Storykiller (14 page)

Micah yanked her back down. “That wasn’t our bell,” she said, looking at her watch. “We’ve still got ten more minutes. So. You’re here. I assume that means you’re done pushing us away?”

Tessa sighed heavily, “Micah, I’m not going to accept this idea of you two getting involved in all of this, I’m just not, but I can’t deny that you may be in trouble.” Micah and Brand listened and chewed their food. Tessa cast her eyes down, embarrassed. “Yesterday Snow said something about, well, that Mortals can’t go to Story without changing.”

Brand sputtered to life. “CHANGING?!” Micah and Tessa hissed at him and looked around to see if the other tables had noticed. They had, but they seemed to lose interest fast. “Are we talking superpowers? Or something like, oh, I don’t know, ending up with a FROG’S HEAD!?!?”

Tessa shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. She used the word…infected.”

“INFECTED!?!” he shouted, and at this everyone left in the courtyard turned to stare at their table, looks of horror and more than a few expressions of absolute delight on their faces.

“Hush!” Micah whisper screamed.

“Mike, she just said INFECTED!” he yelled again, heedless of her pleas to lower his voice.

“I heard her. Stop screaming, you’re freaking me out. Tessa, who can we ask, what can we do?”

“I can ask Snow more questions, I guess?”

“Oh yes, let’s ask the EVIL FREAKING SNOW QUEEN!” Brand shouted. Micah shot him another look.

“Do you think she’ll know, or that she’ll even be willing to help?” Micah asked.

“I don’t know, Micah. I mean, we obviously can’t trust her but she’s been pretty helpful in general. She’s picking me up from school today so I’ll ask her then.”

“
We’ll,”
Brand cut in, decidedly calmer, “
We’ll
ask her then.” Tessa dropped her gaze.

“Okay, meet me in the back parking lot after school and we’ll ask her together.” Tessa stood and reached for her tray. Micah looked up at her. Tessa looked down at her two new friends, the only ones she’d really ever had, and wished she’d never met them, wished she’d never gotten them involved in any of this. “You guys, I’m sorry. I, I wish I could take it all back.”

“But you can’t Tessa. And it’s not your fault. We made our own choices. Let’s just figure out what it means, okay?” Micah cut the comment with a light smile that was full of forgiveness and friendship, despite everything. Tessa smiled back and hoped hers looked the same but knew it was likely full of guilt and sadness. Tessa turned to go, but as she did, her tray was smacked violently upward, and the remaining food barely missed covering her. Tessa looked up to find the bully from the hallway, plus three more, standing in front of her. Tessa couldn’t help but smile. She’d had her fair share of tussles with bullies, but bullies were gonna be WAY easier to handle now
. Brand tugged on her jacket sleeve.

“Um…ixnay on the uperpowersay,” he said, glancing around and indicating the straggling
witnesses. Tessa blew out a breath, he wasn’t wrong. Tessa smiled at the bully and his mini cadre of evil.

“Back for more?” Tessa asked.

“Oh yes, please hit me again when I’m not looking,” he said, his words drenched in sarcasm. Micah tried to stand up and the lone girl of the group laid a hand on her shoulder and pushed her down, hard. Tessa wanted this over fast, or she wasn’t going to be able to stop Micah and Brand from getting pummeled and an even bigger scene. The courtyard was mostly empty now, only a few audience members. Tessa mentally restrained herself as much as humanly possible, made a fist, and threw a punch straight at the bully’s face. He couldn’t possibly miss it coming at him this time. He went rocketing backwards at least ten feet and collided violently with a trashcan, falling to the ground like a mean sack of potatoes. His toadies stood around, mostly shocked and unsure. Tessa looked pointedly at the others.

“Anyone else?” she looked from face to face, which either stared blankly back at her, or cast their eyes to the ground. “I thought not,” Tessa said, and then added. “You bother me or my friends again, and
that is so the tiniest sliver of the beating I’m going to dish out.” Tessa motioned to Brand and Micah to follow her.

Brand smiled proudly.
“I could soooo get used to this,” and then after a pause added, “Well, without the whole infection thing, of course.”

