35 Cape High Crystal Clear by R. J. Ross

Author:R. J. Ross [Ross, R. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-27T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

*Piña Colada Island*

I jerk awake as a hand touches my shoulder, staring blankly at Puzzle for a long moment before barely managing to cover a yawn. That’s right. I’d finally gotten to Puzzle sometime in the early hours of the day, snapped a watch on him, and dropped down on his bed without even asking permission.

“Um, sorry… you know, for stealing your bed,” I say, feeling like an idiot.

“Kid, I would GIVE you my bed, if I could, you saved my son’s life and saved the rest of the island a lot of trouble,” he says, hauling me into a hug. “I would have let you sleep in, but we’ve got work to do.”

“So Riddle’s okay?” I ask.

“He’s just fine,” Puzzle says. “He’s gone to Central to work on something with your principal, again. Thankfully, my little Addie has a very nice lady that takes her in whenever her old man has work to do. How about you? Do you have family who’s worried about you being gone?”

I look at my comm. It’s seven in the morning, meaning I got roughly five hours of sleep. I bet that felt like forever to Puzzle, so I should thank him for letting me take that long. “Yester’s going to adopt me, and the rest of the zoo kids are probably watching me, right now,” I say. It still feels awkward talking about the adoption, and I actually haven’t TOLD Yester that I was going to agree, yet, have I? Whoops. “Um, has anything else gone wrong while I was asleep?”

“We were just waiting for you,” he says, gently herding me out the door. We make our way through the finished puzzle rooms, and up the ladder to the surface. The island is bustling—well, I mean, I guess you could call it that. They’re not quite panicked enough to call it a riot? Honestly, I’m sort of scared to imagine a riot of supers.

“Brandon!” Yester calls out, waving me over. “Your zoo sister built the new crystals, but we’ve got a different problem, now.”

I take a deep breath, let it out slowly, and square my shoulders. “All right, then let’s fix it,” I say. To my surprise, he hauls me into his side, hugging me with one arm.

“You’re a trooper, Brandon,” he says. “I honestly don’t think I could have done this without you.”

I feel my neck get warmer at the praise. “I’m just… you know, doing my job,” I tell him. “Nico says he’s going to train me to be one of the cleanup crew.”

“Cleanup?” he repeats. “That’s ALL he’s going to do with you?” He looks extremely offended by this. “You’re going to be powerful enough to be a headliner, one day, and he’s training you to sweep streets—“

“Not THAT type of cleanup,” I say, letting out a laugh. “You know how Vinny’s trained to do spin jobs to cover up messed up situations?”

“I do, and that’s an excellent talent to have! Why don’t we get you set up with

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