Magic or Madness (18 page)

“Who are all the photos of?”

“Broadway stars who’ve eaten here. Famous ones.”

Reason didn’t look very impressed. She probably didn’t know what Broadway was. “This used to be a mafia hangout.”

“Really?” Now Reason’s eyes were big. At least she’d heard of the mafia. She looked down at the floor like she thought there might still be bloodstains.

“A long time ago. Mostly just locals and tourists now.”

“Jay-Tee . . . what day is it?”

“Tuesday.”

“Still?”

“Uh, yeah, still. You showed up last night. Monday night. Why? What day did you think it was?”

“Wednesday. It should be Wednesday.” Reason sighed. “Of course, it should be summer.”

Jay-Tee smiled. It
was
summer, back where Reason had come from.

The waitress set their cannoli down on the table. “Enjoy, girls,” she said.

“Thanks,” Reason replied, taking a bite. “It’s really good. Creamy. I love sweet things.”

The waitress smiled indulgently, as if they were still babies. “Don’t we all,” she said, and headed back behind the long counter. Hanging with Reason was turning Jay-Tee into a kid by association. Reason had to be the youngest fifteen-year-old she’d ever met. Jay-Tee was going to have to make her grow up. Or at least she would if they were going to be living together for more than a few days. Not that
that
was going to happen. Not if things went how he wanted them to, which they would. They always did. It wasn’t like Jay-Tee could stop him.

“So,” Reason said when her cannoli was history, “how’d you run away?”

“I just left.”

“Me too.” Reason giggled. “Not quite as dramatic as I’d planned. I just opened the door . . .” She stopped. Jay-Tee didn’t have to guess why.

“For me too,” Jay-Tee said. “It was much easier than I thought.”

Reason scraped her fork across the bottom of her plate, trying for the last dregs of custard. She looked like she wanted more. Reason sure could eat.

“You seem to be doing great,” she said, licking the fork. “Your own place and everything.”

Jay-Tee took a deep breath and took the opening given her. “Well, the apartment isn’t mine, exactly. There’s this guy. . . .”

Reason’s eyes widened.

“No, no, it’s not what you think. He’s a . . .” Jay-Tee paused, not wanting to lay it on too thick, and crossed her fingers under the table. “He’s a nice guy. He looks out for me, makes sure I don’t get into trouble. Lets me live in his apartment. I just have to do him favors every so often. Nothing terrible. Run a few errands. It’s easy.”

“Like what?” Reason didn’t sound suspicious so much as curious. She had to be the most gullible person Jay-Tee had ever met.

“Like shopping. That kind of thing. It’s not a big deal. He rescued me, kind of like I rescued you. Saved me from having to live on the streets. I owe him, big time. And he doesn’t come around that often. At most I see him once a week. Mostly not even. Anyways, I thought I should let you know. ’Cause you’ll see him and you should be nice to him. He’s the one letting you stay with me.”

“He knows about me?” Reason sounded surprised.

“Of course—I had to ask if it was okay. Your staying, I mean.” Jay-Tee wondered if her nose was growing. She almost had to hold back from checking. Lying didn’t normally bother her, but this was different. Even though it went against her own interests, part of Jay-Tee wished she could warn Reason. She could casually mention feathers or the color purple. Reason had known enough to get them out from under her pillow. Hell, she’d known enough to hide the key. Maybe she didn’t
need
a warning.

Jay-Tee looked at her closely. There was something more alert about Reason since she’d woken from her nightmare. She hadn’t once asked where she was. Maybe she’d finally figured it out.

Then Reason smiled and her smarts disappeared. All Jay-Tee could see were Reason’s wide, big eyes and the trusting expression on her face.
Hell,
she thought. Why wasn’t Reason like Jay-Tee? Why couldn’t Reason just know when people were lying?

They got back to the apartment late. He was there this time, just like she knew he would be. There’d be no dancing tonight.

After the cannoli they’d wandered around. The wind had died down and it wasn’t nearly so cold. Jay-Tee was delaying. Seeing him was never her favorite thing, but she especially didn’t want to face him with Reason by her side. Instead she’d given Reason a tour, pointed out more of her favorite places to eat, described what it was like out on the streets when it wasn’t freezing.

They’d walked past stores, restaurants, cafés. Reason was quieter than she had been, asked hardly any questions, but she seemed to be absorbing everything she saw. Jay-Tee wondered again if she knew where she was now.

They passed an old man selling hot roasted chestnuts and warmed their hands over the grill. The old man was delighted and amazed that Reason had never even heard of chestnuts before. He insisted that they take a bunch wrapped in newspaper for free as long as Reason ate one in front of him and told him what she thought. “Don’t burn your lips, girl,” he warned her. Unsurprisingly, she said she loved them. Reason was a very polite girl who, Jay-Tee was beginning to realize, was all about food.

Jay-Tee told Reason stories about the city when it was warm, of music everywhere, people dancing on the pavement, of summers that were so hot the roads melted, but Reason obviously found the stories hard to believe when icicles hung from the leafless trees and everyone who passed was gray-faced, grim, and moved with almost no rhythm.

Jay-Tee switched tack and started filling Reason’s ears with all the cool things about winter. Not just chestnuts. She told her they’d go uptown, skate at Rockefeller Center or in the park, go see some basketball in the Garden, that they’d go dancing every night. She filled her head with all the cool stuff about this city, all the things a person could do even when it was colder than a dead man’s breath.

