My Name is Not Peaseblossom by Jackie French

Author:Jackie French
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-05-12T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Time to return to the Leaning Tower of Pizza, before Gaela went to sleep. I TAPed back two hundred years before the apartment had been built, to get past the locked door, then TAPed two hundred years forward again.

I flew slowly towards the café. An owl hooted at me, annoyed that I’d invaded his evening patrol; and a few possums eyed me warily.

The cats were back on the pizza shop’s windowsills. They gave me identical looks of disgust as though to say, ‘Your kind never brings fish bits.’

I landed on the footpath, changed to human size and quickly pulled my hoodie over my wings. Was I doing the right thing?

And even if it was right, would Gaela forgive me?

I took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of hot pizza crust and anchovies, and opened the door.

Gaela was sitting at the kitchen table, drawing patterns with her finger on the tomato sauce-stained cloth. From here the sauce looked like blood. Her face was as blank as a concrete wall. She didn’t even look up as I walked in.

I shivered: she’d let the oven go out and the dawn breeze was cool. I shut the door, then pulled up a chair next to her. This was going to be hard.

‘Gaela . . .’

‘That’s my name,’ she agreed.

‘I followed Guyye after he left here tonight. I . . . I’m sorry, but I was worried for you.’ I gulped at the hard blank look on her face. ‘He and his friends were talking —’

‘About using my magic to enchant real-estate developers, public servants, politicians — whoever they want to influence to get power or money, or just for the fun of playing with humans. I’m not a fool, Pete,’ she added flatly.

I looked at her then. Really looked at her. Her selkie enchantment had never touched me, but I’d still seen her beauty, her joy in making pizzas and being in the sea. Now I saw far more. I saw courage. Gaela still loved Guyye. How could she help it when he’d used his glamour on her? But she hadn’t let that stop her from seeing what was happening around her. Even now, she fought against the glamour. And she’d won.

‘No,’ I said softly. ‘You’re not a fool.’

‘Guyye doesn’t even like pizza.’ A tear crept down her cheek. Suddenly her face looked like it might crumple. ‘I . . . I just wanted to believe he did. He doesn’t love me either. I watched those two banshees last night — their whole world was each other. And even when that first kind of love fades, an even stronger, deeper love will still be there.’ She took a breath, then said, ‘I don’t love Guyye. I’ve realised that too. If he walked in right now, I’d feel his enchantment again — I wouldn’t be able to help it. But enchantment isn’t love.’

‘But enchantment can make you love,’ I said. ‘I don’t mean you should put up with Guyye,’ I added quickly. ‘You need to be rid of him forever.

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