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Others? Aren’t we just going home? Or were Aristide and Ker that desperate to get out for the day?
Despite being a vampire, Aristide was shockingly prone to being awake and active in the mornings. I suspected it was because he was just that old and powerful based on all the jokes Ker and Noctus made.
Ms. Booker ignored my surprise and took advantage of the situation.
“Just a moment, sir.” She scooted around me and marched toward Noctus. “I request a chance to meet you.”
“Of course,” Noctus said, standing still as Ms. Booker appraised him. He was wearing a suit today—his typical clothing whenever we ventured into Magiford, unless it was for training—and his golden hair was slicked back with more of a businessman look to it than its usual artfully tousled state.
He took off his aviator sunglasses, and he must have dropped the glamour that hid his ears—longer and more tapered than the average fae’s—since Ms. Booker startled.
“I am Noctus Mors,” Noctus said. “Last of my line, King of the Mors, Bearer of Destruction, and ruler of Calor Villa.”
Ms. Booker dipped in a perfect curtsey. “Mildred Booker,” she said. “Owner and proprietor of Book Nookery.”
I was average height, and I looked short in comparison to Noctus, but Ms. Booker was petite, so standing in front of Noctus, she lookedtiny.
“Ms. Booker.” Noctus slightly inclined his head. “I have heard much about you and your store. It’s an honor.”
“Thank you. I have heard some varied reviews of your conduct,” Ms. Booker frankly said. “But it seems that you have finally settled things.”
“We’re attempting to settle them.” I grabbed my backpack and jacket from the cupboard I used to stow my stuff, then shuffled into the lobby. “There have been a few hiccups.”
Noctus held his hand out to me. I took it, andtriedto hear the choir of magic I knew Noctus heard, but even with my collar activated I still couldn’t hear it.
“I see,” Ms. Booker said. “You aspire to have a full bond together, then?”
I almost dropped my backpack, and the only noise that could make it out of my suddenly collapsed lungs was a pained wheeze.
“Yes,” Noctus said—not at all embarrassed. “The irregularities of Chloe’s relationship with magic mean the common way of bonding isn’t possible, but we’ll figure out a way to overcome it.”
“You think it’s truly possible for her to bond with you?” Ms. Booker asked.
“Given magic’s favoritism toward shadows, I could not imagine it wouldn’t allow it,” Noctus said. “It’s too advantageous for her—something I hope to capitalize on.”
I hemmed and hawed some more, but the corners of Ms. Booker’s lips turned up—which meant she didn’t just like him, she approved of him. (Ms. Booker was not a woman who was fast to smile.)
A car horn honked outside, followed by silence, then three additional short blasts.
Noctus looked back at the front door. “We’d better get going. It seems they’re getting restless.”
“Indeed. It was good to meet you, Your Majesty,” Ms. Booker said.
“It was my honor, Ms. Booker.” Noctus tugged me out of the bookstore, and when I popped out into the dreary morning light—the sun hadn’t risen yet, and the sky was cloudy, so everything was a gloomy gray color—I saw the familiar black SUV…rocking wildly on its wheels.
I clutched my backpack to my chest. “Woah.”
“Ker is excited to be going into Magiford in her human form,” Noctus said. “Charon isn’t one for appreciating exuberance.”
The windows were tinted, so we couldn’t see what was going on inside, but I wasn’t too surprised when Noctus opened the side door, revealing Aristide cackling as he poked his cane up by Charon, smashing it on the steering wheel.
Ker had her hands flush against the ceiling and was bouncing up and down in the car, while Charon pulled a handgun from a shoulder holster hidden in the folds of his cloak.
“Stop disturbing the peace, or I’ll shoot you,” Charon told the vampire.
“You’d hurtme?” Aristide asked, planting a hand on his chest in horror.
“You’d survive,” Charon grimly said.
