Page 6

Chapter Six

I got home in time to help out with the dinner rush. Good. It was nice to have something to do other than dodge Tarn, who kept looking at me with narrow, suspicious eyes. I worked the tables on autopilot, but my head wasn’t in it.

“You feeling okay?” Gabby asked, frowning at me like she could read my aura.

I grabbed her arm. “Actually, I’m not. I mean, I am, but things have been weird. What do you know about goblins?”

“Lean, mean, green machines? You should stay away from them.”

I nodded and stepped away, raising the pitcher of water between us. Of course. Everyone else knew that you shouldn’t have anything to do with goblins. Even the Goblin Authority had made it clear in every letter- that goblins were not to be trusted, and you should keep your distance, and so on. Every letter. Sashimi didn’t warn me away, but he kept his distance. Except for that last time when he carried me to bed. Yep. That definitely hadn’t been distant.

And then I’d tasered him.

Gabby followed me, eyes worried. “Hey, Rynne, if you’re having trouble with goblins, we can help you out. Mirabel has even the Goblin Authority shaking in his boots. If one of them is threatening you or?—”

“It’s not that. I mean, it’s a little bit of that, but mostly just wondering if you knew any individual goblins.”

Her eyes widened in shock. “Individual goblins. Are you telling me that you’re dating a goblin?” Her revulsion was very obvious.

Would she feel like that about me if I became green? I offered her a small smile. “No. Of course not. Who would date a goblin?”

“I mean, I’m sure there are nice goblins in the world,” she said, chewing on her bottom lip. “I mean, I haven’t personally met a lot of goblins, but they’re really good with money, and, um, usually have really good skin. Green, but good.”

I blinked at her and shook my head. “Okay. Stop trying to be polite before you hurt yourself. Did you know Judge Stevens?”

She nodded. “Way to change the subject. Weird that he committed suicide.”

“Very weird. Almost impossibly weird.”

She gasped and tugged me close so some of my water spilled up my wrist. “You think it wasn’t a suicide? Whodunnit?”

I blinked at her. “I can’t talk about work, but if you know anything about the judge…”

She flashed a wild, unstable smile at me. “I’m your man. If there’s a murder, we’ll solve it. I’ll investigate incredibly subtly, asking all of my lawyer co-workers exactly what they think about the case.”

I snorted and then gave her a quick side-hug. “You’re definitely going to hurt yourself. Thanks, Gabby.” I pulled away and kept busy until nine o’clock and the sushi bar closed, then ten o’clock when the last customers were ushered out. Finally, it was just me and my broom, and a box of sashimi in the fridge.

The knock came while I was putting away the broom and pulling off my apron. Was it later than usual? Earlier? Something. I opened the door, and there were gold eyes glimmering back at me, reflecting light from the kitchen’s bright fluorescence.

“What can I get you?” I asked in goblin, keeping the opening only two inches wide. Goblins were not to be trusted.

“Sashimi.”

“If you’d like to wait at the alley table, I’ll bring it out to you. Otherwise, you can have it to go.”

“I’ll wait at the table.”

I blinked at him, but he was gone the next instant. Wait a minute. Sashimi never sat at the alley table. It made my mom feel less weird to have a goblin picking up sushi from the alley if there was a table and chairs, but he never used it. My dad sat there with his paper some mornings, though, so it wasn’t a complete waste.

I got his sushi, and then went outside, a chill breeze running over my bare arms as I walked over to the small table in the shadowy corner of the building between two brick walls.

Sashimi was sitting in one of the chairs, legs extended, as relaxed as he’d been cuffed on Lieutenant Joss’s couch.

I put down the box and then stared at him, not that I could see him in the dark. “I can’t see in the dark,” I said, because that was my first defense against the idea that I was turning goblin.

He opened the box and took out a piece, popping it in his mouth with his fingers. “I can. Although not in color.”

“Oh. That’s interesting.” I hesitated and then pulled out the other chair and sat down.

“Weren’t you supposed to be at a coven meeting tonight?”

“Was I? How would you know?”

“Hm. How would I know? Didn’t you mention it?”

“I don’t think so. Maybe. I guess we have talked a lot lately.”

“Do you want one?” He held out a piece of raw fish, and I ate it without thinking. I didn’t eat with customers, particularly goblins, but it tasted so good, and I was suddenly so hungry. I ate it too quickly and wanted more. There were cartons of all kinds of things in the refrigerator, but that was so far away. He fed me another piece, but it was too weird.

I shook my head and grabbed my own from the box, eating it out of my fingers instead of his. “I’ll pay you back,” I said, once my mouth was empty. Why was I so hungry? “But I have been craving raw fish, and I can hear very well, and see very well, and also, at the coven meeting, I was in a circle, and accidentally took control of it. Apparently, now I’m some kind of power source that everyone wants to use. It makes me wonder if you’re not wrong about the goblin thing.”

