Valiant by Holly Black Read Free Book Online

against a pile of pillows and bags. “I like needles. I like the feeling of the steel under my skin.” She looked at Val. “You can get a little buzz off shooting up water. You can even shoot up vodka. Goes right into your bloodstream. Makes you drunker cheaper.”
    Val rubbed her arm. “It can’t be too much worse than you scratching me.” She should have been horrified, but the ritual of it fascinated her, the way all the tools were laid out on the dirty shirt, waiting to be used in turn. It made her think of something, but she wasn’t quite sure what.
    “I’m sorry about your arm! He was in such a mood, I didn’t want him to get started about the faeries.” Lolli made a face as she cooked the powder with a little water over the hibachi. It bubbled on the spoon. The sweet smell, like burnt sugar, filled Val’s nose. Lolli sucked it up through the needle, then tapped the bubbles to the top, pushing them out with a squirt of liquid. Tying off her upper arm with pantyhose, Lolli inserted the tip slowly into one of the black marks on her arm.
    “Now I’m a magician,” Lolli said.
    It came to Val then that what she was reminded of was her mother putting on makeup—laying out the tools and then using them one by one. First foundation, then powder, eye shadow, eyeliner, blush, all done with the same calm ceremony. The fusion of the images unnerved her.
    “You shouldn’t do that in front of her,” Dave repeated, signaling in Val’s direction with a bob of his chin.
    “She doesn’t mind. Do you, Val?”
    Val didn’t know what she thought. She’d never seen anyone give themselves a shot like that, professional as a doctor.
    “She’s not supposed to see,” Dave said. Val watched him get up to pace the platform. He stopped under a mosaic of tiles spelling out “WORTH.” Behind him, she thought she saw the darkness change its shape, spreading like ink dropped into water. Dave seemed to see it, too. His eyes widened. “Don’t do this, Lolli.”
    The gloom seemed to be coalescing into indistinct shapes that made the hair stand up on Val’s arms. Blurry horns, mouths crowded with teeth, and claws as long as branches formed and then dissipated.
    “What’s the matter? You scared?” Lolli sneered at Dave before turning back to Val. “He’s afraid of his own shadow. That’s why we call him Sketchy.”
    Val said nothing, still staring at the moving darkness.
    “Come on,” Dave said to Val, moving unsteadily toward the stairs. “Let’s go scrounge.”
    Lolli pouted exaggeratedly. “No way. I found her. She’s my new friend and I want her to stay here and play with me.”
    Play with her? Val didn’t know what Lolli meant, but she didn’t like the sound of it. Right then, Val wanted nothing more than to get out of the claustrophobic tunnels and away from the shifting shade. Her heart beat so fast that she feared it would spring out of her chest like the bird in a cuckoo clock. “I have to get some air.” She stood up.
    “Stay,” Lolli said lazily. Her hair seemed bluer than it had a moment ago, shot through with aquamarine highlights, and the air flickered around her the way it did over a street in the hot sun. “You won’t believe how much fun you’ll have.”
    “Let’s go,” Dave said.
    “Why do you always have to be so boring?” Lolli rolled her eyes and lit her cigarette off of the fire. A good half of it went up in flames, and she dragged on it anyway. Her voice was slow, slurred, but her gaze, even from drowsy eyes, was severe.
    Dave started up the yellow maintenance stairs and Val followed him quickly, filled with an uncertain dread. At the top, Dave pushed up the grating and they stepped out onto the sidewalk. As she emerged into the bright, late-afternoon sunlight, she realized that she’d left her backpack on the platform with her return ticket still inside of it. She half-turned back to the grate and then hesitated. She wanted the bag, but Lolli had been acting so