Page 86 of A Light in the Dark
“Poison is not a treat, Valerie.”
“Stop telling lies. Didn’t your momma teach you lying was wrong?”
“It’spoison. Poison is not a treat.” Joel heaved a sigh at me. “Am I going to have to come over and check on you daily once those damned bushes produce berries?”
“You will find me in my garden, curled around my strangleberry pots having a snooze, berry juice on my lips and high as a kite on napweed. Daily.”
“Please don’t.”
“But I’d have a wonderful time. Are you trying to deny me happiness?”
“How about I take you to see Yolana so you can buy some more silk from Shifter Five in exchange for not indulging in multiple types of poison in your garden?”
“Once a month,” I countered.
“Very well. Once a month, I will take you to get Shifter Five’s silk, but in exchange, you can only have your monthly allowance of death cobbler and asmallportion of strangleberry, which will be rationed out to you by a reasonable adult. For the purposes of this agreement, I am the reasonable adult. I will also teach you the appropriate use of napweed.”
“Deal.” I herded him towards my door. “The instant the furniture is delivered, we are going to buy more of Shifter Five’s silk. Our previous visit does not count.”
“Well, as you’re the captor, I think it’s fair you get to call the shots this weekend.”
“I am so happy Elenora liked me enough to start feeding me death cobbler. Outside of almost being hit by a car, things are turning around nicely.”
“We need to have a talk about being happy when someone poisons you, Valerie.”
TWENTY-SIX
I’m impressed with your boldness.
Once Joel cleaned up,I escorted him to my front door, plucked the spare key off its ring, and handed it to him. “Until you are released from being a hostage, you may hold on to this, as my hostage needs to be able to let himself back into his cage.”
“Your house isn’t a cage, Valerie.”
“It is now. Any winged visitors who come in through door or window do not get to leave until I give my permission. That means my house is now a cage. It’s a comfortable cage filled with food and happiness and crafting supplies, but its status as a permanent structure of luna moth containment has been finalized.”
He laughed, added my house key to his key chain, and joined me in raising a brow. “And your solution is to give me the key so I can let myself in and be a hostage?”
“Yes.”
“I’m impressed withyour boldness.”
“Call it a recent development due to ready access to silk. I am not even going to try to fight my new obsession. It makes me happy.” I shot him my smuggest smile. “You may not be Shifter Five, but you’re local, you’re my hostage, and you’ve already paid out with an entire bag of silk just for me.”
Halfway down the street to visit our neighbor, Elenora stepped out of her home, waving and grinning at us. “Ready for your lesson?”
I waved back, and as the thought of finally mastering some form of baked good appealed, I grinned and hollered, “I even brought Joel along for the ride!”
“Good girl. Don’t let him escape, you hear?”
Giggling over the absurdity of the situation, I eyed the luna moth shifter. “You hear that, Joel? You are not permitted to escape. You’re mine now.”
“You’re absolutely loving this.”
“I really am.”
Joel sighed. “In one last final attempt to be a voice of reason, normal people approach baking and cooking trying to avoid poisoning people.”
I slowed to a halt and regarded him with a raised brow. “Joel, you are dealing with a woman who is obsessed with silk from a very specific source, has established rules about when certain species may leave her house if they’re foolish enough to enter it, and wants to grow literal poison in her garden.”
