RYAN. AFTER SCHOOL.

Shortly after they settled down at the beech tree, Ryan’s phone bonged like a gong, indicating a text. Angie’s phone played a cawing crow. Angie giggled at it like always—she said that the crow was singing “Sweet Caroline,” but it just sounded like croaking to Ryan. Ryan, who’d been looking at his phone while they talked, said, “Chris says he has unexpected extra training to do, so he can’t hang out.

“Hmm,” Angie hmmed, looking at the text herself. “That’s… interesting.”

Ryan shrugged. “Maybe someone told him about the Exile and he decided he didn’t want to get in the middle of that drama.”

“Maybe…” Angie replied. “I hope not, though.”

“He probably just wants us to work things out.”

“Hope so,” Angie said, nodding. “I want to hang out with him more. There’s Megan.”

Ryan glanced where she was looking, noted Megan’s shame-filled approach, and waved.

A moment later, Megan opened her mouth to say something as she stepped within speaking distance of them, and Ryan cut her off. “What’s shakin’, Megan?” he said, raising an eyebrow at her.

“Um, Evan left,” she said, ignoring the question. She added, “Went home, I think.” She looked down at her feet.

Ruh roh. Ryan and Angie exchanged a glance. “How’d you piss him off?” Ryan asked. Angie snorted.

“I didn’t mean to!” Megan squeaked. “Um. Well.”

All in one breath, she said, “I may have gotten my phone taken away in Life Science, and been walking with Beth on the way back from the office from getting it back—we have French together last period—and we stumbled upon Evan in the crowd without realizing he was there and saw Chris walking away too and I didn’t have time to think and, um, I don’t think Beth did either, because she just tried talk to him like everything was normal and he, well, responded that she hadn’t talked to him for three years which was a pretty mild response but you know Beth so she sort of ran away and…” She trailed off and shook her head.

“Beth. Naturally. Of course it was Beth,” Ryan said with a sigh.

“Well. It wasn’t. Just. Beth,” Megan said, forcing the words out, or acting at it.

Ruh roh again. “And?” Ryan replied, his eyebrow making its elegant trek up his forehead.

“Well… I kind of said ‘Really, December?’ after he scared her off.”

Ryan and Angie just stared at her until she continued.

Megan was squirming, her cheeks flushed a dark red. “I didn’t think. It just came out.”

“Salt and silver!” Angie said. “Seriously, February? I used to tell you that you were too bossy toward December—”

“You’re one to talk,” Ryan interjected smoothly.

Angie just kept right on going, “That you were going to regret it one day, and now here we are!”

“Old habits die hard,” Megan said, looking at her hands, face still flushed.

“That’s exactly what I was talking about!” Angie said.

“Also, you two don’t know this,” Ryan said, buffing his fingernails on his shirt. “But December had a crush on Beth in seventh grade right around the time everything happened.”

Both girls looked at him. “Fuck me, really?” Angie said.

“She seemed very attainable, I think,” Ryan said, trying not to smile. “They were already friends. He was pretty focused on gunning at the time, you’ll remember.” He paused, thought about that sentence. “I should have said ‘already’ before ‘pretty.’ Anyway, I think he was interested in dipping his toes in the waters of dating while still being mostly focused on shooting and Beasts. And Beth had a certain mousy cuteness back then. She’s glossed herself up a lot since.”

The girls continued staring back at him, so, rolling his eyes, he said, “I’m just saying that if it had been any other friend of yours, this probably would have been less of a thing. Beth’s the one who hurt him the most besides Megan.”

Megan’s countenance, which had already been sad and ashamed, changed subtly in a way Ryan couldn’t quite determine. She said, “What other friends? It’s you guys and Beth now. Everyone else I thought was my friend, or even a friendly acquaintance, kept this all from me.”

“Let’s be real, Megan,” Angie said. “You helped them all.”

Megan’s eyes dropped to the ground. “I know.”

