stories to tell


They have all heard the stories. It's sort of unavoidable to be regaled with the great and harrowing tales of Charmstone's various Monsters of the Week when said monsters happen frequently enough that they'd all have to be deaf, blind, and stupid to have missed what's going on. Plus, the dramatic retellings by Uncle Peter and the watered-down bed time stories told by Dad are terrific hints that their idyllic childhoods have been the product of a lot of hard work. And even if Mom point-blank refuses to talk about any of it, it's hard not to notice when Mom's attention suddenly becomes laser-focused on something before she freaking vanishes into thin air to go deal with whatever is causing trouble.

It isn't until Shae is thirteen or so that it finally dawns on her that the real stories aren't nearly as funny or adventurous as the ones she's been told. She only figures it out because she'd been staying up late texting Leah about cute boys at school - meaning Garrett, if anyone is asking Shae - and because of the awful ruckus that draws her attention downstairs.

Shae had snuck to the second floor landing, straining her ears with a frown on her face. Her phone had buzzed in her hand - what's going on? - and Shea had quickly tapped out a reply - parents just got home, think someone's hurt, brb - before training her full attention on piecing together the shuffling and pained hissing and snapping voices downstairs.

"You need to go to a hospital," she could hear Dad saying.

"I'm fine," her mom gritted out, followed by a flash of silver that illuminated the wall over Shae's head. "See? Good as new."

"Ella." Shea imagined her dad's face, that grim expression that shadows his features any time she or her siblings do something particularly stupid. "You can't keep doing this. We have kids - and we never know if taking a hit that hard is going to…"

"I was prepared for it," Mom said soothingly. "It was a calculated risk."

Dad sighed sharply. "Nice to know your youthful arrogance is still going strong."

Shae could almost picture her Mom's eyebrow arcing upward. "It's hardly arrogance if I know I'm going to make it," she countered. "I'm chosen, remember?"

"That's not a guarantee."

Her parents fell silent.

"I know," Mom said quietly after a moment. "I'll be more careful. Promise."

Shae's phone vibrated in her hand again, but all she could do was sit back against the wall, her stomach sinking down to her feet. Had her mom been injured that badly? Could she have died? Were all the shenanigans that Uncle Peter talked about more dangerous than any adult had let on?

After that, any time Shae hears about a new threat prowling the town, worry seizes her tightly - because she knows her parents are invariably on the front lines and that there isn't any guarantee that both of them will come back unscathed. Or come back at all.

And that's when the idea forms in her mind.

_/\_/\_/\_

One of the first lessons Black ever taught her - and eventually Kieran and Cassian - was that shamans are creatures of dual natures. They are shapeshifters as much as they are magic-casters; they are part of the astral plane as much as they are the physical plane; they can pass as human as easily as they can mingle with creatures. But they are also limited.

In magic-casting, shamans have the capability of being marginally powerful since they are the offspring of magicians. But a shaman will never be as powerful as a magician. If anything, a shaman with training can cast spells to match a witch or warlock, some with more ease than others. The Masen kids in particular come into their spell casting with ease, although unlike their mother, they each rely on an assortment of runes, sigils, and incantations rather than a sheer force of will.

In shapeshifting, each shaman has a predetermined preference for the types of animal forms they can take. Shae has a tendency to shift into feline quadrupeds, everything from house cats to tigers; Kieran is somewhat more unique, taking the shape of insects as easily as reptiles; and Cassian is a flier, shifting into all manner of birds as he grows older. The shifting comes more naturally once familiars have been determined in the astral plane, of course; acting as anchors, a shaman's familiar helps the shaman remember their inborn shape.

Shea relies on Eloise to remind her that she is human and seventeen and still kind of naïve about the world. And Eloise, on the silver astral plane in the form of a lynx, taps into her thoughts to at least try to stop Shae from doing something monumentally stupid.

Admittedly, Eloise is mischievous enough that Shae usually ends up doing something stupid anyway.

Which kind of made all the other lessons Black tried to impart on Shae less effective than they probably should have been.

_/\_/\_/\_

"Hey, Shae."

In the span of a second, Shae feels every inch of her body leap into awareness, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, in a full-body shiver that is this close to not being repressed. She catches Leah's gaze with wide-eyes and Leah makes a complicated expression, all meaningfully raised brows and twitching lips. Shae returns that look with one of her own, a silent question - is it him - and Leah nods as subtly as possible.

Shae swallows and schools her expression into a carefully-crafted veneer of nonchalance and then she turns around, her shoulder brushing the cool metal of her open locker.

Garret Johansson is standing at his own locker, rummaging around the awful tornado of papers and textbooks with a particular kind of focus. As she watches, a curtain of mahogany hair falls over his face; he tucks it behind his ear distractedly and Shae just about dies.

"Garrett," she greets with admirable cool. She tries to make her staring less obvious and more curious, but she's pretty sure she falls short of the mark. She peers into his locker anyway. "Find anything interesting in there?"

Garrett looks up, smiling ruefully. He has really great eyes - super intense - a deep blue closing in on earthy tones around the pupil, surrounded by stupidly long eyelashes. He glances between her and his lockers. "Just about everything I'm not looking for, naturally."

"Sounds about right."

"Yeah. It'll be a miracle if Mrs. Hayes doesn't actually murder me."

