Raiya looked as shocked as I felt. I knew intimately what kind of power she was capable of wielding. What happened? And why wasn’t she shooting another arrow?
“But it’s an improvement from the last time we met,” Draco drawled on. “I’ll have to work around that.”
I shot out my own power at him, hoping with his attention diverted that he would be vulnerable.
No such luck, of course.
After dodging my attack, Draco laughed and faded away. His voice whispered past my ear as he left.
“Parting is such sweet sorrow, is it not, young Hamilton?”
His words echoed inside of me, taunting me, making me flustered and frustrated.
What did he mean by that? I wondered.
Of course, I had to wonder if it meant anything at all. Clearly, it was an insult of some kind, I get it, but insults don’t usually have hidden meanings in them. They were just insults.
The scene of the fight cleared, and I was left, still hunched forward, my sword limply held up in my wrist, standing alone, unable to get over the meaning or the final message.
“Well,” I said as I allowed myself to regroup, “that was weird.”
Raiya and Elysian stepped forward. I turned to face them, knowing they would be disappointed.
“Good job, kid.” Elysian snorted. “Now he’s got a sword, and one that has a considerable amount of power, too.”
I frowned. “It’s not like I could’ve stopped him from leaving,” I argued. “He just disappeared into nothing.”
“We might have been able to stop him if you’d gotten here earlier,” Raiya said.
It took me less than a second to wheel around. “Excuse me? You were the one who clearly hesitated here!”
“What do you mean? I managed to get him!”
“You told me once your power allows you to hit any target you want. Why didn’t you get his heart?”
“You know why!” she shouted.
“Well then, it’s both our faults at best that he got away!”
“We still might have a better chance if you’d gotten here earlier,” she repeated, this time with more anger than I’d been expecting.
“I couldn’t get here any sooner,” I declared. “And at least I got here after the SATs finished up.”
“Is that why you were late? Seriously?!” Raiya stepped forward. “I can’t believe you! We just talked about this yesterday.”
“Hey, it’s one thing for me to keep quiet because I wanted to spend my time with you,” I replied, “and it’s another thing for me to ruin my chances at dual enrollment next year. I have to consider the future. Once Draco’s defeated, our mission will be complete, and we’ll be able to return to our regular lives.”
“You know how important it is that we protect this city,” Raiya argued. “There won’t be a future if you don’t work for it!”
“Exactly my point,” I shot back. “I won’t get into college if I don’t take these tests seriously.”
“These tests are secondary to survival,” Raiya shot back. “You’re risking that on the chance we actually succeed! Why are you so eager for your time as Wingdinger to be over?”
“Because I actually have a life separate from him, unlike you!”
She looked stricken, as though I’d struck her, and I knew instantly I’d made an unfair argument.
But …
I also had a point, as painful as it was for her to admit.
“Come on, Raiya. I have a life separate from this,” I said again, “and frankly, I like it.”
Her eyes lowered, and I cringed.
“I don’t consider you separate from my normal life,” I quickly explained. “You’re the best thing in my life. But don’t you like just hanging out, you know, talking about school and college and the future, or even talking about stupid things, like the terrible shows on TV and how ugly someone’s new haircut is it just how awful it is waiting to grow up?”
“If you have to ask me that,” Raiya said, “it’s clear that you haven’t grown up.”
“I’m not even an adult yet,” I said. “It’s easy for you to say, because you’re eighteen.”
“I’m not talking about age!” Raiya folded her arms across her chest. “I’m talking about maturity. You have seen things, things not just anyone has seen. You know better. And you still choose the temporary things over the eternal.”
“That’s because the temporary has an effect on the eternal!” It was my turn to glare at her. “If you can’t see how this matters to me, you have some nerve saying you love me.”
“Real mature,” Raiya muttered. “I suppose you’re going to stomp your foot and march out of here with your nose up in the air?”
“Maybe I will!” I huffed indignantly and then decided she was right.
I left.
☼6☼
“Discussions”
I left, but it didn’t take long for the guilt to settle in. Our fight had rocked me, shaken me up to the core, and I felt the emptiness inside quickly being replaced by shame.
Ignoring things that bothered me had become a problem in the time I’d been roped into working the superhero gig. I mean, it wasn’t like I could talk to just anyone about it. After all, who would allow you to complain about your duties and not report you? I doubted even the most legally conscious therapists would find a way to spill the beans if they wanted.
There is a downside to ignoring things, though, and most of it has to do with sleep.
It’s much harder to ignore things when even sleep won’t let you forget them.
That night, I felt terrible. I woke up from dreams too unreal, and too real to be unreal. All I could think about was Draco pulling the sword out of the space rock, like some kind of demonic King Arthur on a mission to destroy the world.
As morning came and attempts to sleep slowed, I could hear the soft drizzling of April showers as raindrops flowed down my bedroom window.
It wasn’t long before all I wanted to do was go see Raiya, sit in the café, and listen to her talk while I drank coffee. But I wasn’t sure she would let me in, and that doubt was enough to keep me tucked underneath my bed covers.
