Yew Queen Trilogy, стр. 6
“No, Hekla. Not Viv.” That years-old burn of embarrassment heated my cheeks. “I just need some rest. It’ll be…” I wanted to say fine, but I couldn’t manage it. Hekla truly couldn’t see the castle.
I fiddled with the friendship bracelet I had worn religiously since Hekla and I’d had our Nostalgia Night five years ago, a fun evening of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and arts and crafts. Maybe there was some strange reason Hekla couldn’t see it and I could. I was reaching, but I had to find out if I was losing my mind.
Hekla squeezed me again. “Let’s close up. Get you some rest. We could even close tomorrow too and go climb that bend over the river near Ashland City like you’ve been wanting to.”
Climbing sounded amazing.
A shrill beeping echoed through the morning, and Hekla and I swore in unison.
“The beignets!” Hekla gripped my arms.
“Go!” I shoved back toward the kitchen.
Black smoke curled up from the fryer. Hekla was on it like a true professional. We started a new batch just as Ami peered in to check on us.
“Crisis averted?” Ami blew a massive pink bubble.
A thought occurred to me. Ami couldn’t lie. She was physically incapable of it. When I’d tried to get her to lie once—for fun—to a tourist about being born a mermaid, her entire neck had gone strawberry and she’d nearly keeled over. Even if her brain thought it was nuts, if she saw the castle, she would tell me.
“Yeah, we’re okay here, but, Ami, can you come outside for a minute?”
Leaving Hekla busy with the beignets, I followed Ami to the cash register where she finished ringing up an elderly couple’s coffees.
Out front, my heart staggered through a beat as I pointed over Main Street toward the looming castle. Fog swirled around its towers, a fog that didn’t seem to be affecting any other spot in the vicinity. I shivered.
Ami looked left, right, then snapped her gum. An old lady walking her terrier jumped. The dog barked. Another loud gum snap. “I see the square. That’s where Todd asked me to senior prom. Great night.”
Pressing my fingers against my temples, I breathed slowly. “No, Ami. You see that castle. You do. You do.”
“I don’t.” Ami shook her head, losing color in her cheeks. “You’re scaring me. Can I go back to the register, boss?”
I put my hands on my knees and tried to breathe normally.
Neither Hekla nor Ami could see the castle. And none of the passersby had seemed surprised at the castle either; they hadn’t seen it. No one saw it. No one but me. I had officially lost what small amount of marbles I’d been given in this life. It was all over.
The bakery was empty except for the cute, old guy who ran the county museum and Ami. I flung myself onto the counter, letting my arms hang limply over the edge.
“Just promise me you’ll visit me in the padded room. Bring doughnuts.” The counter was cool against my cheek, and despite the joking, I truly was dizzy with the impossibility of the situation.
Hekla’s head popped out of the kitchen. “Are you going to take a sick day and go home? I’ll bring you food. You’re working too hard. Tomorrow, we will climb. You can work on your own for a couple hours in the morning, right, Ami?”
Ami nodded. “No problem. I don’t have another exam until Friday.”
A pack of twenty-something women—most likely a bachelorette party—giggled their way in, then stopped to goggle at me. It was time to get out of here.
“Fine. Yes. I’ll see you tomorrow. Or possibly never. Check on me.”
My purse flew from the kitchen, complete with Hekla’s flour fingerprints, and I caught it like the Green Valley softball champion I had once been. “Love you, friend!” Hekla’s concerned gaze softened the sharp edges of my fear. “Coren, I know what you think about Viv and all her tales, but this sounds like something you could talk to her about. I’ve always said, you never know.”
“I can’t call her. She’s in assisted living now and crazier than ever. I would only get her riled up.”
“All right.” Hekla wiped her hands on her apron. “But I will be texting you and checking up. I’ll get all our gear ready. You left your stuff at my place last time. Remember?”
“Thanks.” I gave her a halfhearted smile and left the premises before security could be called, not that we had any, but perhaps Hekla’s brother counted.
I would go straight home. I would not go up to that hallucination again. I would take a bath. Drink tea. Self-care the shit out of my crazy-ass self.
Yeah, who was I kidding.
Chapter 5
I managed to self-care it up until around 11 that night before passing out cold, exhausted from trying to relax. My dreams were the usual silly crap. It was the recurring one where I’m in my house, and suddenly the living room becomes the belly of a snake, and I have to cut my way out with a sad little rock.
Waking, I blinked in the dark and reached for my phone. Instead of grabbing technology, I came away with a handful of smooth leaves.
My eyes shot open, and I realized I was walking. Outside. Under a bright sliver of the moon. I had snatched a low branch