"Lost your homework again?"

Garrett sighs, scrunching his nose up. "Do you think she'll buy the classic my dog ate it excuse?"

Shae snorts. "Not if you already used it this week."

He lifts his chin. "Point."

Garret might have said something else, but then he is stumbling forward against a force hitting his back. Shae scarcely has time to be alarmed before her nose - not as keen as a werewolf's, but close - identifies a familiar enough scent. Quill, who Shae has known through the grapevine of Charmstone's packs since she was small, has glommed onto Garrett's back, apparently unconcerned about exposing a human - albeit, a potential human - to werewolf strength.

"Gar-bear, my man!" Quill greets warmly. "What's the what? You find your project?"

"Afraid not," Garrett grunts. "Get your heavy ass off me!"

"Are you calling me fat?" Quill demands affronted, stepping backward with a put-upon sigh. "I'll have you know this," he gestures to the length of his body, "is all muscle, alright? Let's just be clear about that. Can't have you shaking my confidence before swimsuit season."

"Oh, please spare us," Leah pitches in dryly. "Nobody needs to see you in a swimsuit."

Quill leans around both Garrett and Shae, leering openly at Leah. "Maybe you don't need to, but you want to, right?"

"Wrong."

Quill opens his mouth, then hesitates with obvious skepticism. "Is this just you saying mean things like usual, or is this you actually knowing that people don't want to gaze upon my manly bod?"

Leah stares at him. "I don't need to be djinn-touched to know that."

"And that would be the sound of my ego dying a slow, painful death," Quill mutters, shooting Leah a look caught between adoration and irritation.

Poor bastard will never learn.

The bell signaling the end of break rings, effectively spurring them all into action. Shae shuts her locker with her elbow and turns to trot off to English with Leah - but then a warm hand closes around her wrist and she spins around with a sharp intake. Garrett has deliberately touched her, stopped her from leaving.

"Hey, wait," he says quickly, absently closing his locker without looking away from her. "I wanted to ask you something."

No. Way.

By some miracle, Shae's voice isn't trembling with excitement when she responds. "Ask away."

He licks his lips. "So…" Garrett trails off, jaw ticking as he seems to muster up some courage. "So, listen, I was wondering…Well, I know you're taking Natural Sciences this semester and I was hoping you would be kind enough to tutor me before the midterms?"

Oh.

"Sure," she says, a little dismally.

Garrett grins, wide and swift. "Great. Can we meet at Sam's, maybe around 4?"

"Sounds great."

Either Garrett doesn't notice her less-than-enthused tone or he has more tact than to comment on it, but soon enough he and Quill are going one way and Leah and Shae are going another. When she and Leah round the corner to the next hallway, Shae groans into her hands.

"Oh, my God."

"I know," Leah says sagely. "You actually held a full conversation with him. That's a first."

She levels Leah with a withering stare. "First of all, rude. And second - didn't you hear that?"

"Yeah. You're going to be mooching off my parents this afternoon. Again."

Shae whacks Leah's arm. "No, not that - I mean, yes, but did you hear the part when he said I'm basically only useful to him because I'm a huge nerd?"

"Uh, I'm pretty sure he didn't say that."

"It was implied."

"I really don't think it was."

"He wants me to tutor him," Shae bemoans.

"Yeah, it's a great opportunity," Leah drawls.

"What?"

Leah looks at her as if she's being dumb on purpose. "Have you watched any television in your life? Everyone knows that tutoring is rarely actual tutoring. It's a chance to, you know, get close."

Shae had not realized that.

Suddenly, it doesn't seem so bad that she's going to be helping Garrett pass the midterm. After all, midterms are three weeks away and that means she has three weeks of one-on-one time with Garrett Johansson. Maybe that'll be enough time for him to finally see her.

Maybe.

_/\_/\_/\_

Or maybe not.

"He actually needs tutoring," Shae hisses as she leans over the diner's counter. She'd left Garrett back in the corner booth under the guise of getting them something to drink, but really, she'd been wallowing in teenage despair and needed to retreat to lick her metaphorical wounds.

Leah, working behind the counter, slaps a wet rag by Shae's elbow before scrubbing at a stubborn bit of syrup glued to the vinyl. "Good thing you actually are a nerd," Leah says lightly.

Shae pouts. "I never should have gotten my hopes up."

"Poor baby."

Shae sighs. She can't just hide from Garrett forever, so she might as well get drinks. She is just about to tell Leah what she wants to order when Leah's mom, Emily, pops out of the kitchen with two tall milkshake glasses. Emily places them on the counter under Shae's nose, pats Leah's cheek, and then disappears back into the kitchen.

Shae stares at the swinging kitchen door. "You know, I love your mom and all, but that will never not be creepy."

"Preach," Leah mutters, her wildly-cropped vibrant violet hair partially hidden beneath a backward baseball cap.

Shae eyes her best friend. "You're not going to start doing that too, are you?"

Leah shrugs. "I doubt it. Grandma was the djinn and Mom's gift is, like, oddly specific, so there isn't much of a chance that I'll be able to do any nifty party tricks like that."

"Yeah," Shae says slowly. "But…you always get the perfect presents."

"Because I pay attention to what people like."

"You can always predict the rumors going around town."

"That's called observational skills."

"You knew Cassian was going to break his arm."

