Sweet Shadows
Page 74
I hold out my left hand. Greer looks me in the eye a split second before she places her right palm in my offered hand. I feel the zing of magic as our blood meets, the deadly fluid of my left vein, the healing of her right.
A black hole the size of a normal portal appears above our heads. Above our circle. As I watch, the portal grows. And grows. And grows until it practically fills the entire space above us.
“Now, Grace!” Greer shouts.
Grace squeezes her eyes shut, concentrating.
“Nothing is happening,” Greer says.
Grace starts shaking. “Give me a minute.”
The portal is still growing, taking over more and more of the gym, moving lower and lower. Some of the flying creatures scream as they are sucked back into the abyss. If Grace doesn’t get us out of here, we’ll be next.
“Now, Grace, we need to go—”
The world around me disappears, I’m blinded by bright white light for a moment, and then I’m in a living room. Nick is still at my back—I can feel him. Greer’s hand is still tight in my left one, Grace’s still in my right. We’re together, whole, and out of that gym.
“Grace, you did it!” I shout.
I yank her close into a hug. Greer too.
“Ah-hem.”
Grace stiffens. “Oh no.”
Nick unwraps his arms and I release my sisters. Turning, I know I shouldn’t be surprised to see a pair of adults and a boy our age standing there. It doesn’t take Greer’s second sight to know what has happened.
When Grace was trying to desperately get us out of that battle, she zapped us to the one place she always feels safe. Home.
“Mom. Dad.” Her voice is breaking. “Um, I can explain.”
CHAPTER 31
GRACE
Greer and Gretchen offer to go wait somewhere else—my room, the hall, maybe the moon even—but I think they should be here for this. I look around the dining table, my sisters on either side of me, Mom and Dad at either end, and Thane and Nick across the shiny surface. Nick seems unfazed by the situation, but Thane is unusually tense.
Everyone is looking at me.
I take a deep breath. Time to stop keeping secrets.
“It all started a few weeks ago,” I explain, “when Milo took me and Thane to a nightclub.”
Dad clears his throat.
“An all-ages club,” I hurry to explain, as if that will be the most problematic part of the conversation. “That’s where I, um, met Gretchen.”
Gretchen shifts uncomfortably in her chair. For a girl who’s used to being on her own, with only an open-minded guardian for company, sitting at a full family table is probably really awkward. Especially when she’s a central part of the story.
“By then I’d already started seeing monsters,” I confess. “It started almost as soon as we moved to San Francisco.”
“At the dim sum place?” Thane asks. “That was the first one?”
I nod. “And then more at the nightclub. So when Gretchen explained what we are, it was kind of a relief.”
“And just what are you?” Mom asks.
At least she’s being open to the craziness I’m finally sharing.
Beneath the table, I take my sisters’ hands in mine.
“We are descendants of the mortal Gorgon Medusa,” I say. “Monster hunters.”
“Huntresses, actually,” Greer adds.
“I don’t—” Mom shakes her head. “I don’t understand.”
I give my family a brief rundown of the story as I know it. About how Medusa was a guardian, about how her legacy has been skewed by history, about how we’re the latest set of descendants, supposed to guard the door between our world and the abyss.
I leave out the part about us being the Key Generation because, really, that’s not critical information right now. They’re having to process enough already. I don’t want them any more worried about me than they have to be, than I know they will be when I tell them the rest.
“So, what you’re saying,” Dad says, “is that when you’ve been telling your mother and me that you are studying at a friend’s, you’ve actually been roaming the streets hunting monsters.”
“No, not always,” I say. “Most of the time I was at Gretchen’s loft, studying. Training.”
“Gretchen’s loft?” Mom echoes. “That’s where you were last night?”
My cheeks burn. “No, I was in Greer’s basement.”
“Gretchen’s loft blew up,” Greer offers.
I kick her under the table.
“What?” Mom gasps.
“It’s nothing,” I insist.
Thane glares at me across the table, and I swear his eyes burn like gray flames.
“I mean, we’re fine.”
Dad rubs his eyes. “Gracie, this is all very … inventive, but—”
“Don’t be obtuse, Sam,” Mom says. “We both saw her and her … friends appear in the living room.”
“Did we?” He sounds tired. “Maybe we just—”
I knew he would take more convincing. He’s an engineer, after all. You can’t calculate for monsters and mythology with even the most complicated equations.
“Dad,” I say. When he looks up, I open my mouth and let my fangs drop into place.
He blinks. Several times. “I don’t …”
“It’s real,” Thane says.
I can’t tell if he’s just as much in a state of disbelief or if he’s trying to convince Dad or if he actually knows more than he’s letting on. He’s taking this in pretty easily, without many questions. He and I can have a conversation later. Right now, I have more to tell Mom and Dad. I nod and smile, letting my fangs retract into my mouth.
