“You have been missed,” she said.
“It has been far too long since I have been myself,” I said, pushing her back so I could look into her eyes.
We stood, simply staring at each other, lost in the moment. It felt longer than the centuries my existence had, but suddenly felt all too short when the sound of the alchemist Caleb clearing his throat rang out.
Alexandra turned her head to him, her head falling back for a moment to rest on my chest.
“We need to find Alexander’s work,” Caleb said. “May I remind you we’re so out of Kimiya it’s not even funny?” He pointed to the statues all along the rest of the rooftop. “And we’ve got an army up here we need it for if we can also find the secrets you need to bring them to life. Let’s hope whatever Alexander’s hidden away there helps you unlock the Spellmason secret to your splitting your mind more easily for casting. Either way, we need to act fast.”
“He’s right,” Alexandra said, pushing herself away from me with reluctance.
“You and I should go,” Caleb said to her. “The church is full of special-access areas and secret alcoves . . . stuff that only I among the group of us has access to.”
“I can tear that church apart looking for Alexander’s secrets,” I said.
Caleb shook his head. “We can do this discreetly.”
“I’m all for discretion,” Alexandra said, her eyes locked with mine, hesitation in them. When she spoke again, her voice sounded more like she was trying to convince herself into going. “Having a Belarus there might get more answers than not. My family’s legacy has been one big game of hide-and-seek. What’s one church more?”
I said nothing. Alexandra needed to go, but I was not going to let it come from my lips. There was a selfishness in it, I knew, but I could not let my own words be the ones that sent her away again.
Especially with him.
Caleb looked out across the statue-covered roof of the Belarus Building, gesturing at them. “We’ve practically got an army up here, and if we can find a way to mass-produce enough Kimiya to bring them to life, we can oppose Kejetan.”
“Aren’t you worried about him complaining to the freelancers’ union?” Aurora asked him.
Caleb sighed. “Such a snarky, angry bunch,” he said. “You sure you’re the good guys?”
“That is the trouble with playing both sides,” I said with a growl. “You run the risk of angering twice as many people.”
“Don’t remind me,” he said, then gave me a smile. “But then again, the higher the risk, the greater my reward. I figure helping raise this army here should be worth something.”
“Nuh-uh,” Aurora said, scolding him. “You’re doing this act out of the goodness of your little black heart.”
Caleb spun around to her. “I am?”
“Yes,” Alexandra said, walking to me and laying a hand on my chest as she looked at Caleb. “You are. You’ve got a lot of bad blood to work off here, remember? You’ve spent months wronging our good friend here, so consider this payback.”
“Unless you’d rather I beat it out of you,” Aurora said, poking the nonbladed end of her pole arm at him.
Marshall gestured to the hole in the roof. “Rory and I will work on patching this up,” he said.
“Aurora’s beating would be the least of your concerns,” I said to Caleb. “There is still Kejetan for you to think of. My father will kill you for your betrayal.”
What color was left in the man’s face went away, his amused look disappearing.
“Yeah, I know,” Caleb said, turning away and heading for the doorway. “Don’t think that’s not on my mind twenty-four/seven now. That’s why we need to make more of your kind. That’s why we need to go back to the Libra Concordia.”
“I’ll grab my library card,” Alexandra said, going for her backpack, patting her hand against the stone spell book sticking out of it. “Maybe it grants me special access to the off-limits areas.”
Alexandra ran to me and threw her arms around me again, and I did the same back. She looked up at me, her eyes unwavering.
“I’ll be back,” she said. “I promise. Look after Marshall and Rory, okay?”
“As you wish,” I said, causing her to smile.
She lingered a moment longer before turning and walking slowly away.
“Don’t hold your breath about gaining special access at the Libra Concordia,” Caleb said as he hit the stairs heading down into the building. “There’s off-limits, then there’s really off-limits.”
As I watched Alexandra run off to catch up with him, something deep within me twinged with pain.
“You okay there, Stanis?” Aurora asked.
“I do not like this ease and familiarity between the two of them,” I said, fighting my sudden urge to tear apart the man who had tortured me for months. Caleb had told me that he had not known I was a living creature, but even with that knowledge, I found it hard to just let it go.
“It takes some getting used to,” Marshall admitted as he held up a clear tube full of a dark green bubbling liquid.
“I think I understand what you’re getting at,” Aurora said with a smile. She leaned in closer. “I don’t trust him either. But I’d hold out on any desires to crush his head in just yet.”
“That is unfortunate to hear,” I said, leaping into the air and taking to the night sky. “I would like nothing more.”
The confusion of fighting the dominant other voice in my head was gone, but I still felt the need to take to the sky to clear my thoughts. There was still the problem of my father and the Servants of Ruthenia to contend with, and Alexandra and the alchemist, but for now the only peace I could find was flying as a free creature after so many months of servitude. Head crushing could wait.
For the moment, at least.
Nineteen
Alexandra
When Caleb had said there were a multitude of secret alcoves and such throughout the Libra Concordia, he wasn’t kidding. My head still spun from earlier. I went through the boarded-up hidden doors of the church, planning to systematically work my way down the main aisle, but Caleb grabbed me before I could and instead dragged me off through the maze of the space in search of my great-great-grandfather’s secrets.
The sounds of people working echoed throughout the area, but thanks to Caleb’s sneaky ways, we didn’t cross paths with a single one of them in our initial pass of the main floor. Despite our clandestine lurking about the church looking for Alexander’s secrets, we still had nothing to show for it except frustration, and Caleb dragged me into our usual research room before I could scream.
“Fruitless,” I said, once he had shut the door behind him.
“Don’t sound so disappointed,” Caleb said. “I didn’t really expect to find anything on the first pass, did you?”
“Truthfully?” I said. “No. But it would have been nice.”
Caleb laughed and shook his head. “Nice doesn’t enter into the dark, magical secrets business. Sorry.”
“Maybe it’s carved in runes on the outside of the building or something,” I said. “We should come back during daylight to check it out.”
“And miss checking out what the basement here has to offer us?” Caleb clicked his tongue at me. “You know that caged area up here?”
I nodded. “That’s where they keep all the stuff they’ve recovered.”
“Partially,” he said. “It’s the area where they keep the cataloged stuff. Most of it is written up in their ledgers, and if you had the time to sit back and read them, they’re endlessly fascinating. Luckily, they let me bill by the hour for that. I make lawyers look like they’re undercharging.”