Airborne (25 page)

“Mason, turn around now!” Avery kept screaming.

The sight of the island was fading into a blur of black and blue. The night had finally come and darkness covered the area in shrouds. Avery fought to see clearly.

“We have to go back, we can’t leave her there!”

Knowing he wasn’t listening, this time she turned to thrash at him. Desperation coiled a knot in her chest and she kicked at him. His grip seemed unbreakable. He kept flying until the island disappeared in the distance. If he said something, it got lost underneath Avery’s cries.

Twenty-three

His choppy flight finally descended in a downward shift. The shore approached rapidly and he barely slowed enough to land. Avery slipped away from him upon landing and tumbled into the dirt. Gasping and spitting, she rolled and sprung upward. Mason had fallen in a spiral of feathers nearby. He stood and straightened his feathers before he unraveled a coat that had been tucked behind his neck. He had clearly prepared for human life and hadn’t forgotten his disguise. Mason then stood to meet her as Avery charged across the beach. Seeing her coming, he intercepted her before she could smack him.

“What did you do?” She screamed and attempted to swing at him again. With practice, Mason caught her wrists and pinned them together with his long fingers. She wrestled and thrashed. She threw a kick at his knee cap but Mason just lifted her off her feet. Dangling, she flopped in the air.

“Put me down! I can’t believe you!” She was ready to hit him again if she could just get a shot.

“Avery, stop it. We had to get away.”

Frustrated with how calm his voice came out, she swore loudly.

“Let me go!” She shouted.

This time he seemed to consider it. Mason finally set her down on her feet, but Avery didn’t go down quietly. She tore backwards but the sand threw her off balance. Landing on her backside on the rigid dirt, she crossed her arms. Hot tears streamed down her face and she blinked to clear her vision.

“They’re going to kill her now.” She said. “How can you not care? She’s my best friend.”

Her heart kept pounding uncomfortably in her chest and every inch of her skin burned from the salt water and sharp wind. The sickening watery feeling of fading adrenaline went ignored in favor of her glaring.

Mason bravely crossed the sand to sit across from her in a tangle of long legs and awkwardly folded wings. She folded her arms tightly before he got the idea to touch or console her. It may not have been Mason’s fault but feeling helpless, she wasn’t done blaming him for his part in it.

“If the police have won the fray, I have no doubt she’ll be fine.” He said, but must have lied through his teeth. There was a doubt. A very serious one. The police hadn’t exactly demonstrated much restraint when dealing with humans. Deeming them crazy thus far, Avery wouldn’t put them above committing another murder. He shook his head as if reading her thoughts.

“Leela had nothing to do with this. Those who are compelled often have no memory. And having humans go missing right and left isn’t beneficial to anyone. It’s not Leela you have to worry about. It’s you. You’re the one with the million dollar head on your shoulders.”

Sniffling, she wiped madly at the dampness on her cheeks. She didn’t answer at first, taking a long look down the shoreline while she regained composure. The beach they’d landed had to be on the California coast but this section of it wasn’t fit for tourists. The sand felt more like mud and the waves ravaged the rocky coastline. The wind made the area freezing and no road made for difficult access.

They had some time to spare but they hadn’t flown far. Even if they’d reached the California coast, Avery knew that wasn’t far enough. They’d have to keep moving but she wasn’t sure she was okay with the idea of moving farther away from Leela. During her musing, Mason reached out and brushed her knuckles. She reluctantly relaxed her fist and he took her hand and drew it into his own. The gentle touch did little to reassure her. Avery just felt guilty now.

“I took Mikhail’s amulet from him and then dropped it somewhere. Will that break Leela’s spell? And if it does, will she remember everything then?”

Avery naturally began to think about the details. Mason had a point. Leela had nothing to do with this situation. Still, if she snapped back to normalcy and began to freak out about harpies, would she be deemed as a problem? Mason had once said that harpies didn’t particularly hide their identities. So if Leela knew about their existence, that shouldn’t be an automatic death sentence. Right? Avery wasn’t sure. The harpie government didn’t seem evil but they did seem to deal with problems harshly.

Mason finally answered her question, squeezing her hand.

“Don’t worry about her. She’ll be fine.” He said and then explained why. “Mikhail’s allure amulet doesn’t have to be in contact to work. It can leave a lasting impression. That’s how he made Leela walk into the prison. But some people aren’t really susceptible to the magic. They can fight it or make the magic wear off quicker. I don’t think Leela is one of those people.”

“I am though, aren’t I?” Avery pictured Mikhail on the rooftop. He’d used the amulet on her too. It worked at first and she remembered being so intent on pleasing him. Then Mason called her name and she broke free from the allure amulet’s power entirely.

“You scare me sometimes, Avery.” Mason said, catching her off guard. “I know that people can break free from being compelled if they are not being directly commanded. But unlike Leela, Mikhail was right in your face. He was even touching you-- ordering you with all his strength. No one breaks free from that kind of magic. No one.”

Disconcerted, Avery didn’t know how to take that statement.

“I’m not special. He’s gotten to me before. And I wouldn’t have broken free if not...” She stopped herself before amending her sentence. “I wouldn’t have broken free if not for help.”

That didn’t make sense either. They’d followed Leela straight out of the prison and screamed at her to snap out of it every step of the way. Mason’s face revealed that he thought the same thing. Avery moved onto a new tactic.

“It’s the Willow magic then. That’s the only thing that makes me different.”

