Page 56 of Wicked Hungry

“Trained?” I ask.

“Well,” she says, “just look at you.”

“Look at us?”

“Are we ignorant, or just in denial?” she asks me, looking a little cross.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Morgaine sighs, pouting with full dark red lips, and the room fills with unhappiness. Suddenly, comforting her seems like the most important thing in the world. Anything she needs to know, I’ll tell her. “Kids today,” she says. “Know nothing, want to know nothing. Just want to watch television and play games.”

Blaine comes back in then, carrying a dusty box. “Morgaine,” he says. “I think they’ve been taking Eternal Cleanse.”

He looks at us, and we nod.

Morgaine’s eyes narrow. “No wonder you have no idea what’s happening. Do you even know what you’re putting in your body?”

“I read the label,” I say.

“You read the label?” Morgaine asks. “What does it say?”

I pull out the bottle from my pants, and watch Enrique and then Jonathan do the same.

“Well?” she says. “What does it say?”

“Not what I remember,” I say.

“This room is protected from enchantments,” Blaine says. “Come on, read it.”

“‘ETERNAL CLEANSE’,” I read aloud. “‘Feeling human? Your humanity getting you down? We can’t promise miracles, but these pills have rid users of their peskiest human natures. We promise you’ll be surprised by the results.’”

“Well, are you?” Morgaine asks.

“Are we what?” I ask.

“Surprised by the results.”

We are all silent, then.

“Those pills aren’t made for humans,” Morgaine says. “They’re meant for halflings. Or werefolk. I wish I knew who gave them to you.”

“Zach,” Enrique says. “It was him.”

“Yes, but how did he get them? Their sale is tightly regulated. Only the highest of the Seelie and Unseelie courts have access.”

“Seelie and Unseelie courts??

? I say.

“You really don’t know much of anything, do you?” Morgaine asks.

“We came here to find out what is going on,” Enrique says. “We want to know.”

“They are the two courts of Faerie,” Morgaine says. “The Seelie and the Unseelie. They balance each other out, but—”

“Should we stop taking the pills, then?” I interject.

“It’s too late for that. Once we find out who is behind them, perhaps we will find a cure. Until then, you have no choice. But you wanted a Ouija board, is that right?”