Read Online Green Fairy (Dangerous Spirits) by Kyell Gold - Free Book Online Page A

with them. Normally they wouldn’t acknowledge the ’yotes, but today they actually greeted Taric, just a quick hi, but the coyote stopped and told them how excited he was to start. So the wolves had to tell him that they were, too. Sol was about to chime in, to be conciliatory and congratulate Taric on winning the starting job, but the coyote spoke first. Even his voice was deeper and more impressive than Sol’s, though there was a harsh, gravelly quality to it.
    “Good thing we don’t have to count on that weak sauce no more,” Taric said, as if Sol weren’t standing five feet from him, ears flat against his head. He mimed swinging a bat. “You guys are gonna have some production from the 2-B spot now. And maybe you’ll actually turn a double play.”
    Sol bit his lip, but there was nothing he could do. If he left the group now, he would be calling attention to himself, isolated and alone in the thinning sea of students. If he spoke up, he would be inviting vicious attacks, and he was far from certain that his fellow wolves would stand up for him. Where was his Thierry? In Millenport, he remembered, and fought the urge to take his phone out and text Carcy right then and there for help.
    “Hey,” Xavy, the third baseman, said. “You’re doing good and we’re all on the same team. Leave Sol alone.”
    But he didn’t contradict Taric. I wasn’t that bad, Sol wanted to say. I got two hits in the last game. We had three double plays this year. Of course, pleading his own case would make him even weaker. “Oh,” Taric said, “I know you gotta stick up for him and all. Sorry, man. So hey, you catch the Typhoons game last night?”
    Two of the wolves were happy to talk about the game, while the others moved on. Sol tagged along behind them, hunched over. The scrawny ’yote was the only one who looked at Sol, and he did so with a giggle and a long, long smirk that curled into the ragged ruff of fur on his cheek. When he saw Sol looking back at him, he blew him a kiss and waggled his tongue around in his mouth.
    “Jesus, Mox,” Taric said, elbowing his friend. “Don’t fuckin’ turn him on here in the hall.” They laughed as they walked on to their class.
    The wolves looked after them. “We gotta play with him,” one of them, a pitcher, said.
    “He’s just a prick. His friends are hinky.”
    “They’re ’yotes.”
    Xavy shoved the wolf who’d said that. “Don’t be an ass. They aren’t all like that.”
    “Hey,” the other wolf protested. “Why d’you think stereotypes happen, huh?”
    “At least he can play,” Xavy said.
    “Yeah.” And then the tallest wolf, the smooth-hitting first baseman, looked at Sol. “Why couldn’t you’ve kept it up for just two more months, huh?”
    “He kept it up okay back in December,” the pitcher murmured. He chuckled, but none of the others did.
    Awkward silences were rapidly becoming part of Sol’s life. The other wolves, even Xavy, looked down and away. Sol flattened his ears and walked quickly on, leaving them behind. He hated walking to class alone, but it was better than having that brought up again. That was all he needed, on top of everything else.
    A moment later, he was wishing he were more alone. Tanny ran up behind him, pink ribbons bouncing. “Hey, backup,” she said.
    Sol just walked faster, but Tanny kept pace with him. “I bet you’re happier riding the pine ,” she said. “Y’oughta thank my brother. C’mon. I wanna see a wolf thank a coyote.”
    Don’t react, don’t give her the satisfaction. He managed to keep his muzzle shut and get into the classroom, where she had to shut up. After class, he grabbed his books and ran to the cafeteria, and she didn’t follow him.
    After lunch, though, as he left the cafeteria, she sprang from the hallway to his side. “Hey,” she said in a venomous whisper, “was it my brother you were thinking of in the shower?”
    He walked faster, but she kept pace. “I bet it was. I bet you want