Now she sizes up the stalls, scanning the traders’ faces from the shadows of a collapsed bridge truss.“I’ll have a better chance of getting answers out of the folks who know me best. People can be cagey?—”
“Polaris?” someone calls to her, and I feel a jolt of alarm run through her mind.
“It’s fine, I already knew your real last name,”I sigh.
“You what?”she asks as she whips around, her eyes falling on the person who called her: a tall, sandy-haired young man.“Never mind. Just…keep quiet.”
“Hodges!” she says as the young man approaches and pulls her into a brief hug. A wave of warmth radiates through her as they pull apart. It sets my teeth on edge. Who exactly is this person to her?
“You finally got that haircut,” she says.
Hodges—whatever kind of namethatis—rolls his eyes, but there’s an affection in them I don’t like at all. “Definitely not because of your advice, Polaris.”
“If you ask me, it would take more than a haircut to make this boy look presentable,”I mutter.
“Good thing no one asked you,”Leah shoots back before grinning at the man. “How have you been?”
“Fine. Missing my partner,” he says, giving her a playful shove on the shoulder that makes my hackles rise.
“Partner? Partner in what?”I demand.
“If you don’t shut up, I’ll shove?—”
“I thought you couldn’t come scavenging anymore?” Hodges is saying with a confused tilt of his head. “Weren’t you supposed to get married?”
“I was. It…er…it didn’t work out,” Leah says. Her usual quick thinking when it comes to cover stories doesn’t seem to be working here. Perhaps she finds it harder to lie to her true friends.
But she finds it easy enough to lie to me. I try not to dwell on that.
Hodges’s eyes fall on the wedding ring she still wears on her finger, and a flicker of confusion crosses his face. It’s a decision of hers that irks me almost as much as it baffles me. At least the messy-haired boy-man seems to think the same.
“Look,” Leah says as she follows the direction of his gaze and clenches her hand into a fist. “I can’t get into it right now. And if anyone asks, you’d be doing me a big favor by saying you haven’t seen me.”
His expression grows serious, and he nods like a lieutenant who’s just been given his marching orders.
“All right,” he says, looking around for eavesdroppers. “Can I ask what you’re doing here, at least?”
“Not really. But maybe you could help me.” She licks her lips, and I’m only momentarily distracted by the sensation. “I need to know about people who might be working with the wingers. Maybe being paid by the ephilium?”
“What kind of work?” Hodges asks.
“Something involving black magic,” Leah says. “Like, summoning demons.”
The young man’s face pales, and he shakes his head. “Shit, Polaris. I’d ask what you’ve gotten yourself into, but I know you’re too stubborn to tell me.”
“You’d be right,” she says. “Don’t worry about it. You know I can handle myself.”
“Sure, you can handle yourself,” he says, still visibly annoyed. “But that doesn’t mean you’re good at lookingafteryourself. Survival isn’t the only goal, and you don’t have to suffer through stuff alone.”
“Trust me,” she says. “I’m definitely not alone.”
There’s such a genuine concern on the young man’s face that Leah’s spiky answer feels…sad. Instinctively, I reach out in her mind, laying a soft touch against her consciousness.
“And anyway, that’s why I’m asking for your help,” she says. “I’m trying to lie low, and I could do with these questions not leading back to me.”
“Okay,” he agrees, understanding what she’s asking of him. “Give me a minute, and let me go ask around.”
“And Hodges…” She digs into her pocket and pulls out some gold we brought specifically from Infernum for this purpose. “Use this to loosen their tongues if you have to.”
