food in hand, that he’d pulled out of the canvas bags.  “Classic movies, right dad?”

“Ahll sors.”

All sorts.

“Just started yesterday, still figuring out a routine,” her dad said.  “Plan for the first movie is to watch late tonight or early tomorrow.  They meet in the morning, when he’s a little more clear.”

“H’m clear ‘nouf,” Grumble replied, with a dismissive and stiff wave of the arm.

“So it’s something like I’m doing?” Sheridan asked.  “With the podcast?”

“Hmmhm, summin lie ha’.”

“So, what, you watch movies, like a book club reads books, share thoughts?” Avery asked.

“Mmhm, s’arrigh, Arry.  Keeps m’ busy.”

“Cool,” she replied.  “I’ve got a friend, her family didn’t encourage watching movies, so she’s only now getting into stuff.  It’s interesting to keep track of.”

“Shul’ john in.  Brin ‘er in.”

“That’d be a picture.  What’s the group demographic like?”

“Lots of people in Grumble’s age group,” her dad said.  “That’s why they’re accommodating of him bringing in a video summary.  Organizing thoughts and getting the best takes together.”

“That’s so cool.  I hope you enjoy it,” Avery said.  “Do you know what you’re watching?”

“‘Unno,” her Grumble said.

“We can check after dinner,” Avery’s dad said.

“That’s really cool though,” Avery said.  “I’d love to hear about the movies you’re watching.  Maybe if any are good I can recommend it to my friend.”

“I can’t believe you have friends,” Declan said.

“Okay, wait, hold on,” Avery’s mom said.  “Everyone together.  Round table.  Let’s make this quick, before food arrives.  Come on, everyone.”

“Am I in trouble?  I’m only speaking truth.”

“Everyone… there we go.  Make a circle.”

They did.  Grumble was seated in his reclining chair, so he spun around to face the center of the living room, while the rest of them formed a… more of an oblong.  Whatever.

“Feels religious,” Rowan said.

“Avery’s going to the hospital tonight,” Avery’s mom said.  “She should be okay, but what we would really, really love to see is this family pulling together.”

Avery wasn’t going to the hospital.  It was a cover story.

Avery was going to deal with Charles.  Allegedly.  And it wasn’t that far off, either.

“You guys can be snarky, maybe it’s funny sometimes, a lot of times it isn’t,” Avery’s mom said.

“You get that from me, not being funny,” Avery’s dad threw in.

“But,” Avery’s mom said, and she reached out to Avery, giving Avery a squeeze on the shoulder.  “You have to be able to stop when it’s called for, like when feelings get hurt, or on nights like tonight, where we want to have as many positive vibes going around as possible.  When the chips are down, we support each other.”

The nods and reactions ranged from Rowan being receptive to Declan’s barely restrained eye roll.  Kerry seemed to be listening but who knew what would be flying through her glitter-dusted, wide-eyed head an hour from now?

The box Avery had brought in moved.  Kerry’s head snapped around.

Oh, right.  That, probably.  Either because Kerry would be terrified or ecstatic.

“Puppy?” Kerry asked.  She turned her head to her parents with enough speed that, if it were physically possible, Avery figured she’d have snapped her own neck.  “Cat?  Puppy?”

“It’s-”

“Is it a puppy?  It’s okay if it’s a cat but I want a puppy.  If it’s a cat I’m going to feel so bad for wanting a puppy but I want a dog.”

“You know what would be hilarious?” Sheridan asked.  “If it was mom’s quote-unquote ‘back massager’.”

“Sheridan!” their mom raised her voice.

“Positive vibes- positive energy, Sheridan,” their dad said.

Sheridan cracked up at that, laughing hard enough she had to lean against the couch.

Avery focused on Snowdrop signals, to tune things out and push the mental picture Sheridan had put out there out of her mind’s eye.

“What is in the air today?” Avery asked.  “First Verona with everything going on, now you?  The horrible mental images.”

“Can I open it?  Can I see what it is?” Kerry asked, hovering over the box, not taking in any information that wasn’t specifically about the box.

“I don’t want you to be spooked, and you have to be gentle, and quiet-”

“Oh god, get it over with,” Declan said, sounding bored or annoyed, but Avery could tell he was excited too.

“Puppy puppy- Declan, I want to open the box!  Don’t open-”

“Then hurry up!”

“Quiet, nice volume for sensitive ears,” their dad said.

“Please be a puppy, please be a-”

Kerry looked like she was going to throw a fit when Declan was the one to do the final motion of opening the box, but then she looked inside.

“This is so much better than a puppy!”

“Volume!  Quiet for sensitive ears.”

Snowdrop looked up at them from the bottom of the box, which was littered with the remains of the fruits and vegetables that had been put in there with her.

“Wha’izzit?”

“It’s an opossum, Dad.  One Avery rescued, as I understand it-”

“My friend did, but gave her to me.  Snowdrop and I have been hanging out a lot since.”

“Wha’re’ye brinnin inna this house?”

“It’s technically Avery’s, but in a way it’s also the family’s, and we decided things work a lot better if it’s a part of the household.  It’s technically wild, but we’ll be seeing it around.  Her.”

“Snowdrop,” Avery said.  Avery stepped forward and reached past Declan and Kerry to pick Snowdrop up.  Snowdrop clung to the arm with all the bracelets and ribbons.  Avery then transferred her to Kerry’s shoulder.

Kerry, not sure what to do, put a tentative hand out to steady Snowdrop, and sort of froze, paralyzed in some paroxysm of joy and nervousness.  She flinched a few times as Snowdrop’s nose poked her hand, neck, and ear.

Avery cleaned up the bits of vegetable and fruit peel, gathering them to take to the kitchen.  She washed her hands.  Through the front door, which had been left open, the glass-and-screen door just past it keeping most cold air out, she could see the delivery guy.

“Delivery’s here, I’ll go meet him so he’s not walking on the driveway,” she said.  “Back of the car’s still open, by the way.  Want me to close it?”

“I’ll get the bag,” Rowan said.

She met the guy, who Rowan apparently knew, the two chatted for a few seconds while Avery fished a fiver out of her wallet to tip him.  Rowan hauled the bag out, balancing on the driveway, while Avery navigated it with a bit more ease.  Path boons, and if she fell, it wasn’t like it’d hurt.

“Grumble’s harder to understand,” Avery remarked, quiet.

“Been going that way for a while,” Rowan said.  “You just haven’t been talking to him as much.  Especially at night, when he’s way worse, since you’ve been going out all the time.”

“Huh.”

“I don’t want any specifics, really, but with everything going on tonight, are you going to be-”

He nearly slipped.  She caught his arm.

“Thanks.  Are you going to be going out at night, after?”

“I’m thinking… maybe always?”

“Huh.”

“Why?”

“Dunno.  Sometimes you seem far away.  It kinda- nevermind.”

“What?”

“Nothing, Mom and Dad said positive energy so… Dunno.”

“Real positive,” she told him, walking up the stairs backwards, ahead of him, so she could face him.

“I’m glad you’re not as far away tonight, how’s that?”

“Same, I think,” she replied, turning to let herself and Rowan into the house.

She scooped up Snowdrop from Kerry’s shoulder, moving Snowdrop to her own shoulder as she walked through to the dining room, where she deposited the paper bag of cardboard containers in the center.  Kerry followed with eyes wide, bumping into and clinging to Avery, because practically climbing on Avery was the fastest way to Snowdrop.

“No TV,” her dad was telling Declan, who was in the midst of dragging the TV around to face the dining room.

“But the start of the new season of Knack Knack is tonight.”

One of the big talent competition shows.

“No TV.  It can wait and there are reruns.”

“But-”

“Come on, it takes effort for all of us to get together like this.  Let’s enjoy each other’s company.”

Avery found her souvlaki-chickpea wrap in the bag, and put it by her seat, fished out a ginger ale, and put that there too.  She got settled, Snowdrop on her lap, expressing great interest in the food smells.

“Don’t put the opossum on your lap,” her dad told her.  “Come on now.  At the table?”

“Sh’n’t be in th’ ‘arage, een.”

Avery rolled her head around, then bent down, letting Snowdrop down to the floor.

“Thank you,” her mom said.  They passed out plates and napkins, the food, tzatziki rice, wraps, golden potatoes with spices, and Greek salad.   All the baklava went to the center.

“Where’s’re girl, tha’ Larrie?” Grumble asked Rowan.

“Laurie?  She’s in Thunder Bay.  She’s in school.  I feel a bit left out, seeing them all studying.  Really aiming to get in next year.”

