Neon Blue by E Frost (best big ereader .TXT) 📕

“Is this what you want? Eternity in thrall to the Shadow Man?”

God, he knows just what buttons to push. I close the bathroom door and lean against it. Cross my arms over my chest, grateful that I’ve put on my bathrobe against the cool morning air. Why do my family ghosts feel free to invade the intimate spaces of my house? They could stay in the kitchen. I’m almost never naked in my kitchen.

“Worse than eternity in Limbo?” I snip, annoyed by both his intrusion and his attitude. I can push a few buttons of my own.

“We choose to be here. Not to pass on. So we can guide you, káulochírilo.”

“Really?” I don’t know whether to believe him or not. The Billigoat was not what I’d call scrupulously truthful in life. “’Cause the only guidance you’ve been able to offer me on this particular problem is to sacrifice someone else’s soul. Pretty sure that would end me up in Limbo, ‘Goat.”

My uncle smokes in wrathful silence for a moment. “It’s not a perfect plan.”

“It’s not any kind of plan. And it’s not going to happen. Even if he’d accept a substitute – which he won’t – I won’t do it. It’s disgusting.”

More ectoplasmic puffing. “What about the other?”

“A doppelganger? He knows about that. And I have no idea how to make one. Do you?”

The ghost shakes its head, without disturbing the wreath of smoke. Against all the laws of physics. “You know the beng’s weakness.”

“Submerging him in running water? Do you really think he’s going to let me do that without a fight?”

“Then cut off his head. Draw the demon blade—”

“No,” I say flatly. “I’m not killing anyone.” Not even to save my soul.

“You heard him, it might not kill him. Besides, he’s soulless, káulochírilo.”

“So that makes it okay? Killing is fine as long as the victim doesn’t have a soul? Sorry, I don’t believe that. This particular victim thinks, feels, has a family he cares about. I have no idea what defines a soul, Goat, but I do know that my soul will be forever darkened if I hurt him to save myself. So if you come up with a way to send him back without hurting him, you let me know. Otherwise, I’d really appreciate it if you got off the pot. I need to pee.”

I nod at the toilet he’s sitting on. Or not sitting on, since he’s a shade. I try not to contemplate the interaction of the physical and the aetheric too closely. It can make you schizophrenic.

With a glower and a puff of smoke, my uncle’s shade rolls up and disappears.

I shake my head at the empty air and move to the toilet. Family. Can’t live with them. Can’t kill them if they’re already dead.

Chapter 34

My uncle’s taken the bloom off my rose, so finding Jou asleep when I return to the bedroom is more a relief than a disappointment. I pull some clothes out of the bottom of my closet and slip downstairs to dress. The lizards, who should be in food-comas after those waffles, line up to watch me. Since when did watching me dress become the favorite pastime of faeries and salamanders? I shoo them off self-consciously. Izzy and the blue one waddle off into the kitchen, but Wizard climbs into my sneaker, pokes his head out over the tongue and hisses at me. I guess he doesn’t like being shoo-ed.

Once I’m decent, I scoop him and my backpack up and carry them both into my herb room. Wizard happily noses around my workbench while I bundle and bag the herbs I collected last night. Most of them are going to the office with me, ingredients for the magic milk, but the smokeberry stays at home. I have no idea what a fae herb would do to a fertility potion – probably create a generation of changelings. I use it to enhance my wards. Or I would, except that I turn my back for a moment to hang up some chicory that I plan to dry and use in coffee, and when I turn back around, Wizard is rolling around in the pile of smokeberry, all four stubby legs in the air.

“Uh—”

The lizard wiggles his legs ecstatically, and smears purple pulp over his cream and gold scales.

Great, salamander catnip.

With a sigh, I tickle his tummy and leave him to enjoy his high.

I surprise Lin by arriving at the office before eight. She jumps a mile when I poke my head through the door of her treatment room, where she’s putting a fresh cover on her acupuncture chair.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“What’re you?” I return with a grin. This is great; I never get the drop on Lin.

“I’ve got an early appointment with Mr. McNulty.”

“I thought that was yesterday,” I say. I’m sure I scheduled it for Monday.

“He rescheduled.”

“Huh.” I should be used to how often clients do that. “How’s it going?”

“Too early to tell. I’ll let you know after today’s sesh.”

I nod in acknowledgement. “You want some coffee before you get started?”

Lin shakes her head. “Coffee breath. How about dark roast afterwards, though? It’s a dark roast kind of day.” She nods at the overcast fall sky through her office windows.

“You got it.” I leave her to finish setting up and head into my hearth-room to brew.

I finish a double-batch in record time. So much so that I bump into Lin and Mr. McNulty as she escorts him out. He stops when he sees me and I brace myself, since our last encounter didn’t go exactly swimmingly.

He surprises me by immediately offering his hand. I shake, expecting his defrosting-jellyfish handshake, and am further surprised when he takes my hand in both of his and shakes heartily. “Thank you so much, Doctor.”

“Lin’s the doctor,” I remind him, but soften it with a smile. “How is the treatment going?”

“Night and day. I can’t tell you how much difference it’s made. Some of the treatments we’ve tried, they’ve been so harsh.