“Oh, hi Mr. Groperson.” I straightened up, trying to keep a neutral expression on my face as I hastily stuffed the handful of cigarette butts into the pocket of my jeans.
Our landlord was a jerk. He’d raised the rent on my mom four times since we’d been living in his apartment building because he knew we couldn’t move. The only other apartment complex in Frostproof was a smoke-free one where you weren’t allowed to even smoke outside—let alone inside. As addicted as my mom was to her “cancer sticks,” as she called them, there was no way we could move in there.
So Groperson knew he had us where he wanted us and he continued to raise the rent. Meanwhile, my mom hadn’t gotten a raise at work in over three years and my tips at the I Scream weren’t exactly fabulous. So we were barely scraping by—not that our pudgy landlord cared.
But jerk or not, I knew I couldn’t afford to offend him, so I tried to smile, though the expression felt wrong on my face.
“Is that you, Emma?” he asked again, frowning as though he couldn’t be sure. Well, I did look a lot different than I had the last time I’d run into him.
“Uh, yes. I, um, I dyed my hair,” I said, groping for an explanation for my new looks.
“You sure did somethin’ to yourself.” Groperson’s piggy little eyes crawled over my body in a way that made me feel really uncomfortable. I was wearing my own clothes again, but none of them fit right and the oversized T-shirt I’d put on to hide my new figure suddenly didn’t feel baggy enough.
“Well, it was nice seeing you,” I said as brightly as I could. “But I have to get back to my mom.”
I started to walk past him but Groperson blocked my path.
“Hang on.” He frowned at me and my heart started pounding.
“Yes, Mr. Groperson? Is there a problem?”
“You bet your boots there’s a problem, Missy.” He took the soggy end of the cigar out of his mouth and gestured at me with it. “Your rent is due. In fact, it’s overdue.”
“I thought rent wasn’t due until the end of the month,” I protested uneasily. “It’s only the twenty-first—that’s a whole week early.”
“The rent’s due when I say it’s due,” he snapped, waving his soggy, smelly cigar at me. “So you tell your mom I want my money!”
He was looming over me and making me feel really nervous. Up close, I could smell more than his cigar and my nose was telling me he probably hadn’t bathed in at least a week, if not more. Ewww… My stomach did a slow forward roll of disgust and I was glad I’d skipped breakfast.
“I…I wish I could help you, Mr. Groperson,” I said, stuffing my hands nervously into the pockets of my jeans and taking a step back. “I mean, I wish I could get you your money early, but my mom doesn’t get paid until the end of the month and I don’t have any money.”
As I spoke, my fingertips touched something cool and smooth and flat in my pocket, right where the cigarette butts had been. I frowned. What in the world could it be?
“No excuses!” Groperson snarled. “You pay the rent on time or I’ll kick you both out. I know she sends you to that expensive private school, so I’m sure you can afford to pay your rent.”
“My, uh, dad pays for that,” I protested, still fingering the thing in my pocket nervously. “We don’t have any extra money.” My fingers closed over the flat object and I pulled it out.
When I looked down at it, I bit back a gasp. The object was a heavy gold coin, about twice as big as a quarter. It looked really old—there was a face that looked like a Roman emperor carved into it. The features had been worn away by time but you could still see the outline just fine.
I stared at the coin in surprise. Where had it come from? And where were the cigarette butts which had filled my pockets just a moment before?
“No money, huh?” Groperson snatched the gold coin out of my hand. Before I could protest, he bit down on it like a grubby pirate in an old movie. “Huh—pure gold,” he remarked and pocketed the coin.
“Hey—you can’t take that!” I protested. “I just got it!” Though where it had come from and how it had appeared in my pocket, I had no idea.
“And now I got it,” Groperson sneered at me. “I’ll have this appraised but it ought to cover your rent. For this month, anyway.”
“But—” I started to protest, but he was already turning away.
“Tell your mom I said she better pay her rent on time next month or you’re both out on your asses,” he snapped. Then he stepped into the apartment he kept for himself and slammed the door shut behind him.
41
“Emma, are you all right?” Bran came out of my mom’s apartment with Lachlan right behind him. “Who was that man?” he asked, frowning.
“And what did he want? Was he menacing you?” Lachlan asked, with a glare at the door of Groperson’s apartment.
I opened my mouth to tell them everything that had just happened…and closed it again. Clearly the thing with the cigarette butts disappearing and being replaced by an ancient gold coin was some kind of magic. And I didn’t want any more magic for a while—especially if it was magic I might have accidentally done myself somehow.
Although honestly, I didn’t see how that was possible. I hadn’t worked a spell or said a charm or an incantation or anything like that. I had only said I “wished” I had some money. Surely that wasn’t enough to make anything happen—right?
I didn’t know for sure, but I did know I wasn’t ready to face the idea that I might have done magic again—especially without meaning to, by accident. So I just shrugged at the guys and said,
“He just wanted to talk about the rent—that’s all.”
Which was pretty much the truth, although I knew I was leaving a lot out.
“If he ever bothers you, be sure to let us know,” Bran said, still frowning.
“I will,” I said lightly. “Excuse me, boys—I need to help my mom put the groceries away.”
“We already saw to that,” Lachlan said. “Your mother appears to be busy tapping away at a strange instrument with a lighted screen.”
“Oh, you mean her computer?” I stifled a smile.
“Is that what it’s called?” Lachlan asked.
“Yup. I’m guessing they don’t have any computers in the Realm?” I asked.
“Technology doesn’t work in the Realm,” Bran explained. “We have magic instead, so we have no use for it there. Don’t worry,” he said to Lachlan. “You’ll get used to it. It took me a little while, too.”
“I guess I’ll have to if I’m going to go stay here with the two of you,” Lachlan remarked. “Speaking of which, it might be better for me to get my enrollment taken care of today, rather than waiting.”
“Sure,” I said eagerly. I was dying to get back to Nocturne and see my coven-mates. “Just let me give my mom a kiss and we’ll get going.”
“I wonder who her real mother is?” I heard Lachlan say to Bran in a low voice, as I went back into the apartment. “It could be any one of the High Sidhe.”