Page 7 of Shinji Takahashi: Into the Heart of the Storm

“Don’t you trust me?”

The question caught Shinji off guard. He gave Lucy a surprised look. “What? Of course I do. What kind of dumb question is that?”

She glared at him over the book. “You’re keeping secrets,” she accused. “About your powers. I know something else is going on, Shinji.” She paused a moment, as if recalling something painful, then said, “Remember when I didn’t tell you that my father was part of Hightower? I kept that a secret because I was scared of what the Society would do if they found out who I was. But it just backfired on me: Oliver thought I was a spy, and you thought I’d been sending secret messages to my dad.”

He did remember. And he still felt guilty for accusing her of being a spy when all she had done was help him. “Yeah,” he muttered. “Secrets bad. I get it.”

“Let’s trade,” Lucy suggested. “You tell me what’s been going on with your magic, and I’ll tell you a secret of mine. A small one.” She held out her hand, palm facing him. “Nothing serious. Just something that’s been bothering me, and I can’t say it out loud. But I’ll tell you. Because we’re friends and I trust you,” she added emphatically.

Shinji sighed. “Fine.” Sitting on his bed, he studied his hands for a few seconds, feeling Lucy’s eyes on him. The Coatl tattoo on his forearm seemed to mock him, and he made a frustrated gesture. “So, you know I’ve been having trouble getting the magic to work,” he said at last, and Lucy nodded. “But that’s not the only problem. I…can’t controlwhenthe magic happens, either. Sometimes it wakes me up in the middle of the night, or sometimes it makes things blow off shelves or across the room. Last night, it happened again. I wasn’t even trying to call on it, and there was this gust of wind out of nowhere. I’m just glad no one was around to notice.”

“I noticed,” Lucy said.

Surprised, Shinji glanced up, and she raised both palms in a shrug. “It’s kind of hardnotto see a soda can rolling across the table on its own,” she said. “But I thought you were practicing your magic at weird times. I didn’t know you were having this much trouble.”

“Yeah.” Shinji raked his fingers through his hair, shoving it back. “And it’s been getting worse,” he admitted. “I’ve been trying to keep this a secret from Priya and Oliver. I

don’t want them to think I’m dangerous because I can’t control the magic. It’s not like I’m starting fires or flipping cars. It’s just been small things: papers blown off my desk or random bursts of wind when I leave a room.”

“Ah,” said Lucy, as if just realizing something. “So that’s why I keep hearing slamming doors.”

Shinji clenched a fist on his leg. “I have to figure this out,” he said. “The Coatl chose me to be the guardian of the font, not that I even know what that means.” He threw up one hand in frustration. “So, I’m supposed to protect people. Is thatallpeople, or only the ones I know? And what am I supposed to protect them from? Small things, like spider bites? Or big things like…wars? I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but I can’t screw this up.”

“I think you’re being too hard on yourself,” Lucy said gently. “And I don’t think you should take all this on alone. It took me years to learn to work my magic, and I had tutors helping me. Even then, sometimes I’d miscalculate the magic-to-tech ratio, and it would malfunction. It was a pretty delicate process. You can’t rush magic. I don’t think you can rush learning to be a guardian, either.”

Lucy possessed a rare and special talent for blending magic and technology together. It was how she created Tinker, and to Shinji, she was a genius when it came to gadgets and gizmos. But she hadn’t promised a mystical Coatl that she would become a guardian to protect people. She

didn’t have the magic from one of the last fonts in the world inside her. This was different. Shinji had taken on a huge responsibility, and he was determined to get it right. Even if he had no clue about what he was supposed to be doing.

But he didn’t want to argue with Lucy, either, so instead he asked, “So, what’s your big secret?”

She paused. “It’s nothing, really.” She shrugged, though her hesitancy said otherwise. “But sometimes…I miss Hightower.”

Shinji stared at her. “YoumissHightower?”

“A little.” She shrugged again and looked away. “I shouldn’t miss it,” she went on, as if disgusted with herself. “It was a terrible place. I’m much better off here. But…I do miss my room. And my workshop. Sometimes I wonder if anyone thinks of me.” Tinker crawled to her shoulder, curling up in the collar of her shirt, and a bitter smile crossed her face. “I doubt my dad even cares that I’m gone.”

Unease bloomed inside Shinji, and a breath of wind fluttered the comics on his desk. Lucy was homesick. Was she unhappy at the Society? Did she want to leave and go back to the Hightower Corporation? His stomach clenched at the thought. Lucy was his friend; he didn’t want her to leave, but more than that: She knew a ton of SEA secrets that she could take back to the enemy. She had been on the inside; she had seen the hidden places of the Society. If her father commanded her to come home, would she go?

Lucy shook herself, giving Shinji a normal smile again.

“Anyway”—she shrugged—“that’s my silly little secret. It’s stupid, right?”

Shinji shrugged, too. “I mean, I guess I get missing your room and your super-fancy workshop. As long as you don’t have the urge to make zombie rats or killer robots, I think it’s fine.”

She laughed. “What about killer-zombie-rat robots?”

“Thosemight actually be cool.”

She laughed again. “I need to finish packing. Thanks for not losing my book.” She hefted the enormous tome in both hands. “I figureoneof us needs to research the different world mythologies so we’ll know what to do if you’re ever attacked by a dragon.”

“That would be awesome,” Shinji replied. “And I hope the answer is throw a saddle on it and ride it around.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. Holding the book to her chest, she turned and walked out of the room, Tinker’s beady red gaze peering at Shinji as she left.

Alone again, Shinji sat down on his bed, thinking of what Lucy had revealed. For a second, he wondered if he should tell Oliver. They were in a race to beat Hightower to a sunken treasure. Which meant that they would probably run into the greedy corporation somewhere along the journey. But he didn’t want to rat Lucy out, especially if Priya decided she couldn’t come. That would suck for both of them.

Besides, he trusted Lucy. With everything that happened,

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