Brightly (Flicker #2)

Chapter 3: Struck

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 Hennessey's Uncommon Books, owned by Gabriel Hennessey. Like most magical establishments in Bridgestone City, Hennessey'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. Hennessey'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.

Hennessey'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 Hennessey'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 Hennessey 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.