The Ballad of Aramei

  “I’m sooory!” Zia screeches, her eyes shooting tears from laughing so hard. “I swear I didn’t mean it!”

  Sebastian rolls her over and sits on top of her, straddling her waist, both of his hands pinning her to the floor by her wrists. “So, it was an accident that you shaved my head while I was asleep?” Sebastian roars down at her. The rumble in his voice shakes me a little.

  Finally, I get up from the floor, but I move around to the side, keeping my distance. I’m still not sure if I need to jump in and help Zia, or if I should just leave her to whatever punishment he has in store.

  Oh my God…I can’t believe she shaved his hair off….

  “No…it’s just that…,” Zia still can’t stop laughing even though I also see there’s obvious pain in her face maybe from how much pressure he’s putting on her body. But she can take it; this, I’m sure of.

  I’ll start worrying when she stops smiling.

  Her spiky white-blond hair bobs up and down, back and forth against the hardwood floor as she tries to break her way free from him.

  “Adria! Help me!”

  Sebastian barely turns his head to see me standing off to the side. His eyes are churning with anger and revenge, but they’re not black and this tells me that he’s not as enraged as he appears to be.

  I put up my hands in a surrendering fashion. “Hey, don’t look at me. I can’t believe you shaved his hair off. Really.”

  “Oh seriously!” she shouts and Sebastian releases one of her wrists and holds her face in his hand, squeezing her soft, creamy cheeks beneath his fingers. “Look me in the eye, Dria, and tell me he’s not fucking sexy with a shaved head!”

  I look back and forth between them. A couple more times. Okay, so maybe she has a point. He does look hot.

  “See!” she squeals with her cheeks still pressed between his fingers. “Even she thinks so! Now let me up!”

  Sebastian’s head spins around harshly to see me and at first I’m not sure why, but apparently he’s waiting on me to confirm or deny that what she’s saying is true.

  “Yes,” I say, “I admit it’s a sexy look on you.”

  Isaac walks into the room and says, “Damn straight, Bas. If I swung that way, I’d do you.”

  Zia cackles with laughter. I think her voice is starting to become hoarse from laughing and yelling and crying so much.

  Sebastian loosens his grip on her face and starts to get off her waist, but Zia reaches up and grabs him by the front of his green t-shirt and pulls him down to her. “Tell me you love it,” she says with their lips not even an inch apart, but she doesn’t give him a chance to answer. She pulls him into a hungry kiss instead, his heavily muscled arms tightening as he holds his weight up from the floor by the palms of his hands.

  “Are you ready?” Isaac says, ignoring them altogether.

  I think Isaac’s disinterest in them using his bedroom floor as a make-out pad piques Zia’s curiosity. She breaks the kiss and rolls her head to one side to see Isaac and me standing above her.

  Sebastian pushes himself off her and helps her to her feet afterwards. He runs his hand over the top of his bald head.

  “Where are you two going that’s so important?” Zia says, still smiling hugely and out of breath. She reaches up and rubs his head, too, dragging the tips of her fingers down the center and then over the bridge of his nose.

  Isaac grabs a black sling back from the floor of his closet and pushes a few things down inside and shoulders it.

  “We’ll be spending more time with Aramei for a while,” Isaac says and never looks at me because he knows I’m not slow to catch on.

  I shoulder my small bag, too.

  Zia raises a finely groomed brow. “Oh? He’s found a new slave to look after Aramei now?” She grins over at me, draping an arm around Sebastian’s waist.

  “Looks that way,” Isaac says. But he never makes eye contact with her; instead, he rummages through the top drawer of his nightstand.

  Zia’s smile drops from her face and both of her hands drop to her sides. “What’s with you two lately?” she says. “I wasn’t going to say anything before but you’ve both been acting weird ever since…,” she looks right at me, “…well, since you started growing hair in all the wrong places.” She smirks playfully, hoping to get a reaction out of me.

  She always does.

  “You suck, Zia,” I say, smiling across at her.

