Page 37 of Midsummer Phoenixes
The Star-Garbed noticed me first. “Oh,” she said.
I ignored the ones I wasn’t responsible for and said, “Ella. Could you give me the time, please?”
That made everyone fall silent. Ella blinked at me a few times. She never looked at her phone but met my gaze and said, “Rae knows I’m out.”
And yes, she was a good liar given that it had been a survival skill for her, but I saw her twitch and saw her pupils dilate. Luckily, while I was responsible for her, I was under no obligation to give a fuck about her attitude. Or the fucking eyeliner, which was still too much.
“Don’t give a fuck. Put the junk food in the trash. I’m taking you home.”
I bit into one of the pancakes before they all got cold. Ella thought that was an invitation to a staring contest, which—brave of her. Her friend’s snake hair slithered around Ella’s shoulders as if to boost her strength, but after very nearly a minute, the kid finally got up and walked her soda can over to the trash. By this time, most of the attitude had melted out of her. Her hand trembled a little when I tossed my paper plate and wooden fork into the trash as well.
“Say bye to your friends. We’re leaving through Lorenzo’s Bodega, and from there, we’re taking a cab to your place.” Knowing what was happening should at least put her at ease. Stupid vassalship.
The Star-Garbed jogged over to Ella when Ella didn’t move right away and hugged her. “See you at school, Ell.”
“Yeah. Bye.”
I started walking. Ella followed.
“I wasn’t doing anything bad,” she said, breaking the blessed silence.
“Awesome. Keep that up.”
“Really, I wasn’t. It’s just that Rae works, and I don’t like being home alone.”
“Watch TV or video chat.” The latter of which I would love to do as well, except my boyfriend wouldn’t while he was working.
The kludde zoomed past, flying just above our heads, paper bags that spread the smell of delicious food in what was now a claw. Ella didn’t respond, and I thought the silence would last. It didn’t.
“Are you going to tell Rae?”
“Sure.”
She stopped, which meant I had to stop. We were right at the café where the salinian was continuing their date, and reconsidering it now, maybe that too was a Pride thing. I could see a human wanting to date tentacles or experiment during one of the many events this month.
Ella pulled my wandering mind back to her. She wasn’t going to cry, but some sort of emotion was churning inside of her, making her vibrate like a struck tuning fork.
She said, “Please don’t. They always worry. And they always do stuff for me. I… I wasn’t doing anything bad, and I wouldn’t. Because I know they would be coming to help me. I really just didn’t want to be alone at home tonight, okay? I won’t do it again. Please don’t tell them.”
Fuck. I didn’t do this kind of shit. This kind of shit came with vassalship and all those loose ends that entailed. I held out my hand. “Phone.”
To Ella’s credit, she didn’t really hesitate and handed me the device. I never knew when I’d have to use it for work, so I had some software I had custom-made on me at all times, tucked in a hidden pocket and safe on a flash drive. I plugged the USB 3 plug into the port while Ella watched with wide eyes framed by that atrociously thick line of black.
The software was designed to self-install quickly and run in the background even with the screen lock on. I handed her the phone back.
“What did you do?”
“Made it so I can keep an eye on you,” I said then thought about what the Star-Garbed had said. School. “I’ll also be calling St. Auguste.” I was going to send an email. Or even better, stop by in person the next time Amory’s absence upset me, so tomorrow. “If I hear a negative word out of one of your teachers’ mouths, I’ll blame Rae for it. They’re my vassal, not you.”
That hit home. If I were not me, I’d probably feel bad about using one of the sex demon siblings against the other, but I was very much me, so this was fine.
Ella said, “There’s this one test I got a C on, but that was sort of an accident.”
“Huh.” I turned, ready to head toward the escalators, but then saw three abandoned teacups still sitting on a back table. On a hunch, I headed toward the table. Ella followed.
“Really. It was a surprise test, and I was still catching up, okay? They are fucking strict at that school, and the curriculum is intense. You have no idea.”
“Sure.”
