He beat her to it. ". . . and be pleasant and agreeable."
"That will take a miracle." She had expected him to add "and sleep with me." The way he put it left her some wiggle room.
"You're right," he said somewhat mournfully. "We did agree on human limits."
"And be pleasant and agreeable," she bit off before he changed it and backed her into a corner. "I so swear."
"Hopeless. The clumsiest oath I've ever heard. You've had no education at all, have you?"
She sliced her palm. Magic burst from her in an exhilarating rush, surprising in its intensity. The stones rose, shivering once more, and fell. She might not have his education, but she had plenty of power and a brain. She would handle him.
He nodded matter-of-factly. "You're mine."
She felt sick to her stomach. "We'll start on the weekend," she said, drawing herself to her full height. "Two days from now. During the week, I have to work."
He turned and walked away without a word.
Rose stared after him. He was the sword that had just sliced her life in half.
The screen door banged open. She turned to see both boys on the porch. Jack glared after the blueblood. His eyes were angry. "You shouldn't have promised, Rose!"
"I didn't have a choice." She strode back to the porch. "He is very, very strong."
"What if he takes you away from us?"
"He won't." Rose looked after the retreating gray figure. "He's a noble. He's used to people falling over themselves to cater to him. But we're not his servants. We're Edgers. He might be stronger, but we're smarter. We just need to stump him with a challenge. Don't worry. I'll think of something."
"Can we hide in the Broken if we lose?" Georgie asked.
She sighed. "That was very smart, Georgie, but no. We can't. First, my promise is binding. If I break it, it will come back to me in a very bad way, and I'm not sure being in the Broken would keep it from catching me. Second, some people from the Weird can enter the Broken for a few days without consequences. Even if we ran, there's a chance that he would find us . . ."
And he was a lot stronger, too. Just the breadth of his shoulders alone showed the kind of strength she had no hope of countering. She had a feeling that if she shot him, he'd spit the bullet out, sling her over his shoulder, and drag her all the way into the Weird.
What she really needed to do was to stay home to make sure she could pick the kids up from the bus stop and watch over them. But they had to eat, and missing a day of work wasn't an option. Her job, as bad as it was, was precious. Only businesses with ties to the Edge hired Edgers - the rest wanted a social security number and a driver's license, and hers wouldn't stand up to scrutiny. There were places unaware of the Edge that hired illegal aliens, but competition for those jobs was fierce, and they mostly wanted muscle for manual labor. She could be fired in a blink of an eye, and there would be a line of Edgers ready to take her place.
"It doesn't matter," Rose said firmly. "We won't run. This is our home. We're going to do what Edgers do best: we'll fight dirty. But we don't have to do anything about him till this weekend. For now, we just have to watch ourselves and think. Grandma can't pick you up today. She's off checking on something with Adele Moore deep in the Wood. And I have to catch a ride with Latoya, because our truck is out of gas. When you get off the bus, I want you to come straight home. Do you understand? Don't talk to anyone, don't linger, come straight home, get inside, lock the door, and don't open it to anybody. Especially him." She nodded in the direction the blueblood had gone. She fixed them with her stare. "Repeat it back to me."
"Come straight home," Georgie said.
"No lingering," Jack said.
"Get inside and lock the door," Georgie said.
"Don't let the blueblood in," Jack finished.
Rose nodded. It would have to do.
ELSIE Moore hummed softly to herself. It was near eleven o'clock. Time for the brunch. It was going to be a very special brunch, too: she wore her pretty blue dress and had her favorite baby blue silk ribbon in her hair. The sun still shone bright, the weather was pleasant, the garden flowers pretty, and the row of stuffed animals gazed at her with adoration in their plastic eyes.
Elsie smiled prettily, taking her seat at the green plastic table. "Mr. Pitt, Mr. Brosnan, Mr. Clooney, Mr. Bean, how do you do? Shall we have some tea and biscuits? It's always a pleasure to see you, Mr. Bana."
The bears looked suitably impressed with her excellent manners. As they should be - she was a lady.
She picked up the tiny plastic teakettle with little pink roses on the side and held it over Mr. Brosnan's cup. The soft fuzzy paws reached for it.
She tsked. "Mr. Brosnan, I am shocked at your manners. You must wait until I've served the tea to all the gentlemen."
The bear dropped his paws, looking ashamed at being chastised.
A nasty feeling crept down her back, as if someone had poured cold goose fat onto her skin. She gritted her teeth, trying to ignore it. This was going to be a lovely tea.
The feeling intensified. The sickening slimy magic stuck to her, trying to worm its way through her skin into her bony back, and deeper. It was trying to get inside.
Elsie dropped the teakettle and turned around.
It stood on the edge of the lawn, a thing knitted from shadows and darkness. It didn't like the light and stuck to the shadows cast by the shrubs, blending into the gloom, so the only thing she could see clearly were its eyes: two slits of uniform, slightly luminescent gray, like slanted holes into a skull stuffed with rain clouds.
She threw a teacup at it. "Go away!"
The thing didn't move. A second pair of eyes opened above the first, the same dirty gray. The top pair looked at the teacup rolling harmlessly in the grass. The bottom pair stared straight at Elsie.
The dreadful feeling along her back grew stronger. The cold slime slid its way around her neck and down. A faint prickling singed her chest and back, as if a dozen tiny needle-feet tested the durability of her skin.
Elsie screeched and swiped at the cups, grabbing the little plastic pieces in a frenzy and hurling them one after the other at the baleful eyes.
"Grandma?" Amy emerged from the house, wiping her hands on the corner of her apron. She ran over on pudgy legs. "What's the matter?"
Elsie pointed with her shuddering fingers at the dark thing. Amy brushed her curly blond hair from her face and squinted at the shrubs. "What?"
"It's trying to get me! It ruined everything!"