Flicker by Kaye Thornbrugh Read Free Book Online Page A

making it invisible to anyone without the Second Sight, but Filo could see straight through the glamour that veiled it. He was often able to use the tail as a gauge to measure Rodney’s mood. Just now, Rodney was annoyed.
    “ You’re acting like a real ass, Filo.”
    Filo shook his head. “I have things to do, Rod. You should go.”
    Rodney pulled the door open, bells jangling as he steppe d outside. “I suppose I should.”
     
     
     
    Chapter Three:
    Awake
     
    A loud banging shook the door to the apartment above the shop. Frowning, Filo glanced up from the papers spread across his desk. It couldn’t be a customer: Though he hadn’t locked up the shop yet, customers were usually too sheepish to venture through the shop, up the stairs and into the apartment where he lived .
    Wondering how he could’ve missed the tell-tale jangling off the bells hung above the door downstairs , Filo stood and crossed the worn floorboards. A cold breeze rushed through the open windows and blew half the papers off the desk. He sighed and turned to the door.
    He paused, one hand on the doorknob, as he sensed the jittery silver ener gy on the other side. He knew it well , though he’d had little contact with it over the last two years—before this morning, anyway.
    What is he doing here? Filo thought, bewildered. For a moment, he considered shouting at the person behind the door to get lost. But curiosity got the best of him.
    Filo heaved the door open, already frowning.
    Nasser stood in the dim, narrow corridor. His dark blond hair was windswept and sticking up at odd angles. His gray eyes glinted and his mouth was set in a determined line.
    “What do you want, Nasser?” Filo demanded, crossing his arms .
    “I need a favor.”
    A red-haired girl with large green eyes appeared at Nasser’s side. She was about average height, but beside Nasser, she looked small, almost doll-like. She wore a midnight-blue dress and Nasser’s coat, which hung loosely on her. Nasser held her gently by her wrist, and she gazed around with a blank expression on her soft-featured face. An energy hung over her like a shroud, a faintly shimmering magic, not her own. Faerie magic. Filo thought he sensed something else beneath it, but he wasn’t sure. It was probably nothing.
    “What— ” Filo began, mouth already openi ng to form some sort of protest. Before he could finish, Nasser nudged the girl over the threshold and into the apartment.
    “Just watch her for me,” Nasser said quickly. “Please, Filo. I can’t take her now. Jason’s still gone and there’s no one to keep an eye on her while I look. It’ll only be for a while, a few days at most.”
    “Who the hell is this?”
    “I’m not sure.” Nasser shook his head, unsure of where to begin. “I went to Bluewood to look for Jason at the revel, like you said. He wasn’t there, but I noticed her and I—I mean, she—I couldn’t just leave her, Filo!”
    “Salt and sag e,” Filo groaned . “What did you do?”
    “I traded for her.”
    “You traded f or her? How’d you manage that?”
    Nasser shrugged . “There was this dryad—” he began.
    “A Summer Court dryad?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Idiot! You know it’s dangerous to deal with Court fey. The solitary fey are bad enough.”
    Nasser ignored him. “It was so strange . I found her painting, completely oblivious. As soon as I saw her, I felt sort of … connected. Like she was different somehow. You know?”
    Filo squinted at th e girl. There must have been something that set her apart, something deeper down. Nasser’s feelings had never been wrong, at least n ot in Filo’s memory. “Different,” he echoed. “ H ow?”
    “ Her energy was like Jason’s used to be, before he learned to work his magic properly. It had a sort of tint to it, and you know most people’s energies aren’t colored.”
    Somehow, Filo suspected that it wasn’t just the girl’s energy that made Nasser feel so connected to her. Nasser was always too