Midlife Fairy Hunter: The Forty Proof Series, Book 2

by Mayer, Shannon

  I tucked the book into my bag and took a step back, drawing her with me, fighting to keep my voice even. “I will never give it to you. It was my gran’s magic that gave you and Hattie the strength to be far more than you ever could have been on your own. And Kink is a friend, and under my protection.” I was guessing here, based on a few partially forgotten conversations from my teen years, but by the way her face began to purple at the edges, my shot in the dark had hit home. My gran had led the three of them in spell casting, mostly protective spells from what I could remember. Keeping the spirits of Savannah from rising up and attacking its citizens—you know, the usual. Not that I’d been any good at it, no matter how many times they’d tried to teach me. I just didn’t have my gran’s knack for spells. “Now that Hattie’s gone, you don’t even have her to draw off. You should have tried harder to keep her alive.”

  White-hot rage leached the color from her face. I’d seen her like that before. Basically any time my gran disagreed with her. Which had happened, although not often.

  Here’s to pissing off old ladies who could kill you in your sleep. That was one thing it seemed I did have a knack for.

  Which made me think about Hattie, and how we still didn’t know why she’d wanted to call that demon.

  My distraction cost me.

  A mumbled string of words flowed off the tip of Missy’s tongue and her hand flicked at me, just an outward snap of her fingers, before I could so much as step sideways. The spell, or more likely it was a curse, sent sizzling sparkles toward me. They hit me right in the chest and sunk through my shirt in a flash. I could feel them brushing over me, but only for a moment before the necklace talisman my gran had sent me heated up against my skin, giving off a flare of light under my shirt. Missy stumbled back as her magic rebounded off that talisman.

  Go Gran!

  “Miss-ssy.” I growled her name, as if she were a bad dog. She glared at me, then slowly her glare slid into a smirk.

  “You have no idea what you’ve stepped into,” Missy stepped close and whisper-hissed at me, then shook one knobby finger right at the tip of my nose. “You aren’t your gran. Not by a long shot. You will regret ever—”

  “Sold!” The word rang out above everything else and I slumped where I stood. I’d kept Missy from buying my gran’s house, but I hadn’t been able to bid on it either.

  Missy shook her head at me. “You are still the foolish little girl who ran off all those years ago. You have no idea what you’ve done.” She spun on her heel, sending her long skirts out in a flared circle that knocked a few patches of lavender down as she made her exit. She paused at the gate and looked back, as if seeing Crash for the first time. She swung her cane and pointed it at him. “You dabble in things you’d best stay out of, boy.”

  Crash stared hard at her. “Missy, take your useless spells and go bother someone else.”

  Oh, snap! Her face closed down and she huffed her way out of the gate. Okay, now seriously, he’d been hot enough before he’d stared down my nemesis and sent her on her way. Damn. Why did the bad boys have to be so ducking good at comebacks?

  The other bidders left rapidly, but one stayed behind. Crash. Of course he was the one who’d actually made the purchase.

  He stood speaking with Monica, who alternately beamed up at him and glared at me. Of course, I’d distracted the other bidder, which meant the price hadn’t gone up as high as it could have. I hoped that Crash appreciated my contribution.

  Himself, who stood to the left of Monica the realtor, didn’t bother to hide his distaste. His eyes all but shot laser beams at me. “I want to do another auction,” he said, loud enough that I could hear.

  I made myself move closer, if for no other reason than to piss off my ex.

  Monica barely glanced at Alan as she took the paperwork from Crash, his signature clearly on it. Though his name wasn’t Crash. I leaned in to get a better look, but all I saw was a fancy G before Monica folded the papers. “Well, no, that’s not how this works. You see, everyone who placed a bid signed a contract agreeing the sale would be final if they won. We can’t have another auction—you’ve sold the house.”

  Well damn, I didn’t even get that piece of paper! There had been no chance for me then, even if the price had been right.

  “Not for what it was worth!” Himself snapped. “It didn’t go over half a million, and you promised me it would! She distracted one of the bidders on purpose!”

