When the bad guys are frightened that means that everything has gone to shit,Dan mused.Or does it mean the good guys are winning?He glanced at the two women. Theyweretrying to save Crenshaw. That was a definite “good guy” thing.Maybe good and bad are relative to where you stand, what you want.…
“I don’t want him to have to take any strange drugs,” Dan blurted out. “His body, his choice and all that, but addictionkilledhim.”
Axell reached out and took his hand as he asked, “He can come, too?”
Ellie looked at Prospero, who shrugged.
“Then I will go.” Axell nodded. “What do I do?”
They all left the castle together and went into the village. Passing the woods made Dan pause, thinking about seeing Prospero carrying Ellie through the woods like she was a victim. Honestly, Dan still couldn’t decide what he thought of either woman. They made him nervous; that was the whole of it.
He squeezed Axell’s hand and whispered, “Are you sure you are okay with this?”
“Ja.”
“I’m staying with you the whole time,” Dan said, half expecting an argument.
Axell just smiled. “To protect me.”
And although Dan felt foolish at the thought that he could be at all threatening, he nodded.
From in front of him, Ellie said, “We’ll be right outside. Just yell, and we’ll be there. I just think… he’s so arrogant. Get him talking. Play to his ego. Fear doesn’t work as well on him.”
“Fear is exhilarating to some,” Prospero said lightly. “Howie can be complicated.”
Ellie offered, “He liked pain.”
“Also fun,” Axell said with a sort of knowledge that Dan found tempting on its own. Axell glanced at him. “Fear. Power. Pain. Adoration. Many drugs we make in our own selves with emotion.”
To that, Dan couldn’t argue. He’d courted those natural feelings with gambling and sex. The things that were addictive were because of howthey made a personfeel.Dan squeezed Axell’s hand.Maybe his drugs were no different than my risk-taking. Maybe we are not that different at all.
No one spoke as they neared a different part of the village. Dan had thought they’d visited all the shops already, but Prospero led them to a shop that had neither sign nor display window. The building itself had a strange look to it, as if it had been blackened by something wet and sticky and fire-tempered.
“There’s no door,” Dan pointed out.
“There is,” Axell whispered. He spoke as if he were reading words Dan could not see. “‘Place hand in the spot to knock.’”
Prospero nodded, as Axell spread his fingers and pressed his hand on a darker section of the door. Then she and Ellie crossed the street and Dan held tightly to Axell’s hand as he followed him into a building that smelled of something sweet and acrid.
“Poppy and powder,” Axell whispered. “They have both things. Calm and energy.”
It took Dan a moment to realize that Axell meant opiates and cocaine. He could see Axell tense, whole body held taut like someone about to run. Then a voice came out of the shadows.
“Come in, my friends, come in.”
Dan’s stomach knotted at the sickly sweet voice, but he kept his mouth shut. He followed Axell, who glanced back and whispered, “Trust me.”
Once they were inside a cavernous shell of a room, where a pallid man sprawled on filthy pillows, all Dan wanted was to carry Axell out of here, run away, and maybe torch the building.
“I wondered if you would find your way to my door.” The witch zeroed in on both of them. “The gambler and the junkie. Your sort often get sent back.”
“Unless someone finds us useful,” Axell said, accent thicker than natural.
The dealer laughed. “Youarea pretty morsel.” Then he looked at Dan. “And you, cupcake, seem to be under the gaze of the headmaster. I didn’t think he liked”—he motioned at Dan from head to toe—“that.”
Dan tensed, not sure what to say. He knew that Sondre’s friendship wasn’t sexual.Right? Was he planning on using me? I thought we were becoming real friends.…Dan shook his head, chasing away such foolishness. He knew better. Sondre was his friend. The dealer was stirring insecurities.
“So what’s your poison?”
