Fort Lupton (39 page)

“
No,” Heather said. “They
are comfortable, warm, even cozy.”

“
But?” Tanesha
asked.

“
But what?” Heather
asked.

“
There’s always a ‘but’!”
Tanesha said. “They’re cozy and warm
but
. . .”

“
Oh, I see what you mean,”
Heather said.

“
And?” Sandy
asked.

“
But they’re dying,”
Heather said. “Slowly suffocating on the toxicity of the stuck
thoughts. The brain repeats the thoughts until there’s nothing else
to think. They wither and die.”

Heather gave her horrified friends a sad
nod.

“
We have to do something,”
Jill said.

“
What?” Heather
asked.

“
What can we do?” Sandy
asked.

“
I don’t know,” Heather
said.

“
Who does?” Jill
asked.

“
I would have said your
father or maybe Delphie, but they seem to be stuck in the Sea of
Amber too,” Heather said.

“
What about Paddie’s
sword?” Jill asked.

“
The Sword of Truth?”
Heather asked. “Nah, it’s been tried.”

“
What if I heal it?” Jill
asked. “That’s worked with these kind of things before.”

“
How are you going to do
that?” Heather asked. “Once you’re there, you’ll get sucked
up.”

Heather looked from face to face.

“
I’m sorry,” Heather said.
“This is one of those situations where the logic goes around and
around and around. If you’re human, you can go there. If you do
anything, you’re absorbed by the amber. If you’re any other kind of
being, the amber sucks you up.”

“
And what are you going to
do about it?” Heather raised her hands in frustration. “I mean
really, it’s not like people are going to stop thinking their stuck
thoughts!”

“
Who created it?” Tanesha
asked.

“
It was just there,”
Heather said. “Zeus doesn’t even know where it came
from.”

“
Zeus is a real guy?”
Sandy asked in a low tone.

Heather nodded.

“
Is he as rapey as he is
in the stories?” Sandy asked in the same low tone.

“
Worse.” Heather
nodded.

“
And Hera?” Jill
asked.

“
She has him under lock
and key,” Heather said. “Can’t get out.”

“
What if someone like him
set this up?” Tanesha asked.

“
No way,” Heather
said.

“
But it’s a good
question,” Sandy said.

“
What is?” Jill
asked.

“
What if someone set this
whole thing up?” Sandy asked. “How did we hear about
it?”

“
Fin came into our
bedroom,” Jill said. “He wanted a Titan, asked for Katy or me. He
asked for Jacob’s help. Keenan was right there and volunteered. Fin
also asked for Delphie.”

“
Okay,” Sandy said. “What
would that give someone?”

“
Lose Delphie and you lose
the chance to know what’s coming,” Jill said.

“
No Fin or Keenan, that’s
Queen Fand’s only sons,” Sandy said.

“
Manannán’s too.” Jill
nodded.

“
And Jake?” Sandy
asked.

“
He’d do anything for
Fin,” Jill said.

“
And if he’s gone?”
Tanesha asked.

“
He’s not here to fix
this,” Jill said.

“
That means someone thinks
he can,” Tanesha said.

“
Someone thinks Jake could
fix this,” Heather said and nodded.

“
Why a Titan?” Jill
asked.

“
Maybe it’s the
combination of a Titan and Jake that could fix it,” Sandy
said.

“
Fix what?” Jill
asked.

“
What did Fin say?”
Heather asked.

“
He said that the queendom
was rotten from the inside,” Jill said.

“
We need information about
what’s going on in fairydom,” Heather said.

“
And we need Abi,” Tanesha
said.

“
Edie doesn’t know
anything,” Jill said. “I’ve asked her.”

“
What about Crazy Aunt
Phy?” Sandy asked.

“
We need Ne Ne,” Tanesha
said.

“
James Kelly,” Heather
said. “He’s human.”

“
Val’s in
The Crucible
. She can’t
come,” Jill said. “But I’d bet Mike would.”

“
Mike’s a Titan,” Heather
said.

“
But first we have to
figure out what’s going on,” Sandy said. “Without Delphie
. . .”

The women fell silent for a few minutes.

“
I know what to do,” Jill
said.

“
What?” Heather
asked.

Jill just nodded. Heather looked at Sandy
and she shrugged.

“
You’ll let us know?”
Tanesha said over the phone.

“
I will!” Jill
said.

With that, she got up from the table and
walked out of the salon. Her stunned friends looked at each
other.

“
I guess I should
. . .” Heather said.

“
I’m off to class,”
Tanesha hung up her phone.

In a matter of minutes, Sandy was alone.

“
What the hell?” she
muttered to herself and went to start her afternoon.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday afternoon — 1:35 p.m.

“
Okay, I’m back,” said
Erik Le Monde.

Lying in her hospital bed, Wanda opened her
eyes to look at him. Wanda had her final knee surgery early this
morning. Because she was so frail, the doctor had insisted on
keeping her overnight. The Denver Police had installed an officer
on her door to keep an eye on her.

“
You’re supposed to wake
up,” Erik said.

Wanda just looked at him. He helped her
scoot to sitting and adjusted her bed. For a tall girl, she looked
tiny in the bed.

“
Plus, I brought a
hamburger and fries like you asked for,” Erik said.

“
Thanks, Dad,” Wanda
said.

“
You have to eat,” Erik
said. “You promised me — no relapsing in the hospital.”

“
I’m okay, Dad,” Wanda
said. “Just a little groggy.”

Through the window in the door, she watched
the police officer outside her room walk away. She took a bite of
her hamburger. When she looked up, the police officer hadn’t come
back.

“
I wonder where he went,”
Wanda said.

“
Who?” Erik wiped
hamburger juice from his mouth.