  I tucked my hands into my pockets and closed the distance between the small group and me. “Well, I suppose it could have gone over that, if you’d allowed everyone to bid. But you didn’t, did you?” I made one of those fake pouty faces, scrunching my lips up. “Pity you were so short-sighted. I would have paid double what he did.” I tipped my head at Crash.

  Monica’s eyes bugged out, no doubt thinking about the commission she would have had, and if I’d thought Himself couldn’t glare any harder, he was proving me wrong.

  “You don’t have any money,” Himself said.

  I opened my bag and pulled out the wad of bills. No, twenty grand wouldn’t have gotten me far, but it looked good in my hands. “You’re right, I’m totally broke.” And then I stuffed the money back in my bag.

  Monica’s face slowly went red as she turned on Himself. “You said we needed to exclude her from the bidding because she didn’t have any money!”

  Oh yeah, get him, Monica!

  I smiled and turned to Crash, my smile slipping. “Congratulations. Maybe I can swing by to . . . have tea sometime.” I didn’t want to say to see my gran, but he nodded like he understood.

  “Actually, I have to discuss a business proposition with you,” he said. “Will you come inside?”

  Monica was right up in Himself’s face now, all Southern hospitality gone as she ripped a verbal strip off him for costing her so much commission. Of course, she’d made her sale, and she was probably grateful she no longer had to walk in glass slippers with him.

  Listening to someone else berate him was like music to my ears. A symphony I would replay over and over in the wee hours of the night.

  I left Monica to it, following Crash up the stairs into Gran’s house—I would never think of it as Crash’s—and then into the kitchen. He turned to face me as he reached the butcher block counter. I slowed in the doorway and just breathed in the smell that still lingered from Gran—herbs, for the most part, but there was also a hint of her perfume.

  “I have to go on a trip,” Crash said. “I’m leaving Feish behind and I don’t want her to be alone.”

  “Afraid your slave will escape?” I bit the words out, still not for one second happy about my friend’s situation.

  Yeah, see, I hadn’t forgotten that bit about Crash. Feish—a river maid who rather resembled a fish—was, for all intents and purposes, a slave to Crash. Something I was not impressed with in the least, even if he seemed to treat her well.

  Crash didn’t so much as crack a smile. “No. She gets lonely and scared on her own. I want to know if you’ll stay here with her while I’m gone.”

  “Here? As in my gran’s house? This is your new hideout? I thought it would be an investment. You know, swindle the tourists and all that jazz.”

  He looked to the ceiling as if seeking inspiration from above. “Hardly a hideout. The place on Factors Row is done for a lot of reasons and the original owners want it back. The basement here will be my new shop.”

  I didn’t know what to say. At first I wanted to jump on the countertop and shout yes to the rooftops. Living here would get me out of Corb’s loft, and judging by his cupboard of lube, he was counting the days till I left. He was a young guy who wanted to party it up with the ladies, and despite the kiss we’d shared, I was most certainly not on his list.

  But Crash was still one of the bad guys, or bad-guy adjacent, and I was wary of deepening our connection. An image of stealing a couple of Corb’s extra lubes just in case Crash decided I was more than a pain in the ass flashed through my mind,
a little more enticing than any scenario involving Boy Butter should have been. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

  His eyes shot to Kinkly sitting on my shoulder, and she cringed as if he’d taken a swing at her. “Hanging with the fairies now? That’s dangerous for a human.”

  I shrugged, and Kinkly gave a nervous giggle with the roll of my shoulders. “I laugh in the face of danger. HA!” I smiled up at him. “I got gum out of her wings with some of Corb’s extra-slick lube, and she did my makeup. It was a good deal. Nothing more.” I was not about to tell him I’d agreed to speak to her lady friend.

  His face was a careful blank, his tone just as careful. “Extra-slick lube?”

  “No olive oil.” I shrugged again, also keeping my face blank. Let him think what he wanted. “That man has about thirty buckets of the slick stuff in his bathroom.”

  Now Crash’s lips did twitch. “No he doesn’t.”

  Kinkly stood up and shook a tiny finger at him. “I saw them, he does. I don’t know what bacon has to do with sex, but there was a lot of it . . .”

