Kami started at the sound of the door below slamming. She wiped her eyes hastily on her sleeve, but the thunder of footsteps up the steps was too fast for her: she had barely managed one swipe before Rusty was kneeling on the step at her feet.
He was the usual Rusty, a gym bag slung over his shoulder, hair rumpled and wearing a pink T-shirt that read I’M TOO PRETTY TO DO MY HOMEWORK. His expression was different, though.
“Kami,” he said, and his voice sounded different too. “Are you crying?” Rusty knelt there looking up into her face, hazel eyes clear and serious. He lifted his hand to her face, and his fingers captured a tear.
“I was just—” Kami batted him away, embarrassed. “It’s nothing. I’m all right.”
“You’re not all right!” Rusty said. “You’re crying. Come here.”
“No, really,” Kami said, pushing him gently back. She smiled at him, and rubbed her sleeve across her face, dabbing at the corners of her eyes with one sleeve edge. “I’m fine. It’s okay. You don’t need to make a fuss. We should go inside.”
Rusty kept hold of her shoulder, his move to take her in his arms cut off, but apparently not quite ready to let go.
Kami turned her face away, sliding the strap of her schoolbag back onto her shoulder. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but . . . ease up, Rusty.”
He stood and she lifted her face to his. Her smile was more natural this time. Rusty didn’t smile back. “Fine,” he said. “You’re fine. Everything’s fine. Fine.”
He strode up the steps past her and swung open the door with enough force that it was still standing open when Kami followed him. There were no chairs in the room, so everyone was sitting around on gymnastic mats. Ash’s eyes were on the door; he and Holly both looked slightly concerned. Angela was sitting up and trying not to nap on the mats at least, but she was wearing a pair of sunglasses and smiling an ironic, scarlet smile. Jared was leaning against the wall.
Kami took a deep breath and pulled herself together. Rusty crossed the floor in one swift movement.
Kami knew, in a vague way, that Rusty was tall and strong. She was so used to the fact, and so used to him flopping about in paroxysms of idleness, that she never really thought about it. Now, though, she saw as he approached Jared that he was actually taller and broader across the shoulders than Jared.
Jared tilted his head, as if he was noticing that too. He looked slightly interested in what was going to happen next.
“I’ve actually been waiting a long time to do this,” Rusty announced, and punched Jared in the face.
Ash and Holly jumped. Angela sat up straight and pulled off her sunglasses, lips parting in a startled grin.
Jared staggered, but the wall held him up. He looked up after a moment, and his mouth flickered into a bloody smile an instant before he launched himself at Rusty.
Jared and Rusty were off the mats and on the floor almost at once. The crack of flesh and bone meeting wood made Kami clench her teeth. Jared flinched every time just before one of Rusty’s blows hit, but then he threw himself at Rusty in return, a vicious whirl that Rusty had to expend all his energy holding off. Kami did not think Rusty had an instant to notice that Jared was afraid.
Jared tried to bash Rusty’s head open against a wall. Rusty threw him up against the door, so fast that Kami had to sidestep and so hard that she was afraid they would break the glass.
Then Jared was on the floor again, and Rusty managed to pin Jared’s wrists over his head on the mat. He knelt on his legs and shook his head like a disappointed grandfather when Jared snarled at him. Jared sank his teeth into Rusty’s wrist and managed to roll free and to his feet, winding back his fist. Rusty punched him in the stomach and Kami saw Jared’s minute flinch again.
Kami cast her schoolbag to one side. “Angela, help me!” she yelled. She leaped on Rusty’s back, seizing his hair and pulling his head back. “Stop it. Stop it! I’ll hurt you—you know I can.”
Angela was at Jared’s back before Kami had finished speaking, grabbing for his wrist, ready to bend it past the point of pain. Jared dodged away from her, stumbling into the door in his haste. His shoulder knocked against it hard and he winced, baring his bloodstained teeth. “Don’t touch me,” he said, his voice thick.
“Don’t worry,” Angela returned. “Rusty, cut it out, what are you thinking?”