At 2:55 pm Tessa walked outside the building to find Micah and Brand anxiously waiting for her, Micah leaning against the building, banging some drumsticks on the bricks, and Brand pacing a little brown patch into the grass. He may or may not have been talking to himself. Snow was, naturally, nowhere to be seen. When Brand saw Tessa,
he stopped and his shoulders slumped.

“She’s not here,” he said, dejected.

Tessa looked around the emptying parking lot. “Let’s give her a minute. She strikes me as someone that enjoys making others wait.” The three friends sat on the metal railing, their feet dangling, and waited as the school grounds and parking lot emptied. Nash strolled out about ten minutes later and stopped when he saw Tessa.

“Hey, Tessa. You need a ride somewhere?”

Tessa tried not to blush, and managed to shake her head. “No, we’re waiting for someone, thanks.”

Nash looked from Tessa to Micah and Brand and then back to Tessa, “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize you were all waiting together—” he nodded at Brand and Micah. “Hey, Micah, Brand.” They nodded back at him, transfixed. Tessa smiled at their stunned silence. Nash smiled at Tessa again. “See you tomorrow.” Tessa gave him a half wave as he disappeared across the parking lot. Brand and Micah looked at one another.

“He knew our names,” Brand said, his smile huge in his face.

Micah mirrored him. “Did you know he knew our names?”

“No way.” Brand shook his head. “Today is looking up, infection or no.” Micah nodded in agreement and Tessa chuckled at both of them amazed at their ability to stay positive. She should take lessons from them.

Five minutes later, Snow’s silver Jaguar screeched into the parking lot and came to a halt in front of them. Brand jumped off the railing and Tessa put a hand up. “Wait, okay?”

Brand hesitated briefly before obeying. Snow climbed out of the car and looked at Tessa over the roof.

“You’re late, Snow,” Tessa said, trying to keep things light-ish.

“Apologies, Scion. But the responsibilities of an emissary are many.”

“Such as?”
Tessa asked, eyebrow cocked, her arms folded across her chest.

“Specifically? Someone woke me up far too early, so I had to catch up on my beauty sleep. Despite what you may think,
this
,” and she paused to gesture toward her general self, “Does not come easily.”

Tessa groaned a little. “Okay. Well, thanks for showing up at all then, I
guess
. But before we go, I have to ask you something.” Snow cast her bored eyes at Tessa who gestured to her friends standing behind her. “What’s going to happen to Micah and Brand? They deserve to know.”

Snow sharpened her eyes at Tessa. “I don’t know what that change will be, Scion. Nobody does.” At this, Micah and Brand could hold back no longer and rushed to the car. Snow rolled her eyes, irritated. “Oh joy. More minion contact.”

Brand brushed off the insult. “How can you not know?”

Snow smiled at Brand. “As I understand it, and please keep in mind, I have never actually seen it, the change is based on the individual,” she said. “Something in the person that visits—maybe a latent talent or skill, a passion, or perhaps some aspect of their heritage—Story can latch onto it and can
embellish
it, for lack of a better word.”

“And it’s permanent?” Tessa asked.

“Yes,” Snow said definitively. “It’s like a little bit of Story getting wedged into you, only there’s no way to un-wedge it.”

“When will it happen?” Micah asked, pained.

“No way to know,” Snow shrugged. “Could be tomorrow, could be in a year. Could have already happened. Sometimes it just comes, sometimes something triggers it, like an evolutionary leap.”

“Great, we’re gonna end up mutants, probably useless ones,” Brand mumbled.

Tessa looked at her friends, “Guys I
…”

Brand hung his head in despair. Snow studied him for a long moment and her eyes flashed briefly with something she’d long ago forgotten. S
he smiled at him in a new way. “Cheer up, my dove. Maybe it will be something delightful.”

Brand looked up at Micah and Tessa and mouthed
‘My dove?’

Tessa looked at Snow suspiciously. “What happened to ‘minions’?”

Snow scrunched her pointer finger up and down playfully at Brand like she was waving to him with just her finger. “I’ve decided I like that one. He smells innocent.”

