Read Online Emerald City Dreamer by Luna Lindsey - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Luna Lindsey
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all the recruits we can get. Especially with talents like his." If they had someone with faesight, she could send him out and get a lot of classification done, and maybe figure out why no one ever reported seeing Native American spirits anymore. Except maybe Sasquatch. Everyone saw Sasquatch. But maybe that was an animal.
" I don't know much about him yet, but he's really nice. He knows a lot about the fae, after all these years seeing them. He got me to thinking. Is there a good way to tell the difference between seelie and unseelie faeries?"
" Only by their actions. Why?" Sandy eyed the chicken and considered taking another bite.
" One of the fae protected him when he was a kid. He says not many of them are like Haun and Scarf."
" Unseelie and seelie. That's a difference without distinction. Even in the old tales, a seelie faerie is just as likely to kill you as an unseelie. It's just that the seelie might give you a present first. If one of them helped Travis, it must have wanted something."
" Trey. His name is Trey. He said she never took anything from him. You're probably right. But... What if we're wrong? What if we get really good at this, kill a lot of faeborn, and some of them turn out to be innocent?"
" I mean... I guess..." Sandy trailed off. "No, Jina. The fae are far too slippery. We can't really trust any of them. Come on, let's clean this up and get down to the lab and test out that glamour."
" This was really cool," Jina said, helping Sandy take trash to the kitchen. "We should do it more often."
" Sure," Sandy said. It had been really fun, even though they'd had a hard time finding things to talk about.
In the lab, the redcap now slept, curled in a ball in the bottom of the jar. Gretel napped and Sandy let her sleep. Sandy poured herself a little drink and offered Hollis some.
Jina came down the stairs, guitar and notebook in hand. Unlike Sandy's notebook, Jina's did not contain raw data, only lyrics and poems, all to be part of the spell. She sat in one of the wheelie office chairs, and propped her old acoustic guitar on her knee.
Sandy recalled a simpler time, when all they had to worry about were term paper due dates, when Jina would sit in her living room, with that same guitar.
Her memories were so close to the surface. She was grateful for the buffer the Lonach provided, like a shield, like the wards that kept that little redcap in the jar. She took another sip and then set the glass down when Jina eyed it.
" Gretel, wake up." Sandy nudged Gretel in her chair until she was alert. "Is everyone ready?"
Every member of the Ordo nodded in assent.
" It should be easy for Jina to create an orb of light that we can all see. Gretel, you write down everything you see in terms of aura and psychic energies, both on the demon and on Jina. Okay, I'm turning off the wards... Now."
Jina spent a little too long tuning the guitar. "It helps me focus," she explained. When she began playing, she made up the words as she went.
Shimmer bright,
Orbal sprite,
Cast this room,
In faerie light.
As she sang, a brief flash of soft light flickered into being, then faded. Jina cleared her throat and repeated the lyrics, louder, with more emotion. This time, a red glimmer appeared in the middle of the space between Jina and the glamour generator. White sparks dripped from it like rain.
A smile spread out slowly on Sandy's face. It was working. They had a source of glamour.
Then a smaller black spark, and a moment later a green one, began to intertwine within the red light, swirling around, leaving traces of their movement in lines.
The spell was taking shape. Jina wove the glamour like it was second nature. Now they could do anything.
The red light elongated, thinning, becoming oblong in form. Then the green light began at the bottom and gave shape: A stem. The black light took on the task of giving shape to the top, outlining a singular, perfect rose.
At that point everything happened at once.
The redcap
" I don't know much about him yet, but he's really nice. He knows a lot about the fae, after all these years seeing them. He got me to thinking. Is there a good way to tell the difference between seelie and unseelie faeries?"
" Only by their actions. Why?" Sandy eyed the chicken and considered taking another bite.
" One of the fae protected him when he was a kid. He says not many of them are like Haun and Scarf."
" Unseelie and seelie. That's a difference without distinction. Even in the old tales, a seelie faerie is just as likely to kill you as an unseelie. It's just that the seelie might give you a present first. If one of them helped Travis, it must have wanted something."
" Trey. His name is Trey. He said she never took anything from him. You're probably right. But... What if we're wrong? What if we get really good at this, kill a lot of faeborn, and some of them turn out to be innocent?"
" I mean... I guess..." Sandy trailed off. "No, Jina. The fae are far too slippery. We can't really trust any of them. Come on, let's clean this up and get down to the lab and test out that glamour."
" This was really cool," Jina said, helping Sandy take trash to the kitchen. "We should do it more often."
" Sure," Sandy said. It had been really fun, even though they'd had a hard time finding things to talk about.
In the lab, the redcap now slept, curled in a ball in the bottom of the jar. Gretel napped and Sandy let her sleep. Sandy poured herself a little drink and offered Hollis some.
Jina came down the stairs, guitar and notebook in hand. Unlike Sandy's notebook, Jina's did not contain raw data, only lyrics and poems, all to be part of the spell. She sat in one of the wheelie office chairs, and propped her old acoustic guitar on her knee.
Sandy recalled a simpler time, when all they had to worry about were term paper due dates, when Jina would sit in her living room, with that same guitar.
Her memories were so close to the surface. She was grateful for the buffer the Lonach provided, like a shield, like the wards that kept that little redcap in the jar. She took another sip and then set the glass down when Jina eyed it.
" Gretel, wake up." Sandy nudged Gretel in her chair until she was alert. "Is everyone ready?"
Every member of the Ordo nodded in assent.
" It should be easy for Jina to create an orb of light that we can all see. Gretel, you write down everything you see in terms of aura and psychic energies, both on the demon and on Jina. Okay, I'm turning off the wards... Now."
Jina spent a little too long tuning the guitar. "It helps me focus," she explained. When she began playing, she made up the words as she went.
Shimmer bright,
Orbal sprite,
Cast this room,
In faerie light.
As she sang, a brief flash of soft light flickered into being, then faded. Jina cleared her throat and repeated the lyrics, louder, with more emotion. This time, a red glimmer appeared in the middle of the space between Jina and the glamour generator. White sparks dripped from it like rain.
A smile spread out slowly on Sandy's face. It was working. They had a source of glamour.
Then a smaller black spark, and a moment later a green one, began to intertwine within the red light, swirling around, leaving traces of their movement in lines.
The spell was taking shape. Jina wove the glamour like it was second nature. Now they could do anything.
The red light elongated, thinning, becoming oblong in form. Then the green light began at the bottom and gave shape: A stem. The black light took on the task of giving shape to the top, outlining a singular, perfect rose.
At that point everything happened at once.
The redcap
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