After a week of following her from a distance, Des had learned very little about Aurelie Blake, though what he did discover surprised him. One afternoon, she’d gone to a carpentry shop tucked off the main boulevard. Des had interrogated the manager after she left, but he insisted that she was only purchasing some nuts and bolts, something she did from time to time. Apparently she worked on campus as a bricoleur, which was odd. She didn’t look like someone who was good with her hands.
She carried a little notebook that she scribbled in when no one was watching, and he remembered how she’d said she liked to understand how things worked. It hadn’t made sense to him then, but now that he’d observed her, he was beginning to see that she was a genuinely curious person, not so much living in the world as observing it from the outside. He would never have thought he had anything in common with Aurelie, but he felt that way himself, sometimes.
He lay awake at night, still puzzling over the tall man and his thrall. He’d considered that the man might have some sort of obsession with Aurelie, using his demon to track her movements. Perhaps thesomniaJasper had killed had been another thrall. But despite the intel he’d passed on to Commander Yew, Lieutenant Commander Grayson hadn’t been able to find the narrow townhouse. Worse still,when Des and Gareth had gone back, they couldn’t find it again either. It was as if the house had never existed at all.
Commander Yew believed dark magic was afoot and told Des to keep an eye out for either the demon or the man, but he couldn’t very well accomplish much while watching Wisteria University. Which was why he had resolved to confront Aurelie himself. If nothing else, he deserved to know when her uncle would return so he could finally get to work with the Iron Swords, the elite group of hunters Yew had assembled.
Around noon on Friday, Gareth, who’d gone into a nearby café for a cup of tea, found Des leaning against a tree, his lids heavy from squinting against the midday sun. “Don’t look now,” Gareth said, holding out a pastry that Des declined with a shake of his head, “but I believe your quarry is about to flee the coop.”
Des glanced over his shoulder at the school gates. Sure enough, there was Aurelie, talking to one of the guards. She wore a leather satchel over one shoulder, indicating she was heading somewhere off campus.
“You can return to base,” he told Gareth. “I’ll take it from here.” She was probably going to the café to sketch, and he didn’t want Gareth there when he approached her. The kid would be a distraction. Or worse, a gossip. He didn’t need Daisy hearing everything from Gareth.
“Are you sure?” Gareth asked, earning a cold look from Des. “Uh, right. I’ll see you back at the fort. Sir.”
Des had never been on the university grounds himself. In truth, he’d always found it intimidating, a place not meant for people like him. But for the first time, he felt curious about those large,self-important buildings. What did Aurelie do all day, other than take notes and read? And tighten screws from time to time.
To his amusement, Aurelie looked both ways multiple times before stepping out into the street. His lips quirked in an involuntary grin. At least she’d learned her lesson on that front.
She was wearing a white blouse with a brooch at her collar and a long plaid skirt under her green coat, more like a matron than a young lady. She was so intent on whatever destination she had in mind that she nearly ran into a man who crossed her path. She apologized profusely, earning a charmed and amused smile from the man, who frankly didn’t seem at all displeased by the encounter.
His eyes met Des’s, and whatever he saw there made him blanch, bow, and scurry away.
Des followed at what was for him a leisurely pace, although Aurelie seemed somewhat harried. She glanced over her shoulder multiple times, and more than once he had to step behind a tree or into an alley to avoid her gaze.
Finally, as Aurelie reached Aciano Square, she approached a crowd standing around a proselytizer on an apple crate surrounded by a circle of salt. He was ranting about demons taking over Wisteria, warning people to repent for their sins before it was too late. It wasn’t an uncommon sight. Ever since the demons appeared, a segment of the population had become deeply religious. Before then, Wisteria was a secular kingdom with no official religion or spiritual practice, at least not for several hundred years. Until the question of succession between twin brothers nearly started a war.
Florian wanted radical change in Wisteria. More incentives for exploration and invention, more schools, more immigration to drawthe world’s most remarkable minds. Aciano, on the other hand, wanted the kingdom to remain as it was. Wisteria was thriving, after all, and bringing in more immigrants would surely mean fewer resources for native Wisterians. When their father chose Aciano as his heir, Florian had unleashed a terrible curse upon the kingdom.
A curse that, according to this proselytizer, stemmed from the kingdom’s sins. Des didn’t particularly carewherethey came from, only that they be eradicated.
The larger issue was the crowd surrounding the ranting man. Like a mouse among the grass, Aurelie had disappeared almost instantly into the throng of people, and Des found himself forcing his way through to follow her.
It was a mistake. To some, demon hunters were revered as angels doing holy work. Several people began to point out his presence, and then they were touching his armor, pressing toward him until he was entirely surrounded.
It took him another minute to realize Aurelie had done it on purpose.
She glanced over her shoulder once, scanning the horde of people, and this time Des couldn’t disappear. Their eyes met, his hard with fury, hers crinkled in the corners with amusement. She’dknownhe was following her.
Shoving aside a man who was clinging to Des’s arm, he hurried after her. “Miss Blake,” he called, loud enough that he knew she heard him, but she continued on.
“In the name of King Aciano, stop!” he roared in his most authoritative voice. Everyone nearby froze.
Including, he was surprised to see, Aurelie. Her shoulders slumped as she huffed out a sigh and turned to face him.
“Good afternoon, Lieutenant. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
He closed the distance between them while the rest of the crowd buzzed back to life, no doubt relieved he hadn’t been speaking to them. “Why did you run away from me?”
She blinked in rapid succession, playing innocent. “I don’t know what you mean. I wasn’t running, and I didn’t know you were here.”
“Bollocks. How long have you known I was following you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Since Saturday night, of course.”
The whole time?His stomach soured with shame. “Then why did you pretend not to see me?”
She pressed a hand to her chest. “I’m so sorry. I must have misunderstood the rules of the game. I thought you were pretending to stalk me, and I was pretending I didn’t know you were there.”