“Happy days,” I mumbled, sitting back down. If he’d been someone else, I definitely would’ve told him to get bent and find someone else to wait on him. “Go ahead and cut those.”
His eyes dipped before he turned the deck over and fanned out the cards, looking at the pictures. A small crease formed between his brows, but he didn’t comment. The cards slid against each other as he shuffled, not nearly as practiced as me.
“Sure. Shuffle, if you want,” I muttered. “Have you done this before?”
“What do you mean by this? Visit a horror show intent on displaying the worst of our magical society and beasts that could not choose their fate?” He paused for a beat. “Yes. I’ve torn a great many of these things down. This one, however, wasn’t on my radar. It isn’t very large compared to some I have seen. It didn’t seem of pressing importance. I’d had no idea that magical slaves and imprisoned beasts were the preferred fare, however. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.”
“Me?” I flinched back so hard that my chair went up on two legs. That was all I needed—the people in this fair thinking I was the tattletale who’d fucked them out of a job. “Whatever enlightenment you’ve found has nothing to do with me.”
“He followed you here.” Mordecai spoke in a level voice, but I could hear the wariness coating each word. “He came because of you.”
“Oftentimes, the answer to a question can be gleaned by seeking out more information,” the stranger said. “Only, in your case, the puzzle keeps getting more intricate.”
“I have no idea who he is talking about right now, because Alexis is, literally, the most boring adult I’ve ever met,” Daisy said to Mordecai. “Except for her weekly jaunts to the bar, she has, quite literally, no life.”
“You’ve reached your quota on using the word ‘literally,’” I said dryly. “And we can still hear you.”
I didn’t think I needed to remind her of the kind of adults she’d known prior to meeting me. It was what had landed her with me in the first place.
“Or did you mean,” the stranger said, ignoring our family squabbles, “have I paid for the services of a Ghost Whisperer before in order to speak to those beyond?” He paused again. “No, I have not. Because they wouldn’t take my money for services rendered.”
“No offense, sir, but we’ll be taking your money,” Daisy said. “Ow! Keep it up, Mordie, or you’ll end up like Boromir.”
“Or do you mean—”
“I didn’t realize there were so many layers to such a simple question,” I said.
“—have I ever sat in a fold-out chair struggling to take my weight, in front of a rickety TV tray covered in a stained rug, across from a beautifully entrancing woman who is attempting to be a Ghost Whisperer, while two teenagers organize and practically run the business, with a crowd of onlookers at my back?”
“He called her beautifully entrancing,” Daisy whispered. “I think I just fell in love a little.”
“He’s been stalking her, without invitation, for days, and he won’t disclose his employment or any personal information,” Mordecai replied. “He’s someone we should call the police on.”
They both had a point, as usual.
“No, I have not,” the stranger said, still (somehow) ignoring the pubescent peanut gallery a few feet away.
“Okay. So you have seen someone who talks to spirits,” I said. Best to get the show on the road.
“Yes, I have,” he answered. “They were not able to answer my question.”
“Ah. There we go. You have a question.” I crossed an ankle over a knee. “Great. That’s a good place to focus. Do you want to tell me who the question is for?”
“No.”
“Super. Do you want to tell me what the question is?”
“No.”
“Great. We’re off to a fairly normal start. So go ahead and shuffle until you’re content, then put the cards on the rickety old TV tray that I found on the street—in case you were wondering—and we’ll get started.”
“One might look at the conditions in which you live your life and assume you have no pride in yourself, your magic, or your profession,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Many assume that, actually.” I rose, picked up my chair, and turned it sideways. I couldn’t see much of the water, but I enjoyed feeling the salty air softly muss my hair. I’d rather ignore his handsome face and look out at mostly nothing than attempt to relax within his hardcore focus.
“That doesn’t bother you.”
“Not at all. It’s liberating, actually. I know what box they’ve put me in, and I generally know how they’ll act toward me, too.”
“You are creating a predictable environment in an unpredictable life situation.”
I turned down my lips in thought, then shrugged. “That sounds about right, yes.”
“I assume this is the…young man for whom you bought the turquoise blanket?”
“Was it the turquoise blanket wrapped around his shoulders that gave it away?”
“Yes.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’ve nailed it. Amazing that I’m such a puzzle to you, what with your fantastic powers of observation.”
“What ails him?”
I closed my eyes against the breeze, letting calm roll over me. “That’s not my information to disclose.”
“I apologize. I wanted to give you the chance to tell me yourself. The nature of his…condition is in his file.”
“Which you looked up,” I said softly.
“Naturally. A young person in his situation, living in poverty and without the resources of his pack, would rarely live past the beginning of puberty. He is nearly cresting, if I’m judging the surges of his power correctly. How have you kept him alive?”
“Hope and a prayer.” I clasped my hands. “And a few ugly blankets.”
“She sacrifices for us,” Mordecai said with a note of pride in his voice. Also sadness. “She sits here, with her rickety setup, and lets the masses belittle her. For us. She takes odd jobs that are way below her intelligence level. She begs, takes handouts, and doesn’t have any use for pride, all because she wants to give us the chance at a future. So while you sit there on your high horse, inspecting her choices like she’s some colorful yet insignificant bug, she’s busting her ass to give us a chance. She’s forfeiting her own life so that we get to have one. You won’t ever find a truer, bigger-hearted person in the world. So you should pack up your enormous ego and go find someone else to mildly threaten with your presence and your interest. We have enough problems around here.”
Heat prickled my eyes at his speech, overcome a moment later by fear. I didn’t know what the stranger’s situation was, but he had clout if he could keep the non-magical people in this freak show away from me. I also knew there were limits to the amount of abuse the guy would take. Being a woman who perplexed him, I’d gotten a momentary pass while he toyed with me a while longer.
Mordecai wouldn’t get the same lenience. And I didn’t know how to protect him.
22
Alexis
“Don’t mind him.” I tried to keep the worry from my voice, still looking out over the bay. “He’s—”
“Exactly right,” the stranger finished softly. “Thank you, Mordecai. You have fit a piece of the puzzle into place.”
“Good job, Mordie.” Daisy sniffed.
“Do you get that medicine at a discount?” the stranger asked.
“I thought you had extensive records on magical people?” I couldn’t help it. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to what the guy knew and what he didn’t.
“Mordecai was left for dead, and the pack has been operating on the belief that nature took its course. Their records are lacking, and as such, so are—” The chair squeaked as the stranger shifted. I glanced over, but his face was a hard mask, giving nothing away. “The girl is not in our records at all.”