Page 27 of Touched

He glances over and snaps, “Ya betta not. Ya dirty this here floe, and I’mma make ya clean it up.”

The other tourist yells, “I gotta pee.”

Boudreaux shakes his head and waves as he says, “Lemme deal wit this.”

Looking over my shoulder as I walk toward the door, I mutter, “Yeah. You have fun with that. See ya, man.” He flips me off.

Grinning, I rush to my truck, jumping in and cranking the engine. Hot air blasts me in the face. I wipe the immediate sheen of sweat from my brow while I wait for the air to cool down. Hopefully, Boudreaux was the only one to hear the ‘fancy lady.” At least he thought it was a heat stroke and not that I was losing my mind…

Or talking to a Feu Follet, a damn fairy, that nobody but me could see.

I laugh to myself at the thought. But I am certain I met her.She is real. What she made me feel was real. There has never been a human woman who’s enchanted me the way she does. Her touch sparks something deep inside.

I want her. But it’s more than that.

I want to just be with her. Near her.

That feeling is real.

And the crazy fucking storm that formed out of nowhere and sucked her away was real, too. If I wasn’t a detective in a city drenched in myths, magick, and mayhem, I wouldn’t believe any of it. But being as this is New Orleans, I know I saw something magickal.

And I met someone magickal.

Aeris…

Her honeyed eyes flash in my mind.

I have to see them again. See her again. But how the fuck am I supposed to find a fairy in the middle of the fucking city?

Research, of course…

The library.

Imust find a way to get back to New Orleans.

My thoughts are consumed as I help Ma put away the things she picked up from the market. Or at least I was helping before I get lost in my thoughts. While holding a satchel of oats, mushrooms, dried berries, and crystalized honey that is simply delicious when combined to create one of my favorite treats, I drift. I look out the kitchen window as I try to think of a way to escape this place.

“Aeris.” A voice coming from behind me abruptly shakes me from my thoughts.

“Are you going to put that away? Or are you going to stand there holding onto it while you daydream and stare out the window all day?”

This stupid satchel is the last thing on my mind right now.

As a matter of fact, nothing in Laric is on my mind.

Plopping the food onto a shelf, I turn to see Ma using her Spirit affinity to swoosh everything else we picked up into its proper place… simply by thinking about where she wants it to go. Walking up behind me, she harshly whispers into my ear, “You need to stop thinking about that human. No daughter of mine will fraternize with the likes of him. I won’t have it.”

The likes of him?

Is that really what I just heard her say?

A human? A Sylph?

What does that even mean?

Gritting my teeth, I try desperately not to say anything to make matters worse. Only, as usual, I can’t help myself.

“The likes of him? What do you mean, Ma? The likes of him, because he’shuman? Or because he’s Sylph?”

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