“I was thinking that he made Kami cry.”
Kami abruptly let go of Rusty and gave him a shove. “No, he didn’t.”
“You were crying?” Jared asked. His voice was thick with blood and shaken with pain so Kami could not read it, but she thought it had changed.
“It’s nothing to do with you,” Kami snapped at him, and glared at Rusty. She was feeling uncharitable in every direction.
“But why were you—”
“What did you do?” Angela demanded of Jared.
“I didn’t do anything!” Jared said. “All I’ve been trying to do is what she wants!”
“My freaking hero,” Kami snarled.
Jared sent her a brief bitter glance. Kami returned the look with interest, then looked away, pressing her hand to her forehead as if she could push through her skull and put all her thoughts in order. She had goals she needed to achieve; fighting amongst themselves was not going to accomplish anything.
“You did say,” Rusty pointed out with a virtuous air, “that you wanted me to teach everyone how to defend themselves.”
“Is that what you were doing?” Jared asked, swiping at his bloody mouth. “Teaching?”
“You have to use a firm hand,” Rusty said earnestly. “That’s how you learn. I’m very dedicated to my craft. And I was not planning on the lesson getting so out of hand. That was your fault. You have absolutely no concept of any sort of fighting technique. You kept trying to bash me with stuff. This is why I never go for blonds. They are all vicious creatures.”
“I do have a fighting technique,” Jared informed him. “It is a little-known discipline known as ‘winning.’ ”
“How about we try—”
“How about you try shutting up, sitting down, and listening to me?” Kami asked. “Nobody is allowed to hit anybody until you’ve all heard my plans.”
“You’re not the boss of me,” Rusty muttered.
“You’re strangely mistaken,” said Kami. “I am too. I set up The Nosy Parker, I discovered the sorcerers, and I started the investigation, and now you’re part of my team. Or you’re not.” She cast Jared another darkling look. “Any arguments?”
“Actually, I’ve got lots,” said Jared. “A splendid variety. Take your pick. But about that, no.”
“All right,” Kami called out. “Glad that’s settled. Thank you all for coming. Let’s discuss our plans.”
Ash still looked apprehensive about all the violence, but he raised his hand and contributed: “I thought my mother was handling things from now on.”
That was what the whole town seemed to be thinking: that Lillian would do it for all of them. Angela said that Lillian had even sent the mayor home like a little boy. Kami had no clue why the idea of placing your life in a sorcerer’s hands wasn’t terrifying to anyone else.
“Good point,” said Kami. “Lillian has made it pretty clear that she doesn’t want our help. But we’re not going to sit around and do nothing while all this lasts.”
Ash raised his hand again. “Have you ever sat around and done nothing in your life?”
Kami grinned at him, and was rewarded with one of his wonderful smiles. “Sounds boring. What about life, liberty, and the pursuit of adventure?”
“The pursuit of happiness?” Ash said.
Kami told him, “Same thing.” She surveyed the room. Everyone seemed ready to listen. “The sorcerers use blood, hair, and possessions to do spells. They personalize the spell: they make the spell stronger. And they can protect people. Ash told me that Lillian used Rob’s and Rosalind’s hair to protect Aurimere House from them.”
“If they can’t use magic
against us,” Angela clarified, “we can fight them. And we can win.”
Kami beamed at her. “Exactly.”
“Just one small problem,” Angela said. “I don’t mean to cast a dark shadow on all your hopes and dreams, except of course I do because that is who I am. I’m a dream ruiner. We can’t exactly chase people around with scissors trying to snip off their hair. Nor is leaping on people and attempting to suck their blood likely to be welcome, unless someone has some very disturbing fetishes.”
Angela leaned in toward Holly and snapped playfully; Holly recoiled as if Angela was a snake. Angela did not stop smiling, but her smile turned dark. “As you see.”
Kami gave up lecturing the group from above, and went to sit on the practice mats close beside Angela. “Don’t be silly,” she said. “I don’t want us to chase people with scissors. And I don’t want us to bite them. That’s assault. All I want to do is steal their stuff.”