After all, I’d managed to insult her quite a bit, adding injury to more injury from our previous argument on the matter.
And I had let Draco get away with his new weapon, which was going to make defeating him much harder, no doubt.
But most of all, I’d shown my hand; I had allowed my normal life to take precedence over our supernatural calling.
Can you still love someone, even if they make bad choices? Break promises? Take selfish risks?
Of course you can. It’s just probably not the wisest thing in the world to remain associated with them.
I was so sure Raiya would agree with that. So I avoided her.
I continued to avoid her through the rest of the weekend. She called and texted me, but I ignored her. I didn’t even go to Rachel’s. I went to Poncey’s instead, and played video games longer and louder than the rest of my friends.
Monday came. School was less than exciting, but it kept me busy and safe from Raiya and her eventual rejection.
I was only able to wake up from my self-pity stupor when Martha caught my attention as class finished up. I turned in my reading questions on the chapter in the Supreme Court, and she whispered to me, “I found them.”
A long moment passed before I remembered I’d asked her to help me find Otherworld. We had unfinished business to attend to, and I was not going to give up on it just because I didn’t feel like taking care of it. “Really?”
“I wouldn’t lie to you, Dinger.” Mrs. Smithe scowled.
“Sorry.” I shrugged. “Not used to asking for help. What can you tell me?”
“I found Otherworld,” she said. “I got in touch with an old contact. Most of them are contracted workers staying around the city in hotels.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “It sounds like a lot of work, if we have to search out all th
e different hotels.”
I thought of the time Aleia, Elysian, and I managed to find one of SWORD’s black sites. It was in a hotel, too; I guess since that particular incident, they’d spread their forces out among the city.
“It’s not like that,” Mrs. Smithe insisted. “Otherworld, Inc. is a new company.”
“That would explain why I couldn’t find any tax documents online,” I said.
“It’s a common enough name,” Mrs. Smithe told me. “It’s the name of several businesses and organizations that have worked in different parts of the world. Many, if not all, have closed or have been bought, sold, and rebranded.”
I recalled some of the conspiracy theories I’d seen about the company. I paused for a moment before I asked my question. (Does anyone really want to learn a truth that’s world-shattering?)
“What does this mean?”
I was a bit disappointed when she didn’t confirm any conspiracy theories.
“It’s a front,” she explained. “Its current address is a P. O. box, located in the Time Tower downtown.”
“That’s the headquarters of the Skarmastad Foundation,” I said, as I suddenly remembered.
“The leader of this current taskforce is staying in Lake County Heights.”
I groaned to myself. She had to be talking about Dante. (He was their lead guy? Really?) “I know. He’s staying at the house down the street from me.”
“If you knew, why did you need my help?”
Good question. “I thought it would help,” I admitted. “I didn’t think of trying to ambush him.”
“It’s better if you take him out.” Martha’s eyes were uncharacteristically dark as I looked at her. “Before they take you out.”
“Well,” I said, suddenly feeling like I had made a big, huge mistake, “I don’t want to get SWORD on my complete bad side.”
I decided not to mention how Dante was determined to protect me, as he saw me as the key to defeating the bad guys.
“There is no such thing as their good side, Hamilton,” Mrs. Smithe said. “Morally ambiguous people have already compromised themselves. They’ll ditch you once they have what they want.”
“What could they possibly want from me, other than to stop the demons running around the city?” I asked, keeping my voice as soft as I could.
“There’s no way to know all the time,” she said. “But you can assume it’s something bad.”
“I’ll try to keep an open mind about it.”
“I’m serious.” Mrs. Smithe admonished me, her lips tightening even more than usual. “They’ve been around for decades now. They’re good at their business.”
“What did you do for them?” I asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” She shook her head. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, and I don’t want you to know. They’re good at keeping their secrets.”
“I guess that’s true.” I thought of Dante’s face, when I first told him I knew about Mikey. He was shocked, or so I thought. Now that I knew him a bit better, I realized he was more than shocked; he was terrified.
“You’d better keep your word.”
I glanced back at Martha, uncertain for a moment of what she meant.
She looked over her glasses frames, eyeing me intently. “You can’t talk to me about this again. It’ll be trouble for us both.”
I nodded. “Thank you for your help. I’ll see what I can do to use it well.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” She gave me a half-smile. “Be careful out there, Dinger. I have faith in you, but you’re up against a formidable enemy.”
Having Martha’s approval stunned me, awed me, even humbled me. As I watched her take another swig of her coffee, I felt a rush of gratitude for the small lady who suffered so much to teach me what she knew; I had a feeling she taught me more about honor and courage than history and government.
“I will do my best,” I promised, and maybe for the first time, I actually meant it.
“Good. Now, skedaddle. You’re going to be late for your next class.”
*☼*
Despite all the warm feelings, I was unsettled by the conversation I had with Martha. So far, SWORD had seemed more like an ally than an enemy. True, Dante had a large role in Taygetay taking Gwen’s Soulfire. And they had tried to capture us before … and Dante was on Cheryl’s side when it came to our legal disputes.
