Silver Smoke (#1 of Seven Halos Series) (30 page)

"If you really are a Hallow," she said, "you were supposed to transform at fifteen. But you're already seventeen."

"I know," Rykken said. "Clara doesn't know why I didn't. She thinks the pendant finally made me change."

"It makes no sense though," Brie said. "The pendant gives me headaches. If you're a Hallow, why would it affect you differently?"

"I don't know, Brie. I also change into a seal and you don't." He brushed a strand of her long hair from her shoulder. "What's you gift, anyway?"

"I still haven't found mine, and they said if I had one, I wouldn't know it for several years."

"Oh," Rykken said, kind of bashfully.

"It's so strange how gifts manifest, isn't it? You already have two gifts that manifested right away, and I have none."

"You're lucky then. You have time to adjust to your Hallow powers without being a freak in the process. I had to quit water polo, and probably lost all chances of getting a scholarship from it. I can't surf anymore or go anywhere near the beach with friends. People will start to notice. My mouth is parched too, I'm so afraid to have a glass of water."

Brie looked at Rykken's lips, which did seem a little chapped. She wished she had lip balm to offer him. She knew avoiding the water must be miserable for him.

"On the bright side," she said, attempting a small grin, "nobody wants you dead."

"Don't be so sure, Brie." Rykken's brows formed a dashed line across his face. "You forget that someone, probably a descendant of the shark-men, planted the pendant on me. Not to mention that when I was a baby, I was left for dead in a basket full of water, floating down a river."

"Can I ask you something?" Brie asked. "Why did you hate me so much when you had the pendant?"

Brie could see Rykken probing his own memories, deliberating on his feelings and formulating an answer.

"The pendant changed me," he finally said, "but I can't blame it for the way I treated you. I think it simply brought feelings of resentment toward you to the surface, until they spilled out."

The brutal honesty of his words were too much for Brie. He resented her. He had finally said it out loud.

She could feel Rykken's eyes watching her. He let out a deep sigh. "You don't remember meeting me when we were young, do you? For four years, Pilot and I have been playing water polo together every summer. You came to the meets every once in awhile, when your mom would force you."

Rykken's raw, vulnerable tone was a welcome peek into his heart and mind. Brie felt a flutter in chest, listening to his husky voice.

"We probably met a couple times," he continued, "but you never noticed me. I was the kid in the secondhand clothes, with no parents to cheer me on. I was the poor kid who could only afford to be there because he had a full private scholarship to the program.

"Pilot was alone too. The other kids knew each other, and some made an effort to talk to him—but most were intimidated. And no one would talk to me for obvious reasons. It was only after a couple years, when people saw me around more. They probably forgot I was poor." Rykken chuckled. "It helped that I was the most talented water polo player the club had seen in 10 years."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"When you first moved here," Rykken said, "I knew so much about you already from Pilot, and from all the news stories about you. But I could tell you didn't even recognize me. I knew Pilot had talked about me to his family, but it was like I wasn't worth remembering to you."

His words crushed into Brie, making her feel suddenly small. "Rykken, you saved my life. I will never forget you, not in a million years." Rykken's stony expression didn't budge, but his shoulders relaxed at her words. "I was a different person in Manhattan," she confessed. "My friends... they pressured me to do things I shouldn't have." Her body gave an involuntary flinch. "I use the term

'friend' loosely, since almost all of them sold me out once my mom died. Then once I moved here, I was depressed. It was the most terrible feeling in the world. There were times I wanted to die, but I was so sad that I couldn't even move from my bed or figure out how to kill myself."

"I know." Rykken gave her a worried look. "Pilot told me, but I didn't believe him at first. I thought he was blowing things out of proportion. You're very good at pretending everything is okay, but now that we've spent more time together, I can see the difference."

"When I found out I was a Hallow, it changed me," Brie continued. "I woke up. My life had purpose again, because there were people who could help me find my mom's killer."

Rykken's skeptical eyes bore into hers. "You don't know that someone killed your mom, Brie. It could have been an accident."

