Page 59 of The Rising Tide
And then went out.
“Enough already,” Miller grunted.
“We call him Lightning,” Lucky said helpfully.
“And you?” Miller raised that eyebrow.
“Mine’s secret,” Lucky said, feeling smug. His coin was sitting in his pocket, cool and sleeping. Lucky knew enough about the thing to know that if this guy was a threat it would be burning a hole into his thigh.
Miller glanced at Piers, who shrugged. “We ask him important questions, he disappears and comes back with answers. That’s all I know.”
And now they both gazed calmly at Lucky, who stared back.
“I’m not gonna do it now. I’m not a circus pony. But Icantell you something about your crazy gun-toting bozos.”
Miller tried a cop glare, but it was ruined by the fact that Lucky had just watched him make love to a cupcake and he still had icing on his upper lip.
“I’ll take it,” he said after a moment.
“They were from Philly,” he said. “They were after me because of that thing I can do with the questions. I ran away because one gang was about to get wiped out, and I didn’t want to be captured by another one—or shot—and here I am. So yeah, you see a gun-toting bozo on the ferry with a Philly accent, Scout and me would appreciate a heads-up. I’m thinking Scout can continue with the catch-and-release thing, but a little bit of warning would be appreciated.”
Miller’s mouth parted slightly, and Lucky wondered if he got a medal for a confession to a relative stranger. But trusting Scout had led to only good things, and so had trusting Helen. Maybe building a little community around luck mechanics wasn’t the worst idea ever.
“Why are they chasing you again?” Aldrun asked, and Lucky had managed to get both of Miller’s eyebrows to raise, so he figured that was his medal.
“’Cause the last guy figured out I could help him play the ponies. When the next guy wiped him out, I ran.”
Aldrun swallowed, and for a second Lucky wondered if he’d seriously miscalculated based on Scout and a cupcake. Then he nodded.
“Okay.” He pulled in a thoughtful breath. “I’ll keep an eye out for bad guys from Philly if you—” He gestured in frustration at Scout, who had curled into a tiny ball like a pill bug, with the covers pulled over his head. “—don’t let him drop bad guys in the Atlantic, okay?”
“He’s not that kind of magician,” Lucky and Piers said in the same breath, and Aldrun held out his hands.
“Okay! Okay! Fine.” He let out a sigh. “But you guys will believe me, right? If I call you up and tell you there’s trouble?”
Lucky and Piers both nodded, staring at him in surprise. “Well, yeah,” Lucky said. “Why wouldn’t we?”
A surprisingly bleak look crossed Aldrun’s face, and Lucky had that sudden awareness that everybody had a story.
“It doesn’t always happen,” he murmured, voice harsh. “There’s a reason for the Cassandra myth. Poor woman. It sucks to be telling people that there’s something bad coming only to have people not believe you.”
There was a strained silence, and right when Lucky was about to ask the obvious question—“What happened?”—Aldrun said, “Wait a minute. Are we the only people on the island who—?”
“No,” Piers and Lucky both said in concert, and Lucky was starting to feel a serious kinship for the guy.
“But magic really isn’t anyone else’s secret to tell,” Lucky added, relieved to see Piers nod. Behind them, Scout let out a light snore, and Lucky grimaced.
“Look, tomorrow’s my day off, and seriously, me and him are goin’ anywhere but here. But in the morning, if you want, meet us at Helen’s place. You know where that is?”
“Books and coffee,” Miller said dryly. “We all know where that is.”
“Well, good. We’re taking the first ferry out, but we can meet about an hour earlier. We can all have a conversation. It’ll be cozy. But in the meantime….” He made shooing motions.
“He’s sleeping,” Aldrun acknowledged. He yawned. “Thanks for the sugar rush—man, I was so tired, I probably wouldn’t have made it back to the Spit without it.”
Piers gave Lucky an apologetic glance. “I think we can get you a place to nap if you need one,” he said. “But let’s you and I leave, and Scout can sleep.”
With that, they both bid a courteous goodbye and slid out the front door, probably to go bother Marcus and Kayleigh and scare up the couch for their new friend.
