Three Kinds of Lucky by Kim Harrison

Author:Kim Harrison [Harrison, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2024-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

18

I reached for the fruit on the tree, not knowing what it was, only that I was hungry. I hadn’t eaten in years, and the yellow, pear-like orb would be enough to keep me going. The warmth of the sun was hot even through the shade, its piercing rays burning where it made it past the delicately leafed branches. I’m dreaming, I mused as I stretched onto my tiptoes, distantly feeling the aches that the lumpy couch had given me.

But as my fingers grasped the golden fruit, the firm flesh grew spongy and the tender skin split to show a black rot within. Disgusted, I recoiled. With a sodden pop, the fruit hit the ground with a splat. My arm swung into the sun and fire pierced me. I stifled a cry, jerking deeper into the shade. Shocked, I held my scorched hand as the world past the shelter of the tree burned in a white light.

“You tried to kill me,” a hissing gurgle whispered, and I spun.

“Darrell!” I jumped, only now seeing her sitting against the tree, much as I’d left her propped against her desk. Her form was ragged and indistinct; only her eyes and beaded hair held form as she rose—the motion far too supple for even Darrell’s grace. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t save you,” I added, and her dark, green-flecked eyes fixed on mine. Darrell had brown eyes . . .

“You never tried to save me,” Darrell scoffed, her gaze on the lodestone about my neck. It felt hotter than the sun against me, even as the stone flashed a cool green. “You would have me dead,” she insisted, voice rasping.

I held my burned hand, retreating until the sun threatened to scorch my back. “I tried to save you,” I insisted. It was my dream, and I’d be damned if I let myself be guilted into taking responsibility for her death. “There was shadow,” I said, justifying my actions. “I had to leave.”

Darrell lifted a thin, indistinct, smoke-fingered hand to the fruit. “Shadow,” she said, her lips twisting as the fruit split and fell to the ground, ruined. “You fled!” Angry, she came forward, her hands fisted at her sides. “Are you a coward or simply a cretin?”

“I had to leave!” I backed up, crying out when the sun found me. “There was so much dross,” I pleaded as the sun’s claws raked me. “Darrell, I’m so sorry.”

Expression grim, Darrell relented, her beaded skirt clinking as she retreated to give me room to inch out of the sun—but just. “And now that I have found you,” she said bitterly, gaze upon my lodestone, “you leave me to starve in the sun.”

I wasn’t sure who this image of Darrell was supposed to be anymore, what my subconscious was trying to tell me. “Who are you? What do you want?” I whispered, and the sensation of icy daggers through my mind eased.

She was looking at the knotted cord about my hair in avarice. “Not a coward. A cretin,” she pronounced with a bitter disappointment.

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