Break of Dawn by Chris Marie Green

Author:Chris Marie Green [Green, Chris Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9781436266710
Publisher: Penguin Putnam
Published: 2009-05-11T08:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

THE SCREENING

WHAT a blowhard, Dawn thought as Eva caught up to her in the rock hallway, their footsteps heavy on the Moorish-patterned tiles. On the walls, electric lights flickered as they passed, casting color that had been leaked of life.

“That was brave of you,” Eva said.

“What, I’m supposed to be afraid of a fop?” Okay, she would admit that the Master had been sort of Gary Oldman-as-Dracula intriguing. But, come on, his shirt wasn’t exactly a testament to ultimate manhood. He had a quality that she remembered from pictures in high school English-lit textbooks—one of those romantic guys who wrote about Greek vases and shit.

And there’d been something about him. . . . Had she seen the Master before?

All the same, Benedikte really hadn’t unnerved her. But that didn’t mean she was just going to write him off. Never trust what you see.

“Dawn,” Eva said, gently grasping her arm and stopping her progress down the chisled hall. In the near distance, there was a sound like wailing, even though there wasn’t a breeze. “The Master didn’t invite you here so he could pop out of corners and make you shriek. He’s not a joke to be taken lightly.”

Dawn shirked off Eva’s touch, and her mother kept her hand in the air. The sharp keening from down the hall grew louder—it sounded like “home”—and disappeared abruptly.

“At any rate,” her mother said, “I appreciate how you didn’t put up a fight when it came to seeing Benedikte.”

“What choice did I have? I was already Underground, thanks to you. Might as well take the whole tour.” Dawn didn’t add that her options for being anyplace else were limited to Matt’s house and . . . nowhere.

A sense of alienation swallowed her, a mental anesthetic that removed her from everything. She couldn’t even feel the soreness of her post-smashup body anymore.

Eva began walking ahead of Dawn, then turned around to see why her daughter wasn’t following. “Are you coming then?”

“Coming . . . ?”

“For a tour.” Eva smiled. “I don’t mean to brag, but this place is going to blow your socks off.”

“Sure it will.” Living in L.A. had desensitized Dawn to so much that wowing her was unlikely. And with what she’d seen just in the Limpet house alone . . .

Anger ratcheted her body up another notch on the tense scale. She didn’t give a crap about the Limpets anymore. Or, at least, she shouldn’t. The fact that she still caught herself thinking about Jonah and Costin and all the rest ticked her off.

Dawn went to Eva, careful to leave a chasm between their bodies as they walked.

“Great.” Her mother sounded like Jac: chirpy and energized by Dawn’s cooperation. “We’ll be coming to the emporium first, where everyone hangs out.”

“Yay. I get to meet and mingle with your kind.”

“You’ve done it Above. What’s the difference?”

Dawn’s hackles rose, but she didn’t want to give Eva the satisfaction of seeing that the notion freaked her out. She changed subjects. “About Benedikte . . .”

Her mother slowed her gait.

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