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“Hey, guys.”
Tristan jogged over to us, rubbing his hands together. The sleeves of his light blue shirt were loose on his arms, and I realized he’d lost some weight during his exile. His jeans were hanging lower than usual, and there was a sharp indent to his cheeks.
“Hey,” I replied, oddly shy.
“You guys, we have a problem,” Lauren announced, speed-walking over to join us.
“Why am I not surprised?” I said under my breath.
“Sorry.” Lauren bit her lip. “The thing is, we’re running out of untainted coins. If we can’t use any of the ones we got while Pete was still on the loose, we’re kind of screwed.”
“How many do we have left?” Tristan asked.
“I have two. Fisher has one. Kevin has one, and as far as I know, that’s it,” Lauren said. “Krista used most of them sending the kids across this morning.”
I sighed. “Well, then we’re just going to have to take it slowly. And it’s going to have to stay crowded around here for a while longer.”
“That sucks,” Lauren said, tucking her shiny black hair behind her ears as she looked back at the bridge. “Just when things were getting back to normal.”
I gritted my teeth. I was getting sick of people saying that when my sister and father and Aaron and the others were still stuck in the Shadowlands, but I didn’t say anything. I knew she just wanted to feel safe again, to feel secure.
“We’ll figure it out. We always do,” Tristan assured her. He glanced at Liam. “Was that your first?”
“Yep. Weird,” Liam said. “But Rory was a good coach.”
Tristan’s face lit up and my whole body responded. There was nothing like a proud smile from Tristan. “Yeah? Why am I not surprised?”
I grinned in reply.
“Told you,” Tristan said. “Everything’s gonna be okay.”
“What the hell are you people doing up here?”
A chill raced down my spine and my eyes locked with Tristan’s. I turned around slowly to find Sebastian Tse skidding down a reed-covered embankment toward us, his sister right on his heels.
“I thought the mayor dealt with these guys,” Lauren said through her teeth.
“Apparently not well enough,” Tristan replied, stepping in front of us.
“Where did that kid just go?” Sebastian demanded, throwing an arm out toward the bridge as he confronted Liam. “Why did you send him over that bridge by himself?”
Liam was the color of cooked lobster. “I…um…we—”
“Don’t,” Tristan said curtly. My heart was in my throat.
“Don’t even try lying to us,” Selma said, standing next to her brother, her clear blue eyes scanning our faces. “We talked to the people at our boarding house. They keep telling us about things that happened—things we should remember—like a ferry si
nking? They say we were there, but neither one of us remembers it.”
“How is that possible?” Sebastian said, seething, his nostrils wide as he advanced on Tristan, clearly picking him out as the leader. “What have you people done to us?”
“Why don’t you let us give you a ride back to town?” Tristan suggested as Fisher and Kevin walked up behind him.
“Why don’t you start explaining?” Sebastian shot back.
Tristan reached out a hand and gripped Sebastian’s shoulder, looking him in the eye.
“Everything’s fine,” he said in that soothing tone I knew so well. “There’s nothing sinister going on here—I promise you.”
