“I won’t argue with you about it,” Gwen replied with a sigh. “I’ve got a test in math today. I’ll see you later.”
“Do you want me to walk you to class?” I asked.
“No, I just said I have a test,” Gwen repeated. “I’ve got to hurry.”
“We can hurry together.”
“You like to stop and talk with all your friends. Don’t worry about it.”
“Hey, some of them are your friends, too,” I reminded her. “Ever since Via took credit for our relationship, more people are okay with talking to me for some reason.”
Gwen ignored my comments. She gave me another smile and said, “See you later, Hammy,” then headed out.
“Good luck with your test.” I don’t think she heard me.
“I don’t think she heard you,” Mrs. Smithe said from her desk.
I smiled. “Oh well. Thanks for the review today, Martha.”
“It’s Mrs. Smithe till you graduate, Dinger.” The quick rebuke was sharp, but it came with a small smile. “So, how’s it going, working for Stefano?”
“You know Mayor Mills?” I asked. I didn’t know why I was surprised. Martha was an active participant in politics, at the local and federal levels.
“Sort of,” Mrs. Smithe admitted. “We were in the same graduating class during high school. He was always a bit slick. I’m not surprised he’s in politics.”
“He seems like a nice guy.”
Mrs. Smithe snorted. “Everyone in politics seems nice, Dinger.”
“I suppose,” I conceded. “But he does seem like he really wants to help. He cares about the people.”
“It’s easy to care about people you largely imagine to be a certain way, rather than they actually are,” Mrs. Smithe muttered. “You need to skedaddle to your next class.”
“All right,” I said with an exaggerated groan. “Will do, Martha.”
“Mrs. Smithe, Dinger.”
I grinned and then faltered. It was far from the first time she’d mentioned the rules of her name to me. She mentioned it a while ago, in the hospital, when she’d been injured in a demon attack that happened in the school. Which made me think . . . “Can I ask you a question, Mrs. Smithe?”
“If you hurry. Your next class is not going to wait for you.”
“They might; it is Latin, after all,” I joked. “But, when you were in the hospital during the winter, did you have anyone come visit you?”
“Is this a power play of some kind?” Mrs. Smithe narrowed her gaze. “You came, of course, and Raiya, though she was there anyway. There were a few from my other classes, and one of the subs who said you guys were too hard on her. But that was it. You talked to me the most, if that’s what you’re wondering about.”
“It’s not that.” I hesitated. “I just thought maybe one of us had to do with your quick recovery. Or maybe someone else?”
“You came to see me after the worst of it,” Mrs. Smithe assured me. “So if you are wondering if you’re a favorite kind of student, you can stop now. Teachers are not allowed to have favorites. Now, you really should get to class.”
“Okay.”
“Hamilton.”
I nearly jumped at the sound of my first name. It was very rarely she called me that (especially without the last name attached), and when she did, it was usually to let me know I was in trouble. I turned to face her, just a bit bewildered.
Before I could say anything, she said, in very calculated tone, “Don’t ask too many questions like that.” And then she stood up and began to push me toward the door. Her tone resumed its natural sharpness as she added, “I don’t really want to think about my time in the hospital.”
“But—”
The door slammed in my face.
Okay, that was weird. Very weird. I decided not to say anything for the moment. After all, if Mrs. Smithe said something that seriously or that creepily, I should probably listen to her.
“Psst. Kid.”
“Ugh!” I muttered at the familiar sound of my dragon’s voice. “Where are you?” I hissed.
“Over here.”
That doesn’t help at all! I mentally screamed in frustration. Finally, I must have looked bewildered enough for Elysian to take pity on me, because I could feel his small, slimy claws tugging their way up my shirtsleeve.
“I found him.”
“Who’s ‘him?’” I asked impatiently and quietly as I made my way through the hall (I still had to get to class, after all). Sudden terror laced through me. Was it the person Starry Knight was looking for?
