Brie stuffed her toes into the wet sand, pulling her hooded jacket tighter and zipping it up. The brisk winds of Hawaii flew past her, chilling the back of her neck.
She looked all around, until finally, she spotted Rykken with her brother and another friend of theirs. He hadn’t spotted her yet, and she took the opportunity to watch him. They were ribbing her brother about something and Rykken’s laughter came easily from his lips. His movements were fluid, natural, the movements of a true athlete. He was the tallest of the three, over six feet—an unusual height, especially for living on the island. Most of the guys at her school were several inches shorter, owing to their heritage. Her brother was a bit taller, but he was from the mainland.
Of course, no one knew who Rykken’s parents were. Pilot had told her his story; he grew up in the foster system, and around sixth grade a family chose to sponsor him. They didn’t adopt him legally, but he was allowed to live with them until he turned eighteen. He was no longer shuffled around through the system, and he received a scholarship for his education at Punahou.
She knew he struggled with it, but didn’t know much more. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to find out.
He spotted her, and Brie looked away as quickly as she could. She didn’t want him to know that she had been staring at him all this time. She looked back and saw him break away from the other two guys, walking toward her. When he reached the pavilion where she was waiting, he gave her a small wave. “Ready to work on our English project?”
Brie held up her textbook, which she had carried all the way there. “As ready as a girl could be.”
He smiled at her, his left cheek dimpling. The sun reflected off his teeth, as if to remind her just how white they were.
“Okay, then.” He gave her a carefree shrug. “I guess let’s get to it.”
They walked in silence, him leading the way. Rykken and Pilot spent nearly every Sunday at the beach, surfing and swimming and whatever else guys did. They knew the area like they had been born there.
Brie, on the other hand, had only moved there two months ago, and she still hadn’t quite gotten her bearings. She rarely came to the beach—she had never been invited, now that she thought about it. She didn’t have a ton of friends at school, so there wasn’t much of an opportunity.
Also, there were the Hallows. Thessa, Clara, and Cora had been at her side almost constantly over the last several weeks. She spent nearly all her free time with them, attempting to learn how to control her powers.
The only other person she saw on a regular basis was Sirena. In the evenings, Sirena would meet her in the tangled jungle behind her house, where they would practice fighting techniques. Sirena had studied some form of jujitsu, and she taught her how to kick, punch, and block any unwanted advances.
It had been a long several weeks that moved slowly, too slowly. She was getting her powers under control, yes—but her abilities were also getting stronger, much stronger than any of the Hallows knew. Brie hid it well from them, but she could feel the power building inside her, waiting to be released. Her strength was starting to scare her, but what scared her even more was that the better she became at protecting herself, the sooner it would be time to leave for good. She knew the time was coming. And she still wasn’t sure how she would handle saying goodbye to James and Pilot.
“So,” Rykken said, “what did you think of the reading?”
Each pair of students was assigned to read a Shakespeare play, and Brie and Rykken had gotten The Twelfth Night. She had almost entirely ignored most of her homework, because she knew she wasn’t going to be around for midterms anyway, but the one place she was getting good grades was her English class. Rykken sat beside her and there was a big participation portion, and Brie didn’t want to look stupid in front of him. Plus, if she started slacking off, he would just tell Pilot and then her brother would be on her case about grades.
