Fire and Fantasy: a Limited Edition Collection of Epic and Urban Fantasy Page 36

  I didn’t meet his eyes. Instead, my gaze locked on the road in front of me. The sun was beginning to brighten the sky more, but the endless landscape in front of me made it feel like we weren’t getting any closer to our goal. I guess the best thing I could do was kill the time. It might take my mind off the places it kept wandering to.

  I sighed heavily. “Fine. But you have to ask the questions, and I’m allowed to not answer if I don’t want to.”

  When I glanced over at him, one corner of his mouth had turned down. “Fine,” he agreed reluctantly. “First question. Is it true that you were the one who put the gold fish in the pool at school my senior year?”

  “Pass.”

  He let out a breath of air and sat up straighter in his chair as if I was being unfair. “You’re going to pass on everything I ask, aren’t you?”

  “Pass.” I couldn’t help it when the corners of my lips twitched, resisting a smile.

  “How about you only get one pass? Are you sure you want to use it up on this question?”

  “Pass.” The more I annoyed him, the more I felt my smile grow.

  He narrowed his eyes at me.

  “Fine,” I caved. “Yes, I was an accomplice. So sue me.”

  “That was cruel, you know?”

  I glanced sideways at him. Of course, he had to remind me. How was I supposed to know all the fish would be dead the next day and the janitor would have to scoop them all out? It’s not like it was my idea, either. Daniel McKeral and his crew were responsible for it, and he asked me to tag along. It was supposed to be their senior prank. I think he asked me along because he liked me, not that that turned into anything. Only after that prank miserably failed did we come up with the idea to TP the gym. That one was my idea.

  “Weren’t you saying something about a plan?” I asked to change the subject.

  “Oh, come on,” he said with amusement. “I want to hear all about the other badass things you’ve done. Which one was it that got you sent away?”

  I nearly snapped. I don’t know why. Noah was only teasing me in a friendly manner, but for some reason, I couldn’t take the friendly banter any longer. I tapped the brakes even though I wanted to slam on them.

  “I can turn this car around,” I threatened. We began to slow as the car coasted. A vehicle behind us swiftly passed.

  “Whoa.” Noah held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, I’ll drop it. Clearly you don’t want to talk about it. But you know I’ll assume the worst if you don’t tell me.”

  My lips curled down into a frown. Gosh. If I kept this up, the guy was going to think I was bipolar. Maybe I was. “It’s not as bad as you think. I didn’t even do anything wrong.” My voice held a strong tone of honesty to it.

  Noah nodded slowly. “I know. You said that before, and I believe you. I’m sorry I pushed it.”

  Silence replaced the response I’d been planning. Somehow, I couldn’t seem to say anything back. It felt like if I did, I’d break down. Those memories rushed back. First, Tristan’s eyes. Then the weight of my father holding me down so they could steal my magic. Then the surprise in my mother’s eyes when she found out how soon I was leaving. It was too much to bear, and I couldn’t choke out any sort of explanation.

  “Back to the plan,” Noah said with a strong voice, redirecting our conversation. I had a feeling he did it for my benefit, and I hated myself for showing weakness in front of him.

  “Okay,” I agreed. “Tell me what I need to do.”

  “We need to come up with a plan together.”

  I resisted the urge to face palm. “This is why I brought you along! Because I need your help. What’s your plan?”

  A brief silence taunted me as I waited for an answer.

  Sixteen

  Noah raised his brows. “I thought you brought me along for the ride.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Okay, can we stop it with these bipolar moments? One second we’re being serious, the next you’re being silly. Let’s get serious for a second.”

  Noah shifted in his chair again and faced forward. I think that was his attempt at showing me he was serious. “Let’s start with the obvious.” He paused as if he thought I should fill in with the answer.

  “And that is?” The annoyance was evident in my tone.

  Noah rolled his eyes. “How are we actually going to get the magic? We can’t just waltz in there.”

  “It’s not exactly a high security prison,” I pointed out.