"He was jumping out of trees repeatedly. That's just common sense."

Shae squints at Leah. "Uh huh."

Leah rolls her eyes. "Just take your milkshakes and get back to your sad little tutoring session."

Shae makes a face a Leah, but she does what Leah says anyway. No point in delaying the inevitable any more than she really needs to, right? Besides, even if Garrett really does just want Shae to tutor him, that isn't so bad. Not really. At least she gets to be around him that way, which is nothing to sneeze at.

But…it's still kind of a let down.

Then again, does Garrett really seem the type to make a move on her by tricking her into tutoring him? Not really, if she's being honest. And that's exactly why she likes him.

That, and the way his face lights up in delight when she pushes a salted-caramel brownie smoothie in his direction, and the way he picks up so quickly on the material she helps him go through, and the way he's so direct about, well, everything.

She's helpless but to love him.

Just…from afar. Apparently.

_/\_/\_/\_

Sometimes, Shae wonders how her parents make their relationship work. She knows the story, obviously; privately, she calls it The Romance That Time Tricked, given the whole time-loop, he-knew-her-but-she-didn't-know-him thing. Uncle Peter tells that particular story the most, probably because most of it is kid friendly.

But even knowing the story, she sometimes takes a good look at who her parents are and can only wonder how they've stayed together so long. Even factoring in werewolves mating for life, it's kind of surprising. If she thinks about it, the surprising part is probably her mom, with her hair-trigger temper and her stubbornness and all the other stuff that should mean her mom is untouchable.

And yet - twenty years of marriage and three kids and a whole town they seem to feel responsible for and two different businesses. All the proof that they made it work is there, but it's still surprising.

So, later that night while Shae is wallowing in the misery of being Garrett's science tutor, it's inevitable that these thoughts once again cross her mind when the sound of shattering glass and her mom's raised voice rings through the house.

Shae is on her feet and leaning over the stair railing in three seconds flat, quickly followed by Kieran and Cassian from their rooms. The siblings exchange looks of concern as they listen to their mom flying into a rage. Shae can taste the angry-bitter of her mom's magic on the back of her tongue, like a sour apple that makes her lips pull together in an unhappy frown.

Underneath the sound of crashing furniture is the low, calm tones of her dad's voice, coaxing her mom away from whatever brink she's spun off into. Whatever set her off must be bad.

Growing up with a parent with mental illness, Shae has always known that her mom isn't like other moms in more than one way. And both of her parents have been super up-front about borderline personality disorders and how mental illness shouldn't come with a stigma and all that jazz.

But the fact that Mom probably just destroyed their living room?

Shae turns her head, staring meaningfully at Kieran.

Kieran meets her gaze and shakes his head no.

She widens her eyes.

He makes a face.

She pouts.

He sighs and rolls his grey-green eyes - and then in one second, the gangly shape of her fourteen year old brother is replaced by an innocuous fly, which immediately dips downstairs to go become a literal fly on the wall. Shae would have gone to spy herself, but her smallest form is still too big to go unnoticed and their dad's senses are way too sharp to be tricked by anything other than an actual bug.

In the meantime, Cassian tucks himself under Shae's arm with a conspiring grin. They wait, trying to hear what's going on downstairs in a house full of sound-proofed rooms. The most Shae can assume is that her mother is really upset, because she keeps saying things like I can't do this again, Tony and her dad keeps going Someone else can deal with them and the like. It must be a full half-hour later before there is a rush of noise downstairs accompanied by the tang of magic repairing whatever was broken.

And then there is a fly zipping past Shae's nose and into Kieran's room - and Shae loops her arm around Cassian's elbow, tugging him along and closing the door behind her. When she turns around, Kieran is again standing in the middle of his room, looking awfully like their dad when he's thinking, all pensive and wrinkled between his brows.

"So?" Shae asks, hushed and expectant. "What's going on?"

"There's trouble," Kieran answers.

"Yeah, I figured that much," Shae retorts. She raises both of her eyebrows. "But why was Mom so freaked?"

Kieran lifts his eyes from his messy floor - and, wow, does he really need to remember what a hamper is for - and swallows heavily. "Do you…Do you remember those stories Uncle Peter used to tell us?"

Shae crosses her arms over her chest. "Uncle Peter told us a lot of stories."

"The one about the evil witch," Kieran prompts, then bites his lip. "You know, the one where the girl defeats the witch but has scars to remember the witch by…."

Comprehension dawns on Shae's face.

Even though Uncle Peter tried to dress up the stories as swash-buckling adventures, each of the siblings had eventually figured out that those stories have a lot more truth than they originally assumed. Like, the story about the girl and the evil witch? It's really a story about Mom and an evil witch - Mom even has the scars to prove it. Shae has always hated that story and the scars trailing up Mom's forearms and circling her wrists. Knowing what she knows about runes and sigils, Shae has been able to surreptitiously put together what that particular combination might mean and it almost makes her physically sick.

"Are you saying the evil witch is back?" Cassian asks in a small voice.

Kieran looks a little grim as he says, "I'm saying that a trio of evil witches are up to no good in Charmstone."

He might leave off the and Mom is too traumatized to deal with it, but Shae hears that anyway.

