Tricks for Free (InCryptid #7)

A hand touched my shoulder. I stopped blowing and turned. Emily looked at me sternly.

“You’ll need to see the EMTs,” she said. “That was very brave and very foolish, what you just did. Sticking your hands into the fire to extinguish her hair? You’re a credit to the Lowry name.”

Her voice was a little too loud and a little too cadenced, like she was making sure that when people thought of this moment, it would be her version of events that they remembered.

Assuming anyone was even paying attention. The flames were lower and sparser than I remembered, slowed down by my sudden, violent removal of so much heat from the area, but they were still climbing, and they’d started to grow again. Outside the wall, I heard the sudden blast of a bugle. The Wild Hunt was going to ride through the Park early today, hurrying the guests away from the area, allowing the fire department to get access without shutting all of Lowryland down. Safety first, but if safety could be accomplished without actually losing any money, that would always be the preferred option.

Someone shouted, and a team of Lowry EMTs in bright jumpsuits came running into the area, surrounding the unfortunate Cathy even as security staffers rushed in behind them with extinguishers in their hands. I wobbled. It felt like these people were shamefully late, but I knew the feeling was lying to me: I knew that it had only been a few seconds, a minute at most, since I had heard the screaming.

Emily’s hands were a welcome pressure on my arm, holding me up. My booklet of time slips was on the ground, oily and now getting spattered with drops of fire retardant. Emily followed my gaze to the booklet, and sighed.

“I’ll get you another,” she said. “Truly, it’s the least we can do after your heroic intervention.”

Well, that, and bribing me didn’t do much good if I didn’t hold onto the bribe. That was fine. I didn’t want to try bending my fingers right now anyway.

“How did you get here so fast?” I asked, blinking slowly at Emily. The EMTs were all busy with Cathy. It would be a few minutes before they got to me. The shock was starting to set in, unwilling to wait. Burns hurt.

“Just lucky, I suppose,” said Emily, with another glance at Cathy. “I’ll inform your supervisor that you won’t be returning today, and put in for a commendation for your quick thinking and flexible response to the situation. Lowryland thanks you.”

“Cool,” I said, and stayed where I was as she walked away, leaving me surrounded by shouting, flames, and the smell of burning wood.

This day was not getting any better.





Nine




“Oh, isn’t that special. Honey, go tell your father we’re going to need a bigger chainsaw.”

–Enid Healy

A shitty company apartment five miles outside of Lakeland, Florida

I WOKE UP TO the sound of the front door slamming and Fern shouting, “Annie? Annie!”

“’S not my name,” I mumbled, and automatically moved to shove my hair out of my face, only to stop when the bandages on my hand scratched my skin. The sensation was followed by pain in my fingers as even that slight pressure reminded my body that I was wounded.

“Annie!”

I sat up, lowering my hands, and called, “My room, Fern.”

The door was shoved open a second later, and there was Fern, makeup still covering her face, hair still matted from its time beneath her wig. She paused only long enough to be sure that I was in one piece. Then she flung herself across the room, flinging her arms around my shoulders and bursting into tears all at the same time.

“Shhh,” I said, fighting the urge to pat her on the shoulder. I wasn’t going to help her by showing obvious signs of how much pain I was in. “It’s okay. See? I’m fine. I just got a little scorched. No big deal.”

“No big deal?!” She pushed herself back, eyes terribly wide in her pale face. “You got burned! I saw the damage! The chicken stand is all burned out inside, and the walls are so messed up that they’re probably going to have to close that section of Fairyland for months!”

“It was an accident,” I said, still trying to be soothing. “Something broke when it shouldn’t have broken, and someone got hurt.”

“You got hurt.”

“I got hurt because I was trying to help the woman who was right behind the boiler when it blew.” I was grateful for the painkillers the EMTs had pressed upon me before sending me home to sleep. They had kept me from having any unwanted dreams. I was pretty sure Cathy’s melted face was going to be a recurring feature in my nightmares for the foreseeable future.

“I can’t . . . I can’t be upset that you did that.” Fern sniffled. “I know you’ll always do that if you feel like you have to, and if you didn’t feel like you had to, I guess you wouldn’t be you.”

“Exactly,” I said, with as much of a smile as I could muster. It was dark in my room. The sun must have gone down while I was sleeping. That was a good thing. If it was dark, Fern couldn’t see how much my smile was shaking. “Now, speaking of being me . . .”

“I’m sorry!” Fern clapped a hand over her mouth before repeating, through her fingers, “I’m sorry. I was so scared for you I didn’t even think.”

“It’s okay,” I said, trying to be reassuring. “There was no one else here.”

Megan knew “Melody” wasn’t my real name. She’d made a few comments about how the next time I got to decide what to call myself, I should pick something that didn’t start with an “M,” to cut down on confusion in the mornings. Nothing pointed enough that I’d been forced to respond to it, and it wasn’t like I was worried about her spilling all my secrets—she had plenty of secrets of her own that needed keeping, and she was too good-natured to go in for mutually assured destruction—but her message had been clear. When I was ready to tell her who I really was, she was going to be ready to listen.

There’d been times when I was tempted. Her parents were back in Ohio. My brother had been in Ohio when he’d been working with a colony of Pliny’s gorgons, and while I wasn’t absolutely sure Megan was one of theirs, I had my suspicions. It would have been nice to have one more possible exit strategy on the table.

But Alex was still in touch with the gorgons in Ohio because Alex is still in touch with everyone he’s ever met. Alex still writes thank-you notes to his college professors, which he has to mail from a different state. If Megan found out I was Antimony Price, sister to Alexander Price, the chance that her parents would know where I was inside of the week, and my brother would know where I was inside of the month, was just too big of a risk for me to take.

Life was a constant game of risk assessments, and I didn’t enjoy it one little bit.

Fern wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I wish it wasn’t always you,” she said miserably. “This is the most time we’ve ever had together, and I don’t want it to be you.”

“I grew up knowing it was always going to be me,” I said, tone apologetic. “My hands will be fine in a day or two, and in the meantime, how about you make me a sandwich? I’m not sure I could hold a knife right now if I wanted to.”

Before Fern could answer, there was a clatter from the kitchen. We exchanged a look.

“Megan isn’t here,” she said, voice going suddenly low. “Her shift at the hospital doesn’t end for hours.”

“Okay,” I said. “Stay behind me.”