"I do. I had a feeling even before I was a Hallow, but now I know someone caused her death. You know how? Because she was powerful and could have found a way to avoid that plane crash. She would never, ever have abandoned me if she had any inkling that I might have Hallow powers."

Rykken looked away. "My parents abandoned me, despite the Hallow powers."

"I didn't mean to be insensitive," Brie said. "I know my mom wouldn't though. All the clues she's left me point to a highly orchestrated back-up plan, in case something happened that was out of her control. Like someone murdering her." Brie crossed her legs. "The New Order wanted her dead anyway. Maybe they just found her."

"You wouldn't be alive if the New Order murdered Milena."

"That's what Sirena said."

"Sirena is probably right." Rykken's entire body was rigid; Brie could sense the mood shifting between them. "What else did your mom leave you that would make you think she was murdered?"

"Well, there's the map that James told me about," Brie said. "My mom was looking for something, and whomever killed her was probably trying to keep it from her. Clara found the map in James' office. She's encoding it for us right now."

"Us?"

"Sirena and me. We're taking it with us when we leave."

"Leave?" Rykken jolted upright, leaning in toward her. His face was only inches from hers, and she could feel his warm breath against her neck. "Brie, you're not thinking of pursuing the killer, are you?"

"The killer knows my mom's secrets. It's the next logical step."

Rykken fell silent for a moment, his fist clenched, his face concentrated and dangerous. In a split-second, he seemed to make a decision. "I'm going with you then."

Brie laughed nervously. She figured he would try to talk her out of it, but volunteering to go with them? It was the last thing she expected. "You can't," she said. "It will be dangerous, and you can't control your powers yet. Plus, you have school and a life here."

Rykken's entire face changed with her words; his features twisted into an angry jumble of emotion.

"You have school and a life here too."

"That's a pretense," Brie said, waving his concerns away. His stare was so intense, she couldn't meet his eyes. "My life here is a facade, created by the Hallows. The Hallows and this mystery with my mother are my real life. I just have to be careful about maintaining the act."

Rykken looked around, stirring his fingers in the sand, searching for something. "Pilot," he said.

"It's going to break his heart if you run away."

His words hit her like a roadblock. Rykken was right. She hadn't thought about what she would tell Pilot when she left. How would she explain it to him?

"You're not going without me," Rykken said again. "I'll tell Pilot everything if you do."

Brie glared at him. She tried to think of an argument to placate Rykken. "The more Pilot knows, the more danger he's in."

"He's tougher than you think. And he would want me to go with you, to take care of you since he can't."

Brie sniffled; that was precisely what Pilot would say, if he knew the truth about the Hallows and their mother. She wrinkled her nose. "Let me think about it, then." She had no intention of bringing Rykken with her on a dangerous mission, but it didn't matter. She would figure out how to tell him later.

They sat in silence for several minutes before Rykken spoke again. "Plus, there's Justin, isn't there?"

"Justin?" The word tasted bitter on her tongue, out of place here on her deserted beach with Rykken.

"There's Justin... for what?"

"He's a part of your real life here, isn't he?"

Brie considered it for a moment. "Yeah, kind of." She felt Rykken's eyes scrutinizing every slight movement of her face.

"Is it..." Rykken paused. "I mean, are you... did you..."

"Did I what? Sleep with him?" Brie's cheeks burned. "No, my virginity is still in tact, despite Justin's reputation and apparent irresistible charm. Thank you for asking."

Rykken burst out laughing. "I was just going to ask if you had fun with him at the dance."

Brie ducked her head, happy she could make him laugh. "Sure ya were."

"He likes you a lot. He called you his girlfriend."

"I guess the make-out action at the end of the night might have given him that impression."

Rykken didn't respond, though the veins on his forearms nearly popped out of his skin. Brie covered her mouth with her hand, annoyed at what she had just blurted out. That little tidbit of over-sharing was bound to make it back to her brother now.

"It is what it is," Brie said, trying to reverse the shift in mood. "We went to a dance together.

