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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] him. Please. I am sorry, she whispers. She shakes her leg again. We need the wolf for the battle. He is no use to anyone dead and rotting in the earth. Now get off me. She kicks at me with her free foot. Her heel smashes into my fingers. They spasm. It s just for a second that I lose my grip but it s enough: I fall. My feet hit first. The shock of gravity and contact thuds all the way to the top of my head, but I almost don t topple over. My knees bend. I stand my ground, then a second later I plop backward on top of the poker. The hard cold line of it is just to the left of my spine. I look up. They are gone. I couldn t save him. I couldn t keep him. No. I don t yell the word. I whisper it. I whisper it over and over again until it becomes sort of crazy chant. No. No. Nono. Nononononononono& . Everything inside of me empties like the sky. It s just this one massive hole that grows out of my stomach and keeps getting bigger and bigger, erasing all of me. Nick. Nick is gone. Pixie Tip Pixies don t care about your loss. They will not send you flowers or hold our hand. Forget about sympathy cards too. They d rather bite you. He s gone. His body bleeding and broken, his beautiful body, is somewhere I can t reach it. His deep, growly voice will no longer speak. I ll never feel his lips press against mine. His fingers will never twine themselves into my hair. I ll never be able to tease him about Snausages or fire hydrants. I spend a wile on the ground, just staring into the white sky; staring, staring, and seeing nothing. Something moves out of the woods. My hand reaches underneath my back, finds the iron shaft of the poker. It s cold from the snow. My fingers wrap around it, moved by an instinct that has nothing to do with my heart. She s wounded, Something says. I turn my head to the left but stay lying down. It s a female pixie. Her glamour is gone. She is all silver eyes, blue skin, and teeth. Her designer dress is tattered. She has no coat and no shoes. She s bleeding from the leg and arm. Another one comes from the right. I have to turn my head to see him, too. He s taller, still capable of his glamour. He s wearing workout clothes, wind pants, a green and white hoodie. He has deep circles beneath his eyes. They both look& & hungry. Wounded makes the kill easier, he says, and we like easy right now. I calculate my options. They think I m wounded and I m not. If I sit up they ll see the poker. I ll lose my only advantage, which is surprise. They slink toward me. I know how fast they can be, but they are slow. They act like cats, tormenting their prey. She lost her wolf boy, the woman says in a fake compassionate voice. Ice drips from her words. Poor defenceless thing. The hole in me gets bigger but the edges of it ripple with something dark and fierce. I think it s hate. It s their fault. I lost Nick because of them, because of pixies. The hate inside me is cold, but it pushes aside the sorrow just a tiny bit. It gives me purpose. It must be hard to lose something so smelly and furry and warm, the guy says. He leaps forward and lands by my head. His hand reaches out and wipes at my cheeks. His touch is hard. Oh, she s crying& .so sweet. Don t worry. The pain won t last too long. And anyway, we ll give you a whole new pain to think about. A crow shrieks in a treetop. The male opens his mouth. His glamour is suddenly gone and his teeth are like nails, pointed and deadly. Oh, she s shuddering, poor baby, he mocks. Nick is the only one allowed to call me baby. I think. The woman is almost to us, slinking up but limping too. I ll have to take the man first. Did she land on her arm? Maybe it s broken. How fun. The woman giggles. We could torture her. Falling from the sky as her wolf was taken from her wasn t torture enough? he asks. She imprisoned us. Nothing is enough, the woman hisses. He turns back to me. His eyes flash. True. He opens his mouth and leans forward. His hands come to both sides of my head. The drawstring from his hoodie dangles down, hits my cheek. He jerks my head back to expose my neck. Maybe vampire style? For a second I don t react. For a second I think, Maybe it ll be better this way. Maybe it ll just be better to give up. And yeah, maybe it would be. But not like this. I do not want this. My fingers tighten around the poker. The pixie leans in. The woman leaps forward. She lands beside me and moans, obviously too injured for fast movement. Good. Just take her, she orders. Hurry if you re going to go first. Shut up, he hisses back. His hands tighten on my face. His teeth come closer. That s me cue. I buck my hips up. My legs kick and my arm whips out from behind my back. The poker smashes into his head. His eyes bulge and close. I roll away and spring up. The female pixie laughs. Rage fills me. Nice surprise, little princess. She spits out the word. It will be so good to taste you. Right. Not a good comeback. I am beyond good comebacks. I am beyond pretty much anything. Nick s name echoes inside of me and that is all I hear right now, all I feel. I am on automatic. A quick glance assures me that pixie man isn t moving. Pixie woman follows my gaze. He s not dead, see? His chest rises. You re weak like your father. You don t have enough strength in you to kill us, do you? Just trap us, let us slowly go insane with need because you don t have the guts to do what you have to do. Do you know how many times I wanted to kill your father with his endless worries? But I couldn t oh no I couldn t because he was our king. She would be beautiful if she weren t so pixie. Her long black hair flows out with the wind. I trapped you because you re monsters. I force out the words. My father was a monster. Monster? Why? Because we admit to the pain we caused? Admit we like it? Instead of pretending we re some sort of warrior hero like your wolf. She sneers. Her posture tightens. She s going to jump me. He is a hero, He protects people from things like you. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |