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Lolliswirled a spoon into a tub of soup, but didn't raise it to her mouth. "I
know. I'm just saying."
Val stumbled out into the cold, glad to be away from them all.
When she got to the bridge, it was still light enough to see theEast River ,
brown as coffee left too long on the burner. Her head hurt and the muscles in
her armsspasmed and she realized that she hadn't had a dose of Never since the
evening before.
Never more than two days in a row. She couldn't remember when that rule had
been forgotten and the new rule had become every day and sometimes more than
that.
Val knocked on the stump and slipped inside the bridge, but despite the
threat of daylight,Ravus was gone. She considered finger painting a message on
a torn grocery flier, but she was so tired that she decided to wait a little
while longer. Sitting down in the club chair, the scents of old paper,
leather, and fruit lulled her into leaning back her head and parting the
curtain just slightly. She sat for an oblivious hour, watching the sun dip
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lower, setting the sky aflame, butRavus didn't return and she only felt worse.
Her muscles, which had ached like they did after exercise, now burned like a
charley horse that woke you from sleep.
She looked through his bottles and potions and mixtures, careless of what she
disturbed and where things were moved, but she found not a single granule of
Never to take away the pain.
A family was finishing their picnic on the rocks as Val shuffled intoCentral
Park , the mother packing up leftover sandwiches, a lanky daughter pushing one
of her brothers. The two boys were twins, Val noticed. She'd always found
twins sort of creepy, as though only one of them could be the real one. The
father glanced at Val, but his eyes rested on a cyclist's long, bare legs as
he slowly chewed his food.
Val walked on slowly, legs aching, past a lake thick with algae, where
ariderless boat floated along in the dimming light. An older couple strolled
by the bank, arm in arm, as a jogger in spandex huffed his way around them,
mp3 player bobbing against his biceps. Normal people with normal problems.
The path continued over a courtyard whose walls were carved with berries and
birds, vines so intricate they nearly looked alive, blooming roses, and less
familiar flowers.
Val stopped to lean against a tree, its roots exposed and tangled like the
pattern of veins under her skin, the pewter bark of the trunk, wet and dark
with frozen sap. She'd been walking for a while, but there was no castle in
sight.
Three boys with low-slung pants passed, one bouncing a basketball off his
friend's back.
"Where's the weather castle?" she called.
One boy shook his head. "No such thing."
"She meansBelvedereCastle ," said the other, pointing his hand at an angle,
halfway back in the direction she'd come from. "Over the bridge and through
the Ramble."
Val nodded.Over the bridge and through the woods . Everything hurt, but she
kept going, anticipating the sting of the needle and the sweet relief it would
bring. She thought back toLolli sitting by the fire with the spoon in her hand
and her breath stopped at the thought that all the Never was still back there,
in the tunnels, with the dead woman, then hated herself that that was what she
worried about, that that was what stopped her breath.
The Ramble was a maze of trails, crossing one another, trailing off into dead
ends, and doubling back on themselves. Some paths appeared intentional, others
seemed created by pedestrians sick of trying to pick their way through the
fickle course. Val trudged along, crunching leaves and twigs, her hands in her
pockets, gripping her skin through the thin backing of the coat as though
digging fingers could punish her body into not hurting.
In the cover of the patchy branches, two men were twined together, one of
them in a suit and overcoat, the other in jeans and denim jacket.
At the top of the hill was a large, gray castle with a spire that reached far
above the tree line. It appeared to be a grand and ancient estate, rendered
strange by being set against the shining lights of the city at dusk, a thing
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completely out of place. As Val walked closer, she saw that an array
oftaxidermied creatures were just inside the window, their black eyes watching
her through the glass.
"Hey," a familiar voice called.
Val turned to see Ruth leaning up against a pillar. Before she could think of
what to say, she noticed Luis stretched out against the landing that
overlooked a lake and a baseball diamond, kissingLolli with deep, wet, soft
kisses.
"I knew you never intended to show up," Ruth said, shaking her head.
"You said that you would get on the train even if I didn't," Val said, trying
for self-righteous anger, but the words came out sounding lamely defensive.
Ruth crossed her arms over her chest. "Whatever."
"Where's Dave?" Val asked, looking around. The park was getting darker and
she didn't see him anywhere close by.
Ruth shrugged and reached for a cup by her feet. "He went off to do some
thinking or something. Luis went after him, but came back alone. I guess he's
freaked out. Shit, I'm freaked out that woman changed into a dog and now she's
dead."
Val didn't know how to explain things so that Ruth would understand,
especially because it would make everything so much worse. It was better to
believe that the cop had turned into a dog than that she had been turned into
one. "Dave's not going to be happy about that." Val gestured with her chin
towardLolli and Luis, ignoring the question of magic altogether.
Ruth grimaced. "It's disgusting. Those callous fuckers."
"I don't get it. All this time she's been after him and he picks now to get
it on?" Val couldn't understand. Luis was an asshole, but he cared about his
brother. It wasn't like him to leave Dave to wander aroundCentral Park while
he got it on with a girl.
Ruth frowned and held out the cup she was holding. "They're your friends.
Here, have some tea. It's disgustingly sweet, but at least it's warm."
Val took a sip, letting the liquid warm her throat, trying to ignore the way
her hand was shaking.
Luis pulled back fromLolli , and gave Val a lopsided grin. "Hey, when did you
show up?"
"Do either you have any Never?" Val blurted. She didn't think she could stand
the pain much longer. Even her jaw felt cramped.
Luis shook his head and looked atLolli . "No," she said. "I dropped it. Did
you get anything fromRavus ?"
Val took a deep breath, trying not to panic. "He wasn't there."
"Did you see Dave on your way in?"Lolli asked.
Val shook her head.
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"Let's go down to the crash spot," Luis said. "I think its dark enough to
keep us hidden."
"Can Dave find us?" Ruth asked.
"Sure," Luis said. "He'll know where to look. We slept there before."
Val gritted her teeth in frustration, but she followed the others as they
jumped the gate on one side of the castle and crept down the rocks beneath it.
There was a shadowed plateau overhung enough by another boulder to give them a
little shelter. Val noticed that they'd already loaded it up with some
cardboard.
Luis sat down andLolli leaned against him, eyes going half-lidded. "I'll
scrounge up some better supplies tomorrow," he said, leaning down to press his
mouth to hers.
Ruth put one arm around Val and sighed. "I can't believe this."
"Me either," Val said, because suddenly all of it seemed equally surreal,
equally random and unbelievable. It felt less possible that Ruth should be
sleeping on cardboard inCentral Park than that faeries existed.
Luis slid his hands up underLolli's skirt and Val tooktook another sip of the
cooling tea, ignoring the flash of skin, the glimmer of steel rings, trying
not to notice the wet sounds and the giggling. As she turned her head, she saw
the leg of Luis's baggy pants, hiked up so high that the scorch marks on the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]