Page 51 of Smoke & Ashes
“Pretend I’m not here.” She shot me a sly grin. “I shan’t even breathe.”
I rang back the unknown number.
“Kate, is that you?” I didn’t recognise the voice.
“Yes,” I replied cautiously. “Who am I speaking to?”
“It’s Flick. I’m under a desk at Safernoc. Sofia’s outside doing the sunlight thing but it’s not helping. Something’s here and she told me to call you but you didn’t answer and I don’t know if we still need you or it's too late or—”
I recognised this. It was blind panic. “Breathe,” I told her. “Let the people with the magic powers do the fighting. Stay wherever you can go that’s as safe as you can get. Safernoc is all thick walls and strong doors, I’m sure there are a lot of places to hide.”
“Sofia said we needed you. She said you’d know what to do.”
I didn’t, but now seemed like a bad time to break her illusions. “What’s happening?”
“Something came out of the woods. I didn’t get a good look at it, but everybody seemed worried.”
This was beginning to look bad. “Okay. Tell you what, keep your phone close—do you have battery?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’m going to hang up and see if I can get to where you are. Keep doing what you’re doing, staying safe is the most important thing. If Sofia comes back and wants to speak to me, I’ll be here. I’m sorry I didn’t pick up earlier.”
She made a soft, affirmative noise. “Hurry,” she said. “Please.”
Well fuck. “I assume you heard all of that.”
“The question you should be asking yourself is whether this is another distraction.”
I stared at her. Between the pain, her saving me from Yelena, and what I was sure was a deliberate effort to dick with my head, my feelings towards her were approaching maximum ambivalence. “Just get me a car.”
“Commanding,” she gave me an approving smile. “I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoyed that.”
I made an emphatic gesture that was a very, very bad idea with a broken arm, and almost fell over. “Fucking hell, Julian. Help me or throw me out or, I don’t know, fucking kill me where I’m standing because right now you’re just pissing me off.”
Her deep blue eyes met mine. There was something almost gentle about her expression. “As you wish. But we need to do this properly. Hannah”—she signalled minidress-vampire—“get this one’s arm splinted. Then send for the limousine.” She gave me a dazzling, headfucking smile. “Never let it be said I do nothing for you.”
I sat quietly while Hannah the Vampire fixed up my arm. I wasn’t quite sure why Julian made sure so many of her minions had rudimentary medical training, but perhaps it was a sensible precaution when you were superhumanly strong, driven by bloodlust, and had a deep fondness for kink.
“By the way,” I figured I should distract myself while my arm was being prodded and it was chat to Julian or nothing. “What happened to Ash?”
“He left.” She looked genuinely bummed about it. “Around the same time you did, and for approximately the same reasons.”
I’d never worked out what the thing was between Ashriel and Elise—nearest I could tell they each liked the fact that the other one didn’t want to fuck them, which they both would have found quite a novel experience—but I had a sudden and probably alcohol-induced pang of regret for not reaching out to him more after she went. His life was hard enough what with the whole deal demons had where they needed to drain other people of their joy and happiness or else suffer unending torment always, forever. Plus immortals didn’t face bereavement that often, for obvious reasons, so they tended not to handle it well.
I pencilled another entry onto my list ofreasons I am a shitty person who doesn’t deserve to have good people in her life.
Saying goodbye to Julian was awkward. There was still a tiny part of me that felt I should be kissing her, and another part that wanted to ram a golden spike through her eye and watch the alchemical sunlight liquefy her brain.
In the end I went with, “Later.”
“Don’t get killed.”
She was still the last person who got to give me that advice.
22
Cold & Dark
