The Lost Rainbow Mage: Complete Trilogy Edition, page 39
I reached forward and took her hands in mine. Then I concentrated, and she smiled, relaxing as I held onto her.
“What are you doing?” She kept her voice low but excitement wove through it, made the pitch a little higher, the tone a little happier. And it did my heart good to hear the happiness.
“Shh, I’ve been practicing.” I grinned back at her.
I concentrated and pushed as much warmth into her as I could. The old bulb nearest to us flickered then dimmed as I drew the light from it.
The teen at the counter glanced up, unaware that it wasn’t so random. “Damn things,” he grumbled.
I moved my fingers across the underside of Greta’s wrists, and she wriggled in her seat.
“Tickles,” she whispered.
When I drew back, tiny flames shimmered on her arm, and although there wasn’t a lot of color, they appeared to dance as she turned her palms up to examine the new art in the light.
The bulb stopped wavering, and the teen glanced up again.
“Thank God,” he harrumphed, and returned to scrolling on his phone. It probably wasn’t an alert, after all, but I wasn’t going to stop being careful.
“Do you like them?” I pointed to Greta’s wrists, and she nibbled at her lip as if she knew enough about being found out that she thought she would have to hide them. A child her age shouldn’t know such fear. “They won’t grow. They’ll fade,” I continued as I flashed her a quick glimpse of my own wrist and the various failed attempts at stamping heat into myself in their different stages of fading away completely.
I didn’t quite have Lucian’s skill yet for using the human body as my canvas, but his skill was a curse, and I simply wanted to keep Greta warm.
“They won’t hurt you,” I reassured her. “They’re to help us.” This way, it mattered less whether the room we secured had a window that shut tight against drafts.
“Okay.” She nodded, although there was still something uncertain and hesitant in her reactions as she rubbed the pad of her thumb exploratorily over the flame.
“I know they’re not pretty yet.” I grinned. “Maybe one day.”
As she looked at the rudimentary design again, guilt licked through me. Greta wasn’t really mine to look after. I’d stolen her to rescue her, but now I could be doing her a disservice by keeping her. I didn’t know anything about looking after children, and I wasn’t truly her family.
Her mom had sacrificed herself so that we could escape, but her dad had remained at the commune, at Lucian’s side. Still, it seemed wrong that she would never know her real family because of decisions I’d made for her. The guilt deepened until I could feel it in my bones, my soul.
If she couldn’t be with Marcus, though, she should at least know something about him.
I glanced back at the computer screen and called up a normal browser again.
One day, I’d tell her about her parents, but right now I had to find somewhere to stay.
two
This was the first town I’d considered staying in, the first time I’d enrolled Greta in a school, and it was the first time I wanted to stay somewhere a little nicer than a hostel or the local rundown motel on the road right back out of town. I didn’t know if that spoke more to the way I viewed the town—homey and quiet, secluded and hidden—or if it was just that I was tired and needed time to regroup. It didn’t matter. We were staying.
Although, if Greta was going to start going to school, she needed a comfortable bed and a warm night’s sleep. The flames on her wrist would help while we were out and about, but I hadn’t mastered the power yet, and that sort of warmth was temporary. She needed walls and blankets, a warm bed to snuggle into. She deserved these things.
One day, Greta would be capable of exactly the same, but I couldn’t teach her what I hadn’t yet gotten the hang of myself. She would need training more than I could provide.
“Have you got a phone I can use?” I called out to the teen, and he didn’t even look up.
Instead, he jerked his head in the direction of the corner by the door. “Payphone over there.”
Excellent. How many coins would I need for that? Surreptitiously, I scanned the floor, glancing around for loose dimes and nickels. I didn’t want to resort to stealing from the tip jar, but in my experience so far here, this guy didn’t really earn his tips, anyway.
Once I’d collected the loose change there was to see, I walked to the phone and placed my call. Then I returned to Greta.
“You done here?”
