Scout grimaced. “It’s the humidity,” he said with as much dignity as he could muster. “Think I should put it in a queue?”
Lucky stared at him, seemingly at a loss. “A queue? That’s what you’re asking me now? You called those two bonobos up there and I almost shit my heart out my pants!”
Scout blinked. “Uhm, colorful?”
“Terrified! What were you thinking?” Lucky grabbed his shoulders and shook slightly for emphasis.
“That I, uhm, wanted you to stay,” Scout said simply. “And if those guys were going to make you run, they needed to go away.”
Lucky’s eyes got really big. “Where did you send them? Scout, did you dump those assholes in the middle of the ocean?”
“Why does everybody keep asking me that?” Scout frowned. “But that reminds me, I really need to—”
His phone, that new appendage he’d been getting used to over the past two months, buzzed in his pocket, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t Kayleigh.
“Uhm, excuse me.” He took a step back and let out a breath when he saw the name on the front. “Sorry, Josue.”
“Who evenarethese guys?” came his brother’s exasperated voice. “Also, are you guys okay? You’ve been keeping in contact with Macklin’s people, but I really miss you. You know that, right?”
Scout thought of all the isolation in the compound, and how he and Josue had shared a couple of smiles, maybe some eye contact, every day. It occurred to him that those moments were all that Josue had then too. And now Scout and Kayleigh were free and his brother was not.
“I do,” he said gruffly. “We miss you too.” He looked around the bookstore, thought about the island, and realized that if anybody needed to be there, khaki shorts, sunburnt nose, straw hat and all, it needed to be the brother who left the compound every day in a suit and came home every night to report to their father on things that Josue himself had never seemed to care about. “You should come here,” he said simply. “You… where Kayleigh and I am now. I wish I could pull you out of there and let you run around here. I-I’d fight Alistair a thousand times so you could be free.”
Josue gave a broken laugh. “That’s never going to happen, little brother, but wherever you are, maybe someday I can visit.” His voice firmed, as though remembering why he’d called. “Now about the two idiots who stumbled into the outer net of the compound, waving guns and bowie knives. Did you have anything to do with that?”
Scout sucked in a breath. “Well, it was… okay, not an accident. I needed them to be somewhere else. They were looking for a friend of mine the same way Alistair is looking for me and Kayleigh. It’s not our fault Alistair’s a dick and not my friend’s fault these assholes want him either. You understand?”
“Yeah. I get it. But why here?”
“It’s not like I’ve been around the world, Josue!” Scout said. “I thought of someplace Ididn’twant to be, and, well, there you go.”
Josue let out a little cackle. “Well, the good news is, all they could talk about is some guy called Gestalt. Alistair thinks it’s a rival wizard, and he’s looking for that name in the family histories. The bad news is, they talked about an island….” Josue’s voice trailed off. “Nobody can remember the name of it, though. It’s weird. Not the yahoos who just left it, not Alistair, and not me. So wherever you are, you’re protected somehow, which is great. But whoever this Gestalt is, you may want to warn him that he’s on Alistair’s radar now too, which might be not so great if he’s the guy who sent them here!”
“I just told youIsent them there!” Scout protested. “I’mGestalt! Why’s that so hard to believe?”
Josue let out a littleoolfof surprise. “You did. That’s weird. It’s like I’ve listened to Alistair tell me that you’re not capable so many times I believe it, when Iknowit’s not true.” He made a sound like a man shivering. “Bwah. Scary.”
“Man, Josue, you gotta get out of there. If Alistair is starting to fuck with your reality, you need to change your reality!”
For the first time, Josue seemed to take those words to heart. “You’re right,” he said, almost surprised. Then, “So was it you who broke Alistair’s fireplace?”
Scout blinked, surprised at the change of subject. “Did what now?”
“Well, these three projectiles came out of nowhere, and you know Alistair’s personal hearth—”
“The big brick phallus that he uses to intimidate people he locks in his little sanctuary to yell at?” Scout clarified sourly.
“Yes. That. Well, these projectiles—these round steel balls, I guess—came out of nowhere and broke the chimney. Just pelted it, one, two, three, and it crumbled. Alistair’s starting to wonder who he pissed off.”
Scout chuckled meanly. “Well, it’s not like I did it on purpose. I mean, everybody knows I can’t control my magic.”
Josue gave a derisive snort. “Oh, I think you can control your magic perfectly fine. It seems to be doing everything you need it to do exactly when you need it done.”
Scout gave another evil chuckle and then looked at Lucky’s anxious face as he tried to patiently endure the conversation. “Look, brother, I’ve got to go.” He hesitated. “Come look for me. Get out of the compound and try divination for where you should go next. If you don’t mean me any harm, I think you’ll end up here.” He thought of the endless blue of the ocean and the warmth of the sand. “If anybody deserves to be free, Josue, it’s you.”
It wasn’t his imagination; his brother’s voice had tears in it. “Thanks, little brother. You too. Take care. We’ll wipe these assholes’ memories and let them toddle home.”
“Good idea!” Scout said, suddenly excited again. “I know how to do that too. I’ll have to remember that next time!”
