Marya probably wouldn’t ever talk to her again.
If Trig hadn’t been there, if Stevens hadn’t been there . . . Nico’d never Borrowed from Cami before. Ever. But still.
The coffeemaker gurgled, and a thread of heavenly scent stitched every other fragrance together. “It may be possible to buy you passage to another town. A place to hide.” Gran tapped one finger alongside her nose. “But they have very sensitive noses, les Blancs.”
Like dogs, you mean? “L-leave N-New Haven?” Go through the Waste, maybe? To another province, another city?
It was another nightmare. Only this time, she couldn’t wake up.
“Perhaps. I don’t know, Camille. And it is no guarantee.” She snapped at the pancakes again, and they obediently charmed themselves off the griddle and onto a waiting, charm-warmed yellow plate. “Les Blancs n’oublient rien, ma cherie.”
Her accent wasn’t the same as Sister Mary Brefoil’s, but Cami had no trouble with the words.
Les Blancs, they forget nothing. “Is . . . ” She reached blindly for her milk glass. “Is th-th-there . . . I m-m-mean, h-how m-many of th-them are th-there?”
“They are carrion.” A slight wrinkle of Gran’s aristocratic nose. “There are as many as the suicides and the desperate will support. If a woman survives long enough in their halls, she may become a Queen herself. Like ants, or another insect. It is . . . not easy. Or pleasant. Good morning, ma petite fille.”
Ruby halted in the kitchen doorway, yawning, her hair a tangle of bright copper curls. She blinked and stared at Cami, pulling up the strap of her blue pajama tank-top.
She’s going to be so mad. Cami searched for another apology, her tongue tangling over itself. “R-r-r-ruby—”
Ruby let out a whoop and leapt across the intervening space, flinging her arms around Cami. “You bitch!” she finally yelled, laughing, attempting to shake Cami and kiss her cheek at the same time. Gran made a spitting noise and rescued the dangerously toppling milk glass. “I should have suspected when I smelled bacon! Goddamn I’ve missed you!”
It was classic Ruby. Gran sniffed. “Language at the table must be cleaner, Ruby. Let the poor girl eat. She has enough problems.”
“Did you hear about Ellen?” Ruby could barely contain herself, plonking down in her usual cane-bottom chair at the breakfast bar. “Her dad. Train crash, out in the middle of the Waste. The Strep has custody. It’s horrific.”
The bottom dropped fully out of Cami’s stomach. Mithrus. Oh, Ellie. She stared at her plate, sticky with blackcurrant jam and half-eaten pancakes. “Oh.”
“Ruby!” Gran didn’t quite raise her voice, but her tone could have sliced through the walls. Every dish in the kitchen rattled. “Do not add bad news to her troubles!”
Ruby’s jaw dropped. Her eyes narrowed, and Cami braced herself for the explosion. Gran turned back to the coffeemaker and the griddle, the straight bar of her spine somehow expressing disdain and disappointment.
“Mithrus Christ,” Ruby breathed. “Cami, honey, what kind of trouble are you in?”
The heat and prickling behind her eyes almost overflowed. She took a deep breath.
Maybe, just this once, Ruby would let her talk.
“I f-f-found out wh-who I am.”
Gran vanished halfway through Ruby’s breakfast, reappearing in a long black coat and a jaunty blue hat perched on her pale, rebraided hair, and left them with the dishes. “Sparkling,” she said sternly, and Ruby waved a hand. “And no, your friend will not do them all while you chatter.”
“Mais oui, chère grandmère, mais oui.” Ruby’s accent was cheerfully atrocious, and Gran sniffed again before sailing through the kitchen without even glancing at Cami, moving through the utility room and into the garage. An engine roused with a sweet soft purr, the garage door rumbled unhappily, and she was gone.
“Thank God for bridge club. If she had to stay home Saturdays I’d kill myself.” Ruby applied herself to the rest of her breakfast. “What did Gran say? I mean, really say?”
“Th-there m-might be a w-way.” I’ll have to leave New Haven. She shivered. She knew there were other provinces outside the city’s borders, but it was like knowing there was a moon. She’d never expected to visit. “It’s d-dangerous.”
“Well, if anyone can get you through the Waste or overseas and into another province, the Valhalla Bridge Club can. But what about Nico? Why doesn’t he get off his ass? Family’s got to be good for something, right? Plus, you’re Vultusino. This charm-white bitch, queen, whatever—seriously, Cami, you think you might be related?”
Maybe I just belong to her. She shivered, staring at her coffee cup. “I d-d-don’t know. T-t-tor s-s-said—”
“Oh, yeah. The garden boy. I’m with Nico on this one. Shame, too. He had nice shoulders.” Ruby crunched at bacon with her strong white teeth, so like her grandmother’s. You could see other similarities, their high cheekbones and long eyelashes.
What would it be like, to look at someone and see her own face reflected? Or even just a piece of it? It nagged at her. Something familiar; if she could just sit and think she could tease it out.
Why bother? You know what you have to do.
But oh, she didn’t want to.
“Seriously, though,” Ruby had her stride now. “Why doesn’t Nico just deal with this?”
He can’t. Besides, he . . . She ran up against the memory of his teeth snapping close to her throat, his arms stiff as he held her down and away, struggling with himself and the bloodrage. The screams as Stevens locked his blood-maddened Vultusino in a safe room, until the hunting insanity wore off. But there was a simpler reason.
She found out she could say it, after all. “I’m n-n-not F-f-f-family.” I wasn’t ever supposed to be here.
Ruby actually stopped chewing and stared. After a full ten seconds of silence, Cami began to wonder if she had, in fact, struck her speechless. It would be the first time ever.
She’d dreamed of such an occasion for years, but it didn’t seem quite worth it now.
Ruby took a giant mouthful of hot coffee, winced, and swallowed. “He said that?” Very quietly, and her dark eyes narrowed.
“N-n-no. B-b-but—”
“But nothing. You’re his family, dammit, and if he’s not gonna step up it’s his loss. You’re my family too, Cami, and if these child-beating weirdos want you, they’re going to have to come through me.” She nodded, coppery curls falling in her face. That’s that, the motion said, now don’t be silly, Cami. I know best, I always do.
Except this time Ruby didn’t. What if the dogs came while she was here? Or something worse? Gran’s house was seriously charmed, but so was the house on Haven Hill. The White Queen had reached through the mirror with . . . something. If she could do that, break into the Vultusino’s fortress, what else could she do?
What could she do to Ruby? Or to anyone Cami turned to?