Resistance (38 page)

The sound that comes out of my mouth isn’t human or
Fae, and it is by no means normal. “What?” I squawk at him and look
back down at the ground; feeling the blush deepen in color and make
its way down my chest and over my shoulders. My God, one compliment
from a pair of pretty eyes and all of a sudden I’m a chipmunk?
“Oh!” I try again, my voice coming out a little more even. “Um,
yes, yeah, I um… Heh, I read your mind again.” You really are a
dolt, I mentally hiss at myself. “Can I ask…what had her so
shaken?” I inquire; deciding to shift the conversation to anything
besides me being ‘cute’.

His ever-present smile falters and he looks down at
his knees. “Oh.” He pauses for a moment, debating with himself how
much to tell me, and quietly says, “There was this guy who came
through here with the market people over a year ago.” His jaw
tightens and his lower lip juts out a little; remembered anger
coursing through him. “He acted like he was interested in Fi
romantically, and it was his ‘tip’ that my parents were following
when they left. And since Fi believed him at first she feels
responsible, even though she didn’t know he even spoke to our
parents about anything until they were leaving.”

My smile leaves the room in a hurry with this new
information and I shake my head. “She mentioned something about
him, but I didn’t know it went that far, though.” I shake my head.
“God, poor Fi.”

Interestingly enough, Eir looks surprised that I’d
heard about this fine young man who is in dire need of a swift kick
in the genitalia. “He was a douche,” he says, sighing. “He…he
changed her.”

“That’s horrible,” I say quietly, feeling deflated.
Poor Fi has been nothing but bright and kind to me the entirety of
my stay here, and the thought of someone making her miserable makes
my heart hurt.

“It was horrible to watch,” Eir agrees, meeting my
eyes. They linger on my face for a while, and I swear he took a
look at my mouth and it made him clear his throat. “She’s much
better since Flint got here though,” he suddenly continues; looking
down at my hands. “And you. Not quite like she used to be, but
she’s getting there. You two have helped her a lot.”

That lifts a bit of the weight from my chest, but
it’s impossible not to notice the way he’s left himself completely
out of the process. I remove my hand from my lap and touch his
forearm, giving it a gentle shove. “You’re part of it too, you
know.”

His eyes are wide as they stare down at my
comically-tiny hand on his arm, and his cheeks turn a soft shade of
pink. “Yeah,” he agrees absently, a grin cracking his features. “I
suppose I am.”

“You’re a huge part of it, Eir,” I say, giving him
another smile. “I’m sure she’d be lost without her baby
brother.”

I almost expect him to get defensive over the term
‘baby’ anything, but instead he actually puffs up in a prideful
manner and beams. “I’d be lost without her, too.”

I bite my lip so I don’t do something stupid like
tell him he’s cute. He seems pretty comfortable around me, and the
last thing I want to do is make him think I’m some kind of freak
who thinks about kissing him all day — which I don’t, mind you —
not all day, anyway. Sometimes I’m sleeping. And other times I am
thinking about food. Look, it’s not my fault he has good genes,
okay?

“Lumi?” he asks, and I snap out of my thoughts. I get
the feeling he’s repeating himself when he says, “How would you
like to watch a movie with me? We have tons to choose from.”

I glance at the ancient television set bolted to the
wall. The Fae don’t use them, due to the technology and
environmentally unsound features, so I’ve never seen one in person
and therefore didn’t register it on first glance. I have no idea
how to use one and have never had the chance to learn, and
excitement creeps up my spine at the concept. “Sure. You pick?”

Eir scoffs at me, but there is humor in his gaze.
“That would be very ungentlemanly of me,” he says very seriously;
standing up and walking over towards the rectangular contraption.
It is situated above a dark wooden stand with doors, and he pushes
them aside to reveal a bunch of small boxes containing what I am
guessing are ‘movies’. I crane my neck to try and see what he’s
doing and immediately return to a ladylike position when he turns
to face me. “How about I give you some choices and you pick
instead?”

