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The house stinks oflike powdered sugar and cooking oil co from the kitchen And coffee; no doubt black is the only way she drinks it I also s cheap and fruity, like soh covered by hideous tapestry wallpaper, are yellowish-brown from all of the smoke over the years she must’ve lived here

Minna walks us past the kitchen and into the living roo the way I see tons of clutter strewn about everywhere Magazines Newspapers Unopened boxes of crap obviously bought off TV for the ‘low price of just 1995!" and off to the side, in the far corner of the living roolass curio cabinet full of hundreds of little elephant figurines

Actually, now that I’et out of this place in one piece, I see that Minna really loves elephants A giant elephant painting hovers over the back of her couch Elephants sit on every available bit of furniture space there is in various different forlass to brass and porcelain and plastic The blanket folded long-ways and draped over the back of the recliner has an elephant on it I think if she could fit an actual elephant inside this house, she would no doubt have one for a pet

"You’ve got to be kidding me," I hear Nathan mumble from behind

Minna closes her robe with one hand and turns to us, "Have a seat"

I covertly glace over at Isaac and grasp his hand, but none of us sits down quickly We don’t want to actually sit on her furniture There’s no telling e ht catch Lice A smell that will never wash off Elephant fever

When Minna starts to walk toward us, all three of us decide to take a seat just in case she’s intending to help us in soe of the couch cushions, side by side, with our hands placed in our laps like some scared, unruly children about to be handed down the worst punishment ever

"Make yourselves coet you all some coffee"

I want to say no thanks, but quite frankly I’m more inclined to accept her hospitality rather than risk offending her

The second she slips around the corner and out of the roo way, bro," he says, the words whistling through his teeth "I can’t even pretend be okay with looking at her, much less flirt with her"

I can’t force myself to make fun of Nathan this tio with the flow," Isaac whispers back at hiht not even co like that Just calm down"

"I don’t care what it co his head, "like I said--"

"Here we are," Minna says co a wooden tray She places it on the coffee table in front of us, s of black coffee sit around a plate of hoar

Not one of us wants to go first, so we remain still and quiet with our hands between our knees and hope she doesn’t notice

Minna slinks her way into the recliner next to us in front of acovered by another burgundy-colored curtain

"Well," she says, gesturing towards the coffee and donuts, "Eat up Go on Or are you too good for e none of us wants to accept, all three of us reach for a , take a sip and then start to nibble the end of a messy, powdered donut I only pretend to actually drink the coffee, of course, and Isaac and Nathan are likely pulling the sas first," Minna says and then stops to hack a disgusting cough, her whole body rattling in the chair, "who sent you here?"

"A Praverian named Genevieve," Isaac answers and places the rest of his donut back on the plate

Minna gives Isaac a suspicious sidelong glance, the wrinkles in her leathery-brown face deepening around her eyes She purses her dry, cracked lips in contemplation

"And where is she now?" Minna says

"We don’t know," Isaac says, retaining his confident co his answers simple

"Is that so?" she says, still suspicious "You want me to believe that she just told you where to find me and then disappeared?" She whirls her bony hand in a circular motion above her

Isaac nods "Yes," he says "Whether you believe it or not, that’s exactly what happened"

Minna snarls and leans her back into the recliner, crossing her legs "Well dear boy," she says with a sneer, "you’re going to have to elaborate a little more or we can end this discussion here and now so that I can get back to my shows--you know, they don’t make shows like they used to No they don’t" She shakes her head veryin his eyes that he knows he’s going to have to take it up a notch or risk her not helping us But to her, his face re no difference

I’ve never known Nathan to be so utterly silent I laugh inside just thinking about what’s going on in his head right now

"Genevieve cae, but then she found out that there’s a Dark Praverian aht we should know So, she told us all about it and said that he or she is dangerous So noe’re here because apparently you’re one of feho kno to trap it"

Minna reaches out and takes her own s it slowly to her lips Her dark eyes never leave us as she takes a careful sip They peer at us over the white ri over every inch of Isaac as if searching for soainst hi the ht hot pink lipstick stain in a half-lass-top coffee table "Since when do Praverians care about the lives of anyone other than their Charges?"

When Isaac doesn’t answer as quickly as he had been all along, I start to get nervous that he doesn’t have one

So I speak up instinctively "Genna did seee," I say, "which is why she told us about the Dark Praverian I think she orried that since she didn’t knoho it was herself, that her Charge was inus to find it"