“What are you doing?”
He pulled again. “If Hazel told you that you’re safe here, then she knows exactly what’s going on. She always does. I can’t believe I haven’t thought of her before.”
“Are you serious? She’s crazy!”
“Maybe, but she knows what she’s talking about.” He gave another pull. “Hurry up.”
Relenting, I slid off my stool and followed him toward the door, giving a quick wave over my shoulder at Marina and Farvin. “I guess we’re outta here. See you all in a bit, after I have my fortune read by crazy Hazel, apparently.”
Twenty-Seven
FINN DE MORISCO
“Hazel!”Schwint yelled her name before he’d fully pulled me through the glass doors. “Hazel!”
A shatter sounded from somewhere over to our left. I looked over at a teenage boy who stared, horrorstricken, at the shards of porcelain scattered at his feet—genuine fear plastered on his face.
A mass of black organza and lace swept across the store and halted in front of the boy. “If you can’t even handle some screaming”—she shot an annoyed glance over to Schwint and me, then focused her anger back on the boy—“then the Square ain’t no place for you to be. You’re liable to get eaten alive.”
The boy mumbled something that presumably was English. His mousy brown hair fell over his eyes as his stood there trembling.
“I don’t need any excuses. I need cash. You break it, you buy it.” Hazel stretched out her hand, palm up. “Thirty bucks!”
The boy continued to stand there and shake. I was worried he was going to piss in his pants.
“Well! Thirty bucks, boy! Don’t make me take it out of you some other way!” Despite the screaming, the corner of Hazel’s lips snuck up in a smirk. She was loving every minute of this. “I’m gonna count to ten.”
With a yelp, the boy dug in his back pocket and pulled out a tan wallet, stuck his fingers in, pulled out two bills, and shoved them toward Hazel. I noticed his fingernails were painted, each one a different hue of the rainbow.
Hazel snatched the bills up and held them to the light, as if checking to see if they were counterfeit. A little bit over the top for my taste, but I had to give her points for dramatic flair. She stuffed them up under the brim of her gigantic, tattered witch hat. As she did, it was obvious she was shoving it under the stringy gray hair sewed into the brim. I’d known that hair was fake!
Still trembling, the boy looked up. “B-b-b-but—”
“Dream on, little queen. You ain’t getting no change! Get the hell outta here before I turn you into a toad!”
Another yelp and the boy swiveled and tore off out the door, causing the chime to chirp shrilly.
Schwint’s attention followed the path of the boy. “Sorry about that, Hazel. I wasn’t trying—”
She waved him off. “I oughtta thank you. I’d have been lucky to sell that piece of crap for ten dollars.” She looked down in disgust at the pastel-painted shards. “Can’t imagine what kind of wimp that queer was, thinking about buying a statue of a unicorn anyway.”
At the mention of unicorns, Schwint’s eyes turned toward me, the laugh behind them clearly evident, earning him a dirty look.
Hazel looked out the window, her smile showing fully now. “Bet ya double or nothing he ends up strapped to a table in the back room of Restaurant tonight.”
I did a double take between Hazel and through the window at the path the boy had made. I hadn’t seen the back room of Restaurant, but it didn’t take much imagination to know what went on there.
Schwint pulled me back when I made to move toward the door. I looked at him, irritated. He just shook his head. “Not why we’re here tonight. We can’t save them all. Half of them came here looking for death, anyway.”
As much as his coldness bothered me, I knew he was right. True, he didn’t place the same value on human life that I did. Few supernatural species do. But if I were going to make it my mission to save every lost soul that walked through the Square, there would never be an end to it. And they’d seek out a similar end through a different path anyhow. But this boy, he seemed different. Young, timid. He came to the Square and looked at unicorn statues. That didn’t sound like a death wish to me, just a little boy playing on the dark side for a bit. Maybe a boy that couldn’t find a place anywhere else.
Someone will think he’s delicious.
My heart clenched. The voice rarely spoke to me in the Square, save to encourage me to take a short little Spor trip.
Maybe you should help. You’ve got enough magic in you to entice him, turn him over to Restaurant yourself. Earn some points. Live up to your legacy. Maybe take him to Porn. You could even use him for your own sickness there.
I groaned out loud at the idea, repulsion sinking into my stomach. I couldn’t believe I’d been willing to let him go. It showed how preoccupied I’d become. How powerless I felt. Turning from Schwint, I rushed toward the door, following the boy’s path. If I could catch up to him, I could use my power; the warlock was right. I could easily manipulate his thoughts, convince him nothing sounded better than going home to his folks and heading to bed early.
