Chapter Seven

Ana

Edward was waiting for me by my locker. He wore black again, and it made his eyes even bluer. “Is your cousin okay?” he asked. “She was sick at the dance?” he added when I just stared at him, trying to find an explanation that didn’t involve swans, foxes, and possible kidnappers.

I finally nodded. “Yeah, sorry about that. Something she ate.”

“How was the rest of your weekend?”

I nearly got kidnapped and then I started a tornado. “It was okay.”

He tilted his head. “You cut your hair.”

I touched the back of my neck, exposed and bare. Aunt Aisha had evened it out for me, using silver scissors that had sat out in moonlight for three nights, while Sarafina wailed. Then they had me bury the ends of hair under the herbs in my garden. The next morning my lemon balm and mint had tripled in size.

“I like it,” he added, almost shyly.

I smiled back just as shyly. “Thanks.”

“I have to stop in the drama department, but will you eat lunch with me?”

“Yes.” Happiness tingled through me. This was it. This was the next step to getting my feather cloak.

I stopped by the library on my way to class to see Pierce. He was stacking books in the back, as usual. This was how I always pictured Pierce: surrounded by books. I paused, wondering if he was back to himself and how to ask him. I put the plate of cupcakes on the shelf closest to him. I’d made them with vinegar and magic, just like before.

I’d eaten one myself, just to be safe.

“I made you cupcakes.”

“It’s not the magic,” he said, without looking up.

I exhaled. “Pierce, that’s how magic works. It confuses you.”

“I’m not the one who’s confused.”

I had every right to be confused by that kiss. Not that I was still thinking about it. It was a symptom of a bigger problem. Aunt Aisha would tell me to wait it out. Magic faded. Mostly. Usually.

“It will go away,” I assured him.

“You don’t have to love me back, Ana. But you can’t keep telling me I don’t know my own feelings.” He shoved books onto the shelf with more force than was necessary. He refused to touch the cupcakes.

I hovered there, feeling weird and confused, until the bell rang.

Edward held my hand at lunch. He told me about how his mom worked backstage for the Shakespearean company in town and that was why he’d joined the drama department. He sounded proud of her and it was sweet. He wanted to study set design. I just wanted to graduate. It was rare for Vila girls, too many things got in the way: magic, blood feuds, feathers. Insanity.

“You sound so ferocious,” he teased me later as we sat at the café and I talked about studying, because clearly my Vila-flirting-dating implant was defective. It was odd not to be at the counter with Pierce. I’d suggested going somewhere else, but Edward said he knew it was my favorite place because I was here all the time, even when I wasn’t working. I’d forgotten I’d once served him coffee in a fit of awkwardness.

“I have to be ferocious,” I admitted. “My family doesn’t care too much about high school diplomas.” That was as much as I could say about them. “So I have to defend my study time viciously.”

“Like the swans at the river,” he joked. “Every year the tourists get attacked over French fries.”

I choked on my latte. Pierce had made the foam into the shape of a swan floating on roses. It was almost too pretty to drink.

Edward doodled an idea for a backdrop for Macbeth as we chatted. It was nice. It wasn’t feather-cloak-nice yet, but still. An hour later, Sonnet and Mei Lin came in as I was walking up to the counter. Pierce wouldn’t quite meet my eyes, but at least he smiled at me. I could see his copy of Ulysses by the coffee grinder and I felt guilty and horrible all over again.

“Cappuccino,” Sonnet demanded. “Stat.”

“Make hers a decaf,” Mei Lin suggested, sliding into the other stool. There were so many silk flowers pinned to her hair she looked like a pomander.

I wrinkled my nose at them both. “Don’t think I don’t know Aisha sent you.”

“I’m just here for the coffee,” Mei Lin claimed.

“Liar.”

“I’m totally here to check up on you,” Sonnet said. “Deal with it.”

“You have such a soothing manner,” I teased. “It’s very stealthy.” She shrugged, unapologetic.

Mei Lin grimaced at the menu over my shoulder. “Seriously, who names these things?”

“The woman in charge of my pay stubs,” Pierce said drily. “So we love the puns.”

“And as you can see, I’m totally fine and hanging out in a public place. Plus, texting my dad once an hour.” Not to mention that my bag bristled with so many arrows I was basically carting a porcupine around. “So go home,” I added. I didn’t need more of an audience for my date. They eventually left but only after Sonnet made kissing noises at us, sucking her lips in like a fish.

I vowed to kill her later.

It turned out that Sonnet and Mei Lin weren’t actually keeping an eye on me like they said. Well, Mei Lin might have been. Sonnet, on the other hand, was scoping the café. I found out only because I caught her sneaking out in the van when I got home. I yanked the door open and jumped inside.

