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immediately into sleep. Luis lay down nearby.
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Flexing his fingers, Corny watched the rubber tighten over his knuckles.
Already the sheen had gone off the gloves. They might be brittle by morning.
Carefully, he slid out one hand and touched the edge of Luis's duvet. The thin
fabric tore, threads fraying, bleeding feathers. He watched them blow in the
slight draft from the window, dusting everything like snow.
Luis turned in his sleep and feathers caught in his braids. One settled at
the very corner of Luis's mouth, fluttering with each breath. It seemed like
it would tickle. Corny wanted to brush it out of the way. His fingers
twitched.
Luis's eyes slitted."What are you looking at?
"You drooling," Corny lied quickly. "It's disgusting.
Luis grunted and rolled over.
Corny pulled his glove back on, heart beating so hard that he felt
light-headed.
I like him,he thought in horror, the unfairness of that on top of everything
else filling him with unfocused rage.Shit. I like him.
Kaye woke to sunlight streaming through large windows. Corny was
sprawledbeside her, snoring slightly. Somehow he had stolen all her blankets.
Both Dave and Luis were gone.
Her mouth tasted stale, and she was so thirsty that she didn't think about
where she was or why she was there until she went into the bathroom and gulped
down several handfuls of water. It tasted of iron. Iron seemed to be
everywhere, bubbling up from the pipes and sifting down from the ceiling.
Padding across the cold floors to try to find something to eat, Kaye heard a
strange noise, like a purse upended. The smells of mildew were more intense
now and she could feel her glamour being worn away. She looked down at her
hand, green as a leaf. Heading in the direction of the noise, she came to the
scavenged-sofa room, where a fire blazed in the grate.
A middle-aged man with short curly hair and an overstuffed messenger bag
stood near the windows. As Kaye walked in, the man started to speak. But
instead of sounds, copper coins fell from his lips to clatter and roll on the
worn wooden floorboards.
Luis put his hand on the man's arm. "Did you do what I told you?" he asked,
bending to pick up the pennies. "I know the metal tastes like blood, but you
just got to do it.
The man nodded and gestured wildly to his mouth.
"I told you, the cure was to eat your words. That means every single coin
that came out of your mouth. You're telling me you did that?
This time the man hesitated.
"You spent some, didn't you? Please, please tell me that you didn't go to
CoinStar or some stupid shit like that.
"Ugh," the man said, and pennies scattered.
"Go find the rest. It's the only way you're going to be cured." Luis crossed
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his arms over his chest, lean muscles showing through the thin fabric of his
T-shirt and along his bare arms. "And no more deals with the folk.
There were so many things Kaye didn't know about faeries.
The man looked like he wanted to say something, probably that he didn't
appreciate being ordered around by some gangster, but he merely nodded as he
took out his wallet. After counting out a stack of twenties, he gathered the
coins on the floor and departed without a sign of thanks.
Luis tapped the bills against the palm of one hand as he turned to Kaye. "I
told you to stay out of sight.
"Something's happening to me," Kaye said. "My glamour's not working sogood .
Luis groaned. "You're telling me that he was looking at a green girl with
wings?
"No," she said. "It's just that it seems so much harder to keep up.
"The iron in the city sucks up faerie magic quick," he said with a sigh.
"That's why faeries don't live here if they have a choice.Only the exiled
ones, the ones that can't go back to their own courts for whatever reason.
"So why don't they join another court?" Kaye asked.
"Some do, I guess. But that's dangerous business the other court's as likely
to kill them as take them in. So they live here and let the iron eat away at
them." He sighed again. "If you really need it, there's Nevermore a
potion staves off the iron sickness. I can't get you any right now 
"Nevermore?"Kaye asked. "Like 'quoth the raven'?
"That's what my brother calls it." Luis shifted uncomfortably, smoothing back
his braids. "In humans it bestows glamour makes us almost like faeries.Gets us [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]