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Authors: Diana Peterfreund
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stared at the wall and dug my hand into the unicorn’s coat. With the still-swinging lamplight casting strange shadows over the bones, they seemed to pulsate in place, as if muscles moved just beneath the surface of the stone. I shuddered and put my other hand to my head. It had begun to pound, no doubt my airways and lymph system reacting to the dust and stale air.
“It’s only temporary,” Cory went on, drawing the chain forward and beginning to wind it around the leg of a table. “Until we can find a more permanent place…”
“It’s a tomb,” I argued. The skulls all laughed at me, laughed at Bonegrinder, who had become almost frantic in her fevered attempts to escape her bonds.
What we were, you are now; what we are, you soon will be …
Cory groaned in frustration. “You and my uncle! It doesn’t need a bloody palace. It won’t die, and it won’t be in our way. In a few days, there will be half a dozen girls here. And Bonegrinder will be constantly underfoot, constantly in danger of getting free—do you have any idea what would happen if it got loose and went rampaging through the streets of Rome?” Her voice turned low and dangerous. “Blood, death, destruction…”
My eyes remained fixed to the engraved trophies on the wall, which pulsed and echoed back blood death destruction .
And then, from impossibly far away, I heard a coppery clang, like the great metal doors of the Cloisters opening, and the zhi leaped to her feet and took off. The chain slid through Cory’s hands and whipped past me, disappearing up the stairs.
“Astrid!” I heard Cory call. “Catch it!”
But I was way ahead of her. My eyes zeroed in on the fluffy white behind of the zhi as she vanished up the spiral stair, and it was as if a band snapped tight. The world slowed—the sickly, swinging light, Cory’s shrill tones, the strangely vibrating walls—but I did not.
Hunter powers indeed.
I didn’t feel the stairs, the weight of time, the depths of the darkness. I felt nothing but pursuit, fresh and free. Have you ever run on a moving walkway or escalator and felt yourself careening forward much faster than you could possibly imagine? I was a tidal wave of feet pounding, a lightning bolt of pumping arms. My blood boiled and my vision dimmed, until all I could see was the outline of the zhi. My prey.
I was almost on top of her as we spilled into the relative brightness of the rotunda. I saw it all in the space of a second: the large doors, slightly ajar, the figure who stood just inside, and the sunny street beyond, populated with the rest of the world, dogs and vendors, nuns and children whose bones would be another addition to our collection if I didn’t stop the unicorn.
And then my hands sunk into her fur. “Gotcha!” I cried as we sprawled on the mosaic as one. I closed a hand around her horn and yanked it backward, moving my other arm into a choke hold around her neck. Bonegrinder screamed and snapped her jaws in frustration as I wrestled her into the tiles. She flailed her four legs in the air, and I ducked to keep from being conked in the face by one of her hooves.
A second later, Cory appeared by my side. “Got it?” she asked. I nodded and looked up, blowing stringy strands of my pale hair off my face.
A few feet away stood my cousin, tanned and leggy, with her dirty blond hair pulled into a jaunty ponytail and a huge pair of sunglasses pushing her bangs back from her face.
“Asteroid!” exclaimed Philippa Llewelyn. “Surprise!”
5
W HEREIN A STRID G AINS AN A LLY
I ’ D NEVER BEEN HAPPIER to see my cousin. Ignoring the venomous monster I was supposed to be restraining, I catapulted myself into Phil’s arms.
“Whoa there,” she said, hugging me back. “Miss me much?” She glanced down. “My God, they’re real.” She drew away and leaned over Bonegrinder, who currently knelt at her feet, horn pressed against the floor. “Real, and adorable…and a little smelly. Buddy, who bathes
“It’s only temporary,” Cory went on, drawing the chain forward and beginning to wind it around the leg of a table. “Until we can find a more permanent place…”
“It’s a tomb,” I argued. The skulls all laughed at me, laughed at Bonegrinder, who had become almost frantic in her fevered attempts to escape her bonds.
What we were, you are now; what we are, you soon will be …
Cory groaned in frustration. “You and my uncle! It doesn’t need a bloody palace. It won’t die, and it won’t be in our way. In a few days, there will be half a dozen girls here. And Bonegrinder will be constantly underfoot, constantly in danger of getting free—do you have any idea what would happen if it got loose and went rampaging through the streets of Rome?” Her voice turned low and dangerous. “Blood, death, destruction…”
My eyes remained fixed to the engraved trophies on the wall, which pulsed and echoed back blood death destruction .
And then, from impossibly far away, I heard a coppery clang, like the great metal doors of the Cloisters opening, and the zhi leaped to her feet and took off. The chain slid through Cory’s hands and whipped past me, disappearing up the stairs.
“Astrid!” I heard Cory call. “Catch it!”
But I was way ahead of her. My eyes zeroed in on the fluffy white behind of the zhi as she vanished up the spiral stair, and it was as if a band snapped tight. The world slowed—the sickly, swinging light, Cory’s shrill tones, the strangely vibrating walls—but I did not.
Hunter powers indeed.
I didn’t feel the stairs, the weight of time, the depths of the darkness. I felt nothing but pursuit, fresh and free. Have you ever run on a moving walkway or escalator and felt yourself careening forward much faster than you could possibly imagine? I was a tidal wave of feet pounding, a lightning bolt of pumping arms. My blood boiled and my vision dimmed, until all I could see was the outline of the zhi. My prey.
I was almost on top of her as we spilled into the relative brightness of the rotunda. I saw it all in the space of a second: the large doors, slightly ajar, the figure who stood just inside, and the sunny street beyond, populated with the rest of the world, dogs and vendors, nuns and children whose bones would be another addition to our collection if I didn’t stop the unicorn.
And then my hands sunk into her fur. “Gotcha!” I cried as we sprawled on the mosaic as one. I closed a hand around her horn and yanked it backward, moving my other arm into a choke hold around her neck. Bonegrinder screamed and snapped her jaws in frustration as I wrestled her into the tiles. She flailed her four legs in the air, and I ducked to keep from being conked in the face by one of her hooves.
A second later, Cory appeared by my side. “Got it?” she asked. I nodded and looked up, blowing stringy strands of my pale hair off my face.
A few feet away stood my cousin, tanned and leggy, with her dirty blond hair pulled into a jaunty ponytail and a huge pair of sunglasses pushing her bangs back from her face.
“Asteroid!” exclaimed Philippa Llewelyn. “Surprise!”
5
W HEREIN A STRID G AINS AN A LLY
I ’ D NEVER BEEN HAPPIER to see my cousin. Ignoring the venomous monster I was supposed to be restraining, I catapulted myself into Phil’s arms.
“Whoa there,” she said, hugging me back. “Miss me much?” She glanced down. “My God, they’re real.” She drew away and leaned over Bonegrinder, who currently knelt at her feet, horn pressed against the floor. “Real, and adorable…and a little smelly. Buddy, who bathes
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