Dusk Read Free

something about the virtues of small town life, but
I think she was drunk at the time.” Lucy smiled, dropping into the seat next to
her dad.
    He chuckled. “Eva doesn’t drink. Ever.”
    Lucy rolled her eyes at him. “I was joking. What’s for dinner?” she
asked, pointing to the empty plates at the table. Two of them were dirty.
    “Dinner is pizza. Which your father was kind enough to bring home,”
her mom answered, taking a plate out of the oven. “I kept a couple slices hot
for you.”
    “Oh, wow. Okay, you’re officially my hero,” Lucy said, picking up
the pizza. “God, that tastes good,” she mumbled.
    “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” her dad said.
    Lucy gave him the look of death, but he just laughed.
    “Someday your face is going to freeze like that,” her mom told
her, sitting down next to her.
    “Oh my God, you’re tag-teaming me,” Lucy complained. She sipped
her drink and shook her head at her parents. “I may have to move back to New
York.”
    Her father held up his hands. “Okay, okay, no more teasing.” He
was smiling as he spoke, so Lucy knew he wasn’t really angry. “Were you able to
pick up my new eyeglasses, Alice?” he asked her mother, clearly trying to
change the subject.
    “Yes, Hank,” her mother replied, reaching into her purse for a
package. “I already told you I had them, when you first came home. Here. They
said you need to come in so they can adjust them for you.”
    Lucy’s dad sighed, sliding his new glasses out of their case. “I
don’t have time for that.” He tried them on, checking the fit.
    Lucy concentrated on her food as her parents kept the conversation
going, only occasionally contributing a comment now and then. She was tired. Tired from work, and tired from stressing over the phone call from
Sentry Dusk. No, he said to call him Solomon, she reminded herself.
    “Are you okay, Lucy?” her mom asked, gathering the empty plates.
    “Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Lucy said, standing up and taking
the dishes from her, hoping to distract her from her question. She really didn’t
want to get into a discussion about her weird phone call.
    Her dad cocked his head. “Something happened.”
    Lucy froze with her hand half in, half out of the dishwasher. “What
makes you say that?”
    He shrugged. “You have that look. I know that look.”
    Lucy stacked the plates in the washer and turned to him. “What
look? I don’t have a look.”
    Her mother laughed. “You do. It’s the
I-stole-a-cookie-and-feel-guilty look.”
    “Oh, come on. That was just the one time,” Lucy complained,
sitting down again. “I definitely need to find my own apartment,” she muttered.
    “You only stole the cookie once, but the look lives on,” her
father stated. “So, what’s happened?”
    Lucy pursed her lips, wondering what to tell them. “You remember
how Eva met Greyson? When I got hurt early this summer?”
    Her dad sat up, his face losing its smile. “Are you okay? Those
things didn’t come back, did they?” He glanced at her mother, then turned back
to Lucy. “I didn’t see anything on the news about it. The Sentries would have
told us, wouldn’t they?”
    “No, nothing like that. I’m fine,” Lucy reassured him. She showed
him her arm. “See? Not hurt.”
    “Then what’s bothering you?” he asked, not looking entirely
convinced.
    Lucy glanced away from his clear brown eyes, wondering if hers
seemed that penetrating when she talked with people. She’d inherited both the
color and his direct way of looking at someone when she wanted to know
something.
    “You can tell us anything, you know that,” her mom offered,
leaning into her father.
    Lucy had watched them hold each other up so many times through her
childhood that their relationship seemed both completely natural, and totally
impossible for anyone else to replicate. It would be cool to meet someone I
could depend on like that, she mused.
    “Lucy?” her dad prodded.
    “I got a