Reckonings (3 page)

T
IM HOPED HE'D FIND
Molly soon. He was getting tired. It took an awful lot of energy to keep his cat self quiet and happy by repelling the rain, and flying was hard work.

“The weight distribution is wrong,” Tim complained as he struggled to avoid the top branches of a tree at the entrance to a park.

You should have listened to me. Cats stay on the ground.

“I get that, okay?” Tim worked to get his cat-bat-boy body above the treetops. “I see now why cats don't have wings. The back end is too heavy.”

My back end is perfect.

“Hang on. I think I see her.” Tim pumped his wings and fluttered toward a huge tree in the center of the park. Two girls sat beneath it. One girl was a little older than Tim, with long red hair and delicate features—Marya. The other girl was
his age with thick dark hair, wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, and heavy work boots. That was Molly. The two girls huddled together, trying to keep dry under the massive tree branches.

“There she is!” Tim exclaimed. His cat eyes served him very well, picking out even the tiniest movements and creatures below him.

He came in for a landing, his cat self balking at having to put its paws on the squishy, muddy ground.

“Get a grip,” Tim ordered. “You're a cat! An animal. You're supposed to be into dirt and stuff.”

His cat nose sniffed.
You must be confusing me with those loathsome dog creatures.

“Whatever.” Tim crept toward Molly and Marya, anticipating the amazing moment when he would turn back into himself in front of them. That would be an impressive trick!

Not that he felt like he had to impress them—especially not Molly. But it would be cool to demonstrate something spectacular, now that he was getting a handle on this magic thing. Also, it would be nice to show Molly that magic could be more than demons and kidnapping and getting grounded.

First thing, though, he wanted to ditch the wings. They were so awkward, and he figured the girls would freak if a cat-bat hybrid started
frolicking in front of them.

Once the wings vanished, Tim's cat self purred.
Much better. Now food?

“Shh. They look serious,” Tim observed. What was so important that Molly would sneak out of her house to see Marya in the middle of the night? He decided he'd listen for just a minute—not
really
eavesdrop—just to be sure he wasn't interrupting embarrassing girl talk.

“So what do you think I should do?” Molly was saying. “Should I tell Tim?”

Tim's pointy cat ears stood up. Tell him what?

“What's stopping you?” Marya asked. “You've never kept a secret from him before, have you?”

“Of course not,” Molly said. “But this is so big. I want to tell him, but I'm afraid to. I don't know what he'll do.”

“What do you mean? He's Tim. He'll do what's right.”

Multiple emotions flooded through Tim. Shock that Molly was keeping something from him. Pride that Marya would assume he'd handle it well. Fear. Because Molly herself was afraid.

Molly let out an exasperated sigh and stood up. “Haven't you been listening?” she demanded. “Picture this little conversation.” She posed as if she were talking to an invisible Tim.

“Oh, Tim, how sweet of you to bring me
chocolates. How did you know they were my favorites?” she gushed. “By the way, there's something I've been meaning to tell you. That dragon we met in the Demon Playland—that was you!” She smiled broadly, maniacally, as if she were thrilled by what she was saying. “Oh, yes, we had a lovely chat while you were out being all knightly,” she said, her voice syrupy sweet. “He told me he—
you
—sold his memories to demons to get more and more power.”

She tapped her chin with a finger as if she were trying to remember the conversation. “Oh, yes, and the Tim from the future told me he loved me soooooooo much that he made hundreds of copies of me. That's right! And not only that—oh joy—he kept me prisoner to be trained to become his perfect little wifey.”

Tim was too shocked to move.

Marya started giggling and Molly glared at her. “I'm sorry,” Marya said, trying to control her laughter. “I know it's really serious, but the way you tell it, with your faces and your voices, it's just so funny.”

“Funny?” Molly repeated. “Was it funny when Daniel went nuts and almost hit you? No! You got upset and sad—and you don't even like Daniel like a boyfriend.”

