Charley, Sabine, and Natalie stood between me and the gate. Just ahead, Raj held a knife; Samuel and Rives gripped spears.
Blade low, I sprinted toward Charley. Her eyes were on the gate. It glittered over the sand, like a two-dimensional disco ball, and for an instant, the beach was perfectly reflected in the sparkling air.
Then every speck went black.
Rider. I tensed.Person, thing, or animal?
Natalie stepped slightly in front of Charley as a blur of red fell from the air.
Person, I processed with relief. A boy. Nothing with fangs, nothing with claws. My knife slid back into hiding as the gate collapsed and winked out completely.
Slowing, I jogged up behind Charley, in time to hear her murmur, “Another kid.”
Before I could speak, Charley looked at Natalie. “What do you mean, no adults? No children?” Her voice was measured, carefully deliberate; it was the same tone I recognized from this morning as Charley worked to connect Nil’s dots. “Not in the City, or not here at all?”
“Not on the island,” Natalie said. She’d already ripped off her chest wrap and was draping it over the boy’s groin. He was still out cold. “The youngest person is Jason, who dropped in at thirteen. The oldest person to come through was nineteen. All of us fall somewhere in the middle. Like this guy.” Her arms folded across her chest, Natalie tilted her head at the boy. “Didn’t Thad tell you?” she asked Charley, her expression perplexed. “Only teenagers come through the gates.”
“And the occasional mountain lion,” Charley muttered.
“Don’t forget African lions,” I said. “We get those, too.”
She whipped her head around. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. We’re pretty sure gates regularly roll through the African plains.”
“The zebra.” Charley nodded. “Right.”
Rives tossed Natalie a piece of fabric. “Nice move, twin. You just made my day.”
“Then my work here is done,” Natalie told Rives, tying the material around her breasts in a flash. But her eyes stayed on Charley.
“Lions and zebras and teenagers, oh my,” Charley said in a tight voice. She was staring at the boy.
The boy moaned, drawing everyone’s attention but mine. I stayed locked on Charley, who frowned.
“Is he burned?” Charley asked. “I mean, can gates burn you? Mine felt like it. And he looks fried.”
Now that I looked, the boy did look a little crispy. His face was bright red, like his hair. Ditto for his shoulders.
“If the gate roasted him, it’d be a first,” I said. “I think he had a head start on his Nil tan.”
Charley nodded. “Poor kid. Now I know why you didn’t addaloneto your ‘same song, different verse’ intro this morning. I guess not everyone wakes up naked and alone, just the lucky ones.”
“Lucky?” Natalie’s voice was sharp. She raised an eyebrow at me, and I mouthed,Not yet.
The boy moaned again and blinked.
“Seeing how you’re still introducing Nil to Charley, I’ll take this one.” Nat’s voice had a dangerous edge. “Unless you want to.”
“All yours,” I said.
The boy jerked up, making the wrap slip and exposing himself. Snatching back the cloth, he stared at us, shocked.
“Hey,” Natalie said in her gentle-but-firm Leader voice. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”
“Bloody ’ell.” His eyes flicked to Natalie. “Who the fuck are you? And where the ’ell’s my bathers?”
I actually felt bad for the guy. Charley had a point. His entranceon the beach in full view had to suck, worse than just waking up in a dark meadow by yourself.
