Silver Smoke (#1 of Seven Halos Series) (21 page)

"You should go," Rykken said, trying to keep the pain out of his voice.

"Why?" Her eyes burned into him, like they were fueled by the heat from the bonfire. "I'm making s'mores with you right now."

Still, he couldn't have her. He took a graham cracker and split it in half, placing the stabbed piece of chocolate on it. He sandwiched a mushy marshmallow between the crackers and pulled the dessert from the stick.

"Here," he said, handing her the s'more and taking the stick from her. "Now, you should go."

She looked at the s'more in her hands, the corners of her mouth reversing directions. "What's your deal?" Her bottom lip quivered, anchored on one side by her front teeth. "One minute we're having a deep conversation, and the next you pretend you can't stand me."

Rykken looked away; there were a million ways to answer the question.
You're my best friend's little
sister. You're dating one of my friends.
Of course, none of the answers were things he would ever say out loud to her. Instead, he fiddled with his own marshmallow, eating it straight from the stick. It was browned perfectly, with a slightly crusted outside and a gooey inside.

When he had the courage to face her again, Brie was still staring him down, waiting for an answer.

"I didn't know it came across that way," Rykken said.

She ran her fingers through her hair angrily, flipping the front pieces to the back. "I don't buy it Rykken Camacho." He studied her face—her green eyes, her small nose, her full lips, her smooth cheeks. He could smell the vanilla on her skin, the chocolate on her breath.

He pushed her out of his mind, and focused instead on the steamy, violent patterns the bonfire made against the midnight blue sky.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Brie shaking her head as she got up and walked in Justin's direction.

*****

Pilot held Kennedy's hand as they walked along the beach. He had spent every waking moment with her aside from school and practice. Now, it was near impossible for him to accept that she was leaving. He brushed her hair away from her neck and cupped her face in his palms, pressing his thumbs against her cheeks. She looked back at him with the smokiest eyes, smudged in black makeup. He leaned in and kissed her.

When she pulled away, she rested her head on his chest. "I'll be back in Honolulu soon."

He ran his fingers through her hair, which shone a bright white underneath the blaze of scattered street lamps. "I can't wait."

"Do you have your campfire story ready?"

"Yep. I'm going to tell the legend of the Selkies and the Shark-Men."

"Cool. I brought you something for your performance," she said. He looked into her eyes, but she looked away quickly. She wore a skin-tight black dress forming a deep V at her chest and thigh high black boots.

A few inches of her bare legs peeked out, taunting him. The outfit was a parting gift, like she wanted to remind him how much he wanted to have sex with her. Eventually. He was amazed she could walk across sand in those boots.

She held up a small, purple pouch by its strings playfully, teasing him as he tried to grab for it.

He closed his fist around it, yanking it out of her hand. She giggled, and he loosened the strings and shook the contents from the pouch. Inside, there was a small vial of thick, bright red liquid. "Is this... blood?" he asked.

"Of the archangels and archdemons." She laughed, though she still wouldn't look at him. "It's fake,"

she said, staring at his chest, her fingers straightening the collar of his polo shirt. "Toss it into the fire at the end of your story. It'll spark and scare everyone."

He closed his fist around the vial. "I like it. Very theatrical."

He leaned in to kiss her again, but she didn't respond to the pressure of his lips against hers.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She looked him in the eyes, finally. He marveled at the color—they weren't the grayish shade of blue that was more common in eyes, but actually silver, like the color of diamonds. "We're going to keep trying to make this work, right?"

"You mean because you live somewhere else?"

She touched the buttons on his shirt. "I mean, no matter what happens."

He grabbed her hand, holding it flat against his chest, right over his heart. "You know, I could call you in LA. Things could be normal between us."

Kennedy looked like she might cry. "Things
can
be normal between us, someday. When you're ready."

Pilot wasn't sure what to do. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it lightly.

"You're so hard to interpret," he murmured.

"I know," she replied. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his chest, his neck, his chin. Her touch sent shivers through his body. She kissed him hard on the mouth, and something about their embrace told him it was the last time for a while.