  “If I remember right, there’s a lock on the door.”

  “Yeah.” I shrugged. “So we bust it. Pick it. Something.”

  Noah nodded slowly, almost like he was talking to a child, like he thought I was headed in the right direction but still wasn’t “getting” it. “Right. So we need to figure out where we’re going to get the tools to do it.”

  I was beginning to hate this long car ride with a passion. Couldn’t we just get there and figure out what to do once we were inside the building?

  “I don’t know how to pick a lock,” he admitted. “You?”

  I sighed heavily. “You’d think so, but no.”

  “And how are we going to get in unnoticed?”

  I gritted my teeth. “You’re making me think too hard.”

  He shook his head in amusement.

  I needed to keep this serious. “Let’s back up and figure this out one step at a time.” There. I was doing pretty good with this planning thing now, wasn’t I? “Neither of us knows how to pick a lock, so it’d take several hours—or a miracle—to make that one work. Couldn’t we just, like, shoot the doorknob like they do in the movies?”

  “And where are you getting a gun?”

  Yeah, that definitely sounded more like my plan-making skills. I’d be the one to decide to blow the place up without actually having a bomb to do it. And yet, I’m sure I’d figure out a way.

  “Right. Dumb idea,” I admitted. “But look at the bright side. It’s not like the place is highly protected. We could…”

  Noah waited patiently for me to finish that thought, but it slipped away as soon as it had come. I had nothing.

  “Now that we’ve exhausted all other options, I think the only thing we can do is steal the key.”

  “Great idea,” I said sarcastically. “And how are we going to get away with that? I’d like to stick to stealing one thing. I don’t need to get caught on the way there.”

  “Well, how are you going to get that one thing back otherwise? I highly doubt Dr. Sloan would hand the key over or help us somehow. If we knew what the key looked like…where he kept it. Think about it. If we could get his keys, we could get in and out without anyone even noticing. Then we’d be long gone with our magic before anyone did inventory and noticed they were missing. It minimizes our risk of having to actually break in anywhere. No one locks their doors in Sea Haven, so City Hall will be the only thing locked. We can’t go in the middle of the day when people will see us.”

  “But it adds another unnecessary step,” I pointed out.

  “Do you want them to notice our magic missing right away?” Noah asked with a raised eyebrow. “Because broken windows and door handles will do that. A missing set of keys will keep them guessing if they don’t know we’re back in town.”

  I sighed heavily. Noah was starting to make some sense. “There’s just one problem with your plan. He has the key to the one room. What about the other room? And we’d still have to get into the building.”

  “Ah, but you’re forgetting something.” He smiled slyly next to me.

  My brows shot up. “What’s that?”

  “Dr. Sloan is among the elite in Sea Haven. He’s part of the council. Or at least he was when I was around. I assume much hasn’t changed in politics since then.”

  “He’s not really on the council, right?”

  Noah shrugged. “I guess he’s more of a consultant than anything. He’s an educated guy, one of the most educated in the whole city. Of course they’re going to take advantage of that.”


  “Okay,” I said slowly, digesting the information. “So, what are you getting at?”

  Noah leaned closer to me and spoke in a whisper as if it were a secret. “He has keys to City Hall.”

  I don’t know why, but I drew in a sharp breath. It’s not like the information was that amazing or anything, but I understood where Noah was going with this. In one go, we could get Dr. Sloan’s keys to get us into the building and into the room housing our magic. Expect for one thing…

  “Okay, say we do that. Then we’ll have his keys and people will know something’s up. It’s practically the same thing as my breaking and entering idea. How does this get us by unnoticed?”

  “We can return them,” he said with an evil grin. It made me feel like there was more going on in his head that he wasn’t saying. The following silence stretched between us like he was just waiting for me to prompt him for more.

  I caved. “Okay, where are you going with this?”

  “Doesn’t your mom work with Dr. Sloan?”

