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CHAPTER 1

Seattle is gloomy h in the bad weather depart sideways against the s to forlass The water pooled at the botto in the depressions where the weeds had thrust through the cracked paveo Crescent was elevated by a slight rah to keep customers dry as they entered the shop That is, if they didn't e and land their besandaled foot in the puddle like I had

I shook off the rain as I entered my shop and punched in the security code Thanks to my sister Delilah, the alarm not only kept an eye out for thieves, it picked up on spies too And we needed that peace ofjust ere and where ere from

My footsound as I limped over toup one of the strappy sandals As I wiped off the designer shoe, it crossedhalf-Faerie had its perks

I hadn't spent a fortune on the shoes In fact, they'd been a gift from the local Faerie Watchers Club members who liked to frequent my shop

When they saw , they'd shown up a couple days later with a bag froift about thirty seconds; then desire won out, and I graciously thanked the club for their gesture while sliding into the shoes, which were a perfect fit, I ht add

I exa that it had suffered no per them with their favorite heels, I took out my notebook and looked over my to-do list I had books to shelve and orders to fill, and I'd agreed to play hostess to the Faerie Watchers'They'd be here at noon Delilah would be out on a case the greater part of the day, and of course my other sister, Menolly, was asleep

Might as well get to work I switched on the stereo and "Man in the Box" by Alice in Chains echoed through the store Later, I'd switch to classical, but for earlywhen the store was e for sorabbed a box of new paperbacks and had begun to shelve theled, and Chase Johnson dashed in Not the kind of interesting I was hoping for

He folded his umbrella, then dropped it into the elephant-shaped stand by the door As he slid out of his long trench and hung it on the coat rack, I studiously keptonto the shelf Great, just what I needed to, not somy favorite human; he didn't even make the top-ten list, and I did my best to frustrate him whenever possible Nice? Maybe not But fun? Definitely

"We need to talk Now, Caers and pointed at the counter

I flutteredto try to sweet-talk me first? I'm hurt You could at least say please"

"Your attitude's showing again" Chase rolled his eyes "And can you turn down that racket?" Shaking his head, he snorted "You come all the way from Otherworld, and what do you listen to? Heavy metal crap"

"Eh, shut up," I said "I like it Has rew up on" At least he hadn't tried to grope h the lack thereof should have beenIf I'd paid more attention to my intuition rather than nation, and headed home to Otherworld that very afternoon

I reluctantly set Grisham down on the table next to Crichton so they could have a nice little chat and slipped behind the counter, turning the stereo down but not off The Indigo Crescent was my bookstore as far as anybody on the outside was concerned, but in reality, it was a front for the OIA—the Otherworld Intelligence Agency—and I was one of their Earthside operatives Lackey, if I wanted to be honest

I glanced around Still early No customers Lucky me We had leeway to talk in private