Fairy, Neat (Fairy Files Book 6) Read online

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  WHAT’S NEXT?

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  OTHER WORKS BY KATHARINE SADLER

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Fairy Neat

  Fairy Files Book VI

  By

  Katharine Sadler

  Kindle Edition

  Copyright © 2017 by Katharine Sadler

  All Rights Reserved.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  WHAT’S NEXT?

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  OTHER WORKS BY KATHARINE SADLER

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  The past is ever-changing and intangible in memory but it still manages, somehow, to profoundly affect our present.—Chloe Frangipani

  I’m not lazy, I’m just low energy.—Pally Brokenbranch

  I dug down into the box, past stored kitsch and old notebooks. My heart dropped when I didn’t feel what I was looking for. My stomach hollowed out with panic. I moved to the next box and ripped open the top.

  “You okay?” Frost asked. I heard his footsteps as he walked into our guest bedroom, where I was in the closet digging my way to the bottom of another box.

  “Uh-huh,” I said. “Just looking for something.”

  “You might have better luck if you took the stuff you aren’t looking for out of the box.”

  I rolled my eyes and huffed, frustration and panic making me testy as I reached the bottom of another box without finding what I was looking for. “No time.” I ripped into the next box and started digging. “I’m picking Pally up in fifteen minutes.”

  “We’re picking Pally up,” he said. “I’m not letting you go back to that neighborhood alone.”

  I dug to the bottom of the box, and found a pink soap dish shaped like a flamingo. I considered throwing the ceramic kitsch at Frost’s head. I weighed my love of the soap dish against my need for a violent rebuttal, but was distracted by the familiar feel of tightly bound pages. I wrapped my fingers around it and pulled it out. I flipped through the yellowed pages and heard my father’s voice reading familiar words. “Got it.” I pushed to my feet, and stomped over to Frost, my boots, the good ones with the three-inch heels, tapping on the hard wood. My wings were free as they always were at home, fluttering through my back-less, taupe blouse which was tucked into maroon leather pants. Frost, dressed for a day of surveillance in worn jeans and a fitted t-shirt, grinned. I increased the intensity of my glare, but I could feel it slipping. He was just too damn good-looking. The chain-shaped scars, from the day he’d been kidnapped and restrained by his psycho almost sister-in-law, made him look tougher and more rugged, more dangerously alluring.

  His grin widened as I lifted my gaze back to his face, and I knew he could smell my lust. I didn’t think I’d ever stop lusting after him and my libido made it damn hard for me to win a fight with him. That and his smile, his bright amber eyes glittering with amusement and defiance. More amusement than defiance, because he was the one person to whom I could never say no and he knew it. “Friya lives in the neighborhood without coming to any harm,” I said. “I think Pally and I can survive a visit.”

  “Probably,” he said with a shrug. “But it will make me feel better if I’m there.”

  “You have a job.”

  “A surveillance job that I can’t do without the car. I’ll take you there, and I’ll pick you up when you’re done.”

  “We’ll take the bus. You need to get to work so you can get back in time for the party.”

  He widened his stance and reached out, brushing my hair behind my ear in a gesture so tender it made my heart skip. I still woke up every day in shock that this amazing man was my husband. We’d only been married for three days, so maybe that feeling would fade with time, but I doubted it. “I’ll manage,” he said. “I want to go with you.”

  “No. You have to trust me, Frost. You can’t put your job or your life on hold every time you think I might be going into a dangerous situation.”

  “I agree. But it’s more dangerous, now. I don’t want you going anywhere alone.”

  Since we’d made a video of my fairy abilities, Frost and I had been getting recognized more and more often. We were celebrities to some and freaks to many, but there’d been no recent outbreaks of human on fae or fae on human violence in the past few days.

  “I’ll go with her.” Jared appeared behind Frost, and Frost didn’t flinch or show any surprise about the man standing behind him.

  Frost wrapped an arm around my waist and pressed a kiss to my cheek. Together, we walked into the living room behind Jared. Jared had once been my neighbor and was now one of my dearest friends. He was dressed down today in dark jeans and a button-down shirt that complimented his dark skin and his fit body.

  “When’d you get here?” I asked.

  “I let him in about five minutes ago,” Frost said. “You were a little preoccupied.” He turned to Jared. “I thought you had a flight that’s leaving in an hour?”

  Jared shrugged. “It’s a private jet. It’ll wait.”

  I sighed. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

  “I know you don’t,” Jared said. “But it might be my only chance to wish you Merry Christmas before you become queen of the fairies.”

  “I’ll be back,” I said, mentally crossing my fingers that Frost and I and all our friends would make it out of Rubalia alive. “But I’m gonna be late to pick up Pally if we don’t leave now, so I’ll accept your accompaniment. I assume we’ll be going in your chauffeured car?”

  “Is there any other way to get there?”

  I kissed Frost goodbye and left with Jared. He linked his arm through mine as we rode the elevator down to street level. Jared’s driver, an older man with a jolly smile, opened my door and gestured me inside. I thanked him and slid across the smooth leather seats to sit next to the window. “How does your driver always manage to get a spot right in front of our building?” I asked Jared as he slid in next to me.

