Flicker (30 page)

A long moment passed. Nasser didn’t know what to say.

“I’m still mad at you,” Filo continued, staring at his shoes. “But Samhain is coming
up, and
i
t’s going to be different. Especially with the dryad. We need to decide what we’re doing.”

“We ought
to
work together
,
” Nasser suggested.
“
Like we used to
.”
He paused as another energy appe
ared on his internal radar—Lee
, just a few feet away—but dismissed it for the moment. “How about Jason and I meet y
ou at Flicker, before the Rade
starts
?”

“That’ll be fine, I guess.”

“Good.” They turned and walked back around the case. Nasser was unsurprised when he saw Lee nearby, admiring a row of
bottled potions, their contents shimmering red and gold
. He raised an eyebrow. “What’s up?”

“Just looking
around,
”
she said innocently.

He
nodded
, not quite believing her. Had she been listening to them talk? Probably. Not that he blamed her; he would’ve been listening in, too, if their positions were reversed. But what had she heard?

“Come on, Lee,” Filo commanded. “We’re leaving.”

Filo grabbed Lee’s shoulder and steered her towar
d the door. As they brushed past, Nasser slipped her another small bundle of heartsease, which he’d swiftly glamoured from a
few
scrap
s
of paper in his coat pocket. Smiling
, Lee pressed the heartsease to her chest and offered Nasser a little wave as Filo urged her through the door.

Chapter Eleven:

See It Coming

Filo rummaged through a wooden chest in the
front room
, pushing past leather bags stuffed with dried roots and two transformative wolf pelts, each carefully wrapped in rough burlap to prevent accidents
.
Not finding what he was looking for
, he turned to the nearest bookcase. There were a few hollowed-out books on
the shelves, but they
contained nothing useful. He tossed the books onto the table and looked up, finally noticing the noise coming through the wall. The hiss of water in the bathroom was like radio static; Lee was taking a shower, he guessed.

“Try that one.”
Neman
’s voice made Filo jump. He spun around.

Neman
was standing just behind him; he had to skitter back several paces to create a more comfortable distance between them. She must have entered through the open window while his back was turned and masked her energy so she could surprise him. Typical.

He blinked. “Which one?”

“That one,” she repeated, pointing to a
cardboard
box in the corner. “Try it.”

Filo fished around inside
the box
, coming up with a
blue
drawstring bag. Its contents clattered when he shook it, and when he looked inside, he saw that it was filled with wooden Blocks. “Excellent.” His smile thanked her.

Neman
sat in a nearby chair. “Are you ready
for tonight
?”

“As ready as it’s possible to be, I guess.”

There was a flutter and
a
rush
of energy at the window, and suddenly,
Morgan
was seated on the sill. She fixed her dark
eyes on Filo. “Tell me your plan
,” she said, by way of greeting.

“Nasser and Jason are
meeting us
before the
Rade
,” he said. “We’re gonna split up into two groups and head in opposite directions.
We’ll cover more ground that way.
”

Morgan
frowned. “Nasser and Jason?”

“Is that a problem?” he asked tentatively.

“You should know bett
er than to associate with
them
,
esp
ecially on a night as important as Samhain
.”
She rose and stalked toward him.

Filo i
nstinctively dropped his gaze, h
unching his shoulders to
make himself
seem
smaller.
If he
appeared
submissive, her punishment
might be
less severe.

“I’ve been spending time with them lately,” he began cautiously, bracing himself for a slap. In the bathroom, the water stopped. “They’ve come around the shop. You never said anything about it. I just thought—”

“Stupid boy!
How did we raise such a disgrace
?”
Glaring,
Morgan
placed one hand on his cheek, turning him to look at her. His skin itched awfully where she touched him,
and
the sharp points of her talons
jabbed
him. “
I should have smothered you when you were small. Then you would not have grown to ca
use me such shame
.”

“I
’m sorry.”

Morgan
shook her head. “You are not
sorry,
” she growled. “What are you, Filo Shine?”

“I am foolish,” he whispered,
his voice hollow as he repeated
the words she
had thrown at him since he was a child
.
The words he often believed.
“I am
useless
. I am weak. I am—”

“
Obviously.
But
most important of all—what are you?”
Her black eyes pierced his.
“Tell me what you are.”

“I am yours.”

“That’s right.
” The pressure of her tal
ons on his cheek eased somewhat, but his heartbeat thundered in his ears—like he’d been running, like he was in some danger.
“
You belong to us. Your
life
is ours.
Remember that.”