Sonnet was dressed in black, but there was nothing unusual about that. The fact that Rosalita also looked like a bad movie cat burglar complete with a black knit cap over her hair set off my alarm bells. They looked like doilies. There was no way Aunt Felicity hadn’t knit them. “Do I even want to ask?” I groaned.

Sonnet hit the gas pedal and I slid across the backseat. “You’re in now.”

I clipped my belt on. “Sonnet, I’m still tired from being almost kidnapped. Any chance you’re taking me for midnight ice cream?”

“We’re going fox-hunting,” Rosalita replied.

I stared at her. “Are you still high from that tranquilizer dart?”

“No,” she said tightly. “Thanks to you. You saved me. And they tried to take you, too. So now we make them pay.”

“Oh my God, Rosa. This isn’t a movie,” I said. “I don’t need to be avenged. Plus, if I did, I’d do it myself.”

“I’m avenging myself, idiot.”

“The Renards think we’re weak,” Sonnet added.

“Since when do we care what they think?”

“Since they’ve started hunting us again. Who do you think took those swans from the river? Who do you think took you?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “That van wasn’t at the Renard house when you all patrolled. Remember?”

“That means they have secret hideouts.”

“We have secret hideouts.”

“And they’ve proved we need them.”

I kicked the back of her seat in frustration. “Are you even listening to yourself?” We couldn’t go back to active feuding. There were still swan bones being dug out of the last battle field. Seventeen swan girls had died during the fight. “Sonnet, stop. Don’t make this another bloodbath.”

I tried to talk them out of it for the next fifteen minutes, but by the time we pulled onto the Renards’ street they were just as determined. I couldn’t even text Aunt Aisha since Sonnet had nearly broken my thumb when she caught me trying. My phone currently lived in her pocket. I spent most of the drive surreptitiously undoing the gold hair wrapped around any of the arrows I could reach.

The Renard house was as shielded against us as ours was against them. That made me feel a bit better. Probably we’d just drive up and down the street trash-talking them. We all did it at least once after we turned sixteen and could legally drive. Sonnet had started doing it when she was fourteen. “You guys, this is getting out of hand,” I tried again.

The house was made of dark logs and painted with dark green trim. I only knew that because sometimes you could catch a glimpse of it in winter when the leaves had all fallen. It looked like just another house. It was as close as any of us had ever gotten. Sonnet parked off the road, half inside a cedar bush. “That should be enough time.”

I swallowed nervously. “Shit. For what?”

Sonnet texted something into a phone as Rosalita slid the side door open. I contemplated leaping out with a shout of warning, but I couldn’t see anything. By the time I could, it was too late. Sonnet had child-proof locked my door. I didn’t think I could fit through the skylight. Besides, someone had to try to stop whatever stupid thing they had planned. “There,” Rosalita said quietly, pointing to a girl hurrying down the lane.

I knew that confident, snarly walk; that red hair.

Liv.

“She would never come out here alone to meet you guys,” I said. “It’s a trap.” Something was about to go very wrong.

“Of course it is,” Sonnet agreed. “She thinks she’s meeting Pierce after his shift. He just texted her.”

“What? Where did you even get that?” I snatched Pierce’s phone out of her hand.

“It was on the counter at the café.” Sonnet shrugged, as if she wasn’t completely deranged.

Liv stepped onto the road, looking furtively behind her. Sonnet sped up with a squeal of tires. Rosalita leaned out, grabbing Liv by the jacket and hauling her inside. She sprawled against me, shrieking. “Of course it’s you,” she spat, once she’d caught her breath.

“Don’t look at me,” I spat back. “I tried to stop them.”

“Sure you did.” She kicked at Rosalita, but Rosalita was too fast. She punched the back of Liv’s knees, forcing her down and twisting her arm behind her at a sharp unnatural angle. Liv yelped. Her eyes glinted green, the way a fox’s eyes gleamed at night. Sonnet was speeding so fast the van rattled like it was about to burst into pieces. I nearly bit my tongue off when she took a turn too tightly.

“We know you tried to kidnap Ana,” Sonnet said. “After you attacked Rosalita.”

Liv tried to kick again, but it was useless. “Ana’s right here, you head case.”

“She got free.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I could see the fear lurking under her temper. I felt it, too. This was how feuds were irrevocably reignited. It had been petty fighting for years, but something else threatened. Once the flame caught, there was no putting it out. Not without blood. “We didn’t take anyone.”

“Foxes lie,” Sonnet said.

“Swans die,” Liv returned.

“Everyone. Just. Shut. Up,” I yelled at the top of my lungs. There was a beat of surprised silence. “This is stupid. Let her go.” I glared at Liv. “And you tell your family that if one of us is attacked again, I won’t be able to stop them.”

“We didn’t—”

“You won’t be able to stop us now,” Sonnet interrupted, unlocking the locks. Rosalita pinned Liv down with a boot on her lower back. Rosalita reached over and pushed my door open.

