In two years at Coates she had not heard from her sisters. Or her aunt and uncle. Her mother had written her once, an incoherent, self-pitying Christmas card.
Penny was as ignored at Coates as she had always been. Until she began to develop her power. It came late to her. After the first big battle in Perdido Beach, when Caine had walked off into the wilderness with Pack Leader.
When he returned at last, ranting and seemingly insane, Penny kept her secret to herself. She knew better than to show Drake. Drake was ruthless: he would have killed her. Caine was softer, smarter than Drake. When at last Caine came back to something like sanity, Penny started to show him what she could do.
And still she was ignored in favor of Drake and, worst of all, that witch Diana. Diana, who never loved Caine, who always criticized him, had even betrayed him and fought with him.
In that terrible moment standing at the edge of the cliff on San Francisco de Sales Island, when Caine could save only one of them, Diana or Penny, he had made his choice.
Penny had endured pain like nothing she could have ever imagined. But it cleared her mind. It strengthened her. It obliterated what faint echoes of pity were still left in her.
Penny was no longer ignored.
She was hated.
Feared.
No longer ignored.
“You have anything to drink?” Turk asked.
“You mean water?”
“Don’t be stupid; you know I don’t mean water.” Water was no longer in short supply. The eerie cloudburst Little Pete had created still rained down. There was a stream running right down the street, all the gutters carefully blocked so that the stream ran all the way down and out through a gap in the wall to form a pool in the sand of the beach.
Penny fetched a bottle from her kitchen. It was half-full of whatever vile liquid Howard brewed. It smelled like a dead animal, but Turk took a long, long drink.
“Want to make out?” Turk asked.
She slinked toward him, unconsciously mimicking the things she’d seen Dahlia and Rose do.
Turk made a face. “Not like that. Not like you.”
Penny felt it like slap in the face.
“Like you were the other time. You know, in my head. Make it like the other time.”
“Oh, like that,” she said flatly. Penny had the power to send horrifying visions. But she also had the power to create beautiful illusions. They were one and the same. It was one of the ways she had driven Cigar over the edge. She’d found a picture of his mother and made him see her…
Now, for Turk, she made a vision of Diana.
And a while later she spoke, using the vision of Diana still to say, “Turk, the time has come.”
“Mmm?”
“Caine humiliated me,” Penny said with Diana’s voice.
“What?”
“He’s the only one who can stop me,” Penny said. “He’s the only one who can humiliate me like that.”
Turk was dumb but not that dumb. He pushed her away.
She became herself again.
“One of these days he’ll kill you, Turk,” Penny said. “Remember what he did to your friend Lance?” She drew a long arc in the air and punctuated it with a “Splat!”
Turk looked nervously around. “Yeah, I remember; that’s why I am totally loyal to the king. He’s the king and I don’t mess with him.”
Penny smiled. “No, you just fantasize about his girlfriend.”
Turk’s eyes widened. He swallowed anxiously. “Yeah, well, what about you?”
Penny shrugged.
“Anyway, she’s not even his girlfriend anymore,” Turk said.
She stayed silent, waiting, knowing he was so very weak, so very fearful.
“What are you even talking about, Penny?” Turk cried. “You’re crazy.”
Penny laughed. “We’re all crazy, Turk. The only difference is I know I’m crazy. I know all about me. You know why? Because sitting there with my legs broken and wanting to scream every single minute, eating the scraps Diana brought me, that kind of clears out your mind and you start seeing things the way they are.”
“I’m out of here,” Turk yelled, and jumped up. He made it two feet before Caine was standing right in his path. Turk stepped back, one leg collapsing, barely caught himself from falling.
The Caine illusion disappeared.
“Just let me go, Penny,” Turk said shakily. “I’ll never tell anyone. Just let me go. You and Caine … whatever, okay?”
“I think you’ll end up doing what I want you to do,” Penny said. “I’m done being ignored and I’m all done being humiliated.”
“I’m not going to kill Caine. No matter what you say.”
“Kill? Kill him?” Penny shook her head. “Who said kill? No, no, no. No killing.” She pulled a prescription bottle from her pocket, twisted it open, and shook six small, pale, oval pills into her palm. “Sleeping pills.”
She slid the pills back into the bottle and closed it again.
“I got the pills from Howard. He’s very useful. I told him I was having a hard time sleeping and I paid him with… Well, let’s just say that Howard has his own fantasies. Which, by the way, you would not believe.”
“Sleeping pills?” Turk said in a shrill, desperate voice. “You think you’re going to take Caine down with sleeping pills?”
“Sleeping pills,” Penny said, and nodded with satisfaction. “Sleeping pills. And cement.”