the most wonderful job in the world, rather than laboring in a concrete box filled with noise, bright lights, and all manner of trinkets shoved and stacked into every available empty space. “It can be overwhelming. But I bet we can manage to get you in the right place. What are you looking for?”
“I need one of those phones.”
“A mobile phone?”
“Is that one that has the global position system?”
“Oh yes, and tons more. Though I’m not exactly savvy with them. Apparently, there’s all sorts of nifty gadgets on them these days.” The woman motioned for Myanin to follow her. “I could call someone from the electronics department, but I’m about to go on my break so I’ll just walk you back there myself.”
Goody.
“You don’t look like you’re from around here and your accent is quite distinct. Are you from another country?”
“You could say that,” she replied in a bored tone of voice.
“Is it someplace really small?”
Did this woman ever stop talking? “Not really. It’s quite large, but you’ve probably never heard of it.”
“You’re probably right. Geography was never really my thing,” she said with a little laugh.
Was that supposed to be funny? “Mobile phones aren’t your thing, and geography isn’t your thing. What is your thing?” Myanin asked the strangely happy woman.
“Oh, I love to garden. I love plants and trees and nature in general.” Her smile grew even bigger as she talked about her obvious passion.
Maybe she wasn’t so horrible after all. Myanin appreciated a person, even a human, who understood how amazing nature was. She, herself, had loved guarding the veil because it allowed her to be in constant connection with nature.
“Well, here we are,” the woman said and pointed toward a counter where a skinny male stood staring down at a phone in his hand. “Stuart will be glad to help you.”
Stuart looked up and started to look down but did a double take as his eyes roved over Myanin. She was tall, at least compared to most human females. She couldn’t have looked very attractive considering she was wearing Thadrick’s giant stolen shirt. But there must have been something about her that Stuart found appealing because his eyes were devouring her.
“Sure, I can help her,” Stuart said in a voice that made it clear he wasn’t talking about phones.
As if. Myanin smirked. “You couldn’t handle me, boy,” she said as she stepped closer to the counter.
“It was nice talking to you,” the elderly woman said.
She glanced over her shoulder and smiled at the woman. “Thank you for your help, female. You were not unpleasant.”
The woman giggled as if what Myanin had said had been a joke. Not unpleasant but definitely strange.
She turned back to Stuart, who had his gaze glued to her chest. She rolled her eyes. “My face is up here, Stuart.” She sighed. “Unless you plan on selling my breasts a phone.”
His face turned a deep crimson red. “S-s-so you need a cell phone?”
“Yes,” she said and then grabbed his chin and forced him to look in her eyes. She wasn’t supposed to use her persuasion on humans, but she’d already defied the council. There was really no point in attempting to stick to their damn rules any longer. “Give me a phone, show me how to use the GPS, and then forget you met me.”
Fifteen minutes later, she walked out of the loud, bright store with a phone in hand and the app, as Stuart had called it, showing a map. She’d put in the state of Arizona and hit the go button. According to the map, it would take about twenty-five hours to get there in one of the human’s automobiles. Myanin would run instead, though she could still get there quicker if she wanted.
Now that she had a phone, she needed to decide if she should use it to call the elf king or simply show up at his front door. Myanin had no doubt she would be able to find where the Order was hiding. Her kind could sense magic. It was very hard to hide it from a djinn.
After thinking about it, she slipped the phone into her back pocket, adjusted the pack on her back, and began whistling as she walked down the sidewalk. Killing the vamps had mellowed her out a bit, and Myanin felt more confident than she first had when she’d left the djinn realm. “I got this,” she said, which had been the same thing she’d said before the vampires had surrounded her. Perhaps