Page 18 of Of Poison & Pumpkins
My skin heats and I back away slowly. My heart spasms like I’ve had five cups of caffeine, and my mouth feels like it’s full of cotton balls. I bump into Kurt by accident, who catches my shoulder.
“Woah, easy there. Don’t want you to break the wind chimes, son.”
The camera flash from the couple’s phone goes off. I watch as they look at the screen, point at whatever image they captured of them surrounded by pumpkins, and laugh quietly.
“Hey, you two,” Kurt’s voice rolls like a wave. “Out. Now.”
“But the customer is always right,” one whines.
“Leave.”
“We’re writing this in the review!” They stomp out the front door, making the bell jingle again.
A few others nearby stare at the commotion. When I meet their gazes, all their chins drop low. I take three deep breaths, like I’ve practiced in therapy to release all my tense muscles. First, I clench then release my jaw. Next, my shoulders. All the way down to my ankles. Usually, that does the trick, but this time, it feels like there’s a missing ingredient to this magical potion that should calm me.
I need alcohol. No, I need to breathe. No… I need Rynn.
“Be right back,” I mumble to Zanther as I pass him by, gently pushing his arm in the process, a shove of love.
“Dickweed,” he whispers, but nods to show he understands he’s in charge.
“Chucklebutt,” I retort quietly.
Outside, the air tastes like pure October. The breeze carries a whip of chill and the trees towering over the shops paint the city in crimson and gold. As I walk to Purple Palooza, I trip on the cobblestone.
I slam into the uneven ground with a thud and pain bursts up my side.
“Woah there, careful.” The voice of my dreams—full of wicked edges and sharp rejections.
Rynn crouches next to me and brushes my hair from my eyes. At this angle, a halo of light wraps around her head like an angel. I must’ve hit my head.
“You okay, Freefall?”
I groan and push up to my side. “Freefall?”
Her hazel eyes twinkle with the promise to someday wreck me. “Yeah, I owe you a nickname.”
“Nope, not that one. Not a chance.” I lift my shirt and check my hip where a couple of scratches bloody my skin. “My nickname must be adorable.”
She helps me stand. “That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“If you choose Freefall, then I won’t let you nurse me back to health and tend to my lethal wounds.”
“You’re fine. Come on, I have bandages inside.”
“Let me guess. They’re purple.”
Rynn smiles. Holy Sols-Above that does it. Her smile shatters me, as if she’d been born to demolish me. I might prefer a life in which she can utterly destroy me every day. It’s not the curve of her lip that is an arrow to my heart, but the energy in her gaze.
Rynn has never been the type to blend in naturally. But she has made it a purposeful habit to camouflage herself as a shield against others. I saw the way her friends all turned on her junior year. They ghosted her after they used her for magic, and I’m sure she’s still haunted by that. Rynn had always treated others with quiet respect, empathy, and kindness. When they cast her out of their groups for being different, she never attempted revenge.
Except … Last night’s secret meeting in her apartment rushes back into focus. The poisoned objects were cursed for revenge. Maybe she has her own demons she’s still working through.
A high-pitched scream pierces the air. Rynn’s hand clasps around my wrist and I reel her in close to my body.
“Help!” someone else screams. “My son!”
Another yells, “Call 911!”
