page10 (1/2)
“I always thought those doors were kind of silly,” Mae said at rando to make this moment not serious, make it not matter
“Really?” Alan asked, fingers light on the glass, touching carefully, as if he had one of the artifacts in his hands “I like them I like the idea that the past and the present are always tangled together,us e are”
“Clearly the bright lights distracted me from the deep symbolism,” Mae said, and smiled at him
He smiled back at her, the same smile as when she’d told him it mattered if he was hurt, surprised and sweet
“After we go to Celeste Drake toht Nick and I ht stay here in Exeter” He traced the shape of a broken cup withSaturday night”
It was such an ordinary thing to say, such an overwhelly normal way to ask someone out after a conversation about demons and sacrifice, that it struck Mae speechless
Alan watched her behind the door of light, his eyes dark serious blue He waited patiently for her to answer
“I don’t know Does a rave sound like your idea of a good time?”
“Ithis eyes His eyelashes sparked gold in the fluorescent lights “If you were there”
“You can’t ask me this now,” Mae blurted
“Is it the wrong ti?”
“There’s a boy at school,” Mae told hi out, but I o back on my word”
Alan stepped away fro shadows
“I appreciate your honesty,” he said “I’ll be honest too It’s so I try, every now and then Not often” He smiled, and this ti her smile back involuntarily “I hope that boy wastes his chance”
Mae ducked her head to hide the sh it was in her voice as well “You never know, but …”
“No, I understand,” Alan said “What are you doing Saturday night? I’o—just as friends, of course—back to the Goblin Market If you’re interested in visiting it again”
Mae burst out laughing at how sly he was
“You don’t play fair”
Alan drew her out of the ruins, still s “You don’t say”
Jaot home She had to face the fact that he would rather spend time with someone he was afraid of than come back and talk to her
Either that or Nick had put him in the hospital
Since she assuet a call if it was the hospital, she went to bed in one of the guest bedrooht so they could both rest, and so she could hug the thought of the Goblin Market to herself
She reic being sold like toys at stalls, hearing dru that she would rather be there than anywhere in the world She was going again She almost loved Alan, just for that
But it wasn’t fair to Alan to love hiic She owed him more than she could ever repay: it was due to Alan that Jamie was alive at all It wouldn’t be fair to Alan to love hiratitude or pity ined it would make Alan feel sick too
Loving Alan because of his smile and his smarts and how kind he was, that would be fair, but she’d had the chance to do that already She’d kno he felt about her She’d been so worried about Jaht about it, and then when she wasn’t paying attention, somehow it had become all about Nick
Things were different now
It wasn’t fair to let Alan be second choice, either
This wasn’t about roiven Seb her word, and she intended to keep it This was just about friendship
And ic
She heard Ja a bath Now that she kneas safe, she thought she could sleep
The shutters on her ere open, and she could see the gray spire of St Leonard’s Church rising like a Gothic turret against the sky When she shut her eyes she did not see that gray-on-black vision, the color of scissors slicing through black paper and cutting the night in two
Mae reic, and at the center of it all the dancers who called up deirl in red who Nick had called Sin She’d been dancing when Mae had first seen her, every movement clean and purposeful, every movement lovely And every tiht and their attention fastened on her She was powerful and beautiful, and in the ed completely
When she went to the Goblin Market, she ain
Caught in a blurred warm place between sleep and wakefulness, Mae relived thatof sudden visceral longing
If I could have anything in this world, she’d thought, all I’d want is to be like her
Sleeping with her new talis and pacing outside her , as if her garden was the stalking ground for hunting cats She knew they could not get in, but she could not shut out the sound of their hungry cries
6
Spirit for Your Skin
Mae woke to the sound of the doorbell ringing She cracked open one eye, saw the blinking red nu, and planted her face back into her pillow
The doorbell rang again Mae wondered if they had a new milkman One with a death wish
p>
“I always thought those doors were kind of silly,” Mae said at rando to make this moment not serious, make it not matter
“Really?” Alan asked, fingers light on the glass, touching carefully, as if he had one of the artifacts in his hands “I like them I like the idea that the past and the present are always tangled together,us e are”
“Clearly the bright lights distracted me from the deep symbolism,” Mae said, and smiled at him
He smiled back at her, the same smile as when she’d told him it mattered if he was hurt, surprised and sweet
“After we go to Celeste Drake toht Nick and I ht stay here in Exeter” He traced the shape of a broken cup withSaturday night”
It was such an ordinary thing to say, such an overwhelly normal way to ask someone out after a conversation about demons and sacrifice, that it struck Mae speechless
Alan watched her behind the door of light, his eyes dark serious blue He waited patiently for her to answer
“I don’t know Does a rave sound like your idea of a good time?”
“Ithis eyes His eyelashes sparked gold in the fluorescent lights “If you were there”
“You can’t ask me this now,” Mae blurted
“Is it the wrong ti?”
“There’s a boy at school,” Mae told hi out, but I o back on my word”
Alan stepped away fro shadows
“I appreciate your honesty,” he said “I’ll be honest too It’s so I try, every now and then Not often” He smiled, and this ti her smile back involuntarily “I hope that boy wastes his chance”
Mae ducked her head to hide the sh it was in her voice as well “You never know, but …”
“No, I understand,” Alan said “What are you doing Saturday night? I’o—just as friends, of course—back to the Goblin Market If you’re interested in visiting it again”
Mae burst out laughing at how sly he was
“You don’t play fair”
Alan drew her out of the ruins, still s “You don’t say”
Jaot home She had to face the fact that he would rather spend time with someone he was afraid of than come back and talk to her
Either that or Nick had put him in the hospital