Prelude (The Rhapsody Quartet) (24 page)

I glanced at the alarm clock next to his bed, and I frowned. It was already 6:30. I probably only had another half-hour of viable time before Glenn called in reinforcements.

“I’m supposed to be home around seven,” I told him. Then I surprised myself, “I don’t want to leave.”

“I wish you could stay,” Score said. His eyes shifted colors from tawny gold to blue-gray.

I peered at him curiously, “Do you know why our eyes are like this?”

He grinned, staring at his hands, nodding twice while he chuckled. “Yeah. Of course I do.” He met my gaze, and I watched as the color shifted again, back to gold, “Don’t you?”

I blushed, shaking my head. He’d said it like it was obvious, but I couldn’t see any rhyme or reason to it. It didn’t matter what I ate, what I did, where I was, or what I wore— they still changed steadily, unnervingly. “No,” I said, taking a deep breath, “So…?”

He grinned, rubbing the back of his head, biting at his lip as he looked at me. “How about I tell you the next time we meet?” he proposed.

I felt cheated. I stared at him, my mouth dropping open, “What?!”

Score just laughed, grabbing one of my hands. “I’m out of ransomed shoes, Sarah.” He shrugged, “I have to have
something
to keep you coming back.”

I couldn’t help but smile. I held my hand out, “Then my shoe, sir.”

He grinned, pulling it from beneath his bed. “My lady,” he responded, setting the arch in my palm.

I chewed on my lip. Today hadn’t gone as planned, but nothing about Score was ever what I’d expected, right from the beginning. It was always better, if a little rocky.

I pulled out my phone, sending a quick text message to Marin that I was ready to return home. I stood up reluctantly, and Score sighed, walking me out.

“Sarah…” he said quietly as we stood on his front porch.

I turned to him, the breeze carrying the fresh scent of the ocean. “Yes, Score?” I said his name in a whisper, afraid someone might hear. He was my secret.

“When can I see you again?”

I laced my fingers together. “Tomorrow, in class…”

He shook his head. It wasn’t what he meant, and I knew it. But being alone together would be complicated at best, especially keeping his identity a secret from Marin and Glenn.

“In two days, the same time,” he said softly. He reached up, touching the end of my hair just lightly. “That will give me enough time to think through a plan, a way for us to be alone again.” He closed his eyes.

My heart raced. “Two days,” I agreed with a nod.

“Bring your dulcimer,” he added, keeping his eyes closed, leaning against the door.

Marin pulled up, parking along the sand. She jumped out of the car enthusiastically, leaving the engine idling. She waved cheerfully, “Hey, Will!”

His eyes snapped open. They were a golden brown, a bit lighter than his contacts were, but still passable. I wished I could ask him
how
he’d managed to keep up his disguise, but with Marin present I couldn’t say a word.

“Stacie,” he said with a nod. “Thanks for picking Sarah up.”

“No problem,” she said, giving me a sly glance. I turned crimson, and Score smiled lopsidedly beside me.

He turned back to me. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. A lump formed in my throat as I bounded down the steps of the porch. I didn’t want Marin to get close enough to start really visiting.

I grabbed her arm, tugging her over to the snappy car. She slid inside, raising her brows. She grinned, “
So
?”

I sighed, leaning into the window. I watched as Score reentered his house, the door swinging shut behind him. “What’s there to say?” I asked, leaning back into my seat.

She let out a frustrated squeal as she shifted gears. “You
have
to do better than that! Glenn will expect us to have the same stories, you know.”

I considered it, tapping my chin with my fingertips. I bit my lip. “We just
talked.
”

Marin rolled her eyes, “Okay, Miss Boring-Boots. It seemed to go decently, at least, right? I mean, he said he’d see you soon?”

I nodded, “Yeah. In a couple days.”

“Well, that’s a good sign!” she said enthusiastically. “Did you at least kiss?”

I blushed, “
No!
”

She laughed at my reaction. “That’s a shame. I guess we’ll just say…” She shrugged, mulling it over. “… That we took a walk on the beach and got dessert.” She tilted her head, “For the record, this week I’m seeing James Finnegan.”

