Chapter 31
LEO’S NOTES
Place: Paperback Trader, Burlington, VT
Second favorite quote: I would live in your love as the sea-grasses live in the sea.
Borne up by each wave as it passes,
drawn down by each wave that recedes.
Misc: 1987 reprint. Sentimental value only. Oh, Pan, if you only knew
Chat windows scrolled on Leo’s computer screen as he discussed the manuscript illuminations with faerie-kin researchers.
They all agreed the bestiary had probably been created by a fae to preserve the beings as their numbers dwindled.
And there was an aura of “gravity” to the manuscript, in the sense that it was drawing magic into itself.
That concerned Leo. If the manuscript was absorbing magic, what more could it unleash?
He opened an email, then took another sip of iced coffee even though it was after midnight. Oh, and he continued his one-sided conversation. “I’m not ignoring her, Bob. She’s ignoring me.”
A huff came from the old wooden cigar box on Leo’s desk.
“I have texted her,” he replied. “Multiple times.”
Leo took a deep breath and started reading the email. Then a chirp sounded from the cigar box. He didn’t understand the words, so he just assumed the meaning.
“I can’t think when I’m around Pan, okay?
I just want to… touch her. I can’t say no to those big fucking eyes.
She’ll talk me into thinking that pixies and gnomes and brownies are meant to be here, that life is better with them.
But you and I both know that releasing magic is trouble.
Even if it’s good trouble, it’s still big trouble. ”
As if to emphasize the point, Leo responded in one of the chat windows, explaining that he’d tried to get more photos of the manuscript, but he could no longer enter the room.
He’d tried—alone, after Pan ghosted his texts—but magic throbbed from the manuscript so powerfully that he’d felt like a mouse getting too close to a vacuum cleaner.
He didn’t mention that Pan could still touch the book. He didn’t mention Pan at all.
“Because I have to protect her,” he told Bob. “Right? If something goes terribly wrong with all this, I don’t want anyone blaming Pandora.”
Bob sat up in his cigar-box bed and nodded agreeably. His crewcut lay flat on one side from trying to sleep in the box Leo had lined with cotton balls and flannel rags for comfort. Bob himself had added the string of dried purple clover and fern leaves.
“I also need to convince her I’m right. But the minute I think about those perky eyes, my brain shuts off.”
A paperclip pinged off the side of his head.
“Hey! You take that back! Maybe I did mean her eyes.” He took a calming breath. “So yeah, I’m ignoring her a little. But I have a good reason. When I see her, I want too much.”
Bob scrubbed his crewcut with his fingers.
“But why is she ignoring me?” Leo asked.
Bob shot him a look.
“Fine,” Leo sighed. “I was an asshole who said he didn’t want her if she wasn’t gifted. But she is gifted now! She’s helping the creatures and being an absolute legend and… Dames, I miss her.”
Leo looked in the direction of Pan’s house as Bob fell backward into his bed and flipped the lid shut on his cigar box, signaling the conversation was over.
“I don’t know, Bob. Does she miss me too?”