The Yanti Read Free Page B

her throughout her life—and yet subtle details had altered.
    It was only then that she understood that her actual mind had changed since she had ingested the stardust. It was more quiet inside, and yet, ironically, the silence was so soft it seemed to hum. It was a silence unmoved by mundane thoughts. She suspected it existed beyond her conscious mind, and that it was responsible for the sudden increase in her fairy abilities.
    Yet the inner calmness possessed a detached depth that made her feel as if she were a living iceberg. She could not help but recall how casually she had snapped Karl Tanner’s neck. A week ago, she could never have done such a thing—no matter what he had done to her, or to those she loved.
    Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Cindy staring at her with awe. It wasn’t something she took pleasure in. But how to avoid it? Two hours ago, her friend had seen her float out of the backyard and into the sky, in the midst of a radiant green field. Cindy did not act afraid of her. On the other hand, she had not jumped up and hugged her when she had returned. Cindy had not even stopped to ask if she was all right. Her friend had simply assumed the great and powerful Geea couldn’t be harmed.
    A lot of that was probably because Ali had cracked Karl’s neck in front of Cindy.
    That
, perhaps, had been a mistake.
    “I don’t want to leave Nira alone,” Cindy replied, in response to Ali’s suggestion that they go in the other room.
    Ali unzipped her coat, pulled out what was left of the duct tape, set it on a table. From the instant Cindy had met Nira in Toule, she had been protective of the child. Ali did not know why, but wondered if Sheri Smith had noticed the attachment.Could Cindy be the main reason the witch had left Nira in their keeping? If that were the case, it hinted at the possibility that Sheri Smith was concerned about her daughter.
    “It’s dangerous to talk in front of her,” Ali explained. “That mark on her forehead—it indicates her mind’s been tampered with by the Shaktra. I don’t know the extent of the creature’s control over her, but it’s possible she can see and hear us through her.”
    Cindy was interested. “Are you saying Nira isn’t really autistic?”
    “Yes. If she didn’t have the mark, she’d probably act normal.”
    Cindy’s face shone with relief, but a frown quickly followed. “By the Shaktra, you mean Sheri Smith? Right?”
    “There’s more to it than that. I’ll explain to you in the den. No, wait, let’s go in my bedroom. You can lay on my bed. You’ll be more comfortable that way.”
    Cindy gave her a look. “Doing
what?
”
    “It’s better if I just show you.”
    “Does it have something to do with fairy magic?”
    “In a way, yes.”
    Cindy was uneasy. “When the cops dropped me off, every light in my house was on. That means my family’s all there. I checked ten minutes ago. The sun’s coming up and the lights are still on. I’ve been missing for over three days. They have to be freaking out. I need to get home right now.”
    Ali raised her hand. “I understand. Your parents must be going through hell. But there’s stuff we have to go over, and it can’t wait.”
    “Why?”
    “Because we have to prepare for tomorrow, or rather, for today. The cops are going to be all over us. We have to come upwith a plan to deal with them, and to do that, I need information. Trust me, you can leave the second we’re done.”
    “Wait. While you were gone, did you go to Sheri Smith’s house?”
    “Yes.”
    “What did you find?”
    “I’ll tell you everything after I get caught up on what you guys did.”
    “But you found Steve’s body, right?”
    Ali hesitated. “Not exactly.”
    Cindy grimaced. “Where did it go?”
    “I don’t know. But what I want to do now—it might help me figure out the answer to that question.”
    “It couldn’t have just disappeared.”
    “Sheri Smith must have come back for it, and then hid