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Shiloh frowned at a shelf of self-help books that were about organizing and decluttering. “That makes sense. I figured it had to be something adult-ish and unfortunate. Noctus wasn’t angry about your breakup, he just seemed…” She sighed. “Regretful.”
“I was sad about it—I still am if I’m being honest,” I admitted. There was something about Shiloh’s warm eyes that made me open up, or maybe it was that sheknewNoctus, when I hadn’t even told Pat or Joy about him. “But there wasn’t any other way. Sometimes, life just says ‘no,’” I said.
Shiloh pressed her lips together, making her cheeks pucker a little. “It still seems silly when he’s clearly pining for you, and you obviously miss him. But, yeah. Sometimes life likes to take a swing at you, and other times it jumps you from behind, grabs you in a choke hold, and then slams you into the ground.”
Don’t ask—don’t open the door. Don’t do it!
“How is he doing?” I asked.
Why did I ask?!
“Did you miss the part where I said he’s pining for you?” Shiloh asked. “But, he’s okay, I think. Back to his usual stoic, blank faced self. Though—no offense, I know you were his girlfriend and all, but I think something’s wrong with Ama and that’s why he’s detached again.”
“Ama?” I repeated, blinking in surprise.
“Yeah. I haven’t seen her in months, and she used to pop out at least once a week. I asked him how she was, though, and he said she was fine. But he comes outside a lot less now than he did in the spring.”
Well…she said he’s fine. And she’s right, “detached” is kind of his modus operandum. He’ll recover, if he hasn’t already.
Shiloh drummed her fingers on her book. “But, hey, you should come visit the neighborhood sometime.”
I immediately shook my head. “I really shouldn’t go back to your neighborhood.”
Her frown was back. “Why not?”
Shoot—I can’t exactly tell her that Noctus and I are pretending we don’t know each other…what do I say?
My shoulders hunched as my finely tuned survival instincts pitter pattered toward anxiety. “It wouldn’t be emotionally healthy,” I said. “I’m working on moving on. Seeing him would…make things worse.”
I was going to leave it at that, but Shiloh looked so crestfallen.
“But I’d love to meet for lunch sometime—or breakfast,” I offered before I realized what I was saying. “Since I have night shifts I’m available in early mornings if you don’t have class.”
She knows Noctus, this could be a potential information breach…except, would it really be? If we stay friends, it’s not like we’ll be frequently talking about Noctus.
Shiloh clutched her Dale Carnegie book to her chest and beamed. “That would be great! I mostly have night classes this semester. It’s why I could drop by tonight after I did my grocery shopping. I could do some mornings—here’s my number.”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, still mentally arguing the risks as we exchanged numbers.
There can’t be any harm in staying in touch with her…I just can’t let my siblings meet her, and if we stay away from the Curia Cloisters and her cul-de-sac, there shouldn’t be any risk for Noctus.
Shiloh left a few minutes later, leaving me to finish my now lukewarm steamer—which was still delicious—before once again turning my attention to calling the mystery customer.
I only got their robotic voicemail—as I always did—so I was left feeling dissatisfied after I stored their books again.
Pondering what to do next, I saw the few newspapers Ms. Booker kept for customers to peruse were messed up, so I stopped to reorganize them.
On the front page of the Magiford local newspaper was a giant article. “Ten Injured in Magical Artifact Explosion,” the headline shouted in bold font.
My forehead wrinkled with worry as I skimmed the article—Pat had told me about the incident; he’d initially been concerned it was from the tracker.
A magical artifact went off, releasing a shadow monster that injured ten people—one of whom was hospitalized, although is expected to make a full recovery…Curia Cloisters investigating, artifact appears to use fae magic…following leads with no formal announcement to make at this time, except to promise that the perpetrator will be caught…
“Yeah, that’s not the tracker. I was at home that day, and he only comes out to play when he knows I’m around.” I refolded the newspaper and straightened the stack.
In fact, it seems more likely to be connected to the illegal artifact ring Noctus, Charon, Ker, and Aristide busted.
There wasn’t anything that jumped out at me to make me suspect the issues had a common mastermind. It was just that the organizers of the illegal artifact manufactures hadn’t ever been caught, and they’d purposely rigged their artifacts to fail after a few months or weeks and either burn or explode—on a tiny scale.
