“To what end?”
“Because it’s cool! To be close to all that power, to see the storm in action. The air changes. The hair on your arms stands up. It’s like nothing else.”
“It sounds like something else.…” I’m remembering Simon. I shake it off. “It sounds dangerous.”
“Incredibly dangerous,” Shepard grins.
“You said youusedto be a storm chaser. Did it get too risky?”
“Nah, I just got more excited about chasing magic. It’s a bigger rush.”
Ah. Of course. I make ahmmphsound in my nose, and it comes out just as judgmental as I intended.
“What was that?” Shepard asks.
“Nothing,” I say.
“That was you reaffirming your disapproval over my interest in magic.”
“You can’t justchaseus,” I say. “We’re not storms. Or stories. We’re people.”
“I don’t chasepeople.”
I clear my throat and raise my eyebrows.
“Iusuallydon’t chase people,” he says. “I just pursue… their acquaintance.”
“And their secrets.”
Shepard’s dumping ketchup on his potatoes. (They send up a tiny bottle of ketchup no matter what we order, and Shepard practically drinks it with a straw.) “Peopleofferup their secrets,” he says. “You don’t have to chase them. There’s nothing people—and nixies and trolls and giants—would rather tell you than their secrets.”
“Well,Idon’t feel like telling you anything.”
“Youare exceptional.” He takes a bite. “This hash is also exceptional.”
“Why would a magickal creature volunteer secrets to a Normal? The risk is absurd.”
“They’re not telling ‘a Normal.’ They’re tellingme—Shep! Their friend!”
“But you’re preying on them! You’re only their friend because you want to pin them in your weird scrapbook!”
He looks insulted. “I never take samples.”
“Blechch.Listen to you!”
He leans towards me, over his breakfast. “Yes, okay, I strategically seek out and befriend magickal beings. But my friendship is sincere!”
“Sincerely manipulative.”
“I object—”
“I can’t decide if you’re more like a starfucker or more like a big-game hunter.”
“Neither! I’m a scientist, like… an explorer.”
“Oh, good, that always turns out well for the explored.”
“What can I do to convince you that I don’t mean any harm?”
