“Are you ready to leave? Is Pavel on board with the plan?”Please, let me do right by one single paranormal in this blasted city—
The storeroom door squeaked as it opened, revealing Pavel in the doorway. His gaze was on Arthur, his thick eyebrows furrowed on his flushed face. Sasha went to him immediately, taking his hands in her own. She spoke in rapid Russian Arthur couldn’t hope to follow, since his own Russian vocabulary consisted ofda,nyet, a handful of battlefield terms, and three ways to ask someone to go to bed. Arthur’s brain could be a bit selective in what it retained from foreign languages.
After a long moment, Pavel looked back at Arthur. And then he nodded.
Arthur’s heart leapt. “You’ll go?”
“Yes,” said Sasha. “We will come back to the Taussigs when the magic is gone.”
Arthur exhaled, leaning heavily against the storeroom wall between stacks of crates. It would be so much easier to hunt down the newest relic if he wasn’t worrying about Pavel getting trapped in his alchemy.
There was a tug on his sleeve. Arthur opened his eyes to find Pavel in front of him. Pavel looked at Sasha intently, then back at Arthur.
“He has made new potions,” said Sasha. “He wants you to have them.”
Arthur drew a breath. “Oh no, I couldn’t—”
“Yes, Arthur.” She held up her hand, cutting off his further protests. “We would not bring Pavel’s potions near children. And you would use them to capture the magic so we can come back to the Taussigs, yes?”
“Well, yes—”
“Then you must have them.” Sasha crossed the small storeroom to the freestanding safe, an oversized, solid affair that must have weighed at least 700 pounds. With a small grunt, she lifted it herself.
Arthur’s eyes widened. “I willneverget used to seeing you do things like that,” he said fervently, watching the slim girl with paranormal super-strength move the safe to the side.
“The safe is a good decoy.” She crouched and pried up the loose floorboard that had been hidden beneath the safe, then lifted out the small metal box hiding in the space. She opened the box, revealing three small glass vials, full of brightly colored liquids and corked shut.
“My word.” Arthur bent for a better look. “What do they do?”
“Ah.” Sasha exchanged a helpless glance with Pavel. “I’m not sure.”
“You’re notsure?”
“Pavel doesn’t say what they do. He just makes them, like art.” She shrugged apologetically.
The small vials glinted at Arthur from their box, blue, purple, and orange, no clues to their powers. Well, he already had a ring that controlled the wind locked in a safe in his study. Why shouldn’t his day grow weirder?
“Then I will take good care of his art.” Arthur carefully wrapped the slim vials in his handkerchief, which he then tucked safely away in his jacket. “Can you come with me now?”
Sasha nodded. “We are packed and ready.”
“Grand Central, then,” said Arthur. “I’ll get the cab.”
Mrs. Brodigan hummed all afternoon, more relaxed than Rory had ever seen her, to the point where he was almost considering revising his opinion on Arthur Kenzie. Maybe he was bad news only for Rory. Arthur had made Mrs. Brodigan happy and that melted something inside him, just a little.
You haven’t given him a chance to try to make you happy too—
Rory stamped down on the thought. “You should go out,” he told Mrs. Brodigan. “Celebrate having the debt gone. I’ll watch the shop.”
“Now that’s a lovely idea,” she said thoughtfully. “It’s already four. We could close early, celebrate together?”
He shook his head rapidly. “I’m lousy at celebrating. I’d just bring you down.”
“You would never, lovey.” She watched him for a moment, then sighed in resignation. “I suppose Mr. McIntyre did offer another driving lesson.”
Rory’s eyebrows flew up. “Is he sweet on you?”
“You don’t have to sound like that’s the most shocking thing you’ve ever heard,” she said dryly. “I’m old, not dead. Besides,oneof us ought to have a date now and then.”
