Fenwald eyed the heavy offering and then lifted a derisive gaze to A.P., as if to say, I’m not eating that. Not wasting any time considering the offering, the big cat reached out with a large paw and whacked it away.
We watched it skitter beneath the cabinet where Alice kept her assortment of teas, out of sight.
I wondered how many other bits of bad baking the cat had “stored” beneath the cabinet. Then I decided I probably didn’t want to know.
“I find I’m growing fond of the genre,” Alice said, oblivious as she returned to her tea-making. She glanced over her shoulder at me. “How about you, Naida? What’s your favorite genre?”
I flushed in embarrassment, not wanting to tell her in front of A.P. “Um, paranormal.” It wasn’t a lie…exactly…I did like some paranormal along with my romance.
Alice’s grin widened. “A fine choice. I have a large selection in the store. Help yourself if you’d like. Just be sure to put a couple of dollars in the till for the rent.”
My eyes went wide. “Rent?” There’d been no mention of rent. I’d thought I was going to be working off my room and board. It was an old-fashioned arrangement but a necessity. When my grandma had died a few months previous, she’d left me with a tiny house filled with ratty furnishings and a lot of debt that pretty much wiped out whatever I would earn from the sale of the house.
I had no money and no family that I knew of. If Agent A.P. hadn’t come to me and told me there was an apprenticeship open for an artifact librarian, I’d have been in sad shape.
For once in my life, it had seemed like the winds of fate had blown in my favor. Though the Société agent had been vague about how he’d found me, murmuring something about being a friend of my grandma’s.
I highly doubted that.
“Yes,” said Alice. “I rent books for avid readers who don’t have the space to store them all.”
I nodded in understanding. “That makes sense.”
She placed cups of tea in front of us and then pulled a third chair from the corner. Dropping into it with a sigh, Alice Parker fixed a speculative look on me. Then, lifting her teacup to her mouth, she said, “So, Naida Griffith, tell me why I should hire you as an apprentice for Keeper of the Artifacts?”
My mind went blank. I glanced toward A.P., but he wasn’t paying attention to us. He’d pulled out his cell phone and seemed to be checking his emails.
I was on my own.
“Um…” I said stupidly. Stalling for time, I tucked a long strand of my curly brown hair behind one ear. Digging deep, I discarded options as quickly as they occurred to me. I couldn’t tell her it was because I’d just turned twenty-two and needed a job. From what A.P. had told me, Keepers were born to wrangle artifacts. It wasn’t a career choice. It was their legacy. I didn’t want Alice to know I wasn’t really suited for the job. She’d find out soon enough.
After a moment that stretched farther than the last pair of size eight jeans I’d tried to pull on over my size ten hips, I finally said the only thing that came to mind. “I get migraines, and strange objects seem to follow me around.” I cringed inwardly. As random statements went, it was somewhere in the realm of “I see dead people.”
To my shock, Alice cocked her head, narrowed her small eyes behind the massive glasses, and smiled. “Well now, that’s just perfect. Okay then. Let’s get started.”
2
Blah, Blah, Blah, Watch Out!
I stood just inside the door, aware on some level of Alice puttering around the massive space, chatting aimlessly and pointing out objects here and there which she deemed important for me to notice.
My eyes felt like they might bulge out of my face. My mouth hung open and I was rooted to the spot, my bright red sneakers glued to the concrete floor from the feeling of being totally overwhelmed.
“…sit in that chair over there,” Alice was saying when my mind refocused. “It belonged to Casanova and…blah, blah, blah…”
Good idea, I thought. Sit down, I told myself. Before you fall. I reached back and my fingers found the glossy, curved arms of the ancient chair. I all but fell into it. For a moment the well-worn upholstery wrapped around my body, embracing me with an almost human warmth. I settled into the embrace with a sigh, a sense of pure joy filling me as I realized I’d found a place where I felt perfectly at home.
Not the chair. But, the enormous room arrayed before me, filled with magical objects.
I was in heaven.
Then the seat beneath me shifted. I shifted too, frowning as it rolled beneath my flesh. “What in the world…?”
Something pinched my right butt cheek. Hard.
I leaped out of the chair with a squeal of surprise, rubbing my assaulted cheek and glaring at the chair. To my amazement, the stupid piece of ancient furniture leaped off the floor and danced from leg to leg, looking for all the world as if it were celebrating.
A series of snorts sounded behind me. “I told you not to sit in that chair,” Alice said, shaking her head. “First rule of being a Keeper of the Artifacts, don’t touch anything you don’t understand.” She wandered away again, mouth moving and arms flailing to point from object to object without apparent order or plan.
I followed along behind her, my thoughts spinning as I tried to grasp the rapid-fire information she was flinging at me.
Something clattered to the floor behind me and I jumped, whirling around with a yelp of surprise. A colorful ball of ratty-looking feathers cartwheeled through the air and smacked into me, hitting me between my breasts with an outraged squawk.
“Arrrrrghhhh!” It yelled into my face. “Avast ye blackguard, for Blackbeard’s