After a length of silence, just before it got too weird, Ryan said, “I would say that neither one of you are or were ‘bossy’ with December. You were both very assertive and he is not, and was used to minding his sister before you even met him.”

Angie heaved a great sigh, and looking at her feet, said, “Sorry Megan. That wasn’t very nice of me.”

Megan’s eyes had gone almost glassy for a moment, when Ryan had mentioned Evan’s sister. Now she blinked and sighed as well. “It’s okay,” Megan said, her expression now nearly mirroring Angie’s. “I just feel really bad anyway. I really made him mad.”

Another sigh from Angie. “He’ll survive. And he’s probably just processing. It’s something we’ve been trying to teach him how to do.”

“Yeah, he sent me a text saying that,” Megan replied.

“Megan,” Angie said, “Keep in mind that you’re still apologizing. You just started this morning. You haven’t finished. This is gonna be a process. I wouldn’t reprimand Evan for rudeness again, I guess is what I’m saying.”

“Yeah,” Megan said, staring at the ground. “I know. Kinda reached that conclusion on my own.”

“Don’t reprimand either of us for rudeness either!” Ryan said. “I plan on being very rude at times.” He grinned.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Megan replied, apprehension marching across her face.

Ryan nodded in agreement. “Angie, you still wanna hang?” he asked. Megan looked at him with alarm.

Angie was silent for a long moment, then said, “Yeah. He told Megan he needed to process, and I’m sure that’s true. Was a crazy day. He probably won’t mind if we hang with her some, unless she really pissed him off.”

“Sure,” Ryan said. “If Evan’s cool with it.”

“Of course.”

Ryan sent a message to Evan: Mind if we still hang, or do you want company? Taking you at face value.

“Any guesses?” Megan asked timidly.

“Hard to say,” Ryan replied, eyes still on his phone. “He was a little weird at lunch—he normally loves hunting tales. I was having a hard time getting a read on his opinion of Chris.” The phone gonged, and he read Evan’s response: “ ‘Don’t let me stop you.’ Hmm.”

“Well, you said you were taking him at face value,” Angie said with a shrug.

EVAN. STILL AFTER SCHOOL.

“Oh, we just missed Chris?” “Oh, isn’t he amazing?” Over and over in his mind. Evan couldn’t not think about those couple of seconds: Megan’s genuine disappointment, Beth’s starry-eyed enthusiasm. Or of lunch, Megan and even Angie falling all over themselves to get him to talk about Light Bearing. Of Freshman Common, and that Sam girl: “So how’d you end up eating with Megan and the Light Bearer?” “Okay, well, you were saying about Chris?” “What’s he like, though? Did he tell any good stories?” Of the way people looked at Chris with admiration when he went by. Of his stupid unfair face, both handsome and pretty[1], somehow.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

[1] Pretty punchable, more like.

And, of course, “Gramyres hunt alone.” Of fucking course they do.

Evan Cadell was not happy. If someone had asked him to articulate why he was so unhappy, he probably wouldn’t have been able to. He wasn’t always a super eloquent guy. He should have been happy. He should be hanging out with Megan and his friends for the first time in years. It should have been a joyful reunion.

Evan wiped his eyes as he stormed up the front stairs to The Grove, the boarding house his remaining family essentially shared with Ryan, not doing much of anything to keep the door from slamming behind him.

“Sacred fucks, dude,” California said, leaning backwards out of the kitchen doorway, fully three sticks of Pocky hanging out of her mouth. She continued with a few more backward steps, until she could turn her body and face him directly down the hall. Already less than a decimeter shorter than Evan, slender and gangly, Cali's short bleached-blonde hair flopped nearly into her wide gray eyes as she eyed him and said, “You’re like Ginny coming through the door there.”

Evan clenched his teeth and took a deep breath. “Cali, could you not right now?”

Cali rolled her eyes. “She was our sister, Evan. Banishing her from our thoughts and our tongues doesn’t honor her memory.”

“Cali!” Evan snapped. “Not now!” He deposited his bag in the closet and stalked past her into the kitchen.