That's all. We're not
together
or anything."

Rykken gave her a pained look. "So if someone else asked you on a date, you would consider it?"

"I always consider options," Brie said. "Right now, I'm focused on my mom. I don't need distractions, especially not in the form of earthlies."

"Earthlies," Rykken said, with a slight curve of his lip. "Good point." Brie wondered if he was still talking to her, or just to himself.

"We should get going," Brie said, noting the color of the sky. The sun had risen, and Brie guessed she'd been missing for over eight hours already. "James and Pilot are probably worried sick." Brie wondered for a second if she had enough energy to transport herself back to the boat and pretend that she'd been hiding the whole time. She wondered why she hadn't thought of it before, then realized it required knowing where the boat was.

Her exhaustion hung like deadweight from every limb of her body. With a sinking feeling, she realized she wouldn't have enough energy to transport back to the boat even if she knew where it was. In a few hours, she might be able to recoup from the night. But by the time that happened it would be too late to convince anyone she had been sleeping in some hidden nook of the yacht the whole time, undiscovered.

Rykken exchanged a glance with her; he seemed to reach the same conclusion as she had. They were screwed.

"Where exactly are we going?" he asked.

"We should get to the airport," she said with a feeling of dread. How was she ever going to explain her disappearance and rescue to her family? To the media, if they found out? Suddenly, she realized just how dangerous the situation was.

"This way," he said, standing up. He held his hand out to her, and she took it, letting him drag her to her feet. The minute he let go of her, she felt a hole from the absence of his touch.

He gestured to some buildings in the distance. "This whole side of the island has been shut down, but we can get a taxi to pick us up."

Rykken made a call from his cell phone as they walked along the beach. Then he handed the phone to Brie, and she attempted to dial Pilot. His phone was off. She considered calling James, but no, that wouldn't work either—she had no idea what his number was, and Rykken didn't have the number in his phone.

They soon came across an abandoned hotel resort, which Rykken pointed at, gesturing for her to ascend the beach toward it. It was small and unkempt, with lonely lawn chairs strewn across the beach front and a neglected, rain-filled set of pools up the steps. The pitiful sight had an air of emptiness about it that seeped into Brie, reminding her how remote they were.

"What happened here?" she asked.

"The company that owned it shut it down. Environment concerns from the local community kept halting construction on the land, and the company went bankrupt."

Brie pursed her lips. The politics of the islands were so different than the United States. She couldn't imagine environmental concerns holding up development projects in a city like New York.

They reached the main entrance of the hotel resort where there was a taxi waiting for them. Once in the car and on their way to the airport, Brie found herself distracted by Rykken's presence, even though he wasn't doing anything particularly interesting.

He was handsome, yes, and smart and an incredible athlete, but she'd known those things about him forever. There was something else though, an unbreakable bond, like she'd given a piece of her soul to him, that cast him in a different light.

"What is it?" he asked her. She looked into his eyes, startled.

"You're staring at me," he pointed out.

She resisted the urge to reach out and touch his lips, his hair. "We're alone," Brie said. "Can I see the mark now?"

Rykken lifted his shirt reluctantly, and Brie stared at his abdomen. His muscles rippled underneath the surface of his skin, not a pinch of fat in sight. She let the tips of her fingers graze his chiseled chest. Her hand was trembling, but she wasn't sure why; Rykken seemed equally uncomfortable having her touch him.

She withdrew her hand and concentrated on what she could see. The black mark crossed near his heart and couldn't be more than a centimeter across, an inch high. It was a quarter moon in the shape of a circle, with a star centered in the crescent.

She squinted at it for longer than was necessary, probably, because after a minute or so, he pulled his shirt back over his washboard stomach.

"Happy?" he murmured. His eyes were bright, catching her gaze and smoldering her.

She swallowed a lump in her throat, trying to regain her ability to breathe. "Sorry," she said, collecting herself. "I was curious."

"It's okay." He watched her with a slight sense of alarm before dropping his gaze.