What Remains of White Sands

Chapter Seven

"So these random relatives showed up earlier today," I said into the phone, "and the woman—I think she's my aunt—offered to sponsor the whole trip! I can't tell if she's serious though. And my parents are not happy about it."

"Well, who cares what your parents think," Konner sniffed. "As long as—"

"If my parents don't want me to go, I can't go," I snapped. "And it won't be a class trip if one person doesn't go. And Lilith probably won't sponsor it if I don't go. Remember? I'm the reason she offered to."

"Well," Konner said. "Well."

"Yeah."

After a minute, I continued, "My dad didn't seem too terribly opposed. I guess I could work on him? He's the one whose support we need, anyway."

"Brilliant," Konner said mockingly. "Yeah, you do that. Tell me how it works out."

"Well, what do you want me to do?" My patience was wearing thin.

"I don't know," Konner said. "Just, like, I don't know ... use your powers."

On my window seat, I froze. "What?"

"Oh, come on," Konner said. "Like you don't know. Little Miss Perfect knows everything, right? And she can do anything. So get your dad on our side. Got it?"

Konner slammed her phone down. I jerked my phone away from my ear, for she'd created a painful ringing.

She knew. She knew something I didn't about Supernaturals.

I redialed her number. I knew only she would answer, because the number she had given me was her cell phone number.

"What?" she snapped after the fourth ring.

"What do you know?" I demanded.

"What do you mean?" she asked with a small laugh.

"You know exactly what I mean. You keep talking about powers, and on the last day of school you asked Nari what she was. You know something about me ... something about everyone here. I only had a suspicion, but you—you confirmed it. What do you know?"

Konner cackled. "Like I'd tell you. You don't deserve to know. Ask Phyre; she might tell you."

After a moment, Konner added, "Or not." And then she hung up again.

I groaned in frustration. Phyre knew? What? How could she when I, who lived here, didn't even know? Had Konner told her?

Then I remembered something. Konner knew more than I gave her credit for. In seventh grade, our Science class had gone on a camping trip that involved Cannan transforming into a werewolf, Austin shifting into a dog, and me turning into an owl. Cannan had even bitten Konner, and she'd been forced into wolf form herself.

If these events weren't indicative of Supernatural powers, what was?

I cursed. She'd realized that the three of us were Supernaturals. She'd been friends with Penelope for years, and Penny was a Supernatural. I suspected that Konner's friends Lyric and Ankti were either Powers or Supernaturals—Lyric's voice was almost Siren-like, and perhaps Ankti could create weather phenomena with her dancing, like people do rain dances? Who knew; at this point, anything was possible. Plus, Phyre and Konner had grown close over the past few months, and Phyre was a Supernatural twice over: half necromancer, quarter fire demon. Maybe Phyre had confided in Konner and Konner had ... I don't know; she wasn't smart enough to put together that puzzle ... Was she?

I cursed again. Now I was going to have to call Phyre, and that was something I really, really didn't want to do.

I didn't really like Phyre, and so talking to her in general was unpleasant. But I didn't have her number memorized, which meant that I was going to have to go downstairs and ask Shima for it. And Lilith and Eldric were still down there, and Lilith would want to know who Phyre was and why I was calling her—no, I hadn't known her for very long, but it was obvious that she was very nosey. Could I sneak downstairs without her knowing?