A Necklace of Water by Cate Tiernan Read Free Book Online

I wondered again what had happened to her and Daedalus during the rite.
    “Excellent!” said Thais. “No school!”
    I remembered to be Clio. “So I’m wasting a perfectly good illness. Way unfair.”
    Nan sent me a tolerant look, one I knew well. “The injustice. Go on back to bed, honey. I’ll come check on you in a little while. Is that tea helping?”
    “Yeah. I’ll take it up with me. Thanks.” I carried it upstairs, feeling like I was made of glass and might splinter apart at any moment. I’d never felt this bad from a regular hangover, not that I’d had many. One night of throwing up cuba libres through my nose had pretty much taught me how to cut off my liquor intake before it got to that point.
    This felt much worse, like my
soul
had a hangover. What had I done?
    I set the tea on my bedside table and crawled back under the covers. Thank God there was no school—the universe was looking out for me. I wanted to sleep for a year and then wake up to find life back to normal.
    I felt Thais coming closer, then heard her foot-steps on the stairs. I closed my eyes when she came in and gently sat down on my bed. If she suspected that I’d started studying with Daedalus, she would be so mad. And worse, so hurt.
    “Where were you last night?” she asked.
    I opened my eyes. “Racey’s. I told you.”
    She nodded. I couldn’t tell if she believed me or not.
    “Too bad about Luc’s face,” she said.
    I watched her expression, which looked guarded. As mine probably did.
    “Yeah. Bastard.”
    “Yeah. Anyway, Petra seemed to think it was only temporary. So—” Suddenly her eyes met mine, sharp and green. “Richard. I think he’s hot for you.”
    “What?” I practically yelped, my heart starting to race. “Richard and I can’t stand each other.”
    Except for when we were locked together, our mouths fused, our hands all over each other … But Thais didn’t know about that. No one did, except me and him.
    “I don’t know,” she persisted. “I saw how he was looking at you. He looked … like he wanted to eat you up.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I bluffed. “He’s so … supercilious. Like he’s always sneering.”
    “Yeah,” Thais said thoughtfully. “Well, watch him the next time he’s around. See if you notice anything.” She stood up. “I can’t believe there’s no school! I’m going out. Petra still looks kind of under the weather—I’ll see if she needs anything. What about you? You want some ginger ale or something?”
    “No thanks. I’ve got this.” I gestured to the tea. “What are you going to go do?”
    “Go to the grocery store, other stuff,” she said vaguely, heading out the door. “Hope you feel better—I’ll see you later.”
    “Okay.” Once she left, I snuggled down under my covers again, trying not to cry, knowing I would only feel worse if I did.
    So Thais thought Richard was hot for me. I had an image of myself lying on the cool wooden floor of his apartment after I had furiously and unsuccessfully tried to take him apart. After the hitting and screaming and crying I had lain there like a sack of laundry, and he had said, “I don’t love you. I don’t love anybody. But I see the value of you, the incredible worth of you, more than anyone I’ve ever known.”
    Now, lying here in my bed, knowing what I had done last night, how I had taken something beautiful and utterly destroyed it for my own purpose, I started weeping silently. Richard was wrong. I had no value and no worth.

W e didn’t have anything like Botanika back in Welsford. I’m sure occult bookstore-coffee shops existed in Connecticut, but I’d never been in one. I wasn’t totally comfortable here, still felt like an imposter somehow, among the nose rings and dreadlocks and pink and blue hair. There were some normal-looking people too. But I was pretty much the most boring person here.
    Botanika took up the whole front half, almost a block long, of a building that