Neon Blue E Frost (speld decodable readers .TXT) 📖

noswaith lawen. I’m really sorry. I didn’t think we’d be gone so long.”

The Squire inclines his head and hands me my bulging backpack. Then he draws a circle in the air.

“Oh, that. Look, I really appreciate your offer, but I don’t want to impose. You don’t have to—”

He stiffens. I gulp back the rest of what I was going to say. He is very traditional, and I’ve probably just done something heinous like call his honor into question.

“Uh, sorry.”

He twists in the saddle, a very un-fae-like movement, and points at the rising sun. He traces a path across the sky with his finger, then taps his chest and points at me.

It takes me a minute, but then I get it. “You want me to wait until tonight?”

He nods.

“But it’s still noswaith lawen. I don’t want to make you miss two nights in a row. Gwyn ap Nudd might not like it—”

He hisses. The first noise I’ve ever heard him make. I swallow hard. Maybe that’s not a name I’m supposed to know. Or speak aloud.

“Sorry. I’m sorry. You’ll be back tonight?”

He nods.

I stammer while I try to avoid thanking him directly. It can be dangerous to thank the fae. “Y-you don’t have to do this. It’s not part of our deal. But I’m really, really grateful—”

He reaches into the cuff of his gauntlet for a moment, plucks something off his sleeve, then holds it out to me. I reach up and he drops something into my hand.

It’s a button. A beautiful button. In the shape of a flower. Each petal is inlaid with a gem: ruby, citrine, yellow sapphire, emerald, amethyst. At the center of the flower winks a diamond. It’s the most exquisite, and probably the most expensive, thing I’ve ever touched.

I didn’t know the fae even had buttons.

The Squire taps his left breast. Over his heart. I nod. It’s a charm and I know how to use charms. “I’ll wear it until you come tonight.”

He shakes his head and closes his hand into a fist.

“I don’t—”

He points at the button and then at me.

“It’s for me?” I squeak. It’s probably worth more than my house. “I can’t—” I shut my mouth abruptly, because it’s an extremely bad idea to refuse a gift from the fae. I gather my brain and drop into a curtsey. “I’m honored.”

That seems to satisfy him. He gives me the mounted bow he always gives me at the end of our evenings. I look away, because Liliiwhite’s told me I shouldn’t watch when he goes. A rush of cold air rustles the fallen leaves on the sidewalk behind me. And he’s gone.

Slowly, I walk up the steps of my house, clutching his button in my hand.

Chapter 10

I string the button on a silver chain and wear it under my shirt. It’s cold against my skin, and even after I’ve worn it for an hour, it doesn’t warm up. Maybe it’s the faerie dust I’ve sprinkled over it to make it look like a plain silver heart. So it doesn’t attract the attention of every mugger and junkie in Boston.

Lin spots it immediately. “New charm?” she asks when I bring her a cup of amaretto crème.

“Sort of. I thought you didn’t have the Sight.”

“I don’t.”

“Right. What kind of dragon was your great-grandfather again?”

Lin snorts into her coffee. “None of your business.”

“Yeah.” I know, actually. It was her great-great-great-great-grandfather and he was a huanglong. She told me back when we first began doing sessions together. After I admitted what had driven me into therapy, and then to medication, and then to acupuncture. “Look, we may have an issue—”

“An issue?” She glances up sharply. “Like the issue with the bird?”

I wrinkle my nose at her. “That wasn’t actually an issue.”

“No, it was a deranged crow that sat outside the clinic for a month croaking ‘Nevermore.’”

“That’s Poe.” I give her a wry grin. “It didn’t talk.”

It did sit outside the clinic for about a month, though. And it did make a lot of noise. I never could figure out what it wanted. At first I thought I’d finally attracted a familiar. But it wouldn’t let me get near it. It just watched me. And croaked. And occasionally tried to crap on me.

Stupid bird.

“Close enough,” Lin says. “Anyway, define issue.”

“I think a ghost is trying to talk to me.”

“Oh, that kind of issue.” Her words are mild but she looks horrified. Chinese ghosts can be aggressive, and quite pissy, so I can’t really blame her.

“She appeared at my house yesterday.”

Lin’s eyebrows shoot up so high they disappear into her bangs. “Could she appear here?”

“Maybe.” I wince at Lin’s expression. “I’ve warded the offices again. That’s why I was in early this morning.”

“You call eight-forty early?”

“Hey, I didn’t see you in the Blue Ridge Mountains last night gathering bloodwort for the magic milk until daybreak.”

Lin’s almond eyes widen. “Were you really? How the hell did you get there?”

Shit. I didn’t mean to give that away. “You don’t want to know. Anyway, I thought I’d warn you that we might have an issue—”

“I hate your issues, you know that?”

She doesn’t. Not really. I hope. “Everyone has issues.”

“Evonne has issues with the copy machine. Ruth has issues with Friday afternoon-itis.” That’s true. Our nurse does seem to develop a migraine or P.M.S. or some other reason that she has to leave early every Friday afternoon. “Your issues—”

Are complicated. And usually can’t be solved by calling the copier repairman or taking a prescription-strength painkiller. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Listen, I’m doing you a favor. I could have just let the ghost show up and then told you.”

Lin rolls her eyes. “Thanks loads. So how long are we going to have this issue?”

“I’m going to try to channel her tonight. Hopefully once she says what she has to say, that will be it.”

Or I’ll be haunted. Not the option I’d prefer, really.

Lin’s no dummy. “And if that’s not it?”

“You mind if we cross that bridge when we come to it?”

She shakes her head.