Though I’d have loved to hang out there longer, I didn’t have time to spend siphoning calm from this place. I grabbed a leather jacket off a hanger to replace the one I was wearing. I stank like a campfire. A quick glance at my boots showed they were in fine condition, so I returned to my bedroom and sealed the door behind me.
Though I felt a little better, a shower would really put me back on track.
I tossed the jacket on the bed and headed to the bathroom. My bathroom was as tiny and cramped as the stairwell. Every fixture was about sixty years old. Basically, it was a nightmare. I should have renovated it, but like I said—perpetually broke from feeding the beast.
On autopilot, I showered and dressed. My actual closet was pretty small since I preferred to stick to my uniform of jeans and tees. Carefully, I strapped my dagger sheaths to my thighs. They were hidden by an enchantment when I was around humans.
Why did Aidan want my help specifically? I was a good treasure hunter, the best in the city. Was it just because I’d successfully made it past the enchantments in his tomb? I didn’t think he knew what the demon had said about me, but there was no guarantee.
His power set my internal alarms blaring. A huge part of me said that helping him was too dangerous. I needed to stay away from him, avoid allowing him to sense what I was. But the lure of the scroll was too much to resist. It could possess information about what I was. About why I’d awoken in a field at fifteen with no memories.
I really wanted those memories back. And even if it couldn’t help me get my memories back, I owed him. I’d broken in to the ancient temple on his land.
So, my decision to help him had nothing do to with the fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about his lips. No way.
“Idiot,” I muttered as I tugged my jacket on. This one was a slightly darker brown leather than my other, closely fitted to look good but loose enough that I could fight in it. I might have worn any old tees and jeans, but my boots and my jackets were important. I’d been eyeing this one online for months before I had the money for it. I just hoped it lasted longer than the other.
I locked up behind me and headed down the stairs, trying not to think of how it had felt when Aidan had almost brushed up against me. I had real problems to worry about, and that wasn’t going to be one of them.
Night had fallen by the time I got outside. The evening birds had been replaced with crickets, and the lamps in the park across the street now threw their yellow glow over the asphalt. Ancient Magic was quiet and dark as I passed it, and my stomach grumbled as I glanced longingly into Potions & Pastilles, which was next door.
My friends Connor and Claire—siblings—ran Potions & Pastilles. I spent a lot of my time there when I wasn’t on a job, drinking coffee and shopping on the internet for my three weaknesses. During the day, P & P was a coffee house with a wide variety of sweets. At night, it turned into a bar that served a small selection of beers and a large selection of whiskey. Very hipster Oregon, but I liked it. There was always food, and it was always good.
Inside, dangling mason jar lights glinted warmly off the small, round, wooden tables, and original—though of questionable quality—artwork hung on the wall. Connor was behind the small bar, and I assumed Claire was in the kitchen. Nix sat talking to a man, a smile stretched across her face.
She hadn’t mentioned that she had a date. He was pretty hot from the back—tall, broad shouldered, dark haired. Go Nix. When he turned to look at the wall, I caught sight of his profile.
Aidan.
Annoyance seethed through me. I’d told him to meet me at The Flying Wizard for this exact freaking reason. And I couldn’t even storm in there and yell at him, because that might make him suspicious.
Inside, Nix laughed at something Aidan said. Connor laughed too, a goofy smile on his face. My friends liked him. The five of us—Nix, Del, Connor, Claire, and I—were all pretty close. My friends weren’t dumb. If they were giving him the stamp of approval, I had to take that into account.
I sighed and pushed into P & P. The smell of buttery pastry and savory meat from the oven enveloped me, and my stomach grumbled. The kitchen at P & P was small—it was really more of a bar and coffee house than a restaurant. Claire and Connor were from Cornwall, home of the Cornish Pasty, a good thing to sell out of a small space. I was pretty much addicted to them.
“Hey,” I said when I reached their table, trying to stifle the sound of annoyance in my voice. “This isn’t The Flying Wizard.”
Aidan turned his too-handsome face toward me. I repressed a scowl at the desire that streaked through me.
“They didn’t have food,” he said. “I thought you’d be hungry after your raid.”
Nix shot me a how-the-heck-do-you-know-this-guy look.
Later, I tried to say without words.
“I ordered you two steak and stiltons,” he said.
At his words, Claire came out of the back with a plate carrying two golden brown pasties. My stomach grumbled as the divine scent wrapped around me. I tried to ignore how cool it was that he’d thought of feeding me. If there was one thing I was into, it was guys getting me food. Anyone getting me food, really.
“Thanks.” I dragged a chair over to their table and sat down between him and Nix. The table was small enough that our knees almost touched. I scooted away and looked at Claire instead of him.
Her brown hair fell in waves around her face, and she was dressed for the kitchen in an apron that covered her t-shirt and jeans, though I hadn’t seen her in here the last couple of days. “How’d your last job go?”