CHAPTER 1
Sara opened another box of Christmas decorations and sighed. She usually loved decorating for the holidays but this year she’d spent the three weeks between semesters arranging for the move from Charlotte to Fairhaven Falls. The best she’d been able to do was a small artificial tree decorated with the ornaments her kindergarten students had given her over the years. It had been the last thing she packed before the moving truck arrived to collect her boxes and her meager assortment of furniture.
The mover had been a very large and very attractive troll, a vivid reminder that she was moving to a town that was populated mainly by Others, the creatures of myth and legend who lived alongside humans. Although he wasn’t the first one she’d met, most Others tended to prefer small towns like Fairhaven Falls. The knowledge still made her a little nervous, but if they were all as friendly as Eric, the very flirtatious mover, she had nothing to worry about.
Closing the box again, she added a new label to the top and carried it into what was euphemistically called a secondbedroom but was barely larger than a walk-in closet, and added it to the neat stack along one wall to be dealt with “some day.”
“Hopefully before I have to move again,” she muttered. Four moves in six years was enough to challenge anyone’s optimism, but that was part of the reason she’d chosen Fairhaven Falls, hoping this time things would be different.
Returning to the living room, she gave a satisfied nod. The sunny yellow walls, gleaming hardwood floors, and the fireplace with its pretty blue and white tiles made a charming backdrop for her white slip-covered couch and chair. Once she found her collection of pillows and throws it would look even better. The house felt right, like it was just waiting for her to fill it with warmth and laughter.
And curtains,she thought, adding it to her mental list of chores. Something to frame the long windows that flooded the room with pale winter sunlight. Something to block her view of the house next door which was a little too close for comfort. Not that she’d caught a glimpse of her neighbors yet, despite the proximity of the two houses.I should go and introduce myself.
As if in response, someone knocked briskly on her front door, making her jump so hard she knocked over a lamp that hadn’t been plugged in yet.
“Coming.”
Instead of her neighbor, she found a tiny old woman with skin the color of spring moss and short white curls standing on her door step. Her eyes sparkled like chips of obsidian, sharp and knowing. She was wearing a hot pink velour tracksuit that read “AGING LIKE FINE WINE. TWICE AS INTOXICATING.” across the chest.
She gave Sara a cheerful grin, revealing teeth that were a little too sharp for comfort, and Sara smiled back.
“Hi, Flora.”
“Good morning, dear.” Flora thrust a wicker basket into Sara’s arms as she skipped past her into the cottage, looking around with an approving nod. “Very nice. I knew you were the right person for the job.”
Flora had been one of the people who had interviewed her for her new job at Fairhaven Falls Elementary school, but she couldn’t see why her home decorating skills made any difference.
“Thank you,” she said cautiously. “I’m glad the town approved my application.”
“How could we not? Your references were excellent, your brownies won three county fair ribbons?—”
“How do you know about the brownies?”
“—and the town needs more humans who actually want to be here, not ones running away from something.” Flora tilted her head, studying her with an intensity that made her feel like a butterfly pinned to a board. “You’re not running away from something, are you?”
She thought about her cramped Charlotte apartment. About the tumultuous years since she graduated. About her mother’s pointed questions about when she was going to “settle down and find someone.”
“I’d like to think I’m running towards something instead.”
“Or someone?” Flora’s attempt to look innocent failed miserably.
“Absolutely not,” she said firmly. “Men are nothing but trouble.”
“Ah, but the males in Fairhaven Falls are nothing like human men.” Before she could think of a response, Flora slipped past her into the small dining room and opened the French doors that led out onto the back porch. “This garden definitely needs some work.”
Flora wasn’t wrong. The light dusting of snow couldn’t disguise the fact that the garden was completely overgrown, plants spilling over their beds. The only neat thing about it was the tall privacy fence separating her garden from her neighbor’s with military precision, and even that was softened by the sprawling plants.
“I don’t really mind,” she told Flora. “I’d like to add some flowers in the spring, but I don’t want it too neat. I like encouraging the local wildlife.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about that.” Flora’s eyes sparkled before she tilted her head thoughtfully. “But you could certainly make it easier. Maybe put out some bunny food by the fence, just to be neighborly.”
She laughed despite herself. “Bunny food? Like… carrots?”
“Lettuce. Herbs. Carrots are actually not as good for them as people think, too much sugar, but—” Flora’s grin was pure mischief. “—the gesture counts for something.”
Gesture? Why would a wild animal care about a gesture? Shaking her head, she changed the subject.
“Do you know anything about my neighbors?”
