Page 30 of A Liar's Twisted Tongue

“Dude!”

I take a sip from one, then the other, and say, “Here’s what we’re not going to do,” while looking at Eleanora and Calista. “We’re not going to treat my sister—and let’s be truthful—the most powerful of us all, as if she’s some awkward outsider.” I scan my eyes over my group of friends. “Alright?”

“Yeah, man.”

“Yeah.”

“My bad.”

I face Eleanora. She opens her mouth, but her eyes hover over my lips. “I know, I know, I’m irresistible,” I say with a smile and a shrug. “But I’d prefer you look me in the eye. It’s rather dehumanizing this way, don’t you agree?”

I would have never hooked up with her if I knew the way she’d been treating Lilac.

“Okay,” she mumbles and looks at Jermoine, whose face is so red he’ll surely burst soon.

“Fair,” I nod my head, “fair.” I set the bottles down. “Well, I’ll see you in class.”

“You’re not coming tomorrow?” Yuki asks.

“Yeah, dude, everyone’s gonna be at the gala,” Breck adds. Jermoine gives him a heated glance.

“Not everyone.” I head away when Yuki runs behind me. “What’s up?”

“Rather chill with you.”

I nod. “So what did you say to convince Jermoine to hold a broken bottle to your throat?”

Yuki laughs a little, and I can tell it’s one of embarrassment. “I said Eleanora was smokin’. I had no idea they were together.”

He joins Azaire, Lilac, and me. Azaire tells us about the constellations Wendy showed him and doesn’t stop grinning. When Yuki lights another joint, he smokes it like his life depends on it and hands it off to Lilac before he lies on the ground with his hands under his head.

People begin to dance around us, in the middle of all the fire pits where Yuki and I had a miniature brawl. Lilac and I smoke the rest of the joint. Azaire’s high on Wendy, I think.

Truthfully, I have a better time with these three than I have with any group. I prefer it this way.

My laughter is nothing compared to the electricity that rattles down my spine when someone whispers in my ear, “Meet me by the lake in one hour, or I’ll tell everyone what I saw in your memories.”

Chapter 7

Who’s Keeping Score Now?

DESDEMONA

Lucents have many peculiar mental powers. One being that they can track any species of orphia through their subconscious.

– LUCENT MAGIC AND THE NATURE OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND BY CLEMENTINE PROTNUS

I fall to my back, and my throat burns when the half-digested food from my stomach falls to the floor. The fire licks the bodies, the already burnt one and the familiar Folk, both dead. I have to turn away. Push the image from my brain to be dealt with at a different date.

The room becomes a blur as I push my body to the mirror, and my sweat pours into my eyes. By the time I manage to stand, I am puking acid, the flame has closed around me, and my hair is on fire. I’m pretty sure I’m screaming.

My only way out of this dwelling has dwindled.

But it’s not as if I can stay here now. I’ve killed someone. I’m a murderer. Everyone is bound to know that it was me when they find the dead Folk in my burnt-down dwelling. I went to Visnatus and came back to kill the septic scum. Could I ever be accepted here again?

This is how the Fire Folk meet their deaths. At the hands of our own power. But not me, not today, not now. I get to my feet and pull myself to the mirror, for my mom. Maybe for Damien and his family, if they’ll still care for me once they see what I’ve done.

Again, I visualize the river, Kai and Aralia, with my hand on the mirror, but I don’t open my eyes until I can hear the running water from the other side. It actually worked. I’m hit by the shocking thought that maybe the gods can do some good because this is nothing short of a miracle. Something that could’ve only happened by the hand of some kind of divine intervention.

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