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.Except for the whole Butcher of Winter thing.My parents.Oh, God.“Why’d you bleach your hair?” Dray interrupted my thoughts.It took me a moment to come back.“I didn’t.This is my natural color.I’m thinking about going red next.”“You shouldn’t,” she said, her eyes on my ragged, shoulder-length hair.“It’s a cool color.I don’t even remember what color my hair is.”“I know what that’s like,” I said.We were silent for several more minutes.I needed to get going soon.Usually I came straight home from work, but usually someone else drove me.I loved having the freedom and independence of driving my own gas-wasting self.“Anyway,” Dray said, breaking the silence.“There aren’t any jobs around here.This place is dead.”I snorted.“You got that right.” I took a sip of my thick coffee, then stirred in two more sugars.A flicker of surprise lit her eyes, as if she’d expected me to defend her hometown.“People here—don’t like me,” she said.“They just think I’m gonna screw up like my… relatives.”“People here don’t like you?”Dray nodded defiantly.I stared at her.“You give a crap about what some yokels from a nowhere town think about you?”She blinked.“Dray.This is just one little town.It’s not the only place to live in the world, or even in America.Or even in Massachusetts.The people here are just a few people, here on earth for just a blip on the screen.They’re nobodies.What do you care what they think?”“It’s everybody,” Dray said.“Everyone at school.Everyone in town.”“Everyone in this one town,” I pointed out.“Not everyone everywhere.Go to California, or Mississippi, or France.No one there’s ever heard of you, and more important, no one there’s ever heard of the losers running the place here.”Her mouth actually dropped open.Had this truly never occurred to her? Had she thought she was stuck here forever?“Just go… somewhere else?” I could practically hear her brain whirring into action.“Go anywhere else,” I said.Her face closed.“How? It takes money.”I thought.“Two ways.Either take whatever job you can find—go work at Home Depot.Mop floors.Go work in a funeral home—anything.And save enough for a one-way bus ticket somewhere, enough for a week’s worth of food.Then get on the bus.Or—”She waited.“You can go be all you can be,” I said.“Go be anyone you want to be.If you can hack the military, you get money, education, travel, and some useful skills with a rifle.”Dray snorted a laugh.“I only turned seventeen last month.”“So you either have a year to work and save money, or you can get your folks to sign their permission for you to join the army,” I said, then glanced at the sky outside.“You have options, Dray.You always have options.It’s never so bad that you can’t just leave town.Think about it.And now I gotta bounce.That pillow body in my bed will only fool them so long.”Dray finished up her shake.She still looked thoughtful as I put on my Michelin Man down jacket.“Can I drop you anywhere?” I offered.“Nah.” She shook her head.“I can walk.Thanks for the shake.”“No prob.See you around.”Dray headed off down the street, looking somewhat less forlorn than she had.I got into my car, and then she turned.“How’d you get so smart and all?” she asked, her tone making it a possible joke, if needed.Because I’ve made many thousands of stupider mistakes than you have, I thought.I’ve been through much worse.I shrugged.“I’ve been around the block a few times.”She nodded, then turned and hunched her shoulders up into her jacket.She was becoming important to me.Meriwether and even Old Mac were becoming important to me, after decades of having nothing be that important.It was unusual.It was scary.I knew all too well how much it would hurt when I lost them.I really didn’t like it.CHAPTER 27Back at home, River, Asher, Solis, and Anne treated me incredibly normally.It was weird.I was expected to do chores.My name was on the board.Apparently all four teachers knew the whole sordid story, but none of the students seemed to treat or look at me any differently.I saw Reyn for the first time at dinner.He came through the kitchen door, holding a heavy tureen.My senses were exquisitely tuned to him and I examined him closely, trying to see him with long hair matted with blood, with a painted face.He saw me and his jaw tightened.My imagination pictured him standing, shocked and terrified, as a tower of lightning consumed his family and soldiers.He and I both looked very solemn, and we deliberately didn’t meet eyes again.Interestingly, when I glanced over to get some bread, I looked up and saw Nell’s eyes locked on me like blue lasers.I ignored her.Reyn sat where I couldn’t see him easily, and didn’t say a word during dinner.After dinner Anne stood and said, “I’d like to work with some of you, exploring gems and crystals.Rachel?”“Oh, I’d love to,” Rachel said.“Charles?” Anne asked.“Excellent, thanks,” said Charles, taking his plate to the busing table.“Reyn?” Anne said.“And Nastasya.”Silence.We each waited for the other to back out.And waited.And waaaiiiiited…“Good,” said Anne.“I’ll see you all in the green room in ten minutes.”“May I join you?” Nell sounded a little too eager.“I’ve been dying to work more with gems.”Anne hesitated a moment, then nodded.“Yes, okay.”Nell beamed.Glumly I met River’s eyes.She looked sympathetic, but also like she was daring me to back out.I got up and took my plate to the kitchen.• • •“You’re not focusing.” Anne’s voice was patient.Too patient.I opened my eyes.I was in a class with someone whose family had murdered my family.Someone whose family had been killed by my family.We were in class together, trying to bond with stones.I was sitting as far away from Reyn as possible, and of course, Nell was stuck to him like glue.It still seemed surreal, who he was, what he had been in my life.The very memories and experiences I’d tried to block out of my mind for the last four hundred years were sitting six feet away from me, in living color.It was like confronting the monster under my bed, only amped up a thousand times.There he was: the monster [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]