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It took me hours to track down every single bit of parchment he’d requested, and I only worked so quickly because of my own prior research. Finally, I was done for the night, and stacked the books neatly on the shelf beneath the marble counter, where they would wait until tomorrow, when I would take the last protected book out of its special vault. My book was inside those vaults, the most strongly protected one bound with spells that only I could undo. It was one of only two things that I had from my father. The other was an elaborate cross on my wall at home wrapped in roses and thorns that bloomed and died in an enchanted cycle to remind me of life and death.
At any rate, I’d get the last book in the morning. I wasn’t going to leave it out unprotected overnight, since it was bad enough to have so many priceless scrolls in one place. I set one last protection ward over them before I grabbed my jacket and headed towards the front door. Sam was already there from the night shift. It wasn’t the first time I’d stayed long after the library had closed.
“How was work today? I heard you had the chairman’s grandkids.” He made a face, bushy mustache doing fascinating aerobics that I could watch all day. The two guards were competing to see who could grow the most impressive mustache in a month. Sam was winning.
I winced, remembering how badly I’d messed up and didn’t answer his question. “See you tomorrow. Watch out for the front desk tonight. I’ve got to hurry, or I’ll miss sushi.” It was almost nine, which is when the Cat’s Pause kitchen closed.
“Have a good night,” Sam said, unlocking the small side door to let me out. “Tell Anna thanks for the ointment. It was just the thing.” He got an awkward look, because Anna, my best friend, might not remember making it for him. She couldn’t remember most things, or people, but she usually remembered sushi.
“Sure thing. Night.” I headed out into the crisp fall air, taking a moment to put my ear buds in before descending the steps two at a time towards the sidewalk. There was a moderate crowd on the well-lit street, even if it was almost nine p.m., and I had to dodge my way towards my favorite restaurant, a sushi piano bar that was the only place like it in the world. It was only a block away from the library, and therefore my apartment, as I lived directly across the street in the most expensive building in the city. Fortunately, I got to stay in a tiny apartment for next to nothing thanks to the old Music Master.
I hurried down the sidewalk lit by glowing lamps that sparked when people went by. Each lamp played a different note, and when they were freshly tuned, they played Singsong city’s theme, a song that couldn’t help but make you feel a little more optimistic, a little more hopeful, not that the lamps had been tuned for a long time.
The Music Master had died recently after having spent years in a slow decline. The city’s potholes reflected his disinterest, as did the cracks running through many of the buildings that were stabilized by magic more than mortar. I owed him a great debt for what he did when he didn’t owe me anything.
I walked faster when I saw the lights shining from the tall house kitty-corner to the Library of Antiquities. It was a spot of bright and friendly cheer in the otherwise gloomy dusk. I pulled out my phone to check the time and messages as I stepped off the curb and into the street. Cars weren’t allowed in this part of the city, partly because their weight wore too heavily on the undercity cavern below us, and partly because this was solely for pedestrians, tourists and locals. There was a wonderful train system throughout the city so that cars wouldn’t have to take up prime space by parking in Center City.
I didn’t even see the car coming. The sound of metal crunching against stone struck my skin more than my eardrums. The very ground under my feet shook, and when I whirled around, there was a car folded around a man, his back to me as he faced the vehicle. He’d stopped the car without being knocked over, which meant that he was deadly dangerous. Who would be stupid enough to drive around in the inner city? This creature would probably get violent, and then I’d miss my sushi.
The car door opened and out stepped a tall, elegant man dressed in a gray vest and pants, the small triangle on his vest marking him as a member of the Gray Society, a powerful group who strongly influenced the politics and management of the largest cities in the world. He was handsome, young, powerful, and bore a cane with a glittering purple stone on the head. In other words, he was an idiot who wanted to die.
“What did you do to my car?” he demanded, glaring at the man who hadn’t moved, the one he’d hit on a pedestrian-only road.
“What do you mean, what did he do to your car?” I demanded, moving to the side so I could have a better view of the driver. “You hit him in a pedestrian-only street, and you have the nerve to be offended? How dare you?”
He studied me for a moment before he smiled, smirked, and I got to see how young and inexperienced he really was. “How could I help but drive here? Otherwise, I wouldn’t have met you.”
