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Her gray eyes ide and shocked as she stopped and pulled away from me
"Demi, no No! I don’t knohat an oyster is, and I don’t want to You’re the one who’s looking at it the wrong way We’re being given the chance of a lifetio to university? I didn’t want to be part of this plan, but now I’ve never felt so grateful Don’t botch it up just because you alant ry aniloved hands went reflexively to her stomach "I almost starved to death as a child in Freesia I don’t want to be hungry ever again"
Just ahead, at Dover, all the possibilities in the world waited, tethered to the docks by long ropes Madee to Callais, probably on one of the large, fast passenger airships, where we’d huddle on the open deck and try to keep hold of our hats Then ould spend our first night in Franchia at an inn before taking a carriage to Ruin I dreaded spendingbox with huiven us a vial of salve to rub on our collars to lessen the soo stank of Vicks VapoRub er would be less painful I was better at controlling the blood hunger than Cherie, who’d been raised far away from humans and, unlike me, had never been one of them
The trunk’s clockwork key had worn down, and it slowly rolled to a halt behind us Caprice sat up like a zoers She hopped down fro her back and settling her voluminous skirts
"We will all walk fro oods until they’ve paid, non?"
I was glad to pull the handle and lag behind Caprice and Cherie As I watched their skirts sway and listened to the sort of polite conversation that bored me to blud tears, the airships played peekaboo with o to Ruin No ered for the cabarets of Paris
Cherie never liked my ideas at first But eventually, she always adht
She’d thank , even if eren’t allowed to stand up for fear that our skirts would fill with air and carry us over the railing and into the fatally salty sea below Cherie buried her face in my shoulder, and I wrapped my arm around her and inhaled the brisk, briny air I’d loved the ocean before beco a Bludman Now it could kill me Half my senses wanted to suck in the sea spray, and the other half wanted to hold my breath until ere safely on the other side of the Channel
No one seemed to have noticed that eren’t hu abused in the streets of Dover, and it took everything I had not to bare s and coe papers and Antonin’s costued by soed old Pinky man with a monocle But it was hard for a Blud less than an apex predator, and I was glad to get off the streets and into the privacy of the boardinghouse Caprice had selected for us Not too fancy, not run-down, and just a block away fro to take us to Ruin The daimon certainly served her purpose as a chaperone, as I still had trouble converting coppers and silvers into francs in my head and had no idea how to tell an inn from an apartment until she explained what the dains meant I paid special attention to her lessons
Upstairs at the inn, I fell onto one of the three narrow beds and kicked off ht for the train case of blood and downed two vials, handing oing down for supper, lossy hair and straightened her dress "Drink your blood, and get some sleep We shall leave at dawn"
"Yes,solare "You should take care to curb your attitude before you reach university,miscreants with a cane Bludone, I sat up and held out my hand to Cherie, so she could see what nestled in my palm
"Deer
I grinned "Crireed, even if I wanted to go to Paris, all the carriages in Callais leave fro the coins back into ht No point in trying to give her the slip Oh, well Good night, Cherie,"
She looked htclothes?"
"Of course not Good Pinky girls don’t change in inns Who knows if they have bludrats?"
"Excellent point You’re finally starting to be sensible"
She lay down on the bed beside mine, fully clothed, and blinked sleepily atto bed this way I’ in the top bunk with you belowatherproble will be better in the "
But I hadn’t shown her as into sleep yet, either
"Cherie, wake up We have to hurry" I rolled her shoulder gently and glanced over her at Made snore