Early to Death, Early to Rise - Kim Harrison [69]
I stared at him, the fingers of one hand making a slow roll of sound against the tabletop.
“Stare all you want,” Barnabas said, not looking at me. “I’m clearing their memories.”
Taking Shoe’s elbow, I moved him to stand behind me.
“Uh, Barnabas?” Nakita finally said. “I don’t think saying no to the dark timekeeper is a good idea, even if she’s wrong. She’s going to be able to stop time eventually.”
Behind me, Shoe said softly, “I want to remember.”
“Memory is all we have,” I said, trying to make Barnabas understand. “It’s why we make the choices we do. How do you expect anyone to change if you smother the past in a lie?”
Slowly Barnabas’s jaw unclenched, and I felt a stirring of victory. “It’s going to cause problems,” he warned, and I straightened, smiling.
“So what?” I said flippantly. “Shoe won’t say anything.” I spun to him. “Will you?”
Shoe was shaking his head, still worried. “No one would believe me. Grim reapers? Guardian angels? Timekeepers? They’d lock me up.”
From my other side, Nakita coaxed, “Timekeepers change for a reason, Barnabas. That’s all Madison seems to do. Change, change, change.”
Barnabas frowned again. “Get him out of here,” he muttered, and, elated, I grabbed Shoe’s arm, wondering if Barnabas was only pacifying me, planning on coming back later, when I wouldn’t know about it.
“What about Ace?” I asked, feeling ten feet tall.
“Out,” Barnabas said tightly. “You got Shoe. Ace is not an option.”
I took a breath to argue, then hesitated when Ace’s guardian angel circled Grace twice and flew to me, whispering, “Grace says, ‘There once was a boy in a diner, who thought no one else could be finer. He wasn’t that kind, almost lost his mind, till an angel became his reminder.’”
Oh, really?
Barnabas raised his eyebrows suspiciously, and, refusing to answer his unspoken question, I began backing up, stumbling when our locked gazes were broken. “Come on,” I breathed to Shoe. “I have to get my wallet.” Grabbing his hand, I tugged him to the door.
“What about Ace?” he asked, looking behind him until I turned his head away.
“Don’t look. I think Ace will be okay,” I said as the door jingled open and Nakita sighed loudly. “His guardian angel is going to block Barnabas.”
Shoe twisted to look through the plate-glass windows. “Are you sure?”
It was cooler out here, and I was glad for the lab coat as I held my arms around myself and waited. I wasn’t cold—but if I had been alive, I would have been.
“I’ve been told cherubs sit next to God,” I said, looking up at the stars and smiling. “I think a guardian angel can beat Barnabas’s skills with a stick.”
Shoe’s cough brought my attention down, and in the buzz of the security light, I met his startled gaze. “Really?” he stammered, glancing into the diner and then back to me. “Cherubs, eh?”
I shrugged. “Grace is. Just promise me you won’t say anything about tonight.”
Head down, he smiled as he scuffed his toe into the broken sidewalk. “You want me to lie?”
I couldn’t help my grin. “Well, I am the dark timekeeper.”
A twinge tightened across my mind, and my amulet grew warm, then cold. It was Barnabas using his amulet, and I glanced in as he leaned toward Ace. I wasn’t surprised when Ace woke up, his empty look shifting to hatred as he exclaimed, “You can go to hell, reaper!”
Barnabas looked out the window at me, cross. “Madison!” he complained.
Nakita laughed, the sound coming faintly through the glass. “I told you! Don’t mess with her.”
Smiling, I turned away. Shoe was standing in front of me, his hands in his pockets. “I don’t want to forget this,” Shoe said wistfully. “I don’t want to forget any of it.”
“You won’t,” I said confidently, and with a sudden idea, I leaned back against the brick wall of the restaurant to untie my sneaker. Shoe watched in confusion