The Thief (25 page)

“
That was AWESOME!” I yell,
not caring who heard.

I hear a door slam and the pounding of
someone coming down the stairs very fast. I struggle to my feet,
wondering how I’d explain myself.

Tailor comes around the corner and freezes,
a nanosecond of relief in his expression before he explodes in
fury. “What in the hell were you thinking?” he seethes. “My god,
Mac, if you hadn’t - if someone else saw you - ” he looks around
swiftly. “Go to my classroom right now, I’ve had enough of all of
you!”

“
All of us?” I try to sound
as innocent as I can, covered in mud.

“
All of you,” he
snarls.

Jul

Camille and I slumped guiltily in desks at
the front of the English classroom. On her other side, Destin
hunched over as if attempting to make himself not massively taller
than the rest of us. Mac stood to one side, arms folded, blonde
curls matted from the mud that spattered him head to toe.
Apparently he was unwilling to sit and get mud all over a chair
since he’d be the one cleaning it up. He caught me staring
wide-eyed at all the mud and flushed. “The catbat’s a teleporter,”
he said, presumably to distract from his state.

“
Explains a lot,” Destin
said miserably.

Tailor slammed the door and turned on us,
furious.

“
You four are idiots,”
Tailor snapped. “This isn’t Scooby-Doo. There are no rubber masks,
no disgruntled janitors hiding Aztec gold, no consequence-free
ending. You think that detention is the worst the principal can do?
A note to your parents? Expulsion? You should
pray
for expulsion. The more you dig
up, the more likely it is that Rin will never let you leave. These
are forces you aren’t old enough to handle - forces that could
easily destroy you even if you were. If you would just keep your
heads down, you might be able to graduate before she pieces things
together, and go live normal lives. You are
helping
her,” he pointed an
accusatory finger at me and Camille, “and you have to stop. And
you,” he turned on Mac, “are even worse. Bea told me everything.
You have no idea what you almost did at the library.”

“
Hey, how were we supposed
to know tattoo lady was going to - um - what exactly
did
she do?” Mac
asked.

“
And then,” Tailor went on,
ignoring him, “you go baiting imps and chasing them through the
halls. You’ve always been impulsive, Dupree, but you’re bordering
on suicidal. That thing could have left you anywhere!”

“
Imp?” he brightened. “The
catbat is an imp?”

Tailor groaned. “Mac, what do I have to say
to make you understand?” he said, running a hand over his face.
“You’re the only one in this room who’s definitely normal. In two
years, you’ll be free. The only thing you should be worrying about
is how to hide Heron’s infernal feathers so he can escape them
too.”

Destin’s cinnamon skin flushed. “What? I
don’t...I mean, what feathers?”

“
Learn to keep them under
control before someone else notices,” Tailor snapped. “And pray you
don’t develop anything useful.”

“
What happens,” Camille
said, speaking up for the first time, “if we’re useful?”

He gave her a hard look, but
I thought I saw pity under it. Of all of us, she was clearly the
most supernatural one.
As far as he
knows,
I thought, my fingers flexing. Was
he worried about her? “Fine,” he said, and pulled a nearby chair.
He propped his right foot on it, like he was going to tie his
shoelaces, but instead he rolled up his pants leg and pushed down
his sock. Wrapped around his ankle was a blocky tattoo in the
design of a chain.

“
Never pegged you for a
tattoo kind of guy,” Mac said.

“
It’s a spell,” Tailor said
icily, rolling his pants leg back down. “When the Uminos find a toy
they want to keep, they make sure it can’t run away. I’m bound to
the school. I can’t go more than twenty miles away. It’s like
running into a brick wall.” He grimaced. “Magic hasn’t worked in
our world for almost a thousand years. But over the past hundred
years or so, it’s been slowly trickling back - and it’s been
getting worse the last few years. Most of the fae and ferals here
still don’t even know what they are. There’s not even a guarantee
you’ll develop any powers,” his eyes flicked to me for a moment,
and I suddenly recalled his horror when he’d met me. “It’s all
still so random and unpredictable. But the Uminos are a family with
a long memory, and they want to control all they can. They’ll find
a way to make you a deal you can’t refuse, and you’ll be theirs.
Unless you can stay
off
their radar,” he said, glaring at each of us in
turn. “And you certainly shouldn’t be piecing together any of their
research for them,” he said, giving me another hard look. “You’re
all preposterously lucky that I was the only person here today.” I
swallowed, remembering Kei’s brief appearance. “And even then,” he
went on, “if Rin were to ask the right questions, I’d have to tell
her. There’s only so much help I can give you. So please, if you
have any sense of self-preservation, stay out of Umino business,
stay away from the imp, and for the love of god, stay away from the
Ender.”

Camille’s eyes widened.

“
The Ender?” Mac
asked.

Tailor sighed. “The woman you nearly helped
burn down the library. Meredith the Ender. All you need to know is
that she is immortal, certifiable, and made out of fire. I don’t
know why she’s come back here,” he said grimly, “and the sooner she
moves on the better. You see a woman in leather, you stay away from
her. Got it?” He looked curiously at Camille, who had gone fairly
pale. “Alright, Teague?”

Camille shook her head, as if to clear it.
“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, alright.”

“
Then please, all of you get
out of this building before you cause any more damage. Good luck
explaining your state to your mother,” he shot a look at Mac, who
seemed chilled by the prospect.

The others filed out the door ahead of
me.

“
Jul, wait,” Tailor said. “A
word.”

I paused, looking back at him fearfully. It
occurred to me just then that he was the only adult who hadn’t
persisted in calling me Juliet.

“
Shut the door,” he
said.

I swallowed and did as he asked, returning
meekly to stand by his desk.

