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Kaye shook her head.
"It's what they call it when you change the rules of the game. Usually it's just a single variation.”
"They really call it that?" Kaye asked. "Like in chess club?”
He nodded. "And I should know.”
"There were absolutely no blueberries in that pie, were there?" Ethine asked as she climbed into the car beside Kaye, the handcuffs taut.
"Dunno," said Corny. "How was it?”
"Barely edible," said Ethine.
"Right there, that is the great thing about diners. The food is much tastier than you would think. Like those mozzarella sticks.”
"My mozzarella sticks," Luis said as he started the car.
Corny shrugged, a wicked grin spreading across his features. "Worried about getting my germs?”
Luis looked panicked, then abruptly angry. "Shut it.”
Kaye poked Corny in the back of his neck, but when he turned to her, his expression was hard to decipher. She tried to mouth a question. He shook his head and turned back to the road, leaving her more puzzled than before.
She leaned against the cushions of the seat, letting her glamour slip away with relief. She was coming to hate the weight of it.
"One more time, I say you ought to release me," said Ethine. "We're well away from the court, and my continued captivity will only draw them to you.”
"No one likes being a hostage," said Luis, and there was some satisfaction in his voice. "But I think they're coming whether you're tagging along or not. And we're safer with you here.”
Ethine turned to Kaye. "And you are going to let the humans speak for you? Will you side against your people?”
"I would think you'd be glad you're here," Kaye said. "At least you don't have to watch your beloved Queen kill your beloved brother. Who she's probably in love with." As she said it, her stomach clenched. The words echoed in her ears, as if she'd doomed him.
Ethine pressed her mouth into a thin, pale line.
"Not to mention the pie," said Corny.
Exits streamed by as Kaye stared out the window, feeling sick and helpless and guilty.
"Do we need to pick up Dave somewhere?" Corny asked softly, his voice pitched so that Kaye knew she wasn't included in the conversation.
Luis shook his head. "I'll call from your place. My friend Val said she'd pick him up at the station and keep an eye on him. She could probably even drop him off if we need her to." He sighed. "I just hope my brother actually got on the train.”
"Why wouldn't he?" Corny asked.
"He doesn't like to do what I say. About a year ago, Dave and I were living in an abandoned subway station. It was shitty, but the iron kept away the faeries, and this bargain I'd struck with the faeries kept away most everyone else. Then Dave found this junkie girl and brought her down to live with us. Lolli. Things were tense between me and my brother before that, but Lolli just made everything worse.”
"You both liked her?" Corny asked.
Luis gave him a quick look. "Not really. Dave followed her around like a puppy dog. He was obsessed. But she . . . Inexplicably, she liked me.”
Corny laughed.
"I know," said Luis. He shook his head, clearly embarrassed. "Hilarious, right? I hate this girl's guts and am blind in one eye and . . . Anyway, Dave never really forgave me. He used this drug, Never—it's magic—to make himself look like me. Got really strung out. Killed some faeries to get more.”
"And that's why you have to work for Silarial?" Corny asked.
"Yeah. Only her protection really keeps him safe in New York." Luis sighed. "It barely works. The exiles are sworn to nobody and they were the ones he was killing. If he would just straighten himself out... I know things could be better. Next year he'll be eighteen. We could get loans from the state on account of both our parents being dead. Go to school.”
