“I’ll close early,” I said. “I need to check out the factory in the afternoon. You?”
“I’m meeting some people.” Meredith brushed at the ash-stained dress with a resigned look. “And shopping. All my stuff was in my flat.”
I hesitated. “You could stay here if …”
Meredith shook her head with a smile. “That’s okay. I don’t want to be too much trouble.”
“Are you going to be okay on your own?” I’d made the mistake last night of thinking that there wouldn’t be another assassination attempt so soon and I didn’t want to be caught napping again.
“I don’t know.” Meredith looked worried. “How did they find us last night? I was sure they couldn’t track me.”
“They probably didn’t,” I said. “Just posted someone to watch your flat and waited for them to call in.”
“Oh. Could you … ?”
“No problem.”
It didn’t take me long to sweep the area for spies. My area of Camden isn’t large and I know it like the back of my hand. Meredith left after a kiss. I watched her go, then returned to the shop in a good mood. My doubts about Meredith from last evening didn’t seem to matter anymore. Although I was planning to stay in the shop all morning, I didn’t feel like keeping it open for customers. Instead I flipped the sign to
Most mages will think twice about attacking another mage’s home. Not only is it messy, but mages tend to treat fortifying their house as a personal hobby. My shop had been raided five months ago, and since then I’d gone to some effort to set up a few surprises for intruders. I could probably give even Cinder a run for his money if he tried to break in, and for exactly that reason I didn’t expect him to do it—mages who make a habit of launching attacks on prepared targets tend not to live very long. But after last night I wasn’t in any mood to take chances, and I spent a couple of hours exhaustively searching the futures for attacks. I came up blank, which was moderately reassuring. At least nothing was being planned right at the moment.
The glazier arrived while I was working and replaced the window. Once he was finished the morning light was pouring in again, making the shop much more cheerful. Luna arrived ten minutes later, and to my surprise, Martin was with her.
I’d included Martin in my invitation more for Luna’s sake than anything else; I hadn’t seriously expected him to show up. But he followed right behind Luna as she let herself in. I raised my eyebrows and he had the grace to look embarrassed. “Martin,” I said.
“Hey,” Martin said. “Listen, I’m really sorry about Saturday. I was just kind of out of it. Didn’t think about what I was doing.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So, uh, how much do I owe you? I meant to pay for it, it was …”
“Martin, did you listen to a word I said? You didn’t pick it. It picked you.”
Martin hesitated. “Uh … okay. Sure.”
“Look,” Luna said. She’d been watching from one side and now she sounded like she was choosing her words carefully. “We did listen. I told Martin why the thing was dangerous. We talked about it and we did some research too. This thing’s really famous.”
“Eyewitness reports?” I asked. “Or stories?”
“Just stories. But they matched with what you said.”
“I’m guessing they didn’t have happy endings.”
Luna nodded.
I looked at Martin. “But you decided to keep it any-way.”
Martin looked confused. “Well, yeah.”
“And you think this is a good idea because … ?”
“Look, we’re not idiots, okay?” Luna said. “We talked it over.”
I took a breath. “Okay,” I said once I’d gotten myself under control. “What did you figure out?”
“The monkey’s paw only takes things,” Luna said. “It was in all the stories. It can’t make anything new but it can take something away and give it to someone else.”
I stopped. I’d never considered it but now that I thought about it, it made sense. “All right.”
“And you told me imbued items have a purpose, right?” Luna said.
“Yes,” I said slowly. “Okay. I see what you’re getting at. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s been bad news for everyone else.”
“Only if you use it wrong,” Martin broke in. “Look, all the characters in the stories are stupid. They wish for something that’ll kill them. All you have to do is word it right and you can get anything you want! You’d have to be crazy to give it up.”
Luna and I both looked at him. I looked at Luna. “It worked,” she said defensively.
A nasty feeling went through me. “What?”
Luna didn’t answer. “You used it,” I said.
