Airborne (15 page)

“How’d you track me back here? I just got here!” She didn’t hide the irritation in her voice. She’d barely escaped long enough to make it to one place and they were on her again. Feeling displaced again, Avery couldn’t think of where to flee next.

“No! It’s not like that. I mean, I didn’t track you.” He spoke in a soft enough voice that her fury simmered down a bit. It didn’t sound like his typical cocky, lecturing tone. The emotion plaguing his voice wasn’t clear but it certainly resembled something hurt-- something scared. Whatever internal mothering instincts plagued Avery made her lay off quicker than she’d initially preferred.

“It was the only place I knew I had a chance of finding even a trace of you. I didn’t expect you’d show up on the door step though.”

The honesty that protruded in his voice sounded legitimate but she didn’t understand what he was talking about.

“What did you mean by finding a trace of me?” She prodded.

Mason beckoned her closer with a small flick of his hand and only then did Avery realize she’d instinctively put at least five feet between them. Gut reflex made her stand still. Being so close to him was uncomfortable. She opted to keep her distance and Mason didn’t try to get closer again.

“You alright?” He approached her tentatively but thankfully never tried to touch her. In a few moments, her stomach settled itself again. She glanced up and stared wearily at the gleaming sand and the shifting waves in the distance. The heavy scent of salt water didn’t help her situation but she breathed it in willingly. Finally allowing her body to recover, she twisted around and set her back against the nearest wall. Avery rubbed her temple hard.

“So they’re in danger now? Chase, Leela, my mother? They’re all in danger.” It wasn’t a question at the end. Eva could easily use them against her. In fact, if Eva had Leela or Chase tied up, Avery never would have attempted to escape. They’d know that too. Sound logic all around but harpies played dirty.

“Wait, what happened to your hand?” Mason asked suddenly.

The barest tint of webbed black peeked out from her sluggish jacket sleeve. He saw the difference too. She tugged the cuff of her jacket to cover it again. Short arms were a luxury when fitting ones hands into a large jacket.

“It’s okay, I’ve got it.” Her mind rolled over the plans she had for raiding a few libraries. She’d have to roam through hundreds of pages of potentially useless texts but lore and myth would give her a good direction. After all, they were somewhat right about harpies. A flicker of Mason’s old personality returned when he gave a superior sniff.

“We’ve been over this, you need my help.” His eyes slanted and his tone dropped like he was speaking with a child.

The whole bit actually succeeded in infuriating her all over again with the manic anger suspiciously reminiscent of Jericho’s.

“Yea, really? I’m not even sure you’re trying to help me. I found out that you’ve been lying to me all along. Trying to save the amulet for your father? I don’t believe it. You made a deal with the Band.”

“Mason!” She shouted at him reaching the end of her rope. “I’ve heard it all. The whole spiel and I know. Don’t avoid the subject anymore because this is the one chance you have to give me your side. Otherwise I have no reason to believe you.”

Avery’s voice broke. Avery knew she shouldn’t trust him, but she wanted to trust him, and she’d give him a chance.

“We need to talk. Alone.” She finally said. Unable to sit still anymore, she began to walk toward the beach leaving Mason to slowly follow.

Fourteen

“You do know what ice cream is, right?” Avery finally felt the need to ask after Mason continued his stare down with the double chocolate mint scoop of ice cream in her hand.

She’d been watching him since they’d arrived at the Edy’s shop just off the beach. She’d walked them far away from Chase’s place, knowing her brother had a habit of eavesdropping, and stopped at a stall that seemed like a good place to talk. People were all over the beach, but none really lingered in ear shot while paying more attention to the wanna-be singer belting out off-pitch songs or the model worthy girls prance in their skimpy red bikinis.

It was scolding hot and thickly humid outside, and there was little shade over the patio furniture where they sat. She would have even sprung to pay for his ice cream too, just to get any relief from the weather, but he’d adamantly refused.

“We’re not the only ones with coats.” Mason said.

