Breadcrumbs - Anne Ursu [58]
Hazel cast another glance at him. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him for help, because he would surely take pity on a young girl who needed it—and take out any wolves she met along the way. But something stopped her.
“Is she okay?” Hazel asked.
“She will be,” he said.
She wasn’t sure she believed him. There was something weird going on. But she was so tired. Her head was fog. She wasn’t thinking clearly, that was all. So she nodded good-bye to the woodsman, and with one last glance at the dancing girl, headed back into the company of the crowd.
Chapter Eighteen
Temptations
As soon as she stepped back into the market, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Hazel whirled around to see a slim, slight man in a long black coat with two rows of shiny buttons down the front. He had a swoosh of black hair and a thin, pale face. He looked like he might have been blown in by the wind. His eyes reminded her of the bad guy Jack had showed her that day in the shrieking shack.
“Hello, young lady,” he said in an accent thick with the forest. He motioned to the cart behind him. It was lined with vials of fluid and packets with different color powders, and standing in the center watching over it all was one mean-looking chicken. “May I interest you in a potion?”
What was it with this place and potions? She politely refused, the same way she shrugged off the people trying to sell hair products at the mall. It was not forgetting that she needed.
“Oh,” he said, luring her back with his voice. “I have all kinds of potions. I have the rare ones. I can give you your heart’s desire.” He took a step forward and studied her. “I can tell there is something you want. I know these things.” He leaned over her, eyes penetrating her defenses, and whispered, “What does your heart yearn for?”
The way he asked it was like he was speaking directly to her heart, as if she was not even participating in the conversation. And the answer flew out of her mouth. “I want my friend back.”
A slow grin spread across the man’s face. “I see,” he said. “Now—and please don’t call me presumptuous—may I assume this was no ordinary friend?”
The marketplace bustled in the background, but it seemed to be distant somehow, as if Hazel and this man were the only true things in the world. It was like they were in their own pocket of air.
“No,” Hazel said. “He’s not.”
“You feel like you are nothing without him. He made you feel worthwhile, and then took it away.”
Hazel could not speak.
“That’s what I thought,” the man said. “I understand. I’ve got things that can help you get him back.”
Hazel’s heart sped up. “Like what?”
“I can make you beautiful,” he said. “I can make you womanly. I can make you charming and worldly. I can make you clever.” His face was now inches from hers. “I can make you belong.”
The air was buzzing and Hazel couldn’t seem to think. He didn’t understand, that wasn’t what she meant.
Or was it?
At least with Jack, she had belonged somewhere. With him gone, though, she was a misshapen piece. Was there enough magic in the woods to make her belong?
She opened her mouth to speak and the man gripped her hand. She felt a shock run through her body, and then she swayed a little and the air didn’t seem like it knew how to support her. She thought of the whistle in her pocket and the boy at the other end, but he was so far away. And the man smiled again and it was a very funny kind of smile, and he whispered, “I can give you whatever you want. It won’t cost anything. I’ll just ask one thing in return.”
A voice reached out to her like a lifesaver in the water. “Rose! Rose, what are you doing? Rose!”
A dark-haired man in a blue coat rushed up to Hazel and put his hand firmly on her arm. He sounded out of the breath. “Rose, I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
“I’m not—” Hazel said. But she was very sleepy now, and something was definitely wrong, and the man was shooting her such a look, such a curious look, and she couldn’t seem to finish what she was saying. Anyway, Rose was a nice