Page 64 of Wings of Ebony
He’s right.
I’m not Ghizoni.
This won’t ever be home to me.
I’m here for magic and vengeance. Then I’m taking my Black ass home.
CHAPTER 21
BRI’S HOME IS ASquaint as it was the last time I was here, but the concrete walls never quite put me at ease. Where are the pictures? Doodles her little brothers make? Or prizes from school contests she won? Do they even do that here? There is one portrait on the wall in a gilded frame. The Chancellor’s face is on the wall of every building, every place I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure if that’s a rule or the people just like it that way. Or both.
I toss my costume in the corner of the room and make my way past Bri’s brothers in a full on fight over a wooden doll. Luke’s in the one chair so I settle on the floor. He isalwaysaround, I swear.
“I’m so sorry, Rue,” Luke says.
She called Luke to update him on everything? I mean, I know him, but I don’tknowhim, know him. “Thanks,” I say.
Sunlight flitters through the single window in the main room of the house until Bri pins a dark cloth over it. “The sun’s a nuisance in here this time of day.” She winks.
“Good thinking.” Luke grabs the other end of the cloth and pins it.
Stacks of self-folding towels bob through the air and a kitchen drawer flies open to receive them.
“Thanks for letting me just pop up,” I say to Bri’s mother. She doesn’t respond, buzzing around the kitchen, which is steps away. I know she heard me. Flames dance on her fingers as she brings a pot of water to a boil, mumbling something to herself.
“It-it’s fine, really,” I say. “You don’t need to go out your way to make—”
“Ya,” she says, flashing a tight smile.
“She says she insists,” Bri translates.
“No’yee dja Zruki. Mwepa kindazi.”
“She says it would be rude to not offer,” Bri says. “And that Zruki are not rude people.”
“O-okay,” I say. “Well, thanks.”
“You sure your momma cool with this?” I cut a glance at Bri, whose arm is twisted around Luke’s.
“Yeah, it’s fine. I’m sure,” Bri says, tapping her foot. Something ’bout the way her momma keeps looking over her shoulder at me makes her seem nervous.
And her being nervous makes me nervous.
“Cute outfit.” Bri picks up my costume, inspecting it. “Felt like a little shopping on the way? What are you, queen of the fire-breathing lizards now, or however you say it there?”
“Dragon. And whatever, it got me here unrecognized, didn’t it?”
She laughs. My watch says I’ve been here three minutes and it feels like three minutes too long. I’m hoping between Cupcake and Ms. Leola, Tasha’s okay. The text I sent before I left the General’s warehouse forbid her to go anywhere. Not even school. Cops don’t go looking for truant kids in the ’hood. Praying she listens.
“Aasim told me he’d be here real soon,” says Bri.
I wipe my clammy hands on my pants, pull out the cuff digging into my side, and set it on the table. Its hue and brilliance matches the necklace I left on Tasha; it’s also obviously Ghizoni gold. Going to ask Aasim about that, too. I want answers. All the answers. And I’m going to have them.
“What’s with the—” Luke unlaces his fingers from Bri’s and picks up the cuff.
“Don’t—”Too late.
“What the hell? It burned me.”
