Free St. Nacho's 4: The Book of Daniel by Z. A. Maxfield Page A

note.
    “Yeah. I wanted to tell you how sorry I am that I’ve been giving you such a hard time. Yasha told me what you did for Cam. I guess I just wanted to say how nice I thought that was.”
    I tried to think of something to say to that. You’re welcome didn’t seem appropriate, and I wasn’t exactly bursting with small talk. “All right. You couldn’t say that this morning?”
    Muse’s small face always bore a hint of something slightly impish, and it positively glowed with mischief now. In the light of the mercury vapor streetlamps, her hair had a blue cast and her heavily lined eyes looked like bruises. “I want to show you something.”
    “Okay.” I went along.
    “It’s a tree.”
    I nodded. “Ah…Okay. Cool.”
    She indicated I should follow her, and so I did, even as I prepared myself for an elaborate practical joke. She walked about fifty yards and stopped at the base of a really big, really healthy-looking tree whose branches were so thick and low that even though Muse wore a short dress and a pair of lug-soled boots with towering heels, she easily climbed to my eye level in no time.
    “What are you doing?”
    “Climb up here,” she urged, and I froze where I stood.
    “I can’t climb up there, are you kidding? With only one arm?”
    “You can. I tried it out this afternoon. You can mostly do it with your feet. This is the best climbing tree in all of St. Nacho’s.”
    I took my first step up onto a low branch. “Did my brother put you up to this?”
    “Nobody put me up to this. I just want you to see something.”
    “Can’t I see it from down here?”
    “You have to come up. It’s the best way.”
    Maybe because she was a mere slip of a girl in a dress and high heels, and maybe because I was a man and I didn’t want her to think I was a fucking coward, even though I was, I took one step up, then another, and it turned out she was right. It was easy. I held my injured hand close to my chest, protecting it against possible bumps and scrapes but getting up into that tree was really a nearly effortless combination of gripping with my good hand and stepping from branch to branch. By the time I got to where Muse sat up in the loftier branches, her eyes sparkling with happiness, I was probably doing a little sparkling myself. I’d always loved climbing trees.
    “This is actually fun,” I said breathlessly. “What am I supposed to see from here?”
    “Well. For one thing, the clouds are moving fast, and you can see the moon,” she pointed out.
    “Nice. Too bad you can’t see many stars.”
    “Some nights you can.”
    “I’ll bet. I’m going to keep this in mind for when I can’t sleep.”
    “Do that.” Her nose wrinkled when she laughed. She started to swing down.
    “Hey, where are you going?”
    “Home. It’s getting late.”
    “All right.” I started to move too, but she put her hand up to stop me.
    “Just because I’m leaving doesn’t mean you should. Being in a tree is spiritual. It helps you get in touch with nature. Izzie may not be able to see your aura, and Minerva might think you pose a threat to St. Nacho’s, but I’ve been wondering if maybe you just need a little nudge in a more organic direction.”
    “Don’t nudge me. I’m in a tree,” I teased. “I’ll fall.”
    She grinned at me. “I know, but don’t worry. It’s perfectly safe up here.”
    She scampered down and took off, and once again I was left wondering if everyone in town was batshit crazy.
    The problem was I liked it there up that tree. The branches were thick, and the bark soft. Nothing dug into my back or my ass. The leaves were green and moist, and they felt cool and soft when the wind blew them against my skin.
    I could hear the ocean and the strains of dance music from Nacho’s Bar. I could watch as clouds whispered across the circle of light cast by a nearly full moon. There was no downside to being up in that tree until the thick limb I sat on shuddered.
    Something had hurtled up