Read Doll Bones for Free Online

make up my own answers.”
    He frowned. “I don’t have them anymore. I lost them.”
    “You lost them?” Poppy yelled. He wondered if she was afraid of someone finding out what she’d asked. He would have been.
    “They’re probably just in your bag, right?” Alice said. “You could look.”
    “Sorry,” Zach mumbled. “Like I said, I don’t know where they are.”
    “What happened?” Poppy asked, grabbing his arm. “What’s so different all of a sudden? Why are you so different?”
    He turned to look at her. He had to get away before he said something that he couldn’t take back. “I don’t know. I don’t want to play, that’s all.”
    “Fine,” Poppy said. “Just bring your people over one last time. One final time. So that they can say good-bye to our people.”
    “I can’t,” he said. “I just can’t, Poppy.”
    “I just want to say good-bye.” The hurt on Poppy’s face was raw and so much like his own that it was hard to look at her. “They would want that. They’ll miss Rose and Lady Jaye and Aeryn and Lysander, even if you don’t.”
    “They’re not real, you know.” He knew he was being a jerk, but it felt good to lash out, even if was at the wrong person. “They’re not real, and they can’t want anything. Stop being such a loser. You can’t play pretend forever.”
    Alice sucked in her breath. The red blotches on Poppy’s neck had moved to her cheeks. She looked like she was about to cry or hit him; Zach wasn’t sure which.
    When she spoke, though, her voice was flat and grim. “The Queen—what if I take her out of the cabinet? I know where my mom keeps the key. I’ll play her. She knows all the secrets, and she’ll give you whatever you want. Everything. If you come tomorrow, you can have everything you want.”
    Zach hesitated. The Great Queen, who ruled over the Silver Hills, the Gray Country, the Land of the Witches, and the whole Blackest Sea. She would have information about William the Blade’s father. With her blessing, all his crimes might be forgiven, his curse lifted, and William would be allowed to dock the Neptune’s Pearl anywhere he wanted. It was a big thing for Poppy to promise—especially because her mother would be furious if Poppy actually took the doll out from the cabinet. The doll was very, very old, and—according to Poppy’s mother—worth a lot of money. She’d be worth a lot less if they touched her papery cotton dress or pawed at her brittle straw-gold curls. And if the Queen was free from her cage, then who knew what that meant for the world.
    For a moment, he’d forgotten that there was no more game. It was an unpleasant shock to remember. No matter how tempting it was, Zach couldn’t play. There was no William the Blade anymore.
    “Sorry,” he said, turning toward his house with a shrug.
    Poppy made a strangled sound. Alice said something under her breath.
    Zach bent his head, closed his eyes, and kept walking.
    THAT NIGHT, AT the kitchen table, Zach poked at his baked chicken. He wasn’t hungry.
    “Your mother pointed out to me that if I want you to start acting like a grown-up, I can’t keep treating you like a kid,” his father was saying, sounding overly sincere. “She’s right. I shouldn’t have tossed out your stuff, because it’s my job to guide you toward the right choices, not make all those choices for you.”
    The tone in his father’s voice made Zach think of last year, when he’d gotten into a fight at school. His mother had made him sit in the principal’s office until he was ready to tell Harry Parillo that he was sorry for punching him, even though Zach hadn’t been sorry at all. Zach’s father’s apology sounded as forced as his had been.
    “I know that it’s hard to adjust to us being back together,” Mom said. “But we’re going to keep working on it. Zachary, do you have anything you want to say?”
    “Nope,” Zach said.
    “That’s okay,” said his dad, getting up from the table and