She blinked. “Who peed in your Cheerios?” she asked mildly, munching on her Pocky.

Evan paused with his hand on the fridge door, thought about how much he wanted to talk about this. “A guy named Chris.”

“Oooooh fuck!” Cali said, then nearly choked on Pocky. She coughed for a bit, and took a sip of a seltzer while Evan busied himself pulling a big block of cheese out of the fridge. As he finished taking it out of the bag and started to cut it, Cali went on: “Don’t tell me you got into a fight with the new Light Bearer?!”

Evan sighed. “No. It’s complicated. It’s been a weird day.” He frowned at her. He finished cutting himself a couple of pieces of cheese, and put the block back in the plastic bag he’d pulled it out of.

“Oh. That good, because sacred songs, his sister’s fucking cool!” Cali said happily, hopping up on a stool at the breakfast bar. She looked off into the distance. “She’s this, this gymnastic girl with all this night black hair and these pale green eyes that are really noticeable from a long distance. She’s like, lithe and powerful. It really goes along with her name—”

“Cat,” Evan replied, as he put the cheese back into the fridge.

Cali blinked at him again. “You know her name?”

“Yeah. Chris mentioned her at lunch,” Evan said, frowning at nothing.

“Get out! You sat with him at lunch?!” Cali said, pouncing toward him, scattering pocky.

“Yeah. Him and Megan. Me and the ‘rents,” Evan said, nodding.

“Oshit,” Cali said, freezing, her mouth a tiny, tiny O. “Okay. Piss. Shit squirts. Megan? Just the three of you, and the Light Bearer, and Megan?”

“Just the fucking five of us,” Evan said.

“Omigods. Omigods!” Cali said. “Stop. Emergency processing time!”

“That’s what I was trying to do before I found the Inquisition at my door,” Evan said, a touch dryly. He started walking toward his room, took a bite of his cheese snack.

“Sorry,” Cali replied, a little sheepish. “No one expects that. But I meant for me. You’ve had at least since lunch to deal with you guys eating with Megan. I need to go lay down.” She promptly left the kitchen and swayed up the stairs.

Evan shrugged and went into his room.

ANGIE. STILL STILL AFTER SCHOOL.

“So,” Ryan said, looking up from his phone, “What’s the plan?”

They all sat under the tree. Silence had stretched between them for several minutes now, with Angie and Megan both focused on their own thoughts. Ryan was apparently content to dick around on his phone. Which he usually was, to be fair.

Angie had been wondering if she could have handled today better, if she could have done something that would have helped keep Evan from having to leave. She’d just been coming to the conclusion that Evan was a big boy now and that it wasn’t her job to manage his emotions for him. She, Ryan, and Cali had been ‘counseling’ him for years, now, after all. Sure, he’d been through a lot, but...

“Dunno,” Megan said, her voice soft. She raised her eyes. “Oh, Chris said he wants to hang tomorrow. He said we’re talking music.”

Ryan raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? He won’t have another last minute weapon practice session?”

Megan shrugged. “Um, I dunno. It seemed like a surprise?” she said, unconvincingly.

“Uh huh.” Ryan seemed correspondingly unconvinced.

Megan wilted a little bit. “It’s possible he implied that he was using that as an excuse because of, um, our bad morning. I suspect tomorrow is premised on everyone being in a little better mood.”

“We will be,” Angie said, cutting in. She smiled at Megan. “We’re the Nineteens now. We’ll make it work.”

Laughter burst from Ryan and he said,“Hah! Fuck yeah! We’ve got a name for our party! Take that, Brandon. ‘The Olympians.’” He said Brandon’s party name with considerable scorn.

Megan laughed out loud, a sparkling thing. “Gods, right? I never got that. Neither—”

After a moment, Angie asked, “Neither?”

“Nothing,” Megan said, looking a little pink. “It doesn’t matter.”

