‘No.’
‘But I mean, adepts have to write stuff down,’ the guy says. ‘I mean, sometimes they try a spell and it works and sometimes they try one and it doesn’t, so they’d keep records, right?’
‘That’s . . . not really how it works.’
‘I mean, I’d keep records. Like, I do that with my phone. The way I used to do it was that whenever I thought of something important, I’d stop and type it into a notes file. But then after I got my new phone I started doing video logs instead, so, and this was something I was thinking, if you wanted a really good record of your spells, you should video it. Because that way you’d get the movements too. You know, no one ever seems to think of stuff like that. I was thinking about that just yesterday.’
I want to sigh and scrub my hands over my eyes. This never used to happen to Alex. After he said ‘no’ a couple of times they’d go away. Is it because I’m shorter? Because I’m a girl? Do I just look less intimidating?
‘Then you could share it,’ the guy is saying. ‘I’ve been thinking that could work really well. Because, you know, that’s how it works these days, right? You have to be putting yourself out there. I’ve been reading that social media guy, you know, the one who shares all the political stuff? Well, he was saying something about that and I saw it and I thought . . .’
Maybe it’s how I’m dressed? Arachne did always say people see your clothes before they see the rest of you. Maybe I should wear something scarier-looking. What about that dress she made me for the Tiger’s Palace, the ‘evil queen from Snow White’ one? Though that’s a bit much if you’re going to be behind a counter all day . . .
‘. . . so that’d make sense, right?’
Crap, I wasn’t listening. ‘So . . . you’re talking about some kind of record of the things you say and do to use magic.’
‘Yeah, that’s right.’
‘So something with spells in it that acts like a book.’
The guy looks pleased. ‘Right.’
‘Right,’ I say. ‘I don’t sell spellbooks.’
It takes way too long to get him out the door. After that, the BTS girl comes up to buy a crystal ball. Once she’s gone and I’m alone with Ji-yeong, I sigh, close my eyes, and lean my head against the wall.
‘That was a complete waste of time,’ Ji-yeong says.
‘Thank you, Captain Obvious.’
‘Why do you even listen to boys like that?’
‘Politeness, I suppose.’
‘They don’t seem important enough to be polite to,’ Ji-yeong says. ‘Actually, I don’t know why you’re running a shop at all.’
I don’t feel like answering that. I open my eyes and push off the wall.
‘I mean, there are easier ways to earn money.’
I don’t feel like answering that either.
‘And if you really wanted to keep it open, you could just hire someone.’
‘Why are you still in London anyway?’ I ask her. You have to push back with Ji-yeong or she’ll just keep going until you do. I don’t know whether it’s a Dark mage thing or whether it’s just her, but she seems really forward. ‘The first week, you said you were going back to Seoul.’
Ji-yeong looks away.
‘Then you showed up again right after.’
‘I’ve been thinking,’ Ji-yeong says. She’s looking out the window at a woman wheeling a pram down the other side of the street.
‘About what?’
‘Things,’ Ji-yeong said. She turns back to me. ‘Do you know if Landis is married?’
I give her a look. ‘Seriously?’
The bell goes ding-ding again, and three people come in one after the other. The first two are tourists, and they head over to the window displays. The third one’s something different.
‘Uh . . .’ the boy says. He’s in his late teens, light brown skin, sweating under a ski jacket. ‘Can you help me?’
‘Depends on the help,’ I tell him. The tourists are looking at the ritual daggers. Ji-yeong takes out her phone and starts reading.
‘You were . . .’ The boy glances around and lowers his voice. ‘You were at that battle, right?’
‘Not something I can really talk about.’
‘Right, okay, it’s just . . . There was a friend of mine, I think he might have been there.’
Oh. I don’t ask which side he was on. The Council don’t recruit that young. ‘He was with the association?’
The boy nods.
‘You sure he was one of the ones who went in?’
‘I think so.’
‘All right.’ I take the pad on the counter and write a name and number. ‘Call this guy and give him your friend’s name. The Council have been trying to put together a record of everyone who was there.’
The boy starts to reach for the pad, then stops. ‘He’s Council?’
I tear off the square of paper and hold it up. ‘It’s them or nothing.’
He hesitates, then takes it. I make sure my curse doesn’t reach his fingers. He turns away.
‘Hey,’ I say, and wait for him to look back. I don’t really want to say it, but I feel like I should warn him. ‘If it’s been this long and you still haven’t heard from him . . . well, just bear in mind it might not be good news.’
A shadow passes over the boy’s face. ‘I wish I’d been there.’
‘No,’ I tell him. ‘You don’t.’
He leaves, but the memories don’t. Black tarpaulin bags, six feet long and lined up on the stone. Fear and gunfire in the castle haze. And the thing I brought home with me, the little white and blue cylinder waiting upstairs . . .
The tourists come up to the counter and I shake it off, pushing away the darkness. I bag up their shopping, hear the bell go ding-ding, and watch them walk out of the shop into the morning sun.
Ji-yeong looks up from her phone. ‘So is he?’
‘Oh, come on! Really?’
She looks at me expectantly.
‘How would I even know something like that? I’m not a diviner.’
‘You were apprentice to a diviner.’
‘What’s that got to do with it?’
‘Apprentices are mostly like their masters.’ Ji-yeong says it like it’s something obvious. ‘Diviners like knowing things, so you’re probably like that too.’
‘You were apprentice to a paranoid murder-happy death mage with delusions of living for ever.’
‘So?’
I sigh and look away. Ji-yeong keeps waiting.
‘No,’ I tell her. ‘He’s not.’
Ji-yeong nods.
I’m thinking of what else to say when I notice someone’s standing outside the door. She’s heavy, a little like Caldera but with less muscle, and her name’s Saffron. She’s looking at me through the glass.
This day is just getting better and better.
The woman pushes open the door with a ding-ding, waits for it to shut behind her, then flips the sign from OPEN to CLOSED. ‘Morning, Vesta.’
‘Morning,’ I tell Saffron. If she’s not calling me ‘Mage’, I’m not calling her ‘Keeper’.
Saffron looks down at Ji-yeong. ‘How about you give us a few minutes?’
Ji-yeong looks up at her.
The friendliness slides off Saffron’s face. ‘Something wrong with your ears?’
I look at the two of them – the heavyset Keeper staring down at the Dark apprentice – and all of a sudden I’m annoyed. ‘She’s staying,’ I tell Saffron.
‘This is confidential.’
‘What, asking me the same questions again?’ I walk around the counter and over to Saffron, skirts whisking around my feet. I stop before coming into range of my curse – just – and fold my arms. ‘I was polite the first time, I was polite the second time, but now this is getting insulting.’
‘It’s just routine follow-up,’ Saffron says. She’s wearing her police poker face, but I’ve got the feeling she wants to lean away.