by Brey Willows
Chapter Seven
For sale: things you wouldn’t believe, for those who need them. If you need access to other worlds or specialty items once you’re there, I’m your person. Note: time travel implements not available. Don’t ask. Contact: dreamseller66
Maggie had spent the rest of the day after her time with Old Canker reading the book and writing down questions. Apparently, Maggie opening the door and seeing the other world had somehow loosened up some of the book’s pages. The book actually provided some good information, though some was a little too vague to be useful. It explained, as Brenda had started to, how the fairy tale land was segmented into sectors, each dedicated to the region the fairy tale originated from. And then within those sectors it was segmented farther depending on the era and type of creatures from the tale. There was a whole city of jinn in the Arabian sector and a forest of ogres in the Southern sector.
Most interesting was the Common sector, an area in the middle where the different sectors came together to sell and trade with one another. She loved the image that gave her—color, light, magic. Creatures of every size and shape. She couldn’t wait to see it. At times, she read pieces out loud and voiced her questions, but Blech stayed in his cat form. Apparently, he was done talking for a while, and that was okay. She liked reading and learning, developing questions and trying to form her own answers.
One strange and somewhat frustrating aspect of the book was that she couldn’t skip ahead. If she tried, the pages remained stuck together in a block. The book had counseled patience, and she didn’t have much choice in the matter. When she’d gotten to the last page she was allowed to turn, she’d gone upstairs and pulled down a book of Grimm’s fairy tales, a copy so old it looked like it might be an original. She turned the pages carefully, reading about dark, often gruesome, things happening to any number of adults and children, before she crawled into bed, exhausted from the amount of study and information.
Her sleep was perfectly calm, and there were no nightmares or disturbing images left with her when she woke. She took her time getting dressed, thinking about what to do next. In a way she was glad it had turned out the cottage was way more complex than she’d thought. If she had nothing to do all day but make sure it was in good condition she would have gone stir-crazy.
Coffee was made again when she came downstairs, but this time Shamus sat on the barstool, the newspaper under his paws. He looked up, half cut reading glasses perched on his little nose. “Have you always read the personal ads?”
Maggie bit the inside of her lip, trying hard not to smile at the adorable picture he made. He probably wouldn’t appreciate the fact that she wanted to squish him and rub his head. “There’s something about them that’s always intrigued me. Kind of a voyeuristic insight into people’s lives.”
He nodded, looking as thoughtful as a cat in glasses could, and folded the newspaper in half. “I think we need to go see the shepherd.”
She looked at the newspaper under his paws. “Why? Did you find something?”
“I’d appreciate it if you would carry me. Perhaps your backpack would be suitable. I’m likely to get stepped on in the subway.” He jumped down from the stool and went to sit in front of the fireplace.
“Not answering someone’s question is rude, you know.”
“Answering questions you don’t have answers to is folly and bound to lead to incorrect assumptions.” He spoke without turning around, his tone reproachful. “Don’t forget to put the hag stone in your pocket.”
Feeling like she’d lose an argument with her cat and not ready for that particular experience just yet, Maggie stuck her tongue out at his back and then made herself toast slathered with cream cheese. She looked at the personal ads while she ate, trying to see whatever it was Shamus had spotted, but nothing jumped out at her as unusual. These things were always slightly off the wall. She licked the cream cheese from her fingertips and cleared up. She picked up the stone from her parents, assuming that was what he meant by “hag stone.” It was sitting on the kitchen windowsill, the little bone white veins glittering in the sun. It was warm in her palm and the weight of it comforting in her pocket.
When she turned around, Blech was perched on the back of the sofa, waiting. “Let me grab my bag.” She ran upstairs, opened her backpack, and tucked a towel in the bottom of it so Blech could sit comfortably. She came down and set it beside him on the couch so he could climb in on his own. “It’s not that different from the cat carrier, you know. You didn’t have to make that so difficult.” She zipped up the sides, leaving a hole for his head to poke through at the top, and then carefully put it on her back.
She’d never traveled on the subway with an animal before, and she was extra aware of the jostling as she got on and off the train. When she got off at City Hall, she stopped to turn the backpack around so it sat over her chest. That way she could cradle it and keep Blech from getting bumped. He stuck his head out of the hole and licked her chin before dropping back inside.
When she got to Kody’s building she nodded at the receptionist, who nodded back, though his expression looked less than welcoming this time. In the elevator she whispered to Blech, “I think something’s wrong.”
His head popped out of the backpack and he squirmed until he was facing the doors. When they opened, thumping bass sounded through the door and he hissed softly.
The door was cracked open, and, still cradling Blech in the backpack, she pushed it open with her foot.
The living room was a mess of bottles, food, and discarded clothing. “It looks like a frat house.” Maggie stepped over the rubbish and discards to get to the stereo so she could turn it off. In the silence she could hear the rustle of sheets from the bedroom.
“Hello? Kody?” Maggie turned that direction but didn’t want to intrude. Not really. But she was also curious. The woman she’d met the day before yesterday had seemed in control, if a little unorthodox. This didn’t look like the living space of someone in a good place.