“Does it? And if I’m not wrong about the goblin thing? What will you do?”

I leaned my elbow on the table and took another piece. “Do you mind?”

He gestured at it. “Not at all. It’s my fault for being so civil to you. Once you start trusting goblins, it always ends in disaster.”

I devoured the roll and licked my fingers. “So, there’s no way to undo it? That’s what they said, that if Magga actually turned me into one of her vessels, there’s no way to undo it. I guess it’s good that I do have a witch coven that can claim me, even if I’d rather not be used by anyone.”

“Ah. Well, there is probably one way, but it definitely includes being used by someone.” He took another piece of raw fish and held it out to me.

I shook my head, but he put it right in front of my mouth, and I snapped it up against my will. “Sorry. I definitely like sushi too much. What’s the one way? Who’s going to use me? The Magga? She can undo it?”

“Not her, no. Are you sure you want to undo it? All that delicious power.”

I snorted. "Power? For somebody. Not me. Of course I want to be human. I'm happy how I am."

"And that's why you have an entire identity your family and coven don't know about?"

I shrugged. “I never said my life was perfect, or that I was perfect.”

He leaned back and crossed his arms, a shadow in the shadows. "Your humanity can be restored, but it's likely a worse alternative to becoming green."

"Stop trying to sound dramatic. Just tell me. Who can turn me human?"

“The Goblin King.”

I stared at that shadow, frowning in confusion. “There isn’t a king, just the Goblin Authority.”

“Yes, but to stop the progression to goblin, you would need the Goblin King.”

I threw up my hands. “There isn’t a Goblin King.”

“That’s right.”

“But I’d need the Goblin King to fix this mess?”

“Exactly.”

“So…I’d have to convince the Goblin Authority that he was the Goblin King?”

“The Goblin Authority would have to claim the position of Goblin King, yes.”

“But that’s not enlightened.”

“No, it’s not.”

I slumped back in my chair while a headache grew behind my temples. “Are you trying to drive me crazy, Sashimi? Because if you are, it’s absolutely working.”

“You wouldn’t only need the Goblin King to claim his place, you’d need him to date you.”

I choked on air, and coughed and hacked until he handed me a bottle of water. I took a swallow and then choked on water for a few seconds until I got it under control.

I finally took a deep breath, placed the bottle squarely on the table in front of me and stared at the goblin in the shadows. “There is no goblin king, only the goblin authority, and I have to date him? Impossible.”

“Then you have no chance to maintain your humanity.”

“How would dating the goblin king keep me human? and why would he date me? What would the price be? Oh. That’s what you said, that I’d be used by someone else. What would he use me for?”

He stood up, picking up the empty box. “Exactly. You can't trust a goblin, particularly one in denial about his own nature.”

“It's not that I don't trust him. He's always been fair. I just doubt he'd be interested. I know he wouldn’t be interested. I used to write to him, but, well, he’s not interested.”

He hesitated and then patted my head. Weird. I was so weirded out, I didn’t do anything other than stare at the shadowed face.

“He makes a point of going against whatever the Magga does, so you have that in your favor. He has an office at the bank, the Granite. He'll be there during business hours tomorrow. He might have another solution for you. Who knows? He's supposed to be very clever."

He started walking away.

I jumped up and grabbed his wrist, yanking it up behind his back in a hold he shouldn’t have been able to get out of, and held him down against the table.

“What are you doing?” he asked, sounding curious, amused, and relaxed.

“You didn’t pay for the sushi. Also, I need more information. What will convince the Grand Authority to become the Goblin King so he can keep me human? What’s he like? Do you know him? Seriously. I’m not the best with people, particularly people in power.”

“Hm,” he said, his cheek squished against the wood. “I did leave bills, you just didn’t notice. More information? If you’ve written to him, had his words, then you likely know him better than anyone else. Are you trying to spar with me, or just practicing your hold? Perhaps those are the same thing. Either way…” He slipped out of my hold and then spun me so that I was stuck, my arm at an impossible position with my cheek against the table with him bent over me so his shampoo hair swished over my skin. “Do you see the problem?”

I frowned as I worked through the move, which was hard to do with his shampoo smelling so good. “I didn’t hold your arm close enough to your body.”

“Also your grip was too low. Do you want to try again?”

I pulled out of his grasp, which was very loose, and spun around, straightening so I was face to face with the goblin who had me literally cornered. Not that it wasn’t my fault for starting things with him. “Why would the Goblin King or Authority ever agree to date me?” I asked, slightly breathless. I was trying not to notice how close I was to Sashimi, how his strong chest brushed mine ever-so-slightly, and how good his shampoo smelled. “I’ve never dated anyone. It would be a disaster.”

“Then you don’t have any bad habits to break.”

I scowled at him. “Seriously, do goblins even date? I know nothing about goblins.”