“Oh,” I said, surprised. “You seemed to be hitting it off at Will’s party.”

She nodded. “Well, he’ll do for now. Anyway, I told him that if it came up, it was a double date with you and Will.”

“Thanks, Marin,” I said gratefully.

“No problem,” she said with a shrug. She pulled into the driveway, and we headed up the stairs.

Glenn was seated in the corner, his arms folded across his chest, staring out the window.

“Hey!” I greeted him.

He turned to me. “You have a good time, then?”

I shrugged, staring at the floor. I wished I could tell them both about Score, that I could admit I’d found another siren, that I could let them know why I was so anxious to see him again— but I’d promised.

Marin grabbed my arm in her hands, tugging me towards the bed. “Yeah, she did. We
both
did.”

“Hmph. Good. I’m glad you have it out of your system,” he said with a sigh.

“She’s seeing him again in a couple days,” Marin added.

His head snapped up at that. “Really?! But—” He took a breath, “It must have gone pretty well, then.”

I shrugged again, feeling my face flush. It wasn’t what they thought— Score had only pretended to date me long enough that he could reveal himself. We weren’t
really
romantic together. But if the price of seeing Score again was to pretend we were a couple… it was worth it.

“What will you be doing then?”

Marin’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t want to ask about tonight, first?”

Glenn shook his head, his mouth a thin line. “No. I already escaped
watching
it, I don’t need an immature blow by blow of the gory details.” He shuddered, “I only want to know about next time, because it’ll be my turn to chaperon. So what’s it going to be? Long chit-chats by a fire? Another walk on the beach during sunset?” He snorted, rolling his eyes, “Or are you just going to be sucking down a milkshake with two straws?”

“You don’t have to be an ass about it,” Marin said crossly. “Just because Sarah’s having a good time—”

“She’s toying with some human for kicks! It’s cruel,” he said, leaning forward. “Good time or no, I don’t like it when—” He stopped talking, shaking his head.

“What do you care about humans?” Marin asked him, frowning sharply. It made her forehead crease up severely, and she suddenly looked much older.

“Nothing,” Glenn muttered. “Forget I said anything.”

I felt a twinge of guilt, wishing I could come clean. If Glenn knew Score wasn’t human, this wouldn’t feel so dirty to him. Even if Marin couldn’t see his point of view, I certainly could.

I fell back on the bed, grabbing the thin book Aldan had given me. I almost did have it memorized at this point, though a couple of things still weren’t clear— mostly terminology.

“Tomorrow I need to go to Aldan’s to trade this out,” I told Glenn.

His eyes flickered over to the book, and he nodded. “Yeah, it’s about time.”

I stared at the elf. He looked thin, worn down, stressed. We hadn’t really done anything together aside from the basics of
my
life. I felt a little guilty about that— his life wasn’t really his own. It didn’t seem fair. “Maybe after,” I said quickly, “we can do something together. Something fun.”

His brow raised, and he gave me a quizzical look as if I’d just proposed we fly to the moon. I didn’t think it was
that
outlandish of a suggestion. “Such as?” he asked, baffled.

I shrugged, “I don’t know, Glenn. But you look like… you need a break.”

His eyes widened up even more. Glenn’s features were still bemused. He shook his head, “I assure you, Sarah, I am more than capable of—”

I interrupted him, “I know you’re
capable
, Glenn. You’re amazing, in fact. But…” I shrugged, “call it a personal favor?”

He stared at the floor, a very odd expression on his face. I’d never seen the look before, on him or anyone else. Finally, he sucked in a breath and said, “O… okay.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day as I returned the book to Aldan, he snapped, “Did you memorize it?”

“The important parts,” I responded carefully. I wasn’t about to memorize the word problems about Morgan the witch and Merlin the wizard.

Aldan squinted at me. “Humph,” he grumbled, rubbing his forehead. “Any questions?”

I nodded. “I don’t understand the references to this Realm— or the Overworld? I didn’t know what it was talking about.”

He sighed loudly, exasperated, and shook his head. “You’re the stunningly mundane example of a
homosapien
, yet I’d hoped to study a
seir
ēn
.”

I stared at him blankly.

