“Tea again, Bennet?” Riley strode into the room and added a healthy dose of coffee into the thermos that practically lived in his hand. “I thought I taught you better than that.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I don’t recall you teaching me anything. Besides, you know what coffee does to me.”Riley knew how unpredictable caffeine made my magic, even though it didn’t seem to affect his at all.
“You wound me.” He held a hand over his heart and bowed his dark head. “Didn’t I give you a nice tip just last night?”
“I would have heard about it anyway. Everyone was talking about their arrival this morning.” I added another spoonful of honey to my tea and looked away before he caught me admiring how well his dark jeans fit or how his white Henley looked extra nice against his dark brown skin. He didn’t need the ego boost. “Besides, it’s good for you to be taken down a peg. You’re entirely too sure of yourself. Half of the women in the office are in love with you.”
“Only half?” His brown eyes twinkled. “I’ll have to work on that.”
I snorted and turned to go back to my desk. “Some of us have real work to do.”
“That’sexactlywhy I’m here. I’ve got another smashing tip.” Riley only used his fake British accent when he had something really good. He slung an arm around my shoulders to stop me by the break room door and leaneddown, bringing the scent of wood smoke, sunlight, and cloves to my nose. “Remember our friends I mentioned last night?”
I jumped a little, making hot tea slosh over the rim of my mug and spill on my sweater sleeve. “What about them?” I didn’t point out that most fae would probably rather be stripped of their precious natural magic than be friends with a half-fae, half-witch like me.
“Word on the street is they’ll attend Club Meryton tomorrow night.”
I gave Riley a skeptical look even though my heart pounded in excitement. “Why are you telling me instead of going yourself?”
“Unfortunately, I have another assignment for work. Big article on a werewolf attack I’ve got to take care of.” He wrinkled his nose and shook his head with a dramatic sigh.
It was no surprise considering Riley had a knack for finding the best stories.
“What a shame the world doesn’t bend to your whims,” I teased. “How do you survive?”
“That would be much more convenient, but I suppose I can manage.” He winked at me. “Anyway, get in there and see if you can find a story good enough to get you out of the society pages.”
I sighed. “Don’t even get me started on how this isn’t even a real position. If everyone in Austen Heights didn’t insist on being in everyone else’s business—”
“You’d be out of a job.” He flashed another grin.
I swatted his arm. “Thanks for the tip. I’ll check it out.”
“Any time, love.”
“Don’t call me love.” I brushed off his flirting because if you gave Riley an inch, he’d take a mile. I’d learned that last year at the office Christmas party when I’d accidentally pointed out mistletoe across the room, and he’d kissed me. Since then, I’d been extra careful. Our friendship only worked because I constantly shut him down.
Riley grinned and snagged a pen cap from an abandoned pen lying on the table that the two men had been at earlier. “Finders keepers.” He winked at me and slid the cap into his pocket. He was always hoarding them.
“Eliza,” a no-nonsense voice called across the clack of keyboards.
I straightened. Only one person in the office called me that. “Coming.”
I threw another smile Riley’s way, then hurried out of the break room, stopping to drop my tea at my desk and straighten my hair before walking to Maxine’s office. I knocked on the door, which sat partially cracked open.
“Come in,” she barked.
Her office smelled like apple cider, but considering the methodical way every pile sat on her desk and how not a paperclip or cable dared sit out of place, the smell wasn’t homey so much as clean. A sign hung over her desk that readKnowledge is Power.Her incredible eye for detail and high standards—for herself as well as others—had helped her rise to the rank of publisher at the Sanditon Chronicle. Unlike the rest of us, her office had a wide window overlooking the colorful maples and red brick law building across the street.
“I’ve been reviewing your work lately.” She adjusted the silver nameplate on her desk that readMaxine Steele, and it flashed in the afternoon light.
I pulled my shoulders back even straighter than normal, not daring to slouch in her presence.
“You’re doing well and have proven you can handle more. I’d like you to cover a few other events for the society pages.”
The hope building in my chest deflated, leaving me like a sail on a windless day. I knotted my fingers together behind my back so I wouldn’t wave my hands around wildly like Jane said I did when I was flustered. “I’d like a chance to write a different piece, if you don’t mind.”
“What sort?” She rested her chin on her hands, eyeing me.