Right before she pushed me out.

Pierce

When I got home Eric was letting Spartacus out the front door. He took off into the shadows at the side of the house, running so fast he nearly tripped on his own feet. Eric watched him mournfully. “Everyone in this family is nuts, including the dog.”

He went back inside, and I detoured to follow Spartacus who was now barking so intently I was afraid he’d cornered another skunk. Jackson came out of the shadows and I took a swing at him before I recognized him. He ducked far more easily than he usually did, as if he’d been practicing. “Getting slow, old man,” Jackson sneered.

I rolled my eyes. “Quit being so damn creepy.” Vila arrows could only explain so much. He just smirked and went inside. I was seriously wondering if I should convince Eric to sleep on the couch. One of us had to get out of this falling-down house and falling-down family relatively unscathed. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be Jackson. And he was stealing again. There was no way he could afford those shoes, never mind the hideous gold chain around his neck. I’d have mocked the old Jackson for it, but this new Jackson was unstable. And I didn’t know how to help him. It was like the arrow had only intensified his obsessive focus.

Spartacus was scrabbling at the shed, trying to get inside. He whined at me when I tried to pull him away. Sighing, I reached for the door handle, but it stuck, and this time it wasn’t because the old wood was warped. It was locked. The shed hadn’t been locked since I burned down the last one. I’d decided I’d had enough of being locked inside at night to “get tough.” It might be nothing, but Jackson had just come from this direction.

I didn’t even need to bust the lock. The key was under the rusted water can where we always kept spares. I had to push Spartacus back to keep him from barreling past me. The smell was weird: dust, mildew, and something rotten. I turned on the light and froze, my body instantly coursing with adrenaline.

There were hooks in the ceiling, from which hung long, limp white necks and dangling useless wings.

Three dead swans.

My blood turned icy. I had to remind myself that Ana didn’t have her feather cloak yet. It was impossible for one of these swans to be her.

Impossible tonight.

Not forever.

Especially not with Edward in the picture.

I wanted her to be happy, and to have her feather cloak even if it wasn’t because of me. But I just didn’t see the connection between her and Edward. She barely knew him, and I knew for damn sure that he didn’t know her. I could handle the ache that she didn’t love me the way I loved her. I just wasn’t sure I could watch her smile that slightly desperate smile anymore, or constantly scan her surroundings for a swan. She was collecting more feathers than ever before. I saw her sometimes by our wish tree, but I never joined her.

I stormed into the house and straight into my brothers’ room. Eric was on his bed, listening to music through his headphones. Jackson was facing his dresser, rummaging for pajamas. I grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. I ploughed my fist in his face before I’d really decided on a plan. He fell onto his bed, stunned. Eric pushed off his headphones, mouth hanging open.

Jackson flew off the bed, spitting blood. My skinny little brother had turned into a muscle-bound jock in the last few weeks, with enough muscles in his neck to make me wonder how long he’d be able to turn his head properly. Still, I was older. Angrier.

“What the hell are you playing at?” I roared.

“What’s your problem?” he shouted back. I ducked his punch mostly through luck. Anger could only take you so far. And I wasn’t a fighter, not like Ana. She’d have had him in a headlock by now.

Jackson rammed his shoulder into mine, slamming me into the wall. The lamp fell off his desk. Spartacus barreled in, barking but confused. He didn’t know whom to protect. Jackson caught me in the gut, and only brotherly pride stopped me from throwing up on him. My breath clogged in my throat. I slammed my fist into his thigh since it was the only part of him I could reach from this angle. He staggered.

Nana stomped into the room, slapping us apart. Eric still hadn’t said a word, but if his eyeballs got any bigger, they’d fall right out of his skull. “What is going on here?”

“I don’t know.” Jackson wiped blood from his split lip. “Ask Pierce. He’s the one who just went nuts.”

“He’s hunting swans,” I said. I definitely should have thought this through before barging in here in a rage. No one else knew that the swans could have been girls. But Jackson knew something. I wanted to punch him all over again. “It’s illegal,” I added, scrambling for an excuse. “And if we get busted, we can’t pay the fine and we can’t get our license reinstated. And if we don’t hunt, we don’t eat.” I straightened, refusing to clutch at my bruised stomach even though I really wanted to.

“I’m not going to get caught,” Jackson sneered.

“Well, we don’t eat swans, so you’re just killing for the hell of it. It’s sick. And the shed stinks, so clean it up.” I forced myself to walk away before things disintegrated even further.

And before Nana locked us outside again for fighting.

Ana

I landed hard.

I hit the ground, the asphalt tearing my sleeves and rubbing my arms raw. I rolled into the grassy ditch, vowing to start my own feud against my cousins. The van sped off.

I lay there for a long moment, trying to remember how to breathe. I moved my legs and my arms gingerly, but nothing felt broken. My elbow throbbed painfully. There was blood on my chin from where I’d scraped the road with my face.

