AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Noctus slightly narrowed his eyes. “And you believe she will usethatinformation to her advantage?”
“Sort of?” I said. “I’m pretty sure she’d start ordering more elf books—both fiction and nonfiction—in advance to prepare for what’s going to be a book-boom. So she’d economically use it to her advantage?”
Noctus laughed. He laughed so hard we stopped all forward progress.
“Chloe,” he said, swinging our joint hands when he finally recovered. “That isn’t the type of advantage I was referring to.”
“Yeah, I guessed that,” I said. “But I wanted to be forthright.”
Noctus pulled the golden gate, which opened without so much as a creak. “Then thank you for your forthrightness.”
We stepped through the portal, and I was able to keep a semblance of balance this time as we passed through the dizzying swirl and stepped onto the cement porch of the Cape Cod house.
The chill of October nipped at me through my jacket. “Oh,” I said, thinking of my workplace. “Charon and the others probably told you, but Lord Linus—father of Queen Leila of the Night Court—has bus tours that stop by Book Nookery to see me since I’m the last shadow. Once we go public, there’s a good chance he’ll also advertise the fact that I’m your girlfriend to try to get even more gawkers.”
Noctus dug a garage door opener out of his pocket and clicked it, so the garage door slowly rattled into motion, winding back to reveal the black SUV in the garage. “Then he’d be better off advertising our bond—that’s more impressive than a paltry title like girlfriend,” Noctus said.
“You can give him that business advice.” I tugged my jacket closer with my free hand as we approached the garage. “I’m just telling you, so you can decide if you want to produce Mors Elves merchandise or something.”
“Ahh, yes. Ker has already been badgering me to begin merchandising efforts. And she keeps leaving copies ofHow to Win Friends and Influence Peoplein my bedroom. As if she didn’t make Aristide, Charon, and me read it every decade.”
“Chloe?” Shiloh stood across the street, squinting in the evening light as she rested a hand on her mailbox. She stared at us for a moment, then brightened—her entire face lighting up. “You two made up?”
“Um,” I said.
“Yes,” Noctus said. “I finally groveled, and Chloe has graciously accepted me again.”
“That’s notat allwhat happened,” I said, and was ignored.
“Way to go, Mr. Shade!” Shiloh winked and gave him thumbs up. “I’m so happy for you—the whole neighborhood is happy for you, aren’t we, uncles?” Shiloh turned on her heel and expectantly peered at the house next to hers.
A light abruptly turned on over her neighbors’ porch, lighting up where the neighborhood “uncles” typically hung out.
Three shapes were planted there, and it took me a second to realize it was the uncles. They were wearing dresses, bundled in shawls, and had surprisingly well styled wigs perched on their heads. All three of them had balls of yarn in their laps, and appeared to be wielding large knitting needles.
“Boo!” cackled the uncle with a mustache. “What do you think of our Halloween costumes? Scary, eh?”
“Forget that.” The second uncle poked him with one of his needles. “Look, the sonny finally got his girl back!”
“Bravo!” the third uncle shouted. “We never thought we’d see it!”
“That’s hardly supportive,” the mustache uncle said.
“Oh, right,” the third uncle said. “Let me clarify: it’s not that we thought it wouldn’t ever happen, we just thought we’d die first!”
Shiloh shook her head as she traipsed across the street, joining us on the driveway. “Don’t listen to them,” she said. “We were all pulling for you. And welcome back, Chloe!”
My cheeks heated with a blush. “Thanks,” I said. “How are you doing, Shiloh?”
“Couldn’t be better!” Shiloh grinned. “My classes are going swimmingly—thanks for helping me with that book.”
“Of course,” I said. “I’m glad we had it in stock. Are you deep into midterms now?”
“Yes, but most of my classes just have papers this semester.” Shiloh glanced back at her house, a brief frown flickering across her face before she smiled at me. “Hey, I wanted to ask how you like the renovations at your apartment complex, and about apartment life in general.”
“Oh.” I blinked, trying to remember exactly what we’d said to Shiloh when Noctus and I had first used the excuse of apartment renovations to explain my sudden neighbor appearance. “Um…”
“The security system finally got a well needed update, so the place is quite safe,” Noctus said.
