Ravensong (Green Creek 2)

I thought she was lying.

“GET YOUR ass in gear!” Marty hollered at me from across the garage. “I don’t pay you nothing to have you just standing there with your dick hanging out. Move, Gordo. Move.”

“HOW DID you know?” I asked Thomas when I was twelve. It was a Sunday, and as was tradition, the pack had gathered for dinner. Tables had been set up behind the Bennett house. Lacy white cloths had been spread out over them. There were vases filled with wildflowers, green and blue and purple and orange. Abel was at the grill, smiling at the noise and bustle that rose around him. Children laughed. The adults smiled. Music played from a record player.

And Elizabeth was dancing. She looked beautiful. She wore a pretty summer dress, her fingertips streaked with paint. Most of the day she’d been in her studio, a place where only Thomas was allowed, and only when she invited him in. I didn’t understand her art, the slashes of color on canvas, but it was wild and vital and reminded me of running with wolves underneath a full moon.

But here she was now, swaying with the music, her dress flaring around her knees as she spun in a slow circle. Her arms were outstretched, her head tilted back and eyes closed. She looked peaceful and happy, and it caused a bittersweet pang in my chest.

“I knew from the moment I saw her,” Thomas said, eyes never leaving Elizabeth. “I knew because no one I’d ever met before had made me feel the way I did then. She’s the loveliest person I’ve ever seen, and even back then, I knew I was going to love her. I knew I was going to give her anything she could ever ask for.”

“Wow,” I breathed.

Thomas laughed. “Do you know what the first thing she said to me was?”

I shook my head.

“She told me to stop sniffing her.”

I gaped at him.

He shrugged easily. “I wasn’t very subtle.”

“You were smelling her?” I asked, aghast.

“I couldn’t help it. It was… do you know that moment right before a thunderstorm hits? The sky is black and gray, and everything feels electric? Your skin is humming and your hairs are standing on end?”

I nodded.

“That’s what she smelled like to me. Like an approaching storm.”

“Yeah,” I said, still unsure. “But—like, you were sniffing her.”

“You’ll learn,” Thomas told me. “One day. Maybe sooner than you might think. Oh, would you look at that. My brother approaches. What auspicious timing that is, given our discussion.”

I turned my head. Mark Bennett was walking toward us, a determined expression on his face. Ever since the day he’d followed me into Marty’s, things had been… less weird. He was still a little creepy, and I told him over and over again that I didn’t need him to protect me, but he wasn’t as bad as I thought he’d been. He was… nice. And he seemed to like me a whole hell of a lot for reasons I didn’t quite understand.

“Thomas,” Mark said, sounding slightly strangled.

“Mark,” Thomas replied, sounding amused. “Nice tie. Isn’t it a little warm for that?”

He blushed, the red crawling up his neck to his cheeks. “It’s not—I’m trying—god, would you just—”

“I think I’ll go dance with Elizabeth,” Thomas said, patting me on the shoulder. “It’d be a shame to let a moment go to waste. Don’t you think, brother?”

“Why are you dressed like that?” I asked him. He was wearing a red tie over a white dress shirt and slacks. He was barefoot, and I couldn’t remember if I’d ever seen his toes before. They curled into the grass, the green bright against his skin.

“I’m not, it’s just—” He shook his head. “I wanted to, okay?”

I frowned. “O-kay. But aren’t you hot?”

“No.”

“You’re sweating.”

“It’s not because I’m hot.”

“Oh. Are you nervous?”