  “But you love me,” she says, striking an overly dramatic pose. She bats her eyes and pooches out her lips.

  “Yeah, I do,” I say, beaming.

  “Okay, all joking aside,” she says, “what’s going on with you? And with Daisy, Harry and Nathan, for that matter.”

  I hear a crunch as Sebastian casually cracks his knuckles. “I’d like to know myself,” he says and his deep brown eyes fall on Isaac as if he’s the one of us who he expects will give him the answers. Maybe it’s a guy thing.

  Isaac leans away from the drawer and shuts it softly, afterwards slipping a pocketknife down into his front jeans pocket.

  “It’s crazy what my father expects of us,” Isaac says so convincingly that even though I know he’s making up this excuse as he goes, I’m totally believing the pace of his story. “Adria and Aramei both being bonded apparently has set off a shit-storm of expectations from my father.”

  I jump in, “She’s been trying to communicate with me.”

  Zia’s mouth forms the letter O. “No way! Like actual communication? Are you serious?”

  I nod. “Yes,” I say, “but I’ve not been able to get anything out of her, at least, not what Trajan wants, anyway.” It’s a huge lie but necessary just the same.

  Zia crosses her arms and looks off toward the wall in thoughtful amazement. She shakes her head a few times. “That’s pretty incredible,” she says finally looking back at me. “Just that she’s tried to communicate with anybody at all, really. Don’t take it the wrong way, but I’m glad it’s you and not me.”

  I scoff. “How else am I to take that?”

  “C’mon,” she says grinning, “I’m just sayin’.”

  I just smile at her hopelessly.

  I can sense Isaac getting anxious. I take a few steps toward the bedroom door to show them that we really do need to go, but I pause before stepping out into the hall.

  “I do feel sorry for her,” Zia says about Aramei, seeming sort of lost in a sad memory, probably of the times she herself spent caring for her. “I would never want to live like that.”

  The ensuing silence gives us the opportunity to cut this conversation short.

  “Well, we need to head out,” Isaac says coming up behind me. He stands in front of Sebastian and a slim smile breaks his face. He shakes his head, laughing gently. “I can’t believe she shaved your head, man.” And then he steps out into the hall with my hand locked in his.

  Isaac’s final comment set the tone for more craziness and the next thing I know, Sebastian has Zia slung over his shoulder and is carrying her off to the end of the hall towards their room. Zia kicks and screams and laughs the whole way. By the time Isaac and me make it to the top of the stairs, their bedroom door slams shut and all I can hear is Zia’s muffled laughter behind the door.

  I shake my head, laughing under my breath as we descend the stairs.

  Nathan comes out of the kitchen as we enter the den. He’s also carrying a bag over his shoulder and he’s changed his clothes. He stops at the den entrance wearing a tight black t-shirt that says OBEY across the front in bold red letters.

  “Ready?” Nathan says with his mouth full. He swallows down whatever he was eating and takes a big gulp of water from the bottle in his other hand.

  “As ever,” Isaac says nodding toward the door. “Let’s go.”

  I follow them out and just as I emerge onto the front porch, a familiar smiling face is staring up at me from the bottom of the steps.

  “Adria!” It’s annoying Cecilia from the skate park. I don’t know how she found out where we w
ere, or why she’s here, but there couldn’t be a worse time for someone like her to be showing up out of nowhere.

  Isaac glances over at me nervously. Nathan looks at me with a curiously raised eye.

  “What are you doing here?” I say to Cecilia as I come off the bottom step to meet her.

  Her smile widens, displaying all of her teeth. She’s wearing a skin-tight babydoll tee with a low-cut V-neck that scoops right down in-between her plump breasts. She only ever dresses like this when she’s trying to gain the attention of a guy. It’s how she landed her ex-boyfriend, Marc: her huge boobs, which makes me feel even worse for her. This girl has always been in serious need of a straightforward friend to guide her off the path of being the most gossiped about girl in Hallowell. I would consider taking on the role, but with Cecilia, there’s a lot more to it. Like my sanity, for starters.

