Page 49 of Out of My Flocking Mind

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” The way she said it suggested it wasn’t anywhere close to a good story.

“I thought he was just born that way?”

Beth pressed her lips together into a tight line, and I could spot the fight on her face between telling me the truth and keeping their secrets. Finally, she looked away as she responded. “He’s always been powerful—more power than should exist in any single person. Some people say he stole that power.”

“Stole it? I didn’t think that was possible. Granted, my knowledge of Minds is pretty fucking limited, but I thought people had the power they had and that was it?”

Beth fidgeted, running her finger along the edge of the desk. “Usually, yeah, that’s the case. Harrison, though? Nothing else explains how he could be that much more powerful. There are rumors, you know? About what might have caused it. Some people say that’s why he seems so empty, because he takes his power from others. Doing that would hurt the person, don’t you think? It would explain why he seems so closed off.”

I thought back to how hard Harrison worked, how often I’d found him up late, going over papers, trying to deal with the never-ending problems for his clan. Sure, I didn’t disagree that he was closed off, that he was hard to understand, but Beth spoke about him like he was a monster. That didn’t match what I knew about him.

Was he stubborn? And difficult to read? Sure, but he wasn’t some other species, something so unhuman-like that others needed to stare at him like some freak.

The fact that Beth, someone who was part of his clan, a person who was in many ways the most similar to him, would view him in that way bothered me. He didn’t need me sticking up for him, but I couldn’t shake the desire to do just that.

“You know the problem with rumors? They’re never fucking true. Even worse, the things that sound the best, that are the juiciest, are always the most untrue. Be careful listening to shit like that—it’ll bite you in the ass.”

Beth looked down at her lap, as though she didn’t want to meet my gaze. Then again, I had just lectured her about someone she’d likely known longer. Who cared, though? I felt like I understood Harrison at least somewhat, and I hated the idea of people talking shit behind his back, especially given how much he did for his clan.

Well, so much for a nice, relaxing conversation.

* * * *

A few hours later, I found myself back in Ruben’s office. I was stretched out on his couch, my feet up on the armrest. I yawned loudly, not bothering to cover my mouth as I did it.

“Why do you insist on staying in my office, then complaining about it?” Ruben didn’t look up from his paperwork as he spoke. “If you are that bored, why did you send that girl away?”

“She was a shitty conversationalist.” I folded my hands behind my head, staring up at the ceiling. “Besides, she’s only one room over, so close enough to still be a wonderful shield for me without me having to listen to her.”

“I once saw you have a full conversation with a parking meter. Somehow, I doubt she could be worse than that.”

“That was a three-way conversation, and vodka kept up a good portion of the talking in that case. Sober? I’m not a fan of Little Miss Judgey over there.”

“Judgey?”

“Yep. Can you believe she tried to imply Harrison had stolen his power?”

Ruben didn’t answer, causing me to twist and look over at him. He’d paused his work and was looking across the office at me. His expression suggested he knew exactly what I was talking about.

“Come on, out with it,” I asked.

“There have been rumors about that since he was young. It is not uncommon for such things when someone appears who is an outlier, someone who breaks the bounds of what we understand as normal. Harrison did that, and since then, Spirits—both in his clan and not—have tried to come up with a reason it happened.”

“That’s just jealousy. It’s people mad that they can’t do something so they demonize the person who can.” I huffed out a harsh breath as I thought back to the times people had done that to me. It hadn’t been because I was fantastic, like Harrison, but because I was different. I didn’t fit into their idea of who and what I should be, so the only way to bring order back to their world was by turning me into the bad guy.

“Perhaps it is,” Ruben acknowledged. “Or perhaps they have a point. I’ve been alive a long time, and Harrison is something entirely different. I’ve seen many Sprits that are stronger than others, that are unique, but Harrison’s power on a different level all together. If I heard that he had done something—or something had been done to him—to turn him into what he is, I would have no reason to doubt it. Besides, even if we should not take rumors at face value, neither should we ignore them entirely. They always spawn from some bit of truth.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think the truth is that he’s some boogeyman going around and ripping the power out of other people.”

Ruben shook his head, then set his pen down as though admitting he was done trying to focus on his own work. Really, he’d managed to ignore me a lot longer than I’d expected him to. “You know, I’ve heard some strange stories about what you and Harrison have been up to.”

“If you ever didn’t get strange stories about me, you’d come looking for me to see if I was still alive,” I pointed out.

He let out a soft laugh, one full of equal parts annoyance and affection. “That’s true. I recall your first week working here. Do you have any idea how many complaints I received?”

I thought back to that week, to how I’d had to work my way through an entire world I’d known nothing about. Sure, I’d had someone train me, but that was a far cry different from actually dealing with people.

And people fucking sucked.

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