Burn

CHAPTER 8

Wind blew, hot and duty, into Carter's face through the lowered window, flicking the occasional speck of gravel dangerously close to his eyes. There was a sickening heat shimmering through the air, filling the car and suctioning Carter's shorts to the worn leather seats of his Mum's beat up old convertible.

From the aging stereo fixed into the front console, jazz music floated faintly into the permeating silence, providing a faint, if enthusiastic, soundtrack to the stifling heat of the midday sun.

Beside him, Ryu stretched lazily against the passenger's seat, chin propped up on a fist as he gazed out onto the dusty road, uncharacteristically silent and still. The demon had barely uttered a word since Carter had first backed out of his driveway, and he wondered, not for the first time, if the mortal realm was just as mystifying to him as the demon realm was for Carter and Margo.

The girl in question was hunched over a map in the backseat, trying to tracethe route from Carter's house to the thrift store for the millionth time.

But as Carter turned a sharp bend in the road, she lifted her head from the crumpled document and emitted a loud, exasperated sigh, the first sound anyone had made in over an hour. "This map is useless."

A laugh startled out of Carter, so surprised was he at the sound of Margo's voice. "And yet, you've been reading it for ages," he snickered, a teasing lilt to his voice.

Margo sighed again, throwing the map aside as she stretched out in her seat and flopped her head against the window. "I've been trying to make sense of it, but it only shows the barest of landmarks. We might end up right on top of it and have no idea!"

Her final word ended on a wail of despair, and Carter, taking pity on her, ceased his laughter long enough to say, "I've been here before, Margo. I know the way."

Margo scrubbed a hand over her face, looking worried. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. So don't you worry your pretty little head about it." He glanced in the rear-view mirror and poked out his tongue, and Margo gave him in the finger in return, then slid a pair of purple sunglasses over her eyes.

"How'd you find this place, anyway?" Ryu prompted after a few silent moments, shifting so his feet were propped up on the dash.

"Mum and I used to go to this beach all the time," Carter explained, swatting Ryu's feet as he spoke. "The doctors thought it'd be...you know, good for her. Or something."

"And was it?" Despite Ryu's grumbling as he removed his feet, his question sounded sincere.

"I don't know. Maybe." Carter glanced at Ryu out of the corner of his eye as he waited at a red light, regarding him thoughtfully. "Do you think this trip will be helpful?"

"I don't know," Ryu replied, face scrunching mockingly as he imitated Carter's moody drawl, "maybe."

The plan had originally been to pass the beach and head straight to the coastal town nearby to search for the thrift store, but by the time a vast stretch of golden sand and rippling water came into view, Margo and Carter were so desperate to escape the heat that it was decided an impromptu swim was in order.

Carter parked by a nearby ice cream parlour and stepped gratefully from the searing car, stretching grandly to work out the kinks in his back and neck. Mere seconds later, Margo tumbled out from the backseat in an ungraceful half-sprawl, dark hair sticking to her face with copious amounts of sweat.

"Ugh," she groaned, gingerly inspecting her crumpled shirt and haphazard ponytail in the car window, "that was not fun."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ryu stepped smoothly out of the passenger seat, not a hair out of place, and glided through the parking lot as though without a care in the world. "It's a marvellous day."