Stray by Rachael Craw EPUB & PDF

Stray by Rachael Craw EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online

• Status: Available For Free Download
• Author: Rachael Craw
• Language: English
• Genre: Science Fiction
• Format: PDF / EPUB
• Size: 2 MB
• Price: Free

CHAMPAGNE

I turn my back on the last pale slice of light cutting through Kitty’s balcony
doors, the sun sinking slow and heavy behind the trees of the Gallaghers’
estate, a cold burn at the end of a cold day, the end of a long cold month. I
wish it had been longer. I hate time passing, its threats and pressure in the
atmosphere. It leaves me dry-mouthed, calculating the number of days since
the Warden made her sweep, since the night of the attack, since Aiden was
arrested … Tomorrow it will be November.

Kitty has left a costume on her bed for me. It looks tiny. The pins and
needles in my spine elevate to an aggravated stabbing. Defeated already, I
brush the stiff synthetic fabric with my knuckles. “Is this all they had?”
Her voice echoes from the bathroom. “Don’t be ungrateful.”
“I said, nothing lame.”

“It’s not like I didn’t have an entire committee to coordinate on top of
everything else.” Indignation always broadens her English accent.
“Keeping you alive wasn’t exactly twiddling my thumbs.”
“Think of it as a compliment,” she calls. “It was probably the only thing
left because nobody else could pull it off. Besides, it’s funny. An in-joke!”
She steps out of the bathroom looking like she’s been poured into the black
PVC of her Catwoman costume.

I blink at her. “Batman’ll have a heart attack.”
“I should hope so,” she says, her pronunciation round and crisp. She
turns on the spot to provide the full effect, light glinting off the gentle
slopes and peaks of her fine frame, and finishes with her hands on her hips.
“Haven’t eaten for a week.”
“Maybe Pete will survive. Doubt your father will let you leave the
house.”

She wrinkles her nose beneath the black mask. “It’s not that bad.”
I wave at the costume on the bed and its complicated accessories. “I can’t
wear that.”

“Don’t be such a baby.” Her grey eyes, artfully smudged and mascaraed,
sparkle darkly. She raises her finger and crosses the room to the oak chest.
Biting her lip, she pulls a huge bottle of champagne from her bottom
drawer. It’s like something you’d christen a boat with. “Dutch courage?”
I close my eyes. “Barb is going to kill you.”

Kitty giggles, a breathless sound, a reckless sound, making me an
accomplice with her furtive glance at the door, asking, all clear? I strain to
listen. Her folks are downstairs; it’s a big house but if I concentrate I can
pick out the faint sounds of movement. Jamie’s in his room; I know without
trying to hear. I reach into the bandwidth for his signal so familiar and
resonant, so attuned to my own. It pulses back to me. I wonder if he knows
I’m reaching for him. I could give him a telepathic nudge but that might
bring him up the hall and I’m not sure what he’d say about his sister’s boat
champagne. Apparently it’s unusual for Shields to sense signals they’re not
bound to, but I doubt my ability was intended for this sort of application,

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