Brightly (Flicker #2) (5 page)

When Lee’s magic took control, she grabbed her pencils and filled her sketchbooks with elaborate artwork. Jason composed complicated, beautiful music. Alice tore up newspapers and folded dozens of tiny paper animals that walked around by themselves. And Filo told stories.

He hadn’t
learned
that magic. It was simply part of him, an instinct folded up inside him like a second heartbeat. Over the years, Filo had learned how to harness that magic at will.

“A long, long time ago, in a tiny fishing village, there lived a fisherman named Urashima Taro,” Filo began. “He was known for his great skill—he could catch more fish in a day than his comrades could catch in a week—but he was also known for his kind heart. He couldn’t bear to see any creature suffer. One summer evening, as he was walking home, Urashima came across a group of boys who were tormenting a turtle, pulling it this way and that, beating it with a stick. Urashima rescued the turtle and carried it back to the sea…”

As he spoke, he could feel the magic stirring like fireflies in his blood. But it was more than magic that made the crowd lean in closer. It was eye contact, gestures, facial expressions. It was different voices and speech patterns for different characters, and the stress on individual words that could make the audience laugh or gasp or cringe. It was the use of silence as well as sound. These were things Filo had
learned
.

At the edge of the crowd stood a boy about Filo’s age, maybe seventeen. Whenever Filo looked that way, he noticed the other boy watching him with a different intensity than the rest of the listeners. He had dark hair and green eyes—green like deep water, or light falling through a canopy of trees—and, strangest, no inhuman traits that Filo could see.

Impossible. Only faeries and other creatures came here, and the rare Sighted human. To his knowledge, Filo and his friends were the only Sighted humans in at least two hundred miles.

Glancing from the corner of his eye, Filo furtively searched the boy for some evidence of a faery nature; every faery had
something
to mark it as inhuman. But there was nothing. All Filo saw was a decidedly human-looking boy. All he saw were those eyes.

Eventually, Filo looked directly at the boy, and their eyes met. The boy’s mouth lifted into a smile, making his eyes shine a little brighter—and for a heartbeat, Filo forgot what he was doing. The crowd faded into his peripheral vision. Then his magic reined him back in, and he launched back into his description of the palace of the Dragon King of the Sea.

“When Urashima lifted the lid of the precious box,” Filo concluded, some minutes later, “a strange purple mist rose from it, and swirled all around him before drifting out across the water. In that moment, his three hundred years of living came upon him all at once—his back hunched, his hair turned white, and deep wrinkles creased his face. Then Urashima Taro fell down dead on the beach, where he lay until the waves claimed him and returned him to the sea.”

For a moment—silence. Then the audience burst into spirited applause and chatter. Thinking quickly, Jason began edging his way through the group with a handkerchief he’d pulled from his pocket, accepting tips on Filo’s behalf, while Alice approached the storyteller.

Filo took several slow breaths, concentrating on putting his magic away. Then he stood and stretched, feeling something pop in his back. He could feel the faery storyteller glaring at him, but he didn’t bother to look.

Sidling up beside him, Jason clapped him on the shoulder. “I thought you’d have to tell two or three stories to make any decent money, but with the tips
and
the bet—look at this!” Grinning, he shook the handkerchief, and the coins inside jangled merrily. “Good job. Let’s go buy something we don’t need.”

Alice snatched the handkerchief from Jason. In her other hand, she held a little pouch, no doubt filled with the storyteller’s money. “Shouldn’t you be looking for a knife to replace the one you broke last week?” she asked dryly. “And besides, it’s Filo’s money. He decides what we’ll do with it. Right, Filo?”

“Right,” Filo agreed absently, without really hearing her. He had been scanning the dispersing crowd, searching for a pair of green eyes, but the boy was gone.

Chapter Three:

After leaving the Market, they didn’t get back to Flicker until almost two o’clock in the morning, but Filo didn’t really believe in sleeping in. He’d rapped impatiently on the bedroom door around eight-thirty this morning, having already been awake long enough to shower, dress and fix breakfast.

