Page 22 of Puck My Life

Mandy leans into her camera, her face filling the screen. “Did I break you?”

I thunk my head back on the wood, but it doesn’t help. “I mean, it’s impossible; they would, I mean, I would know…right?” My grip on the phone slips. I catch it and peer at her face while I try not to beg. “Mandy, I’d know, wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know. The rest of us need to meet our scent matches, and we get hit with them like a powerful wave of the most delicious thing we’ve ever smelled. But you,” Mandy leans back, frowning, “you lived with them from the time you were kids. You were there getting used to their scents before they had them. Maybe it’s like that thing people say, you know, about boiling a frog.”

“Why would I want to boil a frog?” I ask faintly.

“No, it’s a metaphor. It means that if you put a frog in cold water and turn up the heat, it will boil to death, never realising the danger. But if you put it in boiling water, it just hops out. You, my dear, are the frog.”

I blink hard. “I’m the frog?”

“The water’s boiling around you. It was cool, then warm, and now, you are cooking. You are the frog, Vae. What are you going to do?”

I purse my lips, trying not to laugh at her serious expression. “Boil to death?”

“Get out of the pot!”

“Oh.” Suddenly, that’s a lot less funny. “You’re saying…”

“You said you were going to leave. I’m saying you should do it now. Maybe it will wake them up. Maybe without the boiling water, you can get a good feel of the world and some clarity.”

“But-”

“No buts, Vae. You’re boiling to death. They will either prove they don’t deserve you or they will come to their senses, but the only thing I can suggest right now is absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

That’s a miserable thought.

“Where should I go?”

“You should go stay at a hotel for a couple of days, just until you get the lay of the land. Figure out where to proceed from there. Who knows, maybe this hunky alpha Marilyn is setting you up with might be the one.”

I shudder.

“Pack a bag, Vae. Get out of the pot. Don’t let them destroy you.”

I know she’s right; I know it’s what I have to do, but why does it feel like doing it would be like abandoning them?

“Okay, I’ll message you from the hotel,” I murmur.

I hear a kid laughing and running towards the playground.

“I have got to go!”

“Hang in there, V, you've got this.”

I blow a kiss at the phone and end the call.

Then I scramble away from the playground, too scared to go out and face the music, even if it is in the form of a little kid. She’s right…I have to leave, and I have to do it today…no, tomorrow.

One more night.

Raynor

PAST

Vae lets out a shriek as she runs past; Mal chases her around the park. She flies up the pirate ship and climbs up onto the rails, holding the flagpole as she stares down at him. She looks wild and so alive.

“Give up!” Mal shouts at her.