Free Days Gone Bad by Eric Asher Page A

with the gentleness of an ogre, slamming me back into the chair. “Sure, what’d you say, ‘I was just kidding’?” She cocked an eyebrow and non-verbally pummeled me into submission.
    I mumbled a bit.
    “What?” she said as she raised both eyebrows.
    “I said - that’s almost exactly what I said.”
    She smiled, and then burst into laughter, leaning against one of the huge wooden posts of her bed. “Get him a nice present, not just fudge. You get them fudge too much for it to be a real apology.” She paused and wrinkled her nose. “Better get something for his mom too. You might wish Foster’d killed you if Cara gets a hold of you first.”
    I nodded quickly and repeatedly as I ran for the door, up the stairs, back to my slightly sliced up rental car, and shot down the block to the wine and cheese shop.
    On the way, my thoughts flickered back to the first time I met Foster. I remembered Sam telling me she had a friend that would be a perfect fit for my ancient grandfather clock. My first thought was, does she really expect me to sell Zola’s old clock? I didn’t think too hard on it, thoroughly distracted by a mind boggling pizza from the Blackthorne Pub.
    By the time we got back from dinner and stopped at the Double D, there was a trio of fairies circled around a tea light on the counter. I was a little surprised to see them, as fairies don’t like necromancers too much.
    “Hi, Foster,” Sam said. I twitched a little and eyeballed my sister as one of the fairies waved at her.
    “Fairies don’t like necromancers,” I said as quietly as I could while elbowing Sam in the gut. I aimed to land a harder elbow when she was suddenly standing on the other side of the counter, grinning.
    “This is my brother, Damian.”
    I lowered my elbow and produced a weak, steady wave with my right hand. A half grin was plastered to my face.
    Foster bowed to her and then to me. He had a dagger sheathed on either thigh and crossed swords mounted on his back. His armor looked like a deep brown leather, partially hidden beneath the platinum blond hair resting on his shoulders. “Lord Vesik, I would humbly request the use of your esteemed abode.”
    My grin filled out. “My clock?”
    The older fairy beside him burst into laughter. She was dressed in an elegant gown, green with silver metal trim beneath a harness supporting two crossed swords of her own. The gown matched the intense green of her eyes. “Young one, your clock is a place of power, a nexus. A concentration of Fae magic is pulled through your … clock.” She stifled her laughter and curtsied to me. “I am Cara, Foster’s mother, and this,” she gestured to the younger fairy in a brilliant blue dress, “is Aideen, Foster’s wife.”
    Aideen smiled and nodded slowly. Golden plates of armor and chains tinkled as she moved her head. It reminded me of the charms and metal Zola wore.
    Foster met my eyes; his own a surreal and brilliant blue. “What price do you require?”
    “Nothing,” Sam hissed in my ear. By the time I turned to look at her, she was smiling again.
    I shook my head and I gestured at Sam with my right hand. “Any friend of my sister’s okay by me. You can shack up here as long as you need too.”
    It was about that time a hideous beast of legend locked its jaws around my ankle and dragged me screaming into the back room. A few moments of sheer terror later, I learned it was a pregnant, and very grumpy, pet cu sith. Everyone else thought it was hilarious. Me? Not so much.
    Ah, the good old days.
     
    The cloud of memories vanished as the clerk slid my purchase across the butcher block counter. My eyes widened. No one had ever told me how big a twenty-five pound wheel of fabulous Irish cheddar cheese was. It was impressive. How could someone less than a foot tall not be blown away? The clerk rambled off my total.
    My checking account was certainly blown away.
    After a circus-worthy balancing act with said cheese to get out of the store, into