Seriously, he’d actually taken this moment of near death to come up with a line? “You almost killed me! That’s not flirty. Are you all right?” I asked, turning towards the creature who had stopped the car but hadn’t made any other movements. He probably wasn’t waiting to fly into a sudden rage, but who could tell? I carefully touched his shoulder and the feel of him was solid, familiar, and sent a throbbing rush up my arm from my hand to my shoulder before I pulled back and curled my fist. Why was today so unlucky?
He turned his head and with a flash of his blue eyes, I couldn’t deny that it was the Scholar. Could it possibly be a coincidence that brought him here, close to me for the third time today? No, it couldn’t. I hadn’t seen him, so he’d been invisible, or he’d been somewhere else and intercepted the car before it could kill me. It was possible that he’d stepped out for a bit of fresh evening upper-city air, but it was much, much more likely that he was stalking me as prey.
“I am uninjured,” he said in that voice of his, resonant, compelling, and telling me nothing about himself.
“Of course he is,” my arrogant Gray friend said, coming closer, eyes still on me with a growing predatory blaze. Which of the two were more dangerous to me right this second? “And you, are you hurt? I should take you somewhere for a thorough examination to make certain that you are as fine as you appear.” He winked at me, because those words weren’t nearly subtle enough.
Okay, The Scholar might be stalking me for nefarious purposes involving eternal fire, but at least he wasn’t hitting on me in the middle of the street with a gathering crowd of concerned public.
I curled my lip. “Let me be clear. I’m too old for you, and the only intimacy I’m going to have with a man will be after I legally own half of his property while he’s alive, and all of it if he happens to die, accidentally, of course. You had no business driving in this part of town. I’m going to file a complaint against you and so is Mr…”
I glanced at the Scholar. I’d seen him come and go for years, but I’d never heard his name, just the title: the Scholar.
“Stead,” he said after a beat too long. It was always awkward to tell your name to your prey. Well, he should have let me get hit if he didn’t want me to play games with him. “Michael Stead.” He held out a hand, and I took it, a rush of heat and tension going through me at the moment before I pulled away and got back to business. His attractiveness was part of his allure, his deadliness, and I couldn’t ever take it personally.
“Mr. Stead will certainly press charges for the damage you did to his person, his property, and his mental health. He might even suffer PTSD in consequence of your careless behavior.”
Said possible PTSD victim cleared his throat. “Stranger things have happened.” The way he looked at me reminded me of the fires still burning in the courtyard below us in Song. Nothing was stranger than heavenly fire twining with infernal.
I nodded at him. “Indeed.” He had nothing on me, even if I had extensively researched and translated texts regarding said fire. Just because I was interested in it doesn’t mean I was responsible for it, at least as far as he could prove.
“What’s going on?” Anna asked, stepping into our circle. Her dark eyes were troubled as she looked between the men, one who still had part of a car hood wrapped around him. How in the world would he get that off while maintaining his mild-mannered demeanor? I almost wanted to see him shed his civilized veneer so I could accept him as a monster once and for all.
“Tragic accident,” I said, gesturing at the car’s position with a frown. “He got stuck between me and a moving vehicle.”
She grabbed my arm and whirled on Michael Stead. “You saved my best friend? How heroic.” She shot me a look with a flash of mischief before she grabbed his arm, connecting us through her interference. “I’m going to buy you a drink for that. I’d offer sushi, but the kitchen is closed.” She added in a low hiss to me, “Don’t worry, I bought you a plate right before it closed, and he’s hot. You’re welcome,” before she went back to beaming at him and tugging him towards the restaurant, like there wasn’t a car wrapped around him.
The driver had been staring at her in shocked horror before he finally broke out in a loud guffaw. “You’re friends with this beauty? I don’t believe it. She would never taint herself by consorting with an untouchable like you.”
I ripped my arm out of Anna’s grip and advanced on the obvious true monster on the street. How dare he call my best friend an untouchable just because she had a few scars on her face? I’d kill him for that! “Take that back or die!” I launched myself at him and would have broken his nose if crunching metal wasn’t followed by the Scholar’s arm wrapping around my waist, pulling me up short so that my fist barely missed the surprised driver. The feel of his arm made breathing difficult, or maybe that was the pressure against my diaphragm.
