Storm Born Read Online Free

agreed with. “Yeah. I wear sunscreen too.”
    He eyed my light tan askance. “Are you sure?”
    “Well, hey, it’s Arizona. Hard not to get some sun. I mean, sometimes I walk to the mailbox without sunscreen, but most of the time I try to put it on.”
    “‘Try,’” he scoffed. “Does it protect against UVB rays?”
    “Um, I don’t know. I mean, I guess. I never burn. It smells pretty good too.”
    “Not good enough. Most sunscreens will protect from UVA rays only. But even if you don’t burn, the UVB rays will still get through. Those are the real killers. Without adequate protection, you can probably expect an early death from melanoma or some other form of skin cancer.”
    “Oh.” I hoped we got to the park soon.
    When we’d almost reached it, a traffic light stopped us under an overpass. I didn’t think anything of it, but Wil shifted nervously.
    “I always hate being stopped under these. You never know what could happen in an earthquake.”
    I again schooled myself to neutrality. “Well…it’s been awhile since our last earthquake around here.” Yeah. Like, never.
    “You just never know,” he warned ominously.
    Our arrival couldn’t have come a moment too soon. The park was green and woodsy, someone’s idiotic attempt to defy the laws of southern Arizona’s climate. It probably cost the city a fortune in water. He led me along the trail that went to Jasmine’s abduction spot. As we approached it, I saw something that suddenly made me put more credence in his story. The trail intersected another one at a perfect cross. A crossroads, often a gate to the Otherworld. No circle of flowers grew here now, but as I approached that junction, I could feel a slight thinness between this world and the other one.
    “Who knew?” I murmured, mentally testing the walls. It wasn’t a very strong spot, truthfully. I doubted much could pass here from either world right now. But on a sabbat like Samhain…well, this place could very well be an open doorway. I’d have to let Roland know so we could check it when the next sabbat rolled around.
    “Well?” Wil asked.
    “This is a hot spot,” I admitted, trying to figure out how to proceed. It appeared I was zero for two in gauging the credibility of these last two clients, but when 90 percent of my queries were false leads, I tended to keep a healthy dose of skepticism on hand.
    “Will you help me then?”
    “Like I said, this really isn’t my thing. And even if we decide she was taken to the Otherworld, I have no idea where to look for her. It’s as big as ours.”
    “She’s being held by a king named Aeson.”
    I spun around from where I’d been staring at the crossroads. “How the hell do you know that?”
    “A sprite told me.”
    “A sprite.”
    “Yeah. He used to work for this guy Aeson. He ran away and wanted revenge. So he sold the information to me.”
    “Sold it?”
    “He needed money to put down a deposit on an apartment in Scottsdale.”
    It sounded ludicrous, but it wasn’t the first time I’d heard of Otherworldly creatures trying to set up shop in the human world. Or of crazy people who wanted to live in Scottsdale.
    “When did this happen?”
    “Oh, a few days ago.” He made it sound like a visit from the UPS guy.
    “So. You were seriously approached by a sprite and only now thought to mention it?”
    Wil shrugged. Some of the sunscreen he’d missed rubbing in showed on his chin. It kind of reminded me of kindergarten paste. “Well, I’d already known she was taken by fairies. This just sort of confirmed it. He was actually the one who mentioned you. Said you killed one of his cousins. Then I found some locals that backed up the story.”
    I studied Wil. If he hadn’t seemed so hapless, I almost wouldn’t have believed any of this. But it smacked too much of truth for him to be making it up. “What did he call me?”
    “Huh?”
    “When he told you about me. What name did he give you?”
    “Well…your name. Odile.