Firebird Sweet Canto Sybilla: Book 2

By Rachel V. Olivier

Nicole, guitarist for Canto Sybilla and a senior at University of Southport, can’t seem to settle down and concentrate on anything — school, work, the band. She’s restless and can’t figure out why. It could just be spring fever, couldn’t it? Meanwhile Victor’s Nana has him taking time off work to run strange errands all over town for the “good of the family”, and it includes following some college co-ed. He yearns to go back to his engineering job, and just hopes he doesn’t get arrested for stalking. Of course, the Others of Southport can’t resist meddling in the affairs of their local humans.

Welcome to Book II of Canto Sybilla, the series that follows the lives of bandmembers Holly, Nicole, Julie, Donna and some of their friends as they live and love in the city of Southport.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312577381

Book preview

Firebird Sweet Canto Sybilla: Book 2

Firebird Sweet

Canto Sybilla

Book II

by

Rachel V. Olivier

Description: RO Blocksb bw

Copyright Page

Published by Lulu.com, Lulu Enterprises, Inc.

3131 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC 27607-5436

Firebird Sweet: Canto Sybilla Book II

Putt Putt Productions, An Uphill Company

Copyright © October 2014 by Rachel V. Olivier

Cover design and art by Rachel V. Olivier

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

FIREBIRD SWEET is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author‘s imagination and any resemblance to any organization, event, or person, living or dead (or the living dead), is purely coincidental.

ISBN: 978-1-312-57738-1

Description: putt2

Printed in the United States of America.

Thank You

It's always polite to say Thank You so...

Thank you to the Irregular Regulars, my writing group who helped me go through Firebird Sweet yet again. And thanks to all the Beta Readers out there — Rosaliene, Val, Angela, Heather, Sharon and Jade — who let me know what they liked and what was missing. And thank you to Leigh Purtill for reminding me that I don’t need to be dependent on anyone else for my art (one of the hold ups for publication was trying to figure out what to do for a cover and knowing there was no way I could afford to pay anyone to do the art for the front cover. So I got out my art supplies and figured out what I could do on my own.) And thanks, as always, to my friends and family for being patient with me as I try to get this writing thing — er — right.

Table of Contents

Chapter I: It All Began on a Blustery Day

Chapter II: Lookout Point

Chapter III: April’s Remedy & Second Thoughts

Chapter IV: Nana Christine

Chapter V: The Brick Oven

Chapter VI: Raven on a Hot Winter’s Night

Chapter VII: A Pyretic Performance

Chapter VIII: The Captive Audience

Chapter IX: Metamorphosis

Chapter X: What Price Rebirth?

Chapter XI: Family!

Chapter XII: Truth and Consequences

Chapter XIII: Making Friends

About the Author

…they let the Firebird free. And she flew off high into the evening

sky, showering sparks of gold over the land, flaming gloriously.

The Firebird, by Brad Kessler (adapted from the Russian fairytale)

Chapter I: It All Began on a Blustery Day

Nicole picked restlessly at the strings on her guitar, staring out the bay window in the living room as it dripped with late winter rains. Outside it was what one of her favorite poets would have called a blustery day. It looked as restless and ready for adventure out there as she felt inside. But there wasn’t time for that. She flicked her eyes over to her music theory book and sighed, putting her guitar down and pulling the book toward her.

One more term. Just one more. Nicole grit her teeth. More than anything right now she just wanted to be out. Out there. Somewhere. Playing music, or playing. Working at anything, even though she had no idea what she was going to do once she graduated. Hell, she'd settle for doing dishes downtown at the Horseshoe Cafe, or cleaning fish up in Alaska. Anything but studying music theory and being stuck in the house on a late winter’s day.

Tossing her honey-colored hair back over her shoulder, Nicole sighed and bent down in the window seat over her textbook, one leg tucked beneath her. She read over the text — again — massaging her hands where the scars from injuries decorated her hands — souvenirs from filleting fish the past summer — made themselves known with stiff sore muscles. A strand of hair drifted down over her shoulders and onto the page. She scooped it behind her ear. A minute later she felt an itch in the middle of her back. Continuing to read, she tried reaching behind and scratching it with her nails. Then, picking her book up, she backed herself against the molding in the bay window and tried to rub her spine. It felt good until she lost her balance, falling off the bench seat and dropping her book.

Nicole heard a cough, looked around and saw her roommate, Julie, smirking down at a book she was reading, head nodding to whatever was coming through her ear buds. Julie's dark hair was covering her face, so Nicole couldn't quite tell if Julie was laughing at her or the 17th century Restoration Literature she was reading. Nicole suspected it was the former.

Picking her book up she settled down to read again. A moment later Nicole felt an itch on her scalp as another strand of hair drifted across her vision. 

Fuck! This is impossible! Nicole shoved herself off the window seat, stomping into her bedroom to grab a brush and hair elastic.

So, take a break. Julie looked up from her book.

I just took a break. I can’t take another one, can I?

Julie arched an eyebrow at Nicole.  "Well then give me a break. You're drivin' me nuts." Julie flipped a page dismissively. The phone next to Julie chirped a text. Nicole looked closer as Julie leaned over to check who it was and saw the pages of a magazine hidden in the book.

"Is that a Marie Claire?"

Julie ignored the question, and went back from her phone to the magazine nestled in the covers of her textbook. Nicole shook her head and turned back to the window, glaring at the rain outside.

If only it would just really pour, you know? Thunder and lightning and everything. Either that or quit. I’m tired of this pissing shit. Nicole flipped off the rain that had been a semi–constant dribble for the last few days, one of the payments for living in the Evergreen State.

Why can't I live someplace where we get snow and sunshine during the winter? I wish February was over already.

Don’t take it so personal, Nikki. March will be here in a couple of days and then you'll be right as rain. Holly, Nicole's other roommate, winked at Nicole, laughing at her own joke. She had breezed into the kitchen from her bedroom, raiding the fridge for sandwich makings and water, glowing from a visit with her boyfriend, Ivan. The fuchsia highlights she'd added to her short red hair for Christmas had faded, but her cheeriness had not. It’s not like the weather is out to tick you off now, is it? Go for a walk!

Easy for her to say, muttered Nicole as she glared at Holly’s retreating back. It wasn't just Holly's afterglow cheeriness that got on her nerves. It was this time of year; the butt end of winter before it quit for good, allowing spring to grab hold and burst forth. The waiting made her restless, cranky and euphoric all at once, and worse on these in–between days when it couldn't decide whether to be cold and rainy or warm and balmy.

Nicole grabbed her keys — studying be damned — shoved her feet into her hiking boots and put on her jacket as if she were going out to do battle. Holly's suggestion had been a good one, even if the way it was delivered made Nicole want to growl at her.

I’m going for a walk!