“You know nothing about goblins, other than their language. You’re nervous about meeting the Goblin Authority? Why?”

“I’m not nervous. I’m just…” I ducked under his arm because the smell of his shampoo was starting to make my mouth water, and I didn’t want to go there with him. I mean, I wasn’t going to ask him about where he got his shampoo. Again. The first time was weird enough. “It seems pointless to try.”

“Really? It seems to me that you’ve tried many, many pointless things. For instance, joining the police force against your family’s wishes so that you can be oppressed by your superiors.”

I scowled at him. “And learning Goblin.”

He snapped his fingers and pointed at me. “Exactly. Learning Goblin was so extremely pointless, and yet so incredibly dangerous. Excellent comparison. Approaching the Goblin King and asking him to date you is both pointless and dangerous. You should be perfectly at home in those circumstances.”

I scowled at him. “This is the part where you get tasered.”

“This is the part where you go inside, lock the door, and charge your taser so the next time you’re walking through that parking garage, you have some defense.”

“I have a lot of defenses. I just enjoy the taser. And what do you mean about the parking garage?”

“I know where you park. Everyone knows where you park, and it’s not a safe space.”

I ran a hand through my hair while my skin went cold. They’d said that everyone knew my habits, but hearing it from Sashimi gave me chills. I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I’m always really careful. I’ve never been attacked exactly, it’s just that sometimes an overly friendly demon wants to date me. Maybe I should get some practice with him before I approach the Goblin Authority.”

“That would doubtless be one way to increase your problems and reduce your possible solutions. Excellent idea.” His eyes glimmered bright for a moment before he turned and disappeared into the shadows, leaving me to gather up the bills on the table. He’d left too much, as usual, but if I tried to return it, he’d only say it was a tip, and leave an even bigger one the next time. It was weird. He was weird. And he couldn’t possibly be right about my dating the Goblin King being some kind of solution to becoming a goblin.

I went inside and locked up. I put his money on the counter next to the safe to be put in first thing in the morning, like usual, then I headed to the stairs. Tarn was coming out of his room as I was going up.

“So, you’re eating sushi with the goblin, hm? Want to talk about it?” He crossed his arms and tried to look tough. He actually succeeded. He was filling in pretty nice for someone I’d always consider my baby brother.

“What’s there to talk about?” Seriously. I had no idea.

“You know what they say about goblins.”

“Lean, mean, green machine?”

“Rapacious. That’s what they say about goblins, that they’re rapacious.”

I blinked at him. “Like, they eat a lot of sushi? He shared just fine. Actually, I think he gave me most of it.”

He cocked his head and gave me an irritated frown. “Sometimes you’re just too cute. I’m talking about him eating you, not sushi. Not literally. Like lovers, only with a goblin it would be more like riding a passing tornado.”

I blinked at him. “Lovers? With Sashimi? I’ve never even dated. Also, he’s trying to get me to date someone else. The only person who wants to date me is a demon I met in a parking garage. How would I get a goblin to want to date me? What do goblins like? You sound like you know from some kind of experience. Have you dated a goblin?”

He backed away, hands raised. “Absolutely not. I mean that you shouldn’t ever try to get a goblin to date you. They don’t date. They rarely marry. You’d have to trust someone to marry them, and goblins don’t trust anyone.”

“But you’ve still had goblin lovers? Did they steal your money? Clothes?”

He ran a hand through his dark hair. Not as dark or silky as Sashimi’s. I was probably approaching unhealthy amounts of obsession with his hair.

“Just stay away from goblins.”

“But how do you get them to like you? Is it revealing clothing? Is it expensive perfume? Is it genuine compliments?”

He stared at me and then finally shook his head. “I don’t know. I guess like every other kind of person, it’s individual. Some people like one thing, some people like another.”

“But you were just saying that goblins, in general…”

“Rynne, goblins in general should be avoided.”

“We live in Singsong City. Goblins can’t be avoided. And maybe I’m turning into a goblin, and will have to deal with all of these tornado instincts. Maybe I’ll be the tornado. Maybe I’ll rip right through a horde of demons in parking garages. Maybe I don’t want my life to keep spiraling out of control. Maybe…”

He pulled me into a rough hug, squeezing me tight. “Don’t worry, Rinny. Someday you’re going to meet the perfect guy who fits you. Even if you don’t, you’ve got us.” He released me and headed to his place.

I watched him go, feeling a little more settled. He was good with that emotional manipulation my mother was trying so hard to pick up. Even if it was manufactured, I’d take that peace and use it to find a way out of this mess.

I went into my apartment and then got an old box from the closet above the tub where I kept the stuff I never used. There they were, all the letters I’d gotten from the Goblin Authority over the three years he’d written regularly. Once a week, enough to keep my goblin skills growing. He did know me. And he did hate the Magga. Maybe, just maybe, that would be enough.