“Are you all right?” I asked. “Are you safe?”
He laughed that terrible laugh again. “No. And no. But I’ll survive. That’s what I do. Tell me what happened when you went to my house.”
I frowned at him. “How do you know I went to your house?”
“I was informed. Please?”
I told him what had happened in more detail than I would normally. I didn’t know if that was an effect of this place or not-place, or something Stefan wanted from me.
“Is this a dream?” I asked again when I was finished.
“Have a brownie,” he said, instead of answering my question. “You like brownies.”
I gazed doubtfully at them. “I’ll take a macaroon instead, please. I don’t like the look of your brownies.”
He laughed, and this time it sounded like his laugh—if a little tired. “Macaron,” he told me. “Macaroons are the stodgy ones with all the coconut.”
“I’m sorry about the piano,” I offered without taking a cookie. “And, really, most of the living room furniture. The stairway. Some of the books got pretty wet, too, when the frost all melted.”
“I don’t care about the piano,” he said. “Things can be replaced. Even books.” He was frowning at me. He leaned sideways, getting a better look at my dangling foot. “What’s wrong with your foot? Your feet? Why are you keeping that one way out there?”
I looked at my foot, too. “It’s the one that got a bit of spider spine stuck in it.” Hadn’t both of them been hurt? “I’d forgotten. It doesn’t hurt.”
“Show me,” said Stefan.
I raised my dangling foot and lost my balance, as if it were a lot heavier than I’d expected. Stefan swept forward like a striking snake and grabbed my ankle, sending the teapot spiraling off the edge and into the darkness.
He kept his grip until I regained my seat.
“Don’t fall off the cliff, please,” he said, sounding a little shaken. He gave the abyss a wary look. “Literally or figuratively. I don’t know what it is or why it’s here.”
“Okay,” I agreed.
I knew I hadn’t been in any danger. I trusted Stefan to keep me safe.
I examined that last thought as Stefan looked at my foot. I knew that the only person I trusted to keep me safe with such bone-deep certainty was... no one. Not even me.
I frowned suspiciously at Stefan. What else had he said to stop my panic attack?
“Give me the other one.”
I managed that without overbalancing myself.
“You should get them looked at,” he said, releasing the foot he held. “Show them to Zee, I think. And soon.”
He released me and began folding up the tablecloth with quick, almost angry movements.
“Are you afraid?” I asked abruptly.
He stopped moving, then his hands tightened on the tablecloth before he flung the whole thing—half-formed brownies and all—into the darkness, which swallowed them up.
“I’m always afraid, Mercy,” he said, looking into the endless black. “Always.”
I don’t remember anything after that.
—
The next time I woke up, it was to the sound of my bedroom door opening and the smell of the good hot chocolate. This was accompanied by the scents of bacon, cheese, and all sorts of breakfasty foods.