  “Perk of owning most of the city,” he said in complete seriousness.

  “Well, it’s a great perk. Merry Christmas, Jared. Where are you flying out to today?”

  “Home,” he said with a severe frown. “My baby sister has decided to get married the Saturday before Christmas, and I’m the best man.”

  “This Saturday? As in two days from now? You didn’t mention it.” Jared and I had been feuding, but we’d made up the week before. The wedding of his youngest sister was something he’d definitely have mentioned, at the very least to mull over his chances of getting laid at the reception.

  “I just found out,” he said. “Annalee said she didn’t tell me sooner because she didn’t want me to interrogate the guy, but that’s bullshit. The truth is they got engaged after dating for three weeks.”

  “Uh-oh. What are you planning?
” Jared was overprotective of his sisters, even though he was younger than them. He was like a grizzly bear mama looking out for her young and he didn’t believe any man was good enough for them.

  He didn’t meet my eyes. “I’m going to respect Annalee’s wishes and judgment. It would be in poor taste to cause a scene at the wedding.”

  “Right.” I eyed him with disbelief clear in my voice and my expression. Jared was a successful business professional and he was charming, charismatic, and polished, but he didn’t handle emotional situations well and I’d never known him to keep his trap shut when he felt strongly about something.

  He huffed. “I would have liked to take you with me, Chloe, because I trust you to make sure I don’t do anything too stupid or eternally damaging to my relationship with my family, but you chose to run off to fairy land to save people who don’t want or appreciate you the way I do.”

  I laughed. “You’re really good at the whole guilt trip, but I’m not biting. Why don’t you take Letty with you?”

  He looked at me, eyes wide and perfectly manicured brows high. “The cleaning lady? Why on earth would I want to bring her?”

  When Jared had first met Letty, his neighbor, he’d mistaken her for a cleaning lady. Though it was clear to anyone with eyes that he was attracted to her, he pushed her away with crass and rude words every time he saw her. He’d admitted he wanted her, but swore he wasn’t the right guy for her. She wanted a serious, permanent relationship and he couldn’t offer that to her. Couldn’t or wouldn’t was debatable to everyone but him. “She’d be perfect,” I said. “She’d tell you the truth if you were overreacting and she’d be the distraction you need to keep you from obsessing over this mistake you think your sister is making.”

  He shook his head before I’d finished speaking. “No. No. No. That’s a terrible idea. I never take dates to weddings because it gives women crazy ideas and makes them all teary-eyed and…” He shuddered. “Just no.”

  The car pulled up in front of Benny’s house, where Pally, Lilith, Ransom, Rube, Indigo, and Benny were all currently living. It was a large, clapboard house in a bad section of town and, inside, it was even bigger. I didn’t know if Benny had magicked the house to have extra rooms and portals or if it had come that way, but it was certainly a monster of a house. Pally was already on the front porch. I rolled down the window and waved at her. She hopped down the steps and started toward the car. “You’ve made it unbelievably clear to Letty that you have no interest in any sort of relationship with her,” I said. “You need a buffer. You know you aren’t rational where your sisters are concerned.”

  He shook his head, his expression dark, but thoughtful.

  “Hi-lo, hi-lo,” Pally said. She swung the door open and I scooted over just in time to avoid being sat on. “Nice conveyance,” she said, speaking in her typically wordy way. Pally was an elf and no one was quite sure about her fae abilities, but color coordination wasn’t one of them. She was wearing an electric blue t-shirt and a neon-green plaid mini-skirt, with thigh-high, leopard-print boots. I’d learned, the hard way, that giving her fashion advice wouldn’t work and would only lead to tears. Only Lilith seemed to possess the ability to get her to dress like a regular human person. Pally was a small woman, only a couple of inches above five feet, and slim. Her short, dark bob highlighted her wide face and delicate bone structure. She was striking in the way great art or fashion models are striking, her beauty unconventional and raw.

  “Yes,” I said. “Jared was kind enough to offer us a ride to visit Friya.”

  “Assuming the old lady survives the assault to her senses,” Jared muttered. I slapped his thigh hard and smiled at Pally as though he’d said nothing. He grunted, but shut up.

  “Friya?” Pally asked. “Is she going to be my new boss?”

  I’d told Pally very little about our reason for visiting Friya, but I supposed I ought to prepare her. “Maybe. Friya has a special ability to find anyone or anything. I’m hoping she can teach you to do the same thing. You could make a good living finding people and things.”

  Pally’s eyes widened. “She will educate me in the ways of magic? I have no aptitude for erudition. It is why I am not literate.”

  “You don’t know. . .?” I stopped myself before I said something rude. How had she worked as a waitress if she didn’t know how to read? How had Buddy missed that? I placed a hand on her shoulder. “This is just a trial, Pally. If you can’t learn the skill, that’s fine. I just thought you might enjoy this more than waitressing.” I’d practically had to promise Buddy my first born to convince him not to fire Pally. She was the worst waitress he’d ever employed and had already cost him more money than she’d earned him.

