Page 9 of Sing Sweet Nightingale

Ginger stands, and I mirror the act, standing behind my large desk filled with files and papers and my overworked laptop, rounding it to follow my sister from my office. An office that, even after half a decade, doesn’t feel like mine. Even though I’ve filled it with family photos and hung my college degree in business on the wall. I didn’t choose the furniture or wallpaper, and it’s all a bit old-fashioned for my taste. Maybe I’ll update it this year and make it more modern.

As we leave, I trail closely behind Ginger, hoping to get a whiff of her emotions to find out what she’s up to. I don’t get much since she’s become an expert at hiding them from me. I sniff the air behind her, but all I smell is a whiff of sickly-sweet anticipation. That could mean anything with Ginger. Especially with an unidentified elf making mischief in town.

We exit my office and cross into the lobby, where my two assistants sit at opposite desks on either side of my office door.

Donna sits to one side and Levi to the other. Donna has been here since the town’s inception in the early nineteen twenties, knows everything about everyone, and is best friends with Dottie—the other town gossip queen. So, it doesn’t surprise me when she asks about the elf. I’m sure Dottie texted her before calling me.

“Are you leaving to see about that elf at the motel?”

“Yeah. Best to get it straightened out now rather than wait for him to cause problems.”

Donna nods, pinching her lips together. Although Donna is pushing two hundred years old, she doesn’t look a day over forty. Non-humans tend to age a lot slower than humans, creating a few problems in this technological world with all the cameras and records, but we manage.

Donna is a Mere, and much like us shifters, she has more than one form and can shift from one to the other as she likes. Replacing all of her mere attributes with human features. Light brown hair is pinned up in a neat and tidy bun on top of her head, and her matching soft brown eyes, which I know in her mere form, are pale lavender watch Ginger. Knowing there’s always good gossip where she’s concerned.

“Hopefully, it shouldn’t take too long, so I should be back for my meeting with Mr. Peters this afternoon.”

If I reschedule on him again, he’s going to get suspicious, and I don’t need a nosey human with too much time on their hands snooping around in non-human business. We already have to dust them with fairy magic more frequently than most since we live in such a small town. I don’t want to dust him more than necessary and create more lies I’ll have to keep track of.

Fairy dust is one of my most useful tools when trying to run a small, secluded town filled mostly with non-humans but also has a small population of humans who have no idea our world even exists. It comes from the wings of a fairy and is exactly what it sounds like: dust. More like a fine powdered glitter. Thankfully, it doesn’t leave a glittery residue, or the entire town would shimmer like a disco ball in the sun.

Speaking of fairies, my other assistant, Levi, a fairy, flutters his wings and flitters over to stop in front of me. No one who isn’t a non-human can see his true form, with his glittering translucent fairy wings, pointed ears, pearlescent cerulean skin, and pale white hair. To us, we see his true form, but to every human without the sight, they just see a regular humanmale, impeccably dressed with perfectly styled blonde hair and inhumanly bright blue eyes.

Non-humans can see the glamours others wear with just a shift of our eyes. It’s like one of those pictures that changes to something else when you move just the right way, allowing us to see what humans see. Most of the time, we don’t require it here in town, but it can be necessary at times.

“Here you go, boss. Messages from this morning.”

“Thanks, Levi.”

I shuffle through the stack of small papers, quickly scanning the neatly scrawled messages. Nothing that requires my immediate attention, and I can’t wait till later. I return them to Levi as I don’t want to lose them while out of the office.

“Put these on my desk, please? I’ll handle them when I return.”

“Sure thing.”

He grins and takes the messages, re-straightening them into a perfectly neat stack while hovering just off the ground as he makes his way into my office.

Donna and Dottie have taken him under their wing lately and are teaching him the subtle art of professional gossiping. I despise gossip, but it is a helpful tool for keeping me informed about what’s really going on in town. I don’t care much about human gossip as long as it isn’t anything violent. It’s the non-human gossip I am most interested in.

Levi returns in a blur of blue shimmer skittering to a halt in front of his desk.

“I’m heading out now, too. Got my own errands to run, so I’ll catch ya later. K?” Ginger says from where she stands with her back to the main entrance, one foot already out the door, ready to turn and run. I’m still not sure why she stopped by today. Usually, she either wants something or is delivering bad news, but today, she seemed to have no discernable purpose andis more than ready to run out the moment something interesting happens. Very unlike her, indeed.

“Sure, I’ll walk out with you.”

I say a quick goodbye to my two assistants and head out with Ginger. She turns towards her neon blue convertible Mini Cooper. It’s an impractical car for the area, but she loves it. Plus, it’s easy to spot from a long distance.

I grip her by the elbow to stop her before she can run away. Her scent spikes with a sour tinge of surprise before she quickly settles back into a calm neutral.

“Is there something going on Ginger? You never told me why you stopped by.”

“No, nothing’s going on. I just wanted to check in and see how you are doing. Nothing specific.”

“Why do I not believe you?” I ask sardonically. It’s never nothing with Ginger; there has to be an ulterior motive to today’s visit.

“Believe me or not, Hunter,” she shrugs noncommittally. “There doesn’t always have to be a reason for things. I gotta go. See ya later, alright? Maybe we can go for a run this weekend?”

It has been a long time since we shifted and went for a run together, and I could really use the time to quiet my mind and reset. I nod in agreement.

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