“
Your grandmother told me
you’ve met Gabriel Katsura,” Tailor said, folding his arms and
leaning back against the desk. His gaze was cool and cautious
behind his glasses. I wondered briefly if he would look less
intimidating without them.

“
Are you going to tell me to
stay away from him too?” I asked.

“
Absolutely yes,” he said.
“Him, but not Camille. I think she can be freed from his influence,
and I think you could use her attachment to you - ”

“
Use
her?” I interrupted, surprising myself. “Gabriel’s been
nothing but kind - he just wants to help. What has he done that’s
got everyone so mad at him for? All I hear is what bad news he is,
but
you’re
the one
talking about using people - ”

“
Don’t,” Tailor snapped,
with real venom, and I startled into silence. “Don’t
you
ever talk to me about
using people - ”

He froze, and turned away swiftly. What
little I could see of his expression was blank. He let out a long
breath. “No. I didn’t mean you. That wasn’t right. Forget that.”
His hand went up to rub the back of his neck, his fingers in his
mousy brown hair.

“
Is it my mom?” I asked.
“Is...is that why you don’t like me?”

I could see his shoulder muscles tense.

“
Ms. Miller said...that you
all went to school together.”
And she drew
you all in her journal
. “She said you
didn’t get along.”

He turned back then, and gave me a long,
evaluating look, and again I got the feeling that he was waiting
for something, as if there was something under my skin that would
reveal itself at any moment.

“
Simon was my best friend,”
he said. “And she ruined him. In every possible way. So no, I’m not
a fan of hers. She was like Gabriel that way. People just fell over
themselves trying to make her happy. Simon included. I don’t trust
charming people. They never say what they mean.” He looked at me
again, then sighed, shaking his head. “But you’re not her. You look
so much like her it’s hard not to treat you the same. Maybe if you
looked anything like Simon it would be easier,” he smiled wryly.
“But he was kind of an ass too.”

“
You sound like you need
better friends,” I said.

“
Friends can be more
dangerous than enemies,” he said. “I learned that the hard way. But
not having any can be even more dangerous. The truth is that Kyra
never did have friends. She had admirers, and Simon was obsessed
with her - but she always kept everyone at arm’s length, even him.
It was...unhealthy.” His brow creased. “You’re not her. And stupid
as their actions have been today, you seem to have better taste in
friends than I did, so I’m not going to tell you to abandon them. I
will reiterate,” his gaze sharpened, “that you’re messing with some
things that none of you are equipped to handle. Camille’s the only
one of you with powers - unless you count Heron’s molting - and
hers aren’t very strong. Not yet, anyway. Rin Umino is an extremely
dangerous person to get on the wrong side of, and she already has a
close eye on her. I thought when she arrived that she’d be a young
female Gabriel,” he said, shaking his head. “I miscalculated, same
as I did with you. My advice - do what you can to remove her from
the Uminos’ watchlist, not push her higher up it. I’m going to have
a hell of a time explaining how the prophetic scrolls they’ve been
trying to translate for months just suddenly revealed themselves.
How
did
you do
that? How did you even get into the room?”

“
There was a key on the
floor,” I found myself lying. “We used it and saw all the
paintings. What do you mean, revealed?”

He sighed. “Never mind. Just go home, and
stay out of trouble until the festival. The principal is on the
warpath making everything perfect.”

I walked to the door and
paused, thinking that despite his name-calling and stern looks, he
wouldn’t be hiding our involvement unless he actually cared. I
looked back at him. “You’re not as mean as you pretend to be, are
you?” I said.
So why was I lying to
him?

His mouth opened and closed, seeming to have
no response.

I smiled weakly, saying, “See you Monday,”
and closed the door.

Outside the front doors, Camille was waiting
with Mac and Destin. They all looked at me expectantly when I
stepped out into the cool morning air.

“
So,” Mac said, swiping some
of the mud from his face. “We have some free time. Who wants to
completely ignore what Tailor just said?”

Chapter 14

Mac

“
So...feathers, huh?” Jul
looks askance at Destin.

He cringes.

“
You are hereby sworn to
absolute secrecy,” I tell her, pushing aside a low-hanging branch.
“Both of you,” I glare at Camille. She returns the stare,
unimpressed.

We were trekking through the woods between
the school and the Graham property - following the line between
them until it dead-ended at a place I was sure would provide some
answers: the remains of the old lumbermill.

It had taken less time than I expected to
bring them up to date on our run-in with the woman Tailor had
called ‘the Ender’ - talk about an overkill title - and the girls
had told us about some magic Tailor family sword that Hyde seemed
all fired up to get his hands on, and the paintings Jul had popped
spells on in the basement. Well, technically Jul had done pretty
much all the explaining. Camille just kind of grunted approval here
and there.

“
Yeah, but why feathers?”
Jul seems genuinely curious.

Destin shrugs, blushing. “How should I know?
Feral powers aren’t predictable or inherited.”

“
It only happens when he’s
freaked out, it’s no big deal,” I say, hopping over a fallen
log.

“
I thought feral and fae
powers weren’t supposed to show up until you turned sixteen,” Jul
says.

“
Where’d you hear that?” I
ask.

“
I was...there’s...” she
stammers, “there’s a library. In my grandmother’s house. She um,
doesn’t know I found it.”

“
When did we become juvenile
delinquents?” Destin asks nervously.

“
Since nobody will tell us
what’s going on,” I remind him. “Right, so this place we’re
checking out - ”

“
Monster house?” Camille
interrupts dryly.

“
I didn’t say it was a
monster house, I said I saw the imp run in this direction, and the
old lumbermill is out here. Me and Dez were doing some research on
it since then, and check this out - the police report from forty
years ago says it was burned down by a woman named Meredith, who
was never apprehended. Tailor said she was immortal and made of
fire, so that could be her.”