Warped (Maurissa Guibord)

any longer." Her mouth twisted in a small, secret smile aimed right at Tessa as she turned away. "Just so there will be no hard feelings, I've left a check for the agreed amount at the store, Mr. Brody." She frowned faintly. "It appears that you'll need it. Your daughter has made quite a mess in there."
    "Yes," mumbled Tessa's father. "All right." He spoke absently, still holding on to Tessa with a protective grip.
    Gray Lily looked at Tessa. "And I will want my book back as well."
    She must not have seen it , Tessa realized. She snatched the tapestry from the studio wall but the Texo Vita must still be in the bag up in the studio .
    "I don't know where it is," said Tessa.
    "She'll find it," said her father.
    Gray Lily nodded. "Perhaps your daughter would be good enough to bring it to my hotel, let's say by Friday evening? I'm staying at the Portland Regency. Then all will be settled." The words sounded so calm, so reasonable, coming from such a frail-looking elderly woman. But Tessa heard the venom hidden within them.
    Tessa's father looked at her questioningly and spoke. "Maybe I should bring it--"
    "No." Tessa broke in. She stared at Gray Lily. In the woman's sinister black eyes she saw a wicked kind of amusement, and a challenge. "This is all my fault," Tessa said slowly. "I'll bring it. I want to."
    "Thank you, my dear. Please don't be too hard on the girl, Mr. Brody," Gray Lily added in a prim tone. "When we're young, we sometimes ... tangle with the wrong sort of people. We get ourselves in trouble." Her eyes slid over to Tessa as she smiled once again.
    Tessa's face was streaked with tears and dirt, and she wiped a shaky hand through the mess as she watched Gray Lily walk away.

Chapter 32

"We'll have to close the store while we clean this mess up," said Tessa's father, surveying the damaged bookstore. "It looks like a wild animal came through here."
    Pretty much , thought Tessa.
    Her father glanced at her as if he thought she might sprout fur and fangs any moment, but Tessa said nothing. In a way, she felt like leaving everything the way it was. Shattered glass on the floor, claw marks dug into the wood, doors ripped from hinges. Everything looked exactly as it should, exactly the way she felt inside. Torn apart.
    Tessa couldn't stop seeing Will de Chaucy's face, hearing his voice, feeling his kiss. She could still taste his lips. Her heart had been turned inside out by that one kiss, left open and exposed. And now he was gone? She couldn't think about anything beyond that fact.
    She had to fix things. She had to explain this whole mess to her father. But how? She'd seen Will come out of the tapestry with her own eyes and wasn't even sure she believed it. Most parents, after hearing a story like that, would have her in lockdown, peeing into a cup.
    She approached her father. He was standing in front of the smashed display case. Just standing there, looking as if he didn't know where to begin. "This was the last thing I needed right now," he said.
    "I'm sorry." Tessa felt as though she'd said that about a hundred times and it still wasn't enough. "Dad. I want to explain," she began. "I met Will de Chaucy a few days ago. He's from England." Just keep it simple. No need to specify the century he came from . "Will was in trouble, Dad. I was just trying to help him."
    Her father shot her a quick look, his eyebrows drawn together. "What kind of trouble are we talking about?"
    Tessa stared back at him, helpless for words. Oh, just your usual kind , she thought. Witches, time-traveling unicorns. You know .
    "It's not about money or drugs or anything like that," she said at last. "Gray Li--I mean, Ms. Gerome. She was after the tapestry. I had to pretend it was stolen."
    "And lie to me?" Her father raised his voice, yelling now. Something he never did. "Why couldn't you just come to me, Tessa? Talk to me?"
    Tessa searched for an answer. She straightened the pile of complimentary bookmarks on the counter with nervous fingers. "You wouldn't have understood," she said at last. "It's complicated. And I thought you might get hurt."
    "Hurt? Who's going to hurt me?" Her father pulled at the collar of his shirt. His face was red, as if his outburst had embarrassed him.
    Gray Lily , Tessa thought. And in ways you can't even imagine . But aloud she said, "Ms. Gerome."
    Her father scrunched his hair with his fingers, looking puzzled. "You thought Ms. Gerome was going to hurt me," he repeated.
    "Yes. I mean, no. I mean, Lila