Georjie pulled her mother’s SUV into the Sutherland’s driveway, put it in park, and shut off the engine. We undid our seatbelts, but she didn’t move to get out.
“Are you okay?” I asked, touching her shoulder.
She glanced at me, eyes moisture-rimmed and little red, but she smiled. Snatching a tissue from the box sitting in the console, she blew her nose.
“There’s another of us gone,” she sniffed.
We’d just returned from the airport, where we’d joined Saxony’s family in seeing her off as she went to begin her grade twelve year at Arcturus, a school for fire magi in England. Saxony had come back from her summer stint as an au pair in Venice with a fire living inside her…like literally. When a mafia boss gave her contact info for a fire mage named Basil Chaplin who might be able to help her figure out what to do with her new firepower, she and her parents went all the way to Dover to meet him. The next time we saw her, she broke the news that she was enrolled in a secret school for kids just like her. She’d told us that in the nineties, Basil had opened Arcturus to provide a safe place for young fire magi like her to learn how to control their fire. There were a few private agencies who had agreements with Arcturus, according to Basil, who then offered employment to magi after they graduated. What Saxony’s schooling might lead her to seemed exciting and glamorous to Georjie and me––secret spy work maybe, or joining a team of magi to fight terror.
“And you’ll be next to leave, Targa,” Georjie was saying. “So much has happened, so much has changed. It’s been a little challenging to adjust, you know?”
I nodded. “I know.”
“I never saw this coming. I thought we’d have our final year together.”
“And we thought our high school would still be in one piece,” I added.
She nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I’m sorry for Saltford and for what the storm did…”
‘Storm’ was a massive understatement. A corporation called TNC had tried to hire me, Georjie, Saxony, and another girl from Saltford named Petra. When Petra learned that genocide was their endgame, she destroyed their field station and accidentally released an invisible ancient demon called an archon. When it turned on Saltford, we did our best to battle it together, but we were losing until our dear friend Akiko––a demon hunter, appropriately––dealt the killing blow.
Tragically, her blow was a sacrificial one. We still could barely talk about what she had done without breaking down into tears. Since then, we’d agreed to refer to the archon as a storm, even while in private, so that we didn’t slip up when talking in public. It seemed we were the only people in Saltford (besides my mom) who knew the storm hadn’t been a freak natural occurrence.
“But we’ve weathered it pretty well, considering…” Georjie was saying.
“Considering that every time you visit the hospital, people have miraculous recoveries,” I finished.
When we were sharing our summer stories, Georjie had referred to herself a Wise, and she’d spoken of an incredible gift she had of pulling the healing qualities of the earth out of the ground and sending them into bodies that needed healing. Her elemental gifts had come in handy during the days immediately following the storm.
“And it’s no coincidence that the media has been focusing on the disaster relief story, instead of hunting us down for interviews…thanks to you and your voice.” Georjie shook her head. “I hate to think of what might have happened if you hadn’t told that one kid to pull down and destroy the video of us on the beach.”
“Things could be worse,” I agreed.
Georjie nodded, but she still looked miserable.
“Do you not want to go to Scotland?” I asked, concerned. “Do you feel like you have to?”
She shook her head vehemently as she pinched her nose with the tissue again. “Oh no, I’m super excited to go to Scotland, and I’m really looking forward to seeing Jasher again. Saltford is the last place I want to be if my friends aren’t here. I guess I’m just still in shock.”
I leaned over the console and pulled her in for a hug. I’d already had my turn in this same state; I knew how she was feeling. Excited about traveling, sad about saying goodbye, maybe a little guilty about leaving Saltford while it was rebuilding. But we’d done all we could and now we needed to focus on the next thing––finishing high school and adjusting to our new lives.
“I can’t believe you’re leaving in three days,” she said, sniffling next to my hair. “And I can’t believe I didn’t get a chance to meet Antoni while he was here.”
“There wasn’t time.” I pulled back as an idea struck. “Why don’t you come visit me in Poland? You can meet Antoni, see where Mom and I will be living.”
Her face brightened. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
I paused, realizing she probably had thought of it, but was too polite to ask. “Maybe you were waiting for an invitation?”
“Maybe,” her mouth quirked in a smile. “But I love the idea. Why don’t I ask Denise to look into flights tonight while you’re packing? Maybe it’ll work out that I can come to Gdansk for a bit first, and then go on to Scotland from there.”
“Great!” I mirrored her infectious smile. “Can we go in now? I’m starving.”
She nodded. “Me too, actually.”
The archon had destroyed our trailer. Mom and I had picked through the rubble of the trailer court along with several other families, rescuing what few belongings hadn’t been totaled––which for us equaled Mom’s winter tires, a rubber boot, and a barometer. At first Mom and I had stayed in a hotel, but then Liz and Georjie had insisted we stay with them for as long as was needed.
Georjie and I had registered for our grade twelve year through an online school and promised each other we’d be one another’s motivation to do well and graduate with a bang. Saxony had also registered for some online courses but through a different organization—one that offered more flexibility, as she’d be studying at Arcturus at the same time.
“What time do you think your mom will be home tonight?” Georjie asked as we boiled water for spaghetti. “Should we save a plate for her?”
“I think The Bluejackets will have food at the goodbye party, and knowing my mom, she’ll stay until she’s eaten and then slip out.”
