Storm Born Page 0,7

were false leads, I tended to keep a healthy dose of skepticism on hand.

"Will you help me then?"

"Like I said, this really isn't my thing. And even if we decide she was taken to the Otherworld, I have no idea where to look for her. It's as big as ours."

"She's being held by a king named Aeson."

I spun around from where I'd been staring at the crossroads. "How the hell do you know that?"

"A sprite told me."

"A sprite."

"Yeah. He used to work for this guy Aeson. He ran away and wanted revenge. So he sold the information to me."

"Sold it?"

"He needed money to put down a deposit on an apartment in Scottsdale."

It sounded ludicrous, but it wasn't the first time I'd heard of Otherworldly creatures trying to set up shop in the human world. Or of crazy people who wanted to live in Scottsdale.

"When did this happen?"

"Oh, a few days ago." He made it sound like a visit from the UPS guy.

"So. You were seriously approached by a sprite and only now thought to mention it?"

Wil shrugged. Some of the sunscreen he'd missed rubbing in showed on his chin. It kind of reminded me of kindergarten paste. "Well, I'd already known she was taken by fairies. This just sort of confirmed it. He was actually the one who mentioned you. Said you killed one of his cousins. Then I found some locals that backed up the story."

I studied Wil. If he hadn't seemed so hapless, I almost wouldn't have believed any of this. But it smacked too much of truth for him to be making it up. "What did he call me?"

"Huh?"

"When he told you about me. What name did he give you?"

"Well...your name. Odile. But there was something else too...Eunice?"

"Eugenie?"

"Yeah, that was it."

I paced irritably around the clearing. The second of two Otherworldly denizens to know my name in as many days. That was not good. Not good at all. And now one of them was trying to get Wil to lure me into the Otherworld. Or was it truly a lure? Sprites weren't really known for being criminal masterminds. If I'd killed his cousin, I suppose he might hope some other motivated creature would take me down.

"So what? Are you going to help me now?"

"I don't know. I've got to think on it, check up on some stuff."

"But - but I've shown you and told you everything! Don't you see how real this is? You have to help me! She's only fifteen, for God's sake."

"Wil," I said calmly, "I believe you. But it's not that simple."

I meant it. It wasn't so simple, no matter how much I wanted it to be. I hated Otherworldly inference more than I hated anything else. Taking a teenage girl was the ultimate violation. I wanted to make the guilty party pay for this. I wanted to make them suffer. But I couldn't cross over with guns blazing. Getting myself killed would do none of us any good. I needed more information before I could proceed.

"You have to - "

"No," I snapped, and this time my voice wasn't so neutral. "I do not have to do anything, do you understand? I make my own choices and take my own jobs. Now, I'm very sorry about your sister, but I'm not jumping into this just yet. As Lara told you, I don't generally do jobs that take me into the Otherworld. If I take this one, it'll be after careful deliberation and question-asking. And if I don't take it, then I don't take it. End of story. Got it?"

He swallowed and nodded, cowed by the fierce tone in my voice. It was not unlike the one I used on spirits, but I felt only a little bit bad about scaring Wil with it. He had to prepare himself for the highly likely possibility that I would not do this for him, no matter how much we both wanted it.

On the way home, I swung by my mom's place, wanting to talk to Roland. Sunset threw reddish-orange light onto their house, and the scent of her flower garden filled the air. It was the familiar smell of safety and childhood. When I walked into the kitchen, I didn't see her anywhere, which was probably just as well. She tended to get upset when Roland and I talked shop.

He sat at the table working on a model airplane. I'd laughed when he picked up this hobby after retiring from shamanism, but it had recently occurred to