  “Baby, we really need to hit the road,” Isaac whispers at me harshly from behind.

  Cecilia is all but glued to Nathan. I notice that she’s slow to answer my question because she can’t seem to stop gawking at him. And Nathan, well, he suddenly appears uncomfortable, avoiding direct eye contact with her, which I find sort of hilarious.

  “Sorry,” Cecilia says taking one step up, “I found out from your aunt where you were—,” she turns all of her giddy attention on Nathan and only Nathan, “—Hi, I’m Cecilia, a good friend of Adria and Isaac’s.” She reaches out her hand and Nathan reluctantly shakes it but he looks as if he’s doing something he’s going to regret.

  Isaac and I exchange looks, probably thinking along the same lines though we aren’t inside each other’s heads at the moment. Since when did we become good friends of hers?

  I take a deep breath and let it out sharply. “Cecilia,” I say, “I’m really sorry, but we were just heading out and we’re kind of running late.”

  Cecilia’s face lights up even more. “Oh? Mind if I go? Where are you going?”

  “No offense,” Isaac says, stepping up to move this along because he knows I can’t force myself to brush Cecilia off and risk hurting her feelings, “but we really need to leave and we can’t bring anyone else where we’re going.”

  Cecilia’s face falls.

  Isaac comes down three steps so that he’s standing level with her and he looks her right in the eyes, I know softening his own eyes because he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings any more than I do. “Maybe if you come back tomorrow, we’ll be around and you can hang out.”

  The front door opens behind us and Isaac and Nathan’s youngest sister, Camilla, steps outside. She’s holding one of her famous Barley Green and broccoli health smoothies, sipping on the end of a straw.

  I shudder and grimace just watching the green gunk shoot up the clear straw and into her mouth.

  “Hey!” Cecilia says, pointing at Camilla, “aren’t you friends with Gracie Mathers?”

  Camilla lets the straw bob away from her lips and she gazes down at Cecilia with a look of survey. She begins to smile slowly as she apparently realizes that she knows Cecilia, too. She points her finger. “Yeah, that’s right,” she says, “I met you at Gracie’s party last month.”

  Isaac grabs my hand and starts to tug it. Nathan is already heading to Isaac’s Jeep since we all decided to ride together.

  “Cam?” Isaac says, looking up at his sister impatiently, “do you mind?” He covertly nods toward Cecilia and Camilla easily catches on.

  Camilla gestures for her to follow. “Come on in,” she says.

  Isaac wastes no more time and pulls me away from the porch; I wave as I pass Cecilia up, but I don’t think she notices—easily distracted, that girl.

  “That chick has got a huge red flag emblazoned on her forehead,” Nathan says from the backseat as Isaac and I jump inside.

  I turn around in the seat, tossing my bag in the back next to Nathan and say, “Just don’t be mean to her. She can’t help it, really.”

  Nathan shakes his head and says with laughter in his voice, “What do you take me as? Xavier?”

  “You know what I mean,” I say gently. “I don’t like being around her, but I feel totally bad that no one else likes to, either.”

  “Okay, so it’s about four hours to Providence,” Isaac says from the driver’s seat, peering down into a paper map and ignoring our conversation.

  “A map?” Nathan says. “Why don’t we take my ride? I’ve got a brand spankin’ new GPS system installed in there.”

  Isaac shakes his head subtly, still looking at the map. “No thanks.” Isaac is a lot like Aunt Bev when it comes to technology.

  I turn back to face the front and I begin to think about the strange turn of events, about Cecilia showing up out of nowhere like that and how it was such a convenient coincidence that she and Camilla have met before, too.

  I turn to Isaac, pause for a second to rethink my words and then say, “…Never mind.”

  Isaac looks at me inquisitively, resting the large unfolded map against the steering wheel.

  “Never mind what?” he says.

  It didn’t even dawn on me that I hadn’t actually said anything; I was too lost in my thoughts.

  “What?” Isaac urges me, still anxious about getting on the road and maybe a little tired of all the obstacles being thrown in our path.

