Feast While You Can by Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta

Author:Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2024-10-24T00:00:00+00:00

XX

Jagvi held on to her long after the thing in the pit had gone. They made a strange sight, huddled together in the town square. Angelina rested her head on Jagvi’s shoulder, and Jagvi stroked the pale skin behind Angelina’s ear with her thumb. It was dark and there was no one else around.

“I need to sit down,” Angelina said finally. Her head felt scratched through by long claws, and her knees trembled from residual fear or exhaustion.

“Okay.” They both looked toward Old Timers, the only business on the square with its lights still on. Angelina was uneasy on her feet, muscles sore and head pounding. She could just see Francesca-Martine through the grimy window, her eyes fixed on the TV, and as she watched, even Francesca-Martine stood and yawned and made her way toward the back office. The town felt abandoned, like Jagvi and Angelina were the last living beings left.

“Let’s just sit in the hand.” Angelina gestured to the fountain in the middle of the square. Its wide palm beckoned.

“Really?” Jagvi looked skeptical.

“Didn’t you and Pat ever come sit in the hand?”

“No,” Jagvi said. “I think it only got cool after our time.”

“God forbid you ever be uncool,” Angelina said, and Jagvi managed to laugh.

“Then lead the way, hepcat.” She let go of Angelina. Angelina tensed, but nothing happened, no voice or anger or retribution.

Angelina stepped from the rim to her favored spot in the center of the palm, climbing over the still, scummy water to lean back on the middle finger. Jagvi hauled herself up onto the thumb, one knee pulled to her chest and the other foot dangling over the water. After a moment she put her hand on Angelina’s outstretched leg, wrapping around her bare shin, and gave Angelina a defiant look like she thought Angelina was going to mock her for it.

Relief rushed through Angelina. “It wasn’t me, Jag. You could see it wasn’t me.”

“Yeah,” Jagvi said, but she shook her head. “No. I don’t know. That was fucking scary, Angel.”

“Do you believe me yet?”

Jagvi stared down into the mulchy fountain water, scattered leaves littering its surface. “I don’t know.”

The cold stone was turning Angelina’s ass numb. The fountain had been in the square for Angelina’s whole life, built with rock from the surrounding hillsides. She put her hands on the chiseled groove of the pointer finger. She flexed her fingers and legs, rolled her head on her neck, a checklist of the muscles that were back under her sole control. Mine, mine, mine. “Can you talk to me for a minute?”

Jagvi turned back to Angelina with a hunted look.

“It doesn’t have to be about the thing,” Angelina said. “I can’t just sit here in silence, and I’m not ready to walk home.”

“Okay.” Jagvi rubbed her upper arm with her free hand. “What do you want me to talk about?”

Angelina tried to recall the thread of what Jagvi was saying before, the conversation the thing from the pit had stolen from her. “Tell me what you meant when you said Cadenze is more appealing without your dad.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.