“S’good, she’s good, y’keep that’n, eh?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan,” Rowan said, and maybe he seemed a bit dejected, like maybe his girlfriend was already slipping through his fingers.  Maybe Avery was reading too much into it.

“What does Snowdrop eat, just out of curiosity?” Declan asked.

“Limit the table scraps you feed her, please,” their dad said.

“She can eat anything I can eat,” Avery said.

“What’s the plan tonight?” Sheridan asked.  “Avery’s going, then…?  Please don’t tell me I’m babysitting.”

Snowdrop wasted no time in climbing Avery’s leg to get up to her lap again, and hunkered down there to hide from the parents, her chin on Avery’s thigh, communicating her interest in food.  The little glutton.

“I talked to Owen.  From my senior year?”

“How’s he doing?”

“He delivered our food,” Rowan said.  “I might go see him later, if things are quiet.”

“You’re trying to stick me with the kids!” Sheridan exclaimed.

“I’m not a kid,” Declan said.  “I don’t need a babysitter.”

“We will be fine.  Your mom and I are going to be here, Avery will be at the hospital,” their dad said.  “You can chill, maybe watch the movie with Grumble, if you’re interested, but this is a low-impact night, okay?  Ordering in, bonding, taking care of Avery.”

“You going to die?” Declan asked.

“Declan, come on.”

“Not planning on it,” Avery said.

Kerry noticed Snowdrop and put a hand out to pet her, looking down, and Avery nudged her, giving her a tiny head shake.  Kerry straightened and pretended not to notice, while her hand rubbed Snowdrop.  Avery subtly moved Kerry’s fingers to behind Snowdrop’s ears, and had her scratch.

She was ninety percent sure her mom saw what was going on, it wasn’t subtle, but maybe she figured some sibling bonding and having a relatively safe secret between them was a bigger positive than anything.

As the containers were all broken open and portions divvied out, Snowdrop figured out she could climb between Kerry and Declan and the two of them were her best bet at getting bits of food.

Declan seemed to be pretty happy with that, even if he tried hard not to show it.  Kerry whispered in his ears, probably telling him to play it cool, and Avery, at the same time, signaled Snowdrop to not eat too much and get too full to be useful tonight.

This is perfect, she thought.

She saw Whistle walking down the street, walking her dog.  She’d lost the military garb, but something about the way she carried herself still stuck.  It wasn’t the first time she’d walked by, doing her laps around the area, keeping an eye out for trouble.  There were others, probably.  Had anyone noticed?

The nicest dinner I’ve had with family in a long time.  Maybe ever.

The shadow of the fact she’d almost died hung over things.  It made things feel like there was a faint tint of sadness behind it all.  Or was that in her head?  Worry?  She wasn’t sure how to read it.

“Snowdrop is the coolest,” Kerry said.  “You’ve known about her and you didn’t say?”

“She’s okay, she’s not all that,” Sheridan said.

“She’s great,” Avery said.

“You do have to respect the love for awful food, and the willingness to be scruffy and lazy,” Sheridan conceded.

Avery’s mom scoffed a little.  Her dad’s hand was resting over her mom’s, and it was staying there.

That little detail, more than the Dog of War doing patrols, or the repeated mentions of the hospital with the attached reminder of what had almost happened, hand over hand, even as they ate, the subdued attitudes, the insistence that everything be nice, and the fact they were eating without the television blaring…

It felt a bit like a last supper.  Like they’d almost said goodbye to her, and as she went off to war, for what was supposed to be one last time, they wanted this moment with her and the family.  Just in case.

That wasn’t her imagination.  She could see it in her mom and dad’s eyes.  And a bit in Rowan and Sheridan’s too.

To her right, Declan and Kerry were charmed by Snowdrop, which was a good enough distraction.  A tiny taste of what they could have.  A few years down the line, they could be awakened.  Maybe they’d have their own boon companions, saved by taking the detour.  Their own scares with the Wolf?

Avery’s skin crawled, thinking about it.

She made sure her hand was clean, and stroked Kerry’s hair.  Kerry, distracted by Snowdrop, only shot her a fleeting, wide-eyed, wide-smiling face, before resuming eating, with glances to the side and down where Snowdrop straddled two chairs, poking Avery’s younger siblings with her nose to try to get more morsels of food.

Avery took her first proper bite of her souvlaki-chickpea wrap.

“Is it okay?” Avery’s mom asked.  She wasn’t just asking about the food, and there was something anxious behind the question.

“It’s great,” Avery replied, also not talking one hundred percent about the food.  Also anxious.

They walked across downtown.  Grandfather walked a bit further up the street, and Pipes trailed behind them.  Clearing the way and watching their rear.  There was some concern that Charles might send someone after them to try to disrupt things just before anything happened.

“Think Verona energy when she’s deep into something, but channeled at people,” Avery explained.

“Okay,” Lucy said.  “Trying to picture that.  Like, troll-y?  The joking she was doing today?”

“Nah.  Not that much.  Hmmmm.  Like, oh hey, I can use this alchemy and this diagram and suddenly I’m breaking rules and doing wild stuff, right?”

“Okay.”

“But instead of alchemy and diagrams it’s… a friend and the team, or it’s a pair of people in a relationship and a party, or… yeah.”

“Wow.  It’d be cool if you could- no, that sounds bad.  I don’t want to say ‘you could learn something from her’, because you’re doing great with the markets and outreach and obviously you have your talents,” Lucy said.

“Sure.”

“But man, wouldn’t it be great to learn to…”

“Be a social artist?” Avery asked.  “Social engineer?”

“Yeah.  I’d say I want to learn to do that, but I’m not in Thunder Bay.”

“Right.”

“I hope I didn’t come across the wrong way, saying that.”

“No no no, you’re fine.”

“And that’s Put-”

“Putnam.  And I don’t know if she could teach what she knows.  You know?  There’s, in sports, there’s people who are naturally strong, fast…” Avery paused.

“Verona’s not here,” Lucy said.  “I won’t get on your case for a sports reference.”

“Right.  Well, yeah.  And you have people who train, put in the effort.  It doesn’t take much training to beat someone with the natural ability who doesn’t train at all, but it can be really frustrating to give your all and not measure up to someone talented who trains only a little.”

“Aren’t you kind of that person with natural talent?”

“Well, yeah, but it doesn’t cover every base, right?  I’m fast at running, but when it comes to precision, I’m average.  So I can see it from different angles.”

“Fair.  I don’t think I’m that good at anything.”

“Your ability to argue, keep a bunch of things in mind, like you’re juggling them.  Whether you’re on a battlefield or arguing with Musser.”

“Hm.  I guess.  I feel like that’s more like something a lot of people can do.”

“Really, really not.  Anyway, the greats, I think, are people who have the talent and then work their asses off.  And especially in the major leagues, that’s a lot of people.  I can see Putnam becoming that.  I’m a fan.  Not in a romantic way, she’s pretty but she’s not my type.  But I can see it.”

“Mia talked about that a few times.  The boys she sees potential in.  The ones she doesn’t.  Who’s going to be defined by what Kennet is and especially by what it isn’t, and who’s going to escape that definition.  She says she sees potential in me.”

“Well duh.”

Lucy frowned a bit.  Then she indicated Avery’s phone.  “Okay.  Back to this.  So then Putnam is the social artist, a bit fae?  Or fairy?  Just in terms of style, approach?”

“I may be overselling her.  She’s also a bit Tatty.”

“Okay.  How?”

“Plans on tier with raiding the cat lady house, or stealing a tiger.”

“Got it.”

“But you never know if it’s serious or not.”

“Then Hui is the funny one?”

“I like Hui.  She’s in a bunch of my classes.  She’s part of team Never-passes.”

“Still an ominous name.”

“And it’s like, she’s easy to get along with, but also she gets along with people in Jeanine’s circle.”

“Eager to please?  Doesn’t want to be anyone’s enemy?  Or actually neutral, in that really complicated way we keep running into?”

“The first.  I think.  Which, like, I can sort of understand, with how much it can suck being Jeanine’s enemy.”

“Huh.  Okay.  I’d be worried about information leaking to Jeanine that she then uses.”

“Maybe I’ll ask Hui not to talk about me to Jeanine, and so she can stay neutral, not to tell me anything about Jeanine either?”

“Maybe,” Lucy said.

Avery flipped through some photos on her phone.  She pointed at a face.

“Sophy,” Lucy said.  She put her hands out to the side for balance all of a sudden, as her boot skidded on ice, gloved hand thwapping Avery’s arm.  Avery caught her arm to support her.

