universe.”
Seth burst out laughing. She was a sideshow drama queen; part carnie hack, part Rod Serling. “You’re so full of shit, sister…”
They heard shuffling in the bedroom, the clatter of blinds. Earl reappeared a moment later. He threw a ziplock bag full of herb on the table. “You owe me a hundred.”
“Put it on my tab.”
“Dude, you already owe me for last week. I’m not running a charity.”
“ Dude, I’m tapped out right now. I’m good for it.”
Lelani picked up the bag and examined the contents. She arched an eyebrow at Seth. “Supplies?” The wave of contempt he imagined earlier had returned.
“Look, we have nothing to talk about,” he said, grabbing the bag from her. “You’re a space cadet.”
Lelani pulled out a photograph from her satchel and put it before him on the table-a man and a woman embracing cheek-to-cheek and smiling.
“Who are they?” Earl asked, craning his neck.
Seth was silent. He stared at the photo in disbelief, picked it up with both hands as though to disprove its existence, and fondled the glossy image with his thumb as one would a fine piece of velvet. A match had been lit in the dark recesses of his mind.
“Where the hell did you get this?”
“We have something to talk about after all.”
3
Alphabet City was a freshly shaken snow globe-four inches already on the ground, with no end in sight. Lelani’s hair billowed against the white backdrop of Tompkins Square Park like a flame. Its only competition came from the lights on a fire engine that blared past them on Tenth Street. Lelani refused Seth’s suggestion that they take a taxi back to his apartment.
“I’ll pay,” he insisted.
“I wouldn’t fit.”
“Do you mean physically?”
“Yes.”
“Are you kidding?”
“Quite serious.”
The knowledge she held boosted Seth’s tolerance for her eccentric nature.
“So dish,” he said.
“Dish?”
“How’d you come by a picture of my parents?”
“Parham and Lita Raincrest were not your biological parents.”
Seth’s heart sank into his gut. “I’ve been an orphan my entire life?”
“No. It was a cover. You were part of a group that emigrated here years ago to raise an infant. The environment at home was not safe. We lost contact with the group shortly after your arrival.”
“Where’s the kid now? Where’s the rest of the group?”
“I wish I knew,” she said. “You are the first one I’ve tracked. Luckily, you retained your name.”
A name that belonged to people who allegedly weren’t even his parents, Seth realized. “Who were my parents, then?”
“Your mother is Jessica Granger, a tavern wench at the Grog and Grubb Inn. Your father… unknown. A merchant who visited the pub. Once.”
“What city? Toronto?”
“You are not Canadian.”
From orphan to bastard in less than five minutes, Seth thought. “You said Jessica is my mother.”
“To the best of my knowledge she still works at the Grog.”
The flood of questions came too fast for Seth to absorb: What was his mother like? Was coming to the U.S. his own choice? A fear grew within. To his surprise, Seth realized he was not ready for the whole truth.
“How’d I get into your school?” he asked, changing the subject. “If you’re any indication, it was probably a snob society. ‘Tavern wench’ doesn’t sound like a high-paying career.”
“Magnus Proust gives scholarships to the less fortunate. He believed in your talents…”
“Magnus Proust?” The name rattled around Seth’s mind with no slot to settle in. It sounded more like a new brand of Trojan condom than a headmaster at some elite school.
“What’s the school like?”
“Thirty students spend their first year as Novitiates. The subsequent cycles are two-year programs: twenty from the first year advance to become Apprentices. Ten are graduated from this lot to be his Acolytes. Of them, only four finally achieve the honor of becoming Magnus’s Adepts. I am an acolyte. You are an apprentice.”
The titles were odd, but Seth had heard stranger things. Some of his models came from the well-to-do class- rebels acting out against their banishment to Exeter and Vassar. But more important, Seth had found a big chink in her story. He was five or six years older than she was. No way was she a senior classmate to him. The suspicion that this was an elaborate con or the musings of an unbalanced mind crept back, but this time he experienced trepidation, as though he might lose something important-something he wanted to know. “What did we study?” he asked, playing along.
“Alchemy, transmogrification, sorcery, enchantments, curses…”
Seth stopped. His teeth ground together painfully. He turned away from Lelani.
“… You were the group’s mage,” she went on. “Though little true magic remains on this world, it was considered a necessary precaution.”
His lips clenched into a line. Seth hid his trembling fists in his pocket. The brick wall he faced, with its perfect uniformity, beckoned to be punched.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
Seth took three deep breaths and turned to face her. “You forgot to mention the talking hat that chooses which house we belong to.”
“What talking hat?”
“I’m a schmuck for buying your crap! You think this is funny? Leading me on to think I’ll finally know something about my past?”
“Seth…”
“Shut up! Just shut up. I’ve spent years in a dozen homes. You’ll never know what it’s like, walking the streets, wondering if the hotdog vendor or subway clerk or the bum on the corner is a cousin or an uncle. Do you even have a clue what it’s like to not know who you really are? Where you come from?”
The stiffness of her lips broke. It was the first time Lelani looked unsure about anything. “No,” she responded. “I’m not aware of what you have endured.”
Seth had her on the defensive for a change. He closed the gap between them and stared into her eyes. He was hoping for just a hint that Lelani was being sardonic, an invitation to smash her pretty mouth. Instead, for the first time since they’d met, that air of condescension receded from her. She gazed back into his eyes and touched his soul, a warm hand on a cold spirit. She put her arms around him. Her body was strong and comforting-a shelter in the snow. Her cheek touched his. What surprised him most was the sincerity she exuded. His anger drained through their embrace.
“I’m not handling this very well,” she said. “I apologize.”
“Yeah,” he said, and walked off without her. Then Seth stopped. There it was again, that nagging curiosity. Is she crazy? Even the most ambitious swindles used pieces of truth to snag victims. “Is there any way we can get to the facts without the crazy talk?” he asked.
Lelani bit her lip as she considered it. “I’ll try.”
A minute later, they turned the corner onto Avenue A to spot a cluster of red flashing lights down the street.
