#fei lin

         Jack dropped to his knees with a crunch that made Luke wince.

         Luke was about to yell at them again. If this dude wasn’t going to cooperate, they needed to leave him behind.

         Then, Jack sang. The words sounded Latin and Luke caught a few that he thought he recognized, something about, Lumen Christi. Jack’s voice sliced through Luke’s anxiety. For an instant, all Luke could do was absorb the vibrations of the falsetto. Aches that Luke didn’t know he had unknotted and turned to putty. Luke hadn’t realized that he’d chewed his lip raw until he felt the skin close over, smooth and unscathed. The sickness in his stomach dissipated.

         The beauty of the singer’s range made Luke lightheaded and dizzy: a sensation of euphoric belonging that he’d heard other people describe when going to church.

         What little color there had been returned to the pale cop’s face. He exhaled. The pool of blood around his head rippled.

         When Fēi Lín wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, more didn’t appear. She sat up, piercing eyes much more alert.  

         Jack stopped singing.

         They paused for a moment.

         “Well, shit,” Phil said, sounding impressed. “Aw, shit,” he said instead when the pale cop pressed a hand to the floor to push out of his own blood.

         With how peaceful everything felt, Luke almost didn’t think to handcuff the other cop. The one with dimples had woken too. He seemed a bit more disturbed by the handcuffs and gag.

         “Stay still,” Fēi Lín said before Luke could grab the pale cop.

         Her voice no longer sounded weak. It was deep, melodious, and commanded a terrifying sense of authority. Although Luke knew he needed to handcuff that pale cop, he couldn’t get himself to move. All he could do was stare at her horrifically deformed face, wondering why his limbs wouldn’t work.

         The red-head, Jack, sagged onto his side.

         The cops hadn’t moved either. Everyone could only watch as Fēi Lín scooted to Jack, so she could take his face in her hands.

         “I’ve never seen a child of Apollo heal multiple people with one song,” Phil said. He was in mid-crouch to rise but didn’t seem able to finish the motion. “That’s some Orpheus-level shenanigans.”

         “Child of Apollo?” Jack asked. His chest fluttered rapidly. “What are you talking about? Is—is this real?” His question was directed at Fēi Lín as she forced him back into sitting position.

         “Yes,” she said. “Where were you going?”

         Jack could still move. He glanced at the abandoned cop car. Luke knew it was only a matter of time before someone came in or out of the school and saw they had one officer bound and gagged and another seemingly paralyzed. He doubted they could smile and wave and say, “Oh, it’s just a drill!”

“To the station,” Jack said.

         “Why?”

         He swallowed. “Our maid found Mom, Dad, Shelby, and Aston dead in the living room. And—and Charger.”        

         At the word “maid” anger had flared inside Luke, but it ebbed away at the last part of the sentence and the way Jack’s eyes became watery. Luke didn’t want to admit that the pale-freckles in combo with the boy’s band shirt made Luke want to give Jack a hug. Especially when Jack glanced hopefully at each of them, like someone would say his maid hadn’t found his presumed family dead.

         Fēi Lín gently stroked Jack’s cheek. “What happened?”

         “I—I—” Jack’s lips trembled. “I think I accidentally killed them.”

         “Yea, I tend to mistaken when I kill family members too,” Phil said.

         “Shut up,” Fēi Lín said to Phil, her eyes burning. Phil looked like he wanted to say more, but couldn’t. She returned her gaze back to Jack, pity crunching her leathery brow. “Did you tell the cops that?”

         Jack nodded his head, swallowing again.

         Fēi Lín exhaled slowly. She released Jack and turned to the cops. They stared at her with wide eyes.

         “Cops,” she said, “You will get onto your radios and report that you were attacked by masked assailants while trying to escort Mr. Flash to the station. The assailants pulled up in a van, attacked you two, disabled you, and took Mr. Flash as he struggled and screamed, trying to escape. You now think these are the prime suspects in the deaths of his family. You will have no recollection of me, or these two men. Is that clear?” She didn’t wait for a response, though Luke wasn’t sure they could give one. “Now get up.”

         The words were so powerful, Phil stood and Luke felt himself straighten up without intending to. He touched the top of Backbiter’s hilt, relieved he had control over his body again. What Phil had said earlier made Luke tremble. This girl could kill both of us with a single word. Luke hadn’t realized how literal that warning had been.

