(eng) Nina Kiriki Hoffman - LaZelle 01 by A Fistful of Sky (retail)

Author:A Fistful of Sky (retail) [Sky, A Fistful of]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

SHE sighed and gently pushed me away. “What do we do?” she asked Tobias.

“Normally, I would encourage Gyp to solve this herself, but she’s in an elegant trap I’m not sure she can work her way out of. The thing she cursed is stealing all her power before she can use it. And once her power has been channeled through another user, it is cleansed of its curse-charge and can be put to any use, witness the brownies she made with Flint. Also, there’s no obsolescence built into it; since the cursed thing worked this change on her with channeled power, it won’t wear off automatically.”

“What is that computer doing with her power?” Jasper asked. “Look what it already did. What’s it doing now?”

“You’re right. We should find out.”

“Muh—” I had something to say, but I couldn’t get it out.

“What?” Tobias asked.

“Duh.”

He reached for my forehead, touched it. His touch loosened the hold all the new rules had on my brain. I fought my way through a thicket of delirious shopping thoughts. “Don’t let it touch you.” Fire burned my tongue as I said the words—not the fire of the forbidden, but the fire of my rage, crackling through me again because Tobias’s touch set me a little bit free. I pressed my hand over his on my forehead.

“I thought that thing you cursed up yesterday was scary,” Jasper muttered, “but it wasn’t as bad as this. It might have changed what you looked like, but it didn’t tell you how to think and feel and act.”

I pressed Tobias’s fingers against my forehead even tighter. “Altria,” I said.

Something shifted in the hallway. It took me a moment to figure out what. My shadow changed from a shadow to something with color and shape. It rose from the floor and plastered itself to my back; I felt as if I were wearing a thin, clinging veil. “Oh,” she whispered in my ear. “This is different.”

“What?” Tobias said. “What did you just do, Gyp?”

Mama started toward me. Tobias waved her back with his free hand. I held his other against my forehead still. I didn’t want the surface me back.

“But we’re so weak,” Altria murmured. “What happened?”

“Altria,” I said.

“Where’s all our lovely power?”

“Altria?” said Jasper.

I felt her move against the back of my head, a sideways slide of fabric over my shoulders and back.

“Jasper?” she said. Her voice was faint.

“Can you help Gyp?”

“I can try. I have no strength. There’s nothing here to draw on.”

“Today’s curse child is stealing all Gyp’s power, and turned her into a puppet.”

She shifted against my back. I felt warmth against the back of my head, and in some weird way, inside my head, a breeze blowing over my brain. “Oh,” she whispered. “Nice design. Unpleasant execution.”

“Can you stop it?”

“This direct feed,” she whispered, too low for anybody but me to hear. She stroked my hair. “I want that. I want it too much. That would solve all my manifestation problems. I never thought of it, but now I’ve seen it, and I want it.

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