The Taint of Wolves

Supernova

Unedited.

Chapter 30: Supernova.

For the next week, Nyssa didn't come back to the house. Kale visited twice, shifting on his feet in a way that made my ribs crack with old grief. He had always been a terrible liar and ashamed of any misbehavior. When he had left paint marks on my homework, I had questioned him. He had shifted on his feet, red faced and stammered a sullen little 'noooooooo....'

I ignored it as best I could, tending to the gardens out in the park and helping in the town-hall. I was enmeshed with the community of Lunar, a hidden weapon among such breakable bones. In the Lycan's compound, I tracked the progress of the Ravi and spilled what I could. I had spent eight years with them, and yet knew so little about them. I knew their cruelty, knew their desire to create and destroy with equal measure but didn't know how to find them, how to stop them.

The café in Lunar had come to know me and when I stepped through the doors, the smell of coffee filled me with silly expectant joy. Lux had gone next door, attracted by the smells wafting from the bakery. Not a very good watcher. The sun had burnt into the back of my neck and my unbound hair tickled my naked shoulders. There was soil on my hands, dirt on the strawberry patched dress that fell in flowing ripples.

There was a lady waiting in line, fiddling with the bangles of her bracelet. I stepped up beside her, scouring the menu. I would always get black coffee, but there were funny little coffees of the day that Easton loved to try. Mint. In a coffee? Ick.

"What would you recommend?" The lady beside me asked, her voice soft. She was tall, like me, with age lined into the corners of her mouth. Dark brown hair, peppered with grey was loosely pulled into a plait. She was tanned, with the scent of Lycan lying under the rich scent of coffee.

"What do you prefer?" I asked.

"Oh, it's not for me." She smiled at me easily, the softness of her voice nearly hidden under the noise of the café. "Something sweet. It's for my husband."

"He likes sweet things?" The line moved a step to the side.

"Enough to rot his teeth." She smiled fondly, her eyes carving into crescents. "I tell him he shouldn't have so much sugar, but Lycans never had problems with rotten teeth."

"Hmm, he reminds me of someone." I pointed to the board. "And I'm getting that someone the mint special."

She flashed me a smile of appreciation. "Thank you."

The line moved on. The lady ordered. A sweet tea and a mint coffee. The girl behind the counter took the order, then turned her attention to me. Her smile widened in recognition and I responded unwittingly, so used to the trading of smiles after all the months of pretending. Zara. She always added another squirt of syrup for Easton and told me where to find hot pink zebra print hair bands. I liked her.

"Nova! Good afternoon. Were you gardening?"

The woman beside me sucked in a breath. I felt her looking at me, unabashed in her staring.

"Hello." My voice was quieter, uncomfortable now. The café had been busy; I could smell the layers of people that had wandered in and out. So many, muddying together over the passing hours. "I was weeding down by the water."

"Ohh." She sighed. "The worst job."

"It keeps me busy," I lifted a shoulder, feeling the burn of the stranger's gaze on my face. "I have a free evening so I decided to get a coffee."