Bound by Faerie: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Stolen Magic Book 1) (6 page)

Of course, that was exactly what I was there to do.

I took a seat a couple stools down from him. "Any recommendations?" I asked, holding up the menu.

"Try the bacon cheeseburger," he said, taking a sip of his beer and making no secret of the fact he
was checking me out.

"Well, at least the place has that much going for it." And the guy, for that matter. Anyone who recommended cheeseburgers couldn't be all bad.

"That didn't sound like a glowing review," he said, a crease between his brow. "Not your kind of place?"

The waitress came around and I placed an order for the bacon cheeseburger and a Coke. "Have you been out there?" I scoffed. "The smell alone was almost enough to make me turn around and walk out the door."

"I like the mingling of all the magic scents
," he said defensively.

"Then why are you hiding in here?" My senses were still overloaded from the crowd in the restaurant proper, but it was
a cozy respite from the bedlam of the club.

"I was hungry. I'll be going back out there after I eat. You should join me." He turned my way and presented a cheesy smile. "I know a few tricks to
help you get the most out of the experience."

I almost rolled my eyes, and then I remembered that this was exactly what I was there for. "That would be nice," I said. The waitress stopped by and put my Coke unobtrusively on the bar. I took a sip. "Aaaah."

"You don't want anything stronger than that?" asked Owen, eyeing my soda.

"Not with my food. A good burger deserves to be savored. Pairing it with alcohol would dull my senses and lessen the experience."

He laughed, a rumbling sound that made my stomach do an involuntary flip-flop. I blamed it on the hunger. "I like that you take eating so seriously."

"Mostly just burgers. They're like sandwiches, but elevated until they're a wholly unique experience.
"

Owen held down his smile, his eyes wide like he wanted to laugh. "You like your burgers."

"I like my burgers," I agreed. Like magic—which it could have been—the waitress appeared and set down both of our meals
.

"Enjoy," said Owen, and tucked into his burger.

I frowned at the poor presentation. The top bun was sliding off to reveal a boringly typical cheddar cheese, mayo, lettuce, and tomato burger with some limp bacon slapped on top. It was completely uninspired. I pushed it back into some semblance of order and took a sniff. No magic. There shouldn't have been—only certain groups of fae set traps in food, and Smoke and Mirrors had been around long enough to have a safe reputation, but I always checked. I grew up with only my sisters, never having to worry about such a thing. The transition from safety to the dangerous world of unknowns made me an extra cautious adult—at least as far as food was concerned. Stealing someone else's free will by way of a delicious cheeseburger was just
evil.

I took my first bite. Yep, the patty itself was just as bland as it looked. Judging by its uniform shape, I was almost certain it was a premade, freezer job. "Well, that just about does it for this place," I said,
dropping the burger on the plate with a thump.

"Was it not cooked properly?" asked Owen, mayo hiding in the dimple of his cheek. "They'll remake it if something wasn't done right. T
hey're good like that."

"No amount of remaking could turn that mess into something enjoyable." I pushed the plate away and took a long drink of my Coke. "
That goes for this whole damned place, actually."

An angry growl coming from his direction had me reaching for Haiku, but the sword was at home. Instead, I turned to face him, ready to draw on my magic if necessary. He was wearing a look I'd seen all too often. It was the Sophie
-said-something-stupid face. Damn it.

"Yeah, I think my appetite has gone as well." He pushed his plate away and gave me a curt nod. "Pleasure," he said, and stalked out of the bar.

"Great job, Sophie," I chastised myself. "Now he knows your face, and he thinks you're an asshole. How are you supposed to get him to take you home now?"

CHAPTER FIVE

The next morning I stepped into Lost in the Mist
with my mind made up.

"Listen, Ava, I appreciate your help, but this isn't going to work. If I can't find another copy of this book, I'll just have to break into his place. I'll find another way."

"Failure, then," Ava said. "Interesting. I didn't believe you were someone who gave up so quickly."

"Excuse you." I slapped my hand on her table. "I didn't even want to do this in the first place! It's easy to give up on a plan that was never my idea."

"That bad?" She locked onto my gaze, mocking me.

I folded my arms and spun so my back faced her. Freaking know-it-all monster. Still fuming, I admitted, "It was a total bust."

"What happened? Did you get through the portal to his place?"

"No," I said. "If I had, I would have the book. We barely even spoke. I don't know what I said wrong, but I pissed him off and he stormed off. See?" I turned back to her and tapped my fist hard to my chest. "I don't people."

"You're not going to find another copy of this book anytime soon, nor will you be able to break into his place," she said. I harrumphed. I'd see about that. She waited until she had my full attention to say, "The question is: how important is this to you?"

I glared at her harder than I already was. How important was this to me? I needed it, damn it. I needed it more than anything. And I hated it.

"Desperation: it's what's for breakfast."

I jerked back. "Did you just make a joke?" I asked. "Did you just make a very human joke?"

"I run a human establishment, Sophie." Ava looked offended. There I went again.

I almost said something inquiring about why it was she ran a human business, but I caught myself. Offending her further was not the goal right now. Before she decided to go ahead and be done with me, too, I told her, "I need your help."

"I am aware," Ava said. Uh huh, like that wasn't offensive. Maybe I was just the only one willing to put up with other people's crap. Maybe I was just tougher than everyone else. It didn't sound quite right, but it put me in some pretty great light, and that was good enough for me. She waved her arm and the door to the back popped open. "This will take just a moment. Come along."

"What will take just a moment?"

But Ava didn't answer me, of course. She didn't need anything from me. This whole needing stuff from others thing was
so
not my gig. I vowed never to put myself in this situation again once this was all over.

