Darkest Day (10 page)

Someone tittered. Someone giggled.

Someone pushed us apart.

“You going to welcome us all to school that way today, Mackenzie?” Ridge asked from my right side, where he’d appeared as if from the depths of hell itself.

Winn flanked my other side, a finger to his lips, as I positioned my hands on my hips.

My eyebrow rose. “Why don’t you let Maddie do it for you, Ridge?” Though I hadn’t seen them together since I’d talked with Caroline about it, the words just flew out of my mouth.

“Why would I do that?” Ridge pressed in closer, his annoying habit of interrupting where not invited eating at the self-control wall I thought I’d shored with Caroline’s help.

How utterly convenient to have interrupted just when my game timer has run out.
“Because you’re an ass, and so is she.” I spun away from both Winn and Ridge and marched my way toward first period.

Luckily, in all rooms except our Senior project class, I sat far away from anyone who might otherwise bug me. Unfortunately, once we reached the last class of the day, Ridge and Maddie had their heads together and Winn’s desk couldn’t have gotten closer if it had been pushed toward mine—which he may well have done.

I’d managed to ‘be cool’ as Caroline said through much of the day—which, once I had to think about it, took far too much energy. I refused to look at Winn, though I kept him in my peripheral vision and peeked as often as possible, catching his gaze on several occasions as well as a small smirk. Caroline admonished me with repeated eye rolls and hand waves anytime we met up. Luckily, she hadn’t seen me kiss him. For that, I’d probably have had to write sentences, or repeat a mantra after her a thousand-dozen times.

It made me wonder if all the exhausted-looking human kids in our high school were constantly acting—playing a role they weren’t suited for—in an effort to get some other person to love them.

Having Winn near me, though, it took serious effort to not touch him, hold his hand, say his name or look into his eyes.
God, Mac, you sound like some jealous thirteen year old hoping for a first kiss with her new boyfriend. Get a grip.

My inner pep-talk didn’t really help, but at least the words were said. In silence.

For an hour, I listened to our teacher drone on and on about the upcoming presentations, how to prepare, how to format, how long they should be, how many slides, how not to read. I could have fallen asleep after the first two generic descriptions if I hadn’t spent the whole time smelling Winn and wanting to nudge my desk into the aisle to be closer.

Why did I agree to Caroline’s rules? And for so long? Couldn’t I have quit when I finished all my make-up work?

That had been the first time I’d ever gone to a human for help—outside of Winn. It would have to be the last, too. If the Council wouldn’t have threatened to turn me human for spilling my secrets, I might have told her the truth of the whole thing.

“Mackenzie?”

My head popped up and out of my daydreams toward our teacher. “Yes?”

“You and Winn are still okay with the May fifteenth presentation, correct?” He held his clipboard in one hand, the pen in the other.

A glance at Winn and with his nod, I said, “Yes.”

“And you realize that’s the Monday after prom, right? Don’t disappoint me.” Mr. C scribbled something and went to the person behind me.

If the eight thousand banners in the hallway didn’t scream ‘prom’ on May thirteenth, nothing else would have. I knew it. Winn knew it, or had to. We hadn’t talked about it, and dances didn’t really suit me, so what did I care?

In finding my spot to zone out on, my gaze crossed over Maddie. Her brows drew together right before she faced Ridge again.

I’d pondered over her little display in Winn’s room a hundred times, trying to figure out what had happened. She’d avoided me since, going so far as to cross the hallway if we walked along the same route. Maddie had even snubbed her nose at Caroline, too, expertly providing excuse after excuse for why the two of them couldn’t hang out. After thirteen years of friendship, she’d cut the rope. It wouldn’t make any sense, except that I’d spent even more time with Caroline, effectively pushing Maddie out.

Seemed to me, Maddie’d had a change of heart about a lot of issues. If I guessed right, it all started when I followed Winn as he read from that book. The book I no longer even had.