  My initial knee-jerk reaction was to slam on the brakes for him even suggesting it, but I thought better of it. Instead, I let my mouth run as usual to show how I felt about it. “Unh-uh. No way. We are not getting my mom involved in this. That’s one of the reasons I went along with all this in the first place. I didn’t want my mom or my friends to get hurt. If they find out she helped, they’ll take her magic and send her away, too—or worse.” I was sure of it.

  “That’s the beauty of the plan, though. No one will be suspicious. Besides, you didn’t really think you could walk into Sea Haven without getting your family and friends involved, did you?”

  I swallowed hard. He was probably right about that. “But not my mom, okay?” I don’t know why I was so afraid of getting my mom involved in this yet could totally see myself turning to Liana or Christina for help. Maybe it was because I didn’t think my mom would handle it as well. All I knew was that she was the last person I wanted getting wrapped up in all this. “Not my mom,” I repeated.

  I could see Noah’s lips turn down from out of the corner of my eye.

  “Fine,” he agreed after a long silence. “We won’t get your mom involved. What else do you suggest, then?”

  The hot tears returned to my eyes. This was all too much. I didn’t know what to do or how to do it all without getting caught. I didn’t know who I could drag into this—or who I should. The only person I thought it’d be appropriate to turn to would be my father since he was already a part of it, but that didn’t seem right. He’d just hand me over to Carson and send me away again—or more likely, lock me in one of the rooms in their basement like they had done to Tristan.

  Tristan. The tears welled even closer to the surface at the thought of him. I didn’t know him, but keeping him locked away like that only seemed cruel. I wanted to know him. I wanted to talk to him and get answers, to learn more about where he came from and how he ended up on Sea Haven Beach. And the idea of never getting the answers to those questions cut me to the core.

  I have one mission, I told myself. Get my magic and get out. After that, I’d forget about Sea Haven and start a new life. It’s not like they wanted me there anyway.

  That thought was the one to send the tears over the surface. The first tear rolled down the left side of my face. I remained still and quiet, hoping Noah hadn’t noticed. I determined he did because after that, he went silent and leaned against his window, staring out at the vast landscape. He had to have sensed that I didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

  We stopped for gas and food around lunchtime and switched seats. Neither of us said much again, and we went back to the silence once we were on the road.

  As darkness approached, however, Noah finally spoke up. “I think we need to talk about this all again.” His voice cut through the silence. It felt so strange after being locked away in the nightmare that was my mind over the past several hours.

  I straightened up in my seat. I didn’t like the thought of talking, but I knew it was necessary. Luckily, the past several hours had given me more time to think things through—not that it helped as much as it should have.

  “Here’s what I was thinking,” I started. “By the time we get there, it’s going to be the middle of the night. I don’t think tonight is the night to strike. As much as I want that, I feel like it might not be the best idea. I think we should consider the key-stealing plan a bit more, and in that case, we’d need to buy ourselves another day. But in the meantime, we’d need a place to crash, mostly so no one recognizes us and becomes suspicious. That means we have to do something with your car, too. People will notice this thing driving around, and they’re going to realize it’s not your typical Sea Haven vehicle.”

  “You mean because it’s rusty?” Noah asked.

  “Mostly. With the light city driving people do in Sea Haven, most cars back home don’t get a whole lot of use.”

  “Right.” He nodded. “So, what do we do? Park it outside of town?”

  “Honestly? That’s probably our best bet. I don’t have a secret place to hide it. And I’m not turning to my parents for help.”

  He must have noticed the implication in my voice. “Who are we turning to for help?”

  I hated this part. I didn’t even want to say it out loud, as if that would mean I was committed to bringing someone else into this. But I didn’t know where else to go, where else to hide. Liana was the only person I completely trusted. With how many sleepovers we’d held over the years—one almost every other weekend since kindergarten—and the many, many secrets I’d told her during those sleepovers, she’d never breathed a word of my secrets to a soul. And I knew she would be able to keep this one a secret. Still, that didn’t make me feel any better about dragging her into this, but what else were we supposed to do?

