It’s a sign. Another sign—Evander was thrilled.
It’s happening this time! It’s right! Everything is lining up for me. Planets. People. I know that if I harvested seven duck hearts and threw them, they’d land right in a row.
Simon fucking Snow . . .
Here.
To seeme.
The Chosen One.
36
PENELOPE
“Why are you being so quiet?”
Shepard looks away from the window and smiles at me. “I thought I was supposed to be quiet on the train.”
“You are,” I say. “But usually you aren’t.”
He holds his Cornish pasty out to me. “Are you sure you don’t want a bite of this?”
I shake my head.
“I can’t believe you can just get these anywhere,” he says.
“You don’t have pasties in Nebraska?”
“No. We have so much lesspie,in general. It isn’t fair. I guess we have runzas . . .”
“What’s a runza?”
“This”—he smiles again, pointing the pasty at me—“but with cabbage.” He takes another bite, then looks out the window. I’ve never seen Shepard like this before; I think he might bepensive.
“Are you afraid?” I ask.
His face jerks back to me. “Afraid? No. What would I be afraid of?”
“Well, wearegoing to meet some shady dark creatures in their lair . . .”
“Why do you assume every magickal being is dark?”
“Asks the man who thought he should befriend a demon.”
Shepard sighs.
“Is that it?” I ask. “Are you afraid to see the demon again?”
“No,” he says. “Should I be?” He looks thoughtful. “Maybe I should be . . . but it’s not like I can getmorecursed . . .” He shakes his head. “Anyway, no, I’m not afraid. We aren’t even summoning it today.” He looks at me and suddenly seems very afraid indeed. “You weren’t planning on summoning ittoday,were you?”
“Morgana, no,” I say. “I’m not cold-calling a demon. Let’s figure out the details of the curse first. Hopefully Kipper’s mother can read your arms—and hopefully they say something useful. What if, after all this, the tattoos are just decorative?”
I keep saying “hopefully,” but I’m not feeling especially hopeful about this trip. Kipper didn’t give us any reason to be optimistic last night. Once she got over the shock of seeing Shepard’s arms, she basically told him what he already knew: that he’s up the River Styx without a paddle.
But she clearlylikedhim. (Everyone likes him.) She invited him, a perfect and obviously cursed stranger, to come to her family home in Croydon this morning, so her mum can take a look. Apparently forging and translation is a family business, and Kipper’s mother is more fluent in Demonic languages than she is.
I think Kipper just wanted to see Shepard again.