I notice these Dolans are very roundabout stubborn. I
nod and he flops down next to me with three weird-looking
containers in his hands. “Okay, these are three of my all-time
favorite movies,” he says, looking almost nervous. “We have ‘The
Goonies’— which is about a group of friends who are about to lose
their houses and have to move away from each other. They decide to
go looking for a pirate ship and treasure. It’s awesome. Then we
have ‘Rocky’ — this is the ultimate underdog story and it’s about
boxers. I love it. And last but not least, we have ‘The Princess
Bride’. It’s hilarious! There’s romance and action and humor, and I
have yet to meet a person who didn’t enjoy it. What do you think,
Lulu?”

He hands me the selection and lets me take a look at
the covers. They all sound good, even though I worry ‘The Princess
Bride’ is going to hit a little too close to home for me. I feel
myself blushing at the concept of choosing; telling myself this is
not a trap and saying, “I have a weakness for underdog stories.” I
flip ‘Rocky’ over in my hands a couple times and see him smiling
out of the corner of my eye.

“Excellent choice,” he says, and takes it from me
when I offer it back. He looks pleasantly surprised by my selection
as he scampers back to the TV set, hits the DVD player a couple
times and within a few seconds, images come to life on the screen.
Eir closes the curtains and comes to sit beside me; surprising me
by resting his arm on the couch behind me.

It’s a good thing the movie is good, because if it
weren’t I don’t think I would’ve been able to keep myself from
falling asleep curled against his chest. About halfway through I
lean against him and his huge hand settles hesitantly on my
shoulder. I do believe it’s the calmest moment of my life.

Chapter 25—Fi

August 2102

The sun is just breaking over the horizon, shining
through the open window and I’m sitting on the floor in the library
wading through yet another dusty box of what seems to be everything
but my Gran’s journals. I am doing my best not to think of my
parents’ fate, even though my mind keeps circling back around to it
every few minutes without my permission. I woke early like always,
and though I did wake Flint (again), he decided to stay in bed when
I promised to skip my run this morning. So it’s me and a thermos of
coffee up here alone. Although I did bring a small jug of milk, a
second mug and spoon in case Lumi decides to join me. I’m
determined to get through all of the remaining boxes today,
regardless of whatever new catastrophe might arise.

So far today I have unearthed another stack of my
dad’s journals and some books that I believe were Gran’s that she
must have hidden away so younger eyes didn’t find them. They seem
to be racy romance novels, and I know they aren’t anything my
mother would ever have even considered reading, not that my mother
enjoyed reading to begin with. Seeing the dusty covers with titles
like Burned by His Desire made me giggle and blush, even though I
was alone when I found them. Thankfully. I think if Flint had seen
them, his inevitable comments might have been too much for me to
handle.

I’m standing on a wooden chair, sliding another box
back onto the shelf when I hear a noise behind me and turn to see
Lumi standing in the doorway. “Morning! I didn’t want to startle
you while you were up there,” she says with a smile, and I grin
back.

“Good morning! There’s coffee by the sofa if you’d
like some.” The words are barely out of my mouth before she says
“Yay!” and skips away. I grab another box from the top shelf and
move it down where I can reach it from the floor before hopping
down off the chair. I drag the box down off the shelf and lug it
over to the corner by the sofa where I’ve been working.

Lumi looks up at me over the top of her steaming mug,
humming to herself, and settles on the floor next to me asking,
“Can I help?”

“Yes, you can definitely help if you’d like to,” I
say with a grateful smile. “I think we can both work in this box,
and when we’re done I’ll grab two more.”