I followed her up to the doorframe but didn't step through. She looked back and gestured me forward. I'd been regularly visiting Ava for a year, and I'd never seen more than the front room. Of course, I'd never asked for a personal favor before, either. Stepping over the threshold had me newly aware that our relationship was expanding. Did this make us friends? Work friends? The fact that I felt so nervous brought whole new attention to my social ineptitude. I shook it off. I didn't have time for these revelations.

The four walls were covered in one large fish tank, rivaling any professional aquarium. The lights inside bathed the room in a comfortable glow. Ava stood on a ladder; her hair brushed the ceiling. She pulled a small container from her pocket and sprinkled some of its contents into the tank along the back wall. A strange little creature darted out and gobbled up the bits of food. It was about eight inches in height, humanoid from the waist up, and a brightly colored crustacean from the waist down. He looked like a centaur's half mantis shrimp cousin. "This is Vincent," Ava said. "Vincent, meet Sophie."

I waved. He nodded in acknowledgment before disappearing behind a large bit of coral.

Ava climbed down with the ladder rail in one hand and the skirt of her dress in the other. She gestured for me to sit on a plush sofa. As I did so, I watched the graceful, gliding movement of the older fae woman swiftly give way as she hopped onto the opposing end of the sofa and roughly crossed her legs. She fought against the loose folds of her dress
until she was comfortable. "Let's figure out what happened at the club, yes?"

"Well, I got there at about—"

"No, no. I'll need you to be quiet for a moment, Sophie." And then she focused on empty space above her coffee table and spoke with someone I couldn't see, even when I pulled up my second sight. The change in my vision illuminated life in the tanks I hadn't noticed, but I'd have to look at that later. Ava was telling this invisible person about me, asking them to contact someone I didn't know so she could ask them about my misadventure last night. She nodded after she'd finished talking and looked back at me. "There. I can't say for sure how long it will be, but she typically answers my calls without much fuss. So, while we're waiting, did you have any fun on your excursion?"

"Fun?
Fun
?" I rolled my lips tight and then told her, "It was all right."

"Hmm," she said. "Do you go into Volarus much?"

"No," I said, and then amended that with, "Just for work."

"It's been a while since I've been, and then just for supplies. I speak with humans every day though. You, I'm curious about. You don't interact with humans." It wasn't a question. It always prickled when Ava told me things about myself. "Who do you spend time with?"

"Epic and Haiku," I told her.

"Do your swords speak? Are they sentient?" It wasn't sarcasm. I tried to imagine how my swords would be thinking beings. They couldn't—that I knew—at least not on their own, but there were all kinds of ways someone could be trapped in a sword. I found objects like that for work all the time. But to also be
communicating
... "Sophie?"

"What? Oh, yeah, no. My swords don't talk."

"That's a nice necklace you're wearing," she observed."

What necklace? My hand touched the stones. Oh, right. Did she want my necklace? "It's all right. Are we going to be waiting much longer?"

"Has it occurred to you that the reason you 'don't people' is you don't have any practice?"

"I interact with people plenty at work, as you've pointed out. And what is this, anyway? I feel like I'm being interrogated."

She shrugged. "I'm trying to make conversation while we wait. It's not my fault you make that exceptionally difficult."

"Oh," I said. "Your tanks are really cool."

"Yes," Ava said. "I like them. Oh, Patricia!" It could have been my imagination, but I thought she looked awfully relieved to not have to make small talk with me anymore. I was, too. "You're here. Thank you so much for coming." Ava nodded. "Yes, yes, that's her. Mmm, yes, I see. Well, she did—oh, did she?" Ava was talking about me, I knew that much, but there wasn't anything I could put together from the things she said. I focused instead on trying to see whoever she was talking to, but nothing; I didn't even sense any changes in Ava's magic. All of my other senses failing me, I stretched out a hand toward the space where Ava was looking. Ava slapped my hand away. "You'll have to forgive her, Patricia. It's not you, she's like this with everyone." She leaned back, continuing to ask questions, and I spaced out until she gasped and spun toward me. "You insulted his club!" She turned back to the empty air, mouth gaping, and
then her lips curled down in disgust. She rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, fine, yes." And then she pulled something from her pocket and threw it at me. I choked on the bloom of magic.

"What the—oh." A very human looking woman stood on the coffee table, tapping her sparkly shoes. She wore fashions I didn't recognize. Her dress dripped with beads; her hair was short and curled around her head. She was pretty. And annoyed.

"That's better," Patricia said. "Hello."

"Yes, yes," Ava said. "Patricia, this is Sophie. Sophie, Patricia." She gestured between us, pointing at the wrong person for each name.

"What—how—" I couldn't decide what to ask first. Regaining control of my tongue, I asked, "What did you throw at me?" The magic tasted dusty.
I couldn't get it off my tongue.

"A charm for your sight."

"Why didn't my second sight work on its own?"

"Patricia is a ghost, dear. You can only see her if..." She rolled her hand in the air near her head. I thought she was searching for the right word, but maybe the gesture meant something I didn't understand. "Think of it as a third sight. Ghosts are always around, and they can see you, but you can't see them. Unless you're me. Or you have this charm."

"And how long is this going to last?" Seeing dead people: not a thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life, thank you very much. Most charms were brief, so I wasn't panicking yet.

"A little while, which is why we should give our attention to the conversation at hand."

"Oh, well,
excuse
me." Okay, that was a little rude, but a wary glance at Ava made me think she hadn't picked up on it. "Wait. So is this how you find lost things? You ask ghosts? I thought you were a seeker."

Her nose twitched. "I am not a seeker," she said. "You're correct. I ask my friends to help me find things, tho
ugh my clients don't know that. The living react strangely when they know the dead surround them. We keep those secrets to ourselves."