“Yep.” She flashed her coloring page in front of me. “It’s a vase of flowers. And look, I added Lexi by myself.”
My eyes prickled at the image of my friend in her hummingbird form hovering near to the flowers that Greta had colored. She was only seven, but she had a very good memory. “That’s beautiful, sweetie.”
I helped her put on the coat we’d bought from a goodwill shop four towns back and then returned our cups to the counter.
The guy didn’t even grunt this time. He was getting lazier by the minute.
“Okay,” I said as we hit the street. “I’ve got us a room at a bed and breakfast.” I crossed my fingers that I’d be able to find a job to be able to pay for it. “The couple sounds very nice. Mr. and Mrs. Avery.”
“Okay.” Greta grinned at me as she reached to slip her little hand into mine.
I squeezed her fingers softly. There was something about not being all alone, about having a focus. She kept me grounded, and she kept me from becoming too hard and bitter. I’d never been so inwardly angry, angry enough I could feel it in my gut. I didn’t want to give into it and having Greta meant I wouldn’t.
We found the house easily since it was only around the corner from the internet cafe, and I rang the old-fashioned bell, yanking on the chain that sounded our arrival somewhere in the house.
A lady with cotton-candy white hair that had been barely restrained into a bun at the nape of her neck and had little wisps sticking out all over answered the door, and her face creased softly as she smiled in greeting. She looked like as nice a woman as she’d sounded. I hoped so, anyway.
“Why, hello.” She looked at Greta. “You must be Meira. I believe we just spoke on the phone.”
A joyous giggle spilled from Greta’s mouth, and I smiled at the sound. It had been too long since her joy was unrestrained. And I immediately liked the woman for giving her a moment of it.
“Was it just the one room? I forget,” Mrs. Avery continued.
Greta looked at me for my answer, and I nodded.
“Yes, please,” Greta said. “But my name’s Greta, and this—” She jerked on my arm as if she had to physically demonstrate me. “Is Meira.”
Mrs. Avery stepped back and gestured for us to walk inside the warm house where honeyed light lit softly against wooden floors and pale walls. I glanced into the living room through the side arch, and there were throws and overstuffed couches and chairs, and all of the home comforts I wanted Greta to have. I breathed out a soft sigh because this was everything I’d hoped and even a bit more.
“You know, I think we might be able to do better than just one room for such a polite customer.” Mrs. Avery lowered her voice conspiratorially, and I glanced at her.
“Oh, no… I…” There was no way I could afford to pay for two rooms. Even taking on one was a stretch I wasn’t certain my financials could comfortably accommodate right now.
But Mrs. Avery stopped me talking with a wave of her hand. “It’ll work out, dear,” was all she said. I hated having to worry about every single thing, but I supposed this was what parents dealt with every day. Good parents, anyway.
After Mrs. Avery showed us to our rooms, she took Greta straight to the kitchen for a snack. As I stood in the doorway, keeping an ever-watchful eye, the older woman eyed my backpack. There was a measure of doubt written in her gray eyes, and I wanted to deny it. I didn’t want her to know that my backpack contained all of our current possessions, but I had a feeling that, in spite of what I wanted, she knew anyway.
“I can watch Greta if you have any business to attend to in town?” She said it as a question—with raised eyebrows and a soft lilt to her tone.
I wasn’t sure what she thought I might need to do or why she even thought I’d trust someone I’d only just met to watch over my sister—which was the story Greta and I had agreed to—but something inside me relaxed, and I nodded. There were people I needed to speak to without Greta around. I trusted the feeling in my stomach. And right now it was mercifully silent. If there’d been so much as a whisper of a rumble, I wouldn’t have considered going.
While I didn’t exactly have secrets from her, neither did I want her exposed to all of my worries and doubts. It wasn’t fair to rest those on her shoulders. She needed to believe that everything was okay, and I had it all in hand.
“Oh, I…” I wanted to accept but refusal was surely the done thing.
