07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

seated Misao on the couch, rubbing her shoulders comfortingly. “I’ll ask.”
So she was the one inside the two-way mirror room, Bonnie thought. She looks really
bad. Like dying bad.
“What happened to my sister’s star ball?” Shinichi demanded and then Bonnie saw how
this thing formed a circle, with a beginning and an ending, and how, understanding this, she could die
with true dignity.
“It was my fault,” she said, with a faint smile as she remembered. “Or half of it was.
Sage opened it up the first time to open the Gate back on Earth. And then…” She told them the story,
as if it were one she’d never heard before, putting an emphasis on how it was she who had given
Damon the clues to find Misao’s star ball, and it was Damon who then had used it to enter the top
level of the Dark Dimensions.
“It’s all a circle,” she explained. “What you do comes back to you.” Then despite
herself, she started to giggle.
In two strides, Shinichi was across the room and slapping her. She didn’t know how
many times he did it. The first was enough to make her gasp and stop her giggling. Afterward her
cheeks felt as swollen as if she had a very painful case of the mumps, and her nose was bleeding.
She kept trying to wipe it on her shoulder, but it wouldn’t stop. At last Misao said, “Ugh.
Unfasten her hands and give her a towel or something.”
The ogres moved just as if Shinichi had given the order.
Shinichi himself was now sitting beside Misao, talking to her softly, as if he were
speaking to a baby or a beloved pet. But Misao’s eyes, with their tiny flicker of fire in them, were
clear and adult as she looked at Bonnie.
“Where is my star ball now?” she asked with dreadful gray intensity.
Bonnie, who was wiping her nose, feeling the bliss of not being handcuffed behind her
back, wondered why she wasn’t even trying to think of a lie. Like, let me free and I’ll lead you to it.
Then she remembered Shinichi and his damn kitsune telepathy.
“How could I know?” she pointed out logically. “I was just trying to pull Damon away
from the Gate when we both fell in. It didn’t come with us. As far as I know, it got kicked in the dust
and all the liquid spilled out.”
Shinichi got up to hurt her again, but she was only telling the truth. Misao was already
speaking. “We know that didn’t happen because I am”—she had to pause to breathe—“still alive.”
She turned her ashen, sunken face toward Shinichi and said, “You’re right. She’s useless
now, and full of information she shouldn’t have. Throw her out.”
An ogre picked Bonnie up, towel and all. Shinichi came around the other side. “Do you
see what you’ve done to my sister? Do you see?”
No more time now. Just a second to wonder if she really was going to be brave or not.
But what should she say to show she was brave? She opened her mouth, honestly not sure whether
what was coming out was a scream or words.
“She’s going to look even worse when my friends are done with her,” she said, and saw
in Misao’s eyes that she’d hit her target.
“Throw her out,” Shinichi shouted, livid with fury.
And the ogre threw her out the window.