Fairy Thief by Johanna Frappier Read Free Book Online Page B

the scent of roses in full bloom — their perfume hot from the sun. After the ghost had moved all the way through, Saffron almost lost her balance at the loss of the soul that had just occupied her body with her. She wanted to crumple into a useless pile, but struggled to hold her skin and bones up. When she finally collected her strength, she ran after the girl, but she was becoming too hard to see. Before the ghost was swallowed by the forest, Saffron heard a whisper, in her right ear — “I just wanted you to know.” Then, the girl vanished.
    Saffron stopped running and stared at the darkness. She shivered and crossed her arms over her chest. She looked over her left shoulder, out at the ocean. She looked back to the spot where she had last seen the ghost. “Huh.”
     
     

Chapter 5
     
     
    T he magic is gone .
    Saffron sat on her blanket by the edge of the sea, getting ready to pick blackberries from the overburdened bushes.
    The magic is gone .
    She repeated this to herself several times to see how the realization made her feel. And, as it is with the passing of many personal things, she felt on the one hand, sad because she knew she would never experience anything like that again. On the other hand, she felt great relief that it was finally over, because most of the time, it was just too much to bear. She was no longer a shining beacon for all the freaky magic things in the world. No more naked gnomes, catatonic ghosts, smelly gremlins, snotty unicorns, and best of all, no more damn fairies. Good riddance. She didn’t go to see movies anymore, but had read about Jethin in the newspaper. Last February, he was employee of the month.
    It had been one full year since she sat here last, completely alone, shaded by the pines from the pulsing August sun. This had been a pleasant summer, if a little uneventful. Coco came over a lot. Sometimes, she went to Coco’s crazy mausoleum of a house and laughed to herself every time she remembered that on the night she first met Coco, she assumed the would-be stripper lived in a trailer. Another reminder that you never can tell what’s really going on until you experience it. She and Coco like to make their own jewelry, and their sales weren’t too shabby. Markis had called a couple of times from New Mexico. But their conversations were dull and heavy with unsaid words.
    Now, she sat alone, basking in the sun and suffering through a healthy dose of loneliness. Coco was in the Bahamas. Saffron no longer felt the same comfort in solidarity as she once had. Audrey was thrilled with the new Saffron — just yesterday, Saffron had received an acceptance letter from the state university. She was undeclared, but the locks were off her bedroom door and she was going off to college.
    She felt the heat from a shaft of light beating down on her head. Damn! She had forgotten the sun block. She rifled through her pack, beyond the sweatshirt, the extra socks, the journal, the stationery and envelopes, bits and pieces of beads, earring cards and wire, and dug way, way to the bottom. There was no sun block, only a pair of tights.
    “ Whatever works,” she grumbled. She pulled the waistband of the tights over her head, the legs dangling off the back, leaned on her elbows and shut her eyes. She’d told her mom that she would be right back with the blackberries, but the sun was making patterns on her closed eyelids and the birds were chatty – she wanted to stay forever.
    ***
    Audrey stopped wiping a dish to squint out of her kitchen window. Somebody was making his way up the drive and he was pushing something. After a moment, she realized who it was and a sunny smile came to her face. But why was he pushing the motorcycle up the driveway? She laughed. Maybe he was trying to surprise Saffron — he didn’t want her to hear the bike. Saffron wouldn’t have been able to hear a herd of elephants tromping up the drive because she was tucked in the woods. She might as well be a million miles