  I laughed and put a hand over my eyes. “Blinded! I’m blinded, I tell you.”

  Yeah, the more I thought about it, the more I knew I needed to get out of the loft. I’d never be able to use that bathroom without thinking of the stockpile of lube. “How long would you need me to stay?”

  “I’ll be gone a few weeks, maybe two months at the outside,” he said. I should’ve been happy I’d have Gran’s house for that long, and I was, but I also felt a little sad that I wouldn’t see him for a while. Or maybe I just missed the sight of his body wrapped up in a sheet—my usual view of him given my habit of visiting while he was asleep.

  “So two months.” I wiggled my lips, thinking. “And then when you get back?”

  “You go to wherever you go. I don’t share my home with anyone but Feish.”

  I could get my own place. Already my mind was racing ahead, trying to figure out where I’d be in two months.

  If I took the job from the lady Kinkly wanted me to see . . . maybe it would pay enough for me to get out on my own again. Well, to be fair, the money in my bag was enough, but the longer I could save it the better. As of right now it was off the books, and the creditors Himself had set on me didn’t know about it—even if he did. Damn it, I suddenly wished I hadn’t flashed the money at him. Because if it was up to me, the creditors wouldn’t. I needed to find a way to foist the debt back onto him, that’s what I needed.

  I looked around the kitchen. Would two months be long enough for me to find whatever Gran had hidden? It would have to be because there was no way I could afford this place, and now that Crash had it, there was no way he’d sell it to me. Would he?

  “You want to sell me the house?” I had to try.

  “No.” His lips twitched as he leaned forward, closing the distance between us. Kinkly squeaked and flew away, perching on top of the oven range hood. I held my ground even as the air between us heated up in a most pleasant and uncomfortable way.

  His eyes dipped to my lips, and I couldn’t help the way my breathing hitched. “Don’t,” I said.

  “Don’t what?” The smile curving his mouth said he knew exactly what I was talking about.

  I leaned into him. “Don’t think I’d give you my body for the house.”

  His eyes popped wide and I barked a laugh as the words kept coming, my filter broken and my ducks no longer in a row but quacking away like mad. “Kidding. I’m kidding. I’d totally do you for the house.”

  Crash stared at me, his eyes crinkling at the edges as if he were fighting back a smile. “I don’t know what to make of you.”

  “There’s a club for that, monthly fees, and a T-shirt if they have any left.” I smiled, a tiny wave of nefarious giggles threatening to break free. Broken filters were fun, especially around those who didn’t realize you were done caring what anyone else thought. I mean, it wasn’t like I could impress him either way. So why not just have fun with it?

  He didn’t step back, and he seemed to be at a loss for words. I sighed.

  “Deal. I’ll stay here for two months.”

  He held out his hand and we shook on it, which in the shadow world was as binding as any contract.

  The problem? Part of me feared I’d jumped into poop creek without a paddle or a life preserver.

  4

  “Please, please come to see the lady now?” Kinkly whispered as she flew around my head while I walked away from Gran’s house. The heat of the day was coming on strong, and the weight of the pollen in the air was a palpable thing.

  I weighed my options. The job might be a bad one, but I had promised Kinkly I’d at least talk to the lady, plus I still had hours left before I was supposed to show up for training with Eammon and the other mentors at the Hollows Group.

  “Where is she?” I asked.

  “Follow me!” Kinkly shot out ahead of me, and I did as she asked. She was easy to spot amongst the tourists and locals who ambled along the streets. No one was in a hurry, and no one so much as looked at her. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Someone took a swing at her as they yelped “big ass bugs,” and then she was gone in a burst of orange light, fluttering near a tree. She was leading me south through downtown Savannah, a meandering route that took us past a few of the squares, plus the infamous Hanging Tree. The demon that lived there had caused enough problems for the human world to take notice.

  “Don’t get too close,” she whispered, zipping back to me to sit on my shoulder. “He’s a right prick.”