When she finally pulled away, she smirked at him, her hand on her hip. "Turn around." Pilot felt physical pain from not having her in his arms anymore. She held her head up, but he could see her smile slipping at the corners of her mouth. He spun around, closing his eyes. He listened to the silence for several minutes, waiting to hear her footsteps headed in the opposite direction.

When he turned back around, she was gone. He wasn't surprised.

He made his way to the bonfire, where his entire school was bound to be celebrating the football team's Homecoming victory. It all felt distant to him though. Kennedy had opened him to a new world, outside of football, water polo, and high school. She made him feel whole in a way that no one else had in his life, because he didn't have to be so strong around her. He could be himself.

He reached the bonfire as the party was dying down. Justin was just finishing up a story.

"Who's next?" he asked, holding out the flashlight.

"Me." Pilot took the flashlight from Justin, and grabbed an empty seat next to the fire.

"A chief from a nearby town, not far from here, came to this very beach to watch the selkies as they danced in the sand, their steps leaving no footprints. A beautiful female selkie held out her hand to him, inviting him to join in their trite revelries. But he refused, as he knew that selkies were much like fairies, and to dance for a minute with them was to dance for a lifetime. He watched from the rocks instead, plotting a way to seduce the female selkie into marrying him.

"He found her sealskin buried under the sand near the rocks. While she was dancing, he uprooted it and hid it in a wine cellar near his house. In the morning, the woman was trapped; she couldn't return to the ocean without her skin.

"She married him and they had children. He carried the keys to the wine cellar with him night and day, afraid she would steal them and dig up her skin he so carefully hid from her.

"He could tell she was unhappy, but he was too afraid to lose her. One day, one of their children stole the key from his father's pocket. The child discovered the sealskin, and not realizing what it was, showed it to his mother. The woman, realizing what had happened, put on her sealskin and made her way out to sea. When her husband came looking for her, she called him out into the ocean. He swam deeper and deeper, trying to reach the love of his life. When he finally did, she held him under water until his body went limp. He never returned to land.

"She gave the village to her sons, reminding the children that if they ever wanted to call her, they could simply cry seven tears into the ocean and she would return to visit them."

"Not far away in Waipao Valley, Ka-moho, a shark king, married the beautiful princess Kalei and had a son. Ka-moho disappeared shortly after the birth of his son, but not before he warned Kalei not to let their son, Nanaue, taste any human's blood.

"When Nanaue grew older, he developed an appetite for fish. That appetite grew, and before long, Nanaue could not swim with other men, for they were too tempting.

"As Nanaue neared adulthood, there were strange disappearances where the family lived. Whenever a man entered deep waters, a shark would appear, dragging them into the depths of the ocean. Their limbs would float to the surface, bitten and maimed at the ends.

"Kalei became suspicious of the disappearances, so Nanaue left the valley. He moved to Honolulu and married a chief's daughter, and they had children. People suspected he may have supernatural powers, but because he was part of the royal family, no one dared to speak out about it.

"The selkies and the shark-men were natural enemies. The two royal families feuded, both believing the other's beliefs were wrong. Before long, the fighting turned to war, and the war turned to death."

Pilot paused, looking ominously around the campfire. He saw the faces of most of the guys from the football and water polo teams. He saw Brie standing still, next to Sirena. The twins stood behind them, spooked. Finally his eyes settled directly across the campfire, on Rykken. His best friend.

"The deaths spelled trouble for the two tribes. The selkies could no longer stand the losses of their children, so they left the island for good, never to be seen again. Thus, the feud lay dormant, and over time was forgotten. But the shark-men wait until the day the selkies set foot on this land, if only to taste their blood again..."

Pilot had reached the end of the story. He held up the vial in his hand, thinking of Kennedy. He looked across the fire at Rykken, who was watching him intensely.

"What is that in your hand?" Cora asked, making her way toward him. Clara was right behind her.

He threw the vial into the fire, and it exploded, enveloped by the flames. A mist of soft, silver smoke spurred up, climbing its way toward the sky in large bursts.