Molly's shoulders sagged. “Think of what it's
like for me,” she said softly. “To know that Tim might grow up to be evil and want to change me into something wretched. That could be the future. For real.”

How can this be happening?
Tim said to himself.
How can she be saying those things?

You're the one who insisted on coming here.

“I think I'm going to be sick,” Tim murmured.

Grass helps. Eat some.

Tim felt as if his brain were going to explode. “Shut up! You don't understand.”

I understand grass perfectly well.

“That's
me
Molly's talking about. Me!” His heart thudded under the cat fur. He couldn't believe what Molly was saying could be true, but he knew she wouldn't lie. He had to hear more, so he quieted the cat thoughts and tried to pay attention, despite his tormented feelings.

“I'm sorry,” Marya said. She stood and put her arm around Molly's shoulders. “I know how terrible this is.”

Molly nodded, and Tim could tell she wasn't actually mad at Marya. Just upset.

“I don't know which would be worse,” Molly said. “To tell him or not to tell him. And should I break up with him because of something that only
might
happen?”

“Break up with me?” A lump formed in Tim's
furry throat and he was glad that cats couldn't cry.

“Might happen? You mean it's not definite?” Marya asked.

“The dragon told me that it was possible that he might not grow up to do those things,” Molly said. “The future can be changed.”

“Well, then that's good!” Marya said. “Right?”

Tim's tail flicked. “Yes! Right! The future can be changed! So let's change it.”

“Right,” Molly mumbled. “And Tim did promise me,” she added, her face brightening a little. “He promised to never make deals with demons. That should make things okay.”

“Yeah, sure.” A throaty voice laughed near Tim. A tall woman stepped out of the bushes and approached the two girls. “And men always keep their promises. Especially ones they make at the tender age of thirteen.”

The two girls gaped at the stranger, and so did Tim. She was pretty astonishing to look at. “Hot” might be a word some of the boys in his class would have used to describe her. She wore a strapless, skintight leather jumpsuit that emphasized her curves. Her thick black eyeliner made her green eyes look huge, and her long blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. “Intense” was Tim's impression of her. She carried a birdcage, which made him wonder even more about who she was
and what she was doing in the park in the rain. And why she decided to butt into Molly and Marya's conversation.

Tim crept closer. Both he and his cat self were curious about this stranger, though perhaps it was the bird in the cage that attracted the cat. Using his excellent cat vision he could see that Marya was intrigued by the woman and that Molly was wary. Tim trusted Molly's judgment.

“Hi!” Marya said. “I'm Marya, this is Molly.”

The woman nodded. “Ladies,” she greeted them with a smile. “Don't mean to interrupt your little gab session. I thought maybe you could benefit from the advice of someone older and perhaps wiser.”

“Meaning you?” Molly gave the woman a slow once-over. “I don't think anyone wise would wear heels that high.”

The woman laughed. “I like you. You're feisty.”

“We were just talking about Molly's boyfriend,” Marya explained.

Tim saw Molly's jaw tighten; he was sure she didn't want her personal life blathered to this woman. That wasn't her style.

“So I gathered,” the woman said. “I take it he's a magician. Good, bad, or stupid?”

Molly put her hands on her hips. “What do you
mean, stupid?” she demanded. Then she shook her head. “Forget it. Come on, Marya, let's go.”

“Awww, you don't want to break up the party just yet,” the woman said. “After all, we still haven't solved your boyfriend problem.” She put down the birdcage. “Let me see if I can do something about this weather, shall I?”

Tim stared as the woman threw her head back and lifted her arms up to the sky. Her lips were moving, but even with his enhanced cat hearing, he couldn't make out what she was saying. As the woman chanted softly, she began to glow, and Marya grabbed Molly's hand. The girls took a few stunned steps backward, their eyes never leaving the woman.

The glow spread out from the woman into the air around her. The farther it got from her, the less intense it became.

“She's using that energy to send the rain away from her,” Tim murmured. He could do that to keep his cat body dry, but this woman was keeping the rain from falling on the whole park. “She packs a serious magic punch,” he realized. Did that mean Molly and Marya were in danger? He didn't sense evil from her, but you never could tell.

