Shara pushed the food around on her plate with the bent fork, but didn’t scoop any of it into her mouth. It wasn’t that the food was bad, it just wasn’t as good as what Tel made. Not that that was really the problem either.

“Guilt really kills an appetite, doesn’t it?” Neela’s voice called, and Shara looked up from her plate just in time to see the other woman sit down across the table.

“Not sure what you’re talking about,” Shara said, looking around the otherwise empty room. There were a bunch of free tables, why did Neela have to sit there?

“I think we both know exactly what I’m talking about,” Neela said, putting her plate on the table as well.

Guess she isn’t going anywhere, which means…

“Well, you can talk about it with yourself,” Shara said, starting to stand.

“I don’t care that you’re here to rob the place,” Neela said, picking up the chicken and daintily biting a chunk off. “Or that you lied to the Clocksmith to get here. He might not feel the same way, but it’s none of my business.”

“If it’s none of your business, why are you still talking?” Shara asked, but didn’t step away from the table. The woman obviously had more to say.

“Shara,” Neela said, looking up to meet her eyes. “I’m not your enemy. Really. I’d actually like to be the opposite of that.”

“Uh,” Shara looked a little left and right. “I thought you and Born, were, you know…” she trailed off, making a circle with her thumb and forefinger on her left hand, and then with her right forefinger…

“I want to be friends. Just friends,” Neela said, but chuckled. “I also want you to officially join the Swallowtails. I hear you figured out your role in the Dry Peak Mountains? Good. That wasn’t just a job, it was a test too. You passed. If we didn’t coincidentally find you in the woods, we would’ve found you somewhere else. And soon.”

“Who says I want to join the band?” Shara asked.

“Sit? Please?” Neela asked, pointing at Shara’s seat with the chicken. “I’m short, and I get tired of always looking up to people.”

“Born may not have been the best choice then,” Shara said, but relented and sat down again.

“Don’t worry, he more than makes up for it where it counts,” Neela said. “But, back to the topic at hand. Swallowtails. Not only do we pay well, but you’ll see your aunt and mother again. No more chasing after them.”

“Maybe I like the chase?” Shara offered.

“I suspect you actually do. Well, not the chase, but the challenge. The purpose. Don’t worry, though, we’ll have plenty of those for you. Now that you’ve brought back the locations of the portals, we can really get to work and make sure they’re secure. They haven’t been checked on since shortly after the Escalation War.”

“Dealing with more of those monsters isn’t much of a sales pitch,” Shara said. “If you know so much about me, you really think I want any part of that?”

“At the end of the day, after you’ve had some time to think about it? Yes, yes I do. Like I said, you want a purpose. Finding your mother has been it for years, but that’s at an end. You’ll see her again in a few days. You’ll be able to ask all your questions. Yell. Hug. Do whatever it is you’ve imagined doing the whole time.

“Then, after that energy is spent… you’ll realize you need something to fill that sudden gap,” Neela went on while nibbling on the chicken. “You’re good at getting in and out of places you shouldn’t be, but stealing for the sake of stealing isn’t your thing. You can take care of yourself in a fight, but you’re not a bully. You’re smart, even if you don’t give yourself enough credit.

“Consider the offer. Really consider it,” Neela said, leaning forward, elbows on the table. “Besides, Tel is joining us,” she said with a knowing smile, then tore the last of the meat off the bone with her teeth.

“That just means you have to take care of him instead of me,” Shara said, but the words sounded hollow even to her own ears. She sighed. “What do you think he is to me? I just met him a few days ago.”

“I think he’s your friend,” Neela said, dropping the bone on her plate. “Am I wrong?”

“How can I be his friend if I was planning to…?” Shara started to ask, but cut herself off before she admitted to planning to rob the enclave. Not that it was really a secret. And… planning? No wonder things didn’t work out.

“Planning and doing are two very different things. Shara, you’ve been inside since yesterday. Not once have you gone looking for a vault. Yes, of course I’ve had you watched, don’t look at me like that,” Neela went on. “Maybe you started your journey with him to get you here, but something changed along the way. Just go with it.”

“That’s your argument. Just go with it?”

“Pretty much. And the pay. The pay is good,” Neela said with an emphatic nod of her head.

“Let me think about it. Talk it over with Tel,” Shara said, something about that last part calming the churning in her gut. Maybe Neela had a point, or two.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

“Take as long as you like, but you won’t start getting paid until you officially say yes,” Neela said, forking some mashed potatoes into her mouth.

“Is the pay really that good?” Shara asked, leaning forward as Neela raised her eyebrows and nodded again. “Are there benefits?”

“Well,” Neela started, but cut off as a man with red hair sauntered up to the table. Short on top, long in the back, like really long, it was kind of ridiculous.

“Stutter, I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” the man said, flipping his waist-length hair out of the way and sitting down on the bench beside her.

“Shara, this is Count,” Neela said, pointing at the man beside her.

“The Count, thank you very much. Sounds way better with the ‘the’ in there. The Insurmountable. The Whistler. The Listener. The Count. That’s the crowd I’m part of. Don’t include me in the same category as the ‘the-less’ like Inside-Out Girl or Fluff, or…”

“Or Stutter?” Neela asked flatly.

“Ahem, yes, well, when you get to my level, we can talk about giving you a ‘the’,” Count said.

“Stutter?” Shara asked. “Code name?”

“Kind of,” Neela said. “It’s funny, in a way. It’s what the Tailcoats call me. Same with Count here.”

“The Count,” Count corrected.

