The Thief

Bets on the winner.

“How long have they been around?” I asked.

“Nobody seems to know,” he said. “And they aren’t very forthcoming. Don’t tell me you’ve got a crush,” Rhys said, noticing my stare.

“Please,” I said, flushing. “I’ve seen him before, is all.”

“You have?”

I explained what had happened earlier at school, with the paintings.

Suddenly he was on edge, excited. “You broke the spells? You saw the prophecies?” He got up, digging through his backpack for a notepad. “Tell me as many of them as you remember!”

I racked my brain, telling him as much detail as I could, but I really only remembered about half of them, and there had been at least thirty, maybe more.

“...and a fox,” I finished. “It was silver, and something about its face was way too smart for a normal animal.”

“Foxes are clever,” he said absently, looking over his notes. “Are you sure you can’t remember more?”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ll bet I won’t be able to get back in there anyway, they probably have the place on lockdown now.” I slumped down on the couch, folding my arms.

A strange expression had come over Rhys, looking at me.

“Is there something on my face?” I asked, self-consciously.

“When’s your birthday?” he asked unexpectedly.

“May 1st,” I replied, baffled.

He looked away quickly. “You broke the spells hiding the prophecies. Probably did the same to the orchard mirror. I can’t properly twist glass when you’re around. And yet, you can’t remember half the paintings.”

“It was a lot of paintings,” I said, defensive.

“I agree,” he said, “but not for someone with infallible memory.”

My skin went cold. “What are you saying?”

“All Grimms are Hunters, and all Hunters have infallible memory. I’m saying...what if you’re not a Grimm?”

I opened my mouth and closed it.

“May 1st is my birthday, too. You’re the one who said it,” he said, rising. “Mirrormakers and Nulls are born in pairs.”

“But that would mean...that would mean...”

Simon was my best friend, Tailor had said. And she ruined him.

Tailor...and my mother?

“He’s the only one left,” Rhys said, his voice softening. “If you are - if you’re a Null, it has to be him. Would that be so horrible? Think of the things you could do! This is a gift - ”

Maybe if you looked anything like him...

“A gift?” I cried. My head was reeling. The mirror, Rhys’s broken glass, Camille’s complaints that her hearing wasn’t working at school...at the lumbermill...it was because I was there. It was because everything I knew was wrong.

“I know, so many fae fear and hate Nulls,” he said, as if that were what I was thinking of, “but it’s okay, they’ll have to listen to me. I’ll keep you safe. You can learn to control it - you said it yourself, this library goes on forever! We’ll find something. Don’t you see, we’re a set. This was always - ”

“Always what?” I exclaimed, feeling hysterical. “Meant to be? I was meant to be lied to my entire life? I was meant to be ditched at birth by my mother, meant to be jettisoned at fifteen by the man who raised me like a servant, only to find out he wasn’t even my father, and that my so-called ‘gift’ is making things fall apart? I was meant to be pushed into some crazy destiny no one’s prepared me for, meant to - ”

Then his mouth was on mine, like a plea, begging me to understand something he didn’t have words for. I had never been kissed before, and I don’t think I expected it would be this...urgent.

He pulled away slightly, looking about as dazed as I felt.

“I told Bea,” I said involuntarily, as if the kiss had pulled it right out of me.

“What?”

“About the mirror,” I said, unable to stop myself. “She knows I’ve been coming here.”

He stood abruptly, eyes wide. I reached toward him but he backed away from me.

“I think she could help you,” I pleaded, “she knew the last Mirrormaker - ”

“Of course she did!” he shouted at me, furious now. “She’s the one who got him killed! I should have known better - Grimm, Tailor, what does it matter - you’re always going to be against us! Get out!”

“Rhys - ”

“Get out of my mirror!” he shouted, and I hurried down the steps, eyes blurring with tears.

Chapter 17

Camille

She came in through the front doors of the cafe. It was usually empty, and it was now - it seemed that her prediction that they’d never get any business was proving true. She wandered behind the counter into the kitchen, hearing sounds of baking in progress. She stuffed her hands into the front pocket of her hoodie and leaned against the door jamb. He was turned towards the opposite wall, whisking a bowl. He might even be making her favorite melon bread.

“Gohei,” she said.

Every muscle in Gabriel’s body tensed, as if he’d been hit. Back still facing her, he resumed stirring the bowl he’d nearly dropped.

“I hate that name,” he said. “Don’t ever call me that.”

“Aren’t you going to ask me where I heard it?”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, tone suspiciously light. “So long as you never say it in my presence again.”

He was angry. She hadn’t seen him angry in years, not since he’d first taken guardianship of her. He hadn’t liked her at first, that had been clear. But then, she’d liked him even less. He’d been impatient, intolerant, dispassionate. At some point along the way, they’d stopped fighting and become a team. Like the story he’d told, it had happened so gradually she hadn’t noticed when she stopped hating this person who swept in and took over her life. But she knew when the trust she’d placed in him had started deteriorating.

“It’s me, isn’t it,” she said.

“Pardon?”

“I’m the Wolf.”

Slowly, he set down the bowl and turned to face her. “Now I want to know where you’ve been.”

“Doesn’t matter,” she echoed him from moments ago, ire truly starting to rise now. “Tell me now. And don’t say ‘ask me later,’ when that fire woman is hunting - ”

“Yes,” he said. “You are.” His expression was hard.

She swallowed. All the signs had been screaming at her, but she had still hoped...a distant part had wanted him to keep lying, because it was comforting...

“So that woman,” she said.

“Is looking for you, yes. And she will kill you if she figures it out.”

“Why?” she asked, feeling the icy grip of fear. “Why does she hate me?”

“Not you, it,” he said. “The power you have.”

“It can’t be that awful - ”

“I knew a Wolf once,” Gabriel said. “The most terrifying creature I’ve ever seen. He was wildly unbalanced, and a literal bomb. He destroyed an entire city. And he was so close to so much worse. He was the living equivalent of the worst human weapons arsenal, but he had no allegiance. No goals. No empathy. He loved