Brynna

Brynna made another attempt to push her headache out through her temple, pressing the heel of her hand to her forehead. It didn't help. Her eyes were stinging with frustration. On the kitchen table in front of her were strewn the results of another day of phone calls and emails, carefully handwritten note cards detailing who she'd called, who she'd spoken too, and, in the majority of cases, why they'd turned her down. Ever since the collapse of the planned collab with Mynah Darling, it had been hard to drum up interest in Thessaly Pantelleria.

Her back ached from hunching over her little black book for most of the afternoon. Twice, she'd considered hurling the damn thing against the wall, but its binding was so fragile now that it would probably disintegrate, and she'd never get the pages back in order. Just above the stiff lump where her spine met her hips, the fire waited. There wasn't really much her powers could do to help her mermaid, but the temptation was always there.

The whispering of the TV up on the counter pricked her ear. Was that Thessaly's name? It was a music show, a strikingly handsome young man with dark hair and an elaborate pair of horns sprawling on a sofa in his slick-cut suit opposite a more conservatively-dressed and -posed interviewer. The musician was talking about… Perfect Storm?

Brynna scrambled for the TVR remote, stumbling as she straightened up, the hand she put down on the table to steady herself sending notepaper flying. She found the remote, fingers clumsy with haste, and rewound a few minutes.

The same young man stood in the centre of the stage, with just a drummer and a synth player for his backline, an old-style mic on the stand in front of him. There was a slight smirk on his lips, the lyrics he sang with his high, cutting voice darkly handsome to match. He held his arms out straight from his shoulders, moving his hips slightly, but in a way that suggested limited, if any, dance training.

The song finished and he walked over to shake hands with the host, who said to the crowd, "Tam Duffy, Glittering Hunger, everyone!" They didn't need the encouragement to cheer.

Stolen novel; please report.

The two men went to their seats, the host sitting with neat, paternal formality while Duffy slouched. The host said, "Tam, great to have you on the show, thanks for coming to see us."

"Thanks for having me." He smiled easily, turning to camera and throwing a lazy, wry wave. Despite herself, Brynna smiled back.

"I have to say," the host went on, "I wasn't sure we'd be seeing you so soon, it's been, what, eight months since The Aliens broke up?"

The Aliens, right. She thought he looked a little familiar.

"Yeah, about that."

"You must have been keen to get on with this new project?"

"Honestly? Not really, I was pretty burnt out, it'd been four years of straight tours and recording, I was looking forward to a holiday."

The host laughed gently. "That didn't last long, then, what happened? This new song is quite a change of direction for you, musically." Brynna thought back over the Aliens songs she remembered. Maybe they were a little more guitar-driven, a bit more raw, but the fragment she'd heard of Duffy's new song didn't sound all that different, it was still a pop song.

"Yeah, well, I kinda got inspired." Still sprawling, he waved a hand vaguely.

"Tell me more about that. Who inspired you?"

It was the singer's turn to chuckle, and his cool gave way to a moment of slight embarrassment. "Maybe this is weird, but you know Thessaly Pantelleria?"

Brynna felt her hand clench on the remote and forced herself to put it down on the counter. The host said, "Of course."

"I heard her song Perfect Storm and it kinda blew my mind, not gonna lie. I'd never heard an idol sing with that much force, that aggression."

You've been listening to the wrong idols, Brynna wanted to shout at the TV. Guitar boys were always like that.

The guitar boy – maybe he didn't count as such anymore, to be fair – went on, "I was kinda wanting to try out some synths and stuff already, but when I heard that I really just got my drive back, y'know? I wrote Glittering Hunger in like a week, most of the time since has been getting things sorted with the record company, the publisher, promoters, you know the deal."

"Well, it's a great little single. Are you working on more music?"

"Yeah, definitely, I don’t wanna be one of those guys who leaves his band and has one hit and disappears, you know?"

As he flashed another lopsided grin to the camera and the interview turned to other things, Brynna sighed. This was going to reveal for sure whether there was any room in Thessaly's head for anyone other than Phoebe these days. The opportunity was too good not to chase, though.