“
The fuzz,” Wanda
said.

Erik grinned at her use of his 1970s slang.
She gestured to the door, and he turned to look.

“
That’s not good,” Erik
said. “He’s supposed to be here because you’re a witness in the
case.”

“
You are too,” Wanda
said.

Erik looked at the door again.

“
Shit,” Erik said. He
turned back to look at Wanda. “I don’t know what to do.”

“
He probably just went to
pee,” Wanda said with a shrug.

“
I should check,” Erik
said.

“
Finish your burger,”
Wanda said.

Erik nodded. They ate their burgers in grim
silence. The policeman hadn’t returned. After a few minutes, Erik
stuffed the rest of his burger down his throat.

“
Listen to me,” Erik said.
“I want you to know that you are perfect in every way. There’s no
greater honor that I have had in my whole life than to be father to
Wade, and now father to Wanda.”

He hopped to his feet and gave Wanda a nod.
Just before he left the room, he said, “Love you, kiddo,” and left
the room.

Wanda stared at the door and picked up a
french fry. She dabbed it in the packet ketchup her father had
brought and then took a small bite. She did that five more times
before starting on a new fry. Dab of ketchup, small bite, dab of
ketchup, small bite. After those six french fries, she took a sip
of her orange soda.

She looked down at her leg. It was a mess of
tubes and bandages. They hadn’t closed it up because they wanted to
drain some of the swelling. They would close it up tomorrow before
she went home. She slipped the cap off the pink, sparkly ballpoint
pen that matched Sissy and Tink’s pens and tucked it under the
covers.

The door opened, and a male nurse came
in.

“
Are you going to kill
me?” Wanda asked.

“
I am,” the man said. He
went to examine Wanda’s IVs.

“
Why?” Wanda asked, and
watched him mess with her IVs. Wanda slipped her hands under the
covers.

“
There is no reason to
life, little girl,” the man said. He leaned back and looked at
Wanda. “Or should I say, boy.”

“
Fuck you,” Wanda
said.

A corner of the man’s lips raised in a kind
of smile. He took a syringe out of his pocket.

“
Must make you feel like a
big man to kill a little girl,” Wanda said.

“
Well, your father too,”
the man said.

As she had more than a hundred times in
eating disorder treatment, Wanda pulled the IV out of her vein. She
set her hands on top of the covers in a classic fake-out-the-nurse
move.

“
Your father is a big,
beefy man,” the killer said. “He’s not so small.”

“
So I’m just the plus
one?” Wanda asked.

“
Sure.” The man injected
the syringe into her IV. “Thanks for not making a fuss.”

“
You’re kinda doing me a
favor anyway,” Wanda said.

“
Nice that you see it that
way,” the man said.

“
But my dad
. . .” Wanda said. “You don’t really have to
. . .”

Wanda dropped back on the bed. Her extensive
experience on the eating disorder unit had taught her how to fake
passing out from meds that didn’t actually get into her system
because she’d pulled out her IV.

The man leaned over her.

She jammed her pink, sparkly pen into his
left eye. The man screamed and grabbed at his eye.

“
Bullseye!” Wanda
cheered.

Furious, the man put his big, strong hands
around Wanda’s neck and pressed down. Wanda fought like hell. She
scratched and hit at him, but he was too strong. She used all the
tricks Colin Hargreaves had taught her. She yanked at the man’s
ear, scratched at his remaining eye, and hit his head with her
fists.

Nothing worked. The world’s colors faded to
grey.

The last thing Wanda saw was her pink,
sparkly pen in this angry guy’s eye.

And her father coming up behind him.

Everything went black.

“
Wanda! Wanda!” Her
father’s voice reached inside the darkness. “Oh God, he’s killed my
daughter. Oh God, Wanda.”

She opened her eyes and smiled.

“
Bullseye,” she
said.

Or at least she thought she said it. The
next thing she knew, an oxygen mask was clamped over her face and a
lot of nurses fussed around her. The whole time, her eyes were on
her father. His face was battered and swelling. He was bleeding
from what looked like a stab wound. A doctor was looking at his
wound. The police broke her view when they dragged the killer, and
her pink, sparkly pen, out of the room.

After a few minutes, Erik waved away the
doctor to return to her side. He took her hand and gave it a
squeeze.

“
Good to see you, Wanda,”
he said.

“
You too, Dad,” Wanda
said.

“
I think you need a new
pen,” Erik said.

Wanda grinned.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday afternoon — 4:25 p.m.

New York City, New York

Sissy stood in the practice room alone.
While she loved every single thing about being an apprentice to a
big ballet company, she had always practiced alone. Here, she was
learning so much that she liked to take the breaks between classes
to practice by herself. At least that’s what she told herself.

It was apparent right away that Sissy was a
lot better than the other kids. No one was really mad at her, and
certainly they hadn’t said anything to her. She just felt their
eyes on her. She was thirsty for the knowledge and practice but the
more she did, the more she felt left out. Plus, the other kids went
to the dorm on their break.

Noticing the time, she grabbed her towel and
started across the large practice room. Their next session started
at 4:35 precisely. She just had enough time to use the bathroom
before the other kids got back.

She was about a foot from the door when a
young man wearing street clothing came in the room. He didn’t look
very big or very small. He was just suddenly there. She jumped back
with surprise.

“
You Sissy?” the young man
asked.

She nodded, and he pulled a handgun out of
his pocket.

Sissy attacked.

Colin had taught them exactly what to do in
this situation. She kicked at the young man’s knees, but she was
wearing her ballet slippers. Her kicks didn’t seem to affect him at
all. He raised the gun to fire at her, and she hit his face with
her elbow.

The handgun fired into the floor. The noise
was deafening. Sissy heard footsteps in the hallway.