Lili Crow - Wayfarer

“No.” What am I doing? “Somewhere else. I mean, I could go somewhere else.”

The smile took over his whole face, then, and she saw the ghost of the kid he’d been, throwing sand at her and taunting. There was something else, too, some shadow she couldn’t quite place. It would take time and thought to suss it out.

He didn’t give her a chance to change her mind. Instead, he offered her his hand, as if they were at a ball, about to waltz among streamers and glittercharms. “Sure. Anywhere you want. Come on.”

THE CAR WAS AN OLD PRIMER-PAINTED DEL TORO THAT nevertheless purred when he twisted the key. The Fletchers could of course afford better, but Ellie decided not to ask him why he was driving such a heap. He grabbed the steering wheel and shot her a look as the engine settled into its silken rumble, but Ellie stared straight ahead, at St. Juno’s rising gray and colonnaded above the sweeping bank of its front stairs. You could see the Mithraic temple it had once been, and the giant tau cross worked into the masonry above the arched front doors was a frowning algebraic symbol.

He didn’t drive like Ruby, which was a relief. In fact, his driving was damn near sedate . Ellie sat, ankles crossed demurely, and stared out the milky-edged windshield, charmglass growing a cataract just like outside Mother Hel’s office. After they turned left on Holyrood Street, massive oaks stretching their green arms overhead, he finally cleared his throat, and she almost flinched.

“So where do you want to go?”

I’m alone with a boy in a car . Dad would have a fit. Her heart was beating a little too quickly. She kept her face a mask. “I don’t care. Just not home.”

“Huh.” Then, very carefully, “How bad is it? At home.”

I should have known. “Pull over.”

“What?”

“Pull over .”

He hit the signal, slowed, and turned right. The network of residential streets around here was old and thickly grown with oaks, elms, and huge beeches, the houses small but expensive. It was far away from the castles of Perrault; it was more like Woodsdowne, where Ruby’s clan lived, under the slim iron fist of her formidable grandmother. Edalie de Varre took a slice of every import and export through the Waste, and the Seven Families did too. Everyone took a cut in New Haven, it was how business was done . . . and sometimes, Ellie had desperate thoughts of mortgaging whatever she had to, just to get sent away.

It wouldn’t be a solution. Nobody would help her for love, which just left credits. Of which she had a small—but growing—pile.

She counted them up mentally, again. Even with the new charming on Southking, they still added up to Not enough . And here he was, asking her about home . About how bad it was. Like he could have any idea. Like she was a charity case to him , too. Everyone coming off their pedestals and casting bread upon the stagnant puddle that was Ellen Sinder.

He braked to a stop in front of a small white-painted cottage, a violently lush bramble hedge greening early along its leaning picket fence, under the sunshine and leafshade. Ellie reached for her seat belt buckle, and was out of it in a hot second, reaching for the door handle.

“Don’t.” He didn’t yell, but the quiet force of the word halted her hand.

The engine sang to itself, softly running inside its carapace of metal and charmfiber. He hadn’t turned the ancient radio on, either. She could hear him breathing.

“You ask me about home, and I walk.” Her throat was dry. The bruise on her arm gave a twinge, every muscle in her body tightening, ready for action.

“Okay.” Did he actually sound frightened? Maybe. “Relax, Sinder. I don’t want you to walk.”

Why not? “Just don’t ask.” Well, didn’t she sound ridiculous now. “Okay?”

“I already said so. You think I drove all the way out here so you’d get out in a hurry?”

“I don’t know why you drove all the way out here, Fletcher .”

“Put your seat belt on.”

She did, wishing the burning in her cheeks would go away.

He pulled away from the curb, cautiously, and proceeded to drive through the neighborhood with mind-numbing slowness, punctiliously obeying every traffic law. She could actually sit and watch the world slide by outside the open window, a flood of fresh air teasing at her hair. It was a nice change from screaming while Ruby tried to kill them all, but she was already thinking about the hell she was going to catch if the Strep saw her getting out of someone else’s car. Or if she got home too late.

If it wasn’t that, though, it would be something else. Laurissa was always finding something wrong. It didn’t matter what Ellie did one way or the other. So what if she was in a car with a boy?

I should warn him about Laurissa. “So, Fletcher . . .”

“Avery. You might as well.”

Charming of you. “I didn’t even call you that at Havenvale.” She snuck a sideways glance, and found out he was smiling as he navigated the tangle of streets to the south of Juno.

“Not my fault. Hunter’s Park?”

“What?” Her fingers knotted together. Maybe he drove so slow so his conversation could leave her in the dust.

“Hunter’s Park. We can sit under a tree and hang out. Or if you’re hungry, we can swing through Dapper’s. I haven’t had a D-burger in a long time.”

Her stomach cramped. Dapper’s DriveThru had been one of Dad’s all-time favorite outings. He’d take her there on Thursdays sometimes, so they could get berrybeer floats. I need time with my favorite girl , he’d say. For that brief span of time he was all hers, listening to her chatter, telling her stories, a warm sun-bath of attention. “They closed.”

“Awww, nooo !” He actually smacked the steering wheel a good one, and Ellie’s heart leapt in her chest. She tasted copper. “ Damn it. I leave for a measly year and a half and see what happens?”

I’m sorry. For a moment the words trembled on her tongue. She shoved them away with an effort. Mithrus, what was wrong with her? She leaned against the door, and kept track of his hands with her peripheral vision.

He was silent, checking the traffic both ways on Silverthorn Boulevard. He waited a long time for a clear spot, his fingers relaxed and his face set. The pulse beat in his throat, and the T-shirt stretched over his chest. He was built pretty solid, not at all the weedy kid she remembered.

“You used to have braces, didn’t you?” Her own voice caught her by surprise.

“Hated ’em.” His grin was like Ruby’s, strong white teeth. Muscle moved in his forearm. “You can relax. I’m not about to kick you in the shins and call you . . . what was it?”

Ellie Belly . God, I hated that. “You called me a lot of names.”

“Yeah, well. You know about guys.”

Are you kidding? Juno’s all girls . “Actually, I don’t. So if you think that’s why I’m in the car—”

“Mithrus Christ, Sinder, I’m just trying to talk to you. Been looking forward to it ever since I got home.” He reached over, snapped the volume knob on the radio—a Marconi , that was how old the car was—and Baltus the Golddigger was singing about the sealed train coming around the bend.

“Baltus,” she said.

That earned her a startled dark-and-gold glance. “You’re into blues?”

“Dad was. He had a bunch of old vinyl rounds. Two-Tail Harry, the Montags, Screamin’ Jack Hellward—”

“Vinyl? Really ?”