“Yeah,” Avery said.  “Jeanine’s friend.  A little more… biting?  I sort of get the feeling that if there were still mean girls like there are in old movies, she’d be one.”

“I wonder if Mia would be.  The way she went after Hailey.”

“Yeah.  Maybe!  Instead it’s all subtle and people do anonymous shit online.  It’s where there’s a bit of a break in the team.  I don’t know where that goes or what happens, or what Jeanine is planning.  Feels like any weakness, she’s ready to pounce on it, and that’s really freaking exhausting, you know?”

“Yeah.  Oh yeah.”

“And it’s silly because I don’t even know if it matters.  What if things go bad, tonight, and I have to leave Thunder Bay?”

“I don’t know,” Lucy said.  “And-or I’d have to leave Kennet?”

“It’s tricky,” Avery said.

“Best option: don’t lose,” Lucy said.

“Yeah, well…”

“Yeah.”

They walked for a few seconds.

“Anyway, doesn’t really matter.  It’d be cool if you could meet them, but don’t feel obligated to figure it all out beforehand,” Avery said.

“I want to know what you’re doing.  How you’re doing.  I want to understand what’s going on when you say you’re having an issue.  And if I do end up meeting them, well, don’t underestimate how much I prep to cover all the bases, be bulletproof, before meeting new people,” Lucy said.

Avery nodded.  “Mostly for me I’d describe it as me ditzing my way through things part of the time and internal screaming and cringing the rest of the time.”

“She comes by all of that that naturally,” Snowdrop said.  “I don’t want any blame.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Avery said.

Verona’s mom was staying at the motel, which paralleled the one that Lucy and her mom had been staying in.  Snowdrop made herself scarce, and the rest of them crossed the street and walked over.  Verona’s mom was by her car.

“There they are,” Verona’s mom said.  “Glad to see you before I have to go.  Lucy- you’re okay with Verona staying until things are more settled?”

“Sure.  She’s basically always welcome, unless, like, you or her dad kick up a fuss.”

“I just want her happy,” Verona’s mom said, putting a hand on Verona’s shoulder.  “And Avery.  You’re doing okay?  Your parents said you were in the hospital, then said you’re back in the hospital tonight?”

“They did, yeah,” Avery replied.

“And I want to be here with Ave,” Verona added.

“Got it.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a friendship as strong as what any of you have.”

“We’ve been through a lot together,” Avery said, throwing an arm around Verona’s shoulders as Verona joined her and Lucy, turning to face her mom.

With the arm-to-shoulder contact, she could feel as Lucy lightly jabbed Verona.

“So,” Verona said.  “Thank you for coming, great to see you.  Video call at the usual time?”

“Of course.  You can call anytime, not just the usual times, for a video call or if you want me to drop in.  I obviously can’t be here every day, I have work, but if you ask for me I’ll do my best.”

“Sure.  Uh-”

Lucy jabbed Verona again.

“Stop, Lucy, geez.  Leave me- Mom.  Uh.  I wanted to have a bigger conversation, but things kinda got messy-”

“We could talk now, if your friends are patient, or if they want to be here.  I- Lucy seems to know?”

“I know too, I think,” Avery said.

“It’s a daylight, full-focus conversation, and things right now are…”

“The house burned down, of course.  You and your dad need to navigate things, and-”

“I mean, yeah.  Related to that.  I was going to bring stuff up, but then I slept like crap, my hand acted up, which made sleeping and napping hard, other stuff going on… and I didn’t want to get into this big, uh, super serious stuff with other stuff in the way, me not at my best.”

“Okay,” her mom said, very serious.  She had her bag over her shoulder, and she turned, putting it on the roof of the car.  She faced Verona, hands clasped in front of her.  “Very serious.  Okay.  And you don’t want to share right now?”

“Another time.  Soon.  As soon as other stuff clears up.  I’m not ready yet.  Um, so keep your schedule clear, I guess, for a big conversation.  Probably we have to time it with Jasmine and Avery’s parents.”

“Kelsey and Connor,” Avery said, not sure if that was helpful.  Maybe to bring her parents to par on the first-name basis thing.

“A big, serious conversation with Jasmine, Kelsey, and Connor all there,” Verona’s mom said.

“And us,” Lucy said, indicating herself and Avery.

“Are you safe?” Verona’s mom asked.  “Are you in danger?”

Verona hesitated.

“I’ll take that as a no.  I’m sorry, I know you said you didn’t want to make this a conversation for right now, you’re tired, okay.  But I have to put pieces together, and- you don’t want to stay with your dad.”

“Well, I mean- that’s not a secret.”

“-and the last big piece of news I heard and was navigating was the tenant issue with your dad, which was really concerning, and you don’t feel safe, so I have to draw a certain conclusion…”

“Is that the vibe I’m giving off?” Verona asked.  “Nah.  That didn’t progress any further.  But it kind of… I stopped seeing even a glimmer of hope with Dad after that.  Um.  No.  But it relates to that.”

Her mom looked increasingly concerned.

Avery thought back to the Nora situation.

“Ronnie?” Avery ventured.

“What?”

“I dunno for sure, but maybe just come out with… as much of it as you can.  You’re hedging, it’ll make things worse, not better.”

“I want you to move to Kennet,” Verona said.

“Verona, I’m-” her mom looked exasperated.

“And- and-” Verona talked over her mom for a second.  “Mom.”

Her mom relented, going quiet.

Verona had asked for the space to speak, but now that she was here, she didn’t seem to know what to say.

Avery hadn’t seen her tongue tied like this very often.

“There’s some pretty good reasons.  I have a sales pitch.  Way better than you’re probably imagining,” Verona said.

“I can’t see it happening.”

Verona’s eyes had dropped to the snow-dusted parking lot at her feet.

“Keep an open mind?” Lucy asked.

Verona’s mom sighed.  “We’ll talk at that future point, okay?  Maybe not a big meeting, I don’t want to come across like the bad guy, or be pressured with other parents and your friends all there, or-”

“That doesn’t sound like an open mind,” Lucy said.

“We’ll talk.  I’ll hear you out,” Verona’s mom said.  “You can make your pitch.  I know you have great friendships, Jasmine said you were contributing things to a market, I think?  You’re doing great things like the concert.  You’re doing amazing things, and I want to support and encourage that.  I want to be part of it.  But-”

“But,” Verona replied.  She didn’t raise her eyes, and she nodded.

“If you’ve got a ‘no’ in mind now,” Lucy said, “And you’re holding that in mind throughout, is that even fair?  I think Verona could make a really good, shocking pitch, one that’s really relevant to you and everything you’re doing, your entire approach.  Exciting stuff.  But if you have that ‘no’ in mind like that, then I could see it poisoning things.  Even with a great argument that’s good for both of you.”

“Verona and I have talked about this, and there are other elements in play, personal ones, I don’t want to hash out in a parking lot, when Verona’s tired and hurting.”

“She’s worried she’ll become her worst self, stagnating in Kennet,” Verona said, not making eye contact with her mom.

“What if you become a better self?” Lucy asked.  “What if she’s actually pitching something amazing, and you’re so scared of becoming your worst self that you-”

“Lucy-”

“-you miss out on something great for both of you?” Lucy pressed on.

Verona’s mom sighed.  “It’s late.  I- don’t think it’s that simple.  I don’t see how it could be.”

Lucy pressed, “Verona’s got a great mind for seeing things that I don’t even know how someone could visualize it or connect the dots for it, and she’s great at talking to people who can’t talk.  She’s- you really should give her a shot.”

“I will.  I’ll come, we’ll talk, we’ll discuss,” her mom said.

“But you’re holding that ‘no’ in mind?” Verona asked.

“Just… do me a favor, and you hold the possibility I won’t be able to say yes in mind?  I’d hate to disappoint if you’re putting everything on this and then I can’t.”

“What if, theoretically, I earned a million dollars?” Verona asked.

“Are you sure you don’t want to have this discussion now?”

“This is a prelude to the discussion.  It’s necessary groundwork to the discussion.  What if?  What if I had a million and I needed you to help me when people wanted to take the money or big things were happening or I needed advice on how to put the money to good use?  And I couldn’t ask Jasmine, because she doesn’t have custody, I obviously couldn’t trust dad with it, he’s terrible with money.  And if I left Kennet I wouldn’t get a million?” Verona asked.

“It’s not a million dollars, though, is it?” her mom asked.

“No,” Verona said.