Terror was instantly buried by forced apathy. I will . . . do absolutely nothing because it doesn’t matter.
“The guy who was attacked a few days ago.”
Relief, sweet relief, welcomed me. “Oh. Who is he?”
“His name is Logan Reynolds. He works at the city college in an astronomy and physics lab. He’s back at work this week and seems to be doing fine.”
“That’s pretty good,” I said. “After the demon inside of him tried to grab my soul, or whatever, I guess I can empathize much more.”
“What?!” Elysian reeled. He blew up to one of his larger forms and began racing at me. “The demon tried to overcome you, too? You didn’t tell me that part!”
“Well, I didn’t think it was that important.” I was flustered momentarily, surprised Elysian was so upset by it. “I was still able to defeat him.”
“Ugh, you make me so mad sometimes. Don’t even know what’s important or not.” Elysian eased up on his scrutiny of me as he went into deep thought. “Hmm . . . that must have been a fenfleal demon.”
“What’s a fen-feal demon?” I asked.
“Fenfleal.” Elysian sighed. “It’s more of a rogue demon. Very powerful. They like to act of their own accord. There would be no Sinister manipulation.”
“So . . . it’s still bad, but is it more good-bad or worse-bad?” I asked.
“Probably worse,” Elysian mused. “The Sinisters and their leader, despite not being very active, are starting to encourage bolder activity, even if it is not under their direction.”
“You’re probably right then. Let’s call it worse.” I heard the bell ring in the distance. “Great, now you’ve made me late for my class. Did you really have to find me now? I need to teach you to text.”
“Why can’t you just give up school?” Elysian argued back. “Or go to a homeschool group, or an online school, where you don’t have to worry about showing up?”
I halted outside of my classroom door. “It’s the principle of the thing, Ely. And my friends are here.” I took out my phone and looked like I was calling someone. “Did you have anything else for me?”
“Oh, yes. I almost forgot. Logan Reynolds works at the Apollo City College in the astronomy—”
“You told me that already.” Give me a break here; I’m already late for class. This can’t take forever.
“It wouldn’t hurt to go and see him,” Elysian said. “He might be able to tell us something.”
“Like what?”
“Like maybe how Starry Knight knows him, for one thing.”
I took a sudden interest in the classroom before me, deliberately avoiding Elysian’s direct gaze. “All right,” I said, trying to make it sound reluctant. “Let’s just try to make it seem inauspicious though, okay? I’m still not happy with Mikey. I don’t want him to go with us. He doesn’t need another interview for his blog or anything.”
“It’s not like I go around talking with your friends.” Elysian snorted. “When do you want to go?”
“I can go after school,” I replied quickly. “Well, I can if Gwen’s okay with picking up Adam and watching him.” I was supposed to help with babysitting my brother from time to time, according to the almighty parental rulers. But Gwen was doing just fine with it. “Maybe I can get her to wait for me at Rachel’s.”
“She might not like that. Why not take her with you?”
Because I didn’t want to deal with Gwen
while I was only thinking about Starry Knight, I thought to myself. “This guy’s already been housing demons. What if more come back? I might need to transform.”
“Fine. But she might need some convincing.” Elysian gave me one of his irritating smirks. “You’ve been running off on her a lot lately.”
“For all you don’t talk to Mikey, you’re starting to sound like him.” I roll my eyes, brushing him off my shirt before walking into the classroom. But an active, persistent pleasure stayed constant inside of me, even as I informed my teacher one of my relatives had a devastating health-related concern, as I thought about finding out more about my mysterious and aggravating co-defender.
☼6☼
Inquiry
“I’m just so sorry; I can’t believe I completely forgot.”
After all this time, I could almost see Gwen smiling through the phone as I talked with her. “It’s all right, Hammy. I know you’re busy.”
“Yeah, but that’s no excuse,” I said. “I was looking forward to walking you home today.”
“You might still be able to, if you think Adam can last the whole time you’re at the mayor’s office,” Gwen suggested.