  Wait. Obstacles.

  I snap back into the moment and say, “I’m just being paranoid.”

  Nathan pushes himself in-between the front seats, poking his head into our view. “Spit it out, gorgeous,” he says with a serious, yet lopsided smile. “Paranoid or not—what’s on your mind?”

  I feel my eyes blink rapidly a few times as I gaze out the windshield and toward the house.

  “I don’t know,” I say staring off at nothing really, “but it just seems weird that she would show up like that.”

  “Well, she is a weird girl,” Nathan says.

  Isaac raises both brows and nods once to indicate: Yeah, he’s got a point.

  “Like I said: paranoid.” I shrug and leave it alone.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Isaac says, “and Cecilia could be a valid concern, but probably the least likely candidate.” He glances toward the house too, where Cecilia is inside with his sister and then he looks back at me. “She’s only ever at the skate park. She doesn’t even go to the same school.”

  “True,” I say, “but that doesn’t mean it’s not her.”

  “She has a point too, bro,” Nathan says. “This could be one of those situations where the least likely candidate is the most likely.”

  “Fine,” Isaac says, reluctantly agreeing, “we’ll put her on the list of suspects, but I’m going with my gut on this one: I don’t think it’s her.”

  “Fair enough,” I say. “I guess we officially have a list now.”

  “One person doesn’t constitute an actual list,” Nathan says.

  “Well, then tell me,” I say, crossing my arms and glancing between both of them, “I know you both have to have someone you’re suspicious of. At least one person.”

  Nathan and Isaac look at each other briefly, but I can tell it’s not because they share the same thought on this matter. It seems more like each of them is testing the other out to see who’s going to speak up first, neither of them really wanting to admit they are suspicious of anyone.

  “Well?” I urge them.

  “I’m not saying this because I really and honestly believe it,” Nathan begins and is no longer smiling. “I’m only going to add Sebastian to the list because he’s the only one in the house who came in around the time you became involved with us here in Maine. I think he’s a good guy and I swear I don’t think he’s the traitor, but if I had to pick someone, it’d be him only for that reason.”

  I give it a moment’s thought and nod, accepting Nathan’s theory.

  We both look over at Isaac at the same time with the same interrogative expression on our faces.

  Isaac lets his breath out heavily and gazes off toward the house again.


  “Zia,” he announces and his voice is distant.

  My head draws back in a stunned motion.

  “Zia?” I say. “Why would you think it could be her?”

  He turns back to me and shrugs. “No reason in particular,” he says. “Just a gut feeling.”

  ~~~

  Isaac choosing Zia as his pick for person of interest has more of an effect on me than I could’ve imagined. I never would’ve even considered Zia for a second. And even Isaac admitted that he has no real reason to pick her, but still, this whole situation has become a hundred times more uncomfortable to me because of it. I guess I had just assumed all along that the traitor would be someone I don’t like, maybe someone that I despise—Rachel, for instance. Yeah, I hope it’s Rachel because then I would have every justifiable reason in the world to wish bad things upon her, maybe even get my own revenge and kick her ass once and for all. But of course, if she is the Dark Praverian, that kind of tosses my ass-kicking plan out the window because there’s no way I can fight one of them. Actually, if it’s Rachel, I have more reason than ever to be terrified of her, especially since I’m the only one among us she seems to despise with every fiber of her being.

  Okay, so maybe I would rather the traitor be someone else, after all.

  Chapter 9

  WE MAKE IT TO Providence by mid-afternoon and drive for what feels like forever up and down Angell Street and Butler Avenue until we find the two-story house of Minna Abrahamsen.

  “We’ll park at that church we passed and walk back up,” Isaac says driving past the house again and towards the intersection. “Don’t want her to see my Maine license plate.”

  I hadn’t even thought of that.

  We park the Jeep and head back the way we came, Isaac and me hand-in-hand as we walk along the sidewalk. I grow more nervous the closer we get and Isaac’s hand tightens around mine as though he senses the nervousness churning around in my stomach.