Read Online State of Grace by Hilary Badger - Free Book Online Page A

I can. ‘It makes sense. Wow though. Wow . That’s major. Who’s predotly? I mean, is Dot going to give you names and everything?’
    By now, I’m kind of babbling.
    ‘There are the signs,’ Gil says. ‘There’s a lot you can tell from behaviour too. Who does the dotly thing and who doesn’t.’
    He crooks his finger in a come-here kind of way. Still on my knees, I shuffle across the cushion towards him. When I get close enough, he reaches out the same finger and touches my cheekbone.
    ‘We should all read our Books.’ Gil’s hand moves from my face to the top of my head. He strokes it like I’m a deer or something, with my head bent down, eating grass.
    ‘We should follow her instructions. Be kind. Have fun. Hook up.’
    ‘I do. I do those things.’
    ‘Of course,Wren. No-one said you didn’t.’
    Gil’s hand goes on smoothing my hair and his fingertips start to circle their way downwards until they’re edging under the neck of my sungarb. Is it dotly to do this in the gazebo? If it were pre dotly, Gil would know, I tell myself. He’s the one who found out about predotliness in the first place. If he wants this, then Dot wants it too. That’d be right, wouldn’t it? I don’t want to do anything predotly.
    Then somewhere behind us, this voice says, ‘Gil? You ready to go?’
    I do more than just jump. I swear to Dot, my entire body leaves the cushion and hovers in mid-air before crashing back down again. Gil’s the same. I whip around and there’s Brook over by the door of the gazebo, half-hidden by the late afternoon shadows streaking the ground.
    ‘Have you been there this whole time?’
    Brook rolls his shoulders and gives me this single nod.
    Gil laughs. ‘He’s never far away.’
    Brook’s as tall as Blaze but twice as lean. It’s like, when Dot created Brook she didn’t waste a single speck of her materials. There’s almost not enough skin on him. What’s there is stretched so tight you can see the bones underneath.
    Not that Brook isn’t strong. He is. He’s powerful, especially with the coconut knife in his hand. On his ankle, there’s a prenormal dotmark. A little coloured circle, right there on his skin. I’ve often thought of asking him what it is, but Brook has this way of discouraging questions.
    Gil’s hand clamps around one of my shoulders like a claw or something.
    ‘I hang around when Gil’s talking to Dot,’ Brook says.
    He’s looking at Gil’s hand on my shoulder.
    ‘It’s quite a draining process,’ says Gil. ‘Emotionally and physically.’
    Brook says, ‘I’ll take you back to your hut.’
    But Gil goes all crisp and tells him, ‘I’m fine for now.’
    ‘Yeah? Because I can …’
    ‘Now Wren has seen this, I want to share it with her.’
    Brook turns to me. ‘What are you doing here anyway? Didn’t you come earlier?’
    I flick my eyes from the bubbles to the billowing banners to Dot’s portrait on the lattice wall. I swallow. I force out a laugh.
    ‘What, are you following me or something?’
    Brook’s face is blank as a hut wall.
    ‘Anyway, who said you can’t come twice a day? The gazebo is sort of awesome, you know.’
    Then Gil goes, ‘Let’s walk.’
    ‘Is that a good idea?’ There’s a prehappy edge to Brook’s voice. He looks at me. ‘Do you want to?’
    ‘Thank you, Brook.’ Gil’s sharper than ever. ‘I think Wren knows what Dot wants her to do.’
    He gets to his feet and holds his hand out to me.
    Brook folds his arms across his chest and there’s a loud huff as he breathes out. Gil kind of steers me past him and out through the doorway. Before we go, Gil turns back around to Brook and says, ‘You know what would be useful? Collect me some fruit.’
    He turns to me and adds, ‘I’m ravenous. I always am when she’s been inside me.’
    For a moment, Brook blocks the doorway, not saying yes and not saying no.
    ‘Meet me back at my hut in a little bit? We’ll spend some time together, I’ll tell you what Dot shared