“I’ll hit the road, we’ll talk, we’ll figure out how to time things-”

“What if it’s bigger than a million?” Verona asked, deadly serious.  “Or at least, if I could choose between what this is and a million dollars, I’d take this?”

“Then… I wouldn’t feel prepared to tackle it.  I’d help you to find someone who could be a resource and-”

“And have them be the mom?” Verona asked, her voice a bit hollow, eyes on the parking lot.

“No.  I’ll always be your mom.”

“I don’t think you realize what you’re saying when you say you won’t tackle it,” Lucy said.

“I don’t.  I have no idea what’s going on, I promise you, I’ll come and we’ll discuss, we can hash this out.  Just let me know when.  I’ll make the time.”

“Okay,” Verona said.

“I love you.”

“Okay.  Same sentiment here,” Verona replied.

“I don’t like leaving things on this note.”

“Okay.”

“Have a good time with Lucy?  Like I said, I’ll be in touch?”

“Okay.”

The responses were robotic at this point.  Verona’s left hand trembled.  Avery wasn’t sure if it was the pain or the… pain.

Like Lucy had said, Verona could talk to people and spirits who didn’t have mouths.  She could figure stuff out, she had been on top of the technical truths way ahead of Lucy or Avery.  Especially Avery, Avery knew.

Still working on that.

But when it came to her mom, it was like… it was like Verona was a rocket ship that could only go forward and back and left and right, and turn on a wiggly diagonal, and her mom could go up and down and turn clockwise on a horizontal or vertical axis, and the two were trying to make contact without smashing to pieces against one another.  Because Verona’s mom wasn’t exactly wrong, not exactly, but…

This was hard.  Because Verona was clearly stung by the non-response, one of a few she’d gotten- Avery had heard about the firm ‘no’ she’d gotten after the stuff with her dad had really kicked off.  Avery wanted to help, but she didn’t know Verona’s mom as well, which was why she’d barely contributed to this conversation.

Verona’s mom came over to give Verona a hug, stiffer in its way than any of Grumble’s, and Grumble was an underweight old man who’d had multiple strokes.

Then Verona’s mom opened the car door, taking her bag from the roof to put in the passenger seat.

And Verona was…

Hurting.  Hurt.  Frustrated.  In as dark a place, maybe, as she’d been after the incident with Brett, and Verona’s mom didn’t seem to notice.

“Mrs. Hayward?” Avery asked, because she’d hate herself if she didn’t say anything.  “Hm.  It is Mrs. Hayward, right?  And not Ms. or your maiden name?”

“It is.  But call me Sylvia.  Hi Avery.”

Avery swallowed.  She glanced at Verona.  Was she making a bad situation worse?

Verona looked miserable.

“Hi, Sylvia.  Hmm.  Sorry, I don’t have my thoughts that organized.”

“I think I forgot to say but I hope your visit to the hospital goes okay.”

Avery shrugged.  “Thanks.  I wanted to ask, maybe a silly question, maybe I’m missing something, but when’s the last time Verona was priority number one?”

“That’s a complicated question.  I’m worried I could give you a genuine answer, talking about me coming all this way, as one example, but that can mean different things to different people.”

“My dad would say him, always him, he made me priority one, he’s always sacrificed, but he sacrificed for himself, really,” Verona said.

Avery nodded.

“McCauleigh.  Anselm.  Mal.  Tashlit.  Even Oakham, a bit. Julette, Peck,” Verona said.  “You guys, obviously.”

“I’d like to meet those people,” her mom said.

“Let me rephrase,” Avery said.  She felt like she was between those screwy rocket ships, now.  “I remember it being mentioned, I’m really hoping I’m not overstepping or bringing up anything bad, Ronnie, hm-”

“You’re okay, I think.”

“But that argument with your dad, and you told me and Lucy you said, for him it’s about sacrifice.  And it only matters if you sacrifice something for him.  If it hurts.  Your other friends, they’re great, but they don’t have much.  When’s the last time an adult, not a teenage friend, an adult, didn’t ask you to sacrifice, but sacrificed something for you, Ronnie?”

She looked at Sylvia, and it felt like maybe there was an inkling of something there.  Maybe?

“I mean, my mom coming into town, I don’t want to say that doesn’t mean something to me, it-”

“A big level.  A life or lifestyle level,” Avery said.  “When it wasn’t when you were hurt?”

Hands in her coat pockets, she could feel the mostly unnecessary bandage at her hip.

“Or you hurting- maybe it’s better to say you in crisis,” Avery added.

She could remember Mrs. Hardy bringing her loneliness up to her parents.

“Jasmine,” Verona said.

“Not in crisis though,” Avery said.

“Still my mom, I think,” Lucy said, to Verona.  “I might be biased.  But she had a job she hated, really truly hated, before she got a job at the local hospital.  The drug demonstration home visit thing.  She probably had better options in other places but a big reason she stayed in town so you and I could stay friends.”

“Fuck,” Verona said.  “That got mentioned, briefly.  I wasn’t paying attention.  I guess I’m not so good at connecting dots, huh?”

“Jasmine backs you up and that’s great, but… I feel like your mom should too,” Avery said.

“Jasmine backs me up, but I’m not her priority number one.  That’s Lucy.  I’m priority by extension,” Verona said.  “No, you’re totally right.  I don’t think I’m anyone’s priority number one.”

“I didn’t want to get down on you,” Avery said.  “Or get you down.  Just to paint a better picture of why this is frustrating and what you’re asking for, maybe.”

“You know, if Lucy dropped me as a friend?” Verona asked.

“I won’t,” Lucy said.

“-and I wanted to go over and it wasn’t an emergency?  It probably wouldn’t happen, right?” Verona asked.  “She’d check in, maybe have me over for a holiday, but…”

“Sorry,” Avery said.

“Are you fucking with me?” Verona asked.

Avery was in the midst of glancing at Sylvia, to see if she was getting the point, and was caught off guard, “No.  I’m just…”

“Because this is one hell of a kick to the clit when I wasn’t exactly feeling chipper,” Verona said, making a fist and swinging her arm sideways as she said that.  The playful emotion was at odds with her voice, which was increasingly thick with emotion.  “What, nobody loves me enough to go out of their way for me?  Verona sucks, I guess?  And you’re bringing this up tonight?”

“It’s similar for me, that’s part of- you’re not alone.  It’s a problem in general,” Avery replied.  “Or it was a problem and it’s a bit better, but-”

She thought about that dinner at home.

“-I’m not sure, I’m still figuring that out.”

“Was it?  Your dad homeschooled you.  He quit his job to, right?  And he let you go to Thunder Bay, even though it was messy…”

“He- he did for us and I got lost in the us, you know that,” Avery told Verona.  “But it felt like years of everyone letting me down.  And Thunder Bay was a crisis thing.”

“Fuck all of this,” Verona replied, stress thick in her voice.

“I get it and I think you get it too, I think that’s one place we’re really similar, and… I don’t think it helps anyone, not having it out in the open.  You looked so miserable.”

Verona shook her head, and let out an exhalation, the sound of that exhalation hitting on two different major emotions that Avery couldn’t place between the start, middle and end of the breath, shoulders hunching, expression momentarily twisting.  “Okay.  Let’s get it into the open, I guess.”

“Sorry,” Avery said.  “I didn’t mean it to come off like an attack or…”

“No, no, let’s- sure.  Dad was the opposite of making me a priority.  Sorry, mom, love you, like hanging out, but I’ve asked, I’ve begged, I’ve hinted at what was going on with dad, and it’s… I’m not getting- no.  Not unless it’s an emergency and even then…”

“Can I give you a hug?  We should talk this out,” Sylvia said.

“No.  Fuck.  I’ve got stuff to do.  I’ve- no hug.  I-” Verona shook her head quickly.  She couldn’t form full sentences.  “No teacher that had me as a favorite or singled me out to mentor.  No- closest I had to that was Alexander fucking Belanger, maybe-”

“I don’t know him or what happened-”

“-he went into the woods to get a bullet in his head.  And he almost got Avery killed and tried to destroy everything I’ve been trying to build-”

“Hey,” Lucy said, reaching out for Verona’s shoulder.

Verona grabbed Lucy’s sleeve.  Holding Lucy’s wrist while Lucy had her hand there, but not stopping.  “-before the bullet, but hey, I think he saw something in me somewhere in the middle of that, so yay, I guess?”

“Can you slow down?” Sylvia asked.

“And I fucking had a teacher I liked last semester, went to tell him he was doing a great job and he fucking quit before the next class, I think, so what the hell, right?”

