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.“She knew the band I was listening to at the grocery store—no one from Shadow Hills has even heard of Gogol Bordello.”“Oh, and that’s a great thing to base a relationship on; she likes some weird, obscure band you’re into.” I could practically hear Corinne roll her eyes.“Trust me, that is not nearly as important as dating someone you can be honest with.This school is full of beautiful girls.”“Yeah.Beautiful, preppy, cold East Coast princesses.”“Let’s see: preppy, privileged, cold—what do you want to bet that is exactly what she thinks of you?” Corinne snipped.“She doesn’t seem like the judgmental type.”As much as I wished that was true, I had to admit that Corinne was right.Not that I thought it about Zach, but that was basically what I assumed the whole student body here was like.“Phe’s just … She’s different.”The way Zach said it lit me up inside.“What makes her so different? Is it the blond hair? That tiny size-zero Hollywood figure?”Just because I’m not an Amazon with big breasts like Corinne, she labels me as some anorexic wannabe actress.“No.It’s not only about how she looks.She’s … I don’t know, Corinne.” Zach was obviously tired of talking about this.“She seems interesting and unpredictable—it sort of pulls me to her.” He hesitated, then in a slightly lower, oddly charged voice, he said, “I had a dream about her.”“So?” Corinne snorted.“An adolescent boy’s dreams are hardly an indication of—”“Before I ever saw her,” he interrupted.“Before we went over to the hospital the other day.I was asleep on the couch, remember, and you woke me up and told me to get ready.I was dreaming.I don’t even know what I was dreaming about at first, but then suddenly I was in the old graveyard.The one behind the hospital.And she was there.She was wearing the Devenish uniform, and it was all torn and dirty.We were looking at some gravestone.”If Corinne made any response to this revelation, I didn’t hear it.My blood was pounding through my veins; the sound filled my ears.I had wanted to ignore Zach’s slipup in the bookstore yesterday, to pretend that he hadn’t somehow seen my dream.But clearly he had.It was bizarre enough that I was having these nightmares that sometimes mirrored my sister’s.But to share a dream with a total stranger? That was Twilight Zone material.With an effort, I turned my attention back to their conversation.“It doesn’t matter what we want, okay?” Corinne’s voice sounded thin and strained.“Hell, I didn’t want to lie to Antonio—to pretend I didn’t care if he stayed.Do you know how much it sucked to not say good-bye when he went back to Italy? But I did what I had to do.We aren’t supposed to be with outsiders.These are the rules we live by, and there’s a reason for them.”“Enough with the rules, Corinne! Don’t you want to be happy at least once in your life? Or is studying and eating your vegetables and pleasing the Council all the fulfillment you need?” Zach sounded kind of harsh, even to someone who disliked Corinne as much as I did.“What do you think Mom would say if she found out about this?” I could tell from her tone that Corinne had no doubt that Zach knew what she would say.“Listen, like I’ve said a million times now, I am not going to slip up.Persephone will never find out about us.She will never find out what we are.”I hoped this wasn’t true—because I was more than a little curious.Chapter Six“I promise.” Zach continued with an air of finality.“Come on, we have to get the archives key from the librarian, while no one else is around.”That’s not ominous or anything, I thought.I wish I knew what the hell that was all about.A sudden wave of mental feedback hit me like a wall.I stumbled backward, feeling the hard wooden shelves dig into my spine.My ears were ringing, and my vision went black like I’d stood up too fast.The ornate gold key from my dream.I could see it perfectly, as if someone had pasted a picture on the inside of my eyelids.Then, as quickly as the feeling hit me, it was gone [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]