Audrey paused. She didn't want it to sound all "oh-poor-me," but there was no help for it. "Sometimes I went to school, but mostly I didn't. I didn't have friends, I didn't get to do any of the normal things twelve-year-old girls do. I guess I still had hope that my brother would come back to us. Then, when I was almost seventeen, Alex sold me to a drug dealer. He wanted some prescriptions, and he didn't have the money, so he told the guy that he could do anything he wanted with me. The guy cornered me as I was coming back to the Edge. I've never been so scared in my whole life."
SO that was it. Kaldar clenched his teeth. How could you trade your own sister? How could you trade Audrey? Beautiful, sunshine Audrey. His mind understood, but the part of him that was a brother and an uncle seethed at the thought. That was not done.
In the Mire, he would've put Alex Callahan down like a rabid dog.
"The drug dealer took everything I had on me," she said. "And then he told me that I could either steal more drugs for him, or he would rape me and kill me. So I did it. He took me to a bad neighborhood to a drug house owned by a gang. I snuck inside, stole the drugs, and gave them to him. Then he beat me. The first punch knocked me to the ground, and he kicked me for a while. Broke two ribs. My face was messed up for months. Still, I got off easy."
"That's fucked up," George said.
The profanity startled her, coming from him. Audrey cleared her throat. "I came home and told my parents about it. My face was all black-and-blue. I couldn't have hid it if I'd wanted to, and I didn't want to. They did nothing. That night I decided I had to leave. From that point on, I saved up my money. I had to hide it very carefully because Alex was very good at finding whatever money we had. I actually left a few bucks hidden somewhere obvious so he'd find it and not look for my stash. Here." She reached into her pocket and pulled out the cross. "This was my grandmother's. She gave it to me when I was little. I stole it back from the drug dealer when I made up my mind to leave. It took me almost two years, but I finally escaped."
"What about your mother?" George asked.
Kaldar shook his head. George needed more experience. With a conversation like this, you didn't push. Audrey might catch herself and stop talking all together.
"My mother liked pretty things," Audrey said. "We moved a lot, and in every new place, she'd plant flowers and hang pretty curtains. She liked jewelry, makeup, and nice clothes. She'd make herself up just as pretty as she could be every morning: hair brushed, war paint on. We'd be stuck in some hovel, but she'd make it all spotless, plant flowers, and send us out to steal pictures to put over the holes in the walls. She would always make sure that my clothes were clean, and I had my hair just right, and my makeup was perfect. But she couldn't really deal with any kind of crisis and ugliness. She just pretended it didn't exist. When Alex hit rock bottom, it got really ugly. She'd let him have one room, and the rest of the house would still be perfect."
"She wasn't much help," George said.
"No. She ignored me until my face healed. When I finally gathered enough money and escaped, I went as far as I could and started to build my own life. It took me three months to get the house up, and when I did, for half a year I didn't do anything. I was just happy. By myself in my little house. Then I worked and got enough money to apply for a driver's license, and eventually I bought a car, and then I got a better job. I kept making improvements to the house. I was perfectly happy for years, then my father showed up. For the first few moments, I thought maybe he had come to tell me he was sorry, but no, he just wanted me to do a job for Alex. So I told him that either he could have me do the job for the very last time, or he could have a daughter. Well, we all know what he picked."
"I'm sorry," George said.
"Thank you," Audrey told him. "I didn't tell you all this as a play for sympathy. My life wasn't that bad. Many people have it way worse. My parents never beat me or abused me. I never had to sell myself on the street. No matter how low we fell, we always had food. I just . . ." She hesitated. "Gnome was my neighbor, and now he's dead because of me. That's a terrible thing, and I'll have to live with it. It's tearing me up inside. I just wanted someone to understand why."
"I understand," George said. "You didn't steal the diffusers because you were greedy."
"Right. I stole them because my father made me so mad, I couldn't think straight. I was selfish and stupid. I had daddy issues and a chip on my shoulder, and I wore all of it like a badge. It seems very small now, compared to Gnome's life."
Kaldar picked up the buckets and retreated a few steps. Gaston watched him with an amused grin on his face.
Pretty Audrey. Honed into a tool. Used like one, then shoved into a drawer and forgotten until she was needed again. He had the strong urge to punch the entire Callahan clan in the face one by one.
Snap out of it, you fool. A pretty face and a sweet smile, and you've lost all common sense.
Kaldar kicked some bushes, forcing them to rustle.
"Hurry up, Gaston!"
His nephew pushed to his feet, swiped the buckets off the ground, and croaked in a choked-up voice. "Yes, master."
Kaldar rolled his eyes and carried the buckets to the wyvern's mouth to feed him.
Chapter Eight
KALDAR squinted at Magdalene Moonflower's lair. The Center for Cognitive Enhancement and Well-being occupied a large three-story building in northern San Diego. The white stucco walls rose, interrupted by huge windows. The whole structure nearly floated off the pavement, sleek, modern, and somehow light, almost delicate. The salt-spiced wind blowing from the coast less than a mile away only strengthened the illusion.
He'd given Gaston a pocketful of money and sent him out on a fishing expedition with the locals. If Magdalene had dealings in the Edge, he would soon know all about it. But in the meantime, they had to approach her directly. The wheels of time never stopped turning; sooner or later, they would bring the Hand and the blond blueblood closer to them. The blonde troubled Kaldar. She wasn't on any of the Hand's rosters he had in his possession.
"Magdalene's building looks like an ivory tower," Audrey said next to him.
"Pretty much. You see it?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
Just beyond the tower, the boundary shimmered, cutting off a section of the building. A person with no magic would see only the tower. Kaldar and Audrey saw the tower and the long two-story-high rectangle of the rest of the building behind it. Magdalene operated halfway in the Edge.