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Val reached her hand toward Ravus. He pulled back.
"What have you done?" he asked, tight-lipped.
"Yes, I shot up the potions," Val said. There was no point in denying anything now.
"Why would you do that?" he asked. "I thought it was harmless, just something to keep the Folk from pain."
"Never… it gives you… it makes humans… like faeries." That wasn't it, not exactly, but his face already said, You didn't mind that I was monstrous because you are a monster.
"I had thought better of you," Ravus said. "I had thought everything of you."
"I'm sorry," Val said. "Please, let me explain."
"Humans," he said, the word soaked with repugnance. "Liars, all of you. Now I understand my mother's hate."
"I might have lied about that but I'm not lying about the comb. I'm not lying about everything."
He grabbed Val's shoulder, his fingers so heavy she felt as if she was held by stone. "Now I know what you saw in me to love. Potions."
"No!" Val said.
When she looked up at Ravus's face, there was nothing there that was familiar, nothing that was kind. His clawed thumb pressed against the pulse of her throat. "I think it is time that you were gone."
Val hesitated. "Just let me—"
"Go!" he shouted, pushing her away from him and curling his fingers into a fist so tight that his claws cut the pads of his own hand.
Val stumbled back, her throat stinging.
Ravus turned to Mabry. "Say that you feel revenged on me. At least tell me that."
"Not at all," Mabry replied with a sour smile. "I did you a good turn."
Val went, retracing her steps along the path, through the wall of fog, the woods and up to the castle, her eyes blurry and her heart aching. There, watching the distant flicker of the city lights, Val thought suddenly of her mother. Was this how she had felt, after Tom and Val were gone? Had she wanted to go back and change everything, but lacked the power?
Crawling along the rocks, Val saw the red tip of Ruth's clove cigarette before she saw the rest of their makeshift camp. Ruth stood up when Val got close. "I thought you left me again."
Val looked over at Lolli and Luis, curled up together. Luis looked different, his eyes circled darkly and his skin pale. "I just went for a walk."
Ruth took another long drag, the end of her cigarette sparking. "Yeah, well, your friend Dave just went for a walk, too."
Val thought about the revel and wondered if Dave had been there, another sweet tooth, wandering dazed among capricious masters.
"I… I," Val sat down, overwhelmed, and covered her face with her hands. "I fucked up. I really, really fucked up."
"What do you mean?" Ruth sat down next to Val and put her arm over her shoulder.
"It's too hard to explain. There are faeries, like real Final Fantasy faeries, and they've been poisoned and this stuff I've been taking—it's kind of a drug, but it's kind of magic, too." Val could feel tears trickle over her face, and swiped at them.
"You know," Ruth said, "people don't cry when they're sad. Everyone thinks that, but it's not true. People cry when they're frustrated or overwhelmed."
The mermaid's comb was still in Val's hand, she realized, but she'd been clutching it so tightly that it had broken into pieces. Just thin sheets of shell, nothing more. No reason to think it proved anything.
"Look, I'll admit you sound a little crazy," Ruth said. "But so what? Even if you are completely delusional, we still have to work out your delusion, right? An imaginary problem needs an imaginary solution."
Val let her head fall onto Ruth's shoulder, relaxing in a way she hadn't relaxed since before she'd seen her mother and Tom and maybe before that. She'd forgotten how much she loved talking to Ruth.
"Okay, so start at the start."
