Page 17 of The Sirin Sisterhood (The Sons of Echidna #2)

Lai

“It feels strange to just shop while everything is...”Lucy waved her hand to nothing in particular, gesturing to their distant-for-now problems. She glanced back at him just in time to see his hand flash out.

“Wait, are you...?”Her eyes widened as Lai pocketed a set of overpriced costume rings from a jewelry display.

“I’m what?”He grinned at her as he casually shoplifted, doing it for nothing but the thrill and his immense dislike of mega-chain stores.

“Relax, would you?”He motioned for her to follow, stroking through the endless rows of clothing.

“This is a small reprise before shit goes down hard. Enjoy it. You have to live more in themoment,otherwise you’ll spend your whole life worrying about a future that might never come to pass.

Forget about the maybe and focus on what you can reach, and rightnowthat’s new clothes on an unlimited black credit card. ”

“Idon’t like taking her money,”Lucy huffed, latching onto the wrong part of the conversation yet again.

“That’s because you’re thinking about it wrong.

”Lai picked up a black long-sleeve top from the rack, checking the fabric between his fingers.

Way too much acrylic mixed into the ambiguously labeled ‘merino-acrylic blend’.

Hopefully, there was somewhere in the mall where he might find decent-quality clothes, but he wasn’t feeling too optimistic.

“Look at it like this: Money is a form of energy just like everything else, okay? It comes and goes like any other energy, and you can swap the energy of your time and effort for it, but it’s all energy at the end of the day.

I used to entertain old rich men and get spoiled in exchange.

You are putting up with a spoiled brat, and in exchange, she makes your life easier.

It’s an exchange of energy. Effort for cash. ”

Lucy’s skepticism was obvious, and Lai winced a little. It was a philosophy he had always lived by, but now that he had put it into words, it sounded a little New Age-y.

“I’m not ‘putting up’with her, she’s my friend.

”Lucy frowned and shook her head, flicking through a rack of shirts and finding every single one of them missing the bottom half, to her disappointment and Lai’s delight.

He loved the fashion merry-go-round that had blessed him with crop tops swinging back into style.

“Friendships bloom in shared ideals and problems, Lucy. Friends can ask each other for anything, can tell each other anything. Friends don’t have a massive power imbalance. Can you rock up to Xim in the middle of the night and ask her for help?”

“Well, I did just that, didn’t I?”

“Then why is it so hard for you to accept that help?”Lai narrowed his eyes as Lucy inflated with a huff.

“Because you believe that she’ll think you’re just using her.

You left to better yourself, get closer to her level, and reduce that gap between you so that constant fear wouldn’t be quite so heavy in your heart.

That sounds like a really high-maintenance friendship to me, and you’re the only one doing any work. ”

He tossed a few pieces of clothing into his shopping cart, picking out some shirts and pants for the younger boys.

Lucy walked behind him in a sulk, mulling over the information.

“So what am I then, if I’m not her friend?”

Lai paused, turning around to face her. “You are her pet. She loves you. She enjoys your company. You give her your affection in return, but you aren’t her equal.”

“You’re being an asshole.”She twisted a t-shirt between her hands and snapped it at him like a belt, but it unrolled before it struck him and flapped uselessly at his ass. Her technique, as always, left much to be desired.

“I’m being a friend.”

“Oh yeah? Then why does it feel like a shark warning a fish about another shark?”Lucy pressed her lips into a pout. “Unless one of the sharks is jealous of the more successful, more athletic,and…”

Lai raised his finger ominously, giving Lucy a single warning.

“...far prettier shark,”she smirked, leaning over the front of the shopping cart.

“That’s it.”Lai shoved the cart forward, knocking Lucy off her feet and into the cart. She squealed as she fell in, twisting to face the right way up, her legs dangling over the edge. She wiggled a little, dismay on her face. She was stuck.

“Lai! Let me out.”

“No.”

Lucy groaned, lacking the upper body strength to dislodge herself and resigned to being unable to do anything but complain.

Lai twirled the cart out of their aisle and into the next, piling items on top of the protesting woman. “You suck. This was supposed to be fun.”

“It is fun! You didn’t take me seriously, did you?”Lucy sounded worried beneath the growing mountain of cheap fabric. “I can’t breathe!”

Lai graciously reached down and shifted the clothing away from the woman’s face.

“So, how do I get on the same level as Xim?”Lucy asked after a few minutes, watching the ceiling as Lai made his way through the department store.

“You can’t. Not by yourself.”He paused by the row of mirrors for sale, examining his reflection in the plastic-covered glass.

The roots of his hair were now beyond obvious, blond peeking through purple, determined to reveal to the world that he was not, in fact, a natural lavender.

Lai made a mental note to stop by a salon on the way home.

Even if they had no appointments for a week, that black card would free anyone’s schedule, and he had no qualms about flashing Xim’s cash.

“You need to let someone pull you up to that kind of height. In your case, Xim is your meal ticket to the top. You’re closer to being on the streets than to being independently wealthy.