Lee’s eyelids didn’t seem to want to stay open, and her legs ached from a night of dancing, but she’d still rather make some business visits around Bridgestone than sit around in the apartment by herself. Besides, it was already too hot to sleep.

It was barely ten o’clock, but an incredible heat was already baking the city as Filo and Lee headed toward Hennessy’s Uncommon Books, owned by Gabriel Hennessy. Like most magical establishments in Bridgestone City, Hennessy’s looked perfectly ordinary from the outside, just a small, unassuming bookshop with a hand-painted sign hung in the window. A layer of illusory magic deterred normal humans from noticing or entering the shop.

Filo ducked inside, Lee a step behind. Hennessy’s was a veritable maze of bookcases, many of them so close together that it was necessary to turn sideways just to squeeze between them. Most of the books were fairly old, and the majority dealt with magic in some form or another—but every now and then, as she edged between the rows, Lee unearthed a different sort of magic. A beautiful old copy of
A Wizard of Earthsea.
A guide to the Victorian language of flowers, the pages yellowed and delicate, which she often referenced when sending notes to Nasser. A book of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

She loved it here.

Hennessy’s was blessedly cool and quiet, like a hidden world, and Lee breathed a sigh of relief as she crossed the well-worn floorboards and joined Filo.

Someone was sitting behind the long counter, nearly hidden by stacks of books. Lee could only see the top of the person’s head: a pair of pointed ears knifing up through a messy mop of bright blond hair.

Rapping his knuckles on the counter, Filo admonished, “Addy! Pay attention, will you?”

The boy behind the counter nearly fell over as he jumped to his feet, a comic book clutched in his hand. It was just Addy, Lee saw, Gabriel Hennessy’s fourteen-year-old nephew. Addy was a rumpled, sunburned boy who worked part-time in the bookstore, along with his older sister, Juliet. Like their uncle, they were fey, but they had traces of human blood; Addy had once mentioned a human great-grandfather.

“Mister Shine!” Addy squeaked. “I didn’t hear you come in!”

“I thought I told you to call me by my first name,” Filo reminded him, not unkindly.

Addy flushed red. “Sorry,
Filo.
” He said Filo’s name a bit carefully, like it was either a sacred word or a foul one. Glancing up, he noticed Lee, and his blush deepened. “Oh! Hi, Lee.”

“Hi, Addy.” She smiled a little, and he beamed up at her.

“I got the new issue of
Avengers
yesterday,” he told her. “You can borrow it if you want.”

“Maybe another day,” she said, wincing internally as his smile shrank. Addy didn’t treat Lee with the same awed respect, and possibly fear, that he did Filo. At least, not since the day she had noticed the
X-Men
comic he was reading as he manned the counter, and asked if he’d ever read
X-Factor.
They started talking comics, and after that, Addy had spent an inordinate amount of time gazing at her with a glazed, happy expression. It was worst when Lee came into the bookshop with Nasser; those days, Addy’s face was a thinly-veiled mask of tragedy.

“Filo!” gushed a female voice.

Juliet Hennessy breezed out from behind a bookcase, golden hair cascading down her back. Her huge eyes—one blue, one brown—were rimmed with glimmering green shadow, and some kind of powdery makeup shimmered along her high cheekbones. Tiny gemstone studs glittered at the tips of her pointed ears.

“I didn’t expect to see you in today, Filo,” Juliet said.

“I got a message last night saying the book I ordered came in,” he replied.

“Oh. Well, Uncle Gabe’s not in right now, but I can get your book.” She smiled broadly. “Addy! Go check that shipment that came in last night. There should be something on the list under Filo’s name.”

With a long-suffering sigh, Addy dropped his comic book, stood, and disappeared into the back room of the bookstore. Juliet took his place behind the counter, clearing the books out of the way and sweeping some stray papers into a pile.

