Jason Blake’s eyebrows went up. He looked genuinely surprised. “Then I haven’t made myself clear. Lunch is not optional. If you both wish to stay in this apartment under my protection, then you will come to lunch with me.”
“We don’t.” It was remarkable how strong my voice sounded. Jay-Tee’s skin looked yellow; her eyes were wide open, staring at me. “We don’t want your apartment or your protection or your lunch. Jay-Tee?” I smiled at her, held out my hand. “Let’s go.”
Blake was standing in front of the door. He didn’t move as Jay-Tee and I walked toward it. I had to remind myself to breathe. What could he actually do to us? I asked myself. Lots of things. Bad things.
“If you leave,” he said, still blocking the door, “she will find you. Once you go through that door, there’s nothing hiding you. She’ll find you straightaway. I can feel her. She’s not far.”
I stopped. There were barely ten centimetres between us. Jay-Tee’s hand was trembling in mine.
“I’ll risk it,” I told him, my voice still steady despite the thought of Esmeralda sending a spurt of chill terror through my body. “Get out of my way.”
“You will not leave,” Blake said, in the same tone of voice he might have used to say it was still cold outside. The expression on his face, though, had changed. “It’s not safe for either of you. Your grandmother is an evil woman.”
“This is not a choice between you and Esmeralda. I’m choosing neither of you.”
“You don’t seem to understand, Reason—that’s not an option. You’re young, ignorant, and unprotected. Someone will prey on you. Your only option is to find someone who will give you something in exchange. As I have. Esmeralda will give you nothing. I’m not letting you make the wrong choice. I care what happens to you and Jay-Tee.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “Oh, please.” I’d heard cops say the same thing. None of them knew me or wanted to. Finding me was their job, how they got their pay so they could eat. Blake cared about us in the same way—because we were a source of magic. He was a wolf and we were his food; that’s what I saw in his eyes, that’s why he wasn’t going to let us go.
I tried to push past him and he grabbed me, one arm wrapping around tight, crushing my arms to my sides, the other pressing into my throat. I gasped for air, kicked back with my feet as hard as I could, getting him in the shins. He didn’t react, just squeezed my throat harder. I was furious and scared. He didn’t have to use magic against us—brute force would do. I kicked even harder.
Jay-Tee screamed and ran at him. He swung me around to hit her hard, and she went flying to the ground, falling heavily and just lying there. “You bloody bastard!” I yelled. If she was hurt, I would kill him.
Something was growing in me, something hot and liquid, under my skin, way down deep; something uncoiled slow, then surged up fast like bubbles through champagne, going to burst through my skin.
Blake dropped me as if I were on fire. I was.
“Don’t,” he said.
I was staring at him, but I didn’t see him, I saw the veins inside his body, the steady beat of his heart propelling the red liquid out and along those veins. I thought about it slowing. Like I’d done to that boy back in Coonabarabran when I was ten years old, who’d called me a boong, who’d tried to touch me.
That day, my anger had gotten bigger and bigger. A scream growing inside me. The rage was like a wave, a tsunami. My eyes exploded in red light; that was all I’d been able to see. When I opened them, the boy was on the floor, dead. Later they told me he’d had a blood clot, but somehow I’d always known it was my fault. It had felt like this. It had felt good.
“Don’t,” Blake said from even further away. Could I really kill him too?
I almost felt like I was flying. I thought about his heart shrinking, the veins contracting, the heart stopping.
His face was purple.
“Don’t,” said someone who wasn’t Jason Blake. It was Jay-Tee. Dimly, I knew that. “Stop, Reason. Don’t.”
I felt incredible; I hadn’t felt this wonderful in such a long, long time. Something sharp cracked across my face. The blow made me stumble. “What?” I asked. The glorious feeling started to recede.
“Don’t, Reason. You can’t do that!” Jay-Tee was yelling now. “It will kill you.”
It had already stopped; the wonderfulness was draining away. I was unsteady now, overwhelmingly tired. Jay-Tee grabbed my hand and dragged me through the door, slamming it behind her.
