The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 1: The Pendant of Life

Chapter 16: A Murder of Crows

Chapter 16

     Shade stood on the roof of the Morning Glory. He had several scrapes and a few cuts but he was mostly unharmed.

     A few feet away, resting in sleeping bags, was Dan and Dev. Dan had received some minor cuts. Dev had a nasty gash on his left arm and a black eye but he had received worse on the Quidditch pitch. His chest, though, was bruised and tender. It pained him as he took his shirt off to let Jinx nurse his wounds with a few healing spells. Echo kept staring at him as Jinx healed his wounds.

     Shade thought that the whole crew was lucky. There were no serious injuries. Sky Heart was making a big fuss when they arrived on the rooftop after Apparating from the Bridge Street fight (but only because she was difficult to begin with). Ignatia had taken her Wolfsbane potion, which meant that, when she turned into a werewolf, she still had knowledge of who she and who her friends were. Star took Ignatia home with her down the street. The large yard and tall grass were an ideal place to hide a werewolf inside. Sam, Rain Fox, and Echo went downstairs with Jinx, who practically dragged Sky Heart down with them. Echo conjured a small block of ice for Dev and wrapped it in a cloth for his eye. Dev smiled and Echo blushed when she handed it to him. Shade smiled, too, thinking it was funny how the retractable, oft-brash Echo could be charmed by a boy as debonair as Dev. They were from opposite ends of the earth, Shade thought to himself. He does have a way with words, Shade admitted. It was hard not to like Cedrique Devereaux, the handsome young athlete.

     Shade stood on the roof facing the wharf and the light station to the south. He pulled out the Order galleon and tapped it, thought of Kingsley, and spoke to the coin:

     “Got attacked. Girls are safe. Being watched. We need to talk.”

     Shade then put the coin in his coat and pulled out the Pound Sterling. He flipped it in his fingers and looked at it. He wondered about the pendant and about what Sherman had explained to him. He thought of Leech and how the pendant he wore gave a green glow when Rain Fox had approached it. There were so many thoughts that swirled in his mind. He did his best to try and filter them, make sense of the ideas and thoughts that whisked by as though they were in a blender. Shade faced the wharf but his eyes stared into nowhere. The waves hypnotized him, calmed him, and soothed him.

     “Y’alright?” a sing-song voice spoke to Shade. It was Sam. She wore her short shorts and a large t-shirt that looked like it came from his dirty clothes pile and her signature red hat. She always wore that hat, Shade thought to himself.

     “Shouldn’t you be downstairs trying to get some sleep?” Shade said, looking at her briefly then facing away, returning to the direction of the wharf.

     “Well, none of them girls below can sleep,” Sam said to him, sitting down in one of the chairs on the roof. “Besides, your ghostly girlfriend, Annabelle, just showed up. And that little gal can jaw, I’ll tell you what. She’s got a little crush on you, you know.”

     Shade shook his head. “I should have guessed it. With that many girls in the apartment and all the ruckus you girls are probably up to, Annabelle was sure to show up and get all excited.”

     “Honey, everybody down there is excited,” Sam said. “We just got into a scrap with a bunch of werewolves! What the devil you think we’re gonna do afterwards? Everybody got all worked up like a shaken-up hornet’s nest, Shade. We ain’t a bunch o’ kids in there, ya know?”

     Shade took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders.

     “What the hinkypunks did they want them girls for, anyways?” Sam asked.