Page 35 of The Rising Tide
“That was rough,” Kayleigh said, probably the first words either of them had spoken about the chrome sphere incident. “What in the hell happened?”
Scout scowled. “I’m tempted to say that one thing we’ve been investigating, but I don’t think so. I think it was Alistair.”
Kayleigh’s eyebrows shot up. “Is he coming here?”
Scout shook his head. “No. And I texted Bartholomew this morning. He said Alistair’s retreated back home for the last few days. I’m betting he’s there, trying to figure out where we are, and while he probably can’t track us on the island, he does have a bead on my magic. So he doesn’t know what I was doing or where I was doing it, but he could certainly fuck with the forces to make sure it didn’t turn out as planned.”
Kayleigh started chuckling, low and evil.
Scout glared at her. “What? It’s only a matter of time before he figures out a way to find us. I don’t want to leave here! Ilikeit here!” He looked down the book racks to where Lucky was waiting on a little old lady with the patience of a frickin’ saint. “I like the people here,” he said miserably.
“We don’t have to leave,” she said, lower lip thrust out.
“But Kayleigh—”
“No! Fuck that! I don’t want to go. And you know what? You beat him today.”
Scout stared at her. “That’s impossible!”
“No, it’s not!”
“Kayleigh, you remember how we ended up here, right?” He gave Piers and Larissa a green smile, wishing they weren’t doing this in front of them. “I wasn’t powerful enough to keep in the compound. You remember that. You were there!”
“It was bullshit,” Kayleigh told him fiercely. “It was all bullshit. Alistair fed it to you about the time he realized you were looking at the wrong pictures on the internet. Kept telling you that you were too weak to be a wizard, to get used to failure. I heard the way he talked to you. You always sort of tuned out of it, but I know it seeped in somewhere. And it was a lie, and he knew it.”
Scout shifted from foot to foot. “I failed the test,” he said quietly, trying to remind her of that day—him, standing in front of the entire population of the compound while Alistair screamedConjuro!in his face and Scout held his hands out and not a breath of magic stirred. He’d already been thinking about his exit plan, because in his heart he’d already been gone.
“You didn’t care about Alistair’s stupid test, Scout. When it was time to break me out of there, you did exactly what he said you were too weak to do, and you did more than he’s ever asked of anyone else. You didn’t just create a portal, you went through it and pulled me out. You beat him two months ago, and you beat him today.”
He blinked at her. “Marcus’s chromatic spheres say differently,” he muttered, thinking those were coming out of his paycheck.
“No, they say exactly what I’m saying!” Kayleigh argued, hands on her hips. “He tried to get control of your magic today—did he succeed?”
“Almost!” Scout admitted, his heart thundering all over again. Those spheres had been a hair’s breadth from being jerked out of his control. “And the scary thing is that he didn’t give a fuck what I was doing—he could havekilledsomeone.”
Kayleigh’s oval of a face relaxed a little. “But you didn’t let that happen. You took the thing he made you into—all those ballet lessons, all those magic lessons, all those ‘everyone else is better than you’ lessons—and you spun it into something….” She shook her head.
“Beautiful,” Lightning said, looking at his cousin. “Wasn’t he beautiful up on stage?”
Larissa, who had been following the conversation with a puzzled look on her face but following it just the same, nodded to agree. “Oh yes. That was fabulous. I… uhm, until I heard you arguing right this moment, I never would have guessed you didn’t mean to do exactly that.”
Scout nodded, grateful that if they were doing this in front of total strangers, at least the strangers didn’t suck. “Thanks, Larissa.” He grimaced and looked to the front, to where Lucky and Helen were finally getting a chance to clean up after the rush. “I just don’t like the idea that Alistair can peek in on my magic whenever I’m not paying attention. It’s bad enough wondering if he’s going to find us for real. The magic thing is… intrusive. He kickedmeout, right? If we hadn’t had Josue and Macklin, we could have been screwed. This is—” He waved his hands ineffectually. “—childish and stupid.”
“Well,” Kayleigh said with a snort, “that’s Alistair. What do you think all of that subjugate-women bullshit is if it’s not childish and stupid?”
“I need to cook up something that will give me a warning, even if it’s only the hair rising on the back of my neck. I swear to Goddess, if I knew it was coming, I could deal.”
Kayleighhumphed. “I can do that,” she said. “Remember, I spent allmymagic finding alarms that would let me know someone was going to catch me working magic at all.”
Scout snorted. “Yeah. You’re right. Childish and stupid—that’s dear old Dad.”
Kayleigh nodded decisively. “So let me figure out an alarm system. You can beat him if you have some warning. You already did.”
Scout doubted that. It seemed a little too optimistic to hope the boogeyman of both their childhoods could be as easy to beat as throwing balls out to sea, but they had other concerns. Alistair didn’t give a damn about the poor souls locked in the Tom’s bench clearing, and he certainly didn’t care about Lucky and Piers and Larissa. Scout and Kayleigh were the best chance the island had of getting rid of its soul trap. And of hopefully keeping the protective spirit that was helping them all out at the same time.
EVENTUALLY THEcoffee shop emptied out, and Scout and Kayleigh moved to help Lucky clean up the back with the books, keeping a few specific ones out for themselves. Larissa and Piers watched them curiously for a moment, as though surprised they’d help when it wasn’t their job, and Scout turned to Piers.
“C’mon, Lightning, the quicker we help Lucky out, the quicker we can go run my little magic experiment by the bay.”
