Page 79 of Foes & Cons
“Oh, hey, Dorothy,” says Fake McKinley smiling down at her. “Is this all yours?”
“I live for the metal.” She nods, winking at him. “Enough bullshit though; your timing is perfect. Cover for me while I go powder my nose.”
“What?” he says, watching Dorothy shuffle from behind the stall.
“Cashbox and card reader are back there. Curly, you help him.”
She waves a hand and trundles to the door.
“So, Dorothy’s a metalsmith as well as being a general badass?”
“I want to be her when I grow up,please,” I say, raising my hand.
“Iwant to be her when I grow up,please,” agrees Fake McKinley, also putting his hand up then looking round when someone stops in front of the booth.
“Hi, Toby,” I say, enthusiastically.
Toby barely looks up at me from the Sword of Skallionreplica he’sholding.
“How much is this?” he asks Fake McKinley.
“The price is on that card,” he says.
“I’ve always wanted a Sword of Skallion, but mymumwouldn’t let me,” Toby says, staring at it for a good thirty seconds. He looks over his shoulder then nods at us. “I’ll take it.”
“Good for you, Toby,” I say.
He glances at me, unimpressed by my unintentionally patronising seal of approval. Tobypays for his shiny new toy and wanders off to another booth. Anticlockwise. We sit down while a couple of others look over Dorothy’s merch.
“So, whatdoyou want to be when you grow up?” he says. “Besides Dorothy.”
“Not sure really. Was thinking of linguistics, but I’m not sure now.”
“At uni?” he says.
I nod. “What about you?” I say, trying to swallow the lump that always gets lodged in my throat when I think about post-summer. “What do you want to do?”
He leans back and lets out a long sigh.
“I’m trying to work that out right now, to be honest. I’m halfway through a course, which Ithinkis useful and Ikindof enjoy, but I’ve been offered another opportunity.”
“And you’re not sure whether to risk the opportunity or see out your course?”
“Exactly,” he says. “I know what my limits are, and this is way,wayout of my comfort zone but has the potential to be awesome. I don’t want my limits toactuallylimit how I live my life. I feel like I should give myself a chance. I don’t know if that makes sense.”
“It does,” I say, nodding, as it makes perfect sense; too much sense almost. “So what course are you doing at the moment?”
He opens his mouth to answer but the deathly call of a Siren interrupts him. My soul deflates as I Iook up at Vivian. I smile at Sadie then glance at Charlie Chamberlain who’s looking right at me.
“Look who it is,” says Vivian, smiling at us. She picks up anornate mirror and checks her perfectly applied lipstick. “This is so cute.”
I don’t know if she’s referring to the mirror or her reflection.
“Did you make all this?” asks Sadie, her eyes wide as she picks up a silver stake (suitable for killing vampire/wolf hybrids).
“No, Sadie, Dorothy made it all,” I say. “We’re just looking after it for her.”
“Cool. I want to make swords when I’m older,” says Sadie, her eyes sparkling as she looks at the rest of the weaponry.
