Darling - K. Ancrum Page 0,32

into something else. They don’t fit, and you look ridiculous.”

Curly scowled, but headed off in the direction of his room.

Slightly leaned over. “I’m not sure if I’ll see you again after this, Darling, but I just wanted to say that it was nice to meet you.”

Slightly and Prentis were so different from the other boys. Prentis reminded her of someone who could easily have gone to her old school, or maybe even somewhere fancier. Slightly, on the other hand, acted much more like an actual adult than anyone his age she’d ever met, and seemed like he had his life way more in order than even Peter. Prentis said he had just arrived, so that sort of made sense. Slightly, on the other hand, had been the one who was tased in Peter’s train story. So he had to have been living here for at least three years.

Wendy stuck out her hand to Slightly. “It was nice to meet you, too. You’re an amazing cook, and I really hope you … do well.”

Slightly smiled warmly, his dark cheekbones sharp in the candlelight. “Me too,” he replied.

Prentis stood to pull Wendy’s chair out again. “You look really nice,” he said. “I hope you have a good time at the party.”

“Thank you.”

Prentis looked over her shoulder at Peter, who was putting a few things in a messenger bag across the room.

“I hope you have a safe time at the party,” Prentis said, so quiet that Wendy could barely hear him.

“Same,” she replied, just as quiet. “See you around.”

CHAPTER 8

Wendy didn’t recognize the area she was in at all when they got downstairs. It made sense, because she’d had a T-shirt over her head, but it was disconcerting to realize that she really and truly did not know where she was. Nibs and Curly had changed quickly before they’d left. Curly had braided red ribbon into his pigtails and was wearing a pair of torn black jeans that looked suspiciously like they were Peter’s. He was also wearing a blue denim jacket with some patches sewn to it and what appeared to be hand-stitched embroidery.

Nibs had thrown on a leather jacket that had white bones painted on the arms. He’d pulled his chin-length red hair into a half ponytail and was wearing a bandanna over his mouth to obscure his face.

Now that they were in the street, Wendy noticed that Nibs and Curly liked to be shoulder to shoulder and walked in lockstep with each other. She wondered how the two boys had met, and if they had been friends—or “brothers”—for long.

Peter was walking in front. He’d put on sunglasses, even though it was night, and wore the black messenger bag she’d seen him messing with in the kitchen. Wendy watched the backs of the three boys in front of her and thought about how Tinkerbelle said they roamed the streets watching out for her, and understood how that would make her feel safe.

In the house, in the comfort of family, they had looked young and a bit playful. But lit only by streetlights and the moon, Peter, Nibs, and Curly looked strong, coordinated, and threatening.

They turned at the end of the block, and the neighborhood started to look more familiar to Wendy. They actually weren’t far from the train station. They were coming at it from behind and from the opposite direction that she’d left it, but she had an extremely rough idea of where she was now. Not enough to run off on her own, but maybe enough to consider trying.

As they drew closer to the train station, police sirens got louder and louder.

Wendy hadn’t exactly expected that whole ordeal to be over, but she figured things should have calmed down at least a little bit, and it was kind of alarming to be wrong.

They turned down the street, and Curly glanced over his shoulder at Tinkerbelle and Wendy. “You guys should get in between us and Peter,” he said. “That way we can guard your backs.” He reached over to curl his arm around Tinkerbelle’s shoulders and gently guide her forward.

Nibs moved aside to let Wendy get ahead of him, then he slung his arm over her and squeezed her shoulders reassuringly. “I’ve got you,” he said, hoarse like smoke.

Wendy’s heart ached at the gesture in a way that she couldn’t describe, and she silently forgave him, too, for the incidental kidnapping. When they turned the corner, out of the residential area and onto the main street, they were plunged