  Pally frowned. “But I enjoy waitressing. I have a great skill for the task.”

  Jared, who’d had the unfortunate experience of sitting in Pally’s section one night, snorted. I ignored him. “Maybe you’ll like this even better,” I said. “It will almost certainly make you more money.”

  “I will attempt it,” Pally said.

  “Good. Friya is an unusual woman. She loves rare books and she spends all the money she makes on them, so her place is…”

  “A hovel,” Jared said. “The filthiest, most ramshackle dump I’ve ever visited. The entire building should be condemned.”

  Pally paled. “Will I be expected to dwell there while she is instructing me in her magic?”

  “No,” I said. “I’ll pay for a car service to take you there and back. I don’t want you to ride the bus or walk around that neighborhood alone.” In truth, Frost would be paying for the car service, but he claimed his money was my money now that we were married and he expected me to act like it. I wasn’t going to lie and say I was even remotely comfortable with laying claim to his money, but I understood how important it was to Frost. It would go both ways; if the club ever made me a fortune, my money would also be his.

  Our car entered the neighborhood just as the sun slipped behind clouds, making the dirty, dank street and the ramshackle stores and apartment buildings look even more derelict and imposing. We rolled to a stop in front of the most decrepit and dilapidated building. Pally grimaced. To her credit, she didn’t complain, but pushed the door open and stepped out onto the street. “I honestly do enjoy waitressing,” she said when I stepped out next to her and closed the door on Jared, who was already studying something on his phone.

  I sighed. “You might enjoy it, but you must be aware that you aren’t very good at it.”

  Her face underwent a series of expressions before it settled on resignation. She sighed and her shoulders drooped. “I’ve been exerting the utmost effort to improve. Buddy hasn’t invited me into his business office for a conversation in more than eight days.”

  “Because I told him I’d find you another job. He’s kept you on as long as he has as a favor to me.” I was too blunt, but there was no point in pussyfooting around the truth. And no point in letting her continue under the delusion that she was a good waitress. “Waitressing isn’t your thing, Pally. But Buddy says you’re a hard worker and you try.” He also said she had no people skills or ability to remember simple orders, but she didn’t need to know that. The fact that she couldn’t read or, I assumed, write, probably didn’t make the job any easier for her.

  “I’m not an industrious laborer,” she said. “I mean, I dislike physical and mental exertion. It’s not in my nature to toil laboriously. My people have a predilection toward mischief and sloth.”

  “Yes,” I said. “And your people hate fairies, yet you’ve become my friend, and you’ve earned a living. None of us are slaves to our nature.”

  Pally didn’t look convinced, but I was done with the pep talk. It was time to meet Friya. I led Pally into the building and up nine flights of stairs to the tenth floor. I knocked on Friya’s door, not thinking too hard about why it had five bullet-shaped holes in it. Behind us, a door opened and slammed shut. Someone peeking out at us, I was sure. Pally was wide-eyed and
jumping at every sound.

  The door swung open to reveal Friya, her yellowed white hair in an intricate bun on top of her head, loose strands curling around her wrinkled face. Her slight, bent body was covered in a brilliant, neon orange muumuu and her neon pink wings fluttered in agitation. Friya’s blue eyes rested on me and registered recognition. She’d helped us find Indigo after she’d been kidnapped by her abusive ex-husband and, though the shadows had blocked Friya’s finding ability, she’d at least been able to give us hope by telling us that Indigo was still alive.

  Friya shifted her attention to Pally and the elderly woman scowled. “I welcome no elves here.”

  I bit back a sigh of exasperation. Most Rubalian people hated fairies because of their cruel and dictatorial rule over Rubalia, but I had no idea why Friya hated elves. Pally glared at me like this was all my doing. “I have no love for fairies, you slovenly old hag,” Pally said. “I’m standing in the entrance to your abode because Chloe requested my presence.”

  “Please, Friya,” I said. “Can we come inside and discuss this? I’d very much like you to teach Pally how to find.”

  Friya glared at Pally like she could kill her with her eyes, but she finally took a step back and gestured us in. She poked Pally in the arm as she passed. “You touch nothing. I know what kind of thieving good-for-nothings your kind are.”

  I pulled Pally to the other side of me. Friya closed the door behind us. Her apartment was just as dirty as I remembered, the wallpaper still peeling, the floor still so covered in dirt I couldn’t be sure if it was carpet or linoleum or wood. At least the apartment didn’t smell as bad this time. Friya must not have been cooking.

  “I’m not a thief,” Pally said. “And I desire nothing of yours. The only objects that are not besmirched with filth are the books, and I have no use for books.”

  Friya tsked and spit on the floor. “Typical. Elves have no appreciation for the value of culture, for the value of beautiful words.”

  Since Friya had told me she loved the books first and foremost because of her ability to see the lives of every person who’d ever read them, I doubted she had much room to speak, but it seemed wisest not to point out that bit of hypocrisy. “Friya,” I said in my gentlest tone. “Pally is an individual. You can’t assume she is like every other elf you’ve ever met.”