  Seventeen

  My heart hammered uncontrollably. Noah’s breathing was so loud behind me that I was sure he was going to wake the neighborhood. I glanced around the street, praying no one would spot us. If they did, the most I could hope for was that they wouldn’t recognize us, that they’d take us for two generic Sea Haven residents out for a midnight walk.

  When we’d arrived, Noah parked his car a few miles out of town down a dead-end dirt road I’d never been down. There was only one house down that road, and we’d parked the car past it. It was highly unlikely anyone would stumble upon it. We’d walked into town at a swift pace. The closer we got to the ocean, the more excited I became. I could feel the ocean in the air, smell its familiar saltiness. I longed to bathe in the water, feel the waves rushing across my skin. And I hated that I had other priorities to deal with. Noah and I had twisted through the streets of Sea Haven, avoiding street lights whenever possible, until we were nearly to the ocean.

  Just a few more steps, I told myself. I could hear the waves now, crashing against the sand and rocks behind my house. It was all so familiar, so comfortable. And that itself felt wrong.

  I could see my house from here. It wasn’t too far down the beach from Liana’s house, but I knew I wouldn’t make it that far. I wasn’t here to chew out my father. I wasn’t here to cry into my mother’s arms. I wasn’t here for them. I was here for my magic, and that was it.

  I slipped around the side of Liana’s house, Noah right behind me, and inched my way over to her window. We’d knocked at each other’s windows plenty of times throughout the years. It started one weekend when Liana’s brother was having a birthday party and had a bunch of boys over for a sleepover. Her parents had said it was her brother’s turn to have his friends over and that I could stay the night another weekend. I ended up sneaking into her bedroom in protest so we could have a sleepover of our own—even though I ended up going home before either of us fell asleep.

  That happened plenty of times throughout the years, and we even had a secret knock for it. Two knocks with your knuckle. One scratch across the window with your fingernails. One more knock. That’s what I did now as I crouched next to the ho
use and glanced up and down the beach one last time.

  The only sounds came from the familiar lapping of the waves on shore and Noah’s breath behind me. I glanced behind me at the waves. I almost didn’t care at this point if Liana answered or not. All I wanted to do was jump into the water, to feel the refreshing coolness on my skin and inhale its sweetness. I felt the disappointment cross my face when I turned back to the window. I couldn’t enjoy the refreshing breath of water anymore. I briefly wondered if Noah felt the same longing to the water. We were only yards away, yet it felt like miles.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and knocked on the window again. There was a ninety-nine percent chance Liana was asleep. I could either give up or pry her window open. I was weighing my options when, to my surprise, the window opened a crack.

  Liana’s voice hissed from behind it in a whisper. “Bree? What are you doing here? I thought you—”

  Before she could finish her thought, I popped up from my crouch and began making my way through the small opening into her bedroom. My backpack caught on the window at first, but I flattened myself onto my belly and made it through. I ended up in a heap on her floor.

  “I’ll explain in a minute,” I whispered back as Noah began his entrance through the window.

  Liana’s tired eyes suddenly widened. Her gaze flickered between Noah and me at an alarming rate. “Whaaa…” She couldn’t even manage to get the full word out.

  I dropped my backpack off my shoulders and stood. Noah set his bag next to mine.

  “You’re probably going to want to sit down for this,” I advised Liana.

  She was rendered so speechless that she complied with ease. She leaned against one of her canopy posts to steady herself as she lowered herself to the bed. “I—I thought you left.”

  “I did,” I stated simply.

  I was so exhausted that my knees began shaking. It suddenly became difficult to keep myself upright. I ended up plopping down into the rocking chair in the corner. The rhythmic motion actually helped soothe me. Noah remained standing near the window, his arms cross over his chest. I found myself wishing he would take the reins and explain it all, but he didn’t speak. I guess he was thinking the same thing about me. It was my responsibility. The truth was, all I wanted to do was fall asleep and wake up from this nightmare. It had to be a dream.