“‘Twas probably about Lauren liking Brandon, Ange,” Ryan said. Megan gave him a look. “See?” he said.

Angie didn’t care. “You can talk about whatever you want, Megan. I’ll cut you off if I think it’ll make me too mad. If you don’t mention Lauren and them sometimes, you won’t be able to talk about much.”

“Oh. Okay,” Megan said, looking relieved.

Angie shrugged. “Anyway, talking music, huh? What exactly is the plan?”

“Oh,” Megan said. “Well…. He said to bring our best, er, favorite stuff. So presumably we need to be able to access the music. Maybe he wants to hang at someone’s place?”

Angie chuckled. “Oh man. My favorite stuff. Head’s up, Megan, we’ve gotten into a lot of stuff.”

“Oh yeah?” Megan said, starting to smile. “Anything I’d have heard of?”

Ryan laughed. “Well, if we’re talking music tomorrow, it seems a little redundant to do it today,” he said, grinning.

Megan rolled her eyes. “Okay, October.”

Angie giggled. “Didn’t you literally just get in trouble for doing that, February?”

Megan blew a strand of her hair out of her face, but exaggeratedly. “Yeah, I guess. Soooorry, April,” she said. Then she smiled at Angie and giggled.

Angie chuckled too. “Couldn’t keep a straight face!” she said, poking Megan in the ribs, provoking another giggle.

Ryan snickered. Then he said, “Come on, let’s go get some food or something. Hit the Food Court, maybe?”

Megan laughed. “Yeah, sure! I’m in.”

“You know I’ll attend Court,” Angie said, grinning. “I’m going to eat three cinnamon rolls.”

“Powers Above, really?” Megan said, laughing again. “Three? At four-thirty in the afternoon?”

“It’ll be five by the time we get there,” Ryan said. “And sure, why not? Afternoon snacks are cool, aren’t they?”

Megan’s response was kind of quiet. “I can’t really eat afternoon snacks, other than some celery or an apple or something.” Then she said, “I guess you have that thing, huh?”

Angie nodded. “My emberbelly, yeah. You didn’t really say anything when I brought it up at lunch. I expected more of a reaction.”

Megan shrugged, looking away. “Ryan had already told me about it. I didn’t really know what to say.”

Angie laughed. “Asked Ryan about it, huh? Did I look too skeletal?”

“I guess,” Megan said, scratching at her neck. “I mean, it’s not that you don’t look good, you do, your hair is gorgeous and your butt looks amazing and—”

Ryan gave her an exaggerated frown and said, “Hey, that’s my girlfriend, you lech!”

Angie burst into giggles, and Megan followed.

“It’s fine,” Angie said. “I do have a great ass. To be fair, I like, run and stuff too, Megan. Evan and I go out running together Thursdays and Sundays, actually. It helps us blow off steam.”

“Okay!” Megan laughed as they stepped out into the lane heading toward the trolley stop. “I don’t have to be too envious, then. You did work for that.”

“I mean,” Angie said. “You can be envious all you want, but it’s not like your ass isn’t way better looking than mine.”

“Well, I bet your thighs don’t rub together,” Megan said.

Angie paused. Megan’s legs were certainly thicker than her own. “No. I don’t want to undersell my issues, though, Megan. I’m—it feels like everything’s ramping up. I guess I’ve always had it a little, or at least they think I did now, but it really got worse when I started puberty. I was so hungry all the time, and eventually my mom realized I was still losing weight even though I was eating as much as a grown man. Now I eat more than Evan.”

She shook her head. “And it’s not just, like, talking to birds anymore, Megs. I’ve talked to spirits and fae the past couple years. I’ve learned to communicate with some of the petty spirits I make homes for. I’ve even run into vassals of the Summer Seelie and Autumn Unseelie courts, I think.”

“Like I said this morning,” Ryan said, grinning, “We’ve had some stuff going on.”

“I guess!” Megan said, looking at them with something akin to awe as they reached the stop. A trolley was conveniently pulling up to it, so they hopped on.