¹Royal Cries, p. jackson

013.

ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter thirteen

━━ THE AIR WAS thin and cold, something that wouldn't be uncommon in the winter and high enough in the air. Elisa's stomach lurched when she read the sign as they walked to the outskirts of a little town called Cloudcroft, New Mexico.

               Elisa knew where they were; a six-hour drive from Durango and a three-hour drive from Albuquerque.

               The roofs of Cloudcroft were piled with snow, something she was used to seeing in the winter when she lived in Durango. Muddy piles of snow were left on the sides of roads after they had been cleared to drive on; that was something Elisa was also used to seeing. Tall pine trees loomed over the valley, casting pitch-black shadows, though the morning was sunny.

               Bianca stepped in line with Elisa. "You look sick," she noted.

               Elisa took a deep breath, feeling as if her stomach was thirty pounds heavier. "I had a hard time sleeping in the car. Hurts my neck, y'know?"

               Bianca looked skeptical. "Your neck hurting wouldn't make you look green in the face," she pointed out.

               "I'm a little hungry," Elisa admitted. It wasn't exactly a lie, the last time she had eaten was two nights ago.

               "We'll see if we can get some food here, then," said Bianca. "They're bound to have a restaurant."

               Cloudcroft definitely did not have a restaurant that they could afford if they could afford any at all. The town had a grocery store they may be able to get food from, but even that's pushing it since Cloudcroft is a ski town. Tourist towns always have overpriced everything, even more so if the products were cheaply made. But if Elisa said that, Bianca would ask why she knew that, and Elisa didn't want to think about her past again. She preferred to act like it never happened in the first place.

               Elisa knew how dumb it was to confess her past to Percy, especially with how little she knew about him and how much he already annoyed her. She knew it was dumb, and yet, Elisa told him. Did she tell him everything? Gods, no.

               There were a lot of things Elisa did to survive for those two years, a lot of things she wasn't proud of. All of those things she was ashamed of, why would she confess it to some fourteen-year-old boy that made her want to rip out her hair?

               She wouldn't because that would be even dumber of her.

               Elisa felt a jab of pain in her knees every time she took a step. It was the cold, which found a way past the lion skin coat. She was freezing by the time they made it to Main Street, which had to be around half a mile from the train tracks.

               They stopped in the middle of the town. Elisa could see almost everything from where she stood: a school, some tourist stores and cafés, some ski cabins, and a grocery store.

               "Great," Thalia said, looking around. "No bus station. No taxis. No car rental. No way out."

               Elisa wasn't sure how it was possible, but there was just nothing. No way for them to get out and head west.

               "There's a coffee shop!" Grover said happily.

               "Yes," said Zoë. "Coffee is good."

               "And pastries," Grover said dreamily. "And wax paper."

               "I hate coffee," Elisa sniffed. "It tastes like a puddle of water that's been sitting in dirt for three weeks."