Sweet Shadows (10 page)

“Is
that
even possible?” Grace asks, echoing her last unanswered question.

“I don’t—” Gretchen shakes her head. “I’m not sure. I’ve never wondered that. I never asked.”

Her focus shifts, her eyes shadow like she’s lost in thought. Lost in doubt. She’s beating herself up for all those questions she never asked Euryale before the Gorgon was taken. Four years of squandered opportunities. I’m not sure how I know that’s what she’s thinking, but I know if I were in her shoes those thoughts would be playing through my mind.

“Did you get a chance to talk to Sthenno this morning?” I ask Grace. “Did you ask her any questions?”

“A few,” Grace says, looking dismayed. “She told me there are factions, two sides in a looming war. One that wants us dead now, another that wants us dead later.”

War? Factions? Dead now and dead later? Oh this nightmare just keeps getting better and better.

“That’s pretty much what Nick said,” Gretchen agrees.

“Nick?” Grace asks suggestively.

Gretchen cuts her a scowl. “It’s not like that.”

I can see the conflicted emotions playing on her face. Positive and negative. Anger and attraction. Maybe it’s
not
like that, but maybe she
wants
it to be. Maybe Gretchen has a crush. I hide a smile.

“So, is no one else at all freaked out about this war?” I ask. “That apparently everyone on every side wants us dead? No one’s annoyed by that?”

“Yeah,” Grace says. “I’m a little freaked out. But Ms. West said there are others on our side, working to help us.”

“That’s good to know,” Gretchen says sarcastically.

“Ms. West thinks Euryale was trying to find out who was on each side,” Grace continues, “when she was taken.”

Gretchen winces at the mention of her missing mentor. She’s hurting, I can tell, but she’s trying valiantly not to show it. “I need to question Nick again.”

Partly to save her from facing her emotions right now, and partly for myself because I’m not used to dealing with this kind of pain, I steer the conversation into safe territory.

“Should we meet again after school tomorrow?” I ask. “My schedule is clear after four thirty.”

“Mine too,” Grace says. “Well, mine’s always clear. Should we meet at the safe house?”

“Bad idea.” Gretchen shoves her hands into her back pockets, looking relieved by the change of topic. “I don’t think we should meet at our homes anymore. It increases the chances of a monster or three following us there.”

“They already know where we live,” I argue. “Last night proves that.”

“They knew where I lived, obviously,” Gretchen says, “or they wouldn’t have blown up the place. But I’m hoping the two beasties who showed up at your places just trailed you two home from the sushi place. We need to be hyperaware of being followed from now on.”

She
hopes
they just followed us? I cross my arms over my chest. Well, I
hope
she’s right.

“So where should we meet?” Grace asks. “In public?”

“That’s good for talking,” Gretchen replies, shaking her head. “But we need to train too.”

I don’t miss the subtext. Gretchen is already at the peak of her game, she’s got monster butt kicking down to a science. It’s Grace and I who need to train. I suppose I can’t argue with that. And if one of those creatures shows up at my home again, I want to be able to do something about it.

“I know the perfect place,” I say. “My school.”

Since I have such extensive responsibilities at Immaculate Heart—and perhaps because my parents donated the money so the board could buy the lot next door for future expansion—I have keys to the building. Freedom and access to every room in the place. Yet another benefit of being a responsible student at a small private school.

I give both sisters the address, and they agree to come by after my student council meeting. The halls will be empty and we will have exclusive use of the gymnasium. It’s not as well equipped as the training room in Gretchen’s loft—and the closest thing to an arsenal is the collection of sports gear—but it will do as a temporary space.

As we walk our separate ways—Grace to the nearest bus stop, Gretchen to the public parking garage three blocks away, and me to Dad’s building—I can’t help feeling that the two halves of my life, my two worlds, are about to collide in an irreversible way.

D
inner at home is tense. I don’t really expect it to be any other way, not with Mom and Dad still upset about my disappearance last night and Thane still … elsewhere. I can’t remember ever feeling this awkward around my parents. Ever.

When dinner is over, I clear the table and take care of the dishes. Alone and in silence. It’s like their disappointment is my punishment.

I hang the damp dish towel on the oven door handle when I’m done. I can’t just let it be like this—the distance and tension are too much. I walk quietly to their bedroom and knock on the door.

“Come in,” Dad says.

He’s sitting at the small desk in the corner of the room—the closest thing to an office this apartment has space for—and Mom’s in the bathroom, getting ready for bed. In all my years, I’ve never felt like such an outsider in my own home.

Dad doesn’t look up, and my heart breaks a little more.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” I say with as much feeling as I can shove into three small words. “I’m really, really sorry.”

His attention stays focused on the computer screen and I feel tears start to well in my eyes. He’s not even going to respond.

Then I see his shoulders rise and fall in a small sigh.

“I know,” he says. When he turns to look at me, his eyes are shining too. “I know you are, Gracie.”

I rush over to him, practically throwing him off the chair with my hug. Then I feel Mom’s arms wrap around us.

“We were so scared,” she says. “Terrified that something awful might have—”

She can’t finish. She doesn’t have to.

As much as I want to reassure her, to tell her that nothing terrible happened, that nothing terrible
will
happen, I can’t lie again. Last night was awful and dangerous and seconds away from becoming their worst nightmare. Mine too. Tonight might be just as bad. Or the next night, or the night after that. My life is suddenly more dangerous than their worst fears. I can’t make a promise that everything will be fine, because I can’t control the outcome.

A war that’s been brewing for millennia is about to break out in San Francisco, and I’m right in the middle of it all.