“Yeah, whatever. They give us these weird names connected to our powers, like they’re classifying us. We decided it would be fun to turn it around and make a name for ourselves using those names. You know how order brings chaos? Just like that,” Neela explained.

“Do I have a nickname?” Shara asked. “If I do, I hope it’s better than Inside-Out Girl. Do I even want to know what her magic is?”

“Probably not what you’re thinking,” Count said, stealing Neela’s roll, ripping it in two, and popping it into his mouth in one fluid motion.

“Seriously?” she asked. “You know what mom would do if she saw that, right?”

“Mom?” Shara asked, looking more closely at their faces. No way. “You’re… related?”

“Yes, Count…”

“The Count.”

“…is my idiot younger brother.”

“You mean genius, prodigy younger brother,” Count corrected.

“Genius, because you can… uh… count?” Shara asked. “Do you even have magic?”

“Do. I. Have. Magic? Oh girl, try not to fall for me immediately,” he said, twisting his one hand behind himself and plucking out a very long strand of hair while his other produced a small stopwatch and clicked it on.

“Count, don’t you even think about…” Neela started, but was apparently too late as the hair suddenly extended straight up above his palm, then burst into flame. “Idiot. You better hope it’s a small number.”

“Relax,” Count said, and the line of flame changed into a number, then another, and another, another, another, another, speeding up so fast the numbers became a flaming blur.

“What is he doing?” Shara asked, eyes fixed on the numbers cycling above his hand.

“His magic rolls a number, like a rolling a die, between one and ten,” Neela explained, holding up a finger, then holding up all of them.

“Ta da,” Count said, holding the still, squiggly number in the air. “It’s a three,” he said. “Three. You know? Comes after two? Before four? Not as scary as seven, because you know seven ate…”

“Shut up,” Neela interrupted. “Now what are you going to do with that?”

“Uh…” Count said, turning his attention to the flaming three above his palm. “I can… just… got it!” he said, then flipped his hand over and slammed it into the tabletop, the flaming three searing its likeness into the wood. “When a Tailcoat sits on you,” Count said, then smiled and lifted his hand away, the fire out.

“Mom really would kill you for that,” Neela said.

“How will she ever know?”

“Who else do you know engraves number-burns into things? Huh? One guess? That’s right,” Neela said.

“Is that… it? I’m not super impressed,” Shara said. “Sorry.”

Neela gave her brother one more glare, then looked at Shara. “The number is an explosive. Higher numbers produce bigger bangs, and what he said about the Tailcoat is the condition for this one to blow up.”

Shara looked at the number on the table and slowly slid her chair back.

“It’s fine,” Count said, turning off his stopwatch and stowing it away. “Unless you’re a Tailcoat? No, then it’s fine. Only the condition will make it explode. If no Tailcoat sits on this table, this number will be here forever. And it will never explode.

“Which reminds me of why I’m here,” he went on, turning back to Neela. “I’m done!”

“Already?” Neela asked.

“Done what?” Shara asked, still keeping an eye on the number. Exploding tables? Wonderful.

“All done,” Count said, and both he and Neela ignored Shara’s question. “I’ll be ready to leave tomorrow with you.”

Neela nodded. “That was the agreement. Fine. You sure you’re up for this? It won’t be as quiet as here, and a week or so on the road to boot.”

“I’m so done with quiet,” Count said. “Besides, you know my magic will be helpful.”

Neela nodded again. “It will be,” she said, then turned back to Shara. “Sorry about that. Where were we? Any questions?”

“Yes, actually,” Shara said, still keeping an eye on the number. Sure, everybody had always said numbers were dangerous, but this was taking it to a new level.

“Let’s hear them,” Neela said, polishing off the potatoes.

“Are you in charge or something?” Shara asked.

“Kind of?” Neela said. “I’ve been a Swallowtail for a few years. I’m probably the highest rank, if you want to call it that, left here at this enclave. Most of the others, including your mother and aunt who are above me, have all left to secure a portal. I was put in charge of checking on the forest portal, but we’ll come back and secure that after we deal with the other one, since you and Tel took care of it temporarily. Also need to see if the Tailcoats act.”

“Speaking of Tailcoats, why didn’t you kill Anad?”

“Anad?”

“The Tailcoat with me and Tel in the woods.”

Neela blew out a breath. “Born asked me the same question. A couple of times. Honest answer? I’m not sure. Maybe the same reason you didn’t? He helped with the portal, and there’s some history between him and Tel. I wanted both you and Tel to join us, and didn’t want to alienate you.”

“You could’ve lied to us. Said he was alive and actually killed him. Wait, did you do that?”

Neela shook her head. “Lies come out. Always do. Last time I saw that Tailcoat, he was very much alive. You know, between you, me, and Count here…”

“The Count.”

“I’d really like to see the conflict between us and the Tailcoats come to an end. We could use their help dealing with the portals… and the things around them. Maybe this Anad guy is the start to that? He helped. He didn’t try to kill you. It’s a start.”

Shara tilted her head back, remembering how Anad had moved against those monsters. Really, he was a monster too. She’d spent her whole life being afraid of anybody in a tuxedo, for damn good reasons, but having a few more of them fighting on the same side? Yeah, that could be appealing.

If they could be trusted.

“Don’t know if we’re at that point yet,” Shara said, referring both to Neela’s point and the one in her own head.

Neela shrugged. “Any more questions?”

“Just one,” Shara said. “And… this one is really bugging me.”

“Out with it then.”

“If you two are brother and sister, why do you call each other by code names?”