“You told me about him.  I didn’t realize it affected you-”

“It’s everything!  It’s… no real parents, no teachers, no mentors, no neighbors, no role models, really.  Closest I’ve got is Tash, who’s losing her skin, and Zed, who doesn’t even live in the province anymore, and Jasmine, by proxy, through Lucy.  And okay, sure, fine.  I’ve got McCauleigh and Anselm, Mal, all the others, I’ve got a house to stay at, just leave me the fuck alone, but no, apparently I need a parent and that’s this big freaking deal, so I reach out and what do I even get?”

“What house are you staying at?  Jasmine’s?”

“No.  I own a house.  It’s got a shop downstairs.  I’ve been trying to tell you shit and you’re not meeting me halfway.”

“How?”

“Is that the point?” Lucy asked.

“She’s telling the truth?  Or is this a return to the ladder-”

“Fuck the ladder girl story!” Verona raised her voice.  “I haven’t lied here!”

“It’s true,” Lucy said.  “About the house.”

“How do you have a house?  Assuming this isn’t you three trying to make a point.”

“That’s not what we’re doing,” Avery said.

“Small wonder I hate the idea of growing up, when every other adult seems so fucking sad and disappointing.”

“I’m sorry,” her mom said.  “I’m trying.”

“Are you going to maybe consider moving- stop!”

Avery jumped a little with the force of that last word, which bordered on a screech.

“I didn’t say or do anything.”

Verona’s eyes were glowing lavender.  Not that her mom could see that.  “You were preparing.  Ready with an answer before I’d even finished the question.  Let’s try that again.  Will- Mom!”

“What do you want me to say!?” her mom raised her voice some.  “No, wait, I know what you want me to say, but-”

“Stop!  Stop saying ‘but’.  Start- I’m not even asking you to say yes.  Give me some sense you’re willing to hear me out, that we can hash out all the possibilities, that I can lay things out, tell you what’s really going on, and that you’ll consider it before shooting it down.  Because then the next step, it’s- we gotta figure something out, because I basically burned my bridge with dad and I can’t leave Kennet.”

“I-” her mom sighed again.  “I’m forty-seven years old.  I’ve got a long history of studying myself, because I’m a hard person for even myself to work out.  I stayed with your dad for too long because I was too slow to realize certain things.  I- I’m worried.  Because I found a version of me I’m okay with and I don’t think there are many other versions of me that are good for me or for you… and I get the feeling you’re- you’re in the same boat, maybe.”

“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Avery said.

“Maybe.  But even without those extra complications… if we’re each clinging to the ‘normal’ we’ve managed to scrounge up after a lot of work, can either one of us budge?”

“What Avery was saying?” Verona asked.  She shrugged.  “You brought me into the world.”

Verona shrugged again.  Like she’d already forgotten she’d shrugged a second ago.

“Maybe I’m owed you… budging?  Maybe-”

Her voice shook a little.

“Maybe I’m tired of being the one constantly letting go, having to take the leap, getting my own damn house when I can’t be at Dad’s, starting a business, and finding people and… why is it always me making the sacrifices?  Can’t I, just this once, say, fuck, you let go, you budge?”

Avery glanced at Lucy.

A good three or four seconds passed without anyone speaking up.

“I’m not even asking you to agree to it right now.  I want to hammer that in.  I just want to feel like what I’m saying matters and what I’ve been doing counts for something.  I don’t even know if Kennet’s going to be here next week.”

“You keep saying things that I can’t get my head around.  What are you even talking about?”

“That’s the point though, isn’t it?” Verona asked.  “I’ve got to reach out.  I’ve got to be the one to explain.  I’ve got to be the one to take the risks and make the sacrifices.  I’ve been going my own way, figuring it out and now I’m being asked to fill you in on the full story, and it’s fucked.”

“I’m sorry.  And I’m confused.”

“You know what’s fucked up?” Verona asked.

“What’s fucked up?” her mom replied.

“You want the good fucked or the bad fucked?” Verona asked.

“I could do with some good.”

“You, talking to CAS.  Talking to Dad, to threaten him, to get him on board.  So I could stay with Jasmine.  That counts.  That was a good moment.  It’s not- it’s not what I’m asking for.  But it was good.  Fucked I wasn’t quicker on the draw, remembering that.”

“I’m glad it was a positive.”

“You know, um, when I had the big argument with dad, towards the middle of Summer?”

“I won’t forget.  I wasn’t there, obviously,” her mom replied.

“I told Dad I almost died over the summer.”

Her mom shook her head.  “You keep mentioning things-”

“They’re real,” Lucy interrupted.

“I told Dad I almost died over the summer, and he bulldozed past me, he didn’t get it, he barely even heard the words,” Verona repeated, almost robotic, the words already chosen.  “I told you I have something here that’s bigger than a million dollars and I need backup.  I feel like, if you were really listening, really taking me seriously-”

“I am.”

“-you would’ve asked more about that.  That’s the bad fucked thing.”

“You said you didn’t want to share yet.  That it was waiting for the meeting, with the other parents.  After the stuff with the house fire blows over.”

Verona shrugged.  She turned to Avery.  “Fuck.”

“Sorry, I didn’t realize I was…”

“Opening a metaphorical Pandora’s box?”

Lucy stood behind her, hands on her shoulders, now, rubbing through her winter coat.

“Yeah.  Is it really that much better if I don’t?” Avery asked.  “Sorry.  That sounds aggressive.  It’s a genuine question.  Is it better to tackle the tough stuff tonight with things unsaid and painful, or said and raw?  You looked miserable enough I was worried it’d hurt things.  I honestly don’t know.”

“I dunno either,” Verona replied.  “I’m not good at this stuff.”

“When you’re talking about tonight, you mean the hospital stay?” Verona’s mom asked.

Verona’s mom was still by the car, car door open, watching.

Verona snorted, shaking her head.

“I hear what you’re saying,” Sylvia said, in a very measured, calm voice.  “You’re right.  It’s not fair.  I know you’re frustrated.  At the same time, I get the feeling I’m also being made out to have done something wrong, when I’m not sure what that extra thing is.”

“You don’t know,” Verona said.  “There is no hospital stay.  That’s a cover story the others are going along with.  We’ve been lying to you, others have been lying to you, we’re keeping info from you, it’s really all very shitty.”

“Ronnie?” Avery asked.

Sylvia was frowning now.

“It sucks, it’s unfair, huh?” Verona asked.  “Not cool to you to hold info back, then get mad at you for not knowing.  But I’m stuck in something big here, I can’t leave it, I’ve got to go handle it, and if you’d met me partway before or even tonight, I don’t think much would be held back and we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“What’s going on?”

“And as unfair as that may be, or may not be, I dunno.  I don’t think you’ve been fair to me here, either.  I don’t know how many times I said dad’s a problem or hinted there was more going on, that you maybe intentionally avoided confronting, because it was convenient…”

“Maybe subconsciously?  I don’t know.  But Verona, you have to tell me.”

“I have to handle some serious shit.  I’ll get back to you on that.”

“We really do,” Lucy said.

“Fuck, I’m lobbing some awful crap and hard questions into your parents’ laps, huh?” Verona asked.

Lucy, arms folded, noted, “My mom’s working tonight.  She asked for the shift.  I think in case I ended up in the hospital.”

“Call my parents?” Avery told Sylvia.  “Or go to them?  I’ll text them to let them know.”

“Tell them I’m sorry while you’re at it?” Verona asked.  “For all this bullshit?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m really tired,” Verona said.  “Of a lot of this.  And I’m tired of my hand hurting.”

“Yeah,” Avery replied.

“I’m going to bail,” Verona told her mom.

“We really should talk this through.  I could try to get another night at the motel, or we could go to Jasmine and Lucy’s, um, I know she’s working tonight, but it’d be a better venue, more comfortable.”

“Nah.  I’m going to bail,” Verona said, her eyes glowing lavender.  “You can talk to Avery’s parents, they can confirm stuff’s not B.S..  They can’t tell you the full story yet, so don’t get on their case.”

“What story?”

Verona jerked her head to the side.

Avery wasn’t sure she agreed with leaving things like this, but it was Verona’s call, really.  They headed away from the end of the motel parking lot that, thankfully, wasn’t so close to the rooms that the raised voices would have bothered many people, then crossed the road.  There wasn’t much traffic.

Sylvia caught up with them, putting a hand on Verona’s shoulder.

“You left your car open,” Verona pointed out.

“Look, talk to me.  Come with me.”

“Stuff to do.”

“Stay put, let me close that.”

“I’ll talk to you later,” Verona said.