There is a stone in the place of her stomach. Today really sucked. First, the disappointment with Garrett and now Shae can't help but be worried about her mom, who she suspects will put herself in danger to deal with a trio of dark witches even if she isn't mentally prepared to do so.

And somewhere in the back of her mind, an idea she once had wakes up again.

_/\_/\_/\_

Shae isn't the most popular girl in her grade, but she is a junior, which gives her some leverage, and since she's known pretty much everyone since elementary school, she knows a lot of people. The most useful - and tolerable - ones are people she considers friends.

Leah, who of course is a djinn in denial. A pair of banshees; Tanya, who is a senior, and Irina, who is basically Shae's cousin since she's Aunt Alice's daughter. Quill, a werewolf, and his younger brother Embry, who is actually Kieran's best friend. And Alistair, of course, who is doing the fae equivalent of rebellion by going to a high school outside of the faerie realms just to piss off his parents, which Shae respects on a very fundamental level. All the other offspring of her extended family are closer to Cassian's age and on sheer principle, she doesn't make any effort to outsource to them. They're too young.

But everyone else Shae considers fair play, even Embry and Alistair, who are both newly fifteen. She knows Kieran well enough that he would be offended to not be included on her idea, so she invites him too.

They gather together at the diner on an evening when Shae is already staying out late to tutor Garrett - much less suspicious that way, in case any parents get nosy. Of course, Shae doesn't count on Garrett getting curious once he notices that the population of the diner is generally younger than it usually is and when she admits that she's organized a meeting, he actually smirks and declares that he wants in on whatever she's planning.

Shae stares at him for a long moment. "Alright…"

Strictly speaking, even though Garrett is ideal to Shae in many ways, he isn't exactly ideal for what she has in mind that evening. He's mostly human; sure, he has the potential to find his spark and learn magic, or he could even survive a bite to become a werewolf, but at the moment, he hasn't found that spark and he hasn't been bitten and so he is completely human. A really cute, really nice human, but a human all the same. And Shae needs….not humans.

It's a bit of a crunch fitting all eight of them into a booth made for a maximum of six people, but they make it work, legs tangling together and elbows digging into ribs. Alistair is the only one with common sense because, after a moment of trying to balance on the outer edge of the seat, he stands with a huff, grabs the back of a nearby chair, and drags it over to the end of the table to sit in. Like all fae, Alistair is kind of unfairly pretty, almost to the point where it's off-putting; skin all perfectly milky smooth, vibrant auburn hair, and piercing ice blue eyes, all of it underlain with an imperious impishness that makes Shae weary. But - fae have magic and even a fae as young as Alistair is able to create pocket dimensions that Shae can't even dream of creating. Alistair is vital.

He also gets straight to the point. "Why have you summoned us here?"

Shae places her elbows on the table, leaning her chin against her fists. "There's trouble brewing in town."

Leah snorts. "That's ominous. Did you practice in a mirror?"

"No," Shae says shortly. She lets her eyes rove around the table, landing on Irina. Unlike Aunt Alice, Irina's hair is as honey blonde as Uncle Jasper's, but her eyes are the exact shade of gimlet as the most powerful banshee in town. "Have you heard anything?"

Irina nibbles on her bottom lip. "I mean…I've heard Mom talking about something she heard, but…"

"But you know that something's going on," Shae prompts.

Irina shrugs. "There is a sense of impending doom in the air, if that's what you mean."

Tanya nods briskly. "Yes, now that you mention it, there's something…tense about the town. My ears have been ringing for days, but no Whispers have broken through."

Irina looks relieved that Tanya was able to put her thoughts into words. "Same," she confirms.

"Is that why we're here?" Quill asks, sounding amused. He has his arm hooked around the back of his brother's neck and tugs Embry closer, ruffling dark hair as he does. "If that's the case, then you're going to have to count this guy out. He can barely control his shift -"

"That's not true," Embry mutters. "I have better control than you did at my age."

"- And I'm pretty sure my parents would actually kill me with wolfsbane if I let him get involved in anything hinky," Quill continues.

Shae snaps her fingers. "That's exactly my point."

Alistair makes an interested noise; everyone else, including Kieran, looks confused.

Shae looks around the table again, letting her eyes linger on the legacies around her. She sighs, shaking hair out of her face. "Doesn't it bother you? Our parents were kicking ass and taking names when they were our age. Don't you want to be part of that same legacy?"

Garrett looks at her in sharp surprise and she knows that he's the first one to really get what she's trying to do here. She briefly wonders if this will make him see her - and just as quickly pushes the thought away.

"Speak for yourself," Leah scoffs. "My parents only kick ovens and take orders."

"Sam is part of the Masen pack," Shae says swiftly. "He's probably been involved in things, you know."

Leah purses her lips and sits back.

"Listen, I'm tired of being coddled as much as you, but our parents have a handle on things. They don't need our help," Kieran points out, though he at least sounds a little uncertain.

Shae groans with a roll of her eyes. "Okay, Voice of Reason, could you be any more lame?"

"I'm being rational," he says seriously. "We're just kids. What can we actually do?"

Shae raises both brows. "Mom was my age when she got involved in all of this. And so was Dad, actually."

Kieran's disapproving expression warps into thoughtfulness.

"Well, I'm not sure how much I would be able to help, but consider me in. I'm always ready to shake things up," Tanya announces.

