Flicker (24 page)

“It’s not t
hat I don’t want to. Y
ou’re
sure
it’s not a problem?”

“Not at all,” Nasser assured her. “Trust me.”

Oddly enough, she did.

Jason looked
between
the two of them and announced
, “I’m going to see
if I can rustle up some food.”
Shoulder
ing
Nasser playfully as he passed and mouthing something Lee didn’t catch, Jason left them in the front room.

For a
moment
, neither spoke. Then
Nasser inquired
cautiously
,
“D
o you
… Do you happen to
like magic tricks?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

Smiling, he
reached into his pocket and withdrew
a battered pack of playing cards. He held it up for her to see, then
emptied the pack onto his palm.

The pack
came
to life at his touch. The ca
rds floated between his hands, turning themselves upright and passing slowly back and forth
. He snapped his fingers they shot upward, fluttering like wings, then landed in a perfect pile in Nasser’s upturned palm.

She grinned and clapped. “Right,” she laughed. “
Magic
tricks.”

* * *

Biting her lip in concentration, Lee drew the top card from the deck and turned it over. She showed it to Nasser
, searching his face for confirmation
.

“Is
this
your card?”
she asked hopefully.

He gave her a half-smile. “Sorry,” he said
.
“But no.”

Groaning,
Lee slapped the
card
down
.
She’d been trying to master this trick for an hour, but
she
struggled
with sleight of hand.
Nasser made it look so easy.
“What am I doing wrong?”

“I’m not sure,”
Nasser
admitted.
“Here, let’s try it again—slowly.”

“Not right now,” she sighed
, putting her chin in her hands
. “
This is
getting
depressing.”

“Well,” he
mused
, reaching across
the table and pulling a red daisy
from behind her ear, “if you’re tired of card tricks, we could try something else.”

Lee gasped a little as one hand flew to her ear, instinctively trying to figure out where the flower had come from. Then, laughing at herself, she took the daisy.
“It’s beautiful!”

“You think so?” He picked up the deck, shuffled it and spread it across the table. A single
white, star-shaped flower
lay between two cards. He passed it to
her
, and
she felt a
slow smile spread across her face.
“Because I can give you something different
,
if you want.
”

“What’s
its name
?”

“Diosma.”

Impressed, she asked,
“
Do you moonlight as a florist or something?”

“
Call it a hobby
.”
H
is
gaze moved to her shoulder. He stood and brushed at her sleeve like he was trying to flick a bug off her. “Hang on—what’s that?”

“What’s what?” she
asked,
freezing as she
imagin
ed
a giant spider crawling up her arm.
Who knew what manner of insect lurked in the du
sty, shadowy corners of Flicker?

“N
ever mind.
” He
reached behind her back and produced a
bun
dle of
flowers that resembled violets.
“Just some flowers.
Nothing to worry about.”

“Nasser!”
Laughing, she
swatted him playfully with one hand as she accepted the flowers with the other. “How did you do that?”

He grinned
, and she felt her heart do a
series of flips
. “Trade secret.”

“Well, th
ese are even more
beautiful,” she told him
honestly
. “
What are they called
?”

“Heartsease,” he replied.

“Nobody’s ever given me flowers before,
you know,” she
admitted
,
marveling at
the
fresh, dew-wet blossoms
.
Heartsease.
The ver
y name made her sigh happily
.

“That’s not right
.”
His gray eyes were soft and ser
ious.
“A girl like you should
get flowers.”

“I—”
She ducked her head, trying to control her heartbeat.
“I still
have your coat
, you know
.”

She
rose and went into the front room, where Jason was examining a stack of Filo’s books. He didn’t seem to notice her when she ducked in, grabbed Nasser’s coat, and returned to the workroom. She presented it to Nasser with a little flourish. “Here you go.”

As she sat down again, he leaned back in his chair.

“Lee,” he b
egan
slowly
. “If I came around in a couple days, do you think you’d be up for seeing the city? I could show you around
,
and maybe we could have dinner or something after.”

Blinking
, she asked, “You mean
…
like a date?”

He looked suddenly sheepish. “If you like.”

For a moment, Lee just stared at him. In the last
few
days, she had learned that faeries existed, magic was real
, and
the life she knew was utterly gone. The idea of doing something as normal as going on a date seemed absurd—but,
sitting
here with Nasser, who treated everything as though it were perfectly ordinary, it seemed almost possible.

