Chapter 13 – Dawn
Juniper
Anton and I come streaming out of the house, leaving the door banging open behind us. He turns the corner and dashes around the house before me, carried on those long-ass ghost legs. I pant and pump my arms, scowling as I follow.
God, I hate being the little one.
But the thought is wiped from my mind as Laila comes into view, kneeling in the grass outside my parents’ tiny house, her head tilted back, just…weeping in the dawn light.
“Laila,” Anton whispers, stepping closer to her, looking worriedly down into her face. “Are you…okay?”
I come to his side, looking down at my friend.
“The sunnn,” Laila says, inhaling a long, shaky breath as tears continue to streak down her cheeks. “It feels – so good –“
I watch in awe as she suddenly unzips the hoodie I loaned her, stripping it off so that she’s just in a tank top. She stretches her arms out wide, clearly just trying to bare more flesh to the glowing red orb that’s just begun to peek over the horizon.
I turn to look at it, kind of in awe of Laila’s rather extreme reaction. “What?”
“I haven’t seen the sun in weeks,” she murmurs, panting a little, raising her hands to wipe the tears from her cheeks but keeping her eyes shut. “It feels so good – I missed it so much – I want to lay here all day – go away so I can take all my clothes off –“
I turn my eyes back to her, just staring, and then glance up at Anton. “Did you even notice the lack of sun?”
“Of course I did,” he says, grinning at me. “I mean…not as much as Laila –“
“I don’t think anyone missed it as much as Laila,” I murmur, looking down at her again.
“But sure,” Anton continues, shrugging. “I missed daylight. It’s nice.”
I shrug, looking up at him. “I…didn’t really notice.”
“That’s because you’re the most perfect little bat Goddess,” Anton says, grinning at me, teasing even if he half means it. “A denizen of the dark and murky depths like those deep sea angler fish. Seasonal affective disorder is your base state, June. You –“
“All right, all right, enough,” I say, laughing and wrapping my arms around myself to avoid smacking at him. He grins at me like he misses it too. We both look down at Laila. “Are you going to be all right?”
She just nods, taking deep breaths as the sun’s pretty orange glow lights her up. I tilt my head, smiling, thinking that she looks quite pretty.
“Who broke the seal?”
I turn to see Midnight walking over, a black box held in her arms, frowning worriedly at Laila.
Laila ignores her but Anton and I grin.
“She’s fine,” Anton says, shrugging. “Just missed the sun.”
“That’s a silly thing to miss,” Midnight murmurs, shaking her head, studying Laila. “It comes back every day.”
“Didn’t you grow up in the Darknesss?” Anton asks, frowning.
“Yeah,” she says, looking up at him. “It was great. Never had any stupid sun alarm clock coming and shining in my eyes.”
“See, she gets it,” I say with a sigh, gesturing towards her.
“I don’t see why you two can’t get along,” Anton murmurs, looking between Midnight and me. “You have all the same interests. Blunt comments, cruelty, eternal darkness –“
Midnight and I just stare at him, kind of appalled at the idea. But this just makes him laugh.
“I’m going to Ariel’s house, where they make the coffee,” Midnight says, starting to turn away. But then she hesitates, looking down at Laila. “Do you want breakfast?”
Laila pauses her weeping for a second to nod. “If there’s coffee I’ll take some,” she whispers.
Midnight nods and starts out. Anton laughs and follows after her, but I take a minute to dip down and wrap my arms around Laila’s shoulders for a second, kissing her on her head. “You take all the time you need, little sun-worshipper,” I murmur. “Shout if anyone bothers you and I’ll make Jackson come beat them up. Or Marigold.”
Laila opens her eyes to grin at me. “Okay,” she whispers, nodding. “Now go away. You’re blocking my light.”
I laugh and let her go, following Anton and Midnight into Ariel’s house next door.
When we step through the door – Midnight doesn’t pause to knock, I note – I’m quite pleased to see Jackson and Ariel already up.
“Look at you, early risers,” I say, smiling at the sight of Ariel in the kitchen making tea and coffee, Jackson sitting on the couch with Marigold in a chair just her size, using the coffee table as a breakfast table. I grin as she waves at me, her hands covered in oatmeal.
“We have to get an early start,” Midnight says, quite prim, putting her box down on the other side of the coffee table and taking a seat next to Jackson as my sister and her mate call their morning greetings. I press the door shut behind me, moving to stand with Anton in the middle of the room. “Ariel has been avoiding teaching me the Chemistry, which is rude of her.”
Ariel scoffs. “I so have not been avoiding teaching you,” she says, scowling at Midnight as she carries in Jackson’s coffee and presses a kiss to my cheek.
“Well, do I know any Chemistry yet?” Midnight asks, rolling her eyes at Ariel.
“That’s Jesse’s fault as much as mine,” Ariel says, flapping a hand at Mids and leaning in to give me a kiss on the cheek, smiling up at Anton. “Hello! Coffee?”
