“Why did the scarecrow win an award?”

  “No.” Falco gave Zephyr a sour look.

  “Because he was outstanding in his field?” asked Kass with a quiet smile.

  Zephyr opened his mouth to give the answer, then he realised Kass had already given it. He closed it with a disappointed sigh. “Yup.” He tried to think of another one.

  “No,” Falco told him again when he saw the look on Zephyr’s face.

  “What?” Zephyr asked.

  “No more jokes.”

  “Well, you got any better ideas?” Zephyr asked.

  Falco groaned and leaned back down against the bank they were all currently sprawled over.

  “Because I’m bored as a rhinoceros at a football game,” Zephyr complained. He was starting to wish he’d taken Indi up on the offer of the seat swap, at least then he’d have Arianna to talk to. Kass and Wolf hardly said anything and Falco hated his jokes.

  “We could play the quiet game,” Kass said with a subtle smirk.

  That finally got Falco laughing at something.

  Zephyr frowned. “How come you didn’t laugh at any of my jokes?” he asked.

  After another fit of laughter, Falco turned to Kass and said, “No way, you’d win.”

  “I’m not even the quietest one here.” she nodded in Wolf’s direction.

  Wolf glanced up, opened his mouth as if to say something, but then simply closed it again and returned to staring out at the view across the road. Kass had long since telekinetically dragged the dead dragon over the edge and now they had little to do but wait for Cat to return with the car.

  “Whenever we used to play that game as kids, it always resulted in trying to pin people down and tickling them until the talked,” Zephyr told them. He didn’t tell them that when his cousins had played, it was always Zephyr that they’d pinned down, and they’d always tickled him long after he’d begged then to stop. He’d hated his cousins games.

  It seemed Kass had similar thoughts on tickling for she frowned and pulled her ankles a little closer to her butt.

  “Hmm,” Falco said out loud. Then he rubbed his face. “I don’t know.”

  “How did you and Indi spend the time when you were stranded in the bush after your plane accident?” Kass asked Falco.

  Falco’s laugh suggested that she didn’t want to know the details.

  Kass blushed a bright pink.

  Even Wolf cracked a small smile when he glanced their way.

  Zephyr decided to have some fun by pretending not to know what Falco was talking about. “Hmm, tic tac toe?”

  But Kass one upped him by pretending he was just suggesting games for now. She shook her head. “Nah, that game has a foolproof winning strategy for the first player.”

  “Dammit, I should have said something like twister,” he cursed.

  Falco snorted.

  Zephyr grinned. Finally he’d gotten a laugh out of Falco. Wolf was the next challenge.

  Kass narrowed her eyes at Zephyr but he just smiled back.

  “Who do you reckon would win,” Zephyr started, feeling too bored to not start stirring shit, “In a fight between Cat and Falco?”

  “What?” Falco asked as if he couldn’t believe Zephyr’s question. He sat up and looked back and where Zephyr sat.

  “Probably Cat,” Kass said simply.

  “What?” Falco said again in a completely different tone as his eyes moved from Zephyr to Kass. “What?” he repeated.

  Kass shrugged.

  “You think Cat could beat me?”

  “If she weren’t pregnant.” Another shrug from Kass. “Well, maybe even while pregnant.”

  “No way,” Falco scoffed.

  “Cat fights dirty,” Wolf remarked.

  “Have you seen me?” Falco asked him. He gave them all an incredulous look, one that was more surprised than annoyed. Then he got to his feet and gestured at himself.

  “It’s not always about physical size,” Kass replied completely deadpan.

  It was too much for Zephyr. “It’s about what you do with it,” he finished for her as he fell about in a fit of laughter.

  Falco gave him a dirty look. “You’re a shit stirrer, Zeph.”

  Zephyr was too busy laughing to answer.

  Even Kass chuckled a little.

  Falco sighed, shook his head, and now that he was on his feet, decided to take a walk.

  “She probably would though,” Wolf remarked to the others once Falco was out of earshot.

  Zephyr considered it. He’d been joking but he wasn’t sure Kass had. He hadn’t expected her to take that where it had gone. The point Wolf had made about dirty fighting was true, but Falco was still a large guy and as far as Zephyr knew, more from watching fighting than doing it, size actually did matter a lot, or at least strength and power did.

  “You really think Cat could beat him in a fight?” Zephyr asked Kass.

  She considered it. “Depends on the fight. A proper boxing match with rules, no probably not, but a real fight... she’s fast and Wolf’s right, she’s resourceful. And Falco’s not that great of a fighter really. His balance is always a little off. It would be easy to use it against him. And if knives were involved he’d be screwed. Even without a knife, most true fights don’t last long. All it takes is one good hit.”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “You think you could beat him?” Zephyr asked.

