Brightly (Flicker #2) Read Free Page B

had to. That’s the difference.”
    “Well, that was appetizing,” Jason drawled. He leaned back against the counter. “Are you still going to the Market tonight?”
    Filo snorted. “Of course. It’s not like I lost an arm.”
    “What is this thing, again?” Lee asked. “Just a big market?”
    “Well, it is a market,” Nasser said. “But it’s more like a festival. There’s food, music—”
    “Drinking,” Jason said with a smirk. “Fistfights—”
    “Contests of skill,” Nasser went on, undeterred. “Storytelling. It’s the biggest festival that comes around here in the summer. You’ll probably want to wear something nice—but go with shoes you’ve already broken in, okay?”
    “Nice?” Lee echoed. “Why?”
    He smiled. “You’ll see. Oh, and before I forget, some mail came for you today.”
    Grinning, Lee stood and picked up the envelope lying on the end of the nearest table. She didn’t have to look at the return address; she knew who it was from.
    Since Lee made contact with her again last winter, she and Kendall had been meeting in person every few weeks, having lunch in Bridgestone or spending the afternoon at Kendall’s rented duplex back in Bluewood.
    The gulf that Lee’s seven lost years had created between them wasn’t impossible to bridge, but it wasn’t easy. Their first few meetings had been awkward, especially the first time Kendall turned up unexpectedly at Flicker, on a drizzling day at the beginning of March. They’d sat downstairs in the shop for hours, while Lee floundered through explanations of faeries and revels and magic, and Kendall had stared silently at her, pale and dazed. Looking back, Lee realized they each had probably felt like they were chatting with a person who couldn’t possibly be real.
    Despite everything, that quality that first drew them together as children, that indescribable glue that sealed them as friends, still existed. They still fit together. In the midst of their talk and laughter, as they caught each other up on their vastly different lives, they could almost pretend that nothing was wrong.
    Because Flicker had no phone, and arranging meetings could be tricky, what with Kendall’s job at a record store and Lee’s as a Seer-in-training, they exchanged letters. Nasser acted as their liaison, since mail wasn’t delivered to Flicker—not the regular mail, anyway. Kendall would send letters to Nasser’s address, and he would pass them along to Lee.
    “When is she moving, again?” Nasser asked.
    “Beginning of next month,” Lee sighed.
    Kendall’s brother, Kerry, was starting a new band in Los Angeles, and he wanted Kendall to be in it. She’d been hesitant to accept the offer, because, Lee realized eventually, she didn’t want to disconnect with Lee again so soon after finding her.
    But it was what Kendall had always wanted, and Lee hated the idea of Kendall wasting her nights off playing in half-empty coffee shops where people paid more attention to their lattes than the music. She refused to be the reason Kendall let that opportunity go.
    It had taken some doing, but she finally talked Kendall into accepting. Besides, she’d argued, if seven years and considerable magic hadn’t been enough to split them up for good, a few states wouldn’t be able to. And they had their letters.
    “She’s mostly packed,” Lee said. “I’ll go see her one more time before she leaves—next week, maybe. And it’s not like she won’t be visiting. Her parents still live in Bluewood, so she has to come back every now and then.”
    Nasser smiled gently and touched her arm, and she smiled thinly, too, grateful that he wasn’t saying what she knew they were both thinking. Kendall’s parents still lived in Bluewood, but Lee’s own mother had moved away years ago, while Lee was still trapped in the revel—and nobody could discern where she’d gone. Not even Kendall’s parents knew.
    “We should get going, Lee,” Filo said, checking his watch.