AllFreeNovel
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What you’re made of plays a big role in determining what you’re capable of.
“Kass.”
My heart leaps as I find Zahra, then register Pollux lifting littles, spinning them, and setting them—oh so carefully—down.
“No! Send me flying like you did Meda,” Riley shrieks.
I read absolutely I will not on his lips before he barely catches the next child who goes rocketing toward him.
I ease. “What is it, Zahr?”
“You zoned out. Were you thinking about Pollux n-a-k-e-d or bees?”
My face heats. “Bees. Shut up.”
“Aw, I thought we could be on the same page for once.”
My attention whips toward her.
She smirks at the game on her phone. “Kidding. I’m only thinking about what answers will make this vampire king fall in love with me.”
She turns the picture of a man with red eyes, long hair, and robes that aren’t exactly covering him toward me. “He’s the youngest son of Dracula, and he murdered all the other males in his family in order to become king. Isn’t he a doll?”
“You better not have those images available in front of the kids, Zahr…”
“My hand-eye coordination and reaction times are peak, and my lock phone button is large. Don’t you worry your pretty bee head. No child will learn what a good lover looks like today.”
Rolling my eyes, I get my knitting supplies out.
The field trip proceeds as it usually does. I pass out snacks and divvy up any money parents have given me so their kids can get snacks from the counter in the lobby across from the skate rental station. My littles skate until the Zamboni needs to freshen up the ice. Then they eat while watching the truck go around in ovals. Those who purchased slushies share the concerning shades of their tongues with one another. Josh, for some reason, uses his entire allowance to purchase sticks of straight sugar. That are also colored. And turn the tongues of everyone he shares with a unique shade. Which, for the record, everyone he shares with happens to be everyone, save Andromeda and Pollux who politely declined. Even Zahra has matched her tongue to the shade of the green shaved half of her head.
Needless to say, once the Zamboni is done and the second half of the day—which Pollux also paid for—can begin, everyone is vibrating on a sugar high, I’m almost done with my dad’s sweater, and Andromeda is cuddled between Zahra and me while her father continues to play with the other kids.
“You don’t want to skate anymore, sweetie?” I ask.
“It’s not as fun as skating the Frozen Tears in Faerie.”
My brow lifts amid casting off. “The Frozen Tears?”
“Daddy took me in winter last year. There’s a place where the clouds cry sheer sheets of ice onto rolls of hills. It creates a terrain like a frozen skate park. It’s in the darker parts, too, so the seelie folk don’t come out. Mostly just red caps mess around.” She giggles, beaming up at me. “The best part was when they started fighting, and Daddy said we could take notes. Red caps have particularly gruesome battles, so it was very informative. It’s a good thing we were there, too, because Daddy broke things up before anyone died. Normally, a red cap battle isn’t over until the caps are freshened in th—”
Pollux smacks his hand against the glass, and Andromeda jolts. Glaring, he pinches two fingers down to his thumb. Unless I’m mistaken, the ASL sign for no.
Andromeda crosses her ankles. “Oops. Sorry. I got carried away. Must make stories appropriate for Mrs. Role and her wee human-soaked sensibilities.” Smiling, she says, “There was a kerscuffle, but nobody went kersplat.”
I don’t know how I feel about being treated with kid gloves.
A scream followed by a crash puts me on my feet before I can so much as set my knitting aside. The bag with my yarn ball falls.
Pollux twists, locates Josh plastered on the other side of the rink, and streaks across the ice in an instant.
“Daddy, no!” Andromeda calls, but it’s too late.
It’s too late.
Andromeda grabs my hand, yanks, and blurts, “Hurry!”
But I can’t hurry fast enough.
