“Yeah, you change planes in Atlanta,” Ash said.Everyone turned to stare at them.“What?You’ve all heard the joke, and this shit is getting way too serious.You guys need to lighten up.”
“Lighten up?”I said, stomping over to the rainbow-haired stagehand/caterer.“You want me to lighten up?My fiancée and most of her family are trapped in Fairyland, along with an entire damned building and almost everybody I give a shit about in my hometown, and you want me tolighten up?!?” I was yelling by the end, but they just stood there staring up at me.
“Yes.I want you to get out of my goddamned face, take a few deep breaths, and lighten the hell up.You’re running around like a chicken with its head cut off, all locked in on the one way you knew about to get to Faerie, without even listening to what the hottie with the stubble is saying.”
That stopped me dead in my tracks.I did just what Ash asked and took a step back.“What do you mean, what he’s saying?”
“What do you mean, hottie?”Geri asked, looking cockeyed at Harker, who just stood there in his kind scruffy sport coat over his jeans, with a little five o’clock shadow even though it wasn’t noon yet, and shrugged.
“Girl, please,” Ash said.“Tell me you wouldn’t climb that like a tree.”
Quincy Harker did something I would have sworn on a stack of whatever book you think is holy he was incapable of doing.He blushed.I reveled in his discomfort for a couple seconds before bringing the new kid back on track.“Ash, what exactly did Harker say that you think is relevant?”
“He said he’s been closing down portals as fast as he can find them.Which means that he’s either got a list of where a bunch of them are, or some way to find them.”She turned to him.“So what’s the story, morning glory?You gonna tell us how to get to Faerie, or am I going to start listing all the ways I think you’re smoking hot until you die of embarrassment?”
Harker surrendered almost immediately, holding up both hands, palms-out.“I yield, I yield.I do have a list of potential sites where there either may be portals, or where there have been portals in the past.But I’ve cleared all the ones between here and Atlanta.”
“But that’s not the whole list, is it?”Ash asked.They were giving him a very direct look, and it wasn’t the one where they were thinking about all the things they’d do to him given the opportunity.No, this was way more appraising, more…considering, like they were rummaging around in his head and sifting through to find the relevant information.
Harker glared at them.“Stop that,” he said, holding up a hand wreathing in yellow light.“You donotwant to go messing around in the dark corners of my mind.There’s shit in there that could fry your brain.”
Every eye locked in on Ash.“You’re a mind reader?”Geri asked, taking a step away from them.
“Not exactly,” Ash said.“Usually I’m just sensitive.I can pick up on emotions, especially strong ones, and I can kinda tell when someone’s either lying or holding something back.When Harker mentioned closing down portals, I got the sense that there was more he wasn’t telling us, so I thought I’d push a little.”
“Maybe not such a good idea when the person you’re pushing throws fireballs for funsies,” Harker said with a glare.
“Don’t threaten the telepath, Harker,” I said.“You never know what they’ll reveal about you.”
“Most of it’s in your girlfriend’s files already, pal,” he replied.Then he let out a sigh.“There is a guy I know in Atlanta that might be able to help.He’s my tattoo artist.”
“Your tattoo artist might be able to get us into Fairyland?”I asked, dubious.“I mean, I could use some new body art, but I don’t know how that’s going to open a portal.”
“I don’t think the tattoo alone will do it.I think he’ll probably use his shop assistants for the portal opening.They’re all fae, on loan from his grandmother,” Harker replied.
The tone gave me a real nervous feeling, but Skeeter beat me to the question I was just a little too chickenshit to ask.“Who exactly is your artist’s grandmother, Harker?”
“Titania, Queen of Summer.”
“So Oberon, my dickhead grandfather, who wants to kill all of humanity, is...”My words trailed off as I tried to parse the genealogy of this shit.
“His grandfather, too.Which makes him?—”
“My first cousin,” I said.“Technically my half-first cousin, since we just share the one grandparent.Holy shit, I’m coming up with all kinds of family lately.”
“Yeah,” Harker said with a nod.“And one thing breeds true in your family, pal.”
“What’s that?”I asked.
“He’s a big son of a bitch, too.So maybe try to behave when you meet him.I don’t want to pay for rebuilding a tattoo shop.”
And just like that, we were off to Atlanta to meet my half-cousin fairy tattoo artist.As I walked to the truck, I wondered if he gave a family discount on ink…
3
Nope,” the big man stood up from where he was sitting beside a pretty twenty-something woman getting work done on her upper arm.“Get out, the answer is no.”
“I haven’t even asked for anything, pal,” Harker said, spreading his arms wide.“Can’t I just come by and see an old friend?”
