Chapter 39 #2
My eyes drifted back to the island and my smile wavered. “I don’t know how I feel about this, Leo. Is the magic actually physically changing the island?”
“Look on the bright side, Pan. You’ve secured Beane Isle’s financial future with all the faerie-kin business the folk bring in.”
Then he pulled my face down to remind me how bright the future looked.
When we got back to the boathouse, I texted Deja, Shrig, and Gabe to meet us for drinks at the Driftwood.
Because I wanted to show off Leo, naturally.
Nobody replied except Gabe, who said he already had plans with Ava.
I told him she was invited too—we could stay downstairs, in the non-faerie-kin area—but he just sent a string of random emojis then texted Maybe next time.
So I drove Leo into town, thinking we’d find Deja and Shrig at her shop and could head over from there. Although drinks for two sounded pretty good, too.
I slowed as we neared the library and glanced at Leo. “Do you, uh—”
“What?” Leo asked.
“Want to go to the library?”
“Why? Is your copy of Taken by the Antiquarian Bookseller overdue?”
I made a face at him. “Stop.”
“The Bookworm’s Bad Bitch?”
“Leo!” I laughed. “Seriously.”
“I’m still interested in the manuscript because it’s an amazing book, but there’s no rush. The magic’s not going anywhere. And I’m sure Albert has everything under control.”
I glanced at the building as we passed. “I haven’t seen him since everything started.”
“He’s probably off scolding pixies,” Leo said, then touched my arm. “Thanks for offering, but even if we wanted to stop the magic, we still don’t know how.”
I kept driving into the village. “Well, you were right, too. It’s not like this is completely not alarming.”
Leo reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out Bob, who blinked at him sleepily while dangling upside down from one gold-sandaled foot. “Yeah. It’s terrifying.”
“Okay, but Philip’s building stone walls across the island and Shrig brushed against tree sap that was so sticky he had to strip completely to get away and—”
“Shrig’s default is stripping completely.”
I wrinkled my nose. “True. Mom says he’s hornier than a two-headed triceratops.”
“She has a way with words.”
I pulled the cart over into a parking spot halfway between the Driftwood and Essence. “Let’s swing by for Deja and Shrig.”
“Wait,” Leo said, frowning toward a person on the sidewalk. “Isn’t that the cop? The one who was looking for drones?”
I frowned. “What’s wrong with him?”
The cop twitched in his uniform as he headed toward the harbor. He shook his head like he was trying to get water out of his ear as he strode along the sidewalk.
“Oh, shit.” Leo hopped from the cart and strode closer. “Officer!”
The cop straightened and turned toward Leo.
He tried to smile—and that’s when I spotted the brownies trotting along at his feet.
There were two of them, giggling and tossing sea-holly buds at the cop’s cheeks.
And when one of them tumbled off the curb, the other grabbed onto the cop’s leg, causing him to stumble.
The cop frowned at his leg before looking to Leo. “Ah, good morning.”
“I, uh, was wondering if you ever found the delinquents who wrecked the village shops?”
“We haven’t, no. We—” The cop jerked when a purple thistle hit his face. “We, um, haven’t.”
“At least they didn’t do much damage,” Leo said. “It’s not like they kicked and booted down any doors.”
Which was a weird thing to say, and an even weirder thing to mime, as he gave two vigorous kicks—and sent both the brownies flying across the street to land in a flowerbed.
I almost laughed, but the brownies immediately scampered back toward us, grinning impishly. What were they even doing awake at this time?
“That was just the beginning, though,” the cop told us. “There’s been a lot of petty vandalism since.”
“Over by the harbor?” Leo asked, windmilling one arm in that direction to snag one brownie while I pretended to cough and grabbed the other one by his upper arm. “Probably just some idiots making fools of themselves.”
The cop nodded. “Let’s hope so.”
“We’ve got some real morons,” I said, glaring at the brownie, who writhed in my clutches.
The cop scratched his reddened cheek. “I’m more worried about the uptick in missing pets.”
“Missing pets?” I asked, squeezing the brownie’s arm tighter.
