Page 19 of Never Nix Up

There’s not much I can say to that, especially as I don’t entirely know whether I agree or disagree. The relationship between Trisantona and Hazel seems far more complicated than I can entirely understand.

“But it’s notHerwho’s your biggest problem. It’s Hazel’s parents. They’re not good people, and they’re especially not good people to you. I know you’ve got the Goddess’ protection?—”

“You do?”

“Yeah, it’s shining on your forehead like a huge Godstouched mortal here sign tattooed across your face, but that won’t necessarily stop them from coming for you.” She sees the look on my face and stops. “Look, I’m not saying that they will, but you’ve got to be aware of the dangers. Don’t go near the river without a nix, and even then, I’d be careful.”

“Hazel mentioned about the drownings. She keeps dreaming of them.”

Kit goes white. “I didn’t know that.”

I prod the focaccia one last time, and then put the loaf on a tray to go into the oven. “Me neither. I think it’s something to do with working forHer.” Now Kit had me avoiding her name. “WhenShedreams, Hazel does too, and it’s mainly the deaths in the river.”

“Has she recognised anyone?” I look up sharply, because Kit sounds scared. Really scared. A weird thing to hear in a usually confident butch’s voice.

“Why?”

“Marla’s brother…” Her voice trails off. “We don’tknowwhat happened to him, but I suspect… It’s why I want nothing to do with magic, with any of them. Who drowns a kid on the off chance that it’ll bring back the Gods?”

I don’t say anything. There’s anger there, sure, but there’s pain too. So much pain. The same pain I saw echoed in Hazel’s eyes when she awoke sobbing.

“I just… Johnny was a good kid.”

Johnny was the name that Hazel mentioned. I’m not sure what to do, whether I should say something or not, and it turns out that it doesn’t really matter because I don’t need to. Kit sees her answer on my face, and faints.

17

Hazel

Trisantona and I have made a pact of sorts. We’re going to try actively being friends, and see what happens. I’ve no idea how to really go about being best friends with a millennia-old Goddess, but there’s no harm in trying. Or at least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

For her part, she’s trying to ask me more questions about the artistic process when the door to the church slams open and Kit is standing in the doorway.

I’m not sure who’s more surprised: me, the Goddess, or Kit herself.

“Katherina…”

“Kit,” Kit interrupts. “Not Katherina. I’m Kit.”

Finn is hovering behind her, looking all apologetic and I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m just going to leave them all to it. I’m behind on my art, and now that I know that Trisantona sees these pieces as less compulsive, and more of a collaboration, I’m looking forward to trying out some new technique on the church’s old column.

“I’m not here for you, anyways.” She strides straight past Trisantona, who looks hurt—I’m starting to notice things like that now—and comes to stand next to me. “You. You need to tell me what happened to Johnny.”

Over her shoulder Finn pulls a face. “I didn’t say anything, I promise.”

“That’s okay,” I reassure her. “It wasn’t a secret.” But it is inconvenient. I don’t even know myself what I want to do about the nightmare I had, and now I have to talk to Kit about it—who is bound up in the whole thing in more ways than one.

“Johnny…” Trisantona sounds like she’s far away. “He was… he was the last of them. The last of them before the Veil lifted.”

Finn and I both manage to grab Kit before she hurls herself at the Goddess. “Not gonna let you do that,” says Finn. “Very bad idea.”

“I don’t ask them to that.” There’s water pooling about her, and moving within the humanshape that is the form she most prefers. “I never asked them for that, but you nixes… You like power.”

Kit kind of just slumps, and she lets herself fall into the chair that’s there from earlier. “You’re not wrong. There’s something about the way that magic just hums in your veins when you embrace it… It’s intoxicating. But I run a pub. I’ve seen what happens when people get addicted to that kind of a high. I don’t want anything to do with it.” She doesn’t even look up at me. “But Johnny… I need to know what happened. Was it…” She swallows and I realise that Kit is crying. “Was it them?”

I don’t need to ask her who she means. “Yes. I’m sorry.” She brushes a hand angrily across her eyes, and Finn is there, offering her a tissue and a shoulder to cry on. The butch takes the tissue, but refuses the shoulder.

“I hate them.” Her tone is completely neutral, as if she’s simply stating facts. “I hate them so much. They destroyed Marla’s family. They ruined my chance at…” She stops, taking a breath and then tries again. “How can I tell her that her brother’s death wasn’t an accident? That it was my father and my brother who did it? She’d never be able to look at me the same way again.”

---