Page 70 of Starve
“They look so…” I don’t know how to phrase it. “They aren’t like Cairo, or you, or Tyler.”
“It happens like that sometimes. Some might change. Some might stay like this. They’re not unhappy, and many of them weren’t exactly pillars of society while they were alive.” I see the flash of her grin from the corner of my eye. “Cairo was never like this.”
“Were you?”
“No.” Her tone is flat and doesn’t really invite argument or further curiosity into her origins, even though I’m incredibly curious.
“Tyler was.” I don’t have to ask. Somehow I know that with his impatience and his aggression, he’s closer to them than he is to Cairo or Agatha, whatever that might mean.
“Tyler was,” Agatha agrees. “It’s why some of them prefer him to Cairo.”
I watch for another few minutes, seeing a few of those that remind me more of Agatha and Cairo walking around to break up petty squabbles or just maintain some sense of calm.
“Why aren’t you down there?” Quickly I realize it sounds a bit like an accusation, and I glance sidelong at Agatha. But she only meets my gaze in the near-dark, though thankfully the moon is out enough now for me to see by. “I just mean…If they respect Cairo and Tyler, and both of them are afraid of you. Wouldn’t you be able to make them do whatever you wanted?”
A smile ghosts across her lips. “And where’s the fun in that, Fern?”
I don’t know what to say in response to such an answer. Whatisthere to say, when she could rip me apart and eat me like popcorn if she wanted to while watching whatever’s going ondown there. But thankfully a snarl breaks through the din, and when I look up again, Cairo’s stepped down from the top of the stairs though he’s still standing above the others.
One who reminds me of him sits on the steps below him, arms draped across her knees. She doesn’t look up at Cairo, but something in her face makes it seem like she’s just waiting for the others to make a move to shove them back into their place.
I can’t hear all that Cairo says, though it’s not like he gives some massive speech. I hear Tyler’s name a few times, and a few questions that snap out like growls from the gathered creatures in front of him. But none of them try him.
“Then go,” he finally says to one, stepping down until he’s in her face. “If you want him instead of what you have, if you think his promises will really take you that far—” The cursed lunges for him, but Cairo is effortlessly faster. It’s not like his fight with Tyler, but then again, it’s not a fight at all.
Within seconds, the woman is on her back on the ground, throat bared to him, and Cairo just looks down coldly into her face with his lips peeled back from his fangs.“Go,”he repeats, stepping back. When she gets up, I can see her waver. I can tell that she doesn’t know what to do. But instead of leaving, she slinks back to the others, hiding among them.
“I’m tired of his games,” Cairo says, and now that he’s closer to me, I can actually understand what he says. The wind picks up and he pauses, glancing toward my hiding spot, but he looks away a second later.
“Does he know we’re here?” I ask, but Agatha doesn’t answer.
“Involving humans off the mountain is too far.Shemade that rule, and we’ve all lived with it since before most of you were born.” He snarls at another cursed who growls a little at him, sending that one trembling backward as well. “If you don’t like me, that’s fine. I’ve left you all alone for the most part. But donotgo down into town?—”
“Like you?” The voice comes from a guy who appears to be in his late forties. He stands far back from the others, arms crossed, and stares flatly at Cairo instead of looking down. “You’ve been down in Whippoorwill most nights for weeks.”
“And I can control myself,” Cairo hisses in reply, turning on him. “You can as well, and you don’t involve humans in your games. My warning is for those who can’t.” At the almost praise, the man seems mollified, and he drops his shoulders.
“What about Tyler?” The question comes from somewhere in the group, but I don’t know from where.
“Tylerhas had his warnings. And now you have too. I’m done with his games, and anyone else who wants to play them can either go to him, or face me right now for the privilege of playing them for another night.” His challenge and the warning in it echo through the silent courtyard, but none of them say a word.
As if an unspoken dismissal was given, the cursed start disappearing. A few at first, wander out of the courtyard, before more and more until finally it’s only Cairo and two of those who look the most human. I can’t hear their conversation, though one of them is the man who half-challenged him before.
The older man smiles suddenly, a dry grin on his lips, and claps him on the shoulder with a soft laugh.
“That’s Elijah,” Agatha murmurs in my ear, her voice almost inaudible. “He’s a little older than Cairo, but he prefers to stay by himself most of the time. They’re talking about you,” she adds, sounding amused.
“Me?” I jerk back in surprise to look at her, trying to meet her eyes in the dark. “Whataboutme?”
“Well…” She looks back at them and stands up, holding her hand out to me. I lean back on my hands, confused, since the whole point of us being here was to hide, or so I’d thought. “Ever since the wind changed, a few of them have known we were here. Come on.” She takes my nervous hand, pulls me to my feet, andsubsequently helps me over the log before we make it down to the courtyard.
Elijah snorts when he looks at me, then glances back at Cairo. His eyes are dark, and in the moonlight, they look almost black. “Well, that’s definitely your problem, then. She’s too curious for you to keep in the dark, Cai.”
Cairo rolls his eyes at the man, and the woman beside him just gives me a look and a nod, before turning and leaving without another word.
“I’m Fern,” I introduce, trying to sound confident as I hop the broken back wall into the courtyard, though I nearly hit the dirt when my feet slip on some stones. Thankfully, no one laughs, but I’m feeling a lot less sure of anything.
Cairo sighs, and when I glance up at him, I see him roll his eyes up toward the moonlit sky over Bluebone Ridge. “Why can’t you do what I say, even once?” he asks, and then drops his chin to look at Agatha. “And do you have to be so helpful?”