A black hole the size of a normal portal appears above our heads. Above our circle. As I watch, the portal grows. And grows. And grows until it practically fills the entire space above us.
“Now, Grace!” Greer shouts.
Grace squeezes her eyes shut, concentrating.
“Nothing is happening,” Greer says.
Grace starts shaking. “Give me a minute.”
The portal is still growing, taking over more and more of the gym, moving lower and lower. Some of the flying creatures scream as they are sucked back into the abyss. If Grace doesn’t get us out of here, we’ll be next.
“Now, Grace, we need to go—”
The world around me disappears, I’m blinded by bright white light for a moment, and then I’m in a living room. Nick is still at my back—I can feel him. Greer’s hand is still tight in my left one, Grace’s still in my right. We’re together, whole, and out of that gym.
“Grace, you did it!” I shout.
I yank her close into a hug. Greer too.
“Ah-hem.”
Grace stiffens. “Oh no.”
Nick unwraps his arms and I release my sisters. Turning, I know I shouldn’t be surprised to see a pair of adults and a boy our age standing there. It doesn’t take Greer’s second sight to know what has happened.
When Grace was trying to desperately get us out of that battle, she zapped us to the one place she always feels safe. Home.
“Mom. Dad.” Her voice is breaking. “Um, I can explain.”
CHAPTER 31
GRACE
Greer and Gretchen offer to go wait somewhere else—my room, the hall, maybe the moon even—but I think they should be here for this. I look around the dining table, my sisters on either side of me, Mom and Dad at either end, and Thane and Nick across the shiny surface. Nick seems unfazed by the situation, but Thane is unusually tense.
Everyone is looking at me.
I take a deep breath. Time to stop keeping secrets.
“It all started a few weeks ago,” I explain, “when Milo took me and Thane to a nightclub.”
Dad clears his throat.
“An all-ages club,” I hurry to explain, as if that will be the most problematic part of the conversation. “That’s where I, um, met Gretchen.”
Gretchen shifts uncomfortably in her chair. For a girl who’s used to being on her own, with only an open-minded guardian for company, sitting at a full family table is probably really awkward. Especially when she’s a central part of the story.
“By then I’d already started seeing monsters,” I confess. “It started almost as soon as we moved to San Francisco.”
“At the dim sum place?” Thane asks. “That was the first one?”
I nod. “And then more at the nightclub. So when Gretchen explained what we are, it was kind of a relief.”
“And just what are you?” Mom asks.
At least she’s being open to the craziness I’m finally sharing.
Beneath the table, I take my sisters’ hands in mine.
“We are descendants of the mortal Gorgon Medusa,” I say. “Monster hunters.”
“Huntresses, actually,” Greer adds.
“I don’t—” Mom shakes her head. “I don’t understand.”
I give my family a brief rundown of the story as I know it. About how Medusa was a guardian, about how her legacy has been skewed by history, about how we’re the latest set of descendants, supposed to guard the door between our world and the abyss.
I leave out the part about us being the Key Generation because, really, that’s not critical information right now. They’re having to process enough already. I don’t want them any more worried about me than they have to be, than I know they will be when I tell them the rest.
“So, what you’re saying,” Dad says, “is that when you’ve been telling your mother and me that you are studying at a friend’s, you’ve actually been roaming the streets hunting monsters.”
“No, not always,” I say. “Most of the time I was at Gretchen’s loft, studying. Training.”
“Gretchen’s loft?” Mom echoes. “That’s where you were last night?”
My cheeks burn. “No, I was in Greer’s basement.”
“Gretchen’s loft blew up,” Greer offers.
I kick her under the table.
“What?” Mom gasps.
“It’s nothing,” I insist.
Thane glares at me across the table, and I swear his eyes burn like gray flames.
“I mean, we’re fine.”
Dad rubs his eyes. “Gracie, this is all very … inventive, but—”
“Don’t be obtuse, Sam,” Mom says. “We both saw her and her … friends appear in the living room.”
“Did we?” He sounds tired. “Maybe we just—”
I knew he would take more convincing. He’s an engineer, after all. You can’t calculate for monsters and mythology with even the most complicated equations.
“Dad,” I say. When he looks up, I open my mouth and let my fangs drop into place.
He blinks. Several times. “I don’t …”
“It’s real,” Thane says.
I can’t tell if he’s just as much in a state of disbelief or if he’s trying to convince Dad or if he actually knows more than he’s letting on. He’s taking this in pretty easily, without many questions. He and I can have a conversation later. Right now, I have more to tell Mom and Dad. I nod and smile, letting my fangs retract into my mouth.
