Arabesque: A Wings Companion

Chapter Twenty-Four

Rowen tried not to look paranoid as she peered around every corner and jumped at every noise—and on the boardwalk, there was a lot of noise. Shawn actually commented on how quiet it was, now that summer was over and all the tourists had gone home, but if this was quiet Rowen was quite sure she didn't want to come back when it was loud. But her fingers were twined through Shawn's and that helped her feel secure. Safer. Illusions aside, Shawn was about a foot taller than her and his shoulders nearly twice as broad. Realistically, between his bulk and her magic, there wasn't much that could threaten them.

"Sorry about my dad," Shawn said as they traversed the space between two attractions.

Rowen had no idea what Shawn was talking about. She tried to puzzle it out for a moment but finally just asked. "What do you mean?"

"You know, prying about your uncle's job."

"Oh." Seriously, human etiquette. Defied logic.

"Dad's an engineer, so, you know. Kind of awkward, just says whatever comes to mind. He knows what tuition costs at Scazio—"

"—and tights, and pointe shoes—" Meghan added in a grumble.

"—and that." Shawn grinned and made a half-hearted shrug. "He's always curious how people pay. Almost everyone there is old money, or Silicon Valley big shots."

Rowen was getting the idea that humans had an incredibly unhealthy relationship with money. Not quite like trolls, who hoarded gems and metals the way ravens hoarded buttons and sugar-glass—instead humans seemed to separate themselves into castes, the way Avalon used to be. Only instead of grouping people by their abilities, they were separated by a secret money number at which others had to guess through clues, like who got scholarships and who lived in the sand valley. (The sand valley sounded like a terrible place to Rowen, but judging by how much humans liked the beach, presumably they would enjoy a sand valley, too.)

Apparently Shawn's dad had been trying to figure out what Tamani's secret money number was. And even though humans thought it was a very important thing to know about each other, they also thought it was impolite to ask about it, so Shawn had apologized.

Every time Rowen thought she was getting a handle on this new life of hers, the world seemed to open up to new complexities. She decided it might be best to go with the truth. Just this once. "Honestly, I really don't understand money. I tell Tam what I need and he makes sure I have it."

In perfect synchrony, Shawn and Meghan stopped walking and gave Rowen the same look she got from Mitchell whenever she tried to answer his questions.

"I guess that explains that," Shawn said, raising his eyebrows.

Meghan muttered something that sounded suspiciously like rich witch, but—though Rowen had never met any witches, and maybe humans had different ideas about them—Rowen was pretty sure she'd misheard.

Shawn chuckled and took her hand. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm gonna say it because I think maybe nobody ever said it to you before. You're one of the privileged elite, Rowen. I bet most people have problems you've never even heard of, because your family has so much money that you don't even know what money is."

"I do—" Rowen began to protest, but realized that if she pressed the issue she might wind up exposing just how ignorant she really was—and not just about money. "I mean, that is—"

"It's okay, really," Shawn said lightly, in spite of his sister's glower. "Don't worry about it. We're pretty comfortable ourselves—but you have to be a lot more than comfortable to afford Scazio, unless you're super-human like Meghan. Honestly my parents would probably have just financed her senior year, if that's what it took." And then, practically shouting straight at Meghan, he finished, "They're very proud of her!"