Free Golden Girl by Sarah Zettel

wanted fromme, and the way I could give it to him. In return, I could make him tell me all the things I didn’t know, including how to free my parents.
    My idea used all these bits to make itself bigger and better, while I stayed awake and watched.

7

Shall We Dance?
    It took until the sun rose over the Los Angeles rooftops, but I finally found a way to make my raggedy idea back off. Before I did anything else, I was going to talk to Mr. Robeson. He knew plenty of important things about the Seelies, like how to stay free when they were after you. Plus, he’d already saved me and Jack from them once, which was one hundred percent more times than my uncle had. Maybe I could even find a way to tell him about Shake without mentioning that he was my uncle. The idea of explaining to Mr. Robeson how I was part fairy made my stomach squirm and start looking for a back door.
    I told myself over and over again while I got dressed that this was the best plan, trying to settle it down in my head. It wasn’t easy. From the beginning, Jack and I had been on our own. We’d gotten used to hiding and to keeping secrets.The thought of telling someone else what we were aiming for was awfully slow to take root.
    I was back in normal clothes today—a brown skirt I’d hemmed up so it wasn’t too long, a white blouse that was only a little too big, white socks, and almost-new shoes. I caught myself taking my own sweet time braiding up my hair. I knew as soon as I finished I’d have to do something about Shake. If he was even still there. Which he might not be.
    That idea dropped like a brick into my mind. Shake could have snuck away while I was trying to figure out how not to have to do any kind of deal with him. He said he didn’t have his magic anymore and that we should be one big happy family now, but that could just be a fresh batch of moonshine. He could be anywhere, doing anything.
Anything
.
    I shot across the hall to bang on Shake’s door.
    You better be in there. You just better!
At the same time I had no idea what I’d do if he wasn’t.
    “What on earth!” Miss Patty stuck her head out her door. “Callie? What’s wrong?”
    “I … uh …”
    Shake’s door opened too. He slapped his cold hand down around my wrist. Before I could do more than yelp, he’d siphoned off enough magic to pull on his disguise like other folks pull on their bathrobe.
    “Callie. What is the matter?” Shake looked like he wasdressed in a good dark suit, a clean blue shirt, and a straight black tie. He saw Miss Patty and smiled at her. “Good morning, ma’am. Lawrence LeRoux. Sorry if we disturbed you.”
    “I … uh … it’s breakfast time … Uncle Lawrence,” I mumbled. “I didn’t want you to be late.”
    “I appreciate that, Callie, but there’s no need to raise the roof about it. Do excuse us, ma’am.” He smiled once more at Miss Patty and, still holding my wrist, steered me into his room and shut the door.
    I shook him off and backed away until I was up against the wall.
    “You have got to stop calling attention to yourself,” scolded Shake—or Lawrence, or Lorcan. He was piling up names faster than he was piling up disguises.
    “You don’t tell me what to do!”
    He didn’t even flinch. “Somebody’s got to; otherwise you’re not going to make it six feet from this door now that the Seelies know you’re here.”
    “I don’t need your help. We’ve been doing just fine.”
    He shrugged. “Probably you’re right. Probably I need you much more than you need me. So, what are you going to do about that?”
    Which was a really good question, and I hated him hard for saying it out loud.
    “I’ve got to go talk to somebody.” I sure didn’t want to tell him what I was planning, or about the idea that hadbuilt itself up so big in my head the night before. That didn’t leave a whole lot I could tell him. “You stay here until I get back. You don’t go anywhere, you don’t talk to anybody, and you