  “Easy,” Kass replied without even thinking about it.

  Zephyr grinned as a dastardly good idea came to mind.

  Kass, perhaps noticing his expression quickly added, “But don’t you dare tell him I said that.”

  Wolf laughed.

  Damn it, Zephyr thought, how was it Kass was able to make them all laugh before he could? “But it would be a great way to pass the time.”

  “Only if magic’s in. You still want to spectate?” Kass asked.

  “Hmm.” Zephyr considered it. He didn’t see a way he could enforce her not using magic. Kass was a bit like Indi in that way, she didn’t always engage her powers voluntarily, although she did have better on off control than Indi did. He wasn’t 100 percent sure how good it was though.

  “You wouldn’t if you’d seen what she did to Amanda earlier,” Wolf told him.

  Kass bit her lip and looked away, all traces of humour gone from her face.

  Wolf, for whatever reason, decided to throw some salt on the wound. “Now there’s a battle you won’t win,” he said pointedly.

  It took Zephyr a second to realise Wolf wasn’t talking about magic duels or physical fighting.

  Kass didn’t answer and she didn’t look at either of them.

  Zephyr frowned at Wolf but Wolf didn’t appear to notice. He felt kind of bad for Kass. Sure, it wasn’t great, what she’d done kissing Sirius, and Amanda was his friend too, but it wasn’t like a person could help how they felt and everyone made stupid decisions in the moment sometimes. One moment for an eternity of pain. Life could be cruel like that.

  He didn’t really know what to say so he tried for something that could be just as good, an offering of quiet company. “You want to go for a walk down to the wreck and see if we can salvage anything?” Zephyr asked Kass.

  “I already checked,” Wolf told him. He’d gone back to just sitting and staring out at the view.

  Zephyr narrowed his eyes. Was it just him or was Wolf being extra curt lately.

  “Well, I’m bored and could use a walk,” Zephyr told him. “Coming?” he asked Kass.

  To his surprise, Kass got to her feet and gave a silent nod.

  As they started down the bank, Zephyr turned to Wolf and said, “You know, you can be just as much of a dick as Cat can be sometimes.”

  “Find anything?” Falco asked as he came upon Zephyr and Kass at the crash site, which was now more of a burn site.

  “Nah,” Zephyr shifted some of the ash with his toe. “Nothing.”

  “What about this?” Falco reached down for what looked like one of Wolf’s books, except the moment he picked it up, the thing disintegrated in his hands. “Oh, never mind.”

  They wandered about for a bit, kicking over stones to no avail.

  “You think Wolf’s alright?” Zephyr asked.

  “Yeah, why?” Falco replied.

  “I dunno, he just seems quieter than usual. Grumpier too.”

  Falco shrugged. “He probably just needs to get laid.”

  Kass gave Falco’s back a raised eyebrow look.

  Zephyr caught it and had to bite both his lips to keep a serious expression on his face.

  “He was married right?” Falco asked. “Either of you two ever meet his ex?”

  Both of them shook their heads.

  “Hmm, I wonder what his type is like.”

  “Well, he did used to date... or sleep with Cat,” Zephyr reminded him.

  “And Amanda back in High School,” Kass reminded him.

  Falco turned to Kass. “Didn’t he used to be interested in you when you first met.”

  Kass shook her head. “I don’t think so.” She glanced briefly at Zephyr and then away again.

  Zephyr was pretty sure everyone who first saw Kass was interested in her. Even they had almost had a thing. She was pretty. He doubted Wolf had missed that. But once you got to know her, well... he still liked her as a person. She was nice and smart and subtly funny but there was a lot of baggage there and an almost unbreakable wall. He got enough of that at work.

  His thoughts drifted to Arianna and he couldn’t believe how lucky he’d gotten. She was pretty too, perhaps not as conventionally pretty as Kass, if he was being honest, nor as physically fit as Cat, but she was still attractive, and she had a smile that made her eyes squint tight. He loved that smile.

  “Earth to Zeph. Earth to Zeph.” Falco’s voice filtered in through his thoughts.

  “Huh?”

  “Cat’s here.”

  Back in Nowhere.

  Amanda took a sip of beer and waited for Indi to take her turn.

  “Alright, never have I ever...” Indi started, her words slowing near the end of the sentence to give her time to think about something she hadn’t done that the others probably had and which was also child appropriate. “Swum with turtles.”

  Both Amanda and Sirius took a drink. Amanda took a second one just for fun.