28
Eau de Reason
“You can’t ever lose your temper,” Jay-Tee said, dragging her into the elevator. She wasn’t sure how much Reason was understanding. “You just can’t. Your mother never told you that? Reason?”
She nodded, but her eyes still weren’t fully focused. Jay-Tee was starting to wonder just who the dead boy in Reason’s nightmare had been. Someone she’d killed? With Reason’s temper and no one to warn her not to lose it, it was a wonder she hadn’t taken out half of Australia.
“Reason? Talk to me. Say something!” Jay-Tee grabbed her by the shoulders and shook hard, terrified she was losing her.
“Stop it! I can hear you. I’m here.” She rubbed her left shoulder. “Is Blake following us?”
Jay-Tee nodded. “Probably. He was coming around when I pulled you out of there. You know, you only got to him because he wasn’t expecting anyone to do what you did. Which was stupid given that you almost did him at the restaurant.”
Reason was drifting off. Jay-Tee slapped her again.
“Ow w w!” She put her hand to her cheek and glared at Jay-Tee.
“You have to pay attention. He’s coming after us. He’s pissed. You’re wiped out ’cause of that really, really dumb display upstairs. He said Esmeralda’s nearby, which could be a lie, but it could be true, and—”
The doors to the elevator opened. They both stepped outside. Jay-Tee glanced out through the glass doors. It looked cold and gray. Everyone who hurried by was bundled up good and tight.
“Give me your gloves,” Jay-Tee said, pushing the door open, stepping through.
Reason looked at her. “Where’s your coat?”
“Back in the apartment.”
“Oh. Bugger.” Reason handed Jay-Tee hat, gloves, and scarf. “This coat’s huge; we could both huddle into it.” She lost her footing on a patch of ice. Jay-Tee steadied her.
“We’re only going a block,” Jay-Tee said. “We’ll buy me a coat after the restaurant. Are you going to be okay? You’re still wobbly.”
Reason nodded, but her skin was more yellow than brown. Jay-Tee was unconvinced. She hoped Danny would know somewhere they could hide, but she couldn’t imagine anywhere they would be safe from him.
From Tom’s first step inside the restaurant the feeling of Reason was so strong he felt like he was breathing in her essence. He’d decided to have breakfast—a late breakfast: he still seemed to need millions of hours sleep—at the same restaurant where he’d sensed Reason, hoping he’d find another trace.
Tom looked around at every table. She wasn’t at any of them. In the bathroom, maybe? Or had she just left? He half turned to check outside when he realised that the eau de Reason was coming from the far corner. The closer Tom got, the more intense it felt.
He went as close as he could, pretending that he was staring at the black-and-white mural on the wall. It was coming from a bloke drinking coffee, nervously glancing up at the doors every few seconds. The guy was practically glowing. He’d been with Reason, that was for sure, and for quite a while, too. She must be staying with him.
Tom sat down at the nearest empty table. It wasn’t that close, but he could still watch the bloke. A sad-faced waitress brought him water and a menu. Tom looked over the top of the menu. The guy was tapping his fingers, gulping down coffee, and continuing to gaze expectantly at the doors.
Tom pulled the mobile out of his pocket and called Mere. She was close by, she said, and was headed over. He pocketed it, feeling relieved. W
ithout Mere he had no idea how to approach the guy, what to say.
The table hid his trousers or jeans, but his T-shirt wasn’t much to look at, which was a pity ’cause he’d look great in tailored clothing. The coat scrunched up next to him was one of those foul doona coats, completely barren of beautiful lines.
Tom wondered what his connection to Reason was and had a sudden horrible thought. The guy wasn’t hideously old or anything. Actually, he was kind of good-looking. And Reason was gorgeous. And the feel of her was all over him. Tom took a large gulp of his water, hoping it would wash the awful thought away.
A waitress came up to the table, standing tall and blond and intimidating, looking down at him with infinite sadness. Tom turned back to his menu in a panic, looking for something clear-cut that would require no endless follow-up questions. While the waitress stood there regarding him as if he were yet another cross for her to bear, he frantically searched.
“What you want?”
“Ah, turkey sandwich,” Tom blurted.