If I think about it too much, the fear might overwhelm me. I need to focus on the positive, on the right now.

“I’m fine,” I say. “I promise you, I’m fine.”

For now.

“Make us one more promise,” Dad says, leaning out of the hug. “Never go anywhere without your phone again.”

Mom nods. “It would have saved a lot of worry.”

“I promise,” I say. Even though I know that if I’d had my phone last night, it would have either gotten blown up in the loft or drenched in the bay.

But I’ll never leave home without it again.

I tell them I love them—and they tell me they love me right back—before retreating to my room. Speaking of my phone, it’s ringing when I walk through my door.

My heart pounds when I read the screen:
Milo
.

“Hi,” I say, trying to disguise how breathless I feel. “What’s up?”

There’s a brief pause before he says, “I thought we were.”

“We—” I slap a hand over my mouth. “Omigosh, Milo, I totally forgot.”

I can’t believe I’m such a moron. Milo is Thane’s friend, his soccer teammate at Euclid, and about the cutest boy I’ve ever met. He’s sweet too, which is a major bonus. And he likes me.

When I was all high on confronting Miranda yesterday, I called him and asked him out. I was terrified, but I did it. And he said
yes
.

We were supposed to meet this afternoon, but after everything that happened last night and then with Sthenno at school and again at Union Square, I blanked. I totally blew my chance.

“Something, um, critical came up and—I’m so sorry.”

“No worries,” he says, though he sounds a little off. “I get it.”

Oh no. He thinks I blew him off on purpose. No, no, no.

“Really,” I insist. “It was something last-minute with my—” I have to stop myself from saying sisters. “A friend,” I say. “She had an emergency and …” I stink at lying. I need to stop trying. “I swear, I really really really want to go out with you.”

Great. Way to sound totally desperate, Grace. I roll my eyes at my idiocy and can picture Milo doing the same. I take a deep breath to compose myself and sink back onto my bed, ready for the rejection.

I expect him to say,
No thanks, crazy girl
, and hang up, never to be heard from again.

Instead, he says, “How about tomorrow?”

I sit back up.

“Tomorrow?” I echo. A second chance! Relief floods through me. I’m not meeting Gretchen and Greer until four thirty. “I can meet right after school. I have something later in the afternoon.”

“Soccer practice,” he says. “Until five.”

“Shoot.” I have no idea when the girls and I will be done, so I can’t make after-sister plans. “I would invite you over for dinner, but …”

“Thane,” he finishes. “Have you heard from him?”

Not enough. “He texted me last night.”

“Is he”—Milo hesitates—“okay?”

“I think so.” I
hope
so. “He said he’d be home soon.”

We sit in silence, listening to each other breathing for a few minutes. I’m sure Milo is wondering about his new friend’s weird behavior. I’m wondering what my brother is trying to work through and whether he’ll be happier when he gets back. He’s a good person—he deserves a lifetime of happiness.

“So …,” Milo says.

I smile sadly. “So …”

I feel totally dumb for forgetting our date today. And I don’t know when I’ll be able to reschedule. I barely know what I’m doing tomorrow. Who knows what will come up the day after that? For all I know, the whole monster realm could break free and take over the city.

I wish we could make tomorrow work.

“Wait, I have an idea,” I blurt. Why did it take me so long to think of this? It’s the perfect solution. “How about I come to your practice? It won’t be like a date or anything, but we could, you know, talk.”

I can hear the smile in his voice when he repeats, “Talk. Sounds perfect.”

“Great!” I flop back onto my bed, relieved. “I’ll be there as soon as school lets out. I get out earlier, so I should beat you there.”

“Great,” he says. “I’ll see you then.”

I sigh. “Good night, Milo.”

“Good night, Grace.”

As I set my phone on the nightstand, I feel like I could probably float all the way to my boring white ceiling.

Tomorrow, I’ll get to see Milo and we’ll
talk
. My parents forgive me. Now, if only Thane would come home. And my sisters and I could figure out how to rescue our kidnapped ancestors and survive the looming war. Then my world would be pretty much perfect.

I
text Nick to meet me at the Peace Plaza in Japantown because it’s between his place and Union Square. It’s also very public and very neutral. A safe place, in more ways than one. I find him waiting for me by the Peace Pagoda.

“Hey, how was your—”

“I’m starved,” I say. “You like Korean?”

He blinks, like he’s startled by my abrupt question. But, to his credit, he recovers quickly. “I like food, period.”

I nod and then turn to head into the east building, to one of my favorite restaurants. I don’t say another word until we’re seated in a cozy—and discreet—booth, the waitress gone to get our drinks.

“I am going to ask you a series of questions,” I say. “If you don’t answer them to my liking, I’m walking away.”

For a second he looks as if he wants to make a joke. His dark eyes sparkle and the hint of a smile plays at the corners of his mouth.

“Permanently,” I add, just in case I’m not being clear enough. “I just saw Sthenno get kidnapped. Ursula—Euryale—is already taken. My sisters and I were nearly killed last night. And there’s a war coming that we’re not prepared to fight. I need answers. Either you’re useful or you’re not.”

He makes a choking sound.

I spin my chopsticks on the table. “You won’t like what happens to useless things.”

He regroups and says, “Okay. I’ll answer everything I can.”

Everything he can? I snort. He’d better answer everything he can’t too.

I’ve had the entire drive here to gather my thoughts, to prep my question, to decide on my first line of attack. There are so many things I need to know, and right now he’s the only one who might have answers. But where to start? Since Ursula told Grace she’s safe, I have to assume that she is. And that Sthenno will be too. For the time being.