There was also the fact that Raiya believed them to be against us.
But wasn’t that how things often worked? Two sides would come together to defeat the greater evil?
Surely even Martha would know that, considering she taught history for a living.
I respected these women in my life, and I knew they had a good record of being right. Of course, that didn’t mean that they were automatically right, but their conclusions were discomforting.
On the bright side, Martha’s information did force me to go and see Raiya once school was out. I’d thought about trying to avoid her for a couple more days, giving my self-righteousness some time to both calm down and strengthen itself for her fury. But Martha’s insight, coupled with her pragmatic relentlessness, seemed to warrant discussion.
And I knew that, even if Raiya wanted to step back from me, she was stuck with Wingdinger as her co-defender and Starlight Warrior companion.
After the bell rang, I hurried down the hallway and headed out to Rachel’s. I coasted through, my mind and mouth coordination in a dance I seemed to be born knowing; I skimmed through my friends’ catcalls, parried their jabs, and echoed back their whoops. (I didn’t even know what they were saying, but they were always relatively low-maintenance followers.)
By the time I got to the street, seeing Raiya again remained my only focus; she was the Ritalin to my life’s ongoing ADD.
As I stepped inside the café, I suddenly had to wonder if Elysian wasn’t there as well; I knew he’d spent a lot of time with Aleia while she was with us, and he seemed to like our other teammates more than me (the feeling was mutual, I assure you.) I certainly hoped he’d stayed at my house, avoiding the maids as they cleaned and Ayako while she cut up her dead fish.
Of course, that was probably a good reason why he wouldn’t want to be there.
“Hamilton,” Rachel called out from behind the bar. “Nice to see you again.”
“Always nice to see you, too, Rachel,” I said. The pretty barista’s greeting calmed me as much as the coffee she gave me re-energized me.
She handed me one of her newer concoctions—a cupcake filled with a fruit and yogurt parfait mix—before nodding toward the back stairs. “Raiya’s upstairs, if you’re looking for her,” she said. “She said she wanted to go out today, so she’ll be down soon.”
“Thanks. This looks great,” I said. I held up the crumbly cupcake.
“How was your test?” Rachel asked. “Raiya told me that you slept all weekend after taking it.”
“Uh, yeah, totally,” I said. “It was exhausting.”
“I guess so, if you weren’t even here this morning.”
I frowned. “How did you know I wasn’t?” I asked.
“I’ve been coming in some mornings,” Rachel said, “ever since Grandpa disappeared.”
“Oh.”
“Raiya’s been distressed about it.” Rachel sighed. “Of course, I can’t believe he’s gone, either.”
I thought about Draco and his long-term undercover act; he’d been settling here for decades, waiting for her to show, and setting up a web of interests and businesses long before his grandfather persona took the stage. Before that, he played Ogden Skarmastad, the city founder and the founder of the Skarmastad Foundation, and turned out to be a sadistic form of evil incarnate, who transformed himself several times throughout his long, immortal life. Who knew how many other lives he had before that?
“Maybe he’ll come back,” I said, trying to be kind to Rachel, even if the inauthenticity of my tone nullified most of my efforts.
“I hope so,” Rachel
said. “But in the meantime, I’m trying to step up and help around here more. Jason’s been here a lot more, too.”
I hadn’t noticed that, either.
“I know Raiya has her GED to pass, and Mom is not the most willing worker, even if it is our family income,” Rachel continued.
“I could tell,” I assured her, recalling Letty’s perpetual pouting. I dreaded the days I would come in and she would be working. Grandpa Odd had weirded me out, but Letty’s displeasure made it seem like I was an inconvenience. I felt bad she was also watching Adam for me a couple of times a week, although I didn’t know if I should feel worse for Adam or her.
“That’s an understatement. But I appreciate your restraint.”
“Are you doing okay?” I asked. “I mean, I know you’re concerned for Raiya, but you have to keep track of yourself and the others in your family now.”
“Lee’s been fine. He and Grandpa weren’t really close,” she said. “Logan’s been more morose, but that’s because he’s still sad that the meteorite of his has gone missing and he won’t be able to continue his research.”
I laughed. “That sounds like Logan, from what Raiya’s told me.”
“She likes going there to see him,” Rachel said. “I’m wondering if she won’t go into astronomy, too. A lot of her paintings have a cosmic theme behind them.”
I glanced at the door, where the painting Raiya had given Rachel for her wedding still hung. It depicted the scene from the legend of the Weaving Girl and the Herder Boy, who married and loved each other so much they neglected their duties. They were separated, only allowed to visit each other once a year, and they became stars in the sky, positioned across the Milky Way.
“Maybe.” I turned back to Rachel. “I’m sure whatever she decides to do, she’ll surprise me.”
“I think it’s easier when you’ve known what you wanted to do for a long time,” Rachel replied. She gestured around the café. “I graduated college, took out a business loan, and set up shop here. And while we’re still making payments, this is my home.”