“Hey, don’t get too sassy,” my mom replied, smacking my butt with a hand towel. I laughed, and ran out to the terrace to wait for my friend.
Serena
[Hazel and Tejus’s daughter]
Aida and I were sitting on the porch, watching the redwoods sway in the breeze. I’d been boring Aida close to death about my plans for college—she’d heard them all before anyway, but now that it was starting to look like a reality, I hadn’t been able to shut up.
“I’m sorry,” I groaned after a pause. “This is my thing—I know you’re done talking about it.”
“Hey.” Aida turned to me with a frown. “That’s not true. I’m genuinely happy for you, and plus, happy for myself—I’m going to be visiting constantly. Maybe sit in on a lecture or two and pick up some hot postgrad.”
I laughed. “Sounds good. Please do visit. I’m excited about going, but I know I’ll miss home. Obviously, I won’t be telling Phoenix or Dad that, they’ll just try to leverage it as an excuse not to send me.”
Aida shook her head, her thick, dark-brown hair cascading down her shoulders.
“Phoenix wouldn’t do that, not really. You know he’s only teasing you, and sometimes…you know, he just loses his head.”
“Yeah, I know.” I sighed. “I should be grateful I have an older brother who cares, and doesn’t just ignore me completely.”
“Exactly,” Aida replied. “We’re both lucky in that respect.”
“Yeah, but Jovi’s amazing—he’s never over-protective. How did you get such a laid-back brother when you’re so uptight?” I joked.
“Hey! I’m not that uptight. Just self-conscious—there’s a difference. And I’m not even close to Vita in that respect.”
She had a point. Vita was the quietest one of us all. She was painfully shy around everyone, and probably the most gentle-natured girl I’d ever met. Both Aida and I loved her unconditionally. As quiet and shy as she was around others, when you dug beneath the surface she was the most loyal and amazing friend a girl could ever hope for.
“That’s true. Where is she, anyway?” I asked, looking around as if I half-expected her to appear from the shade of the tree at any moment.
“Studying. And last I saw, getting really frustrated,” Aida replied.
That was nothing new. Vita was determined to enhance her fae abilities, but she was only part fae and so her control over her powers was limited. She fervently believed that one day that would change, and I hoped for her sake it did—but until that day came, Vita was going to continue to exhaust herself trying.
“Ooh,” I said, suddenly distracted, “the Hawk boys at three o’clock.”
Aida whipped her head around, and we both stared down at the Hawk men strolling past. Uncharacteristically, they were walking—normally you could only catch glimpses of them up in the air, but clearly today was our lucky day.
“Don’t embarrass me,” Aida muttered. “Your brother did enough of that earlier.”
“As if I would,” I whispered back.
We watched them pass in silence. Individually they were incredibly good-looking, but when you saw them as a group together like this, the combined gene-pool took my breath away. Blue was my personal favorite—those piercing blue eyes, that muscular build and that long, windswept hair made me feel like my insides were melting. I didn’t even need to glance over to know where Aida’s gaze would be directed. Her crush on Field showed no signs of slowing down.
I leaned back in my chair once they’d passed.
“You know they call it a crush for a reason, right?” I asked Aida, archly.
“Yeah, I know,” she replied. “I can’t help it…I almost want him and Maura to hurry up and get married so that I can move on and get it out of my system once and for all. It’s driving me crazy.”
“Can’t you focus on one of the others?” I asked. “I mean, they’re all pretty easy on the eyes. Massive understatement, but you get what I mean.”
“If it was just looks-based, I could.” She rolled her eyes, more in irritation at herself than me. “But it’s more than that. He’s so kind and honorable, you know? Like the kind of guy who would stop and walk old ladies across the street.”
I sighed, lazily stretching out so that my feet rested on the banister that surrounded the treehouse. Dad had built it when Phoenix and I were younger so we didn’t fall off the terrace, but he’d never taken it down and now it had just become part of the furniture.