Her mom hesitated, then held up a finger, jogging back toward the parking lot and the car.

Verona turned, leading the way.  Snowdrop waited in the alley, carrying Alexanderp, and reunited with them, and helped to guide them to one of the ways through to Kennet below.  Between some partially uncoiled hoses looped around at the back of a wall and a bit of wooden fence, through the fence, then back through the other end.

They were just barely through when Avery could hear Sylvia calling out to Verona.  Footsteps audibly jogged past the twist in reality they’d passed through.

Avery texted her parents to let them know.

They took a second, Lucy and Verona leaning against one wall of the alley, Avery and Snowdrop leaning against the other.

“If I may interject?” the little homunculus that Snowdrop was carrying interjected.  He mugged for a nonexistent camera.  “Outside of my usual commentary, if you’ll allow me, I think this exceptional situation warrants a departure from the usual programming, as I bring our attention to, again, only if you don’t mind my interruption…”

“Seth or Chuck, we’re not even saying anything,” Lucy spoke over the babbling homunculus.

A moment passed.  It went quiet.

Avery couldn’t hear Sylvia anymore.  Silence reigned in the little alleyway in Kennet below.

“Fuck,” Verona said.  She closed her eyes.

“Sorry again,” Avery said.

“I don’t know what happened.  That wasn’t a curse, was it?  Or omen?  Charles’ influence?  I feel like I would’ve Seen that.”

“I didn’t See anything,” Lucy said.  “But I do think it’s Charles’ influence.”

“Fuckery?” Verona asked.

“He’s a scumbag and a monster who’s pushed things to a limit, his people burned your house down, we’re going to try to deal with him… that’s influence.  Your dad has influence over you.  Logan’s annoying fucking face influences me.”

“I’m usually better at handling my shit.”

“Your house burned down,” Avery said.  “We’re under pressure.  Pent-up stuff comes out, I guess.  You going to be okay?”

“I dunno.  We should go, right?  It’s late.”

“…Yeah,” Lucy said, clearly unsure.  She met Avery’s eyes.

“Then let’s go.”

Kennet below was not in the best place.  Avery felt uncomfortable, more than she usually did, here.  She hadn’t had the weeks to get used to the residents or help police it, she hadn’t formed bonds, and she didn’t get it, on that same, usual level.

In a way, it felt a bit like Verona earlier.  Like everyone or anything could be provoked in a bad way, and all it took was stumbling onto the wrong trigger.  Going to the wrong territory, crossing the wrong person.  Too much eye contact, too little, get in someone’s way, show too much weakness?  There’d be confrontation.

It was worse because the people who’d been with Maricica hadn’t all been cleared out.  Were there any people that Avery was walking past that might try to stick her with a knife, just for the brownie points with the goddess they still worshiped?

She imagined it was what being in prison was like.

The Vice Principal and her faculty were present, with the kids from the school all around them, ages five to seventeen.  Some Stuck-Arounds had been corralled.  The Bitter Street Witch was here- she’d dealt with the Oldbodies, and her brothers were here.  Even Stew Mullen had showed up.

Factions were in their own groups, with a kind of no-man’s land between them.  The major factions of Kennet below were apparently cooperating, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t some jostling and stuff.  The spaces between the undercity groups were filled by goblins, who had a lot less in the way of allegiances.  The local goblins, merchants, Warrens things- Avery wasn’t sure, but it might’ve included a fleshmongler?  Orchestrated by Toadswallow.  Toadswallow stood with his back to them, talking in a low croak of a voice to various goblins.  Bubbleyum stood beside him, several times his height, her hair down- long locks of what might’ve been bleached blond hair, turned tacky and pink-ish because bubblegum had been worked into it and then pulled out.  She chewed gum slowly and watched them with one eye.

“So?” the Bitter Street Witch asked.

“So, way we discussed it, it’s best if we go to Kennet found to gather our forces to one place.  Exceptions for the usual mask rule,” Avery said.  “If everyone’s ready?”

Toadswallow, glancing over his shoulder, gave them a sharp little nod.  Nothing too obvious, like he was being devious, keeping his role as a major player in Kennet below a secret.

“Yeah,” the Vice Principal said.

“Miss,” Lucy said, pulling on her fox mask.

“Miss,” Avery said.  She shook out the charm for her deer mask and pulled that on.

“Miss,” Verona finished, cat mask already on.

Miss made her appearance, with a swirl of snow, and a distortion of perspective.  She was a figure of hard-to-define perspective, who could’ve been leaning against the ski hills or been right in front of Avery.

Hair, skirt, sleeves, and snow all stirred around them.  The hair and cloth rose around the entirety of the one-or-so thousand people in the Kennet below group.  As it closed together, encircling them all, the moon overhead flashed, and turned red.  The sky above them bled out into a different tone and shade, still laced with that red.

The cloth came down, curtain parting, and they were in Kennet found.  All of the foundlings and Lost in red were still there, a little better prepared.  Sootsleeves was there, at the edges, sitting in a jeep with winterized tires, leaning out the open door.  She had a flare in one hand, and it cast even more of a red tint, with smoke rolling out around her.  Birds, rats, and orphans filled spaces around the periphery here in much the same way goblins had in Kennet below.

The rest of Kennet’s Others were present.  Except Guilherme.  Miss, Freak and Squeak, Matthew, Alpeana, Tashlit, Nibble and Chloe, the Dog Tags, Jabber, Montague, the Turtle Queen.  Not everyone had masked up, and those who’d come over from Kennet below were unmasked.  It didn’t look like the red-tinted foundlings and Lost cared.

Luna Hare jumped Snowdrop, hopping onto her back, as a surprise piggy-back ride.  Snowdrop only barely avoided faceplanting by pulling on Avery’s natural abilities for a moment.

A few absences caught Avery’s eye.  Guilherme, naturally.  No Rook.  No Hollow Yen.

Matthew had a few people with him.  It took Avery a second to connect just who they were, until Verona gave Avery a look.

Matthew had found fifteen people.  Avery wasn’t one hundred percent sure about the organization of it, and they overlapped, but it wouldn’t have surprised her if it was five white sheep, five black sheep, and five lost sheep.  Those who had made crossings, in spirit and style, to end up in Kennet above, Kennet below, and Kennet found, respectively.  He was meant to pick out people who had a sense of what was going on, were Aware, or had made friends who’d given them enough details.

While Verona had been doing spell cards, some minor magic items and alchemy, Avery had done a circuit of the perimeter.  A bit of love and a few preparations and traps dropped off.  She’d refreshed herself on the shrines, and did an arrangement for each.

She got the twigs and twine out of her bag.

Sixteen arrangements, stacked over one another.

She passed them over.

“Pass them around between yourselves,” Matthew said.  “Feel the weight of the arrangements, try to get a feel for what’s inside.  If one feels okay, hold onto it, keep passing them around.  Figure out which ones have the best fit.”

“It’ll help if they’re in a circle,” Verona said.

“Right,” Matthew replied.

They got into a circle.  With how things were arranged, the Kennet below factions as a tighter circle than the Kennet found one, where everyone gave each other a bit more room, or stood off on their own, stood on rooftops, the sixteen people were a tighter circle yet, toward the center.

While they did that, Avery undid her bracelet.  She slipped it into a pocket, and walked around the outer edges of the group.

Doors slammed.  The noise of it felt more jarring than it ever had.  Conversations were kept to low murmurs.

“Mom?” Lucy said.  Phone at her ear.  “Yeah.  Now.  Yeah.  When I can.”

Verona, cat mask on, stood there, hands jammed into pockets, introspective.  McCauleigh and Julette navigated the crowd to get to her side.

Avery was worried that it would be as hard to find a door that worked as it had been yesterday.  In a way, wouldn’t that be a relief?  A completely excusable, workable explanation for how this couldn’t go to the next logical step?

How much of Verona’s reaction had been her wanting to avoid this next step?

She found herself looking at a doorway.  Upside-down cake in white, the door was dark blue, almost black, with a splash of magenta-pink paint.

She pushed on the door.  It opened on its own, swinging out, then pulling itself the rest of the way open.  Gravity swayed, almost pulling her in with it, and she could see down the length of the Path.  It was a spiraling descent, the Path arranged like a long tube, with balconies, ledges, and jutting pieces of equipment corkscrewing down its walls.  Objects were regularly thrown or sent falling, some Lost made leaps both precise and sloppy, the latter falling down the length of the tube to the hole at the end of it.  Eerie music played.

Lucy had asked for extra karma.  Was this path being here right now that karma in action?

“That works, doesn’t it?” Miss asked, behind Avery.