“In the past few days, we’ve had nine reports.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Leo said. “Anyway, uh, thanks for all your hard work.”
After the cop walked away, I scolded the brownies. “Don’t tease normals! You stay away from them.”
The one I held removed his hat with his free hand and looked apologetic, but the one Leo dropped to the ground bared his teeth at me.
“Fuck!” I said, jerking backward as the brownies raced away.
“What?” Leo asked.
“You didn’t see that? He snarled at me!”
“Brownies aren’t aggressive. They do mimic everything they see though.” He looked in the direction the brownies had run off. “Where’d they go?
I scanned for them on the too-empty street, and realized that there weren’t as many normal tourists as usual. “I don’t know.”
“I guess even brownies have bad days,” Leo said.
“I guess.”
Leo touched my arm. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I frowned. “You’re not worried about the missing pets?”
“Nah. They’re probably off chasing pixies or something.”
“Maybe.” I checked my phone. “Deja hasn’t even read my text.”
As we started along the sidewalk toward her shop, Leo put his arm around me. “Can you believe our parents on speakerphone?”
I snorted. “When I was in ninth grade, Mom gave me a sex talk.” I mimicked her abrasive voice: “Always use a condom, Pandora. Unless it’s Leo. The four of us are ready to be grandparents.”
He laughed. “She did not say that!”
“In ninth grade.”
Leo was still spluttering as we reached Deja’s shop.
The “CLOSED” sign was in the window, but the door was unlocked, which meant she was working in back.
When I walked in, the bell jingled, and I gave Rose, the pixie who rang it, a wink, relieved that she winked back and didn’t flash her teeth like the brownie outside.
At the familiar scent of ylang-ylang and sage, the tension in my shoulders loosened. I led Leo behind the counter and found Deja in the back room.
She glanced up from her alchemist-looking perfume lab, then did a double-take. “Oh!”
“What?” I said.
“You reek of sex and love!” she bellowed.
“Ugh, you’re worse than our parents.”
Leo nodded. “At least, they didn’t mention the smell.”
“I refuse to think about that,” I said. “You didn’t get my text about meeting at the Driftwood?”
“So busy,” she grumbled.
“What’re you making now?”
“Still the anti-itch cream. I don’t know if the gnomes are spreading the seeds or what, but there’s some kind of kudzu action happening in the woods.”
I squeezed sea rose hand lotion from a sample bottle. “Kudzu action?”
“It’s not actually kudzu, but there’s a fast-growing invasive plant taking over the island. Did you hear what happened to Shrig?”
I rubbed the lotion into my hands, then into Leo’s. “Sheila told me he stripped naked and capered from the woods into the middle of a birthday picnic, and now he’s sleeping with the birthday girl?”
“Not exactly a girl. She’s, like, forty-five.” Deja looked up from her distillery. “And he was naked because these sticky vines snagged him during a nap, and the only way to escape was to crawl out of his shorts. They grew, like, five feet in two hours!”
“Goosegrass is sticky and fast-growing,” Leo told her. “And I think some people are allergic to it. That might explain the itchiness.”
“Where were you two days ago?” Deja demanded. “We spent hours trying to figure if this stuff was magically mutated goosegrass or Hedera helix. But it’s not. It’s something twice as sticky that grows ten times as fast.”
“Sounds like you,” I told Leo.
“Okay, Grace,” he said.
“Just like her mother!” Deja roared. “But how is your itching, Leo? You haven’t found the book you came for, have you? I mean, something dragged you all the way from Boston.”
He shook his head. “I barely notice it anymore. If anything, I feel a tug toward Pan’s house—but I think that’s just Pan.”
Diary, I preened.
And Deja said, “I don’t know if I can bear you this happy.”
“Also the manuscript is so magically noisy,” he continued, “that it’s overwhelming my sensitivity. It’s like a background hum, covering the entire island.”
“Just like the creeping vine,” Deja grumbled.
“C’mon, let’s go to the Driftwood.” I put my arm around her. “The rash-doctor needs a drink.”