“What bread you want? Challah, brown, rye—”
“Challah,” Tom said quickly.
“You want salad or soup with that?”
Tom sighed. “Soup?”
“Chicken noodle, borscht, lentil, vegetable—”
“Chicken noodle,” Tom said. At least he’d discovered the trick of cutting her off early. The waitress departed, menu in hand.
Tom grinned, feeling well pleased with himself.
“Tom?” a startled voice asked. He looked up. It was Reason.
29
Away from the Witch
When I walked in past the second set of doors, the first person I saw was Tom. I stopped in my tracks. Jay-Tee ran into me. “Tom?” I said out loud. How could Tom be here?
“Keep going, Reason. I’m frozen.”
Tom stood up. “Reason?”
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Looking for you.”
“But how?” I stopped, conscious of Jay-Tee beside me. “This is Jay-Tee. Tom’s a friend from Sydney.”
Then I saw Danny further back, smiling, waving at us. Jay-Tee returned the wave. I did too, grinning like an idiot. He was even prettier in daylight.
“And here’s Mere too,” Tom said, sounding happy.
“What?” I turned to the other door, not quite believing that I’d heard him right, but there she was, walking towards us. Tom had betrayed me. Jay-Tee turned to look as well.
“The witch,” she said. “We got to run.” She grabbed my hand, dragging me out onto the street. Tom cried out behind us. I was so tired my bones ached. I didn’t know if I could run.
“Run where?” I asked as I stumbled along behind her. Jay-Tee was sure-footed, agilely weaving her way through the crowd. “Know anywhere warm we can hide?”
Jay-Tee nodded, still moving fast. She dropped my hand. “Follow me,” she called, then bolted down the street.
I ran after her as fast as I could, slipping and sliding, almost going arse over tit, knocking into people, apologising, trying not to break stride. It was torture lifting my heavy legs. Within seconds Jay-Tee was half a block ahead, sprinting across the road. I was terrified she was going to leave me behind.
“Goddamn,” came Danny’s voice, suddenly behind me. Strong hands brought me to a halt. “What the hell’s going on? Why is Jay-Tee running away from me? I thought she wanted to see me.”
“She does. We’re not running from you. We’re running from my grandmother.”
Danny let go of me, looking at me like I was insane. “Your grandmother? You know, I think I can deal with a grandmother.”
“You don’t understand. I don’t know where Jay-Tee’s running to. We can’t let her get away.”
We both looked up ahead to where Jay-Tee was fast disappearing. “We got to catch her.” The air was cold and hurt my lungs. All I wanted was to lie down and sleep.
“Reason!” someone yelled from behind me. Tom.
“Bugger.” I started running again, slipping and falling almost immediately. Danny hauled me up as if I weighed no more than a kitten. “Crap,” he said, looking up ahead and then back at me. “She’s almost out of sight!” He slung me over his shoulder in a fireman carry before I could answer and then started running hard after Jay-Tee.
“No way!” I yelled, but I was shouting at the people behind me. Danny didn’t respond.
I couldn’t see or hear much of anything. My stomach felt like it was being sawed in half by Danny’s shoulder. It hurt even more when I tried to raise my head to see better. I wanted to figure out where we were going. I could see flashes of shop fronts and people’s legs and shoes flying by on one side. On the other, mounds of dirty snow and parked cars.
I could tell when we were crossing the road more from the sound of horns honking than from anything I could see. Even if I’d been upright, I’d’ve had no clue where I was. I hadn’t exactly managed to get oriented during my few days in this city.
My vision was blurring, my eyelids fluttering, struggling to stay open. I was exhausted, beyond exhausted. It was as if something had been sucked out of me, the thing that kept my blood pumping, my neurons snapping. My magic gone.
It was hard staying awake even bouncing up and down, with Danny’s shoulder cutting me in half. I had to force myself to think. I’d seen Tom. What did that mean? What was Tom doing here? Was he waiting for Esmeralda? Had he known I was going to be at the restaurant? How?
My head pounded. The cold air hurt my eyes, made tears streak down my cheeks. The salt stung. But when I closed them, I could feel myself drifting into sleep. Staying awake felt important.
