‘Ooooh, teach me!’ Sumi’s eyes were wide. ‘I’d LOVE that.’
‘Sure, any time.’ Faye laughed. She was increasingly aware that the woman dressed all in black to her right, who had smiled narrowly when they were introduced, was sitting silently, listening. ‘What about you, Mallory? Ever had your cards read?’ she asked the girl.
‘A few times.’ Mallory studied her nails critically and gave Faye a disinterested smile. ‘I know someone who’s really gifted. He’s been reading for me for years, on and off.’ The implication in Mallory’s voice was that Faye was no comparison to Mallory’s expert friend.
‘Oh. That’s… great,’ Faye replied, not sure how to talk to this woman who so obviously didn’t want to talk to her. Mallory gave a tiny, brief upturn of her lips and turned away to talk to Jeremy. Sumi caught Faye’s confused expression and leaned over the table.
‘Don’t worry about Mallory. She takes a while to open up, but she’s a sweet girl really,’ Sumi said in a low voice, just loud enough for Faye to catch over the talking and clinking of glasses. ‘It took me three years to actually engage her in conversation. And that’s me. I’d make a wall talk to me, right?! You’ll get there.’ Sumi gave a slight eyeroll, and Faye grinned, relieved it wasn’t something she’d inadvertently said or done. ‘Anyway. She’s probably feeling a bit strange, given the situation…’
Faye leaned closer over the table.
‘What situation?’
‘Oh.’ Sumi sat back in her chair and looked guilty for a minute. ‘I thought he’d have told you.’
‘Who would have told me what?’ Faye felt a spectre of unease settle on her; among the revelry, she felt suddenly isolated once again. Rav reached for her hand as if picking up on her body language, but he didn’t stop talking to Roni.
Sumi got up and came round to Faye’s side of the table and crouched down beside her chair.
‘Mallory’s Rav’s ex,’ Sumi whispered in Faye’s ear. ‘They split up about a year ago. Amicable. They started going out in university, same time we met.’ She nodded to Roni.
‘Who ended it?’ Faye whispered, turning away from Mallory’s back. Faye didn’t think she could hear, but she wanted to be sure.
‘Rav,’ Sumi replied, looking at Faye speculatively. She held out her hand and said louder, ‘Come on, I’ll show you where the ladies’ is.’
Faye took Sumi’s hand – she got the impression that people didn’t often refuse Sumi – and followed her through the closely packed black-lacquered tables in the restaurant. It was a purposefully debauched-looking place with cerise and black leather easy chairs and huge vases of exotic flower arrangements against luxurious gold wallpaper splashed with large roses, lilies and orchids in full bloom. Contrasted to the lavish, decadent décor, the menu was mostly vegan and contained dishes with ingredients – oils, seeds, pastes – she’d never heard of.
The bathroom was plastered with fifties style magazine covers featuring women with rolled fringes and red lipstick. Ornate gilt mirrors reflected the sparkles from the black quartz sinks which contained slivers of gold.
‘So…Look, I didn’t want to talk about it in there when she’s right there. To save both of your feelings.’ Sumi turned on a golden tap and ran her hands under the water.
‘Okay.’ Faye stared at her own face in the mirror. She looked pale and withdrawn.
‘I think Rav’s over her. He ended it, anyway. He told Roni they’d grown apart. I mean, that’s only natural. When you get together at that age – you know, nineteen, twenty – you’re not that likely to stay together. Roni and I have, but that’s because, y’know, we’re both terrified of change.’ Sumi laughed merrily at her own joke.
Faye smiled. ‘I’m sure it’s more than that,’ she said generously, but her heart was pounding. That Rav was stillfriends with his beautiful ex-girlfriend wasn’t exactly news that she was sure their new, vulnerable relationship could take.
Sumi wiped her hands with a thick white towel from a pile in the centre of a black quartz-topped table and threw it into a wicker basket.
‘Well, I love Roni. There’s that. And he loves me. I think. Anyway. Not the point.’ Sumi pumped some floral scented hand cream onto one palm and started rubbing it into her hands. ‘Point is, I wanted to talk to you about what’s going on with Rav. I mean, he gave us some kind of cock and bull story about you taking all these drugs together andvisiting fairylandwhen he was up in Scotland? And that’s why he’s like he is – I mean, he looks terrible. He’s lost weight, he doesn’t look like he’s sleeping. Roni says he’s drinking more than he usually would, and he seems edgy. I mean, I wanted to meet you…see if you were some kind of junkie he’d picked up with, you know, some weirdo. But now I see that you’re…’ Sumi trailed off.
‘Normal?’ Faye interjected.
‘Well…yes, to be honest. You seem like a nice, normal girl. So, help me out here. I don’t get what’s going on. He wouldn’t go on some drugs bender and neither would you. I can tell. And I’m really worried about Rav. He’s an old and very dear friend of both of ours.’
Sumi shook her head concernedly. ‘I dunno…maybe he needs to see a psychiatrist?’ Sumi searched Faye’s eyes, and Faye considered lying. Considered agreeing that, yes, they’d taken drugs and had a consensual hallucination that Rav was abducted to Murias. That they’d been high as kites, and Rav was experiencing psychological trauma because of it.
Faye didn’t know Sumi, but she wanted Sumi to like her. She wanted to fit into this loud, fashionable crowd that Rav was a part of. And she knew instinctively that while her witchiness gave her some novelty appeal, too much of it would makeher strange. She remembered Bel McDougall shouting,She’s a witch, she’s a witch, pointing, laughing; she wished Annie was with her.
But the desire to fit in wasn’t as strong as the new power she was still coming to terms with – the new fae power that coursed in her veins, black and gold as the stone she trailed her fingertips across as she listened to Sumi.
‘He might need counselling, you’re right. But it did really happen – the fairyland thing. We weren’t on drugs. I’ve never taken anything stronger than a glass of whisky,’ she said, thinking,Unless you count faerie wine, which is a whole other thing. ‘I know it’s hard to understand. But…Abercolme, where I’m from…we have a…close relationship to the old ways there. The realm of faerie is very close.’
Sumi frowned at her. Clearly, she’d been expecting Faye to be an ally in helping Rav with what she perceived as his delusional state.
‘I don’t understand. The realm of faerie. It’s not real. I mean, outside books and songs and stuff. You can’t just walk into it.’
‘You can,’ Faye insisted. ‘I’ve been there. And Rav was taken there. I promise you that’s what happened. But, yes, it’s hard to explain to people that have a…more conventional world view, let’s say.’
