“Can you be so sure?” Jenna asked.
“Yeah, is that like…seeing the future?”
“I can't do that,” Jack said. “Don't think anyone can do that.”
“Can't say that,” Sparky said. “Don't know what else in London we haven't seen yet.”
“You okay?” Jack asked. Sparky looked up at him, staring into his eyes as he drained his can and belched.
“Never better.”
“We'll all get home,” Jack said. “I promise, Sparky. All of us.”
“Well…” Sparky said, shrugging, holding Jenna's hand across the table, showing that he was nowhere near “never better.”
“Home can never be the same again,” Jenna said.
Jack went to disagree, but he knew that she was right. There was a simple truth in her words. As ever, Jenna was wise.
“Every step of the way, things have been changing,” Jenna said. “We've been changing. If we do all get back home, what then? Sparky's brother's dead. Lucy-Anne is missing. And you're…” She nodded at Jack, then looked away.
“Changing,” Sparky said. “You're changing so much, mate. What'll you do back at home?”
Jack blinked and tried to imagine being there with Emily—getting her off to school, doing the washing, working his two small jobs to try to bring in enough money to feed them both. And he could not picture it. It all seemed so mundane now that he could make himself and his friends unseen, heat metal up with the power of his mind, glean the truth from lies, and all those other talents he had yet to discover. He blinked slowly and witnessed the universe of possibilities Nomad had given him, and that was real life now. The star-rich place where every point of light was something amazing…that was home.
“You'll always be my best mates,” he said, admitting that everything was different.
“Yeah,” Jenna said.
“Pussy,” Sparky said.
Jack smiled.
“Company,” Sparky said softly.
“Where?” Jack asked.
“Someone watching from that café window. What, you didn't detect them with your Spidey senses?”
“Eat me. Who is it?”
“You won't taste as good as those burgers. Someone dressed in black. Looks like your old man.”
Jack stood and turned around to look at the café, making it very clear that they knew the watcher was there. This wasn't Shade, of that he was sure. It was someone surveying the ground before emerging.
Jack waved. The figure didn't move, and for a moment he thought perhaps it was a trick of the light. Then the shadow shifted, and seconds later the café door screeched open.
Reaper emerged. He looked around the street and grinned. He's so bloody confident, Jack thought, and that was another aspect alien to his father. His dad had been a humble man, never confident in much of what he did. He could never please his own father, Jack's mother had told him once when he'd asked about this, and it was an answer he had never wanted elaborated. Jack had always done his best to please his parents, and they had always been full of praise for him.
“Hi, Dad,” Jack said. Reaper raised an eyebrow but did not reply.
“Dude, that black coat thing…” Sparky said. He trailed off, chuckling, and Jack threw him a sharp glance.
“Glad I amuse you,” Reaper said.
“Yeah, well.”
Reaper growled. It was almost sub-audible, like rocks grinding together in the depths of the earth, and the table they had been sitting at flipped onto its side. Jenna fell backwards in her chair, and Sparky stood and stumbled back.
“We don't need this!” Jack said. The strength in his own voice surprised him, and deep down he touched the star that might give him his father's power. But it was a sickening touch, repulsive. A power simply for destruction. He wasn't sure he could ever bring himself to fully use something like that.
Reaper sighed and looked around as if nothing had happened.
Jenna stood and Sparky went to her, but she pushed him away. Jack watched until they both caught his gaze, then he pursed his lips and shook his head.