I turned to Fibonacci. I could feel my ammonite in Danny’s pocket. On the backs of my eyelids I saw it clearly: a tightly wrapped spiral, the impression of a seashell, long ago broken down into sand. I traced the growing spirals, the area of each section equal to that of the previous two. The spiral grew, bigger than my ammonite, bigger than me, big as a car, big as the block we were running along. A neatly turning spiral. I jumped into it as though into a whirlpool. Spinning and floating.
Below me, Danny ran faster and steadier.
30
Worse Things
Jay-Tee was running rather than thinking. In school she had always been the fastest girl. She could keep going for ages too. She liked it, but not as much as dancing. When she’d run at school, there were coaches yelling at her: knees up, elbows in. Running now she could still hear their shouted instructions. When she danced, she just danced. No one told her how to do it better, faster, longer. She just knew.
As she ran, her mind was with the crowd, seeing the gaps, the clearest paths, how to duck and weave, thread her way through, avoiding slick ice, people’s toes, discarded trash. She was glad it wasn’t that cold, no snow, and the wind blew from behind her, making her run faster and easier.
She’d stay warm as long as she was running. She shot a look back. Danny ran with Reason slung over his shoulder. Jay-Tee felt a wave of homesickness for her brother and for her dad, for how it had been before he’d turned into a monster. Part of her was dying to stop and hug Danny, but how on earth was she going to explain everything that was going on?
Seventh Street. She cut left. Jay-Tee knew where she was going now. The door. If Reason had the key . . . hidden, she’d said in her dream. If she’d hidden it on her person or, more cleverly, near the door, they could go through, grab Reason’s stuff, and keep going.
Maybe they could even figure a way to shut the door against Esmeralda. Reason knew how to hide in Australia, out in the country with the kangaroos. Jay-Tee liked the idea of living with kangaroos.
Tom pulled on the rest of his winter gear in the street, trailing behind Esmeralda, still stumbling over his explanations. “Hurry, Tom,” she said. “She’s not that far ahead.”
“Right,” he said, pulling his glove on and then off again when he realised it was the wrong hand. He could see Reason up ahead, slipping and sliding. He took off. Withi
n seconds the man from the restaurant had sprinted past him. “Crap!”
Tom ran harder, determined to stop him from doing anything to Reason. He’d seen the fear on her face. But he kept slipping. Up ahead Reason was having an even harder time with the salt and ice. The guy caught up to her, grabbed her, leaning close, yelling in her face. It looked like he was shaking her.
“Reason!” screamed Tom. The man threw her over his shoulder and started off again. Tom forced himself to run harder. He was not going to let that mongrel get away.
He was sitting on the front steps of the house. Legs casually crossed as if he were waiting for good friends and didn’t mind how long they took. He was even smiling, white teeth gleaming.
Jay-Tee didn’t see him until it was too late. She skidded to a halt and there he was, smile growing wider. His car double-parked in the street, ready. Jay-Tee found she was too scared to move. Without thinking, she crossed herself.
“You’re not going anywhere, Jay-Tee, are you?” he said as if he could see her paralysis.
I’m not scared of you, she told herself. But she was. She wasn’t like Reason. He terrified her. She didn’t ever want him to take her magic by force again. The memory of it still made her shrink inside.
Jay-Tee heard a car and turned her head. A taxi pulled up behind his limousine. The back door opened and Esmeralda got out, walked toward him. He wasn’t looking at Jay-Tee anymore. He was standing, eyes fixed on Esmeralda’s, like moose locking antlers. Jay-Tee could almost see a gash cut through the air between them. The hair on Jay-Tee’s arms stood on end. Everything was crackling; it felt like the air was melting.
Neither moved, not even the tiniest muscles on their faces. Jay-Tee stared. They weren’t even blinking. They were statues. Jay-Tee fervently hoped they would stay that way.
She heard the sound of feet pounding along the sidewalk. Danny with Reason bouncing on his shoulder. That’s got to hurt, thought Jay-Tee. Danny smiled at her, sort of, halfway between a smile and a grimace. “You’re still too fast for me,” he said.
Magic or Madness Page 19