He apparently didn’t like being called a weirdo even if his choice of an ankle length trench coat was ridiculous. He’d picked out a jacket with awkward crosshatching patches that didn’t quite pull together right. The gawkiness of it actually gave him some strange charm and fit him as a harpie. It didn’t help blending in though, and Avery knew it would attract odd looks.

“Fine, don’t have one.” She said with a childish hotness and began to eat before the treat completely liquefied in her hand. She might have been stalling from the serious, looming conversation, but Mason wouldn’t let her forget it.

“I’ve talked to your sister!” She spoke above him. A few passing heads whirled at the increased volume and Avery reluctantly shut up and leaned back in her seat. Only when the tension drained long enough did a white faced Mason speak.

“What’d she say?” He asked in a tentative voice. His demeanor shifted again, slipping away from the hot headed Mason she knew to something of a more vulnerable one.

His eyes had even glazed and his shoulders slumped, drawn into his chest. His wings twitched under his coat and he kept shaking his knee until the nervous activity made the table tremble. Avery mulled on her answer for a moment.

“I fell in love with Adalyn. But she was betrothed from a young age and as long as she was, we couldn’t marry. And then Eva came along... she told me if I called our father out into the open, she’d steal that stupid amulet. Then she would break up Adalyn’s engagement with her connections.”

The allegation sounding so familiar, the déjà vu threatened to make Avery nauseous. Eva said Mason lied. Mason said Eva lied. It felt like she was dealing with children but lacked the parenting skills to get the real scoop.

“Breaking up someone’s engagement doesn’t mean killing them. It’s easy in the harpie world. They’re all about banishment. All she’d needed to do was give any reason for the authorities to believe Adalyn’s fiancé was less than... honorable. Like if he’d associated with the Band of Thieves. That rumor alone could have done it and that did. The fact that he showed up dead almost a week later had nothing to do with me.” Mason protested vehemently.

“And what about Jericho?”

Mason leaned back in his chair and cast his eyes towards the cracked concrete patio.

“I didn’t call Jericho out to get murdered, Avery. I would never have thought, no matter how insane my sister would turn out to be, she would have let that happen. They were only supposed to take the amulet. He fought them over it and then they killed him. It happened so quickly. I didn’t think he was ever in any mortal danger. He should have just given it up.”

Mason’s voice sounded particularly raw and his eyes had glazed over with thought. She almost didn’t want to interrupt whatever was going through his mind but she still needed to figure things out.

“And that’s when you decided to get it back. Was it to save your father’s legacy after all or did you just want to salvage your relationship with Adalyn?”

He glanced at her wearily.

“Does it matter now?”

“Yes. Because if it was Adalyn then I’m not entirely sure I can trust you anymore. I am the amulet. Are you going to give me to the harpie court if that means you could get Adalyn back and your banishment removed?”

His eyes shot up and he glared at her, clearly offended.

“I said I’d protect you!”

“Yea but you also went out of your way to tell me a whole romanticized story about what happened with Jericho. You’re leaving things out all the time.”

Mason stood up so suddenly, he knocked his seat back and made Avery flinch. Pressing his palms flat on the table, he leaned forward.

“We have to stop this secrets stuff. This amulet thing is dragging out a lot longer than we’d expected, so we need to trust each other.”

Mason nodded firmly. Before Avery could say more, the seat between them abruptly moved. A girl sat down to join the conversation and it took Avery a minute to recognize her. Adalyn had let down her curly blonde hair and adorned heavier makeup. Wings tucked away under a clenched black coat, she looked small and lean. She frowned at Avery with hot red lips and blinked at her through heavy eye mascara. Mason didn’t even so much as look up indicating he’d known the blonde had been nearby all along.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” Adalyn said stiffly and her eyes flickered over Avery and Mason.

“We’re just figuring some things out.” He said.

“Well then I don’t want to rain on your parade but I don’t think you need to figure anything else out with this girl. We’ll have to find another way to remove your banishment.”

“What do you mean?” Avery snapped out, quickly upset by the comment. Adalyn didn’t even look at her but kept talking to Mason.