Kaasha stopped walking, cocked her head at him. “Mine and mine alone, Lando?”
“Yours and yours alone, Kaasha. If you will let down your guard and have me.”
Kaasha’s lips stayed tight but Lando could see the smile in her eyes. They fell back into that easy stroll, the market alive with fresh-cooked meat and some gentle melody around them. “We can try,” Kaasha said, her fingers interlacing with Lando’s. “We can try.”
“Trying is all I ask,” Lando said. “Oh, come this way.”
“Where we going?”
He led them around a corner, reached into his pocket as they approached the old Toydarian.
“Ahaha!” Poppy Delu cackled as they walked up. “I was waiting for you!”
“Were you now?” Lando said.
“Not you, thief!” Poppy snapped. “The woman!”
Kaasha blinked. “Oh?”
“I’ve been waiting my whole life for you!”
Kaasha rolled her eyes. “Oh.”
“I kid! I make the joke! Aha! Now you!” He directed a pointed gaze at Lando.
Lando handed over the sack of fichas with a smile and a bow. “My humble apologies.”
Poppy took them. “Ah…it’s all right. The good thing about being a diviner is once I realized they were gone, I knew you’d bring ’em back, so…couldn’t be that mad. And anyway, you put ’em to good use, I presume? The fichas don’t like everybody, you know.”
“Oh, I did,” Lando said.
Poppy cast a serious gaze at Lando and Kaasha, nodded. “I see you have stepped out of the useless mire of neutrality,” the old Toydarian mused. “Now that I have my fichas back, you want to place a bet and find out your destiny?”
Lando shook his head and chuckled. “Thanks, but that’s all right.” He wrapped his arm through Kaasha’s, and they fell back into their easy stroll through the market. “We’re going to figure it out together.”
En cariñoso recuerdo de Carmen Gonzalez, whom I will always remember in her secret science fiction library in that tower by the sea in Havana
BY DANIEL JOSÉ OLDER
THE SHADOWSHAPER CYPHER
Shadowshaper
Ghost Girl in the Corner (novella)
Dead Light March (novella)
Shadowhouse Fall
BONE STREET RUMBA
Half-Resurrection Blues
Midnight Taxi Tango
Salsa Nocturna
Battle Hill Bolero
DACTYL HILL SQUAD
Dactyl Hill Squad
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DANIEL JOSÉ OLDER is the New York Times bestselling author of the young adult series The Shadowshaper Cypher, the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, and the middle-grade historical fantasy Dactyl Hill Squad. He won the International Latino Book Award and has been nominated for the Kirkus Prize, the Mythopoeic Award, the Locus Award, the Andre Norton Award, and the World Fantasy Award. Shadowshaper was named one of Esquire’s 80 Books Every Person Should Read. You can find his thoughts on writing, read dispatches from his decade-long career as an NYC paramedic, and hear his music at danieljoseolder.net, on YouTube, and @djolder on Twitter.
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