Georjie laughed. “That sounds like her, all right. Was she surprised when Simon and the guys said they were throwing her a retirement party?”
She added salt to the pot of water and retrieved a jar of canned tomato sauce from the pantry.
I began to chop vegetables for a salad. “She was blown away. You know she and her colleagues never really got on.”
“I know, but don’t you think that secretly, they loved having her on their team? I mean, your mom is the opposite of dull.” She pulled a second pot from the drawer beside the stove, then opened a jar of sauce and dumped it in.
“I think it was a true love-hate relationship.” I added the chopped tomatoes to the greens and tossed them together. “One thing is for sure, they’re in for a shock when their jobs don’t ever go as smoothly as they did while she was there.”
The front door opened and a voice called, “Hello?”
“Speak of the devil,” Georjie said. “You’re home early, Mira. Are you hungry?”
“We’re making spaghetti,” I added.
The sound of footsteps on the stairs preceded my mom. She entered the kitchen wearing a black t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and her hair in a topknot.
Georjie glanced at her, one fine eyebrow arched. “That’s what you wore to your own retirement party?”
Mom looked down at her clothes. “What’s wrong with it?”
Georjie and I shared a look.
“Nothing.” Georjie picked up the spaghetti box and dumped a thick rope of pasta into her hand. “Dinner for three? Or did you eat?”
“I did, but I won’t turn down eating with my favorite girls. How was the send-off?”
“Saxony was pretty excited. Couldn’t blame her. Getting out of Saltford is the best thing for all of us right now.” Georjie added the pasta to the boiling water. “How was the party?”
Mom gave a humorless laugh. “Everyone was miserable. Why do you think I’m back already?” She shook her head. “I told Simon a party was a bad idea. It would have been better if he’d just let me slip away quietly without making a fuss.”
“Do you think maybe they were miserable because they knew they were losing a valuable teammate?” I asked. “It’s probably something they never thought could happen. You were like Simon’s star, he paid you better than anyone.”
Mom shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know why they were miserable, and I don’t really care. I was ready to leave a long time ago.”
I tried not to let this statement make me feel guilty, but it was tough. Mom had worked for The Bluejackets to support me. When I finally had my salt-birth and became a mermaid, she’d been so excited about the prospect of the two of us going to sea together—experiencing a salt-cycle with her daughter, the way every siren dreams. But I couldn’t have been less interested in leaving my human life. Even if I hadn’t fallen in love with Antoni, I was committed to finishing school and maybe going to university, having some kind of vocation, a family. I loved swimming in the ocean, but I had a hard time imagining living out there for years at a time. For Mom, this was nearly impossible to understand.
So when Saltford High was destroyed by the archon, and the opportunity to move to Poland and take up our Novak inheritance came sooner than expected, Mom accepted this as the next best thing to going to sea.
I suspected that she still hoped I’d come around, maybe after I graduated. But I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to leave Antoni. My siren heart had chosen him—he was it for me.
Mom had been on a project when the demon struck, but she got on the first plane home as soon as she was able. By the time she’d arrived, teams were already organizing to rebuild. We’d helped our neighbors clean up as best we could. Mom didn’t ask me for my version of what had happened, and I hadn’t been ready to tell her, either. I was still in shock. But when she’d asked me when we were going to see Akiko, the silent siren-tears came and it all spilled out.
Mom had listened silently while I’d told her about the offer from TNC, delicately explaining why I hadn’t notified her about the day trip and the proposal––I’d really felt we’d be in and out in a matter of hours and the whole thing would be over. I told her about Petra and the incredible hidden field station we’d been flown to, as well as the dome project and all the stuff Petra had unearthed about it. I went into detail about the attack of the massive demon TNC had made a pact with, and then our efforts to subdue it and Akiko’s role.
Akiko…well, I had seen her little avian body disappear into the shadowy vortex of the creature. She never came out again.
It was too horrible, too final, too sudden, too unfair. It didn’t fit with my sense of justice or my world view. I preferred to hope that I would see her again one day and she’d have some fantastic story to tell about slipping into another world. If I thought about her as dead, my heart became panicky and tears threatened to spill over, so in my mind, I had relegated her to ‘ascended’ and it helped me cope with the grief.
Akiko’s home had been damaged but not destroyed by the archon, and when we realized Akiko was not coming back, Georjie and I sneaked into the house to retrieve her samurai sword. It was the only material thing Akiko had cared about. The sword was stashed in a locked box in Georjie’s basement, in case by some miracle Akiko ever returned.
Beyond comforting me and listening, my mom couldn’t offer up any insight about the storm-demon. She’d never heard of such a thing. She felt so guilty for not being there that she tortured herself for days over it. When I suggested we move back to Poland as soon as possible, she’d said yes right away.
Antoni sounded as excited as I felt that I was returning to Europe so soon when I called to catch him up. I’d carefully referred to the archon only as a storm so I didn’t freak him out.
Mom and I worked through a checklist to ensure our emigration went smoothly. She gave her notice to a shocked Simon, closed down accounts, filled out a change of address card and informed acquaintances. I notified the Novak estate of our arrival, scheduled a flight with Novak’s company pilot, registered with my online school, and sorted through our meager belongings.
In a matter of days, we’d be on a plane back to Poland.
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