Human for a Day (9781101552391) by Jennifer (EDT) Martin Harry (EDT); Brozek Greenberg Read Free Book Online

stairs with the two of us behind her, muttering to herself. “You!” she whirled, pointing at me. “Where is Stuart?”
    â€œIn an abandoned warehouse two blocks east of here,” I replied, without thinking about it. I froze. “What—what did you do?”
    â€œNothing. You did it. You can’t be completely sundered from yourself, or we’d have fallen into the ocean by now.” She moved behind the bar, grabbing a large stein and several bottles. “James, the Scotch. City, tell your pigeons to watch Stuart. If he moves, you need to know.”
    â€œI can try,” I said, uncertainly.
    â€œDon’t try. Do it or we’re all going to die.”
    James frowned as he passed the Scotch. “A bit apocalyptic, don’t you think?”
    â€œNo.” Mina half-filled the stein with Scotch before beginning to add splashes from her other bottles. “Why incarnate the city of San Francisco? Why distract her from her usual occupation?”
    â€œBoredom?” he ventured.
    â€œHe’s trying to start an earthquake.” My voice surprised even me. James turned to stare at me, but I was distracted by the sensations in the bottom of my feet, the itching I hadn’t recognized until I started trying to focus on what I was, rather than the body I was wearing. “He’s pressing down on one of my faults—he wants to shake the city into the sea. Why would he do that to me?” I looked at them pleadingly. “Why?”
    â€œBecause he’s mad,” said James.
    â€œBecause he wants to blackmail us into giving him the summer,” said Mina. She picked up the stein and swigged half its contents before pouring the rest into a flask she produced from inside her bodice. Dropping the empty stein to the bar, she tucked the flask away and said, “All right. Let’s go save you.”
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    Walking through my own streets was even more disconcerting now that I had a vague idea of what was going on. It didn’t exactly help that I acquired an escort of pigeons, stray cats, and wharf rats as soon as we stepped out of the bar. Mina ignored the wildlife, scowling at shadows and taking occasional swigs from her flask. James also ignored the wildlife, perhaps because he was distracted by the way flowers kept sprouting from the cracks in the pavement as he passed.
    â€œOh, yes, we’re very unobtrusive,” muttered Mina, glaring at a dandelion that had suddenly popped up in front of her shoe.
    James looked abashed.
    â€œIf we can stop the earthquake, does that mean he’ll stop doing whatever he’s done to me?” I asked, hurrying to catch up with the pair of them. “This is very distracting. I don’t like it.”
    â€œThe human condition is so rarely welcome,” said Mina.
    â€œThat isn’t an answer.”
    â€œIt wasn’t intended as one.” She sighed. “I don’t know, all right? So far as I know, no one has ever incarnated a Lare of your scale without their cooperation. This could be permanent.”
    I stared at her, horrified. “What do you mean, permanent ?”
    â€œI mean it could last until you die. Now come on. This will be entirely moot if we all plummet into the Pacific Ocean. If you don’t mind?” Mina sped up, forcing us to follow or be left behind.
    â€œI don’t think I like her,” I muttered.
    James just smiled.
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    The warehouse was old, crumbling, empty, and most importantly, mine. Unlike Mina’s bar, it had never been shielded against me, and when I pressed my hand against the wall, it was happy to tell me what it contained. I would have had no trouble interpreting its message in my natural form. As it was, my knees nearly buckled before I gasped, “He’s in the back. There’s a woman with him. She’s . . . on fire?”
    James and Mina exchanged a look. “Jane,” they said, in unison.
    â€œHe’s reading something.