Victories by Mercedes Lackey Read Free Book Online Page A

matter what her friends thought, they were all willing to try.
    “So,” Spirit said, turning to Vivian. “How do we … let them find us?”
    *   *   *
    “We’ve got about an hour before we meet up with Vivian,” Burke said, stopping the van in the parking lot. Spirit resisted the urge to look around for danger as she got out. She knew she wouldn’t see the Shadow Knights coming: Shadewalkers and Illusionists could both make themselves pretty much invisible. If Breakthrough found them, they were toast.
    “Vivian said to meet her at the Bess Streeter Aldrich House and Museum,” Loch said, waving the map Vivian had given them. “Anybody know who she is? Or, more likely, was?”
    “Somebody famous enough to have a museum,” Addie said wearily.
    “This is Elmwood, Nebraska,” Loch said. “How much is that saying?”
    Burke snorted. “Come on. I’m hoping I can find a pair of shoes—and maybe some real pants. This just looks weird,” he said, gesturing at the dress shoes he was wearing with his sweatpants. There hadn’t been much at the silo in his size—at least the rest of them had sneakers.
    It seemed bizarrely anticlimactic to take time out from worrying about the fate of the world to go shopping, but Vivian had pointed out that the more they moved around, the more likely it was they’d manage to run into the Hallows. And she said she wanted to see what she could find out about Breakthrough and Radial using someone else’s ISP, which meant a trip to the local library or some other WiFi hotspot.
    “And I’d like to find something that makes me look less like a Hallmark Christmas Special,” Addie said, wrinkling her nose.
    “Or a very special episode of What Not To Wear, ” Loch said helpfully.
    Spirit met Addie’s gaze. Underwear, she mouthed silently, and Addie nodded vigorously. “Hey, we’ve got fifty bucks,” she said, striving to sound cheerful. “We can come up with whole wardrobes for that—and besides, I can sew, remember?”
    “And whatever it is, it won’t be gold, brown, or cream,” Addie said feelingly.
    *   *   *
    Addie and Loch looked completely baffled as they followed Spirit and Burke through the store. Well why not? Spirit thought. Addie’s heir to a billion-dollar pharmaceutical company. Loch’s father did something that left Loch with a fat trust fund. She doubted either one had seen the inside of a Goodwill Store—or any other thrift shop—in their lives, while the White family had shopped at them as a matter of course.
    Taking pity on them, she led Loch and Burke to the racks of men’s clothing. There weren’t any jeans in Burke’s size, but there were a pair of work pants in good condition. The real find was work boots in his size. They were battered and worn, but they’d certainly last as long as …
    … as long as we have to live if we don’t win, Spirit thought. Every time she managed to stop thinking about Mordred and the Apocalypse, something happened to remind her.
    She left Loch and Burke browsing through shirts and went off with Addie.
    “You’re really good at this,” Addie said, watching Spirit swiftly sort an entire box of underwear into two piles: possible purchases and totally hopeless.
    “Not everybody’s born rich,” Spirit said absently. A moment later she heard her own words and turned to Addie in horror. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean—”
    Addie smiled ruefully. “It’s okay. Really. I know I’ve led a pretty sheltered life. The way Oakhurst was run—not the magic and the craziness, but the uniforms and the rules about what you could have—covered up a lot of the distinctions between—”
    “The haves and the have-nots?” Spirit asked with a smile.
    “The haves and the have-even-mores,” Addie corrected. “In my old life, I would never even have met someone like Loch, or—” she broke off suddenly, her face twisting with grief. “Or Muirin,” she whispered. “I would never have met