Abandon - Meg Cabot [86]
“Hey,” I said in what I hoped was still a soothing voice, reaching out and laying a hand on his knee. “You asked what he said. I’m just telling you.”
The hand seemed to work. He stayed where he was, the tension leaving his body.
“That wasn’t the necklace,” he said, scowling. “Do you think I’d give you something that kills people? Why would I do that? The Furies did that because they were angry that the stone wasn’t being used by the person for whom it was intended.”
“And who is that?” I asked.
John scowled some more. “You know perfectly well who. Richard said he told you. Are you flirting with me?”
“Of course not,” I said, hoping he couldn’t tell in the pool lights that I was blushing. “I’m just trying to keep the facts straight. Mr. Smith talked an awful lot about the Furies.”
He frowned. “Richard’s obsessed with the Furies.”
“Well,” I said, “they seem pretty awful. He said they’re the spirits of the dead who are unhappy with where they ended up.”
He scowled some more, but at the pool, not me. “That’s more or less accurate.”
“And you told me,” I said, “they’re the ones who do the punishing if people break the rules in your world. That’s how you got these?” I traced a scar on one of his hands, which was resting near mine.
For once, he didn’t jerk his hand away. Though his gaze did leave the water and focused on my fingers instead.
“Yes,” he said quietly.
“And now there are Furies after me,” I said.
Now that bright silver gaze finally turned full on my face.
“There aren’t any Furies after you,” he said. He looked genuinely puzzled. “Why should there be?”
“Well,” I said. Because you chose me, I wanted to say. Like Hades chose Persephone. I opted to play it safe, however, in case he accused me of flirting again, and settled instead for saying, “Because you gave me the necklace.”
“And you threw a cup of tea in my face,” he reminded me drily. “Then you left. I’m fairly certain even the Furies got that message loud and clear. They’re hardly likely to come after someone who hates me just as much as they do. In fact, the Furies probably consider you one of their closest allies.”
I moved my hand away from his, stung…even if most of what he’d said was true. Well, the tea part, anyway.
“I told you, I only did that because I was scared,” I said. “And I’m not a Fury. Although I don’t think it would hurt if you checked yourself a little more often, before you went around wrecking yourself.” When he just stared at me, uncomprehending, I explained, “You could be slightly more hospitable to guests when they arrive in your world, and you could also not go around trying to murder innocent people all the time, like that jeweler you almost killed.”
He looked indignant. “He wasn’t innocent. He was an ass. He should never have touched you. He deserved everything he got.”
I lifted my gaze to the stars, which burned cold and clear above us, now that the clouds had parted. Because Isla Huesos was so small and so far from the mainland and any major city, I could see way more stars in my backyard here than I’d ever been able to see in my backyard in Westport. Sometimes I even caught glimpses of the Milky Way.
“John,” I said, fighting for patience. “Mr. Smith told me Furies can possess any human they want to, if they have a weak enough character.”
“They can,” John said, sounding skeptical. “But they hardly ever do unless it’s to punish me somehow. So I still don’t understand why you think they would come after you, when you’ve made it so clear you want nothing to do with me.”
I lowered my gaze from the stars to look at him. He was so frustrating.
“Why else do you think that old man was so interested in the necklace?” I demanded. “If he wasn’t a Fury?”
“Maybe because he was a jeweler,” he pointed out.
I buried my face in my hands. How was I ever going to get through to him?
“What about my teacher, Mr. Mueller?” I asked from between my fingers. “Are you trying to tell me he’s not a Fury?”
“You just admitted to me last night that you put yourself in that danger,” John said. I saw, when I