It had been a while since finders had come to town, and their arrival always began with hope, and ended with disappointment. Finders were endlessly searching out objects that crossed into Everlost, bartering and trading the items they found for things of greater value. But nothing much crossed here. The finders usually left with a sneer and didn’t come back.

“Sorry,” Dinah said to the two, as they got off their horse. “We don’t have much to trade. Just this.” And she held out a shoelace.

The boy laughed. “The lace crossed, but not the shoe that went with it?”

Dinah shrugged. She expected this reaction. “It’s what we’ve got. If you want it, then give us something in return. If not, then leave.” She looked over at the girl, daring to ask what the younger kids in her care were too afraid to ask. “You have a name?”

The girl smiled. “If you want my name, it’ll cost you a shoelace.”

Dinah pulled the shoelace back, shoving it in her pocket. “A name’s not even worth that much here. It’s probably made up anyway, like everyone else’s.”

The girl finder grinned again. “I think I have something to trade for the lace.” Then she reached into a saddlebag and pulled out a shimmering ornament that said Baby’s first Christmas.

All the younger kids oohed and ahhed, but Dinah kept her stony expression. “That’s worth more than a shoelace. And finders don’t just give things away.”

“Consider it a gift of good will,” the girl said, “from Allie the Outcast.”

This was the moment Allie loved most. The gasps, and the expressions on their faces. Some would believe she was who she claimed to be, others would have their doubts, but by the time she left, they would all believe—because it was true, and she liked to believe that truth did make itself clear in the end.

The young Afterlights, who had been so standoffish just a moment ago, now crowded around her, bombarding her with questions.

“You’re Allie the Outcast?”

“Is it true you can skinjack?”

“Is it true you spit in the face of the Sky Witch?”

“Is it true you charmed the McGill like a snake?”

She glanced at Mikey, who was not at all amused.

“I admit nothing,” Allie said with a smirk, which just made them believe it all the more.

Dinah, however was only partially convinced. “All right, if you are who you say you are, then let’s see you skinjack.” The kids all voiced their nervous approval of the suggestion. “Go on—there’s plenty of fleshies around.” Allie looked around them, and sure enough the moving blurs of the living swept by them on the street, so easy to tune out when one wasn’t looking.

“I’m not a circus act,” Allie said sternly. “I don’t perform on command.”