Irina says, "If anything, I could probably just ask my mom what's going on. She's always honest about this sort of stuff, just in case."

Leah sighs explosively. "Oh, hell. If you're going to do something stupid, you know I'm going to do something stupid, too."

And at that, Quill grins brightly. "That's my cue to volunteer my services, as well."

"Me too," Embry says stubbornly.

"At the very least," Alistair says with a sly smile. "This promises to at least be interesting."

"Are you serious about this?" Garrett asks her, and when she nods decisively, his face hardens in determination. "Then I'll help you."

That leaves Kieran. He looks at her across the table, eyes flashing silver. "You know what we're up against."

"I think we can handle a few trumped up dark witches," she tells him.

"Hags."

"What?"

"They're called hags," he clarifies.

"Okay."

"And they're kind of a big deal," he adds.

Shae smiles sharply. "We're kind of a big deal, too."

"Fine," Kieran agrees, probably because he knows she's right about a pair of shamans being more than enough to take on a couple of decrepit crones. "But if things go south, I'm telling Mom and Dad it was all your idea."

"Deal."

And that is how Shae pieces together what is probably the worst idea to hit Charmstone since her parents cobbled The Goodfellows together.

_/\_/\_/\_

Kieran's steps falter when they're about a quarter-mile away from home and the shimmer of Mom's wards are just barely visible to the naked eye. He turns and looks at her pensively. "Tell me why you're really doing this."

Shae stares. "I did tell you why. I told everyone why."

"Yes," Kieran agrees impatiently. "But what's the other reason? The one you haven't even fully realized yet? If I'm going to do something colossally dumb with you, then I want to make sure it's at least for the right reasons."

Now it is Shae's turn to be pensive. She looks down at her feet for a moment. "Well…I mean, you heard Mom the other night, right? She said she couldn't do this anymore. These evil witches-"

"Hags."

"- these hags are a hard limit for her, you know? She's been through enough with that first one…And we're old enough to help, now. We should be helping. This is our home, too. So, that's why."

"That's actually a good reason," Kieran says, sounding surprised.

Shae glowers at him. "Wow," she says flatly, skirting around him to continue the walk home. "You sure do have a lot of faith in me, Bug Boy."

"Hey! I object to that nickname!"

"I'm sure you do, you lizard."

Kieran huffs and hurries to match her stride. "You know, you should have some respect for my forms. It's not just insects and reptiles," he defends with a lifted chin. "I'll have you know that I'm working on a shift even more fearsome than your sabertooth tiger."

She scoffs. "Please. We both know that it was dumb luck I managed to shift into an extinct animal. What are you trying for, a T-Rex?"

Kieran lets the silence speak for him.

Shae gasps. "Kieran, no. There's literally a franchise of movies that says that's a horrible, no-good, plain bad idea."

He sniffs disdainfully. "As if I would try for such a flawed form, anyway. Those tiny arms would be such a disadvantage and can you imagine trying to balance that head? No. I'm shooting for velociraptor."

"Oh, no. Really?"

"Really."

"That's such a bad idea."

Kieran rolls his eyes at her as they pass through Mom's wards. "No worse than your idea," he points out.

And, yeah. He's probably right about that. Sometimes, it's a real pain to have a younger brother who is smarter than she is. Seriously.

_/\_/\_/\_

Among the extended family, it's no contest for Shae to name her cousin Ben as her idol. The guy is just legitimately cool and he's never given her any grief about any of her wackier ideas growing up; actually, much to her dad's consternation, Ben had encouraged Shae's pranks and fits of fancy.

All the same, between being a psychologist and being married to Maggie, Ben has a very keen sense for when someone is hiding things. Specifically, Ben has an incredibly baffling ability to root out any secrets that might be kept close to the vest and that is why Shae is eager to avoid him when The Goodefellows roll into the house for a totally conspicuous meeting.

Not that hanging out in her own room in her own house should qualify as hiding. Anyone else would assume Shae is just being a moody teenager or whatever. Not so much with Ben, though, who is bound and determined to read something into everything. Probably because, all things considered, it is kind of out of character that Shae isn't even trying to eavesdrop on the meeting downstairs like she usually does. Of course, while her parents are hashing out the hag situation downstairs, Shae has her own sources digging for the same information. Kind of funny, that.

Not so funny is when Ben slouches into her room fifteen minutes later, leaning on the doorway like he always does. "What are you up to?" he asks.

Shae, lounging sideways on her bed, immediately sits up. "Up?" she parrots. "Nothing's up. What's up with you?"

Okay, that could have come off a little less guilty.

Because Ben isn't an idiot, he latches onto that pretty quick. "What happened? Get in trouble at school? Failing a class? Have a fight with Leah?"

"No, no, and no," she responds flatly. "But thanks for assuming all my problems are so predictable."

"So, you are having problems," he says victoriously. "It's only natural. This is a rough time for any kid-"

Shae scoots off the edge of her bed. "The only problem I'm having right now is you."

Ben watches for a moment as she scrambles around her room looking for her backpack and her jacket. "I didn't meant to pry," he says at length. "Where are you off to?"

"I have a project. A school project," she adds. "For school."

"Right," he drawls slowly.

"So, I'm going to go now. Tell my parents I'll be back by curfew."

"Consider it done."

