Midnight Dolls by Kiki Sullivan

Author:Kiki Sullivan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-06-24T16:00:00+00:00

17

I skip dinner that evening, because I don’t want to face Caleb. Besides, I don’t have much of an appetite. My insides feel like Jell-O, and I have the uneasy feeling that something terrible is about to happen. All has been quiet in Carrefour today, but I realize I don’t believe that the evil lurking in the shadows has really disappeared.

I wander outside just after nightfall and find Boniface carefully trimming my mother’s roses in the darkness.

“What are you doing out here so late?” I ask.

“Missing your mother,” he says. “On nights like tonight, I find myself thinking of all the things that could have been.”

“Nights like tonight?”

“Nights where the world feels unsettled,” he says. “Don’t you feel it?”

My heart thuds a little harder. “I thought it was my imagination.”

He looks off into the distance. “No. I think you just have very good instincts, my dear.” He turns back to me and pulls a tiny sachet, not more than an inch square, from his pocket. It’s pale purple and laced with gold ribbon. “I’ve been waiting for the right time to give this to you,” he says, handing it to me. “Your mother made me promise that if there were ever a threat to your life and safety, I would make you one of these from the flowers and herbs she loved most. It has Rose of Life petals to help keep her close to you, sage to sharpen your wisdom and clarity, and fig leaves for luck and protection. She was very specific about the ingredients.”

I lift the sachet to my nose. It smells strongly of my mother’s favorite flower, the hybrid she created with my dad. “Thank you,” I say.

“Keep it close to your Stone of Carrefour, and when the time is right, I believe you’ll find the answers you’re meant to find.” He reaches over and ties it firmly onto my long necklace, just beside my stone.

“But . . . how?”

“By trusting yourself,” he says. He kisses me gently on the cheek, and as he walks away, my Stone of Carrefour heats up and buzzes against my chest, as if it’s directly reacting to the sachet that now hangs beside it.

I sit by myself in the garden for a long time after he goes. There are so many questions swirling in my head about what to do. Peregrine and Chloe seem to believe the threat to the town is gone right now, but I’m becoming more and more confident that they’re being naive. And the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that I need to talk to my sister queens about the possibility of reaching out to Main de Lumière. Some could be your allies, Megan had said during the possession ceremony. I believe she was telling the truth, and if there’s a chance she’s right, I need to look into it.

I find myself thinking of the brief andaba training my father gave me in the garden. “Con mi sangre, regreso a su intención,” I say aloud, holding up my andaba cuff.

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