  “You’ve swum with turtles?” Lily asked wide-eyed

  “Mm hmm,” Amanda replied before taking another sip of her beer.

  “Oh man, I didn’t actually expect that one to get anyone,” Indi said in surprise.

  “How close do you think the turtles have to be for it to count as swimming with turtles?” Arianna pondered. “Like, I’m in the ocean and the turtles are also in the ocean... does that count?”

  Indi got such a look of consternation on her face that for a moment Amanda worried that Arianna’s question had broken her. But inch by inch Indi’s face changed into one of devious glee.

  “Line of sight,” Sirius said.

  Amanda nodded in agreement and with a slight slur said, “Yeah, I think you’d need to be able to see it.”

  “Ooooh, ooooh but what if...” Indi interjected with unbridled enthusiasm. “What if the turtle was really far away but you still saw it? And what if it was only one turtle? And what if you only saw it once, before you got in the water? Or after but you didn’t know it was there until later? Or what if you didn’t know it was there at all and you just thought it was a rock?”

  “What if it was a shapeshifter?” added Lily.

  Sirius answered their questions with the patience of a tree. “I think it has to be within a 100 metres. One turtle is fine. If you've seen it within five minutes of getting in or out of the water, that counts. But you have to have seen it. As, for shapeshifters...”

  “I don't think it counts if you see the turtle once you get out,” Amanda interrupted.

  “Of course, it does. If there were turtles in the water and they were nearby, you would still, technically be swimming with turtles.”

  Amanda shook her head. “I think swimming with turtles requires a certain type of mindset for it to be swimming with turtles which means you need to know they’re there while you are in the water.”

  “Shouldn't there be multiple turtles though?” Indi asked. “If it's turtles and not turtle.”

  Sirius replied with quiet confidence, “I think one turtle counts if it's over a period of time. Since it's not the same turtle in each single period of time, just like we aren't the same person in each single period of time.”

  Amanda gave a light snort. “I'm pretty sure I am still the me that I was 5 minutes ago, just a little bit drunker. Speaking of...” She put her empty bottle down and flagged the server.

  The bearded man started making his way over to their table.

  Sirius hesitated and then whispered, “Don’t you think that’s enough?”

  Amanda glanced at him and noticed how his eyes flicked in Lily’s direction. She could feel Arianna and Indi watching. She didn’t want to argue with Sirius in front of them, besides he was probably right. She did her best thinking when she was a little tipsy though. “Last one,” she promised with a dashing smile.

  Both doors to the diner flew open as Cat pushed her way inside. She looked around and when she spotted the server going by she called, “Can I get a strawberry milkshake? Thanks.”

  “Coming right up,” he replied.

  Cat was already on her way to their table.

  Indi’s expression fell into one of disbelief as she watched the bearded man grab a bottle of cream from a fridge under the counter and pour it into a blender. “He said he was all out of cream,” she mumbled unhappily.

  Cat ignored her and gave an obvious frown at the five beer bottles sitting on the table in front of Amanda. She didn’t say anything about that though. Instead she said, “The others are checking into a motel down the street. There’s a place down the road that hires cars out, at extortionate prices, but you can’t really blame them given the location. Apparently if we go south, there’s a town with a permanent teleport set up, also at extortionate prices but it doesn’t matter cause there’s no teleporting into Witchaven anyway. You good with splitting the cost of a new car? It's not much more to buy.”

  Amanda nodded. Cat had already lost one car. They’d figure out what to do with the new one later. Probably Cat could just have it as a replacement.

  “You don’t need to worry,” Amanda told Arianna.

  “Oh no no,” Arianna replied. “I’m on this trip, I’ll pay my bit. I’m happy to chip in for a new car. This adventure’s been a great distraction. It’s cheaper than therapy,” she joked.

  “I would’ve thought Zephyr would be able to give you free therapy?” Indi asked.

  Arianna laughed. “I don’t think we’re quite at that stage of the relationship yet. I don’t want to scare him off.”

  “Anyway,” Cat said, continuing to talk to Amanda. “I’m going to go sort that now. I’ll come back here once that’s done. The others will come here once they’ve checked in as well.”

  Amanda gave a nod.

  Cat turned and walked off out the door just as the bearded man was bringing Cat’s milkshake out. He paused and looked after her in confusion.

  “She’ll be back,” Amanda told him.

  He nodded and set the milkshake on the table.

  “I thought you were all out of cream?” Indi asked him. She eyed the strawberry milkshake enviously.

  The bearded man shrugged. “That was from my own secret stash. That just didn’t seem like the type of woman you say no to.”

  Amanda laughed. “She really isn’t.”

  Indi gave them all her best scowl but the bearded man just laughed.