Lost by Magic by David Neth

Author:David Neth [Neth, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: David Neth

18

- FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 1924 -

Down in the speakeasy, Evelyn was among the few who decided to start the morning with a drink instead of breakfast. She sat in her usual corner booth with her glass and a cigarette between her fingers.

Frankie walked up and took the seat across from her. “You know, for someone who can see into the future, I wouldn’t think that you’d still be smoking.”

She blew out a stream of smoke and then waved her wand dismissively. “I know it’s bad for me, even if the surgeon general won’t put out that warning for another forty years. The trouble is, I can’t help it. It’s my vice.”

“And the whiskey before nine in the morning isn’t?”

“That’s a choice.”

They exchanged smiles.

Evelyn stubbed out the end of her cigarette in the ash tray, then asked, “Haven’t you ever given in to the temptation to smoke? Or drink before it’s socially acceptable?”

“Of course,” Frankie said. “I was twenty when the surgeon general put out that warning. Before then, everyone was doing it and I did it more or less to fit in. It was right before my daughters were born, so it was easy for me to give up smoking for their sake. ”

She reached across the table and took his hands. She had a way of comforting him that way.

“You miss them, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “But now that we’ve found Ura, we just have to figure out what to do with her and then I’ll be on my way home. That’s actually why I came down to find you. I just had breakfast with Louis. From the Harvesters.”

“I know Louis. Pompous man, isn’t he?”

“I got that impression, yeah. He said he only wanted to study Ura so the future of magic could benefit.” Frankie rolled his eyes.

Evelyn tossed her head back and cackled. She was still laughing as she put another cigarette between her lips and lit it. “Everyone’s a liar. The only genuine one in the lot is Levi. And that’s more because he’s blissfully ignorant. Bless his soul.”

“You think that I’m a liar?” Frankie asked defensively.

“Of course, dear. But you do it to protect yourself—and your secrets. But that still makes you a liar.”

Frankie sighed. “So maybe I should just hand over the lamp to Zanabar so that I can go home and stop lying to everyone.”

Evelyn’s eyes grew wide. “I can’t believe you’re even considering that! After what Ura said about Zanabar’s true intentions—never mind my own warnings about him.”

“But without him, how else am I supposed to get home? Is there another way? Can you see it if you do a reading on me?”

She sighed, blowing smoke out of her nose as she did. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen anything, and I’m hesitant to do a reading for something so…temperamental still.”

“Temperamental?”

“You’re not from our time. You being here is a change in the cosmos that even I couldn’t have predicted. So to do a reading to see when you’ll return to your time would be…inconclusive at the worst and unreliable at best.

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