She nods happily and digs in the box with me, only
pausing occasionally to gulp her coffee. We work quietly together
for a little while and then I see Lumi pull a dusty novel out of
the box with a risqué looking trio on the cover. A slim,
well-curved woman is half naked and sandwiched between two half
naked, very well-built men. Her eyes are closed and one arm is
snaking up to grab the head of the man behind her, who has his hand
on her hip. Her other hand is splayed on the chest of the man in
front of her, who has his hand on her other hip. I bite my lip to
hold in a giggle when I see the title, Her Forbidden
Temptation.

"I sincerely hope this isn’t the instruction manual
we’re looking for," Lumi says, snickering.

"Oh my. That would make things a bit more
er...interesting, wouldn't it? What does the back say?" I ask,
laughing with her.

Lifting the book in front of her to read the back
cover, Lumi recites in a husky femme fatale voice, “Eighteen-year
old Savannah St. James is a southern belle with a big problem. She
has always known she would marry a Delacroix man someday, she just
never could decide which one—”

“What’s going on?” breaks in on my giggles and Lumi’s
reading of the synopsis of the book. We look up, Lumi still holding
the book up, and I see Eir standing there looking shocked. His face
and ears turn red when he gets a good look at the book cover. One
look at my brother’s face and I start laughing in earnest. He keeps
looking from the book cover to Lumi’s reddening face and then at
the floor, and I find myself gasping for breath from laughing so
hard.

“Um, we were, uh—” Lumi shoots me a look of censure
and blushes deeply. “We were looking through books and found, um,
well, a…book.”

“Whose is that?” Eir asks. His face is now the color
of a brick wall and I break into a new round of giggles. Lumi looks
like she’d like to cover her face and glances at me with a look
that clearly begs for help.

“I've been finding them all morning. They must have
been Gran's!” I gasp out between giggles and pound on the floor a
few times, trying to rein in my laughter.

“Gran's?
" Eir asks, sounding even more shocked
and unable to look at Lumi any longer. He is studying the floor by
his feet now.

"Yes, Gran's. Your Gran's, not mine, I don't—I mean—"
Lumi growls, color still deepening the red on her cheeks. "I'm
gonna shut up now." And I’m laughing again.

Flint comes in behind Eir and slips around him.
“What's all the excitement about?” I feel his eyes move over me as
I’m practically rolling on the ground at this point, and then he
sees what Lumi is holding and can't seem to form a response for a
second. "Um?"

Lumi immediately slam dunks the book back in the box
it came from, looking like she’d like to run away, and I decide
it’s time to compose myself. “We found a book!” I sputter
brilliantly between giggles. I look up to see my brother put his
head in his hands. He looks like he, too, would like to flee the
library.

"I can see that," Flint says, sounding amused.

Lumi looks embarrassed by the whole situation. "Look
— we found book porn in their grandmother’s box of belongings. It
is not that big of a deal!"

I hear Flint start laughing over the sound of my new
explosion of laughter. “Eir is not comfortable with the fact that
our Gran liked these kinds of books," I manage.

I see my brother cross to the bookshelves and start
lightly banging his head against the outside of one muttering,
“Shoot me now” so low I can barely hear him. Flint braces himself
against the wall by the windows, almost doubled over laughing. I
can feel myself edging in on hysteria at this point. I’m gasping
for breath, my ribs ache and there are tears in my eyes. My poor
brother looks like he’d like the carpet to swallow him whole
though, so I try once more to pull myself together for his
sake.

“Eir, can you go put on a fresh pot of coffee?” I
manage to ask without laughing. He nods and literally runs from the
room without making eye contact with anyone. I turn to see Flint
trying valiantly to straighten and get himself under control, and
grin up into his eyes and ask, “Could you grab a couple more boxes
for us to go through, please?”

Shoulders shaking still, he manages to nod and heads
into the closet for me. I turn to the Winter princess sitting next
to me on the floor as she scowls at the book in the box in front of
us and pat her on the arm, whispering, “It will be okay. He’ll come
back and pretend nothing happened, I guarantee it.” I wink at her,
knowing my brother, and she grins at me.