Piers brightened and started helping, before stopping to look abashed. “We, uhm, probably should have helped just not to be assholes, shouldn’t we?”
Scout stared at him, surprised. “Well, itisa nice thing to do.”
Piers nodded. “Uhm, you get very used to privilege without thinking of it.”
Larissa grunted and stood up, putting their hot chocolate mugs on the tray. “Wedo, Piers. Something tells me Scout and Kayleigh have had some privilege, and they’ve worked hard not to let it affect them.”
Piers nodded and began to stack the books Scout had been looking at. “So noted,” he said mildly.
Scout acknowledged them both with a nod and went back to cleaning the store rapidly. He wanted… well, everything.
He wanted to go see if Piers and Larissa could see the tableaux at Tom’s bench. He wanted to hold Lucky’s hand on the way there.
He wanted to have new friends come watch movies, although he hoped he wouldn’t go wandering about following Wisps again tonight!
And he wanted to see if maybe Lucky would sleep next to him again.
Oddly enough, of all the things that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, that was the one that seemed to mean the most. Lucky’s sturdy body, relaxed and trusting in his arms.
His entire life, whenever he’d tried to do magic, he’d always been distracted by the whys of it. Why was he trying to imbue essence in an inanimate object? Why was he trying to create a portal? Why was he levitating three chrome balls in the air and pretending it was a gimmick?
The whys got him every time.
But there was no why in the feeling of Lucky in his arms. It was as if the rest of their messy, complicated existence was mere noise, and what life boiled down to was that pure moment of contact between two people. Scout’s need for that focus, for that contact, for all of it, seemed to grow with every passing breath.
Finally they’d cleaned up. Marcus joined them, and Scout told his “swimming in seaweed” story for the zillionth time, this time when Marcus, Lightning, and Larissa could hear him.
When he was done, he gestured to the neatly stacked books.
“So what I think happened is that a Wisp wanted me to see the bench from a distance. Wisps are like… well, they’re lost spirits, but they’re also spirit guides. They sort of exist outside place and time—”
“I know what a Wisp is,” Helen said with a touch of exasperation.
“I don’t,” Lucky said. “So let him explain.”
“But he’s doing it wrong. I know the book he got the information out of, and it’s incomplete,” Helen told him, scowling. “Wisps used to be human. They often knew something nobody else did. Sort of like Cassandra from the old Greek myths. They spent their life’s energy trying to convince somebody—or even entire communities—that they were right, that the community had to beware, and they died not sure if anybody got the message.”
Scout rubbed his chest. “That’s awful,” he said, looking at Marcus for confirmation.
Marcus nodded. “It is. Part of what drives Wisps is the hope to help people not make the same mistake they made. It’s… it’s a combination of pride and sorrow, I think. So, whatever this Wisp wanted you to see, it was trying to warn you and keep you safe.”
“Well, it did a shitty job of it,” Lucky muttered in disgust. “Do I have to remind everybody about him being half-drowned when he showed back up on the couch?”
“No, Lucky,” Kayleigh snapped. “I cleaned up the seaweed, remember? And that’s the part I’m worried about. The Wisp was obviously trying to show you whatever it was that had power over the soul trap. What are we going to do about that?”
“We’re going to research it!” Scout said in exasperation. “But all of us there. So, you know.” He could feel his face heat up. “So if the ocean tries to eat me, you all can grab me by the ankles.” He gave Larissa and Piers a smile with too many teeth. “Bet you’re thinking this issoworth the free hot chocolate, aren’t you?”
Larissa and Piers grinned at each other. “This is totally the best thing we’ve ever done,” Larissa said. “It’s like… like an amusement park and a murder mystery all rolled into one.”
“You guys might not be able to see it,” Scout warned, but Lightning just grinned.
And around them the gentle yellow lights fighting against the long shadows of the afternoon went bright and blue, like cage lights in a garage at midnight.
“Nice,” said Marcus, smiling at Piers. “My boy, if Scout doesn’t take to magic, I believe you’ve got some tricks to show me!”
“But I like magic!” Scout protested, and Lightning and Marcus laughed.
“I’ll teach you the tricks anyway,” Lightning said, blinking and allowing the lights to settle back to normal. “You’re the only crowd I can really brag about it to.”