CHAPTER NINE

Thessa marched into Brie's room wearing a pair of jeans, out of step with the R&B Brie blasted from her computer speakers. Her hair and make-up were non-existent—anything but party-ready. "Clara, give me some good news."

The twins had arrived earlier to borrow jewelry from Brie for the Homecoming dance. Well, Cora did; Brie offered to loan Clara something, but she said it would be too awkward, whatever that meant.

"I tried to access his thoughts," Clara said, "but downloads are the hardest for me to do. He's resisted my attempts so far. I can still upload, but only if I touch his skin."

"Brie, anything?"

Brie adjusted the straps on her shoes so they didn't pinch her ankle. "Pilot won't talk to me about last night." She didn't quite understand what had happened. The night before, Pilot was telling a campfire story and threw an object—what, she didn't know—into the fire. Thessa was obsessed with finding out who gave the object to him, though she wouldn't explain to Brie what it was or why.

Sirena tilted her head, her eyebrows raised. "At all?"

Brie applied mascara to her right eye. "I can't force him to talk to me." The truth was she hadn't pushed Pilot for an answer—it felt fake to her, when she was constantly lying to him.

Thessa paced the room. "Cora, do you think you can convince him to confide in you?"

Cora fiddled with the zipper to her dress. "I'll try to get a name from him tonight, but if Brie couldn't get it out of him..." She tugged on the zipper, but her hands were trembling. Brie, feeling sorry for Cora, walked over to the full-length mirror to help her zip up.

"Thanks," Cora said. She glanced nervously at herself in the mirror, frowning as she took in her figure.

"You look great," Brie said. "Why are you so nervous?"

"I haven't had a date to a dance in awhile, I guess."

Brie laughed. "It's my brother, not a date." A blush of ember spread across Cora's cheeks, and Brie wondered if... no. Cora wouldn't.

Clara smirked. "It's a
mission
, Cora. Don't forget that tonight."

Thessa sat on Brie's bed, folding one leg over the other. "I need to check on something." The twins went on alert, hovering around her. Thessa grabbed Clara's and Cora's hands and the three of them stood in a circle. Thessa mumbled some words in Greek that sounded like a prayer. The twins repeated them back to her in unison.

Brie looked at Sirena, who tilted her head to the side and raised her shoulders. She clearly didn't know what was going on any more than Brie did. But unlike Brie, she didn't seem curious.

Brie wanted to ask Thessa where she was going, but she knew better. Even Clara and Cora didn't ask, though Brie could tell Clara wanted to.

"What about Rykken?" Brie thought of how he bled the night before, from the spot on his chest where Brie suspected the mark was. "I'm worried about him."

Thessa's eyes narrowed, her lips forming a thin, horizontal line. "Don't be. He's not your concern."

"But we still don't know what happened to him last night," Brie said. "He was sitting there, and he was fine, and then he slumped out of his chair, and his shirt was stained in blood..."

Cora fumbled with her hands. "Let it go Brie."

Brie squeezed her eyes shut, grabbing the bridge of her nose with her index finger and thumb. She had a feeling that the other girls knew what was happening to Rykken, but it was yet another thing they wouldn't tell her. Everything with the Hallows seemed to operate on a need-to-know basis.

"Fine," Brie said, releasing her nose. "What
should
I do then?"

"Go to the Homecoming dance," Thessa said. "Dance with your date, who happens to be one of the most sought after seniors in the entire school. And be a teenager tonight—no worries, no responsibilities."

She walked to the door, sparing only one glance back. "That's what you wanted, right?"

*****

"Smile," Annie said.

Rykken stood by the van Rossum pool with Pilot, Justin, and the rest of his teammates, dressed in white suits and wearing green foliage leis. James insisted that the whole crew take Homecoming pictures at the van Rossum house this year after meeting everyone the week before at the party.

Rykken was dateless—but he hadn't asked anyone, so he couldn't be too angry. Pilot didn't ask anyone either, but he was going with Cora as a last minute set-up that Brie had arranged. Brie said Rykken could go with Sirena, but Rykken passed. It was too awkward after what she saw on his chest.