“Never mind! Never mind!”Debbie’s hoarse voice screeched in fell tones of doom. She descended upon her enemies with claws and beak, tearing at simulacrums, pulling back their hoods to reveal the hideous faces underneath. She tried to go for their eyes, only they hadn’t any, so she pecked at their skulls instead. One of them made a grab for her, and Nigel feared his raven’s neck was about to be wrung. Just then, a snapdragon’s spurt of flame caught the simulacrum’s robe, and it went up like a torch.
Oh, lovely,Nigel thought.Now we’ll all be burnt to a crisp.
But the double-delight took action. With exquisite dexterity, it stretched a long arm back behind the counter, grabbed the kettle off the stove, and emptied its contents on the flames, dousing them in a hiss of black smoke.
It was all over in a matter of minutes. Even the simulacrums charged with propping up Nigel were torn away, and Nigel himself toppled to the floor in a limp bundle of limbs. He watched as the double-delight dragged a writhing Calista Anguish—shrieking through the muffling rose in her mouth—into the back passage. He heard Garden’s door slam open, and saw a burst of raw, red light emanating from the shadows. There was a final, stifled scream.
Then the door slammed again.
The last few remaining simulacrums simply folded up and disintegrated, their fragile powerline having reached its limit. Nigel felt the pulsing buzz of fading Dire force in the air, against his skin.
Then darkness closed in, and he knew no more.
Footsteps on the garret staircase signaled the return of her roommate, affording Luna opportunity to dash tears from her face, grab hold of her blanket, and pull it up over her head as she threw herself down on her pillow. Only just in time it would seem. The door burst open one moment later, and Bryony loudly declared, “Well,thatwas a bust!”
Luna swallowed hard. The tears stinging her eyes fought to get free, but she squeezed them back with a tremendous effort, refusing to utter even the faintest sound.
“I know you’re awake, Lunaloo,” Bryony said, slamming the door behind her and taking off her shoes with a loud clatter. She began the laborious process of undressing herself, a matter she did not usually care to perform on her own and which she had certainlynotintended to manage solo tonight. “That Mr. Grimm of yours is an absolutedrag.Do you know what he ordered at dinner tonight?”
I don’t care,Luna told herself silently, her hands knotting tightly in the folds of her blanket.I don’t care, I don’t care, I just don’t care. It doesn’t matter, and I don’t care.
“Tea!” Bryony uttered a snort that was more eloquent than the entirety of her vocabulary. “That man went and ordered a tea! Did you know he was a teetotaler? Well, it’s nearly impossible to get any fun out of those blokes! You should have warned me, Luna. Really, it was too bad of you. I couldn’t get him to talk about anything else. Just tea. And something about carnations. Ugh! I’ve never been so bored in all my born days!”
She went on in this vein for some while, stomping around the room, washing her face, slipping into her silky pajamas. She didn’t require a response, which was just as well. Even if she’d wanted to venture a comment, Luna could not have spoken through the lump lodged in her throat.
Finally, Bryony climbed into her own bed. Luna heard the clink of the thaumatic light bulb’s chain, and the room plunged into darkness. Her roommate settled down under her covers, heaving out a huge sigh before declaring, “He is a damned good kisser though. I’ll give him that.”
With this pronouncement, she rolled over. Within a minute, her soft snores filled the room as she slept the sleep of the righteously indignant.
And Luna found herself once more rolling onto her back and staring up at her peeling ceiling.
She tried to tell herself that she was thinking about those kisses with Ward. After all, they were her first kisses. And they were certainly ardent. And plenteous. Worth a certain amount of rumination, surely.
But it was Mr. Grimm’s mouth she kept seeing. Swollen and parted as he yanked away from Bryony’s throat.
And it was Mr. Grimm’s hand seared across her memory. Gripping Bryony’s thigh.
“It doesn’t matter,” Luna whispered to herself, her voice lost beneath the duet of a snoring Bryony and the crackling radiator. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
Because, in the night, before she’d heard her roommate’s feet on the stairwell, when she’d sat on her bed with her arms wrapped around her legs and her eyes pressed into her kneecaps, willing herself not to think of Mr. Grimm and Bryony together . . . she’d come to a decision. It was time for her to leave Ballycastle.
“One month,” she whispered into the darkness now. “One month from today.”
She’d save up everything she could. It wouldn’t be enough for a ticket to the Southern Continent, but that was fine. She should be able to get herself to Bromley Bay. She could find some kind of job there, surely. Perhaps in one of the factories down there; it was quite the busy manufacturing town, they said. A few months more, and she should have enough for the boat fare. It was a good plan. As good as any.
She could handle one more month.
What would this mean as far as Ward was concerned? Well, she probably wouldn’t see him again. This new assignment was likely to take up most of a month, and Luna fully intended to be gone before he returned. Sad. But just as well. He had been rather more enthusiastic about those kisses tonight than she liked.
“Come on, Luna,” he’d said, while they waited for a cab on the sidewalk outside of the Rowdy House. “Let me take you back to my place. It’s just one night. And I’ll be the soul of honor, I swear! Your Crimble maiden virtue is safe with me.”
But the heat of the kisses he’d pressed to her mouth in tandem with those words had made her suspicious. She’d pushed him away at last, gasping, “No, Ward!” Then she’d added firmly, “I’m tired. I’m going home. To bed.Alone,”she’d added with a little laugh that she didn’t quite mean in response to the teasing look he’d given her.
Ward had heaved a longsuffering sigh, shaking his head. “Never in my life have I worked so hard for a girl!” he declared. Bending his head, he’d pressed his brow against hers. “But you watch yourself, Luna Talbot. I’m going to figure out a way to properly sweep you off your feet. Just you wait!”
She’d laughed again at this, though she hadn’t felt like it. Thankfully, the taxi pulled up just then, and she was able to climb inside and escape any more of Ward’s eager embraces. Then she’d spent the whole ride home sitting very straight, staring at her knotted fists and wondering . . . did she just notlikekissing?
Maybe she was doing it wrong.
