I desperately wanted to go to sleep. There was no reason in the world that I could think of to open the window and carry on a conversation with Fionna Flamingo under the circumstances. But then… Maggie had asked me for my help with her, and here she was.
Reluctantly, I opened the window and called to her. “Fionna? What are you doing?”
Rather than using a human voice that might come from a bird, which wouldn’t have been very hard, she just squawked at me again. I took a deep breath and tried not to roll my eyes. “Come here,” I told her.
She didn’t have to be asked twice.
As awkward as it is to fit a wolf through my window, getting a giant flamingo to come through isn’t any easier. Somehow, she managed. Then, s
I knew when my alarm went off that something was way different. I was so exhausted from not getting enough sleep lately and using so much of my powers, it took me a moment for everything to come back to me. Pictures flooded my mind. The war with Jason Buzzard. My pack frozen. Sam’s memory loss. Mage Jaye’s anger. Fionna. That came to me a little later than it should have. As I reached over to turn my alarm off, I realized I couldn’t move easily because I was being weighed down by something--someone. And it wasn’t Ben.I sat up quickly and realized that Fionna had switched into her human form at some point in the night and had curled up with me, on Ben’s pillow, and on my shoulder. Horrified, I shouted, “Fionna!” and leapt out of the bed, ending up near the closet doors as I stared at her, my eyes wide.She yawned and st
“Harlow, why are you looking at Alec like he’s a hot tamale and you haven’t had Mexican food in a long time?” Brice asked me as I stood motionless between the two of them.I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that, so I just stood there for a long moment, probably with my mouth hanging open, probably drooling a little bit. I had to remind myself that I was going to be late to school. I could see myself standing in the principal’s office, explaining to the secretary that I was late because there was a new hot guy in my house, and even though he was dating my roommate, and I am promised to marry someone else, and have a couple of other guy situations I can’t quite shake, I became frozen in place the moment I laid eyes on him, like he was one of those suave Latin lovers who sweep a lady off of her feet in those silly movies. Yes, I could see the secretary writing tha
Raven pushed my frozen-in-shock body out the door. Somehow, I got my feet moving so that I didn’t trip and fall down the steps. It was weird not holding Ben’s hand as I walked to his truck, but I had probably just embarrassed the hell out of him and not because I had said something stupid again but because I was fangirling on a guy that I’d just met who was dating my roommate. Whether or not Alec liked girls or boys or both or neither, it didn’t matter. He was Brice’s dude, and I had my own dude, one that opened his truck door for me but didn’t wait for me to get in like he always does so he can close it for me. Instead, he left it gaping open, much like my mouth had been at Alec’s news, and went around to the driver’s side.I had no idea what to say. Clearly, words were not my thing that morning. If I were smart, I wouldn’t say anything at all. But, I
Lunch was awkward. Ben pretended to not be mad at me, but it’s not like I can’t tell when he’s angry and can’t let something go. Not that I expected him to just let it go. We absolutely needed to talk. We couldn’t do it at school, though, so I was doing my best to be normal. He wasn’t trying as hard. He talked to the other people at the table, but more or less ignored me. At least he sat by me. I was glad Raven wasn’t at lunch with us so she couldn’t say anything about the sandwich I was eating.As soon as the truck pulled into the driveway after school, I turned to Ben, and before I could even open my mouth, he said, “We need to talk.”I’ve never seen two people move as quickly as Raven and Tony did when they got out of the backseat. They may as well have been the ones with magical powers,
“What is that?” I asked Ben, moving toward the swath of pink I could see in the distance between trees.“I don’t know,” he said, following along behind me. He was probably looking to take me hope, drop me off, and never have to see me again after the conversation we had just had. But we were switching frames of mind now. We were no longer “relationship” Ben and Harlow. We were “work” Ben and Harlow. And “work” Ben and Harlow are able to put things behind them and set aside their differences much more easily than “relationship” Ben and Harlow were.I picked my way between the trees until it came into focus. It was a tree, and what I was seeing was pink bark. Unlike the last trees that Brice and I had seen in these same woods, further away from here, it was a bright fuschia pink from th
By the time I got to the school, I could tell the situation was pretty bad, and I didn’t know if my powers had completely recharged since I’d been using them so much lately, particularly to build this monstrosity of a school, I probably should’ve brought my staff with me, but I wasn’t thinking about that. I was too busy picturing Kayla, Liam, Leo, Lluvia, Sean, Liz, and the others all frozen.Remarkably, when I walked inside and saw Maggie floating there near Mage Jaye’s desk, I realized Mage Jaye had been mistaken.Fionna had missed someone, perhaps on purpose. It didn’t make me happy to see Abeo standing in the hallway, next to Fionna, as if they were both waiting for me.“Fionna,” I said in a calm voice as Mage Jaye hung back outside. “What’s going on?&r
“Fionna, dearest, what did you do to the other mages, and can you undo it?” I asked her as I took a peek out the window. Those Buzzards I’d seen flying in were landing all over the clearing outside, and even though there were plenty of wolves howling in the distance to let me know that my pack was summoning anyone and everyone who might be willing to come and help, we were in a world of trouble. I knew that a wolf’s abilities were limited against a mage, especially the ones as powerful as the mages landing outside. I didn’t get a good count, but it looked like there were at least twenty, maybe more. They were of all ages, shapes, sizes, etc. from young women to old men and everything in between. The one thing they all had in common as they shifted from bird to human and touched down in my forest was that all of them looked pissed off at the world and ready to fight. One girl in particular caught my eye. S
I wasn’t aware of what was going on around me for a very long time. How long, I couldn’t say for sure, but I knew, when I finally tried to open my eyes, something was very wrong and had been that way for a lengthy amount of time.At first, I couldn’t open my eyes. I felt a lot like I did anytime I completely used up all of my energy from the forest. But this was different. This was… painful. I wasn’t just depleted of energy, my body felt like I’d gotten hit by a semi-truck. Not only was my head throbbing, but every time I breathed, my ribs hurt. I didn’t know what Cody Buzzard had done to me, but if I ever learned to move again, I was going to remove his nuts--with a spoon.“Harlow? Can you hear me?”It was his voice! Did this guy want me to remove his nuts with