on the counter next to him. There was a bowl of chopped tomatoes and peppers next to her. She reached over to steal a piece of a pepper.
And got smacked on the hand with the spatula. “Hey!”
“No.”
She grunted and leaned back to rest her head against the cabinet door. “Fine. Spoilsport.”
Still, he didn’t look at her, even as he smirked. She knew from experience that pasta sauce didn’t take that amount of focus. His expression faded after a moment.
“Are you all right, Simon?”
“No.”
Silence. She sighed. “Good talk.”
More silence.
She wasn’t going to get an apology. At least not yet. And that was fine. She could wait. The next best thing she could do was change the subject. “I spoke to the Faire again last night before you came to find me.”
“What did it say? Anything of note?”
“Well, that I can go talk to Mr. Harrow now. That I can go knock on his door and ask him questions.”
He dropped the spatula. It clattered to the stovetop. Suddenly, he was standing in front of her, his hands clasping her shoulders, his fingers digging into her skin. “What?” The single word was both a hissed whisper and a shout at the same time. That was a trick. He was staring at her with such intensity that she shrank back as far as she could go.
“Simon?”
“This is not a matter to you, I understand—but we’ve been through this once before. This is very important to the rest of us. What do you mean, Mr. Harrow will speak to you?” He snarled, shaking her.
The shaking bonked her head on the cabinet door, and that was enough for her. She pushed him. “Off.” When he didn’t budge, she pushed again. “Off.”
That time, he obediently took a step back. She didn’t like this serious, dour version of Simon. A terrible as it sounded, she preferred him in his mania. He just watched her, anger and nervousness in his eyes, his jaw twitching.
This had to stop, but she didn’t know how to fix it.
“Explain. In great detail. Exactly what he said.” Simon kept his words stunted and short, as if he were straining on the end of his leash with every extra syllable. He probably was.
“The Faire—as Clown again, or at least, as he was before he became Clown—came to talk to me when I was in the woods. We talked for a short time. It told me that I have a connection to it now, a link that was passed on to me. When I said I thought Mr. Harrow was the only one with a direct link to the Faire, he told me to go ask Mr. Harrow himself. That’s all I know.”
“What else did you talk about?”
You. “That it needs me to save it. That it’ll die if I don’t help it. And…that it’s my choice whether or not I do.”
“Well, naturally, you will.” Simon returned to the stove, going back to cooking pasta. He dumped the spaghetti into a strainer in the sink. The steam curled up the window, fogging it, and spread across the ceiling in delicate white wisps that were gone as quickly as they arrived. “You will do whatever it requires of you to ensure that I do not die.”
She snorted. “I’m sure there’s a price. I’m sure there’s something terrible that’ll happen if I do save it. Us. Whatever. Not to mention—has it occurred to you that maybe the world is better off without an enormous creature running amok eating people?”
“Of course not. Don’t be preposterous.” He dumped the pasta into a bowl and upended the sauce on top of it, then mixed in the bits of tomato and peppers he had chopped and stirred it all together. “You mean to say that you are considering letting us all die because we do not deserve to exist?”
“I don’t know. It’s just a thought.”
Simon scooped out two bowls and handed her one, and a fork. She stayed perched on the countertop, preferring it there, and began poking at the food. He sat down at the table silently for a long moment. “You think we are worthless. You think we all should die.”
“I said I don’t know, Simon.”
“The Faire should have given this link to me. I would stop at nothing to ensure that we would continue to exist.” He stabbed at the food with his fork. “Instead, it gives such a gift to you. Again, Mr. Harrow will speak to you. Why?”
“You’re saying I’m not worthy?”
“You are debating letting us all