Nasser
was
so steady, so calm
. Talking and laughing with him
put her at ease, and
took
her mind off what she’d found in Bluewood
. Just being around him made her feel almost
normal.
She wondered what it would be like to spend a day with him, roaming the sprawling city.

Finally, she smiled. “
Yeah,” she said, g
lancing at the
flowers
.
“
I would like that
, Nasser
.”

* * *

When Filo showed
up, it was almost
six
o’clock.
In the front room, Nasser and Jason were busy teaching Lee how to pla
y poker. S
he was much better at it than card tricks
, and had beaten them twice already
.
She’d tucked the red daisy behind her ear, and Nasser liked catching glimpses of it every time she turned her head.

Nobody spoke when
Filo
opened the door;
they just watched silently as he scowled at each of them in turn and dumped his bag on
a
table. Filo’s anger was an almost tangible
thing, a
furious
indigo
haze
. Nasser rolled his shoulders, bracing himself against the energy, which pressed against him like a physical weight. He won
dered what had
put Filo in such a mood.

Glaring, Filo turned to Nasser
. “What are
you
doing here?”

“You wanted me to bring Jason down.”

“Not to
day
.”
Filo stormed into the workroom.

Nasser followed him.
“What’s up with you?”

“I stopped at Snapdragons this morning
,” Filo said
darkly
. He spoke quickly, the words all
rushing together. “
Rodney had some news. About you.”

“Yeah?”

“
A
dryad
came around looking for you last night. A Summer Court dryad. She showed him a
book with the Flicker insignia.
Asked for you
by name
.”

“I—”
Nasser started
, groping mentally for an explanation
.

“Which book was
it, Nasser?
Did you steal i
t from me?”
Filo
flashed
him a s
cornful look. “
I noticed when you snagged some of
them the other night.
How stupid do you think I am?”

“You need to calm down, Filo,” Nasser said, using the firm, parental tone tha
t Filo always responded to when they all lived together
.
Back then, he
was amazed
by
how easily Filo and Alice
bent to his will.
Neman
and
Morgan
had trained them to be obedient to any authority figure, and as the oldest, Nasser
had
certainly counted as one
.
“
You’re overreacting.”

“Don’t tell me what I’m doing,” Filo snapped
, apparently unaffected.
Two years had hardened him beyond sensitivity to the tone.
“Open your bag.”

“Jeezus, Filo!
Listen to yourself for a second—”

“Open it,” Filo repeated, then dropped his voice. “Nasser. Please.”

Nasser picked up his backpack from where he’d dropped it by the door and pulled out the book he’d taken. Filo snatched the book f
rom Nasser’s hands
.

“It’s mine, Filo,” Nasser said. “I bought that from
Hennessy myself three
years ago. I’ve only taken what’s mine. Nothing of yours.”

Filo grimaced. “You lost your claim to anything here when you left.”

“Are you really still sore about that?” Nasser asked, and regretted it instantly. That was the worst thing he could’ve said.

“What do you mean, ‘still sore?’ Have you forgotten what you did?”

“Of course not.
But at least I don’t harp about it every time we meet.”

“Then maybe we shouldn’t meet!” Filo shouted. “Not if you’re gonna walk around like you’re so damn
righteous
when you’re stealing from me
!”

“I think you’re the one that’s for
gotten,” Nasser seethed.
“
Do you remember what
Neman
and
Morgan
did to us?
What they almost did to Jason?
”

Filo’s face tightened. “How did
that dryad
know your name?”

Nasser’s blood t
urned to ice.
He’d known this was coming, and he hadn’t prepared. He hesitated, then said, “It was part of the deal for Lee. My name
in exchange for her freedom
. My
true
name.”

“You gave your
name?
”
Fi
lo’s expression was incredulous. He looked as though he truly couldn’t
understand how Nasser could’ve given away something so precious.
“For
he
r?
”

“
Yes. F
or her.”

“You didn’t even know her!”

“I didn’t have to!”

“How could you be so stupid? Don’t you ever think?”

“Were you thinking when you gave Lee that book?” Nasser countered. “Giving a book of magic to a novice.
…
You know better than that, Filo. She could’ve been hurt!”

“And
you
know
better than to give your name
to one of the Folk,” Filo said. “But that didn’t matter, did it? You were too distracted by Lee to think about what you were doing.”