Downside 04 Sacrificial Magic by Stacia Kane

Author:Stacia Kane [Kane, Stacia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, General, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9780345527516
Google: elef-42C0CEC
Amazon: B004ZZFOH0
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 2012-03-27T04:00:00+00:00

She awoke on the floor in her hallway, freezing cold, her neck stiff and her muscles sore. She’d— Shit, she thought she’d been in bed, hadn’t she gone to …? She didn’t remember. Had some vague memories of being home. Had a not-vague desire to get back to sleep, or to get back to the pipe room. Too bad she needed to get up, get to work, despite the pounding in her head, loud and fast like a woodpecker nesting in there.

Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. That would kill her, right? Or at least make her unable to feel, unable to think.

It took almost a minute to realize it wasn’t her head, it was someone at her door. Terrible! Her heart practically exploded from her chest, had he come for her, to talk to her, to fix everything? Had he— She jumped up, lost her balance, braced herself against the wall until her head stopped spinning. She’d slept in her clothes; her entire body felt fuzzy and dry. Covered in grime, like her soul.

The pounding didn’t stop. She finally got to it, noticed with gratitude that she’d at least remembered to lock the door, and flung it open.

Beulah.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

If Beulah noticed her confrontational tone, she didn’t say anything. “You didn’t come to school today. You said you were going to.”

“What? I just got up, it’s only—”

“Chess … it’s almost seven o’clock. At night.”

Oh. Fuck. She was supposed to go to the school; she was supposed to go to the Church, take a look at Aros’s files.

Beulah held up a can of Coke. “Here. Lex said you don’t really drink coffee, so I brought you this.”

“Oh. Thanks.” She took it, realizing she was dry as sand, and chugged some down. Her sinuses, her throat, her chest … every drop of moisture sucked out by smoke. Why was Beulah still standing there, why— Oh. “Um, do you want to come in? It’s kind of messy, I haven’t really cleaned …”

That was an understatement. But oh well. What did she care? That was the way disgusting slobs lived, disgusting people who couldn’t even keep friends much less anything else, who said horrible things and had horrible things said to them.

Beulah brushed past her—she smelled like spices, and a little like Lex, like his house, which only made sense—and sat down on the new couch. Chess would have to get another one. She couldn’t stand looking at that one anymore. Not when she remembered why she’d bought it, remembered how he’d gone with her to Cross Town to get it, where nobody knew them and they could hold hands in public. Remembered, too, how they’d tried it out when they got it home, how they’d—

She caught a glimpse of Beulah’s eyes but couldn’t hold them, not while she was running for the bathroom, when she knew she probably wouldn’t make it.

She did, mercifully, but the next few minutes were so bad she almost wished she hadn’t. She was fucking up, she was losing it, she had to get it together, had to.

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