There was a pause.
“Comparatively, it’s legal,” Kami said defensively.
“Stealing in the name of justice is okay,” Jared put in. “We’d be like Robin Hood. Steal from the rich, punch them in the face. I’m pretty sure that’s how the saying goes.”
Kami automatically looked at him when he spoke. His mouth was cut and his smiles were always small and almost secret anyway, as if he wasn’t planning to share. She wasn’t sure if he even was smiling, but she had the urge to smile back. She didn’t: she looked away.
“Rob and Rosalind have both left stuff in Aurimere we can use. I have a list of all the people we know are sorcerers, and all the newcomers to Sorry-in-the-Vale. And we have to watch for the others.” Kami stopped speaking and surveyed the room. “So to clarify: the plan is espionage, theft, and violence. All in?”
Everyone indicated that they were.
“Okay, then we can start the self-defense training,” Kami said. “We can’t all do magic, so Lillian thinks we’re useless. What we need to do is learn to protect ourselves and others, and prove her wrong. So everybody’s going to get taught a little self-defense. Angela, you take Holly.”
Angela gave Kami an accusing look. Kami ignored it: she thought Holly and Angela could use the chance to talk.
“Jared,” said Kami. He glanced at her. Every time she looked at him, all she could see was how he had looked by the broken ice of the Crying Pools. She saw the lightning filling the water, and his white still face.
“Rusty’s going to teach you,” she said. “I pick Ash.”
* * *
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Ash said.
“You’re not going to hurt me, I promise you,” Kami encouraged. “But it’d be nice if you’d just try. Look, I’m just standing innocently around in a lonely, dark alleyway. Come on up behind me and grab me.”
Kami stood with her back to Ash and after a moment she felt him take hold of her shoulder and her waist. It was potentially the most gentlemanly grabbing ever. It was more like ballroom dancing in which Kami seemed to have gotten accidentally turned around.
Kami efficiently elbowed him in the stomach, grabbed his wrist, twisted his arm up, and stopped with the hard edge of her palm laid against the warm skin of his throat.
Ash looked down at her, his face dismayed and open. He looked vulnerable. It was terribly appealing, even though she knew it was at least partly a facade.
“I’m sorry,” Ash said. “I’m not very good at this.”
“It is so unfair that you got the nice one,” said Rusty.
Kami grinned, shook her head, and asked without thinking, “Want to switch?”
Jared went still. Rusty glanced down at him in alarm, waiting for yet another dirty trick. Jared just turned his face and looked at Kami from where he lay on the floor.
“I bet I can get Ash to hit me,” he suggested.
Rusty rolled off him and sat crouched on the mat, wiping his forehead. “You are extremely annoying, I have to grant you that,” he said. “It’s a rare gift. Go ahead and try. That means I can have Cambridge.”
Rusty sent Jared a sweet smile. Jared ignored him, rolling over on the mats and pushing himself to his feet in one movement. “Come on,” he said to Ash, jerking his head in the direction of the door and walking into the next room.
Ash cast a doubtful look around, but finding no help offered, he went warily in after Jared.
“That was quite a display,” Kami told Rusty.
“Are you overwhelmed by my rugged masculinity?” Rusty inquired.
“Yes,” Kami said. “Obviously. But aside from that.”
“No, no, keep going on about that,” Rusty urged, and went over to the water fountain in order to splash his face and duck his rumpled dark head under the jet.
Kami crossed her arms, narrowed her eyes, and watched him. “If I want someone hit,” she said, “I’ll hit them myself.”
“Noted,” said Rusty.
Kami hesitated. “Are you all right? That wasn’t like you.”
“Maybe, Cambridge,” Rusty suggested, strolling back to her from the water fountain, “you don’t know me quite as well as you think.”
Chapter Twelve
A Drop of Blood, What You Hold Dear
The other room was much smaller than the first one. There were no mats.
