Invisibility by David Levithan & Andrea Cremer

Author:David Levithan & Andrea Cremer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780141348872
Publisher: Penguin Books Limited (UK)
Published: 2013-07-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

MILLIE WASTES NO TIME in shooing Laurie and Stephen out of the hexatorium. She even makes a high-pitched shoo, shoo sound, which I don’t think I’ve ever heard a person vocalize before now. Laurie backs out of the room, giving me a thumbs-up as he disappears into the stairwell. Stephen lags, watching me. He’s trying to hide a frown, and I throw a smile his way. It’s a stronger smile than what I’m feeling, but I know he’s worried and I don’t want him to be. I’m where I have to be. I need to do this, even if I don’t even know what this is and I’d rather not be alone with a woman I barely know who says “shoo.”

Millie ends up closing the door to the hexatorium in Stephen’s face. He’d opened his mouth and I’m left wondering what he was going to say. It was probably just goodbye, but with my world turning end on end with each moment, I don’t want to miss anything. Not even a simple farewell. The more I learn of what’s at stake, what we’re dealing with, curses, magic . . . revenge, the more I’m afraid of what we could lose without any warning.

I push away the chill of suddenly being without the boy I’ve fallen in love with. The invisible boy.

“Dear, dear, dear.” Millie is pinching my cheeks, startling me out of my torpor and sending me back a few shocked steps. “No sallow faces here.”

I’m about to snark back, asking what my complexion has to do with spellseeking, but think better of it. I know she’s trying to be kind in a weird, grandmotherly way. I’m desperate to stop the rattle of nerves in my bones.

Millie gives me an indulgent smile. “I’ll get us some tea and nice cookies.”

Yep, 100 percent grandmother.

She vanishes behind a thick velvet wall hanging that I thought was a tapestry but actually conceals a hallway. She must be going to a kitchen, but what else is back there? Does she live below the streets of New York, alone with the hexatorium and the one-eyed bodyguard upstairs?

As much as I’m thrown by her sudden shift in attitude, it’s also kind of nice. Between Mom’s crazy work schedule and my excuses to be away from home and with Stephen, I’ve barely seen Mom the past few weeks. As I hear Millie’s muffled, out-of-tune humming, it strikes me that this is strange for her too. Her new exuberance for curse breaking was borne not only out of guilt, but also loneliness.

I rub my arms, shivering. The hexatorium feels more like a catacomb than a residence—a place to hide from the world and then be forgotten by it. And Millie’s lived in exile here . . . for how many years, I can’t be sure.

Certain these sober thoughts are giving me unwelcome sallow cheeks again, I move around the room, searching for distractions.

How can I make this easier? I’m a student. This is school. I know school. I can do school.

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