“You. Act. Like,” he enunciated slowly, pausing after each word, “A. Human.”

I frowned and folded my arms over my chest. It was hardly my fault that I’d been raised human, but Aldan made me feel like my gaps in education were due to my own limitations.

He hobbled around, digging through his stacks of books. Eventually, he found the prize he was searching for. “Aha! Here it is,” he said, retrieving an enormous book. I was relieved at the size. Maybe Aldan was willing to
try
to teach me.

He dropped it into my arms. I groaned, my hands falling as though he’d placed an anvil in them. It weighed a ton.

I flipped through it, pleased to see that it was about that Realm place. An unfamiliar map greeted my eyes. The borders were labeled with names that were completely foreign to me— Arathal, The Borderlands, Shivering Forest, Fjords of Esther, Sea of Phantoms…

I tilted my head to Aldan. “Where is this? I’ve never seen it on any world map—”

He shook his head, snapping his huge bound tome shut with a loud thud. It startled me, making me jump. He heaved it onto his desk and sighed. “It would not
be
on any Overworld maps, because it is not
in
the Overworld, you daft girl!”

I scowled at him. I hated how stupid Aldan made me feel. I rapped my fingers on the book cover. “Then where is it?” I asked again.

“It’s the Realm! The place where magic is born, where it originates. All the magic starts there and trickles out to the rest of the planes. Very complicated. Its relationship to the Overworld is like a shadow, or a mirror’s reflection, though neither looks like the other.”

I furrowed my brows, confused. It didn’t make sense. How could they be a mirror image if they didn’t look alike? “But, sir—” I started to say. He cut me off.

“The world where you grew up is called the Overworld. The Realm is its match, that’s all you really need to know.” He pulled off his glasses, holding them up to one of the blinding balls of light and scrubbing at them furiously. “You have, in fact, been to the Realm before.”

“I have?” I asked, surprised. It was news to me.

“You attended a council meeting, correct? It was even an emergency meeting assembled for your sake! So yes, of
course
you have been within the borders! Honestly, girl, it’s like the concept of romantic geography is completely foreign to you!” he said, exasperated.

I bit my cheek. That’s because it
was
completely foreign to me. “So this book will…?”

“Assist you in understanding the scale and scope of the world around you. Give you some
remedial
idea of the magical environment, which should help you understand basic limitations.”

“Do you think I’ll ever really visit the Realm?”

He shrugged. “I am not gifted in the arts of divination, but it is honestly unlikely. You are amalgam, and therefore belong within the Overworld. There are few enough
true
amalgam races that desire to dwell within the Realm. Things are usually safer in the human world.”

“So… here?” I asked.

He slammed a fist into the table. “No, no, no! This space, my library, is a
keeper-den.
It is outside of both Realm and Overworld. You are trying my patience, young lady!”

I frowned, closing the heavy book and hugging it to my chest. Aldan clearly desired solitude today. I nodded curtly and said, “Thank you for the book. I will study and return it when I’m finished.”

“Take your time,” he muttered. He waved me out without bothering to look up. He hauled his chained tome, opened it, and began scratching out new words into the pages.

I sighed, blinking into the harsh blackness.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

An Outing

When I emerged from the blinding light, I leaned against the stone of Aldan’s door, waiting for my eyes to adjust.

“What did he give you this time?” Glenn asked quietly, “Not more children’s fare?”

I held up the enormous book, and felt, more than saw, him take the heavy weight from my arms.

“Geography of the Realm?” he asked, surprised. “I must admit I’m shocked he thinks it’d be valuable for you to know.”

I shrugged, blinking, hoping my eyes would start interpreting the world around me again.

“I think it’s more for terminology’s sake,” I admitted. “He was trying to explain the difference between the… Realm? And the Overworld, but…”

Glenn chuckled. The weight settled back into my arms. “I wouldn’t concern yourself too much with it.”

Finally, I could dimly make out my surroundings.

I rolled my shoulders, nodding down the street. “Do you mind if I drop off this door stop before we go?”

Glenn raised a brow. “Of course, Sarah,” he said politely. He bounced along at my side, his head tilting as he looked at me. “What exactly
are
we doing?”