Sorry, but you don’t have a hope of suddenly becoming a billionaire on your own.

The good news is that Xim wants you on her level.

Let her take you there. She isn’t doing it for malicious reasons, it’s just lonely at the top, where the only love you can guarantee is transactional.

That’s why she’s stepping down to your level for it.

The ball’s in your court, really. Are you gonna let her hitch you to her star? ”

Lai tipped the cart abruptly forward, tipping Lucy and the clothes out and watching her climb to her feet over them in the most graceless manner possible.

“Ask me again later,”she grumbled, wincing and shaking life back into her arms now that they weren’t pinned to her sides.

“I don’t understand anything right now. I mean–I love Xim, but I also love you guys, and I love the new version of me.

Besides, love isn’t my priority right now.

”She dusted off her knees before looking up at Lai, a strangely fierce expression on her face.

“And you are wrong about me not being her equal.”She smiled at her reflection, meeting Lai’s eyes in the mirror. “Xim might be rich, smart, and successful, but she isn’t a god.”

Lai resisted the urge to ram her with the cart again. Lucy’s ego was starting to be a real concern. He decided instead to use the scalpel blade of emotional damage.

“Neither are you,”he smirked, watching her puffer-fish act for the third time that day.“You can’t be a god if no one believes in you.”

“Are you saying that you don’t believe I can fix all this?”She put her hands on her hips, demanding an answer. “Or are you saying you don’t believe in me? ”

“Idon’t believe you can leave the store without tripping.”He laughed easily, avoiding the clumsy kick aimed at his shins.

“One thing at a time, Luce. Yes, you have some powers. They’re cool and all, but you are a long way away from godhood. Trust me, I’ve known a lot of gods. I mean, do you even know what your domain is?”

“Mywhat?”She blinked at him, scooping up the clothes and taking over the cart duties, pushing it towards the checkout area on the far side of the store.

“You know, your domain. Gods are gods of something. Time, death, pleasure, pirates, naps… what are you the god of?”

Lucy looked utterly stumped.

“Life and death?”She suggested meekly, flummoxed.

“Those roles are already filled, remember?You’ve met Time and Death, andhopefullyyou’ll never meet Life.

Honestly, you don’t actually want tobe one of them.

They’re all ancient deities, millennia removed from humanity.

You’re fresh meat.”He poked her side, and she made no effort to move away.

“What if I just don’t remember what I’m a god of?”She bit her lower lip, deep in thought. “Lilly said something about it, I think? That I got the power, and she got the memories.”

It was Lai’s turn to be speechless. Surely she didn’t believe that.

Lilly was sick, not a goddess; Al had told him so countless times.

It made sense that Lucy might latch onto the idea, though, in her desperation for answers.

Lai didn’t want to dismiss the possibility out of hand either.

He had been living in the manor for years, and Time had barely spared him two words, but he had humored Lucy enough to give her the moment she’d asked of him.

It hadn’t even killed her like it should have.

Lai hated it when the gods played games. They weren’t just tugging on the strings of fate; they were pulling on his hair, and Lai did not appreciate it in the slightest.

Speaking of hair...

“I’ve never met a goddess with that much regrowth, either,”the man teased. He didn’t actually care about Lucy’s hair, but he wasn’t going to draw attention to his own hair if he could embarrass her instead.

“Reckon I should bleach the roots?”She asked as he paid for their purchase and loaded the bags into the cart.

“Are you suggesting that you plan on returning every few weeks to get them touched up?”Lai smirked. “Lucy, no. We both know it’ll be eight months before you look in the mirror and realize what a mess you are.”

“It’s just hair, Lai.”She laughed, not taking offense at the teasing.

“It’s justhair? ”He shook his head in utter disappointment. “It’s like eighty percent of my personal brand. Can you imagine me with a short blond bob?”

She winced, leaning back as if smelling something rotten at the very idea.

“Exactly. Now, get your shit, we have appearances to maintain. You’re going au natural. ”

“Not full blonde?”Lucy asked, sounding surprised.

“No. You’re half of our diversity quota, and my tan technically comes from a bottle. You need to embrace your roots in more ways than one.”

◆◆◆

They loaded the bags into the car together; Lai dropped into the passenger seat and waited for Lucy to finish putting the cart away.

He held his stolen loot in his hands as he admired the cheap trinkets; two rings, and a matching pair of friendship bracelets he hadn’t noticed as he’d pocketed them.

He glanced up as Lucy flopped into the passenger seat with a groan.

“God, I could use a nap,” she smiled, her eyes narrowing as she spotted the rings.

“Same,” Lai chuckled, tugging the bracelets off the cardboard as he was struck by a bolt of inspiration. He grabbed Lucy’s wrist, ignoring her squeak of protest, and fastened one of the bracelets around it, before snapping the second half around his own.

“Look; now we’re accomplices,” he grinned at her.

“I thought these meant we were friends?”

“Same thing, really.”