“True,” I said, hoping it didn’t sound like I was choking. I didn’t really want to put a time limit on my visit. Just in case it got interesting.
But then, I didn’t want my girlfriend to think I wasn’t interested in being with her, either.
“Hammy, I am here for you. I know your job is important to you, and I don’t mind hanging out with Adam,” she promised. She said it so reassuringly that I felt another tidal wave of guilt wash down with my gulp.
“Thanks,” I sputtered. “Sorry.”
Elysian, hanging over my shoulder, just sniggered into his claws. I was close to tying him into my own personal bow tie.
“You okay?” Gwen’s voice was one of concern on the other side of the line.
“Yeah. Speaking of okay, how did your test from earlier go?”
I didn’t really listen as Gwen talked about how math was hard and blah-blah-blah something something something. I just turned down the street when I heard someone call my name.
“Hey, Dinger!”
Instantly, I was relieved; it was just Jason, and I could deal with Jason. “Hey!” I waved back.
“What?” Gwen’s voice had a spark of anger in it.
“Oh, sorry, I was just yelling at a car,” I lied. “I gotta go before I get run over. You’re too distracting, Gwen.” I laughed.
“Fine. I’ll talk to you later.” She hung up on me, and I wasn’t sure if she was appeased or not. Couldn’t hurt to try to get her a gift or something soon, I thought.
“Bye,” I muttered.
“Lady troubles?” Jason asked.
“What? No, never. Gwen and I are just fine,” I said. “In fact, that’s just what we were talking about. We’re fine. Just fine.”
“Okay,” Jason said with a smile. He had no reason to assume I was lying or anything. “Where are you going?”
“Uh, just the mayor’s office. But I have to pick up something from the college campus for him first.”
“Wow, that job or internship thing sounds terrible,” Jason said. “I’m glad I work for Rachel.” He got the typical dopey grin on his face at her name.
“Yeah, how long till her wedding again?” I asked.
“You’ll get your invitation,” Jason spat back. “Don’t worry about it.”
“You mean I’m invited?” That was surprising, I thought.
“Yeah. Rachel’s grown really fond of you, although I wouldn’t put it past her to see this as a chance for you to invite Gwen and seem like a good boyfriend. You know how she believes in true love.” Jason paused. “And if nothing else, she invited you since I’m going to be there, helping with her cake and some of the desserts and stuff.” He grinned. “She sees the wedding as a good opportunity to advertise.”
“Might as well.” I couldn’t argue with that economic sense. “So, where are you going?” I asked.
“I’m going to see my dad. He’s got a part-time job with the college campus now.”
“I thought he’d been working at the docks since he lost his job last summer.”
“Ugh, well, yeah,” Jason awkwardly agreed. “Lee and his family have been really good about helping him with getting work. Dad says it’s his engineering degree he’s using there. The astrophysics degree, he’s using at the college.”
“Oh. How’s he like it?” I sighed to myself. My fake-interest in this conversation was going to wane really quickly. I could only hope we would get to the college soon.
My wish came true. When we arrived, I marveled that I should have been worried at all. Jason and I were both part of the football team, and while Jason didn’t do the swim team like I did in the winter, he was part of the current track season (I would have done track, if the mayor’s office hadn’t been so determined to poach me) so we made good time getting there.
“Apollo City College is pretty spread out. Do you know where you’re going?” Jason asked.
“I’m headed to the astronomy lab,” I said.
“What’s the mayor want from there?” Jason laughed. “He’s not checking in after the meteorite again, is he?”
What? “Ugh, I don’t think so. Just picking up an envelope.”
“Oh.” Jason looked up at the sky with a frown. “I’d heard there was some rumor going around that the mayor was worried about the meteor, especially after all the problems getting it moved from the crater it created, and then that power outage a few weeks ago . . . ”
“Power outage?” I asked, amazed I was actually interested now, and irritated I had to hide it.
