Settling Dust by Jacklyn Hennion

Author:Jacklyn Hennion [Hennion, Jacklyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragon Eye Books

Chapter

Eight

Traffic was getting rough. It was almost noon, and the streets were filled with people getting out for lunch. It only got worse as I neared campus. I had to contend with people coming to campus for the restaurants as well as students driving in for afternoon classes. It took nearly half an hour to make the relatively short drive from the center of town to the southern end where the campus sat.

There were only a few areas around the university campus with motorcycle parking and not many people used those spots, which usually guaranteed I could find parking, but also meant I had to walk a few blocks to get to where I needed to be. Normally it was a mild inconvenience, but the extra few minutes it took for me to walk a block or two weren’t usually the potential difference between life and death.

If that mysterious symbol really was being used to mark people for death, then there wasn’t any time at all to waste. And if Mr. Hook or his non-accented accomplice were the ones determining who got marked …

My head hurt just trying to piece it all together coherently.

Ginny’s life was in danger because she made a deal with a stranger who promised her ten thousand dollars.

The sheer stupidity of it made my head ache more.

So I parked on the sidewalk, right in front of the store Dorian had told me about.

The Quill was indeed a tiny store, tucked between a Chinese restaurant and an empty storefront with a For Lease sticker in the window. A large wooden sign hung over the door. Most other shops in the city had departed from similar signage in favor of large and easily replaceable plastic letters with lights wired in, or the much simpler vinyl stick-on letters tacked to doors with glass inlays.

I glanced up briefly at the sign as I parked the Blackbird. It featured a stylized quill and a pot of some sort. The letters were also heavily stylized and difficult to read from my angle. It could have said Cauldron or Kettle. I really couldn’t tell either way.

The door, sans glass insert and vinyl lettering, was painted a cheery turquoise and covered in runes and symbols in white chalk. I opened the door and entered, not entirely sure whether to expect a dark and musty store with creepy-looking ingredients on shelves or a brightly lit hippie paradise of bundled sage and marijuana buds.

It was neither.

Tiny sage bundles were arranged in a low basket right by the front door. A small sign affixed to the basket read “Free Smudge Stick with Every Visit!” in neat cursive. Soft yellow light bathed every surface and created a relaxing and welcoming ambience. And it smelled nice. Like vanilla, but not the heavy kind used in perfumes. It smelled like real vanilla.

Low tables were covered in typical spiritual wellness merchandise in four neat rows and tall glass-fronted cabinets stood on each of the long side walls. There were baskets of worry stones and posters of constellation charts and a soy candle in the shape of a pair of breasts.

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