Ash found himself staring at Jared. His mouth was bleeding; he had almost thrown his life away yesterday and now he seemed exhilarated, as if next time he planned not just to throw his life but to hurl it away with great force. Ash had no idea how to react to him.
“You shouldn’t have come after me,” Jared said.
“Believe me, I wasn’t going to,” Ash replied. “I had no idea what you were planning to do. It was Kami who put it together.”
Jared glared at him. “So now I’m going to live. And maybe I’ll take Aurimere from you after all.”
“You don’t want it. You said so.”
“But I might want to spite you,” Jared spat out. “Aren’t you angry? I mean, for God’s sake. Look at me. I threw my own father down the stairs. I broke his neck. I lived on the streets for one summer, like so much garbage. My mother wanted to leave me there. And your mother thinks I would be a better leader than you. She thinks you’re that worthless. She thinks you’re more worthless than worthless.”
Ash struck out. He just wanted to make Jared stop, that was all. He felt sick when the pain exploded in his knuckles.
When Jared smiled, his teeth were stained with fresh scarlet. “Don’t you hate me?” he demanded. “I’d hate me.”
“You just tried to drown yourself,” Ash said. “You seem to hate yourself plenty already.” He thought of Jared lost under the ice, took a deep breath, and dropped his fists. “But I don’t hate you. I’d like it if we could figure out a way to work together.”
“Well.” Jared raised an eyebrow. “That’s what we’re doing, aren’t we?”
Ash felt extreme foreboding. “By, uh, hitting each other?”
“No,” said Jared, and smirked. “Though I’m liking that part, aren’t you?”
“Not if by ‘liking’ you mean ‘enjoying in any way,’ ” Ash replied.
Jared smiled again, mouth closed so Ash could no longer see his bloody teeth, and leaned back against the wall.
“I’m on her side,” said Jared. “If you’re on her side too, then we’re already working together.”
It wasn’t what Ash had meant or what he had been hoping for, but it was the closest he and his cousin had ever come to having a moment of peace. There was no need to ask who Jared was talking about, or why Jared had been so keen to hit him.
Kami smiled at him, glanced in his direction all the time, had chosen to train with him, agreed to work with him, and agreed to watch his back. She might have saved Jared, but she barely looked at him.
Kami had picked Ash.
* * *
Kami and Rusty had been practicing throws for half an hour while Holly and Angela tried and failed to complete any sort of self-defense move.
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“How about you attack me,” Angela suggested in exasperation. “And I’ll show you how it’s done.” She turned around, presenting her back to Holly, and Holly hesitated, her eyes a little wild.
“Just put your arm around my neck,” Angela began.
“You don’t have to say it like—” Holly started.
Angela turned on her. “Or how about this?” she asked. “How about you stop acting as if I’m contagious?” She wheeled around and picked her sunglasses and her bag up off the floor, then stormed out in a whirl of black hair and red silk.
Kami noticed Jared and Ash at the door of the next room, watching Angela go and looking baffled. They seemed even more puzzled when Holly covered her mouth with her hand and rushed out as well.
“Good practice, everyone,” Rusty said at last. “Light on the actual learning, heavy on the emotional catharsis, and thanks to Jared I think I need a rabies shot, but them’s the breaks.” He started stacking the mats in one corner of the room.
Kami picked up her bag and made her way out the door and down the stairs, where Ash caught up with her.
“What was all that?” Ash asked.
“None of your business,” Kami said firmly.
“It sounded like—” Ash stopped, and glanced over his shoulder up the stairs.
Kami followed his gaze to Jared, coming after them. Jared gave a tiny nod, confirming that it had sounded like that to him too.
“Wow, Angela and Holly,” Ash said, sounding awed. “Hot.”
“Excuse me, what is wrong with you?” Kami demanded. “Other people’s sexuality is not your spectator sport.”
Ash paused. “Of course,” he said. “But—”
“No!” Kami exclaimed. “No buts. That’s my best friend you’re talking about. Your first reaction should not be ‘Hot.’ ”