The Storm King(76)

Tom squinted at her. His eyes didn’t want anything in focus. “It’s your fault,” he said. “Messing around with Adam Decker.”

“Yeah, it’s my fault saying hello to an old friend starts a riot.”

“He’s not our friend.”

“You’re so”—she thought about it—“loyal.” It wasn’t a compliment.

“Don’t you remember what Adam did to you?”

“What a dumb question. But that’s the past, Tom. That life is over. All those insipid platitudes they vomited up at us today, but here’s one you could actually use: Our futures begin now. Do you get it?” She looked at him, and he hated everything about her face.

“What about you?” Tom asked. “When Nate looks into the future, you think he sees you?”

“I know he does.”

Her certainty enraged Tom not because it was delusional but because it wasn’t.

“Wouldn’t be so sure.” He wanted to shatter the smug look on her face. He wanted to be the one who did the hurting, just this once. “Not after tonight. He was angry, Lucy. Furious. I’ve never seen him so mad.”

“Poor Tom,” she said, sighing. “You think things are going to be the same in the city, but I promise you they won’t be. Dinner three nights a week—that’s what he told you, isn’t it? If you think that’s going to last to Thanksgiving, you’re dreaming.”

“I’m dreaming?” Tom shouted. “Once he’s in the city, he won’t be able to spit without hitting a girl better looking than you. They’ll be smarter and nicer, too. And you can bet their dads aren’t in prison for murdering his entire family.”



“He doesn’t even see other girls.”

He laughed at her, and it rang of pure scorn. He didn’t know he’d carried such a sound inside of him. “The thing is that girls here are afraid of you, Luce. They’d never try anything with Nate. But in the city? Down there you’ll be back to being nobody. Mountain trash. Those girls flush shit better than you every day.”

The words were savage enough that even Lucy seemed taken aback.

“Did you see the way he looked at you when he was finished with Adam? The way he screamed for you?” From the way her face tightened, Tom thought she had. “You were running away from him, weren’t you? That’s why you didn’t answer. I don’t blame you. I’d run, too.” Tom remembered that he did run, but he slapped the memory down before it could surface. “He’s probably still looking for you. Just imagine what he’ll do when he finds you. That’s the future you’re so excited about.”

Lucy’s lips turned white, and she whirled away from him. She stalked back through the doors to the boardwalk.

Tom followed her—and this, forever, was one of the mistakes that most haunted him. He should have declared victory and gone home. Instead, he joined her to look out over the black waters. To get in another jab? To forestall being alone for a few minutes more? He never settled on a reason that was good enough.

The coarse wood of the boardwalk was wet under his feet. The cloudburst had drawn the worst of the humidity from the air, but Tom still savored the feel of the wind against his skin. Lucy leaned against the railing, surveying the abyss of the lake. Tom joined her.

He wondered what she’d say next and how he’d answer. The Creature of Catastrophic Futures was a distant memory, and through the prism of this desperate bravery, anything seemed possible.

A shoal of clouds pulled aside to reveal the low moon.



“If we’re lucky, he won’t remember any of this tomorrow,” Lucy said.

Her tone surprised him. Lucy was vicious and relentless, and Tom had expected her to try to reassert her superiority. But she sounded flattened. Defeated.

“Maybe you’re right,” she continued. “Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten within thirty feet of Adam.”

“Obviously.” Tom wanted to rub Lucy’s face in her mistake. He wanted her to feel as raw as he did, even if it was only for a night. But there was something unguarded about her that dulled the thrill of denting her confidence.

“A little innocent flirting.” She shook her head. “And it was totally innocent. Because is it crazy for me to remind Nate that he’s not the only thing in my life? That I’m an actual human person who exists even when he’s not in the same room as me?” She rubbed her face, wrecking what remained of her makeup. “Do you know how exhausting it is to be perfect for him all the time? Don’t you get tired?”

Lucy Bennett at her best was cruel and formidable, but the girl next to him wasn’t either of those things. The Storm King saw pain as a zero-sum game, but Tom didn’t think making Lucy feel worse about herself would make him feel any better. Vindictiveness for the sake of malice wasn’t a thing he was built for. Maybe he and Lucy had more in common than he thought.

It was such a strange night.

In its sleep, the town along the shore was as dark as the forests that blanketed the mountains. The Lake was different in the night, just as it was different in a storm. New possibilities seemed to arise like the stars beyond the scrim of clouds. The future was ahead of them. In this unvisited place, maybe he and Lucy didn’t have to be enemies.