A simple question played through my mind: Why? That followed with: If she’s the daughter of a goblin, of a Council member, did she know who I was when we first met? One more: If she didn’t know, did Moira tell her at some point recently, and why? Finally: If Maddie had non-human in her, why did she go to human school and act human, and what did she know about me, exactly?

“Mac?” Winn’s whisper brought me from my inner pondering.

Facing him would take no effort, but immense strength not to whip around as if I’d been waiting years for him. “Yeah?” I scribbled on the paper in front of me.

“What are you doing this weekend?”

Ooh! I got this one.
I gave Winn my best smile and said, “Well … I have plans.”

“Oh.” His expression remained unreadable.

“With Caroline.”

“Ah.” He nodded a few times.

The bell for the end of class buzzed, and everyone scattered, picking up bags and books. I did the same, scooting myself out and around the desks. By the time I reached the door, Winn had caught up to me and held on to my arm.

We moved to the lockers as the bustle of end-of-day activities began, including a glare from Ridge as he passed by toward, what I expected to be, baseball practice.

“You’re hanging out with her more? Caroline, that is?” Winn asked.

“Yup.”

“With Maddie?”

My brows came together. “No. Just Caroline. Sometimes, Pete.” At that moment, I wanted to ask why he’d brought up Maddie, and why he’d used a concerned tone as he said her name.

“Did you get my email?”

I still hadn’t checked it. “Yeah.”
Note to self: open the email program tonight!
“Um … so about tomorrow. Are
you
busy this weekend?”

His eyes narrowed, widened, and returned to normal. “Uh … no.”

“Good. Come to Caroline’s. Bring your computer so we can finish out the presentation slides. We’ll be ready in plenty of time.” I patted him on the shoulder and walked away, hoping he’d come.

10

Mac

Sitting with Caroline in her room of color—red, blue, green, orange, black and white all in one—I stared up at her glitter ceiling. “I am very, very, very happy this is the end of my double-O-seven covert-ops-on-Winn thing.”

“What covert ops?” She didn’t lift her head but continued with her Calculus homework.

I eyed her as she worked. “Don’t give me that. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

She chuckled. “It’s working.”

“How do you know?” I needed that detail because, at that point, Winn hadn’t come running on his own like she’d suggested he might do—except for the little extra at school. “Seriously … how … do … you … know?”

More laughter came from her. “Zoe give you any updates?”

“Only that he’s getting ready to come over. She’s going to delay him, though.”

“Good. Good. This is all going as planned.” Caroline waved the pencil at me.

“You know this would have been so much easier if I just killed myself off and reincarnated myself in someone else’s head with a different body but the same me, like in those soaps.” We’d watched a few just so she could prove their worth to me.

A dramatic eye roll accompanied her, “They’ve done their job.”

“But … you know, in those soaps, the guy always ends up running after the girl, and if you’ve noticed, Winn has not come running after me. He hasn’t—”

“Have you seen how Pete hangs off my every word now?”

I had. “Wait. I thought you said you and Pete weren’t—you were doing the same thing? Oh, my go-
osh
, Caroline.” I caught myself before I said a word that would lose yet another dollar.

She raised and dropped her hand. “I figured, what the hey, right? He is kinda cute. What I’m saying to you is that Winn’s not going to come running because he’s not
that
kind of guy. But … he will bring his books, his laptop and his school work …” One finger jutted out and poked me in the arm. “… because you asked him to. You’re showing him you’re focused, and you’re making him wait, but clearly—” She inserted yet another over-the-top eye roll. “—he wants you back. And he’ll be here in like two hours.”

“Oh! Shoot. Can I borrow your laptop? Winn told me he sent an email ages ago, and I meant to check it last night.”

She turned her head toward me. “You, check email? Now? What has this world come to?”

I stuck out my tongue and opened her laptop. My inbox updated while I stared at it, one message after another filling the field until the count at the top grew to over eight hundred.

“Dude, Mac. That’s sad,” Caroline said a minute later.

“What is?”

