Page 71 of Tricks for Free

“Anytime, squirt,” she said, and was gone, vanishing from the world as easily as she’d appeared.

Something wrapped around my ankle. I didn’t need to look down to know that it was Sam’s tail.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s fix this.”

Nineteen

“You don’t owe the world anything. That’s why you should try to make it better no matter what. A lack of obligation does not mean a lack of mercy.”

–Evelyn Baker

A shitty company apartment five miles outside of Lakeland, Florida, getting ready for a war

EXPLAINING THE SITUATION TO Fern and Megan had been easier than I’d expected. Maybe it was showing up with a fūri who couldn’t transform, or maybe it was the dead woman offering to draw flow charts. Mostly, I think, it was Cylia, who looked human and wasn’t human and hadn’t asked for anything they could measure or perceive.

I sat on the couch with my hands tucked between my knees, wondering how I could have been foolish enough to think I could get something for nothing—that a little training would be enough to stop the fire from consuming everything around me, and that all I’d have to pay for it would be my time. It had been a beautiful promise and a perfectly tailored trap, and I had walked into it with my eyes wide open.

The cushion beside me barely dented as Fern sat down. On the other side of the room, Cylia was taking a finger-scoop of good luck from Megan and wiping it on Sam, who bore it with furry, put-upon dignity.

“You okay?” asked Fern, bumping my shoulder with hers.

I wanted to tell her to be careful. I wanted to tell her that there was a hole in my heart pulling away the energy of the people around me. I didn’t. She already knew that—it had been a part of the explanation of the situation—and unlike Sam, she hadn’t had her luck ripped away. She was safe from me, as long as she was employed by Lowryland.

Instead, I ducked my head, offering her a weary smile, and said, “I’ve been better.”

“You don’t look like you’ve eaten in, oh, hours,” she said.

“Probably because I haven’t. Cylia gave us some lemonade.” I leaned back on the couch. Megan was wiping the spit off her forearm. Sam was flexing his hands, looking around the room like he was trying to decide where to go without risking bumping into me.

Having him here and not being able to touch him was almost worse than not having him here at all. Only almost. Being able to see him, to know that he was . . . well, not okay, but at least alive, at least breathing, that was better than anything as simple as physical contact.

“Lemonade isn’t food,” said Fern disapprovingly. “We could order pizza.”

“Pizza is food,” I agreed.

Fern took that as consent. She turned to the rest of the room. “Anybody up for pizza?” she called.

“Better make that two,” said Cylia. “Sam’s body is trying to rebuild luck and energy at the same time. He’s going to eat like a teenager.”

“I already eat like a teenager,” said Sam. “I’m a growing monkey.”

“Don’t grow too much more, or you’ll be morally obligated to climb the Empire State Building,” said Megan, looking him up and down.

He waved it off with a sweep of his hand. “Nah. I don’t like blondes.” The look he shot in my direction made it very clear that brunettes were another matter.

My cheeks reddened, but I held to my dignity, sitting up a little straighter and saying, “We need to figure out what we’re doing about this cabal, and about the luck thefts.”

“They don’t have a jink working for them, so you don’t need me,” said Cylia. “If you sneak me into the Park without expecting me to touch one of those tickets, I can try to rebalance the luck of anyone who’s been affected, but that’s about as far as I can go.”

“It’s better than nothing,” I said. “Thank you for being willing to help.”

“There’s some self-interest here,” she said. “If the Covenant ever heard there had been issues with inexplicably missing luck in Florida, they’d probably come for another purge. I couldn’t live with myself if I’d been in a position to prevent that, and had chosen to do nothing.”

I couldn’t stop a small, grim chuckle. “You’ve just described the motivation of everything my family has done in the last hundred years,” I said.

“Then I understand you a little better,” she said. Producing her phone from her pocket, she said, “I’ll go order the pizza,” and retreated into the hall.

Megan looked at me, expression calm, snakes hissing wildly all around her face.