Page 60 of Spring's Arcana
Bring back the gem to Mom, take it to de Winter, or give it back to Dmitri? Agreeing before you knew the whole deal always bit you in the ass; she’d been working retail, not to mention call centers and the office at Humboldt Insurance, long enough to knowthat. She shouldn’t feel guilty about it at all, either; the gangster was an asshole who had let a boy die just that afternoon.
Nat couldn’t even go to the cops. Were her fingerprints all over the gas station? Dmitri’s certainly were.
It would serve him right, and yet… aheart. She tried to imagine her own cardiac muscle pulled out of her chest and carried away. It must hurt. Returning it to de Winter would just put him back where he was before, right? Sitting up in the old woman’s office waiting to be sent out for errands, or whatever she made him do.
If she took it to the hospice first, would Mom eat it? Or wouldde Winter, Baba Yaga, or whoever the hell she was, truly fix Nat’s mother?
And then what? Go back to living in the little yellow house with Mom and Leo? Nat could move out, having done her daughterly duty, and then… go to college? Would she have to move to a different city, a different state?
A different country?
The idea of officially leaving home was both terrifying and enticing. Especially if she didn’t need money.
But what if she did? What if the power, or whatever it was, depended on Mom’s… well, the fading, the sickness that made her not-quite-there?
If Mom was healthy, Nat could go back to being what Dima called “a rube.” Which might not be so bad—being a divinity looked like it sucked.
Bigtime.
“Oh, buffalo girl.” Coyote laughed, a yip running under his very pleasant tenor. “You are fucked for sure.”
It certainly looks that way. “It’s no surprise, and no change.” Nat touched the vodka glass with a fingertip again. Did this guy remember the Pilgrims coming over on big-sailed ships? It probably wasn’t pleasant, if he did. “Are you here to help point the way?”Or are you just talking shit?
“Not yet. But when you got the Cup and that big blue beast, you come on up to see us, and we’ll talk. Might even smoke a pipe or two.”
That sounds incredibly unappetizing.“I know where to find the Cup.” She studied his expression in the mirror, but it didn’t change. “But I don’t know anything about a blue beast. I suppose the next part of the scavenger hunt will happen on its own.”Maybe in your direction, unless you’re just handing out an invitation?
“If you’re brave enough.” Another canine shrug-flicker. “But I gotta tell you, buffalo girl, might be best just to go home and wait.”
Well, that was unexpected. She didn’t think Dmitri would go for it. “And let my mother die.” Everyone seemed to assume that was the choice she’d make.
It made you wonder about their home lives. Was every divinity family unhappy in its own way?
Coyote turned his chin slightly, eyeing her sidelong. “You keep going, you ain’t gonna like what you find.”
“Yeah.” Nat picked up her glass, tossed the vodka far back. It burned, hit her stomach and exploded with warmth. It tasted like it was from the bottle in the freezer at home, and she wondered if Leo was wearing his scarf, if he was visiting Mom, if he was salting the front walk enough. If he was wandering the house, his mouth tasting like dirt. If he was making borscht and freezing it so when Nat returned she could reheat a single portion carefully ladled into a margarine tub, because buying Tupperware was for rich idiots and in the little yellow house they knew the value of an American dollar. “It’s called growing up, I guess.”
“That what you think?” He wrapped his long copper fingers around his mug. “Just like your mama, won’t take good advice.”
Everyone had an opinion on Mom, but none of these assholes had ever lived with her. “She’s my mother,” Nat said, dismally aware she was repeating what she’d flung at Dmitri earlier. “Can you justnot?”
“If you like.” He lifted the white ceramic mug; the coffee had to be just this side of boiling to steam like that but he drank it like Nat had taken the vodka, a straight shot all the way down. His throat worked, and she wondered what other “divinities” ate. Would her own diet change the longer she traveled?
There was no one to ask. Not Dmitri, and certainly notthisfellow.
What would happen if Mom died while Nat was still chasing clues?
“Ah.” He set the mug down and exhaled hard, not quite a belch. “If you wanna see that thief get his ass beat you can go down to the Ring. Might even amuse you.”
Is that where he is?She didn’t want to ask how this guy knew, and in any case, it didn’t matter. “I’ll tell him you said so.”
“Go ahead. He’s too slow to catch me, and in any case, he’s family.I steal too, when I’ve a mind to.” He smacked his chest with a fist, very much like Leo trying to dislodge indigestion when there were no radishes to put in a glass of milk, or Dima each time he finished a liter or two of Mountain Dew. “Coffee’s a great invention, ennit? Not like that shit you’re drinking. Anyway, come see us when you got to. We’ll be waiting.”
“Who’s thiswe?”
“Come and find out.” He touched his hat brim, and that hot, gleeful gaze met hers directly in the mirror. “If you won’t go home, buffalo girl, you gotta dance.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
