“Yeah, the young couple? With the schnauzer? I’ll introduce you later.”
“You talked to myneighbours?”
He tilts his head in the other direction.
Right. Completely out of hand.
I haven’t even beentryingto help Shepard. I erased the blackboard. I’ve been watching Norwegian soap operas and reading fanfiction and occasionally heating up Cup Noodles. Meanwhile Shepard’s been doing magic-knows-what with magic-knows-who.
I can’t let Shepard set up shop in my living room. What willhebring home?
“Shepard, I’ve been thinking.”
“So have I.”
“When I brought you here—”
“Penelope, I have been so ungrateful.”
“What? No, you haven’t.”
He nods, emphatically. “I have. To be honest, I didn’t really think you could fix my whole demon situation.”
My head is hanging forward. “Shepard, youwerehonest. Youtoldme you didn’t think I could fix it.”
“But I still came home with you,” he says. “Just to see what would happen. You and your friends are the most interesting people I’ve ever met—and that’s saying something. I came along because I wanted to see what would happen next.”
“Shepard—”
“But the other day, after Simon left, and you broke all your chalk, it got me thinking . . .” He pushes up his wire-framed glasses. “I have metso manymagickal creatures. And none of them have ever offered to help me before.”
“I’m not acreature—”
“I showed my tattoos to a genie once—”
What?“Where did you find a genie?”
Shepard grins. “In a lamp.”
“You found a genie trapped in a lamp?”
“I found a genie wholivedin a lamp. In South Sioux City. The point is, he didn’t offer to help me. He said,‘I’ve got two rules: You can’t wish for more wishes, and I don’t fuck with demons.’”
“Morgana preserve us.”
Shepard’s grin goes warm. “Butyoudidn’t say that, Penelope.”
“That’s true,” I groan. I put my face in my hands. My fingers are greasy from the sausage roll.
“You immediately offered to help.”
“I did.”
“YouinsistedI accept your help.”
“Yeah . . .”
“Because you are a good person. A heroic person. You’re, like, who I’m out here trying to be in the world.”