She tilted her head as if she knew what I was about to say and also how badly I needed to go into town without Greta. “Does Greta like baking? I was just about to start on an apple cobbler.”
Greta’s eyes lit up with excitement, and she started to bounce a little on her feet.
“I guess she does.” I laughed. “Only if you’re sure?” I might not have been afforded another chance, and I couldn’t waste this one.
“Quite sure, dear. Sometimes, we all need a helping hand to get by. I have a hand. Please take it.” It was like she’d read my mind, and Mrs. Avery opened the front door again to let me out.
“I won’t be long,” I promised Greta as I stepped outside. “Save me some cobbler?”
Greta laughed, and I hurried down the path with the sound of her happiness ringing in my ears.
I hit the gas station first. It seemed the most likely place to pick up a burner phone I could use. I wasn’t going to make all of my calls from scrounged loose change in the internet café.
Once I’d bought the phone and activated it, I dialed Bess’s number from memory.
“Hello.” As usual, she answered with a distracted bark. A command to tell her why I was wasting her time.
“Hi, Bess. Long time no talk.” My eyes prickled for the second time in as many hours, and my muscles seemed to weaken at the familiarity of my old boss and friend.
“Meira?” There was no denying the shock in her voice. It made it thinner and louder. “Is that you? Are you safe? Where are you?”
I chuckled. Of course she had questions. The last time she’d seen me, I was being bundled into a car by guys in black suits and sunglasses, and they hadn’t wasted any time in whisking me out of town.
“It’s me,” I confirmed. “And I’m okay.”
“Are you coming home?” This time, there was an urgency in her voice even as she hushed it, so that it was more of a pained whisper than her usual snarky bark.
My heart squeezed at her simple question. Home. That was a long-gone concept now. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to go back or where I would ever be able to call home if I didn’t. “Actually.” I swallowed before I could force the difficult words from my throat. “I need to know if you can help me sell the house instead.”
“Oh, Meira.” She sounded so sad, and I pressed my fingernails into my palm so I wouldn’t lose it and start to cry. I needed something to concentrate on that wasn’t the pain in my heart.
But I needed the money. “I think I have to,” I said.
Bess would know. She would understand. I wouldn’t need to say all of the hard words to her.
And I didn’t. She didn’t make me. “You know,” she said instead, her tone thoughtful, “it might be easier if you just rent it instead. There’s a rental market, especially around here. Snowbirds love it, and we always have people who just want to hole up near the ocean.” That was true. “If you can rent, you can get money each month and you don’t have to resort to having no house. I think that might work better… because you never know,” she finished.
I found myself nodding along with her as she spoke. And that was what I loved about her. She could always see options even when I couldn’t. “I love that house.” I almost wasn’t even talking to her. I was trapped in a memory of all the mornings I’d woken up and my home was filled with the most perfect light.
So much energy had flowed through me, and back then, I hadn’t even understood what I was or why the light made me so happy.
“I know, hon.” Bess spoke like it was a done deal. “Let’s keep your house for when you make it back.”
I laughed, suddenly hopeful that I would make it back, that I could have the life I’d started to live when I’d first moved down there.
“After all.” Bess spoke again. “You’ve got a job down here, too.”
I exhaled a rush of surprise. “Thank you,” I said because there weren’t really any more words. Not that gratitude was hard for me, but because I would never have enough words to express how grateful I was for her, for her friendship, her wisdom, the job.
A job I hadn’t expected her to keep available for me. Not when she didn’t even know whether I was alive or dead.
“Let me get you the details of the rental agency here in town, and I still have that key to the place that you left me.” I could hear paper rustling in the background. “I’ve been in a couple of times to kind of…” The background sounds quieted, and she trailed off. “Well, to make sure it was ready for you when you got back, you know?”
I nodded again and swallowed against the lump in my throat.
“You got a pen?” Her voice was overly loud as she covered the emotion that suddenly hung on the line between us. For Bess, volume was her defense.
