ARCANE

007

Chapter 7

"There is going to be a riot," an officer leans in the doorway, talking to Hope and Erik. "Are you alright?"

Erik pulls himself off the ground, not answering the man. Though his heart flutters in his chest, he tries to keep his cool. He runs a hand through his thin blonde hair, only messing it up further. From her spot on the windowsill, Hope imagines that every novelist who writes about bad boys pictures him. A teen with tousled hair, a scowl, but uncertainty in his steps.

"Can you bring Miss Thomas home?" The officer asks.

Erik finally nods to the man.

The man escapes the room.

While Hope begins to bundle up, she tries to imagine herself as the sweet and shy girl who falls in love with Erik. She would wrap her hands around his tight leather jacket while he rips down the street on a loud motorcycle. They would lie in the grass together in a park while she reads him Wuthering Heights. It may be picture-perfect, but it is wrong, for reasons she hates to try and justify.

For the same reason that, at first, she thought the butterflies in her stomach came from seeing the girl with the dog, and not from a supernatural presence.

Erik taps his foot while he waits for Hope to be ready to go. When she puts on her scarf, he finally recognizes her. He can't decide if she is a weirdo who remembers him but hasn't mentioned it, or she doesn't recognize him because the scarf interfered with her vision that night.

Hope casts one last look out the window. Next to Thea's sister, she sees Eden.

~~~

Eden spots Cara in the crowd. As the people around him begin to shout at the mayor, asking inaudible questions which certainly no answers have, Eden struggles his way over to her. He casts a glance behind him at Keisha, who stands yelling at the bureaucrats on the city steps.

He can't hear what Cara is saying to the other three who accompanied her here last night. Though Cara doesn't like to raise her voice, in fact she struggles to do so often, she talks loudly so the others can hear her over the crowd.

"I want to hear what the mayor says next," Cara tells the others. "I'm not coming. Besides, if Thea's missing, I'm keeping my head down."

June nods at her. Before Wesley or Jamie can object, she begins to corral them away. After ducking through the crowd, the three unsuccessfully escape. June wonders if her brother felt relaxed in large groups, where at any second, people could begin rioting. He seemed stronger than she could ever hope to be.

"What's our plan?" Jamie asks, looking around. He would suggest the group goes back to his apartment but instead decides that he doesn't want to be in a space where Kyle should be but isn't. He gets nervous when June studies his face for a second. Though he knows he could use a few friends that aren't his brother and Kyle, Jamie can't help the tension building in his shoulders.

Wes, June, and Jamie all look at each other.

"Do you think anything has opened yet?" Wesley asks the group, trying to figure out where to go.

Eventually, Jamie stops. He turns through an alleyway, and the others follow after him.

"Where are you going?" Wesley thinks he has had enough surprises for a lifetime. Whatever Jamie is hiding, Wesley does not want to see. Well, he can barely see anyway. You know, now he is regretting leaving his contacts at home.