Page 8 of Starry with a Chance of Nightshade

And just like that, all the anger, all the power, and all the burning need for answers faded away. Stratton bent next to her and found himself lifting a hand to brush a stray strand of unruly hair from her face. In that moment, he knew he’d kill to protect the child, and that should have sent him running.

She came up from her hands and knees and stood pressed to him. She studied his ring and then his face. “It’s pretty.”

Rachael made an odd sound, like a cross between being happy and sad.

The child stared harder at Stratton’s face. “You’re old.”

Drest laughed loudly.

“That’s not nice to say,” scolded Rachael though her tone was light.

The little girl glanced at Rachael. “But he is old, Aunt Rachael. Real old. Older than the house even, and that isold.”

Stratton chuckled. “She’s not wrong. I’ve had hundreds of years, so I am probably older than the house. I’m not sure how she knew that though.”

“Wait until she learns I’m a little bit older than you even,” said Drest.

“I already know that, Uncle Drest,” she replied.

Stratton glanced at Drest, raising an eyebrow. The man had an entire life that Stratton had known nothing about.

The child tugged on Stratton’s hand as he stayed crouched next to her. “You made it glow before.”

He looked at his ring, realizing she’d moved on to talking about it rather than how old he was. “I did.”

“Don’t,” she said.

“Don’t what?” asked Stratton of the child.

“Make it glow,” she whispered before glancing around and then back up at Stratton. “He’ll know.He’llcome. He won’t like you making that glow.”

“Who won’t?” asked Stratton.

Drest laughed softly. “Oh, she’s probably talking about her goblin.”

“I’m not so sure,” said Rachael.

“Goblin?” demanded Stratton, his gaze snapping to the pendant around the child’s neck. “She has a fuc—um—rry…furry…yes, furry goblin in that thing?” he asked, narrowly avoiding dropping a rather large F-bomb in front of a very small child.

Drest nodded. “She does. And as luck would have it, it likes to be furry whenever possible. Long story. Has a thing for marking its territory too. Heads up. Serious gas issues too.”

The child giggled. “He is furry! But he isn’t who will come.”

“A goblin of the lesser order, I hope,” said Stratton as his arm moved around her in a protective manner.

“What’s that mean?” she asked.

Stratton tried to think of a way to explain lesser order goblins and demons to a child. He drew a blank. “Uh, not bad?”

Her lips pursed. “He’s not bad. Well, sometimes he’s a bad boy and gets me in trouble. Like this one time he wanted to bake me a cake but he don’t know how to bake so good and got flour and sugar all over the kitchen…and the living room, and the dining room, and the stairs, and my bedroom. I had to take a time-out. Daddy was very mad. Aunt Rachael wasn’t. She baked me a cake that night. It was my birthday.”

A goblin had tried to bake a cake for a small child? In all his years, Stratton had never heard of such a thing before. “So, he’s good to you?”

She beamed and nodded her head so vigorously that her hair went in all directions. “He’s my bestest friend in the whole world.”

“He is?” asked Stratton.

She took hold of her pendant and smiled, dimples forming as she did. “Do you want me to ask him to come out to play? He likes to play, but Daddy hasn’t let him out since Mommy went away. But don’t go making that ring glow none, or else he’ll try to eat you. He doesn’t like what you are.”

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