9. Ticking Clock #3
Since then, things had thawed marginally, but still hadn’t come close to being normal. I noticed the difference with Miranda and Draken the most, but even Luc noticeably cooled towards me, and Nyx, while the least judgmental of the lot, seemed to not want to get in the middle.
Jolie made an effort. She did start to visit me in Bones’s tower.
She also joined our after-hours “project.”
Draken and Miranda hadn’t been to Bones’s tower even once.
I missed them, Miranda especially, but Luc advised me to leave it, to let Miranda come to things in her own way.
Luc also reminded me, his voice a touch cooler, that in Miranda’s view, I’d been lying to her for over a year.
She felt betrayed. She felt lied to. She felt hurt.
She felt stupid for trusting me, and for believing everything I’d told her.
I tried not to take offense, because he was right, those things were true.
Also, I could tell how much Luc hated all of this, and I didn’t want to put him in the middle any more than he already was.
All the time he was spending with me was likely straining his relationship with Miranda and Draken more than I saw.
Given I was pretty sure Luc was in love with Miranda, that wasn’t a small sacrifice.
In the end, Luc had added gruffly that she’d eventually come around.
I tried to hold onto that.
I also tried to stop watching Miranda for signs that she was softening.
Leaning my back against the stone wall and reflexively scanning the crowd, I glanced at the pocket watch I’d taken to carrying. I no longer let myself dwell on who it actually belonged to, or whose desk drawer I’d found it inside.
Clicking the case shut over the clock face, I exhaled.
“I have to go,” I told Luc. “I’ve got a thing.”
He frowned back. “Now? It’s nearly six o’clock.” His brow furrowed. “Quicksilver?”
I adjusted my skirt, hoisting my satchel strap higher on my shoulder without taking my eyes off the passing students.
“No,” I answered, my voice distracted. “Blackstone.”
At Luc’s silence, I gave him a bare glance.
He was watching me, his blue eyes worried. “Do I want to know?”
I exhaled, combing my fingers through my hair. “Probably not. He’s trying to help me find out more. From, you know…” I motioned vaguely over my head without finishing the thought. We’d developed a kind of shorthand for a lot of things over the past few weeks.
Luc looked briefly blank.
His expression cleared then, all at once.
His voice turned faintly shocked. “He’s spying now? Through you?”
I thought about that, and let out an unamused grunt.
“I guess you could put it that way, yes.” Again, I sighed, tugging another few strands of hair behind my ears. It didn’t seem to want to stay in one place. “I made the mistake of telling Forsooth about some of my dreams.”
“Does he know what we’re doing?” Luc asked, sounding slightly more alarmed. “What we’re trying to do, anyway? Does he know you intend to––”
“No,” I cut in, giving him a warning look.
Luc nodded, but the furrow didn’t leave his brow.
He opened his mouth, hesitated, then closed it again.
I couldn’t stop my voice from growing harder. “I won’t be long. And I have every intention of meeting the rest of you afterwards. At nine, if that still works for you?”
Luc folded his arms. “Alaric’s got something.
Did he tell you? He’s been working on distractions with Darragh.
In the event you get inside.” Luc hesitated, glancing around to make sure no one was in listening distance.
“I think it’s an Earth thing, actually,” he added, quieter.
“He and Darragh wanted to run it by you before they tried to acquire any.”
When my eyebrows rose even higher, Luc rolled his eyes.
“Don’t ask me to remember what it’s called,” he said.
“Just be there at nine. I think the window’s short on this, so they’ll need your input tonight.
Darragh’s got some kind of connection, someone he knows with a permit to go to Earth for a research thing.
If we decide to go forward with it, Darragh wants to get the gold to him tomorrow. ”
I nodded, still frowning. “Okay. I’ll be there.”
“If you decide to talk to Blackstone…”
I frowned, but Luc cut me off before I could interrupt.
“…I’m just saying, if you do, tell him about the last few tests.
” He shoved his glasses up with a knuckle.
“Specifics, I mean. Not about you running into walls, but the other things. The incantations we’ve tried, the mental exercises.
He’s an Oracle, for crying out loud. He knows how mind things work.
I could consult with him too, show him the reference books I’ve been using on dimensional portals, see if he can spot where––”
“No,” I said flatly.
He blinked at me, then his mouth pinched. “Why in Hades not, Leda?”
When I didn’t answer, he prodded, “Didn’t you say he was the one who first hinted you’d be able to do the things Bones can do?”
I bit my lip, shaking my head.
Blackstone had said that, but he knew Bones was a caelum ignis, and what marriage to a caelum ignis meant. None of my project partners had been told that detail.
I hadn’t lied. I just left a few things out.