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“Because their threshold for being jerks is very high.” He chuckles. “You okay?”
I nod.
He nods in return and lets his touch slip from me. “Then I am going to sleep. If possible, turn your sister’s volume down so it’s easier.” With that, he puppy shifts and curls up on the pillow, tucking his nose against his feeties and closing his eyes.
“I think he hates me,” Alana notes in a carefree way that suggests being hated for her isn’t crippling. Even if she’s hated by a creature that opens up the kind of world she’s been obsessed with for as long as my broken memories serve. I wish I had a fraction of her confidence, but I suppose she stole all of it in the womb, just like she stole most of the toner, leaving me with lighter hair and eyes.
“He doesn’t hate you. He’s just tired. It’s been a really long day and a half.”
She hums. Then a wild grin pours over her face. Popping up, she grabs my hand.
“Wha—”
She pins a finger to her lips, so I hush. It’s in the sister code—when one sister shushes, you shush. Even though I swear we’ve not shushed one another since we were fourteen. Dragging me out of our bedroom, she tumbles us down the stairs and into the kitchen, where she goes to town collecting things.
Some fruit.
A little container of brown sugar.
Several cookies.
A mason jar of cream.
“What are you doing?” I ask as she packs it all up in one of Mom’s Trader Joe’s bags.
“Faeries exist, B. Clearly, you can see them. If your faerie is sleepy, let’s go find others.”
Alana’s capacity for seeing a bigger picture somewhat astounds me. Gaping as she grabs my hand and drags me out to her car, I stammer, “Is that…safe?”
“If faeries are all around and they haven’t hurt us, why would they hurt us now when we know about them and are being nice?” She starts up the engine, zipping out of the driveway before I get my seat belt on. “I’m bringing gifts for a reason. Faerie lore. If you give a faerie a gift, they have to give you one back. Usually, they try to top your gift, too.”
“You know he deflected your question about evil faerie princes, right?”
Alana pushes her glasses up her nose. “Nope. Half the conversation felt like a wicked bout of dissociation. I could barely follow.”
“Well.” I clasp my hands together in my lap. “He deflected. Which probably means there are evil faerie princes.”
Alana’s crazy eyes spark. “This day just keeps getting better and better.”
Chapter 14
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A first taste of danger. Plus obligatory burritos.
“Zy made me call you back.” Willow’s voice drones through the line, incredibly despondent, and a cat mews. “Not all of us are polite, sir. I hate phone calls. I’m not going to pretend I don’t hate phone calls. That doesn’t mean I hate her. I just have feelings concerning the medium with which she has elected to contact me.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Her tone shifts, giddier, wickeder. “So…what’s this about going faerie hunting with your sister? Am I meant to assume things concerning you and your pupparino have shifted?”
Alana’s smile widens as she glances at me and gets in a turning lane.
I have no idea where she’s going.
But I am scared.
“I…uh…well. I guess so? Something happened, so I know a bit more about the situation, concerning how Ollie is Oxford and a werecanine.”
