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"No" Val’s mother’s voice had a note of panic in it "Valerie, I’ You don’t knoorried I’ve been about you, the things that I’ve been i for the phone call that would say the police had found you dead in a ditch You can’t putI have to do," Val said "And I don’t have much time Look, I don’t understand about you and To or how it happened, but--"
"You must think that I--"
"But I don’t care anymore"
"Then why--" she started
"This isn’t about you and I can’t cohed "You failed your driving test"
"Can you drive?" Luis asked
"I have lanced at Luis "I can drive fine I just can’t parallel park"
Val’s mother padded into the kitchen and ca from a key-chain with a rhinestone "R" on it "I owe you soret it"
"I won’t," Val said
Val’s mother dropped the keys into Val’s hand "You proht of the way her lips had burned when she hadn’t kept her promise to return to Ravus on time She nodded Luis opened the front door Val turned toward it, not looking at her mother "You’re still my mom," Val said
As Val walked down her front steps, she felt the sun on her face, and it seeht be okay
Val drove the car through the fanal and watch her speed She hoped that no one would pull them over
"You know," Luis said, "the last tioing to the store for so, I think She lived out on Long Island where you need cars to get around I remember it because my dad had pulled arden"
Val said nothing She was concentrating on the road
She steered the Miata past the pillars that flanked the entrance of the graveyard, the brick of the tendrils of leafless vines The cemetery itself swelled into a hill, dotted hite stones and burial vaults Despite the fact that it was late Nove?" Val asked "It just looks like any other cemetery to me"
Luis didn’t answer at first He stared out the , one hand unconsciously colass "That’s because you’re blind"
Val stepped on the break, stopping them short "What do you see?"
"They’re everywhere" Luis put his hand on the door handle, his voice little more than breath
"Luis?" Val turned off the car
His voice sounded distant, as if he were speaking to hi, clawed fingers" Then he looked over at Val, like he’d suddenly re her head into his lap, feeling the war down on her as air whipped over the top of the car
"What’s happening?" Val shouted over the keening of the wind So scratched at the leather roof of the car and the hood shook
Then the air stilled, dropping away to nothing As Val slowly lifted her head, it seemed to her that not even a leaf one quiet
"This whole car is fiberglass" Luis looked up "They could claw right through the roof if they wanted to"
"Why don’t they?"
"I’ to see if we’re here to durave"
"They don’t need to do that We’re colass sword Luis grabbed Val’s backpack and slung it over his shoulder
Val closed her eyes and took a deep breath Her stoame, but this was different Her body felt distant, mechanical Her senses narrowed to notice every sound, each shift in color and shape, but little else Adrenaline called to her blood, chilling her fingers, speeding her heart
Looking down at the sword, Val opened the door and stepped out onto the gravel "I come in peace," she said "Take ers closed on her skin, pinching the flesh, tearing at her hair, pushing and pulling her into the hill, where clurass rose up and scampered away from the black dirt She tried to screa the rich ainst the soil as she tried to lever herself up, but the dirt and rock and grass gave beneath her and she tuolden chains in a hall filled with faeries
On a dais of dirt, a white-haired knight sat on a throne of braided birch, its bark as pale as bone He leaned forward and beckoned to a green-skinned, winged girl who regarded Val with black, alien eyes The winged faerie leaned down and spoke softly to the knight on the throne His lips twisted into what ht have been a smile
Above her was the underside of the hill, hollow as a bowl, and hung with long roots that grasped and turned as though they were fingers that couldn’t quite reach what they desired