“More than a thousand unread messages? Do you ever open this program?”

I shrugged.

Caroline’s chuckle brought out my own. “Thank goodness we have decades and decades to make this all work at the rate you move with technology.” She picked up her pencil again and jotted down a few numbers under one of the gigantic word problems she’d been working on.

I didn’t have decades. I didn’t have months. I barely had weeks.

Back in my email, Indiana Jones could have found Winn’s message faster than me. For every legitimate-looking one, at least three offered penis-enlargement, breast augmentation and constipation relief.

Humans never failed to amuse me, but the junk they produced topped it all.

I found Winn’s message but also one from Maddie and one from Raven—an absolute first. Raven talked with me never by choice and only if both of us couldn’t avoid it. Putting words in writing must have meant she had a really big need to ‘tell Mac I hate her’.

No thanks.

What can she possibly have to say that I won’t hear in a few weeks?

Raven’s email bored into my irises, though, inciting a desperate plea to open it and see just what one of my colleagues-to-be had to say.

Oh, go and open her email. You know you want to.

With a click, the message appeared larger on my screen.

Mackenzie—

Eighteen years and every one of the Council members refused to call me Mac.

If you’ve had a chance to meet your mother, and return to planet earth unscathed, then you’ll eventually read this message. If you don’t, then at least I’ve said the words that needed to be said, lifting a weight from my shoulders.

For years, I’ve pushed you, and as you know, I have the power to make your final choice for you. I want you to know that, should you not choose your final form, I will give you my place.

Yes, I could make you human and thusly torture you for the rest of your natural life, but that’s not what I want. It never has been. Not for me. Not for our races. Not for the Council. We need you. We need a leader willing to push the edges. We need a leader willing to unite the humans and non-humans.

I thought I’d been the one our world waited for when I willingly gave up the human I loved and dutifully took my rightful position on the Council. Realizing you’re following in my path, you can take this as warning or a way to not worry about your nineteenth birthday.

Do
not
give up Winn.

There is a way to accept your place on the Council and keep the boy you love. You must find it, or the fate of the Council will be sealed forever. You are our last chance. Our last hope. The gods declared it at your birth, which is why your mother fought to keep you for so long.

The gods threatened the one she loved most, and she gave up herself for him. For you. For your sister.

I assure you, my intentions are honorable.

All manner of words fought to escape. Holy cannoli passed through my mind—Caroline’s no cursing rule so ingrained in me over the last month, I couldn’t even think the word I wanted to say.

Raven doesn’t want me to give up Winn? How can she say that in a freakin’ email dated a month ago and not tell me outright? How can I pick Winn, not pick human,
and
be on the Council?

Her message didn’t make sense. Coming from her, she knew, too, that I wouldn’t ask her about it.
This is another test.
I banged my fist on the bed.
Stupid, stupid.
For a moment, I bought the sincerity. The answers. The plea.
Get Mac to believe something’s possible and she’ll screw up so Raven can make her human—the one thing I’d never accept in life.

Why does the Council play these games with me?

“What are you concentrating on over there?” Caroline asked.

“You know. Crap, and all. I’m done, though.” I’d have to read Winn’s at a later time since Raven’s kinda ruined the happy moment I’d had going.

Winn

The day ran long and the night even longer as I thought through Mac’s actions. Weird became the only word I could use to describe them. Without access to Suze, or even Zoe, who refused to talk to me, I ended up sitting in my room, once again, thinking.

“This is as boring as it gets,” I said to no one.

No one said nothing back.

I’d finished my homework.

I’d gotten ahead on the presentation—enough that when Mac and I would meet in two hours, we wouldn’t have to work on it at all. I planned something completely different; I just hadn’t told her.

Shuffling from beyond my door forced me off my bed, tennis ball in hand again, and I caught Zoe as she exited her room.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hi.” Her head ducked low as if she didn’t want to be seen.

“Why have you been avoiding me?”

She stood straighter. “I haven’t. Just been busy.”

“With Mac?”