“Familiar with it?” Avery asked.

“Never saw it before today.  But it does work.”

“Yeah, just…” Avery trailed off, looking.  “I’ve only passed through it in this brief way.  The Party Down.  Usually you go from Bound to the Party through this to Down the Tubes.  It’s tricky to navigate, and if you misstep, you fall…”

She indicated the center of that corkscrew.  The alignment of the Path meant that ‘down’ was straight out past the door.  People could leap from balcony to ledge and keep close to the walls, and if they could do that for just a little ways, they’d get out into Down the Tubes.

But if they fell, they’d gravitate toward the middle, they’d plunge out the other side, and like a lot of Path dismounts, they’d get sent to a place that met certain prerequisites.  Sometimes that prerequisite was so narrow that someone like Jude’s cousin would get sent to South America, because it was the nearest place.  Falling Oak Avenue deposited its people on the nearest Oak street, Oak avenue, Oak boulevard, or whatever, to where they wanted to be.

A dismount or effective ‘fail’ in Party Down put the Finder in close proximity to an enemy or rival who would be most annoyed with their arrival.

Yeah.  This worked.

Avery turned to speak to the crowd, just in time to see Matthew helping the first of the fifteen volunteers.  A young woman, maybe someone who’d gone from Kennet found to Kennet below, if Avery had to guess.

The twigs and twine had broken porcelain worked into it.

The woman’s chest thrust forward, back arching, as bits of the twigs and twine broke.  Matthew’s arm was out straight, holding it firm, and with the way the outer frame for the arrangement held, while the inner frame broke, and Matthew blocked the flow backward, there really was only one way out.  Into the woman’s chest.

Her skin and the hair that was billowing around her turned white.  The blue detail on white porcelain pattern crept across her, with some cracks running from eye to temple.  Clothing shattered.

Others got their turns.  Florescence, Lott.  Machinehead- of course it was the biggest dude.  Blushstroke, Footspur.

“Okay,” Avery said.

The murmur of conversation went quiet.

“Ahem,” Alexanderp cleared his throat.  “I’ll take this opportunity to speak, thank you all for hearing me out, thank you all for coming, I know it’s a long trip for some of you, I extend my thanks, especially with the importance of what what comes next…”

He trailed off.

Whoever had started listening in had backed off.

“This is it,” Avery said, voice soft.

There were some nods.

“People that know the way to the Blue Heron should go through first.  From there, we should keep a steady stream going.  Everyone just follow the rest.  You go through, leap, avoid the balconies and ledges.  Straight down the center of the hole.”

“That would be Tashlit, Gashwad, Alpeana, Cherrypop, and myself, among the Others,” Toadswallow croaked.  “I’m not a good one to lead this.  I had things to talk to others about.  Away from prying ears.”

“Yes.  Toadswallow, Undercity leaders, we had more strategy to discuss,” Miss said.  “Go through this way, to the ledge.  We can talk, then you join the tail end of things.”

“Leaving Tashlit, Gashwad, Alpeana, and us five,” Avery said, indicating herself, Verona, Lucy, Snowdrop, and Cherrypop.  Cherrypop wouldn’t be the best one to direct them.  “I think, just to make sure we land at the destination we want, one of us three should lead.”

Matthew had finished with the fifteen.

He was the sixteenth.  He pressed the arrangement to his chest and crushed it.

This was Heartless magic.  Hosting, specifically.  The Doom of Edith James was so weak it was nonexistent, and Matthew Moss was more a practitioner than he’d been in a long time.  Edith was gone.  There was only the Girl by Candlelight, out there.

Matthew was free, and he’d chosen Smoulder.  The spirit of smoke and embers.

His eyes flared.

There was something to that decision, Avery figured.  She wasn’t sure what it was.  A homage?  A rebuke?  Anticipation of the Girl by Candlelight targeting him when he got there?

“I should stay to keep the door open,” Avery said.

“Then I’ll go,” Lucy said.

“If there’s an interruption in the stream of people we’re sending through, we’ll reboot with Gashwad, Alpeana, or someone else who knows the area we’re going to.  It’ll make it easier for the connection to hold,” Avery said.

Lucy nodded.  “I just go through?”

“Yep.  Keep an eye out for any hostile Lost.  They aren’t too bad here, but…”

“Yeah.”

Lucy paused.  Then she took a running leap, throwing herself through.

Verona directed people to move.  Following immediately after.

That vertigo feeling intensified.  People were pretty consistent about going through in a steady stream without jamming at the doorway, but when there were gaps, Avery could see people basically skydiving.  A crowd falling down the Path’s length.  Smaller goblins, pigeons, rats, and kids went through beside the adult people who were passing through.

Miss passed through, and the lights in Kennet found went out.

Toadswallow was after her, and then the Undercity leaders and Matthew.  The Vice Principal had no steed, apparently having sent it out ahead.  All angling themselves to land on a balcony so they could talk and say things without Charles listening.

“Remember that the Belangers have tools to spy on Paths!” Avery called through.

“Got it, my dear!” Toadswallow called back.

She stood back a bit, Snowdrop in front of her, as the people went through.

At the midpoint, Verona made the leap.

Avery got her phone out, one eye on things, to make sure it was okay.  She saw a break, as two different queues of people from Kennet below clashed, pausing too long, staring each other down, each person wanting the other to let them go through first.

“You,” she told one side of the queue.  “Right after Gashwad.”

Gashwad helped re-establish the flow, and kept them targeted toward the Blue Heron.

Avery, phone out, went through the sub-folder of contacts she’d singled out.  Texts were written, left hanging, and she was really glad her phone hadn’t auto-updated and cleared everything.

She sent the green light to others.  Contacts, friends they’d made.

“Going!” Matthew hollered, and his voice had a quality to it that was probably the spirit of Smoulder he was hosting.

“Okay!” Avery called back.

That would be Miss, Toadswallow, the Undercity gang leaders, and Matthew leaving the balcony.

Avery ushered more people through.  Still wary of the people from the Undercity who could try to screw this up.  If there was a group at the tail end who pretended to be a part of all of this, then came at Avery with bats?

Some Stuck-Around types gave her dangerous looks, but they went through.  Some of the last.

“Snow,” Avery said.

Snowdrop broke away from Luna, went through, and Luna Hare went after.

Avery looked around.

Kennet found was dark.  Empty, now.  Without the lights of other things, and maybe because the sky was a few percent darker than it had been, the red seemed to consume everything.

She went through the door.

Into the Party Down.  She could hear the door slam far behind her as she fell, hair and coat whipping around her.

Arms stretched out, ribbons and bracelets fluttering at her wrist, where her coat sleeve had pulled back a bit with the wind, she embraced the Path as a moment of peace.

Black rope around her wrist, she navigated using it.

Past the stragglers, like that group of Stuck-Arounds.

Out to Snowdrop, who she caught with one arm.  Snowdrop was skydiving in concert with Luna, opossum and hare moving like they were meant to be people who spent their lives falling like this.  Lost navigating Paths with more ease than visitors could.

Avery did okay, she figured.

She black roped forward again, catching up with Verona, who was a good ways down.

“It’s long!” Verona hollered, voice stolen by the wind.

Avery only nodded.

But the exit was in sight.  A night sky, and a dim, distorted view of the campus.  Bristow’s building was finished.  The west wing, the church-like center-building, the east wing, the workshops between the main building and the parking lot.  Blue-tinted glass for most of the windows, especially in the main part of that central building.

She could feel the barrier protecting that space as they fell.

Lost practices had some benefits, and there were Finders who specifically ran Paths for the dismounts, navigating their way to certain Paths, knowing they could get inside a magic circle.  Something like Thea’s vault, with her magic items each linked to a pocket world, all the protections in the walls and door?  A good dismount from the right Path could drop someone straight into a place like that.  The Lost practices were niche, and the countermeasures weren’t in wide employ.

Countermeasures had been put into place.  Avery didn’t know if the creators of the school had done it from the start or if Charles had suggested it, but there was a barrier, and instead of landing all over campus, across the rooftop, and everything else, they were diverted.  They curved as they fell, and curved more sharply as they got closer to the ground.

Avery, Verona, and Snowdrop hit road.  Just past the school.

The Path dismount didn’t let them get hurt as they fell.

Luna, who’d kept close to Snowdrop, went through nearby trees like a person had been thrown out of an airlock of a plane overhead, breaking branches on the way down, and came out of it unscathed.

Avery could See Others coming down.  Streaks from above, curving in the air.  Pushed out toward the perimeter.  They were being scattered into a loose circle surrounding the campus.