When she got to the bedroom, heat flared through her face, and she stumbled back. There were at least three very womanly shapes in the king-size bed. She turned to rush from the apartment but was met by Kody coming out of the front bathroom, toweling her hair.
She stopped and grimaced when she looked around the apartment. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting guests.” Her eyes were bloodshot and her skin pale.
“No, I guess not. Or, at least not this particular guest. Looks like you’ve already got a few.” Maggie inclined her head toward the bedroom, still embarrassed by what she’d walked in on, but equally irked that while she’d been trying to figure out her upside-down life, Kody had been partying like a rock star. But then, she had told her to go away. Who was she to judge?
“Yeah…” Kody shrugged, her lips lifting in a half smirk. “It was a good night. I think. I don’t remember much of it, really.” She shrugged and reached out to pet Blech, who nipped at her fingers. “Judgmental, much?”
Murmurs came from the bedroom, and Kody’s face turned pink. “Maybe we should go somewhere and talk?”
Maggie couldn’t think of anything better than getting out of there before Kody’s “guests” woke up. “Allegro?”
“Perfect.”
Maggie went back to the elevator to wait, unwilling to see the kind of woman, or women, Kody liked in her bed. She had a feeling none of them would be extra tall red headed fairies. Not that I want to be in her bed. This is professional. She looked down at Blech, who stared up at her. “Shut up.”
Kody closed her apartment door behind her and quickly punched the ground floor button. “Sorry about that. Needed to let off some steam.”
Maggie wasn’t sure what to say, so she didn’t say anything. Silently, they walked to Allegro and Maggie ordered a Death Cream, a thick coffee with extra sweet vanilla cream. Kody ordered black coffee and a blueberry muffin, and at the last second, Maggie ordered a glass of milk for Blech. She had no idea if he liked that kind of thing, but surely he didn�
�t drink coffee?
They settled at a table in the back corner and she slid the backpack down to her feet so Blech could get out without being seen. She put the glass of milk beside him, figuring he’d have some way to drink it, and then gathered herself and faced Kody. She focused on the feeling inside her and went with it.
“What’s wrong?”
Kody’s eyebrows raised. “What do you mean?”
“You asked me if I’d ever felt different from other people. There’s one thing that’s always been different.” She tapped her chest over her heart. “I have some kind of instinctual perception thing, and I know if people are good or bad, or if something is up. And something is definitely up with you. Unless sex parties are your thing.”
Kody smiled slightly as she sipped her coffee. “And if they are my thing?”
“I’m not one to judge. But your apartment…it didn’t feel right. Something is off.”
Kody’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Maggie for a long moment before responding. “Meeting you has thrown up a few issues I need to deal with. One of the great things about this world is the availability of ways to forget who you are and where you come from.”
“Why do you want to forget?” It was an intrusive question, but she didn’t have time to mess around.
“I don’t know you well enough to get into that. Suffice it to say, our world isn’t always a lot of fun. Being a shepherd has a lot of pitfalls and not a lot of perks, and I’ve had a whole lot of time to hang out here until it was your time to come around, and I like it. Thanks to magic I’ve got more money than I can spend, which means I can spend all my time enjoying life.” She sighed and stretched. “But now you’re here, which means I have to go back to being responsible. I guess I just wanted one last blowout before I had to go back to babysitting.”
Stung, Maggie held her temper in check, but barely. “I don’t need a babysitter. I don’t need a shepherd who doesn’t want to be one. I don’t need some hot butch princess locked away in her tower to come down and play with me.” Blech jumped on her lap and settled down, and she was glad for his solid comfort. “I need someone I can depend on and get answers from. I’m not asking you to forgo your orgies or your excessive lifestyle. I don’t care about those things. If you can show up to work every day just like you would anywhere else, then I’m fine with that.”
She wasn’t. It wasn’t true in the slightest. The thought of Kody sexing up the models of New York made her irrationally jealous, but she had no claim like that. “But if you’re going to let me down, and if you’re not going to be there when I need you, then maybe you’ve already left our world too far behind to be of any use anymore. Maybe you’re a relic from a story that has already had its ending.”
Maggie grabbed her backpack from under the table and felt Blech climb in. She pulled the newspaper out and slapped it on the table. “Shamus says there’s something weird in the personal ads. I couldn’t find it, but he said to show it to you.” She got up and looked down at Kody, whose face was red, her jaw clenching. “I have to do this, whatever this is, with or without you. Your choice.”
She left the coffee shop without looking back, and Kody didn’t tell her not to go. The fact that she didn’t made Maggie’s heart hurt. She needed friends in this new world she was falling into, and the one she was supposed to be able to count on evidently wasn’t interested in the position. She wanted to cry but forced the tears away. She’d been on her own for much of her life; she hadn’t needed anyone before, and she didn’t need anyone now. She’d go it alone if she had to. Blech pushed against her in the backpack and she pulled him close. At least she had her talking cat.
She decided to forgo the subway and wandered the streets of Manhattan with no real place to go. She didn’t want to go back to the cottage, which was a reminder of how out of control her life had become. She didn’t feel like watching the happy couples strolling through Central Park. God knew she didn’t need more coffee. She tapped the backpack and Blech slowly peeked out, his eyes blinking in the sunlight.