They stare at each other - and then Shae darts around Ben and down the stairs, hurrying into the twilight with old homework slung over her shoulder and no actual destination in mind.

Hopefully none of that was too suspicious. Anything weird can be written off as Shae being Shae. Right?

_/\_/\_/\_

Most of the time, Shae is glad that her heightened sense of smell stays with her even when she's shaped like a human. But when she accidentally stumbles upon the nubby embankment in the Charmstone forest where the trio of hags have seen fit to make camp, she's extremely grateful that her nose tells her about it before she can see it with her eyes.

Shae catches a whiff of sulfur and brimstone, and then quickly presses her back against a tree, her grip on her backpack white-knuckled. She can't see the hags, but she's close enough to hear them. Holy crap.

Okay. She knows what she needs to do. First things first - make sure they don't sense her.

As a shaman, Shae is particularly in-tune with the magic ensconced in nature; that magic always responds immediately to her, almost intuitively. It's nothing at all to carefully pull the magic of the forest around her, cloaking herself in it the same way a hunter might cloak themselves in the scent of their prey. It's basically hiding in plain view, except that doing this means that even Shae's personal magic is completely hidden. Another lesson of Black's paying off ten-fold.

Heart high in her throat, Shae turns her attention to the whisper-croaking voices gathered around a crackling fire. Her brow furrows as she catches a phrase here and there that don't quite make sense. It's almost as if the hags are, well, haggling. Weighing the benefits of something versus another thing.

It isn't until one of them speaks more sharply, more resolutely, that Shae understands.

"Three shamans are worth much more than a few measly magicians! Those magicians are seasoned and old - but the shamans are young!"

"Easy pickings!" agrees another.

"You're both fools," croaks the third. "I still say we should go after all of them."

"But why make more effort than we need to?" counters the first. "The shamans are just children - easy pickings."

Shae feels more than a little sick.

All her life, she's known that being a shaman is kind of rare - certainly as rare as magicians, considering it takes a magician to make a shaman. But she'd also taken for granted the fact that she has brothers and that she has a mentor who is a shaman and that Ben and Maggie would eventually have shaman children themselves. For Shae, shamans are less rare than magicians.

But shamans are also special in a way that magicians aren't. Aside from both having magic and limitless forms to shift into, what marks a shaman as truly unique is the duality of their magic; Shae can draw from her personal magical core with as much ease as she can draw from nature and without any unintended side effects. Everything about being a shaman is about duality. She can see why a bunch of hags would covet that kind of power.

And yet - it's so gross because all she can think about is the fact that Cassian is ten and Kieran is still fourteen for a few months and that she's not even old enough to vote. And these hags think that they're the perfect targets because they're young. It's their youth that excites the hags as much as the promise of the bounty that shamans carry.

Shae closes her eyes, thoughts racing.

Okay, so, admittedly she'd been more than a little naïve to think that inserting herself and her friends into this situation would be no more dangerous than a little weekend adventure. She hadn't been thinking about anything else than helping take some of the weight off her parents. She'd just wanted to prove herself.

But knowing what she knows now? Hearing what she's just heard?

Well.

Things just got really personal.

Shae stays in place behind her tree as the night continues to darken the forest around her and as the hags continue talking amongst themselves. Her feet are aching and her knees are quivering, but she doesn't dare to move until she catches the sound of three slowing heartbeats which signal the hags going to sleep.

She waits a few more minutes, breath bated, and then dashes away from the camp - going back home where she should have been all along. She makes curfew by a few minutes, glad that her parents are still meeting with the Goodfellows so that they can't interrogate her about where she's been or why she's acting so squirrelly.

She needs some time to wrap her head around this.

That night, it takes a long time for Shae to fall asleep, and even then, her slumber is restless and disturbed.

Shae is disturbed.

_/\_/\_/\_

"You know, usually clandestine meetings are done better in broom closets. But I guess the backstage dressing room is just as good," Quill says as he follows the rest of them into the glorified closet behind the school auditorium. There's a bunch of discarded costumes from the most recent school play hanging up and he bats away a strange looking coat with a wrinkled nose. "Personally, though, I could do with a few less feathers."

"Do you ever shut up?" Leah demands.

Quill looks at her lasciviously. "You could always make me," he says suggestively.

Leah flicks his forehead, then turns to Shae with a frown. "The idiot brings up a good point, though. Why are we meeting back here?" She pauses. "And aren't we missing a few people?"

Compared to their initial meeting at the diner, Shea can't blame Leah for thinking that they're a few fellows short. Specifically, Shae had not extended an invitation to this meeting to Kieran, Embry, Irina, or Alistair, deciding that fourteen and fifteen year olds are entirely too young for what she has in mind. Excluding her brother and Alistair in particular meant that she really had to re-think her plans, but that's okay. Shae could be tremendously flexible when she wanted.

Her eyes rove between Leah, Quill, Tanya, and Garrett. It isn't ideal. Of the four of them, only Quill is really equipped to fight alongside Shae because of his werewolf stamina and healing factor. But, again, she can work with this. After all, she'll need someone to be running interference.

When she says as much, she is met with a few incredulous looks. Shae sighs. "Okay, so, I accidentally stumbled across the hags last night and I overheard what they're up to," she confesses in a rush.

"Are you okay?" Garrett asks, while everyone else is looking either shocked or appreciative.

