Vision in Silver(195)
Meg nodded, relieved to hear that much of a concession.
Jenni hesitated, then stepped back to close the door. “Thank you for the shinies.”
“You’re welcome.”
Rubbing her arms, Meg returned to Simon’s apartment—and wished she could believe that nothing was going to happen.
CHAPTER 52
Earthday, Maius 27
The girl waited for Jackson or Grace to fetch the dishes from her evening meal. Earlier in the day, she had opened the shutters that covered her window, wanting more light. A screen covered the window, and white paper was tacked outside the screen, preventing her from seeing anything. But she had heard them talking, growling. Upset.
Something bad had happened. Simon, the other Wolf she had drawn in that picture she’d made for Jackson, had been hurt. And because the bad had happened, something else would happen.
The girl looked at the drawing she’d made that day. Storm clouds and lightning. Cars full of people driving away from the storm. But on the other edge of the paper, something waited for the cars and the people—something she couldn’t picture in her mind, something her hand refused to draw because it wasn’t meant to be seen. It simply was.
And it, unseen and terrible, waited for the people in the cars.
Hearing a sound outside her door, the girl shoved the drawing under her bed before Jackson walked in carrying a mailing envelope. He placed the envelope at the foot of the bed.
“Meg, the Trailblazer, said we should take pictures for you to look at.”
New images? She was ready to look at new images.
“Thank you.” She must have said the right thing because he nodded and picked up the dishes she’d left on the desk.
She waited a minute. Then she carefully lifted the envelope’s flap and removed the photographs.
Her breath caught as she looked at each one, drinking in the images.
“Not in order,” she muttered as she rearranged the photos. “Need to be like . . . this.”
A place. All the photos were different images of a wonderful place. But . . . where? Her old keepers used to identify images. How else could she tell someone what she saw when she was cut?
Nothing written on the backs of the photos, so she turned the envelope over. Carefully printed on the front was one word: Sweetwater.
The girl spent the rest of the evening listening to the Wolves howl as she studied the photographs.
CHAPTER 53
Moonsday, Maius 28
Monty didn’t want to be included in the meeting with Mayor Franklin Rogers and Police Commissioner Kurt Wallace. He’d lost a good man, and the rest of his team were recovering from lesser injuries and the shock of the attack. And for some reason, his daughter was still a target of an unknown aggressor. But Captain Burke wanted him there since he dealt with the Courtyard and could offer an informed opinion.
Well, fine. He’d offer an informed opinion to His Honor. If there was going to be any criticism about actions at the stall market that led to human casualties, his men deserved to have him stand for them. Especially Lawrence MacDonald, who could no longer speak for himself.
Nodding to Captain Zajac, who had also been called to this meeting, Monty took a position to Captain Burke’s left. Mayor Rogers sat behind his desk, a position of power. None of the police, including the commissioner, were invited to sit.
“Dreadful business,” Mayor Rogers said. “Can’t minimize the damage the Others did to human property, or the number of injured and dead that resulted from their attack.”
“Counterattack,” Zajac said at the same time Burke said, “Self-defense.”