Claws (9780545469678) Read Free

she’s allowed to live here for free. But you can’t trust hags. I bet she couldn’t resist cooking someone’s child even if she couldn’t eat them afterward.”
    â€œYes, yes, listen to snake-man’s hissing,” the old woman said. “Very dangerous is hags, can’t be trusted.” She sniffed the air again and smacked her lips, then dug around in the pockets of her shapeless dress and pulled out two cotton balls and a small bottle of clear liquid. She unscrewed the bottle’s plastic cap, and the smell of alcohol and mint made Emma’s nose twitch. Then, grumbling to herself, the hag soaked the cotton balls in the liquid and stuffed one up each nostril.
    Emma slid along the car toward the front door of her own trailer. Her mouth felt dry and her heart was beating quickly. She imagined herself going inside the hag’s trailer and never coming out. The sweet smell of dessert faded as Emma began wondering exactly how hags cooked children.
    â€œYou’re scared now, yes?” the hag said in a slightly nasal voice, her eyes watering. She grinned her toothless grin and took a step forward. “Now you’ll change your mind, move away. Won’t have to smell you anymore, won’t have to feel so hungry.”
    â€œHa! You think they’d be here if they had any other choice?” Mr. Simbi said. “Why should they care about your hunger anyway? No, you’re stuck with them now!”
    â€œI’m not scared,” Emma said, but her voice shook. “Not if you don’t have any teeth.” She could run at any second. The trailer, her parents, they were right there.
    The hag scowled at her.
    â€œIt’s not like I want to live here, either,” Emma said, and suddenly the words came pouring out of her, as if the hag really was her kindly old grandmother. “My dad wanted to move here because he thought maybe the crags would help him if he was one of them. Like they could help him find Helena. That’s my sister. She ran away from home and the police couldn’t find her, so my parents hired private detectives. Only they couldn’t find her, either, and then my dad lost his restaurant. We don’t have any money for anything, and my mom says it’s cheaper here and —”
    â€œHow old was she?” the hag asked.
    â€œWhat? Sixteen. Almost seventeen.”
    â€œMmm, no, didn’t eat her,” the hag said. Her words sounded comforting, even though they shouldn’t have been. “Never liked hunting ones that old. Not scared enough when they get lost. Hard to smell. But there was one, all scared and alone . . . so long ago, but I still remember how his bones crunched, and the marrow . . . oh yes, so sweet. It was a ratter child, with so many little crunchy bones.” She sucked on her gums. “They’re a lot like human childrens, once you’re past the fur and the squeakings.”
    A shiver ran up Emma’s spine and she felt sick. She clutched her stomach and took several deep breaths. She might have read about hags on CragWiki, but hearing it from a real hag, hearing the way she said it, that was a lot worse. “What, um . . . what do you eat now that you don’t have any teeth?”
    The hag made a disgusted face. “Cans. With meats in them. Tastes like chalks and gives me gases and bellyaches, but I never, ever, ever feels full.” She sighed and rubbed her stomach. “But at least no one hunts me. Hard for old hags, with ratters and howlers in the forest, humans everywhere else. So I eat cans, and I live in peace, until today.”
    â€œDon’t you feel bad for her!” Mr. Simbi called out. “I never understood how you humans can treat honest, hardworking people like me so badly, but let monsters like her have a free placeto live.”
    â€œNever did like snakes much,” the hag said, louder than before. “Their eggs is disgusting inside, and the