Ghost Ocean by S. M. Peters

Author:S. M. Peters [Peters, S. M.]
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9780451462695
Publisher: ROC
Published: 2009-12-17T05:05:03+00:00

“Good night, Babu,” she said.

He showed himself out, trying not to run.

Te leaned her forehead against the door. She waited for the creaking of the staircase to stop, then for the sound of Babu’s car choking to life and driving off.

“Why didn’t you tell him anything?” Jack asked her.

Te sighed. It was harder than she thought, keeping secrets from Babu. “I don’t know,” she said. She walked back into the room and plopped down on her bed beside Jack. The steam from the tea had fogged his glasses a bit. “Guess I don’t know who to trust right now.”

“Oh,” Jack said. “Are you really going to put Kistune in jail? He seemed okay.”

“I don’t know that, either.”

“What’s he done that’s so bad?”

“You remember Bird?”

“Yeah,” he said. Then his face fell. “You know, I still think she was pretty.”

That chilled her a bit. “Kitsune let her out of her cage.”

“Why?”

“Probably because she wished for it. That’s what Yun does. He grants wishes.”

“You mean like a genie? Or a leprechaun?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh,” he said. “Can you grant wishes?”

She was about to say no, but stopped.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know how this works.”

“Could you ask Cherian?”

Te returned to her place on the floor where she’d left her drawing board, shaking her head. Jack watched her.

“I’m sure he wouldn’t try to arrest you,” he said. “He seems like a good guy.”

Her fingers found the charcoal. Her eyes and hands continued the sketch while her mind wandered. “I don’t want him to know about this yet, all right?”

Jack shrugged. “Okay. But should we tell him you can make fire? And make sparkles appear when you sing?”

Te started up from her drawing. “You could see those?”

“Sure,” said Jack. “And you looked different, too.”

Not certain she actually wanted to hear this, Te prompted, “How?”

Jack squinted at her, as if trying to remember.

“You were glowing, like you had lights moving under your skin. Your eyes were this bright blue, and your skin was smoother.”

“Smoother?”

“You looked like you didn’t have a nose. Just eyes and a mouth, and all your skin was smooth like glass.”

Again, Te looked down at her hands, checked the lines, checked the scars, checked the imperfections in cuticles and fingernails.

“Actually,” said Jack, “you kind of looked like that.”

He was pointing to her drawing. Te moved her hands aside. Half-finished, the drawing showed a woman with streaming hair, wings like those of a dragonfly sprouting from her back. Te’s hands had drawn smooth, round shapes for the woman’s head, neck, and shoulders. All within the outline of her body was white and unfinished.

“Minus the fairy wings,” Jack finished. “What are you drawing, anyway?”

Te held the drawing up at arm’s length, running her eyes over the shoulders, the subtle, casual roll of the neck. “It’s my aunt,” she said. “My aunt Sydney. Just before I knocked her over, she changed. She looked like this.”

Jack shook his head, a grin inexorably creeping into his features. Te tried to focus on the picture, but eventually Jack’s vibrating enthusiasm got annoying.

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