Shae blinks at the naked concern in his voice. "What? Yeah, of course. They didn't know I was there."

"What do they want?"

Shae drags her eyes away from Garrett and winces at Tanya. "Me and my siblings, apparently."

"What?"

Pushing her hair away from her face, Shae shrugs her shoulders. "Think of it as, like, a Hansel and Gretel sort of thing. The hags are hungry and us Masen kids look like tasty morsels."

"You need to tell your parents," Leah says immediately.

"Yeah, I'm with my girl on this one," Quill says with wide eyes. "This is suddenly…real gnarly."

"I can't tell my parents," Shae argues. "This is personal."

"Don't you think your parents would want to know?" Tanya asks, worrying a strand of golden hair around her finger. "Or at least, shouldn't you tell your parents that you know? I doubt that they're ignorant of what the hags want when they have Alice Hale to consult with."

Shae grimaces. Chances are that Tanya is right and Aunt Alice does have an inkling as to what's going on - but Shae doesn't really see that as a deterrent. Instead, she says, "This is something that I think I have to deal with myself."

Leah frowns. "This isn't a test, Shae."

"Yes, it is," she counters quickly, stubbornly. She shakes her head, then sighs again. "Look, I have a plan, okay? I just need you four to keep everyone else distracted."

They don't like it, even as she outlines her plans, but eventually Shae manages to twist their arms into agreeing to go along with what she wants - with the caveat that they will immediately tell the nearest adult if Shae doesn't check-in at the right time, which she agrees to in the full belief that she can handle this solo act.

After, Garrett is the only one who lingers in the dressing room with her. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asks again.

Shea bobs her head. "The plan is pretty much foolproof."

"I wish I could do more to help you," he says softly.

Shae smiles at him tentatively. "You are," she says reassuringly.

Garrett stares at her and then frowns, as if Shae is being deliberately obtuse about something. He seems to bite back whatever he was going to say next, instead opting for a quick, warm smile. "I'll always be here for you, Shae."

As she watches him leave, she can't help but think that the way she really wants him is the way she can't have him - because it's glaringly obvious that he isn't interested.

She's just a tutor for him and a friend. That's all.

And Shae has other things to think about.

_/\_/\_/\_

Maybe it's a little impulsive - a little abrupt - but Shae knows its best to strike while the iron is hot. She knows where the hags are camping; it's midweek and the busiest time in her parent's schedules; Kieran has a library club that will keep him occupied; and Shae still has the convenient excuse of tutoring Garrett to explain her absence from the dinner table. Everything is lined up just right. She can't stall or wait, because if even one variable changes, then she's lost her chance.

So she tells a lie over text message to her parents that she'll be at Garrett's house helping him study, texts Quill to start drawing attention to himself, and texts Leah and Tanya asking them to run interference.

And then she shifts into her smallest, most agile form - a margay cat, both clever and lightweight - and slinks into the forest as the sun is setting, heading straight toward the hag's camp with single-minded focus.

When a shaman shifts into an animal form, they gain the same advantages and disadvantages that animal has. The margay is one of Shae's favorite forms because of how high the deck is stacked for this particular feline. A small, unobtrusive hunter with powerful hind legs, sharp teeth, and an ability to mimic sounds is just the sort of tools that she needs to pull this off.

Once her sensitive ears pick up on familiar croaking voices, Shae digs her claws into the bark of the nearest tree and climbs high. She jumps from branch to branch, working her way closer to the camp with each leap. Pressing her belly low to rough wood, her night-sensitive vision traces along the trees in the vicinity, sketching out the route that makes the most sense. Then her eyes dip down below and her ears pin backward in annoyance.

They're arguing amongst themselves again, which strikes Shae as wildly incompetent. Like, if Shae was out for evil-doing, she'd be doing instead of sitting around talking about it. Probably a good thing that she's firmly on the side of good, then. Figures.

But - if they're too busy arguing, they certainly aren't going to notice her. So, score.

Turning around, Shae presses her paw against the main trunk of the tree are very carefully uses her claws to carve a set of sigils into the wood. It's a combination of things she's seen Uncle Alec and Mom use in the past on some quartz, part banishment and part lock. The idea is that she can trap the hags in a bubble that deprives them of their putrid, warped magic and then the whole problem is basically solved. Once she has connected the separate sigils with a binding rune, Shae leaps to the next tree to carve the same sequence - and then again - and again until the circle is complete.

The hard part done, Shae completes the circle by going back to the original tree she started at and calls up her magic from deep inside her chest. She closes her eyes and butts her head against the first sigil sequence, glad that she can perform this kind of magic without shifting back to human. Below, a shudder of silver-blue magic springs forth, creating barriers connected by the trees, as well as above and beneath the hags.

Shae dismounts from the tree, prancing alongside the barrier she's created. Inside, the hags are shrieking at each other, wailing about their lost magic or whatever, and Shae can only preen, tail high and straight, teeth bared in a feline grin.

Try and go after her brothers? She doesn't think so. Take that, nasty old hags! If cats could laugh, that's exactly what Shae would be doing. Victory is so, so sweet -

"Found you."

Shae freezes.

Crap.

She turns cautiously, craning her neck up with her ears lowered to the side. A lone, guilty feline sound whispers out of her throat as she sees Mom standing right behind her, unimpressed with her arms crossed over her chest and a flinty look in her eye.

