It took a second for Kit to understand what she was saying.Drayer Netherton caused this, he realized. She was right. The psycho had cut himself and then siphoned all the damage to Gentry in the hopes she’d either die while he’d purposely quarantined himself off from her, or she went to a hospital to be retrieved. A cruel, but clever plan. For the first time, Kit witnessed firsthand how little control a soul-bound person had over their own body.
It was the work of true evil, particularly because it made someone as wickedly clever as Gentry helpless. Genius or not, a non-magical human didn’t stand a chance against a witch.
Nona walked through the bus to check on the situation and whistled when she saw the wound. “Trouble,” she said, “I knew you were trouble, girly, as soon as I saw you. Amelia!” she called out, and the gawky ten-year-old who Kit had held as a baby approached. “Now’s a good time to put your skills to work.”
The little girl’s eyes widened to the size of quarters at the sight of Gentry’s wound.
“Hey, shake it off, girl,” Nona murmured to Amelia, “I raised you tougher than that.”
The goad worked like a charm. Amelia squared her shoulders and stepped up to the plate. She put her small hands directly on Gentry’s lacerated arm and pressed the flesh together just like many other healers Kit had seen over the years. Gentry let out a string of curses that weren’t fit for a bus full of kids as the skin stitched back together to a thin pink line. The kids in the closest seats stood on top of them to see better.
Amelia waved her hands around. “Ouch, ouch, ouch. Hot,” she complained as her adopted siblings cheered.
Nona slapped the girl on the back, “Attagirl,” she said gruffly before directing her attention back onto Gentry, who was hiding her face into the back of the bus seat. “Kit, could you sit up front? Spend some time with an old hag?”
Kit understood the hint as Gentry seemed to shrink into herself. Some people liked to be alone after a scare like that. Seemed as though Gentry was one of them. “Uh, yeah, sure.” He climbed over the seat and the injured girl immediately scooted over to the window. She hugged herself and rocked.
It was a private moment, one he felt the need to look away from as he followed Nona to the front. His old caretaker started the bus back up and they started their trip up the long, dusty, endless road. Despite her earlier excuse, Nona made no attempt at conversation.
Kit, however, didn’t need any encouragement. He’d missed too much, and now that they were approaching Skadra, he could feel what little time they had left together slipping through his fingers. “How’d you teach the kids healer magic?” It was certainly not something he’d learned while at the orphanage. Hell, he still sucked at it.
“Some hippie old man down the street. I’ve been asking the community to pitch in more to get them ready. Only so much I can do on my own,” Nona said.
He smiled. There was something off about how she’d presented that information. “A hippie old man? Nona, don’t tell me you have a boyfriend.”
“Shut the hell up, kid.” Then a second later, “I’m glad to see that you’ve stopped holding that grudge of yours. Mary told me you started calling her, that she hasn’t picked up because of all the years you shunned your siblings. I wish you hadn’t taken your feelings out on them, Kit. I’m the one you should be angry with,” Nona said gruffly, her voice distinctly uncomfortable.
Kit’s heart sped up a bit, as he fought back the residual bitterness. He clenched his jaw.She’s getting older. Now’s the time to bury the hatchet.“You’re right that I shouldn’t have taken it on them. I regret it. Now I just want to make up for lost time if they’ll let me.”
“That does my old heart good to hear that… the way I went about things with you, Kit, with all you kids—I could’ve done better. And Brienne—”
“Forgiven and forgotten,” Kit cut her off as soon as she said his sister’s name. Old pain roiled through him but he forced a smile. “Now, Nona, tell me about this boyfriend.”
From what Kit could see when he snuck glances through Nona’s rearview mirror, Gentry had recovered her color and composure by the time they reached Skadra’s security gates. The bus had hushed when a tattooed witch had looked at Nona’s day pass. But Kit relaxed. These types of visitors were encouraged in Skadra, and any witch worth his salt would be able to tell what a bus full of witch kids meant. The guard nodded them through, and Kit suppressed a smile when all the kids (plus Gentry) gasped when they cleared through the wall that hid Skadra from the prying eyes of the desert.
In all areas, Skadra leaned towards the extreme. The skyscrapers were far, far taller than any non-magical human dared build and made of yellow, sandy stone, and the streets packed to the brim with questionable vendor carts. Traffic immediately narrowed into a slow crawl (only non-magical residents and tourists drove vehicles). The vendors took advantage of the slow-moving traffic to talk to fools dumb enough to unroll their windows for them. Magical floatingbanners spun right above the semi truck level, advertising the upcoming mayoral campaign.
Past the children’s shouts of excitement, he could’ve sworn he heard Gentry’s quiet gasp when she saw Drayer Netherton’s blinding smile on the closest banner. He winked at the camera.
“Brooms, there are freaking brooms in the sky!” Benny shouted, pointing up as the other kids pointed out their own observations about the Sky Road.
Kit tore his attention from Gentry to watch the children take in the sights. He’d been starstruck the first time he’d seen the Sky Road as well. In every other city other than Skadra, brooms were highly regulated and primarily ridden by government mages. That’s why he’d ridden his broom under the cover at night to Tunsa; government mages delighted in giving bullshit tickets (over his dead body would he get caught in the air by a mage).
That’s why the fast-paced, endless stream of flying objects — carriages, cars, magic carpets, whatever a witch felt like magicking up — carrying witches about a hundred feet up from the streets was such a sight in Skadra. They moved at such fast speeds and volume that their darting shadows gave the streets a nice reprieve from the unforgiving desert sun. The Sky Road dazzled and dizzied, but, from his number of near-death experiences up there, Kit considered the area up above to be more of a death trap than marvel.
Wordlessly, Nona navigated the traffic with a firm, expert hand. She weaved the bus in and out of lanes with a proficiency she’d like all those years ago when she’d taken Kit and the others here. He wondered how many trips she’d taken since then, how many times he could’ve stopped by and said hi to the woman who raised him.
He hadn’t realized until he saw her yesterday how angry he’d been with her. It’d boiled to the surface all at once, but, by thetime he’d slept and woken up for the trip, all that hatred had disappeared. Now he just missed her.
Nona drove the bus through the downtown and past the seedier parts of town. The buildings transformed from hovels into more of an upscale area where some buildings used brick rather than the same sandy stone material. The children all quieted. Some hugged their bags, much like how the crying boy had done earlier. Nona stood up as the bus doors hissed open.
“Check your packs,” she announced gruffly, “make sure you have your money, provisions, and everything else.” Her eyes grew misty as the kids rummaged through their backpacks, which were packed to the brim. “I’d pay for a meal for you all before leaving, but I’d rather you keep the money for later. The housing centers will have you kids covered. Now, come. Give me a hug.”
Kit smiled at the kids as, one by one, they obeyed Nona’s last tearful command. Both Benny and Amelia gave him a hug as well, and he whispered that he’d visit them soon. Because he would.
Then, too soon, the bus emptied to just him, Nona, and Gentry. The bus idled with a dissatisfied rumble as the kids crossed the streets and disappeared into the suburbs towards what Kit knew to be the nicest child housing center in the city.
He would’ve been content to watch in silence, to allow Nona to mourn the children she’d raised, but then Gentry ruined it. From the back of the bus, she said, “Can you explain why you’re dumping kids to fend for themselves? In a city ran by vicious gangs? From where I’m sitting, it looks royally fucked up.”
