I slip back into the living room. Margot is still on the phone. Rachel paces the floor as Quinn sweeps up broken glass. Vlad looks at me sharply when I wander over to the window, but though his entire body tenses, he doesn’t say anything as I step into the sunlight.
It washes over me in a warm wave, and I let out a contented sigh as my magic reaches out, hungrily pulling it in. I don’t know that I’ll ever get that strange high I did the first time ever again—not like I’m about to go fifteen years without being in the sun a second time around—but it makes me want to smile all the same.
I don’t, though. Not appropriate. Instead, I listen to the voices below. There’s a police officer there already, though she’s on her radio, a few paces away from the crowd. When she frowns and darts a look up at the flat, I step back.
“…this morning on the beach. What do you think is making them all do that?”
I look in the direction of that voice. Three middle-aged women stand on the edge of the crowd, one trying to peer over, another looking faintly green.
“I’ll be right back,” I say, then leave the flat before anyone can argue. I clatter down the stairs and take a moment to compose myself at the bottom. Will my power hide me? I tug at it, trying to convince it to make me… not invisible. Just unnoticeable. Because I have a sinking feeling something really bad already happened today.
I slip out the front door and no one gives me a second glance. Harold fell a few feet away, straight onto the pavement, and down here, the crowd seems denser than it did from above. I pretend to gawk myself and meander over towards the women I heard.
“So young, too,” one says. She clicks her tongue against her teeth. “Such a waste.”
“It’s all that time on the internet, making them do things. Social media. It’s not safe.”
“Oh, give off, Angie,” the woman I heard from upstairs says. “It’s not that. Otherwise, it’d be happening other places, wouldn’t it?”
The woman who looks like she feels sick shakes her head. “Barely heard mention of it happening here. It’s not on the news.”
Okay, that’s my cue. Has to be. “Um, hi,” I say, giving the three now-surprised women my best tremulous smile. “I was just wondering… Do you know what’s going on here? I mean, I just moved here, but I’ve heard—”
“Oh, don’t you worry about a thing,” Angie says. She pats me gently on the shoulder. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Margot edging around the crowd. There are three police officers now, though one looks more important than the rest, and she’s making a beeline for them. “No one would harm a sweet boy like you.”
“Harm?”
“Christ, Angie,” the first woman hisses. She gives me a smile too, though it is incredibly strained. “You’ve heard about all the young men… hurting themselves?”
I swallow hard and hope I look pale enough that this is all working. “You mean the ones who’ve been set on fire?” I ask, pitching my voice low.
All three women nod and Angie pats my shoulder again. “There was another one this morning,” she says miserably. “On the beach. Again. They all keep going down to the beach.”
“Not this one,” the second woman says, looking at the crowd again. “First one so far inland.”
I wrap my arms around my middle, but before I can think of anything else to say, someone’s hand lands on my back. I’m surprised to see Rachel. She’s staring past me at where Margot is talking to the police officers.
“Thank you,” I say to the women.
They all nod and I step away from the crowd.
“This is all so fucked up,” Rachel says. Her hands are shaking and she doesn’t seem to know where to look. “Margot’s handling the police. We tried to report Jakob for this months ago, but there are only a few of them who know the truth and they’ve done fuck all about it, so…”
I frown at her. “Areyouokay?”
“Am I—” Her voice hitches on what I think is a sob, but she presses her lips together and shakes her head. “No. No, I’m not.”
“Okay. Okay, do you want to go back inside, or somewhere else…”
“Quinn was going to come and get you, but I said I would. Your… Whatever he is. He’s stressing out in there. And I need a break. Like, I just need to walk around and get some fresh air and be away from all ofthisfor five minutes.”
She looks at me when she says it, not at the crowd. Not at the ashes that were once Harold. I swallow thickly and shove my hands in my pockets.
“That’s not a good idea. Eirian’s still out there.”
“And I’m not a vampire or a werewolf or a whatever the fuck else. I’ll be fine. Go inside. They’re waiting for you.”
She storms off before I can say anything else. I’d chase her, but I’ve left my phone in the flat, so instead I signal to Margot, who watches Rachel go with narrowed eyes. I sigh and head back inside.