“I
do. I
will.”

Morgan
’s eyes narrowed. “You will not go with Nasser and Jason tonight.
If you do, things will go hard with you in the coming days.
Understand?”

“Yes. I understand.”

“Good boy.”
Morgan
took a step back. In a swirl of
light and air, she became a crow
, and sailed out the window. A moment later, she was gone.

Filo turned sharply
away
, scoop
ing up books and s
helving them haphazardly
. His eyes burned with
humiliation
. Taking deep, slow breaths, he shoved
the
pitiful
urge to cry
as far down into himself as he could
. When he wiped his cheek,
his hand came away smeared with blood.

“
Don’t be disheartened,”
Neman
piped
. “You’ve no time to mope.”

“I’m not moping,” Filo growled.

She laughed. “Of course not. You don’t mope. You
brood
.”

“What do you see,
Nem
? What’s gonna happen tonight?”

Instead of answering,
Nem
tapped his shoulder. Grudgingly, he turned to her. “Have no worries,” she said. “You’ll not meet the dryad tonight.”

“You know about that?”

She just smiled. “This is a problem for you to solve, Filo. We are most
curious to see how you how you fight what battles will come your way
. Take what you’ve learned and use it. You are old enough to take care of yourself.”

Filo heard what she wasn’t saying. He knew suddenly why
Neman
had insisted on Lee staying that first night, and why
Morgan
hadn’t thrown Lee out yet, or worse.

They’d foreseen
all this
. Hadn’t they said he hadn’t been tested enough, that he needed to learn? This, it seemed, was how they planned to teach him.

He should’ve
seen this coming.
Nem
and
Morgan
often disappeared f
or days at a time, but lately,
weeks
had
passed between their visits. He ha
dn’t thought anything of it
, j
ust written it off as another
one of their
inexplicable whim
s
. N
ow he knew.

Neman
and
Morgan
had been gradually removing themselves from h
is life, forcing him to function
on his own, so he could keep afloat when they left
for good
. He hadn’t even realized
.

“Right.” Filo
silently
resigned himself. “I know I am.”

“Good.”
Neman
leaned over
the sill, about to push herself off.

He opened his mouth to ask
Neman
why had s
he and
Morgan
had taken apprentices
if they were only
ever
planning to toss them aw
ay
when they stopped being interesting
. What was
the
point? But by the time he got his voice working, she was gone.

* * *

When Lee emerged from the bathroom, rubbing a towel through her damp hair, Filo was standing at the table. His back was to her, his shoulders tense.

“What was that about?” Lee asked as she approached him, careful not to invade his personal space. He was clearly
upset
, but she was wary about trying to comfort him—he looked almost jumpy, like a cat that might wheel around and scratch at the wrong touch.

Filo scowled. “Eavesdropper. How much did you hear?”

She didn’t
really
think she’d been eavesdropping; the conversation had been loud enough for her to hear throu
gh the door as she got dressed.
But she didn’t tell him that
, and she certainly didn’t mention that listening
to
Morgan
’s
jagged words and
Filo’s
sad, hollow re
sponses had made her chest ache
.
That would just make him shut himself up like a steel trap.

“
Enough
to have a few questions,” she
said.
“
W
hat’s Samhain
?”

Fil
o slammed the window shut, then went
to the table, where
his
bag lay
beside
a
large, battered
green backpack. He
started
to grab
objects from the table and
shove them into the bags
.

“There are certain days that are es
pecially magical,” he began.
Lee noticed the
faint pinkish stain
on h
is cheek
, and the little cuts on his cheekbone
. “One of the big ones is Samhain. You’d know it as Halloween. Most days, the creatures in the city keep a pretty low profile. But on
days like this, their magic is
strengthened. They get much bolder and
cause all kinds of problems. So every year, we Seers patrol the city all night. We
try to keep an eye on things, help out
where we can.”

Lee bent to peer at the items on the table. Packets and baggies filled with powder were scattered about, along with bundles of herbs, and amulets of metal and bone. “Confetti’s not enough for this parade, I see,” she observed, both slightly alarmed and curious.

Filo shifted his gaze between two packets of powder, as if trying to do decide which to choose. They looked exac
tly the same to Lee. “You’re a poor eavesdropper. It’s n
ot
parade
,” he
corrected
. “
It’s
R
ade.
As in,
‘Faerie Rade.’
”