Field waved in my direction before heading off, and I returned it, smiling as brightly as I could. He leapt into the sky, those dark dagger wings of his expanding so that he looked like some deadly avenging angel, before he shot up into the air and disappeared from sight.
“Oh, Field,” cooed Phoenix, “you’re so handsome—fly away with me?”
“Shut up,” I hissed, “he’ll hear you!”
“He’s gone.” Phoenix shrugged. “But your face could still fry a pancake. If you’re so into him, why don’t you just talk to him?”
“I’m not into him,” I replied, biting my bottom lip in annoyance.
“Sure,” Phoenix drawled. “Totally immune to the charms of Field. Got it.”
Enough talking.
I flew at Phoenix, pre-empting his flying kick by grabbing onto his boot and spinning him over. The moment he tried to land, I knocked his back leg from under him and sent him sprawling across the training ground.
Finally.
“Still feeling spry?” I asked with a grin.
Serena
[Hazel and Tejus’s daughter]
I flicked through the campus website tabs on my laptop. There were so many to choose from, but browsing was more of an indulgence than an actual exercise in choice. I already knew that I wanted to study English at Brown, but as Corrine repeatedly reminded me, it wouldn’t do any harm to broaden my search. Today I wanted to check the tour schedules. If I was going to get Mom and Dad to take this seriously, I would need facts and dates—not just vague concepts that I’d hedged around before.
I knew Mom would be all for it, but that Dad would be harder to work around. He didn’t like the idea of me leaving The Shade, and with college being a year away, if I was going to get into any of them, I needed to start planning seriously. Education in The Shade wasn’t strictly curricular, but I knew that universities tried to get a diverse range of students in, and you didn’t get much more diverse than me…I didn’t imagine that they’d have any applicants with the extra-curricular activities I had on their résumé.
I jotted down some of the tour dates, making sure that the Brown ones were at the top of the list. Even if I couldn’t win Dad’s approval, there wasn’t much he could say about me visiting a campus for a day—especially not if Corrine and Mom went with me.
My parents were laughing in the kitchen. I’d specifically chosen a moment when my older brother, Phoenix, would be out of the house. I’d begged Aida to keep him busy for as long as possible, and so far, it looked like my plan was working.
“Mom, Dad?” I peered around the kitchen door, finding them both playing an old-fashioned board game that they’d originally bought for my brother. Downtime from GASP duties sure made my parents creative at ways to entertain themselves.
“There you are!” my mom exclaimed. “Do you want to play? I’m beating your father, and he’s not liking it.”
I looked unenthusiastically at the board game.
“I’ll pass,” I replied. “There’s actually something I wanted to talk to you about.”
My voice had come out a bit too squeaky, and my dad’s eyes narrowed.
“I know that voice—what do you want?” he replied.
“That’s not fair!” I said immediately. “I really did just want to talk to you both.”
Dad leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, and eyed me warily. My mom rose from the table, shooting Dad a meaningful look, and smiled brightly at me.
“We’re listening,” she replied.
“Good,” I replied, suddenly all business. The way forward was getting Mom on my side, and then she could reason with Dad. “So I’ve been thinking more about applying to universities, and there are a couple of open days that I’d like to attend, just to get a feel for the different campuses and see what—”
“Where are these universities?” my dad asked quickly.
“Tejus,” my mom interjected. “Let her speak.”
“All over North America, Dad, you know that. And you know that I want to study the traditional way, but I just can’t here.”
My dad nodded silently, but his brows were still furrowed.
“I think it’s a good idea,” my mom replied, pursing her lips at Dad. “I’m glad that you’re taking your education seriously, and we both want the best for you—let’s have a look at the dates.”
I handed her my notepad in relief. As I’d hoped, Mom was on my side. It would just be a matter of getting Dad there too.
“Dad, please can you be reasonable about this?” I pleaded.