Page 58 of Tracking Snow

Rap glances up.

Ryder is already looking at her.

The humid air curls around them. Her mouth parts a fraction. His grip tightens on the keys before he lets go as if they burned him.

Rap snatches them up and straightens quickly.

"Ryder," she says in a quick goodbye.

"Boss," Ryder answers in a similar clipped tone.

Then Rap cuts left while he heads right.

Snow snorts even as she works her way toward me, having witnessed the same loaded exchange.

When she's close enough, I get off the stool to get out of the way.

"Have I mentioned today that I’m sorry?" I ask, my voice sounding too loud in the empty bar.

"Not today," she says without slowing her cleaning.

"I am. Sorry, that is. You didn’t deserve that. Especially not after we..." I swallow hard. "I miss being stalked." I try to joke, but I instantly feel stupid.

"You miss being chased around? Told how awesome you are? Crazy," she says, rolling her eyes as she moves to wipe off the stools.

I don't understand, Six says. We apologized. Apologies resolve the offense. That's the function of an apology.

"Well, it’s me stalking you now, isn’t it?" I say, some of my frustration leaking through. Not at her, at myself.

My body moves almost automatically as I come up behind her and plant a hand on the bar on either side of her.

Back off, you are coming on too strong, Three cautions.

My fingers dig into the wood edge.

Snow goes still inside the cage of my arms. She could break out of this eight different ways, and at any time.

She doesn't.

"I tried to stay away from you," I say to the back of her white hair even as I resist the urge to bury my nose in it. "We all did. But none of us can, not even..."

She turns in my arms and looks me in the eye for the first time in twelve long days. Heat rises in me as if I were Four.

Her icy stare lands on me, though it’s anything but cold. I’ve missed it. She’s such a complicated contradiction, but in a totally different way than us.

"Not even Seven?" she asks quietly.

I can’t nod my head. Seven won’t let me, but it’s true. So I don’t move. But I do have her full attention for the first time in too long.

"There is no one like you. You're exciting. You're fascinating. You're funny in a way that sneaks up and knocks me upside the head. You move through this city like a deranged little squirrel, and it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, and you do it to help people. Anybody. Strangers." I'm closer now. I can smell antiseptic and apples, and her. "And you've never once treated me like a freak. And I...I don’t know how to handle that."

Her lips quirk as her brows draw together. "Seriously?" She jerks a thumb at the empty room. "Everyone I love is a freak. Goldie, Cinder, Red, Kiki..." She trails off, a sadness flickering in her expression before she pushes whatever is causing it away. "You've been hanging in a hotspot that is full of so-called freaks, and you act like basic decency is a gift." Her eyes narrow up at me. "You really need to get over this idea that your powers are a curse. Or that they make you less than. Because it's the only boring thing about you." She sticks a finger in my chest at that last part.

Everything in me goes quiet.

"That's it," I hear myself say. "That's exactly it. You say things like that, and it makes me want to..." My fingers dig harder into the wood.

"What?" The word escapes her in a breathless dare.