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Allie shook her head, then nodded, but then shook her head again. Finally she settled on telling him, "I'll think about it." Then she turned and hurried back to the others, for once glad to be in the company of Moose and Squirrel.
It was hard for Afterlights to hide at night. Their afterglow always gave them away. Mikey just wanted some time alone, to brood, maybe sit on a rock, look at the moon, and let all those unpleasant feelings work themselves out, if indeed they ever would. The problem was, the only rock large enough to sit on was living-world, and Mikey had to continually pull himself up out from it. It was annoying.
Then, the last person he wanted to see emerged through a tree trunk, easily finding him by his glow. Mikey wasn't sure whether to stare Milos down or just ignore him. So he did one, then the other.
"Allie is worried about you," Milos said.
"I really don't care," grumbled Mikey.
"This does not surprise me."
"Why is it your business anyway?" Mikey snapped. When Milos had no response to that, Mikey said, "Tell her I'm fine, and I'll come back when I feel like it."
Milos lifted his feet to keep himself from sinking, but didn't leave. He just regarded Mikey with a detached kind of curiosity.
"Why do you hold her back?" Milos asked.
"Excuse me?"
Milos took a step closer. "She could go so much further. She could be so much more. But you--you keep her from using her skills. You are very much an anchor around her neck. This is very selfish." Mikey came off of his rock to face him. "You don't know what you're talking about!"
But Milos remained calm, and sure of himself. "Is it my words that anger you," he asked, "or is it because you know I speak the truth?"
If there was any hope that Mikey might warm to Milos-- maybe even become a reluctant friend, that hope was now gone. "Allie and I ... Allie and I care for each other. We've been through a lot together--you have no idea!"
"You are right," said Milos, "but I do know that she bears a certain sadness. You must see it."
Yes, of course Mikey had seen it, but he wasn't about to admit it to this skinjacking outsider. "Like I said, you don't know anything."
"You claim to care for her, but I do not see this. If you cared for her, perhaps you would see that your destinies now lie on different paths."
"Do not anger me!" Mikey roared. "I am not to be trifled with!"And he heard in his own voice a roughness and a rawness he hadn't heard in a long time. Overtones of the McGill.
Milos put his hands up in surrender, as if he were backing down--but Mikey knew this was just another calculated move. "Then pardon me." Milos said, "I meant no disrespect."
"You say that a lot," Mikey pointed out, looking him right in those weirdly distracting speckled eyes. "But I think disrespect is exactly what you mean."
"I am only thinking of what is best for Allie," said Milos with a gaze that penetrated uncomfortably deep. "Are you?"
Then he left Mikey alone with his rock, his thoughts, and the moon. * * *
The next day, they came to the town of Lebanon, Tennessee, and again Milos asked Allie if she wanted to come skinjacking with him. She broached the topic as gently as she could with Mikey.
"There are things he can teach me about skinjacking," Allie told him. "Things that could probably help us."
"Why are you telling me?" Mikey snapped. "If you want to go, then go. Why should I care?"
"I'd feel much better about it if you weren't acting so childish."
"Maybe I don't want you to feel better about it."
Allie clenched her fists and growled in frustration. "I swear, Mikey, sometimes ..."
"Sometimes what? Sometimes you wonder why you put up with me?"
Allie took a moment to calm herself down. "I know why I put up with you. What I don't understand is why you don't trust me."
;If the McGill was your cousin," Mikey said, "I can guarantee he'd disown you."
