\u201cI,\u201d Linus explains proudly, \u201cam now a student<\/i> at the Lethal Magnet Academy for Wayward Youth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou? Wayward?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d says Linus. He brushes imaginary crumbs off of his waistcoat. \u201cBut the truth is, I need an education.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t you just,\u201d and Edmund makes a vaguely magical gesture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatch,\u201d Linus says.<\/p>\n
Linus\u2019 black dog appears. It pants. It attempts to instruct them in geometry. It fails.<\/p>\n
Edmund blinks and it\u2019s gone again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see,\u201d Edmund says, because he does.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since Tom,\u201d says Linus. He hesitates. Then he smiles a little. \u201cWell, it struck me. I mean, what if someone cleans the Devil out of me someday? Don\u2019t I need to be ready for an ordinary life? What if I wind up wanting \u2014 you know \u2014 kids, marriage, a career, all that stuff?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDang,\u201d says Edmund. \u201cBeing shuffled through an endless series of foster homes has done you some serious good, man.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHa ha,\u201d laughs Linus.<\/p>\n
It should be embarrassed laughter. Edmund clearly thinks that Linus has been doing something normal and proper and civilized, like shuffling through a series of increasingly baroque and terrifying foster homes, when in fact he\u2019s been living in a bloody box \u2014<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not<\/i> embarrassed laughter. It should be, but it isn\u2019t. Edmund\u2019s here. He\u2019s found Edmund.<\/i><\/p>\n
The laugh\u2019s just joy.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s go get a drink,\u201d Edmund says.<\/p>\n
\u201cPardon?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a bar!\u201d Edmund says. \u201cThey\u2019re not allowed to serve us, but we\u2019re totally allowed to steal drinks. I mean, \u2018allowed.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEdmund,\u201d says Linus in a tone of pleased shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cOr coffee?\u201d<\/p>\n
Edmund spots Peter across the way. He waves vigorously. \u201cOi! Peter!\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter squints at them. He comes over.<\/p>\n
He stares rudely at Linus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my mate Linus,\u201d says Edmund. He beams. \u201cHim and me, we used to hang all the fucking time.<\/i> Fought Venusians and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh,\u201d says Peter, in sudden fury, \u201cso that\u2019s<\/i> how it is, is it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d says Linus.<\/p>\n
Linus draws back a bit from Peter\u2019s glare. He blushes.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust, spit, spot, off and he\u2019s making some other<\/i> kid the antichrist? Is that all I was to him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Linus Evans, it must be admitted, was the Devil\u2019s second choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen,\u201d says Peter. He juts his chin. \u201cYou can just tell him that I don\u2019t care. <\/i>I didn\u2019t want <\/i>the job. That\u2019s why I punched him! I am only in this to smoosh scissors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTell who?\u201d Linus says, bewildered.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, yeah,\u201d Edmund remembers. \u201cPeter knows the Devil too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBloody bastard thinks I care,\u201d says Peter. \u201cWell, I don\u2019t care! He can run around doing his Devil stuff with whomever he wants! I\u2019m a good, church-fearing Christian. Going. Church-going. <\/i>Dang it. Fudge.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
He snorts, turns his head away from Linus, and he stomps off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess,\u201d says Linus, scratching his ear, \u201cthat he doesn\u2019t care about the Devil.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on,\u201d Edmund says.<\/p>\n
There are ornamental statuary angels scattered through the Lethal Magnet School\u2019s grounds. They are much like ordinary statuary angels but they are branded Lethal <\/i>and have this look in their eyes like if there were any wolves there, they\u2019d want to kill them.<\/p>\n
Peter is kicking one of them, hard, over and over again, in the leg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI,\u201d Linus explains proudly, \u201cam now a student at the Lethal Magnet Academy for Wayward Youth.\u201d \u201cYou? Wayward?\u201d \u201cI know,\u201d says Linus. He brushes imaginary crumbs off of his waistcoat. \u201cBut the truth is, I need an education.\u201d \u201cCan\u2019t you just,\u201d and Edmund makes a vaguely magical gesture. \u201cWatch,\u201d Linus says. Linus\u2019 black dog appears. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"series":[47],"class_list":["post-4979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chapter-1","series-the-storm-that-saw-itself"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Square-Linus.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4979"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6179,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4979\/revisions\/6179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4979"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=4979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}