I balanced the phone between my neck and my shoulder, not wanting to put it down and lose contact with my friend, as I scrabbled through my backpack. “Sure I do…somewhere…”
“Like old times.” Bess chuckled, the noise husky and as comforting as a warm blanket. “I don’t know anyone who could lose more pens than you.”
It had been true. There had never been a pen to note an appointment for a customer if I’d been anywhere in the salon that day. By the end of the day, I always had a collection built up.
I wrote down the details that Bess recited. “Thank you. I’ll get on to them first thing tomorrow.” It was a relief to have someone on my side. Even the gruffness of her voice warmed me. It was home. A part of me.
“It’s good to hear from you, Meira. And hopefully I’ll see you soon?” Again, instead of a statement, she made it a question.
And more than I’d ever wanted not to do something, I didn’t want to disappoint her. “Hopefully,” I said instead, although I had no way of knowing when.
Still, it was something to aim for, a goal, and now I had that aim again, it felt like anything was possible.
I ended our call with a swipe of my finger, and a fresh energy burst through me. I could create the kind of life that Greta deserved, and I could give her somewhere beautiful to live.
I could do this for both of us. I would.
I shoved the pen I’d found in the side pocket of my backpack, and pushed the phone down into the bottom, under my limited selection of clothes.
The alley where I’d made the call to Bess suddenly seemed a lot less friendly, and the wind blew a loose sheet of paper past my feet.
My skin pricked like I was being watched, and I glanced at the surrounding brick walls and rooftops. There was nothing there. It wasn’t the first time I’d had the feeling, though, and my heart sank. Maybe we couldn’t stay here after all. Maybe I’d been too confident in registering Greta for school. Maybe I’d given small town Alaska too much credit.
Every other time I’d felt like this, we’d left town. I couldn’t risk Greta’s safety by staying somewhere if Lucian was nearby. Although what if it wasn’t him? What if it was just my paranoia?
It was possible, I supposed, still letting my gaze dart from one side to the other, up and down, in the shadows and corners.
I took a deep breath and began to walk back to the bed and breakfast. I’d left Greta with Mrs. Avery for long enough.
A scuffing noise sounded behind me. A footstep. Something out of place in the quiet. The streets weren’t exactly thronging with people. I glanced over my shoulder but again, there was no one there.
Except there was. I couldn’t escape that feeling. No matter how empty the street behind me looked, something was there.
I wasn’t alone.
But I couldn’t lead whoever or whatever it was back to Greta. I wouldn’t risk her. So I ducked into another alleyway, pressing my back against the wall as I waited for whoever it was to walk past so I could make my escape or catch him.
Because surely it was him. Only Lucian had any interest in following me. Otherwise, I was just another person. Only Lucian cared what I was.
At a scuffing noise almost directly at my side, I closed my eyes and drew a deep breath. I didn’t want to look, and I didn’t want to see.
“Meira?” The voice was familiar, and my eyes sprang open.
Coop.
three
My hand fluttered to my neck. The tattoo there burned just thinking about all of the things I couldn’t tell him. Most days, I forgot what Lucian had done to me when he made it impossible for me to talk, because I didn’t want to discuss the commune with anyone.
I didn’t even want to remember it. Maybe someday I wouldn’t.
But Coop.
I shook my head. “You can’t be here.” Even though I wanted him here. A familiar face. A friend. Someone to help me through this.
But he grinned, and it had a disarming effect. I relaxed a little, even though I didn’t want to do that either. Instead I focused on the little details. The hair, the clothes. He looked almost exactly the same as the first time I’d seen him, dark suit and sunglasses on, but he’d lost that regal posture I’d seen in him the last time.
Before I ran away.
He shrugged, the movement loose and casual. “Yet, here I am.”
“But you can’t,” I repeated. “You mustn’t.” It wasn’t safe, and I didn’t want him. “We’re fine.” I kept my voice tight, and I nodded as I moved to walk away. “You don’t need to know anything else.”
