Page 81 of Hawk & Sparrow

“I’d like to make a deal with you, Miss Evans.” Maximilian’s tone had warmed again. “You just asked me a question, and now I’d like to ask you one. We’ll call it … a game of reciprocity.”

Vesper pursed her lips, immediately skeptical. “What on earth would you want to ask me?”

The sorcerer paused for a moment, apparently thinking, then: “Why do you live at the Globe’s office, instead of with your family?”

Vesper stiffened.

“Sorry.” Maximilian turned to face her. “If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to.”

Vesper took a deep breath. She’d never told anyone about the worst day of her life. For eleven years, it had been her secret, a creature she’d kept caged in the back of her mind where it couldn’t hurt her. She looked at Maximilian and made a decision.

“Pour me another glass.”

Maximilian refilled the glass and handed it to her again. Vesper downed it in one swallow. She waited until the burn in her throat subsided, and then she spoke again.

“Have you ever heard of the Hillbrook Fire of 1887?”

Maximilian frowned, clearly confused. “I was a child, but I remember it vaguely,” he said. “It happened down in Pebblebrook, right? Wasn’t it a bakery that went up in flames?”

Vesper’s smile was grim. “It was called the Hillbrook Fire because the Hillbrook Building was the most well-known one that burned. But the truth is, an entire city block of buildings was impacted. My family’s tenement building was one of them.

“When it first broke out, it was late, and we were all sleeping. By the time we realized what was happening, most of the exits were blocked, and several floors of people were trapped. My father and I made it out to the street, but then we realized that my mother and sister hadn’t. He told me to wait on the curb, and said he had to go look for them.” Tears pricked her eyes. “I begged him not to leave me, but he told me he’d be right back.” She felt a hard lump in her throat and swallowed hard. “The building collapsed shortly after he went back in to find them. None of them made it out.”

Maximilian stared, all traces of laughter gone from his face. “How old were you?”

“Eight.”

“Miss Evans.” Real pain touched the sorcerer’s voice. “I’m so sorry.”

Vesper nodded. She’d gotten through the hardest part of the story, she could tell the rest now. “I spent a few months after that on the street, until one night I found a stoop to sleep on. The next morning, I woke up to a man wrapping a coat around me and bringing me inside. That was Tom Chauncey, my editor at the Globe.” She sighed. “It’s been my home ever since, and I would do anything to protect it.” She looked up at him. “That’s why I agreed to take this case, by the way. If the Globe can’t pay its rent by December first, we lose the building and the newspaper will shut down. That’s why I need the money.”

For several minutes, they sat in silence, both staring at the crackling fireplace. Eventually, Maximilian lifted his glass and took a long drink. When he offered it to Vesper, she surprised herself by taking a third pull. There was no way to explain it, but it felt as though, in her telling someone about what had happened to her, a weight had been lifted.

“I suppose it’s your turn to ask a question,” said Maximilian. “Fire away.” He groaned. “Sorry, no pun intended.”

Vesper racked her brain, trying to think of a question. She went with the first one that came to mind. “Is it true that you courted Sarah Levant?”

Maximilian looked up. “Who told you that?”

“Ada mentioned it.”

A wry smile touched his face. “It’s true. I courted her for a few months but it ended.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Sarah came from the right kind of family, to be sure. She’s probably exactly the sort of girl high society expects me to marry someday. Her family’s respectable, and she’s certainly attractive enough.”

Vesper winced, then hoped Max didn’t notice.

“Ultimately though, I knew after a few months that she and I would never make each other happy,” he said. “We were too different. She wanted a life that fit the status quo and I wanted something … else. In the end, I was the one who suggested we end it.”

“I see.” Vesper couldn’t explain the feeling in her chest. It was as though a hot air balloon was expanding in her rib cage, lifting her higher and higher. Was that what relief felt like?

Maximilian was still studying her. “Why’d you ask me that?”

Vesper paused. The truth was, she wasn’t entirely sure. She didn’t know why she was sitting here, in a private den late at night beside a sorcerer, drinking his spiked cider and telling him things she hadn’t told anyone before. She didn’t know why, the longer she stayed so close to Max, the harder her heart pounded in her chest, and she didn’t know why he was looking at her in a way he never had before. She shook her head, trying to clear it.

“I was just curious,” she said quickly. “Anyway, it’s your turn to ask a question.”