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“Ha. Ha.”
Nadia smiled widely then and reached out, running her fingers through his hair. He sighed contentedly at the caress and then gave a slight shrug. “Too bad so many people decided to stay in my apartment all the time.”
“Yes, well, hopefully, it won’t last forever.”
“If it does, I suggest we move up here. There’s just enough roof over our heads to avoid the occasional rain if we press up against the wall.”
“Excellent idea. I’m sure I could hunt some rodents around here to fatten you up.” She lowered her hand and pinched his side. He had lost weight, too.
Harmiston widened his eyes. “See, I think that was a joke, but your tone of voice suggests too much knowledge of surviving on disgusting things when on long stakeouts in the city.”
Nadia didn’t respond, and instead leaned in and kissed him. “It’s what you get for choosing a Wraith turned Ghost for company,” she murmured against his lips. “And look,” she turned her head and pointed down at the little witch shop on the ground-floor level of the other building. “She just turned her ‘open’ sign to ‘closed’. Won’t be long now. Maybe we can even find an actual place to buy some food instead of hunting it ourselves.”
“Yourself,” he pointed out.
Nadia turned out to be right. A few minutes later, the lights in the shop were turned off. The witch never left, but the Ghosts had been staking out this and many other places that stocked bland asphodel over the last few weeks. They’d had to steal quite a lot to move undetected in a city besieged by werewolves, vampires, and hybrids. As a result, the prices had gone up. Seemed regular citizens needed to stay undetected too. But stealing meant that no contacts and trades-folk knew the Ghosts were in the city in such high numbers. That knowledge needed to stay hidden.
“Seriously, though, Harm,” she asked. “How are you holding up?”
“No worse than anyone else,” he began, and she reached out and put her fingers across his lips to silence him.
“You’re quite the talker but remember who raised me. We’re trained to watch.”
Harmiston sighed and nodded, and she removed her hand.
“I’ll admit it’s been a bit daunting being Chronicler, in-house mage, and scientist for everyone. Especially the science part. I’ve only ever dabbled out of curiosity. But everyone else are warriors and bodyguards or courtiers, who are basically trades-folk in fancy clothes.”
“Don’t mention that to Victoria.” Nadia smiled again. It came so easily to her when alone with him.
“True. She’s an exception. Why no one has hired her as a spy is beyond me. Do you know that Sentinel Barkin enjoys watercolor painting during his downtime?”
“Uh …”
“Me neither. But somehow, she knew.”
“And somehow, I don’t doubt it. But that’s about Victoria, not you.”
“Am I that obvious?”
Maybe not to everyone,” she admitted. “But I pay special attention.”
He smiled warmly at her. “I guess I just worry a bit about what will happen if we, by some miracle, get through all this. Those hybrids are insane. And that goes for both their mental states and their physical powers. What happens if we survive?”
“We live happily ever after? Isn’t that what they say?”
“How’s that going to work?” He reached for her hand and took it in both his, the warmth spreading from him to her. “For some strange reason, they keep referring to me as chronicler, but they know about me now. I’ll end up in the Spellbound Halls. Surely you understand this?”
Nadia squeezed his hands gently. “It has crossed my mind, yes.”
“It makes me feel like I’m living on borrowed time and not because I might get slit in half by a giant hybrid monster’s claw, but because I’ll get locked up behind glass doors for the courtiers to stare at.”
Nadia narrowed her eyes and studied him. Harmiston was one of the most formidable people she’d ever known. “Harm, listen to me,” she told him. “You are clever, intelligent, and utterly kind.” She suspected his chattering ways of being how he processed everything that went on in that hard-working head of his. “Your ways of thinking are fresh and always evolving. This will stagnate in a place like the Spellbound Halls. I’d hate to see that. Especially from the other side of those doors.” It wasn’t that the city mages weren’t necessary, because they were. The city would quickly become uninhabitable without their magic holding it together. “I promise I’ll do anything to prevent that from happening. That means leaving Agartha if necessary.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“But you always dreamed of becoming a Ghost. You achieved that. And now you don’t have to keep your daughter a secret either.”