“Yeah. There was a small outage in one of the inner city districts. It wasn’t too far from Rachel’s. There was some speculation it was from the meteor.”
I remembered the power outage quite clearly, and I knew the meteorite had nothing to do with it. Starry Knight had blown a generator when she used her power to help trap a demon using the communication lines and satellites. “I don’t see what the meteorite has to do with anything,” I said. “After all, it’s just a rock.”
Jason laughed. “I know. I can’t believe my dad even listens to some of the gossip about it.”
“There’s actual gossip about it? What are people saying? That it’s haunted?” I laughed. “Cursed?”
“Well, all the monsters started coming shortly after it hit the city,” Jason reminded me. “Dad says there’s a pattern, especially in the radiation output of the thing.”
“Huh.” I didn’t know what to say to that. It still sounded kind of sketchy to me, and that was at best.
“I’m going to go find my dad,” he said, smiling as he waved. “I’ll see you soon, Dinger.”
I waved back. “Thanks. I’ll keep an eye out for you,” I lied. As he turned the corner, Elysian shuffled out of the folds of my backpack. “Lying about this stuff is getting both easier and harder, Elysian.”
He shrugged. “That’s probably a good thing.”
“I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.” I sighed. “No wonder Aleia came down here; you’re a terrible detective.” I began walking forward, hoping my familiar-face radar would go off at the sight of what’s-his-name. Logan.
“At least I’m trying,” Elysian shot back. “You’re ‘too busy.’”
“Impressive that a dragon can do air-quotes,” I muttered. “But it doesn’t help your case. You still don’t have a lot of answers. I bet I have more answers than you, and like you just said, I’m not even trying.”
Elysian started to reply, but as we turned the corner I saw the sign for the astronomy department. Walking inside, I immediately felt the surrounding walls press in. I’d seen bigger closets.
In the corner of the room—or half-room—I saw a small shadow digging underneath the only real desk in the room.
“Uh, hello?” I said, not sure if I was in the right place all of a sudden.
There was a small bang as the figure under the desk jumped, hit his head, and let out an impressively loud, “Ouch!”
As he pulled himself out from the crawl space, I saw the person in question was none other than Logan himself.
He was taller and lankier than I remembered. He seemed like he would be just a few years older than me, and, remembering we were at a college, I figured that was probably a safe assumption. He seemed even younger than me, wearing a kind smile as he looked my way. “Can I help you?”
No “kid” or ‘sir,” I noticed. “Hi, I was looking for someone named Logan . . . ”
“That’s me,” he said, nodding, even as I knew he was sizing me up. “Are you one of the high school newspaper writers who emailed me this week?”
“Uh . . . ” That was a good cover story, but one look at Logan and I decided against it. “Not really,” I admitted. “I’m just taking a look around, and I have an interest in astronomy, so I thought I’d see what the lab looks like.” It wasn’t a complete lie.
“Oh, well, this is my office,” Logan said, pride in his voice even as it was a hole in the wall. “I’m the leading graduate for my PhD in cosmology, and as such, this is more or less my office. I’m in charge of organizing it and making the reports.”
“Would I be able to see the lab?” I asked.
“We’ve actually downsized a bit in recent years,” Logan told me. “But we’ve been lucky. We actually just finished renovations at Lakeview Observatory. That’s where the new lab is for the school.”
“Lakeview Observatory?” I asked.
“Yes. The Skarmastad Foundation has provided us room in their facility.” Logan squirmed a bit. “It really was very generous of them. The astronomy program offered by the college was nearly shut down until they stepped in. Now enrollment is up a hundred percent.”
“So there’s twenty people instead of ten?” I asked jokingly, surprised to see Logan nod seriously.
“That’s about right,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of interest pour in from the local government lately.”
“Why’s that?” I asked, moving around to play with one of the many telescopes on the table. It helped make my interest in astronomy seem more genuine than convenient.