Page 30 of Wings of Ebony
“I-I—” Her voice cracks.
“You, you, what?” His steps grow louder. Closer.
I have to do something.
“I-I don’t want no trouble now with you folks. Can you just put the gun down?”
Gun?!
“Let me go inside,” she asks. “I ain’t seen nothing. I ain’t gon’ see nothing. Just p-please let me get back inside.”
Tasha’s whole body is trembling against me.
Think, Rue.“Stay here. Don’t say a word.”
The lines worrying Tasha’s face beg me not to move. But it’s not even really a choice. I can’t let this lady get hurt.
I step out and the old woman’s legit surprised. I mouth, “It’s going to be okay,” and she looks from the gun to me and back to the gun.
The shock on the gunman’s face turns to a smile quick, and the barrel of his 9mm points my way. Cars whip by on the street at the end of the alleyway. I have half a mind to scream for someone to help, but moving cars don’t have ears. Pedestrians barely do.
“Hands up.”
I put my hands up, studying this guy’s face. Moms always said to study the face of someone who attacks you. Walking home from school, she was always worrying we’d get messed with.
“Let it burn into your memory,” she’d said.
Gunman’s brows are bushy, eyes blue. His skin is pale, but scorched, like he tans too much. He’s definitely not Ghizoni. He has a mole near his left ear and the head of a snake tattoo peeking at me from the collar of his shirt. An eerie feeling settles on my shoulders.
I’ve seen that mark before… somewhere.
He spots me staring and tugs at his collar, raising his gun arm higher. “Eyes to the ground. Where’s the other one? The girl.”
“She ran off. I stopped to hide.”
Cold metal chills my forehead as the gun barrel presses into me. The old lady whimpers, but I don’t flinch.
“It would be stupid to lie to me.” He tryin’ to scare me. It’s not like I haven’t seen heat before. Felt it against my skin. Like I ain’t watch bullets fly through the air like arrows stealing mommas from their kids. Robbing sons of their dreams.
I’ve seen worse than the likes of him.
I lift my sleeves. “She gone.”
If he doesn’t back down, I’ma have to use magic.…
But it’ll set off Patrol.…
His fingers move to the trigger.
I have no choice. I have to.“Feey’l,” I mutter, reaching for the familiar burning sensation in my wrists. For a second my wrists flicker with warmth.
Then my arms go cold all over.
Wait, what?
Again, I dig for that tingle of magic fused to my wrists, to lay this dude flat on his back.
Nothing.