He was sitting in front of the fire, shoes off, a smug grin on his face. He looked like he owned the place. Which, of course, he did. His presence, as usual, made the apartment seem tiny. The walls seemed to be pushing in on them, leaving barely enough space to move, stealing the breath from Jay-Tee’s lungs.

When they’d gotten their coats and the rest of their winter bulk off, he stood and smiled at them, showing almost all his white teeth. His lips seemed even redder than usual.
Just like a wolf,
thought Jay-Tee.

He held out his hand and Reason shook it, smiling.

“I’m Jason Blake,” he told her. Jay-Tee had wondered what name he’d use.

“Reason Cansino. Though I guess you know that.” The idiot girl turned to Jay-Tee, smiling as if meeting him was a good thing. “Jay-Tee said she told you about me.”

He nodded. “All good things. Said you needed a place to stay. It makes me feel better to know that she has someone her own age around.”

“Not
exactly
the same age,” Reason said, and Jay-Tee could’ve pinched her.

“Well, I’m sure even when you’re fifteen, a few months doesn’t make that much difference.”

Reason stared at Jay-Tee, who said nothing, silently cursing him. He was grinning. She was sure he knew she’d fibbed about her age.

“You’re really doing both of us a favor, Reason, staying here. I worry about her living alone.”

Jay-Tee thought she was going to throw up. He was talking like he was her kindly grandfather. Surely even Reason wouldn’t buy that crap. Jay-Tee glanced at him out of the corner of her eye—he looked more like a snake than a wolf, really. Though she had no doubt he would, that he
had,
torn people to pieces when he needed to. A snake
and
a wolf.

“You girls eaten?” he asked, flashing his bleached white teeth some more. He was very sparing with his magic.

They nodded.

“I’d like to take you both out to dinner. Someplace special. Do you like fancy restaurants, Reason?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been to one.” She looked pleased at the idea of it. Thinking about the food, Jay-Tee didn’t doubt.

He clapped, grinning. “Excellent—what a treat is in store for you. I’ll reserve a table for tomorrow night. Somewhere very special. Eight o’clock. I’ll pick you up at twenty of.”

Great,
thought Jay-Tee, shuddering at the prospect of seeing him again in less than twenty-four hours.

“Thank you,” Reason said. “I’ll look forward to it.” She seemed sincere. Though Jay-Tee couldn’t read her decently with his magic hanging so heavy in the apartment. Well, if Reason liked him that much, Jay-Tee would be happy to hand her over to him.
Anything to keep him farther away from me.

He stood up. “I’ll leave you two girls now. It’s late and I’m sure you’re both ready for bed.”

He slipped on his shoes and picked up his coat. “Lovely to meet you, Reason.”

“Thank you, Mr. Blake.”

“Jason.”

Reason lowered her head. “Sorry. Jason.”

“Good night, Jay-Tee.”

Jay-Tee nodded without saying anything, relief at his swift departure washing over her.

He put his hand on the doorknob and then half turned. “Reason?” he said, as if something trivial had occurred to him, but he couldn’t help sharing. “I was wondering if you’d do me a favor?”

“A favor?” Reason asked, smiling sweetly.

“Yes. Would you be able to help me out?”

“Well,” Reason said, “I’m sure I could, but it would depend on the favor.”

“Nothing difficult. Just an errand.”

“What kind of an errand?”

He smiled, more wolflike than ever. “Perhaps some other time. What happened to your face, Reason?”

Her hand went to her nose. “Nothing. I slipped.”

“Really?” His smile widened. “Good night, Reason.”

When I woke up,
I was still in New York City.

New York City. That’s what I’d learned yesterday and once I’d learned it—New York City—those words were suddenly everywhere, not just on the plaque in the lift, but on people’s caps, in window displays, on the sides of trucks, all over the newspaper that was wrapped around the chestnuts I’d eaten last night—the
New York Times
—the same newspaper that sat in piles on Esmeralda’s bed. Once seen, once understood, those three words multiplied until they were almost all I could see.

Lying there, I was thinking something else that made my head hurt. Something I’d been trying not to think since I’d stepped through the door. I wasn’t mad after all, and I hadn’t lost my memory. Part of me had known that all along. I sat up, recognising the plain room straightaway. Not crazy, not disoriented. I knew where I was and how I’d gotten here.

Magic is real.

That was the thought.... It made my head hurt.

Magic is real. I am in New York City and it is Wednesday when it should be Thursday, morning when it should be night, freezing when it should be boiling, and magic is real.

I opened the door in Sydney in summer, stepped out to New York City in winter, the opposite season on the opposite side of the world. One moment and everything had changed.

If magic was real, then Esmeralda really was a witch. Witch as in magic, not witch as in bitch. Just like that Jason Blake last night. He had actually
smelled
like Esmeralda.

If magic was real, then Sarafina was a liar.

If magic was real, then everything I had ever learned was wrong. The world wasn’t explicable. Wasn’t rational. Wasn’t any of the things Sarafina had said it was. Smoke and mirrors did not cause me to travel thousands of kilometres in one step. I was not hallucinating.

Sarafina had lied to me. Not just once, but every single day of my life.

That’s
why Sarafina had gone mad. She hadn’t just lied to me, she’d lied to herself. Run away from the house of magic and spent years convincing herself it was nothing but tricks.
My mother is evil,
Sarafina had told herself,
not magic.