  I skirted the large tree as a tour group paused in front of it, the guide explaining how it had earned its reputation. Picking up my pace, I hurried past the twisted up Hanging Tree, caught a glimpse of eyes watching me from the branches above and then jerked my gaze away. From the book of Gran:

  Do not make eye contact with a demon. They can pull your deepest desires from you.

  I didn’t dare run—that was another no-no—but I kept my pace brisk and took note when Kinkly left my shoulder. “Why did you take us that way if you don’t like the tree?”

  She twisted around in the air in front of me. “What?”

  My eyes narrowed with irritation as I caught on to what she was doing. See, that’s the thing. I’d lived with a master manipulator for years, and Himself was a lawyer, so he knew how to screw someone over and make it legal. I could pick up when people were testing me. “Wait, you wanted to see how I’d react to a demon?”

  Her wings picked up speed. “Come on, we need to be there when the sun is highest in the sky. Hurry please!”

  I refused to do more than a fast walk if that was how she was going to be, dragging me around past demon-possessed trees!

  “Why? What are you worried about?” I said, slowing even further.

  “I . . .” She tipped her head from side to side, agitation clear on her tiny features. “The lady wanted to make sure you are not attached to a demon. We heard a rumor that you killed one. If that were true, it could have meant that you were in fact working with another one. Killing demons is no small thing, and you’re just a human.”

  She wasn’t wrong about that last piece. I crinkled up my nose and wiped a bit of sweat off my forehead. “Fine. I get it, you don’t want to trust my word. I know that’s how the shadow world works.” Didn’t mean I had to like it. I swiped at my brow again.

  Spring it might be, but warm it certainly was . . . only . . . I glanced up at the sky as the light around us suddenly dimmed. Well, damn it. The air tightened around us, the deepening humidity a sign of an oncoming storm that I hadn’t anticipated. When I picked up the pace after all, Kinkly smirked at me. But it was too late—as I followed her on a merry chase, running much more adeptly than I would have a few weeks ago, the sky opened up before we reached our destination. Tourists scattered, but I kept running, the rain soaking me through in a matter of seconds. I might as well have walked into a waterfall. I shaded my face with one hand. “Kinkly, how much further?”


  The fairy zipped this way and that and I realized she was dodging the drops of water as they fell from the sky. “The fountain!”

  I blinked through the water streaming over my eyes. She’d led me to Forsyth Park. The most stunning of all the Savannah squares, it was full of flowers nearly year round, perfectly groomed with a massive fountain not quite in the middle of it. A fountain that was the draw for every person who went to the park. Which meant I must have heard her wrong. “What?”

  “Into the fountain, the way will open!” She zipped forward through the rain, diving under the first swell of water that rushed over the fountain, and then she was gone, completely out of sight.

  Standing at the edge of the fountain, I looked over the rim to the water. The piece itself was two-tiered, with a large statue on top. The water that poured over it was heavier than usual with the addition of the rain, making a perfect curtain, not unlike that waterfall I was considering earlier.

  Sighing, I hopped over the black wrought iron fence, and let myself down into the pool of water at the base of the fountain.

  I hissed as the cold water filled my shoes and slid up my legs to mid-calf. Sloshing forward, I headed straight for the base of the fountain, which I couldn’t see anymore under the torrent of water.

  The smell of honey and fresh bread wrapped around me and tugged me forward the last couple of steps. The water parted around me rather than soaking me, and I blinked as I stepped into a place that could not possibly exist. It just couldn’t.

  A meadow spilled out in front of me, extending literally as far as I could see, with soft rolling green hills dotted with a myriad of wildflowers. Warm air rolled over me, and my clothing and hair instantly dried. A few smaller animals bounded and played among the long grass and flowers, but I saw nothing larger than a few bunnies and some songbirds dipping through the air, calling to one another. I did a slow turn and saw a fountain identical to the one I’d left behind. “That’s the in and out?” I asked.

  According to Gran’s book, there was always a doorway in and out of Faerie—or what the average person would call fairy land. Looked like the fountain was the way station for this place. Of course it was, I was being an idiot and getting stuck on the in and out because I was having a hard time believing I wasn’t asleep and having a seriously wild dream.