“Most likely. But if the magic is that strong and that dangerous, Mikhail won’t stop until he gets it and that is not good news for us.”

A strong wind whipped down the beach and growing cold, Avery took her hand back from Mason and wrapped her arms around herself. She cast another hesitant glance up in the air. Cloud coverage blocked most of the sky from view but the sky otherwise remained desolate and calm. No harpies in sight.

“Do you think he was caught and arrested? There were so many police.” Avery would have assumed that no one could escape the dog pile that Mikhail had been under but he’d shocked her a few times already. She wouldn’t put anything past him.

Mason neglected to answer for a prolonged moment and instead took a long look down the empty shoreline.

“Maybe. And even if they didn’t, he’ll be temporarily out of commission. That will give us some time.” He finally said.

The idea didn’t comfort her. Mason must have thought that no prison could hold Mikhail. Time though, Avery repeated to herself, it gave them time.

For the first time, Avery realized she’d been bleeding steadily. She’d been smacked around enough by Mikhail to certainly warrant it but adrenaline had kept it off her mind. Tentatively touching her head, she found the soft spot and sticky blood met her fingertips.

“Okay.” She agreed wearily.

Mason busied himself with ripping the sleeves from his shirt and spreading out the white fabric for a make shift bandage. He leaned over to the ocean water and soaked some fabric in the salt water. Avery watched him idly. Some sense of calm finally setting in, she let her mind wind down. Mason had saved her life. And he hadn’t once chided her for being childish or stupid in the light of things.

He came over and splotched her wound with the damp rag with his green eyes in deep focus. The salt water stung and she grimaced until he stopped.

She opted to wrap the rag around herself, tying it once around her forehead. It looked more like a gang sign than first aid. Her windswept black hair hung over the white until the bandage’s striking appearance faded into the background.

“How far do we have to run? How far until they can’t track the magic?” She didn’t forget how Mason had tracked her all the way to Alaska. Most people couldn’t even find Mayweather Academy with a map. Finding it accidently was just unprecedented. He frowned, face darkening with shadows.

“I’m not sure. It wasn’t this bad when you first absorbed the magic. After my father died, it took me months of searching for the magical trace. And even then I only came across a clue after talking to humans who were there on the beach that night.” As he thought aloud, he drew figures in the sand. The first thing was a tiny stick figure wearing a see through triangle dress. “You were, for all intents, practically invisible... but since you’ve begun to use its power...”

He drew lines around the stick figure like a child would draw a radiant sun. The stick figure shone with the lights around it. And even through the crude illustration, Avery understood. She was the misshapen stick figure and the radiance of magic kept drawing the harpies right to her.

In the moment, she absentmindedly drew more stick figures in the surrounding sand. Except on her figures, she smeared the sand for wings and used her nail to detail the feathers. The picture now depicted harpies descending on her from both sides.

“They’ll just find me again then, won’t they?” She asked.

He neglected to reply for a long, agonizing minute. His eyes cast down toward the illustrations in the dirt and he finally shrugged gently.

“Sooner rather than later I’m sure. Our time is running out.”

His words hung in the quiet air and the steady thumping of waves did nothing to sound them out. Having no words to reply, Avery engrossed herself in the picture and stayed silent. Mason seemed content with that too.

The beach calm, Avery let the bitter implication sink in. The time she’d actually plucked the amulet up seemed so long ago. It took all the way until the end of the October for the magic to even work and for Mason to show up. The memory of school brought Leela to mind, and Avery bit her quivering lip hard. Even Leela seemed impossibly far away now. So did Chase. So did her school and her normal life. Every step she made to be closer to her old life only took her one step farther away from it.

She reluctantly let herself wonder if she’d ever see her ivy covered stone walls of Crepuscule hall again or even graduate in the flowing black gown like she’d planned. If they were on the run, she wouldn’t be able to go back there. But then, as Mason said, they wouldn’t be able to run for long.

“Why do you keep helping me?” She asked as it occurred to her. “I knew you did it before to save the magic and the amulet. Now you’re just putting yourself in danger. If you didn’t have me, the others could never find you.”

His face didn’t change expressions and he only shrugged. His brown bangs hung rowdy in front of his eyes and his thin pink lips curled up into half a smile.

“Honestly, I have no idea. I guess the little human girl is all I have left now. And we’re probably going down together.”

Avery snapped her mouth shut before she could stutter. Flushing quickly, her heart threatened to jump up through her throat. A million thoughts raced through her head but she couldn’t settle for a single one.

“Anyways, get some rest. When we take off, the trip will be a hard one.” He said and Avery forced a smile.

The lapping waves of high tide finally reached them. Avery didn’t move when the warm water sloshed between them and beneath them. It finally pulled away, back into the ocean, and smoothed the sand in its wake.

The tiny stick figure of Avery had smudged and washed away.

Twenty-four

She came too slowly with the blissful ignorance of first waking. Cool, she snuggled into the covers that smelt of baking bread. The air conditioning hissed in her ears and the sun peeked in through the windows lighting the entire room. Keeping her eyelids tight shut, she stretched and yawned.

A male voice caught her off guard. Sitting up in a flash, she blinked at her surroundings. Lying on the moist sand, she’d had Mason’s heavy trench coat drawn over her shoulders. The hissing she’d heard came from the breeze snaking through nearby palms. The light had come from sun reaching down through the tree shade instead of her dorm room window. She’d almost been convinced she’d been sleeping in her bed.