Brand’s eyes widened, horrified. “What? No. No way. I DO NOT.” Micah and Tessa both stifled a laugh. And just as they did, Greyson walked out of the building behind them.

“Whoa. Amazing car, who
—” he stopped midsentence as he saw Snow, “—oh shit,” he said, his mouth dropping open in shock.

“Hello, Romeo,” Snow said coolly, a devious smile taking over her beautiful face.

“What?!” Tessa said, looking from Snow to Grey confused, “Not—you’re not—you mean—?”

“Spit it out, Scion,” Snow said, a smile somehow both devious and bored on her face.

“Scion?” Grey repeated, dumfounded, looking at Snow as Micah and Brand stood, watching the back and forth like a tennis match, their mouths hanging open. “But, The Scion—”

“Is a boy,” Snow said, finishing for him. “Unless it’s ‘The Last’,” she said making air quotes around ‘the’ and ‘last.’ “In which case, it’s
this
,” she said, pointing
disdainfully at Tessa.

“But that means—”

“End of days if you want to go home, Romeo.”

“But I don’t want to go back.”

“Well, then, HAPPY DAY, maybe you’ll get stuck here,” she said gesturing around her with false gaiety.

“But only if she dies, right?”

“HEY!
She
is right here,” Tessa said, annoyed. “And she
is very much alive and plans on staying that way!”

Grey ducked his head apologetically but said nothing.

Tessa began again, “Let’s get back to the topic at hand. You are Romeo. Like
Romeo and Juliet,
Romeo. That one. The big one.
The
Romeo.”

“Yes,” Grey cut Snow a look. “And thanks, by the way, for outing me, Snow. Very classy.”

Snow shrugged as if she couldn’t care less. Brand jumped in, “No offense Grey, but I thought Romeo was white?”

Grey nodded, “Yes and no. The rules on something like that are a little flexible. There are different version of me throughout the years, not all of them traditionally white or European. My story is an obvious one for the exploration of race issues, which has happened a lot in more modern times. Those variations give me a flexibility about how I appear. Here in the Mortal world, my appearance is even more versatile, and this is what feels right to me.” Brand nodded but looked as flummoxed as Tessa felt. She looked between Snow and Romeo.

“But if you don’t always look the same then how did she recognize you?”

“He still looks like Romeo,” Snow said flatly, “You can’t hide something that fundamental with the spell he got. Certainly not from another Story.”

Tessa shook her head, even more confused. “They really should make a handbook with all these goddamn rules,” she said. Micah and Brand nodded soundlessly in agreement. Tessa looked back to Greyson. “What are you doing here? At Lore High?”

“I, I had to get out. Made a deal, paid for a favor. Got myself jaunted here and hidden away, well, until now,” he said motioning at Snow.

“Why did you leave? I mean, you’re
Romeo,
man! That has got to be a good deal, well, until the end,” Brand said, still trying to wrap his brain around it.

“Oh.” Micah said and then closed her mouth.

“Oh.” Tessa said, catching on.

“Yeah,” Grey said twisting up his mouth.

“Oh what?!” Brand demanded, looking between the three of them. “What am I missing?”

“He’s gay,” Micah said.

“Oh,” Brand said, and then a moment later, “OH.”

“Yeah,” Grey repeated. “Juliet is great, she’s amazing, I love her, I just don’t
love
her, or at least I don’t think I do. The more I’m here the more sure I am. I had to get out and find out for myself. It’s felt wrong for ages. But I didn’t know why,” he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Micah turned to Snow.

“And you two know each other?”

“Romeo knows everybody, don’t you, darling,” she purred. Grey looked at her flatly.

“No. No, I don’t know everybody. But I know Snow,” Grey’s lip curled into a cartoonish half-sneer. Tessa, Brand, and Micah stood there expectantly.

“Annnnnd?” Tessa asked, prompting him to get on with it. Grey sighed heavily, defeated, and the gesture seemed refreshingly honest to Tessa.

“I know Snow because Father Laurence sent me to her to help get me to the Mortal world. To Lore.”