Page 67 of Skinwalker's Bane
“Thank you, Travis. I’m sure no one really wants to change anything. You may be surprised by Julia’s response.”
Travis left her a message two hours later to say he was adjusting the rent the way she had suggested. Barely ten minutes later, she got another call from Barry, who was ecstatic. “You’re a miracle worker, Devin. They said you like to help people. I guess that’s true. Julia and I have been talking. We’re going to do some promotions together. Portraits of people wearing her jewelry. It’ll help both of us.”
“That’s great, Barry,” Devin told him truthfully.
The rest of the day had gone just as well. Bishan almost danced into the office, beaming. He was still bubbling over the results and reactions to Devin at the soiree. “Rask is freely talking about you, all over the Hawk’s admin offices,” Bishan told Devin. “If the Dreamhawks don’t pick you as their representative for the general elections, I’ll resign.”
Devin went home wearing a small smile. If only all her days could be that positive and constructive! Of course, it helped that the reason she was tired in the first place was because of the conversation she’d had with Adam last night. It had been very unexpected and very sweet.
The possibilities ahead made her tingle.
There was even a taxiboat waiting at the Esquiline hub when she got there, which was unusual for this time of day.
The Table was just coming into daylight when the taxiboat landed. Adam came out of the house to meet her as she paid the driver and got out. There was a warmth in his eyes that pleased her more than she was prepared to say.
As the taxiboat rose into the air, there was a small shout and something dinged off the side of the taxiboat with a hollow bong, making Devin recoil. The driver leaned over the side of the boat, his face growing red. “You little snots! Go home to your mothers!”
“Behind the bushes,” Adam said. He strode across the clear white dirt to lunge into the low-lying hard ground shrubs. He straightened up again, pulling up with him a small boy, who struggled and kicked as Adam hauled him over to where Devin stood, trying to hide her smile.
“Do you know him?” Adam asked, giving the boy a shake.
“That’s Jamey Critchie,” Devin replied. “He lives in the brown house at the bottom of the Table.” Jamey was eight and small for his age.
Adam turned the boy in his grip. “You climbed up here by yourself?”
“Wasn’t hard,” Jamey said.
“Then you do it a lot?”
“No one else is up here.”
“You don’t like to play with others?”
“There are only older boys around,” Devin said quickly.
Adam turned Jamey again, so he was looking up at him. “They pick on you, then?”
Jamey’s face grew stony and set. “I can take care of myself.”
Adam let him go. “Good answer,” he said approvingly.
Jamey yanked his top back into place. “You’re a skinwalker, aren’t you?”
Devin stared at the boy. How had he known that?
Adam laughed. “Is it tattooed on my forehead?” He held up his arm. “Or is it the muscles?”
“Nah.” Jamey grinned and pointed at Adam’s shirt. “You’re wearing a me-made medallion…and you’ve got the muscles, so it has to be the one you made.”
Adam glanced down at the fine chain and the rough, asymmetrical pendant that hung from it. Devin had seen it many times and had not realized the significance of the poorly made and badly shaped object, with its crude punched-through decoration. “That’s a me-made pendant?” she asked.
Adam glanced at her, then smiled at Jamey. “It is,” he confirmed. “And it’s mine, yes.”
“Can I have it?” Jamey said.
Devin sucked in her breath. “Jamey, you can’t just ask for a me-made. They’re supposed to be given to someone important, if they’re given away at all. That’s up to the skinwalker.” She could feel her cheeks heating as she said it. “Not that I’m asking, either,” she said quickly to Adam.
“Okay, then,” Jamey said with another shrug. The implied criticism of his behavior seemed to slide off him without touching him. Devin envied him his resilience. She would have hunched up and questioned her existence if an adult had said something like that to her, at his age. Pleasing people had become a habit by then.
