Page 47 of Black Curtain

There was a silence.

Then Yumi beamed at her, patting her arm.

“You are such a sweet, sweet girl,” she said. “I like your young man, too,” she added, beaming at Cowboy. “He has kind eyes.”

Angel smiled at her, then at Cowboy.

Hedidhave kind eyes.

Kind, monk-soldier, ex-con eyes. Elvis eyes.

Her husband’s eyes.

God, she loved him so much.

So, so much.

Another thought reached her. With it came another dart of alarm.

“Where is Hiroto?” Angel asked Yumi, feeling her panic worsen. “Where is Nick’s dad? Mr. Tanaka?”

“Oh! He’s fine.” Yumi pointed across the pool. “He’s in the hot tub. With that Holo one, and the young girl with the bow and arrow.”

Angel felt her shoulders relax in a relief so overwhelming her eyes briefly smarted.

“Oh, thank God,” she said. “Magic. That girl is Magic. She will protect them. She will protect all of them. She is such an amazing girl.”

“We need to go after them!” Mika said, half-shouting again. “We can’t just stand here! They already left! THEY LEFT US HERE!”

Silence fell on their small group.

Angel felt her chest clench as she fought to breathe through Mika’s words.

They left? WHO left?

Manny pushed forward in the thickening group around Ace and Mika. He placed his lanky body right next to hers. “How many were there of these others?” he asked, his mouth pursed. “How many, Mika? Do you remember?”

“A lot. There were alotMañuel. You need to ask Yarli. Yarli can track them. Yarli can trackanything.She’s like a super-seer. She and Jem. They aremagicians!If you find Yarli, she can tell us. She tell us everything…”

Mika’s voice trailed as she looked around.

Angel’s eyes followed hers.

Immediately, her heart leapt to her throat.

Mika was right.

There were other people here.

Strangers.

People who didn’t belong.

Something about seeing them all there, moving ghost-like through the crowd, made everything inside Angel go totally still.

She still felt bizarre.

She also felt her friends all drawing together, as if huddling their lights together for protection, for warmth, for some kind of defense, especially of their more vulnerable people like Yumi and Hiroto Tanaka, Nick’s parents. Or Holo, who shouldn’t really be in the hot tub since he’d been in a wheelchair for most of the ceremony. Or Magic, who was only newly turned seventeen and who’d lived on the Navajo Rez her entire life.

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