Page 6 of Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

Agreeing would have been enough to get Antsy away from Angela. But it would also have meant telling the whole room she was sick when shewasn’t,and being sick could mean doing really awful, embarrassing things, like throwing up or peeing in her pants. If she’d actually been sixteen, actually been sick, she might have been able to do it anyway.

Or, more likely, she might have been able to tell the adult that Angela was lying, and she wasn’t sick at all, without the fear of upsetting someone she still saw as an older girl. So she bit her lip and shook her head, dismissing the offer as quickly as it had been made.

“Well, if you want to go lie down, I’ll come check on you in a little bit,” said Nichole.

Before Antsy could speak, Angela took Antsy’s arm and stood. She was the taller of the two by an easy four inches, and had a runner’s build, all long muscle and trained potential; she easily pulled Antsy to her feet.

“Sorry to have disrupted everyone,” she said. “Sorry, Talia. Sorry, everybody. Come on, Antoinette.”

She hauled Antsy along with her as she made for the door, and in seconds, they were in the hall. Angela didn’t let go or slow down, but kept pulling Antsy until they reached the library, a massive, rectangular room whose walls were lined in shelves, each packed to capacity with an eclectic assortment of books. The floor was a maze of tables and chairs, all shoved around by students to fit whatever seating plan came into their heads; they were never returned to their original positions.

Antsy had never seen an adult in the library. Supposedly, the school had a librarian on staff, but Antsy had never seen one, only Mrs. Fetterman, who taught English and did all the ordering.

Seraphina was waiting there.

She was sitting in a high-backed, overstuffed armchair with her back to the fireplace, which painted the edges of her in a warm golden glow and left the rest of her in merciful shadow. Antsy thought she could almost make out the outlines of Seraphina’s face, almost see the other girl for who she was, and not for the radiant haze of beauty that surrounded her wherever she walked. Only almost, though. Like the picture she’d seen on Angela’s mother’s refrigerator, Seraphina’s edges remained blurred, refusing to be clearly seen.

“Whattookyou so long?” demanded Seraphina, and there was nothing beautiful about her angry, waspish voice, which was tight and pinched off, making an accusation into an attack. It could havebeenbeautiful—Antsy thought every voice could be beautiful, if it was used the right way—but it had no interest in beauty. It was like Seraphina, denied any other way to be unattractive, had channeled it all into her voice.

“I’m sorry,” said Angela, letting Antsy go. Antsy remained where she was, frozen in the middle of the library, unable to muster the nerve to turn and run away. “She didn’t want to come with me for some reason.”

“Do you have any idea how hard it was to find a night when she wouldn’t have one of her little inner circle of selfishquesterskeeping an eye on her?” Seraphina leaned forward, until the firelight was shining on her face, and her voice wasn’t ugly at all. It was as beautiful as a mountain in the morning, perfectly shaped and sculpted and exactly the way it was supposed to be. No one with any sense would think anything about someone so totally perfect could be ugly.

Very distantly, Antsy was aware that this was Seraphina’s “parlor trick.” She was so beautiful that she could get anything she wanted, as long as she would just keep looking at you, keep paying attention to you, keep making you feel like the most important person in the world just because she thought you mattered enough to notice.

Angela was watching their interaction with something like awe and something like longing, blended together into a complicated emotion Antsy didn’t recognize. She wasn’t sure she’d recognize her own face in a mirror if she saw it just now. Whatever face she saw would be unutterably hideous,because she would still be seeing Seraphina’s image dancing behind her eyes, chasing every other bit of beauty out of the world.

“She’s here now, Sera,” said Angela, a fawning note in her voice.

“Yes, she is,” said Seraphina, keeping her eyes on Antsy.

It’s like a snake charmer,thought Antsy.If she stops giving me all her attention, she’ll lose me, and I don’t think she can get me again, not the same way she got me this time.

That didn’t change things, any more than knowing the world Seraphina had gone to did. A weapon’s a weapon, whether or not you know its name. Antsy remained frozen as Seraphina rose and walked toward her, every step a celebration of movement, every gesture so unutterably perfect that it hurt.

“Hello, Antoinette,” she purred, and for a moment, Antsy felt like she might actually die. “My name’s Seraphina. I don’t think we’ve met properly, have we? I’m sure I would have remembered a girl as pretty as you.”

“It’s the hair, it’s just the hair, I’d be plain as paper without it, you’re beautiful,” stammered Antsy.

Seraphina laughed. “I am, aren’t I? But what I’m not, in this world, isreal. I’m so beautiful that no one can focus long enough to teach me anything, and no one can treat me impartially. All the teachers give me perfect grades, even when I turn in blank pieces of paper. The only person in this world who’s ever told me no left a long time ago, thanks to the only person who’s ever raised a hand against me. At least on the other side of my door, I had a chance. I could have alife. A person can’t live like this. You can’t be a person when you never have to work for anything, can you?”

“N-no,” said Antsy. That seemed to be the answer Seraphinawanted, and when she was rewarded with a smile, it felt like her heart was going to burst.

“No,” said Seraphina. “You can’t. You can’t fall in love, because whoever you love will love you just because you want them to, and not because they want to. You can’t have a job, because who would ever ask you towork? And you can’t bereal. But you’re going to help me.”

“H-how?” asked Antsy.

“You can find anything,” said Seraphina, and for a moment, the echo of Emily in the cafeteria almost broke through Antsy’s enthrallment, almost allowed her to step away.

Only almost. “I can,” she dreamily agreed.

“Anything at all.”

“If it exists, I can find it,” said Antsy. “I can find lost socks and lost kittens and all sorts of things. But they have to really be real. I can’t find time after you lose track of it. That would be silly.”

“And no one here is ever silly, is that right?” asked Seraphina, and laughed when Antsy nodded enthusiastically. “See, Angela? It was always this easy. All we had to do was get her away from her little crew of self-appointed minders.”

“I don’t think she realized they were watching her,” said Angela. “I think she thought they were herfriends.”

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