         In spite of whatever injuries they had sustained, both cops rose.

         There were no bruises on the neck of the cop that Fēi Lín had put into a headlock.

         The other cop’s hat had slipped off onto the pavement. Blood smeared his thinning hairline. There were no holes or fractures, nothing to show he’d been kicked by a barn animal. He looked more like something from a low-budget zombie movie.

         On the ground, Luke could see the paper flower had fallen into the man’s blood, soaking it to a deeper red.

         Both cops shambled towards their car. Neither glanced back or showed any hint of remembering Luke, Phil, Fēi Lín, and Jack were there. The one with dimples didn’t even seem to realize he was still handcuffed.

         “I don’t know how long that will work if we’re still here when they’re done reporting,” Fēi Lín said. “We need to get out of here. Let’s talk in my car.” Fēi Lín reached into a compartment on the side of her boot and withdrew two keys.

         “Wow,” slipped from Luke’s lips.

         This time, Luke felt like he had a choice about moving or staying, but a nagging, foreign sensation inclined him to do anything this girl suggested. He was pretty sure he’d start hoola-hooping in the middle of a battle if he thought it might make her smile. He chewed his lip, debating if he actually wanted to go. Phil and Jack had already started to follow.

         “Woo-ee! Man, I knew you were gonna be powerful, girlie. But an omega two-for-one sale? How do you like ‘em tin cans?” Phil asked.

         “Isn’t the expression ‘them apples?’” Jack rubbed his nose with the back of his hand. He stared at Phil’s hooves warily, glancing at Fēi Lín and Luke as if checking to if everyone also saw the shaggy legs or, maybe instead, if Phil was secretly the shadiest of moving garden decorations.

         “They’re real,” Fēi Lín confirmed. She led them over to a 1994 Jeep Wrangler in the senior parking lot. She didn’t bother opening the door. Instead, she stepped onto the foot assist and hopped over the door.  Luke felt more and more suspicious. He was waiting for Fēi Lín to pull a mask off and reveal a Charles’ Angel or some other secret agent.

Luke and Thalia had survived years outside of Camp Half-Blood on their own, but they had made it to camp when Luke was fourteen and Thalia was twelve. If you can say that Thalia made it to camp, Luke thought bitterly, remembering how often he’d dodged the camp harpies at night to sit underneath her tree’s branches. (Long story.) Anyway, Fēi Lín, and Jack, survived for at least three of four years longer and they were still trying to go to school like normal. How?  

         Luke was terrified this might be some kind of set up by the Camp Half-Blood or that other camp Kronos had mentioned. But, Chiron wasn’t that smart and didn’t plan that far ahead. No one should have known Kronos was rising. Not yet.

         Jack went to the passenger side. He used the door like a sane person. “Is he a monster?” he asked, glancing nervously as Phil crawled into the back.

         “Yes,” Fēi Lín said.

         “No,” Phil said at the same time.

         “Don’t get too attached, we might need to kill him,” Fēi Lín said.

         “Hey, Pouty Face, you coming?” Phil said with no apparent concern for Fēi Lín’s comment.

         Luke had centaurs waiting for them in a nearby forest. While the idea of seeing a satyr ride a centaur again was tempting, he couldn’t think of a way to convince Fēi Lín and Jack to take that alternative transportation. Hopefully the centaurs would be smart enough to follow Fēi Lín’s Jeep. With how often the centaurs enjoyed smashing their heads together, he doubted it.  

         He did not like the thought of getting into this chick’s car without knowing the plan.

         She didn’t wait to hear an answer. Fēi Lín started the engine and shifted the car out of the parking gear.

         Luke rushed over and hopped into the back. His pulse rushed, but… something about this felt right. Camp Half-Blood had almost been boring. He’d lost any control of his life, was not allowed to leave when he wanted, and was only able to supervise children and do chores that he hadn’t signed up for.

         This was liberating: he was back with people closer to his age—Phil excluded—taking initiative without Kronos’ goading, and unsure of what was going to happen next or where they were going.

         When Luke examined Jack’s freckles, bright eyes, band shirt, and painted nails, the nostalgia was overwhelming, like he was back to exploring with Annabeth and Thalia, and Grover, and they didn’t know what adventure stirred over the horizon.

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