“Yes, for me and for the sobbing sunbathing seal outside,” I say, gesturing over my shoulder to the door.
“Wondered what that was,” Jackson murmurs, nodding slowly as the details come together.
“What’d you get, Mids?” Anton asks, turning to Midnight and nodding to the black box she hasn’t mentioned.
“I don’t know,” Midnight says, leaning forward to glare at it like it might explode. “It was on my porch this morning and the note says it comes from the seamstress –“
“You can read?” I ask, my voice perhaps a little more shocked than it needs to be as I lean forward to frown at Mids.
“Can you!?” she returns, fast as a whip, snapping her head up to glare at me. “Honestly, all I’ve seen you do since I met you is magic up food and complain –“
I burst out laughing, as does everyone else in the room. Anton reaches out a hand for me, clearly wanting to pull me close, but he hesitates at the last second and I sigh even as I smile at him. We’ll get to that soon and I can’t wait.
“Anyway!” Midnight says, clearly peeved, shaking back her pretty black curls. Marigold watches her with interest, licking oatmeal off her spoon. “I don’t know if I want to open it because if it is a gift from the seamstress then I will have an obligation to her. And I don’t want that.”
“It looks like the kind of box all our stuff comes in from the Academy, Mids,” Ariel says, walking in from the kitchen and pressing a coffee up into my hand before then delivering a cup of hot chocolate to Midnight. I smile at that, thinking it’s just right. “Daphne probably sent it to you as part of her job, not as a personal gift.”
I sip my coffee, which is lovely – if not as good as Orion’s – while Midnight contemplates her choices.
“Well if you don’t want it,” Jackson murmurs, reaching across Midnight for the box.
“Back off, big boy!” Midnight shouts, knocking Jackson’s arm away and snatching the box to her chest. Marigold cracks up laughing. “I didn’t say I didn’t want it!”
Jackson grins. “I just don’t like things to go to waste. I mean, I’ll take it –“
“My present!” Mids snaps, baring her teeth. I grin, laughing along with my niece as Ariel takes a cup of coffee to the door and steps out on the porch, clearly intent on making a dawn delivery to our Selkie friend.
By the time I turn my eyes back, Midnight has already torn open the box and gasps with delight, lifting out a strip of fabric with at least six tiny knives attached. “Wow,” she says, her dark eyes sparkling with pleasure.
“Nice,” Anton says, grinning and stepping close so that he can kneel across the table from Midnight and get a better look. “Daphne’s work at its finest.”
“Welcome to the family, little Goldie,” I say, walking to my niece’s side and stroking a hand over her hair. “Breakfast with a side of deadly weapons. You’re a true Sinclair now.”
She grins up at me, quite pleased, her little blessing necklace sparkling around her neck before disappearing beneath her pajama top. I smile to see that Jackson and Ariel keep it on her at all times.
“What is it?” Midnight whispers, turning it over in her hands, delighted by it even if she doesn’t know its function.
“It’s a knife belt,” Anton says, leaning against the table and looking it over, clearly itching to touch and inspect. “See how flat the knives are? It’s meant to go beneath your normal clothes so that no one can detect it.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” Jackson murmurs, smirking and shifting his eyes to my boyfriend.
Anton shrugs and smirks, cagey, not giving anything away.
“Daphne told us you have special gear,” Jacks says. “I’m jealous. I want some.”
“Well, you can’t have mine,” Midnight says, jumping up from the couch and wrapping the belt around her waist. “How does it go on –“
“No chance of me stealing it,” Jackson says, grinning at Midnight. “That thing would maybe wrap around my thigh –“
“Well, no fancy murder garter for you,” she snaps, glaring at him and flashing her teeth. I burst out laughing again, everyone else joining in. “It’s mine!”
“Mids, you’re putting it too high,” Anton says, laughing and raising a hand to point at her, shaking his head in his clear frustration at not being able to get up and do it himself. “Jacks, help her, it’s upside down, all the knives are going to fall out –“
“Just flip it,” Jackson murmurs, reaching to help. Midnight sighs dramatically and hands the whole thing to Jackson. In more practiced hands and with Anton’s instruction, the three manage to get it all strapped to Midnight’s hips in less than a minute – just in time for Ariel to come back inside.
“Well damn, Midnight!” Ariel says, grinning at the smaller girl as she pushes the door shut. “Don’t you look dashing and dangerous!”
“Yes,” Midnight says, beaming, her hands on her hips. “Now everyone will fear and admire me, which is appropriate.”
“Damn straight they will,” I say, nodding and sitting down next to Goldie, helping her heap some blueberries on her spoon. “You look good all vicious, Mids!”
The girl turns her beaming smile to me and I can’t help grinning back, thinking that I might just like her after all. This strange, tempestuous tiny person – she’s awfully hard to resist, isn’t she?