Soon the woman stopped glowing. She lowered her arms and grinned at the girls. “Much
better. Moonlight's best for girl talk, don't you think?”

She bent down and opened the birdcage. She pulled the bird out and held it on her palm. “And better for you, too,” she told the bird. The bird gazed into her eyes, then fluttered away, soaring behind the leaves of a tall tree and disappearing.

As if stopping rain were the most normal thing in the world, she sat cross-legged on the grass. “Now, Ms. Molly, just between us sisters, what's wrong with your guy?”

Molly gaped at her. “Who
are
you?”

The woman smirked. “I'm known as the Body Artist. I'm the fairy-tale princess who ditches the prince and saves herself, then conquers the neighboring kingdom. I'm the answer to the questions that don't get asked in those quizzes in
Seventeen
and
Cosmo
. I don't hurt anyone, and I never let anyone hurt me.”

“How did you do that?” Marya asked. “Glow and make it stop raining?”

“Ah, that's one of the first things a witch like me learns. We're pretty hooked into natural systems: weather, plants, the body.”

Molly's eyes narrowed. “So, are you good, bad, or stupid?”

The woman laughed a deep, throaty laugh. “Touché. Nothing gets by you, does it? Well, let's
just say I spend a lot of time in the gray areas of life. I live by a code, and I'm a moral and ethical being, but there are those who…don't like me. I don't truck with demons, and I don't like those who do.”

That seemed to satisfy Molly. She sat beside the woman. “The grass is even dry!” she exclaimed with surprise.

“Never do anything partway, that's one of my mottoes.”

Marya sat down, too, tucking her feet up under her dress. “Do you have others?”

The woman shrugged. “I just make them up as I go along.”

“How much did you hear?” Molly asked.

“That your magic boyfriend may grow up to be a seriously bad bloke, and if he does, he'll take you down.”

Her tough, no-frills summary of the situation made Molly bite her lip. Tim could see her blinking back tears, and it made him sick to know that he was the cause of her fear. Her potentially miserable future.

“I can't imagine Tim doing any of that stuff to me—ever. He's just too sweet, and he really likes me.” Molly's voice was plaintive, but then her expression grew hard. “But I know other girls who've thought the same thing about their
boyfriends and wound up getting hurt. Really hurt.”

“Yeah…” Marya said softly. Tim knew she was thinking about Daniel. Daniel was crazy about Marya, but he had tried to hurt her anyway.

“I've thought about telling him everything that his maybe-someday-future self told me,” Molly went on, “just telling him straight out. But he's already dealing with so much since the whole magic thing happened. And he felt terrible that those repulsive dino demons kidnapped me.”

Molly sighed and pushed her dark hair away from her troubled face. “I've also thought about telling him that I can't see him anymore. But that's not what I want to do. I don't want to give up. Besides, it wouldn't be fair. He hasn't done anything bad yet. And maybe he never will.”

That dragon must have been convincing, Tim realized. He was still having trouble understanding all the implications of what he was hearing. How could he believe that when he got older he'd do terrible things, including hurt Molly? But how could he
not
believe it? Molly wouldn't be so upset if she didn't believe it could be true. And if she was right, how could he live with himself?

“I think there's another reason you're so confused,” said Marya. “You're scared that breaking up with Tim might be the very thing that will turn
him crazy and mean.”

Molly nodded, then pulled her knees up toward her chest. She wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her forehead on them, so that Tim could no longer see her face.

Marya turned to the Body Artist. “That's how it was with me and Daniel,” she explained. “He was always nice to me. Until he realized I didn't want to be his girlfriend. Then he went all—”

Suddenly Daniel leaped out of the bushes. “I'm sorry, Marya!” he exclaimed.

“Daniel!” Marya gasped.

Tim's fur bristled and a low growl rumbled in his cat throat. Tim knew Daniel could be dangerous from experience; his cat self responded to the troubled boy on instinct.