Not as close as she’d hoped as she saw it was the Party Down, but she’d been willing to get dropped off with less accuracy or proximity when she’d started looking for doors.

Something howled.

Light flashed in the distance, above trees, bright against the night sky, from another direction than the howl, like lightning had struck, but there was no thunder, and that light was static, like television static.

Avery backed up a step.

There was a barrier around the campus.  Someone or something began to attack it, and it glowed, almost a bubble surrounding things.

“Lucy, Lucy, Lucy,” Verona murmured.

Then she nodded.

Avery, Avery, Avery.

Lucy’s voice.

Avery and Verona looked in the same direction.

Avery used the black rope as they moved through the trees, and the fact it was trees made it all a lot easier.

People who’d been dropped off closer to the edges were wading through snow and moving between trees.  Tense, almost ready to attack as Avery and Verona came through from the flanks, circling around and moving in a strange way instead of moving toward the school.

A multi-note explosion went off, and the dark forest lit up blue as the barrier glowed, reacting, or glowed because it was the source of the explosion, rebuking some fierce attack.  The thunder without the lightning strike, this time.

She found Lucy, crouched in snow, with Dog Tags around her.  Lucy straightened as she saw Avery, and moved over to join her and Verona.

Verona’s finger pointed.  Snowdrop was holding the homunculus, who was posing a bit, smiling awkwardly.

Are they watching us?

Waiting to see what our first play is?

Fuck, this felt so fucked.

Even Horseman and Grandfather were giving them looks.

Avery pulled a charm off her bracelet and cast it down.

The door materialized, freestanding, planted in snow at a slight angle.  Immediately, a door to the Paths replaced it, slamming into existence with enough force some snow was spat up.

That one worked too.  Avery nodded.

She pushed it open.  A place that could’ve been mistaken for a mixture of a red carpet event and a royal court was in full swing, there.

“Don’t wander on this Path,” she told her friends, her head turning.

As if she could look out and meet the eyes of Charles or Maricica, or someone else.  But there was only the darkness.

That howl happened again.

She walked through.  Into the Crossed Hearts, hands fixing her hair some, the snowflakes that had fallen on it providing the dampness to get stuff pushed in the right directions.

It felt weird.  Putting the bracelet back on.  Letting that door close.  Snowdrop on this side, Luna on the other.  Lucy on this side, the Dog Tags on the other.

The door slammed shut, disappearing.

Them on this side, the fight happening over there.

They could only participate once, and they’d been told it was better if they waited.

Avery took two glasses of fizzy soda from a waiter with a passing tray.  The bubbles were heart shaped.  She handed one to Snowdrop.  Lucy got one of her own.

“Let’s find a table,” she told the other two, eyes scanning the outdoor patio.  “This is as close as we’re going to get to being out of Charles’ earshot, I guess.  Two priorities.”

“Stopping Charles,” Lucy said.

“And protecting Kennet.  He’ll probably strike out, while it’s empty of most of its defenders,” Verona said.  “Miss is going to rubberband back.  She can do stuff.  We’ve got some stuff.  But if he wants to throw the people attacking him for a loop, making them wonder if they should go back to Kennet to protect it is a good way.”

“Yeah,” Avery agreed.  She checked her Zed-issued phone.  “We should get an alert from him and Nicolette if there’s movement in that direction, then we can drop in, try to handle it or figure it out.”

“How are we going to keep track of what’s going on?” Lucy asked.  “When we’re not there?”

Avery shrugged as she walked, looking for a place to sit.  “We can loop back around.  I remember how this Path goes, from what I read about it.  We can finish it, get dropped off back at home.  If there’s a way, we can step back out onto a Path that gives us a good bird’s eye view of what’s happening.  But for now, while we’re out of earshot, basically…”

She looked at the homunculus, who sat there looking pleased with himself, but quietly, and not really posing.

“….Let’s pull things together,” Avery said.

The others didn’t object.

She spotted an empty table.  She was already taking mental note of who the key players were in this stage of the Crossed Hearts.

Verona sat, sprawling forward, chest, arms and chin on the table.  Snowdrop, sitting opposite her, did something similar, resting her forehead against Verona’s, arms just outside Verona’s, and Verona smiled.

Lucy plunked herself down, sighing.  Clearly restless.

Avery went into her bag, to pull out things she’d printed out, and notes in general.  She was restless too, in a slightly different way.

She’d called in favors and contacts.  Discreetly, Miss was letting Anthem out.  There were markets and fellow students they’d met in their summer at the Blue Heron.  And there was Clementine and the Sargent Hall Aware.

All chips down.  Everyone participating.  Except them.

They had to make this count.

It was a refrain that had dogged her when she’d made a plan against Maricica.

They had to make this count.

“You should nap,” Lucy told Verona.

“Do you think I can?” Verona asked, head and arms still on the table.

“I know.  I wouldn’t be able to either.  But you should.”

Verona grunted lightly.

“Let’s talk plans,” Lucy said.  “We’re in a bad place.  I think I bought time with my chat with the Sable, but I think the people Charles was considering dealing with are people who don’t really wait.  So if they call, and Charles says yes…”

“Disaster,” Avery said.

“Okay,” Verona said.  She groaned as she straightened a bit, sitting up.  “Then I’m just going to open right up and say it.  We have a track record of being involved in the downfall of Alexander, headmaster of the Blue Heron, and Bristow, de-facto headmaster of the Blue Heron.  Then Musser.  Not always responsible, but involved.”

“And Charles…” Lucy ventured.

Lucy’s leg was bouncing, like she couldn’t keep it still.

Verona finished, “…Has centered himself on the school.  I dunno about you guys, but to me that says he’s headmaster.  Let’s keep the pattern going?”

“I’m down,” Avery said.  She paused.  The whole thing with her parents.  The blow-up between Verona and her mom, especially, and Lucy’s anxiety here… it was all rooted in the same sort of issue.

“Notes, notes, notes,” Verona said, pulling her backpack onto her lap and digging inside it.  She laid out items and vials on the table.  Special order, basically.  Things with specific intents in mind.

“Remember way back at the beginning, when we asked who would be capable of killing the Carmine Beast?” Lucy commented.  “We were told the strength we’d have to bring to bear would be equal or similar to what it’d take to stop all violence in the region, weren’t we?  Or am I confusing that with John and what it takes to stop a Dog Tag?”

“That’s why we took notes,” Verona said.

Lucy got her own notebooks.

Laying things out.  Getting their heads straight.

After all of this, after the initial investigation, the Blue Heron, the struggle, the compounding complications across Summer, the absolute clusterfuck of complications after Summer, with Charles’ reign as Carmine, and everything else… it was getting too hard to see the other side.

“We’re doing an okay job, mustering forces in that department, strength-wise, right?” Lucy asked.

“Hmmm, maybe,” Avery said.  “It’s a different dynamic, since the area emptied, power’s shifted around.  Charles is still a bit weak from being gainsaid.”

“Right.  But that’s the scale we’re talking about.  And we’re hoping our guys can find or create a chink in his armor for us to go after,” Lucy said.  Her leg bounced.  She put elbow on the table and her hand played with the chain at her neck, with the weapon ring, John’s dog tag, and Yalda’s ring on it.

Verona’s mom had wanted to establish her boundary.  Verona had wanted, Avery figured, to have hope that when everything was said and done, war fought, there could be an ideal outcome.

Avery’s parents, she figured, were just scared as hell.  Jasmine probably was too.  That they could die.  That something terrible could happen.

Lucy worried about the Others.  People she’d bonded with.  The surest way to protect them was to be involved, and she couldn’t.  Because the Kennet Others had their own fear about what was on the ‘other side’ of this conflict.  After this fight, what lay beyond?

It could be an endless series of fights.  And they’d be forsworn?  Maybe Charles could push for that and maybe an allied Alabaster and neutral Sable couldn’t mount a sufficient resistance to it.  Avery wasn’t sure.  But they were united on it, so… okay.

The chain at Lucy’s neck jangled as she fidgeted with it, pulling everything out from beneath her collar, as she looked down at notes, refreshing herself.

It all came down to the future, and what lay ahead, and what might happen if that future looked particularly troubled or dark.

Avery had only loosely sketched out her plan with the others with Alexanderp as a protective element, but she hadn’t felt secure enough to get into the nitty-gritty.

Now that they were out of earshot, she could, except she wasn’t sure if her plan was going to make the future look any brighter or less troubled.

She turned to a blank notebook page, and then began outlining it, explaining as she went.

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