"Oh, you're going to be grounded for so long, you won't even remember what your friends look like," Mom declares.

Shae believes her, because she isn't dumb, but it still isn't fair. Which is exactly what she exclaims as she shifts back into human. "I was just helping!" she argues explosively, gesturing to the hags caught in her trap. "Look! I found them and I took care of them!"

"No, what you did was go behind my back and put yourself in danger," Mom says coolly. "You were reckless."

"Not any worse than you in any of the stories we've heard!"

"Exactly. Those are stories -"

"But they really happened!" Shae cuts in passionately. "They really happened to you, so they aren't stories! I just wanted to help you so you wouldn't have to deal with this again! I don't see how that's a bad thing!"

Mom rubs at her temples and exhales heavily. "Did you even stop to consider that I might not want what happened to me to happen to you?"

Shae's teeth snap together as she closes her mouth. She hadn't considered that at all, actually.

Mom softens slightly. "Shae. You're so much like me in so many ways and that isn't always a good thing. This, what you've done, was dangerous and it could have ended so tragically. Do you understand that? It's not the sort of thing I want you to have to do, at seventeen or seventy. You don't have to grow up so fast, kid."

Shae wilts. "I'm not trying to grow up fast," she says weakly. "I just…I'm old enough to help, you know. You don't have to carry it all."

"You sound like your dad," Mom says fondly. Then she rolls her eyes. "I guess this serves me right. I put your Grandpa through the same kind of hell for years."

"So….does that mean I'm not grounded?"

Mom scoffs. "Oh, no, you're still grounded," she says. "You did a good job and I'm glad your safe, but your being punished for being astoundingly dumb. Sound fair?"

"No," Shae mutters with a scowl.

But she hugs Mom anyway and Mom lets her stay and watch as, one by one, she seals up the hags' magic and delivers a few very colorful threats before sending the old crones on their way.

Actually watching what Mom has to do, though, with the blood pouring from fresh scars and hearing all the nasty things the hags have to say? Shae kind of considers that punishment enough for all her earlier arrogance.

Not that she's eager to argue about it.

Her Mom might be her hero - but she's also one scary woman.

_/\_/\_/\_

For the record, Dad isn't exactly happy with Shae, either. He gives an hour long lecture about impulsive decisions and then spends the next week making Shae explain the reasons for everything she does, from washing the dishes to taking a shower to doing her homework. It's a special kind of hell, really, but it does open Shae's eyes.

And it makes her realize that she's not as self-aware as she likes to pretend she is.

Kieran laughs at her the entire time - until she lets it slip that he'd been involved too, before she went solo.

Shae is appropriately smug when he glares mutinously at her.

Cassian is simply confused.

_/\_/\_/\_

Garrett is looking at her, watching as she comes to a stop at her locker, dials in the combination, and pops the metal door open. He shifts so that his shoulder is leaning against his locket and keeps staring.

"Uh, hi?" Shae tries.

Garrett offers a small smile, but the rest of his face is serious. "I need to talk to you."

"Oh," she says. And then realization dawns and she's smiling apologetically. "Oh, yeah. I meant to talk to you too. So, the thing is, I'm super grounded right now, so I won't be able to tutor you anymore. I'm really sorry."

He shrugs, drumming his fingers against his thigh. "How long are you grounded for?"

Shae winces. "At least a month, I think."

"I can wait that long."

Shae stops, then frowns. "Wait, what? No, you can't. Midterms are next week. You can't wait to be tutored for a month if you're trying to pass the midterm."

"Good thing I don't actually need a tutor."

"Okay, now I'm really confused," she mutters.

Garrett laughs, the sound warm and inviting. He leans closer to her, tucking dark hair behind his ear, his intense eyes pinning Shae in place. "I made up needing a tutor so I could spend time with you," he tells her bluntly.

Shae gapes. "What?"

"I've actually got an A in Natural Sciences." He pauses. "Also, you're not a very good tutor. Maybe I should be tutoring you."

Shae has a lot of thoughts about all these revelations that Garret is dishing out, but only one word tumbles out of her mouth. "Why?"

Garret smiles again, broad and boyish. "I like you, Shae Masen. You're bold and kind and funny - and extremely oblivious. I lied about needing a tutor to have an excuse to be around you, and then you had that self-imposed mission and I realized that the only way you would see me is if I just said it directly to you. So, I like you. A lot. I'd like to date you, when you aren't grounded anymore, if that's okay with you."

Shae blinks. "If that's okay with me?" she repeats.

Garrett nods.

And Shae can only do one thing - dart in and steal a kiss from the sheepish smile of his mouth.

It turns out Shae will have stories to tell one day, too. And this is the story she'll tell her kids about how she and their father fell in love.


A/N: That's it! That's the last futuretake for supernormal! Everyone wanted a glimpse of the next generation - so there you go!

I've really enjoyed working on these little futuretakes, but I'm ready to say good-bye to these characters. They've been a part of me for almost a year and now I'm ready to meet new voices and find new stories to tell. I don't know what I'll be working on next or even if what I'm working on will find its way onto this site. I'd really like to work on getting published, though, so that's probably where I'll focus next.

As always, be brutally honest. I can take it.

~cupcakeriot