Page 88 of Persephone's Curse
“I’ve never met a friend of Maybe’s before,” Gillian said, leaning against a cabinet. “What’s she like outside of the store?”
“You don’t have to answer that,” Maybe said.
“She’s pretty cool,” I said. “She did a séance for us.”
“Oh, you’re the séance girl. Jon was telling me about you.”
“There are no secrets in the workplace,” Maybe said dryly.
“Well,” Gillian said, “notthisworkplace. Maybe other ones.”
“I’m going to get my coat. Text me if you need anything,” Maybe said.
“I will hold down the proverbial fort,” Gillian said.
Maybe wore her long coat with the hood again, and if we weren’t in the middle of Manhattan I would have said she was more suited for Middle Earth, a strange creature on a quest to destroy a ring. Her skin was very pale and her cheeks got red quickly and I found it was easier to not look at her. Looking at her was too distracting.
“I take it he hasn’t come back?” she asked after we’d walked a bit in silence. My phone was buzzing in my pocket and I knew it was Clara, admonishing me for not texting her yet, but I ignoredit. It was too cold to take my hands out of my pockets and type a response.
“Nope. Do you know anything about people losing their, like… abilities?”
“Abilities?” she questioned.
“Evelyn can’t play the piano anymore. I think it has something to do with the tear in the sky.”
“Huh. Like it’s…”
“I don’t know. Maybe… sucking something out of her?”
“Her life force?”
“Her soul?”
“Her youth?”
“No. Maybe. I don’t know,” I said.
“Maybe she’s just stressed. It seems like you’re all pretty stressed?”
“When she presses the keys, no sound comes out.”
“Thatdoesfeel like something more than stress.”
“Yeah…”
“What about Clara? Has she started painting anything else?”
“No, nothing.”
“That makes sense; she’s probably worried about painting any more prophecies. What about Bernadette? Is the medication still working out?”
“How do you know so much about my family?”
“When I like someone, I pay attention,” Maybe said simply, and I tried to ignore my itchy palms, the blush I knew was crawling up my neck (but, thankfully, hidden by my jacket).
We had, at that point, walked in a big square and ended up back in front of Dark Magic.
“Thanks for the walk,” I said.