Oh yeah, the new feud was so on.

Just as soon as I limped the miles home in the dark, of course.

I sat up with a litany of curses that might have caused another tornado if I’d sung them. As it was, the wind whipped at the branches, creaking and snapping treacherously over my head. I hauled myself out of the ditch, my head spinning faintly. The throb in my elbow turned to searing stabbing. I swore again, until the wind shoved me nearly off my feet. It was all of the magic I had left in me after the dance, and it was mostly born of petulance. It left me exhausted and no further ahead. I really wanted my hair back. I was drinking Aunt Felicity’s nasty apple cider vinegar concoctions, but they weren’t making it grow any faster, despite her promises.

I was still in the middle of farmland, desperately praying for my cousins to come to their senses before it was too late. I briefly considered walking back to the Renard house to warn them, but I couldn’t see how that would do anything but make things worse. I fumbled for Pierce’s phone. They didn’t have a landline at his house, but Eric’s number was programmed. He answered, sounding confused. “Hello?”

“Is Pierce home?”

“Um, yeah. So why is his phone calling?”

“It’s Ana.” I sighed. “Put him on.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just get your brother.”

There was a pause and then Pierce was there. “What’s happened?”

“I’m on Concession 3, out by the old quarry. Don’t even ask.”

“I’m on my way.”

I started the long limp toward home to intercept him, wishing once again that I had wings. I ran into Liv a kilometer from where my cousins had dumped me. I didn’t know if they’d let her go or if she’d gotten free. She looked just as bad as I felt but entirely in one piece. I heaved a sigh of relief. “I never thought I’d be glad to see you.”

“I never thought you’d be the sane one in your family,” she said. She advanced on me, snarling, but she was limping, too.

I held up a hand. “Pierce is on his way.”

She stopped, just like I knew she would. She never wanted him to see her at her worst, or her most violent. “You called him? And not your family?”

I’d never even considered calling anyone else. Later, I might think about that. Much later, like when I wasn’t covered in my own blood.

“He’s the only reason I’ve never taken you out,” she said.

I snorted. As if I didn’t know that. “That and the fact that I’d kick your ass.”

She growled and her features went momentarily pointed. She sucked in a deep breath. “Were you really abducted?”

“Yes. Well, nearly.”

“I knew that freak storm at the dance had Vila written all over it.”

I didn’t say anything. I was interrupted by a black truck barreling into view. The windows were down and there were Renards hanging out either side. They screeched to a halt sideways across the road. Liv’s brothers again. Their focus snapped onto me. “Swan.”

They were already leaping out. My ankle was bruised from my fall. I’d never make it into the fields, but I had to try. The sound of animal teeth clacking together behind me made my spine burn. One of them was already in fox-shape and he bit at my leg, catching my pants when I jerked back.

“Wait,” Liv finally said. They paused, snarling.

“Liv, they need to learn they can’t mess with us,” Jude said quietly.

I opened my mouth to sing, even though I knew they’d probably be just words.

Down, down, down, down; Down among the dead men let him lie.

The song electrified them. Fear rippled between them, as wind tickled at their hair. It wasn’t much, but they didn’t know I couldn’t do more right now. Every word I sang was like rust and vinegar in my mouth. If I could have spat them out they’d be blunt, ancient daggers buried in the ground for centuries.

Down among the dead men; Down among the dead men.

Liv growled, her red hair turning to fur. Her teeth were tiny but too sharp. My song faded before they could realize it was a useless weapon. “Do you really want Pierce to see you like that?”

She froze as headlights hurtled toward us. The fox-brothers took off into the fields. The brothers who still looked mostly human backed up toward the truck. There were knives and rifles on the seats. Liv shook her head sharply. “Don’t.”

Pierce jumped out of his truck, leaving the door open. He glanced at the Renards warily. “What’s going on?”

Liv smiled at him. “Nothing, we’re all okay.”

Pierce looked right at me. I knew the exact moment he noticed the blood and the way I was holding my elbow. I nodded, mostly because I didn’t want him involved. At least on that, Liv and I agreed.

She turned to her brothers. “This one tried to help me, even if she was really bad at it. So this one goes free.” She turned, meeting my eyes. “So we’re even.”

I nodded. “We’re even.”

She lowered her voice so only I could hear her.

“For Pierce.” She smiled, showing a lot of teeth. “For now.”

The night did not improve.

When we got home, Aunt Agrippina was sitting at the kitchen table with wet hair and a dazed expression. She blinked at Sonnet for a long disoriented moment before speaking.

“They took my cloak.”

She’d landed in one of the ponds and tossed her cloak on the shore to go swimming. When she resurfaced after a moment underwater, it was gone.

I couldn’t help but wonder what Liv’s family had been doing before they raced in to save her.