Free The Lostkind by Matt Stephens Page B

as we will. But we stay invisible."
    "Go places without windows?" Vincent smirked.
    "Oh no, plenty of windows, but we're usually on the other side of them." Yasi shrugged, answering the question honestly. Vincent suddenly realized that she wasn't wearing an overcoat. The cold didn't seem to touch her at all. Yasi looked back to the window. "Sometimes on clear nights, I walk out by the river. When the air is still, the water reflects the city like a mirror. The reflection turns the city lights upside down, like the towers are reaching down instead of up."
    "Reminds you of home?" Vincent quipped.
    "You've seen it. My home is like a domed honeycomb. One thing I don't have is a skyline."
    Vincent came over to the window, sat down next to her. The streetlight outside struggled mightily to shine through the slush and sleet that was riding the howling winds. "Wotcha says that people who come to your world from above, choose names for themselves when they get there. Your name isn't a profession, so I'm guessing you were born Below."
    Yasi nodded. "I remember the first time I came to the City. First time I ever saw the sky. It was beautiful."
    "How old were you?"
    "Six or seven. We've got lights and lamps for UV, so we're not… allergic to the sun. The first thing any child of the Lostkind is taught, even before we learn to read or do sums… We learn to be invisible. To come and go without being caught. For all that, it would only take one person with their eyes open."
    "You told me that once." Vincent said. "I've had my eyes open ever since."
    Yasi turned away from the window enough to glance at him from the corner of her eye. "Yeah. Yeah you have."
    It was a sincere compliment. She seemed awkward about it. Vincent was suddenly quite certain that Yasi had never had a conversation that lasted this long with someone that was not already a part of her world.
    "Lostkind are talking about you." Yasi said finally, as if to water down what she had said a moment before. "They have places to go when the cold snap comes, but... most of the Homeless in this town aren't us. We can't take in everyone; because sooner or later word would get out about us, but... We try to help where we can, y'know?"
    "Yeah. Yeah I do." Vincent agreed.
    The lights went out. The streetlight too; and with it the whole street. For a moment, the wind was the only thing they could hear in the pitch black. It seemed to strengthen as it howled defiantly, exulting in the powerless reality of the city.
    After a moment, there was a gentle clicking sound, and Vincent's face was bathed in a light blue glow from the lantern.
    "You've still got that?" Yasi seemed surprised.
    "Of course." Vincent said with a smile. "It's a memento of a place I will never forget."
    Yasi just turned back to the window. For a moment, Vincent wondered if she was laughing at him. "We use them all over the place." She said. "They get made out of scraps, and metal that gets polished up to look new, and… We go through about thirty of them a year. They're so… disposable. Replaceable."
    "Really?" Vincent asked in surprise. There hadn't been a day in the last year that he hadn't looked at the lantern and wondered about it, thought about the place. And now it seemed he was idolizing a light-bulb.
    They sat silently for a while till Vincent noticed the takeout still sitting on his table. The cold was creeping in through gaps that he'd never known were there, and he knew the food would likely be getting cold quickly. "Stay for dinner? Looks like you brought enough for two; and if you're not in a hurry to be somewhere…"
    Yasi hesitated. "I… I'd like to, but I'm not…"
    "Yasi, if I'm not going to send strangers out into a storm like this, you think I'm going to let you go?"
    Yasi glanced at the takeout and bit her lip.
    "Will you even make it home?" Vincent asked. "The last thing I heard from the weather report suggested it's time to start buying survival gear."
    Yasi grinned. "Worried about me?"
    "I