“Do I have any other protectors here?” If she couldn’t depend on Kody, maybe there was someone else. But Blech shook his head and put a gentle paw on her chest as though he understood why she was asking. She sighed. “Okay. So it was just the four of you. No big deal. We’ve got this, right?”
His paw pressed against her before he slid back into the backpack. Her cell phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out. She used it more for the internet than for phone calls so she wasn’t surprised when the number was unrecognized. She answered anyway.
“I’m sorry.”
The sound of Kody’s husky voice made Maggie shiver. “For what?”
“For being an ass. I’ve been on my own for a while now, and I don’t always behave very well. Let’s meet at the cottage, and we can see about getting you some answers. And Shamus was right about the newspaper.”
Maggie considered telling Kody to take a hike or at the very least to wait. But it wasn’t like she had anything better to do. She looked in the window of the shop she’d stopped in front of and had an idea. “Okay. But give me an hour. I have something to do.”
There was a slight hesitation, and Maggie wondered how often Kody was told to wait.
“Sure, no problem. See you there.”
Maggie went into the store and breathed in the scent of canvas and paint. She’d put off her passion for a long time. Maybe now was the time to get back into it. It will help get Kody off my mind, too. She could tell herself all she wanted that Kody was only on her mind because she was such a big piece of Maggie’s puzzle, but there was no denying she was also incredibly sexy, and the whole butch thing had been a turn-on since Maggie had figured out girls were her cup of tea. The women Maggie had been with never seemed to understand her, and more than one had been put off by Maggie’s perceptiveness when it came to their emotions. Or lies. A few of them had been nice enough, but there hadn’t been any spark. And Maggie really wanted a spark if she was going to be with someone long-term. She didn’t want to settle for just okay. She wanted fire and chills and the desperate desire for someone’s kiss. She wanted to be explored, desired, needed. She wanted passion that didn’t burn into ash taken by the wind.
In Kody she saw the kind of passionate being she sought. But she had to accept that Kody was a work colleague, someone there to help her do whatever it was she was supposed to do. Someone who could, maybe, get her back to the world she came from. Maybe one day they’d be friends. The thought of pushing aside the possibility of anything more than that made her ache inside, which was ridiculous, given the amount of time they’d known each other. It’s just because she’s the one I’m supposed to depend on. When I meet other people that will fade.
She concentrated on buying new canvases, a variety of paints and brushes and solvents, and left the store feeling renewed and excited to get back to doing something she loved. Blech grumbled when she dropped a few tubes of paint into the backpack, but she reached in and stroked his head in apology.
By the time she made it back to the apartment building, her arms ached from carrying the canvases and bags, and Blech’s weight was making her shoulders hurt. Kody was leaning on the reception desk when Maggie came in, and she hurried over to take some of Maggie’s burden.
“Thanks.” Maggie shook out her arms to bring the feeling back to them.
“Starting a new project?” Kody asked as she followed Maggie to the elevator.
“Hopefully, yeah.” She set her bags down and took off the backpack to let Blech out. “Sorry, buddy, you’re on your own now. You’re as heavy as a sack of rocks. Couldn’t you magic yourself into weighing as much as a feather?” He got out and stretched and then trotted off ahead of them to the cottage.
Once inside they set everything down and Maggie popped open a bottle of water. She offered one to Kody who accepted and downed half of it in one swallow.
“Why don’t we sit in the backyard and talk? I assume I can open the back door t
o actually go outside?” The sun was out, and she wanted to take advantage of the nice weather. Spring in New York was a changeable time.
“Sure.”
Kody’s attitude was contrite, and she was much more like the woman who had helped her through the first day of finding out who she was. It helped a little to know she wasn’t going into this situation purely pissed off.
Maggie opened the back door and glanced around. She’d seen what the door could actually open on to, and it was strange to sit in the backyard like it was an ordinary place.
Kody stretched out beside her in a lawn chair. “Where do you want to start?”
Maggie thought about it. “It’s a two part question. Who tried to kill me when I was a child, and are they still interested in killing me now?”
Kody blew out a big breath. “Starting easy, are we? Okay. I need to start somewhere else to get to that part, so bear with me.”
She ran her hand through her shaggy blond hair that caught the sunlight just right and made Maggie feel a little gooey inside.
“Fairy tales vary from culture to culture. They’re stories about ethics and morals. Right and wrong, good and bad. Stories about choosing wisely and being a good person.”
She looked at Maggie, and she nodded to show she was following.
“Pretty much every fairy tale, no matter the culture it comes from, is made up of heroes and villains. The people who do right and the people who do wrong. There are some that are more vague, where you’re not sure if there was a hero or villain, but those are fewer. The tale spinners are the ones who make sure those people keep doing what they’re supposed to be doing. They make sure the sectors stay balanced. If someone gets out of line, they use their unique powers to get that person back in line. The aos sí always had the power to keep things balanced, and they kept everyone where they needed to be.”
