Dusk Avenger (Flirting with Monsters #3) - Eva Chase Page 0,62
“I don’t like showing myself when there are mortals around.”
Unlikely he’d been fast friends with my parents, then. I crouched down so I wasn’t towering over him quite so much and flashed him a smile. “I’m really sorry. We just wanted to ask a few questions about things that happened quite a long time ago. There aren’t very many shadowkind who’ve stuck with this city with as much dedication as you have.”
The flattery got me somewhere. The little man puffed up his chest, and his frown faded even though it didn’t disappear completely. “I know when I’ve got a good thing. What is it you wanted to know?”
“There was a fae woman who lived around here about thirty years ago. Her name was Luna. In her shadowkind form, she had filmy wings and she was pretty sparkly… well, like faeries are. I don’t suppose you ever ran into her?”
The gnome rubbed his chin. “Luna. Luna. I can’t say that name sounds at all familiar.”
As my heart sank, he waved a finger in the air. “I know who you might ask, though. She’s rather fickle, as faeries are too, but they do often gravitate to their own kind. There’s a fae by the name of Daisy that hangs around out back of the lighting store over that-a-ways. It’s been a time since I went that way, but she’s been in this city almost as long as I have, I think, so I don’t see why she’d have left. You could try her.”
He motioned to the east toward this lighting store. Well, that was the start of a trail, at least.
As I straightened up, Omen cleared his throat. He didn’t bother lowering himself to the gnome’s level. “One more thing. At least a couple of decades ago, powerful shadowkind might have come through the city asking about a being they’d have said was dangerous—one named Ruby.”
The gnome paused, and then his eyes widened. The recollection made him quiver on his feet. “Oh, yes, I didn’t like those ones that asked about it. Three times they badgered me—a lot less politely than you lot.”
“Three times?” Omen repeated. “Did you know something about Ruby?”
“Not at all. But they seemed to be making the rounds over and over thinking they’d turn something new up. I can’t say why. It must have been over the course of at least a month they kept coming around.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Like you said, years and years ago.” The little man grimaced. “I’d put it out of my mind.”
“All right. That’s helpful to know.” Omen gave the gnome a slight but definite tip of his head in thanks.
“I guess we’ll have to hope this fae who might or might not be at the lighting store will have more dirt to dish,” I said as we headed in the direction he’d pointed us.
Snap cocked his head to one side. “How do humans sell light?”
I wasn’t going to get into the extent that we actually did, or I’d end up needing to explain the entire science of electricity. “They just sell fancy ways of generating that light for inside our houses. Lamps and ceiling fixtures and all that.”
“Ah, yes! They had many glowing things like that in the hotel that were lovely to look at.” The devourer beamed so brightly at the memory that we probably could have put him up for sale in the store.
Omen, on the other hand, was frowning now as if the gnome’s expression had been contagious. “We do know more than we did before. There must have been a reason the Highest’s minions would have focused on this city more than others. If there was a definite sighting of ‘Ruby’ here, or more than just a sighting—we might be able to pick up that trail while we’re here too.”
I didn’t know why he’d frown about getting closer to this shadowkind he figured might help us, but with Omen, sometimes it was better not to ask.
The lighting store was easy to spot: a big building with massive amounts of crystal fixtures glittering in its broad windows. Snap re-emerged from the shadows in time to take in the view in all its splendor with an awed inhalation, careful to hold his forked tongue out of sight.
Antic had vanished from view with the others while we’d headed out of the golf course. As we came around the back of the store, she sprang into sight again, pointing at a little house that was really more of a hut, wedged