Leaning across the counter toward Filo and ignoring Lee completely, as usual, Juliet inquired, “So are you interested in… anything else, today?”

“No,” Filo said flatly. “Just the one book.”

Lee rolled her eyes. Filo had the Second Sight, but he couldn’t see Juliet’s ferocious crush on him.

When Lee and Filo first met, she’d been too busy to spend any time ruminating on his looks. Now that she’d had time to get to know him, Lee supposed he was good-looking, when he wasn’t scowling: black hair, blue eyes, sort of elegant features. In another life, one where he’d been a normal teenager, he might’ve had girls eating out of his hands.

But in this life, Lee just couldn’t see the appeal. He was a great subject for drawing, but he was also stubborn, cynical, and a bit of a pill. Maybe it was because they’d spent almost a year driving each other crazy as roommates, but whatever he looked like, Lee couldn’t imagine dating a boy like Filo.

“Hey,” Filo said suddenly, dropping his gaze to Juliet’s throat. “Is that amber?”

“This?” Juliet’s hand flew to the bright charm hanging from a delicate silver chain. She was wearing several large bronze rings. “Yeah.”

“Does it work?”

She winked. “Like a charm.”

Filo didn’t smile. “Let me buy it off you.”

For a moment, she looked startled. This was probably the most interest Filo had ever shown her. Then a honey-slow smile spread across her face. “Sure.”

“How much?” Filo asked.

Juliet made a great show of biting her lip as she decided on the price and Filo remained oblivious. Lee tried not to roll her eyes too obviously as she strolled behind a nearby bookcase, where she was mostly hidden but had an unobstructed view of the counter. This was beginning to feel like a nature special, and she didn’t want to disrupt Juliet in her natural habitat.

At last, Juliet purred, “A kiss.”

Filo blinked like he hadn’t heard her properly. “What?”

“If you want the charm, it’ll cost you one kiss.”

Lee almost gagged.

“It’s a great charm,” Juliet said, when Filo hesitated. “It was a present from Uncle Gabe, so you know the enchantment’s top-notch.”

That gave him pause. “Do you only have one?”

“Addy’s got another.”

“I’ll agree to your price if you sell me both.”

Sighing, Juliet turned and called, “Hey, Addy! Come here!”

A minute later, Addy trotted in, a thick book in his hand. “I found the book you ordered, Filo,” he began, but his sister cut him off.

“Listen, Addy, I need your amber charm.”

“But—”

“I’ll make it
up
to you, Addy,” she said, in an authoritative, big-sister tone. “Just fork it over. And leave that book, too.”

Addy grumbled mightily, but he pulled off the charm, identical to Juliet’s, and pressed it into her waiting hand.

“Now scram,” she said firmly, shooing him. “Go shelve some books or something.” When he was gone, she turned back to Filo, smiling seductively. “Now, where were we?”

“Charms first,” he said flatly.

That seemed to damper Juliet’s enthusiasm a bit. “Two charms,” she said, “two kisses.”

“Done.”

“All right, then.” She slid the charms across the counter, then leaned forward and shut her eyes, waiting. Filo sighed, but he leaned down and kissed her with his mouth firmly closed. After several seconds, he broke the contact, waited a beat, then pressed his lips to hers again.

When Filo drew back after about three seconds, he wiped his mouth. “How much do I owe you for the book?”

Looking thoroughly uninspired, Juliet told him the price. Filo slapped several crumpled bills on the counter, grabbed the book and started toward the door. Lee hurried after him, trying not to snicker.

As they stepped into the unbearable afternoon heat, Filo gave Lee one of the charms before she could make any comments.

“What does it do?” she asked.

“You’ll see.”

Shrugging, she put on the necklace, and gasped in surprise. The moment the charm was around her neck, the heat of the day seemed to melt away—not completely gone, but much more bearable.

“Instant heat protection,” Filo said, looping the chain of the other necklace around his wrist several times; it hung beside the carved wooden bracelet Alice had given him, which he always wore. The chain glinted in the light.