Page 36 of Hunt the Dusk
The clerk slow-blinked his way. “Does this look like a place that requires ID?”
“People could steal the books.”
“They could try,” he said. “But the books know where they belong, and they always come home sooner or later.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. “Look, can you describe who took the books?”
“Of course I can.” He blinked and stared. Blinked and stared.
Padma made a sound of exasperation. “Willyou please describe her to us?”
“Ah, yes, of course. Let me see. She was a young woman. Human, I believe, although there was an aura of darkness about her. Pale-skinned, the kind where blue veins were visible beneath, and she had a haunted look about her. As if she’d seen terrible things, or maybe done terrible things. Her hair was dark. Long but tied back, and she had green eyes flecked with gold.”
“Wow,” Edwin said. “Now that’s a description.”
“Thank you,” the clerk said with a small smile.
“That bitch,” Padma muttered.
“Indeed,” the clerk said. “I am not best pleased at being duped. If you know her name, then please allow me to add her to our banned list of customers.”
“Ms. Jacq,” Padma said. “Harriet Jacq.”
“What is Harriet playing at?”Edwin asked as we hurried back to the van.
It had started to drizzle, and the world was a misty haze.
“She wants to force me to take her up on her experiment offer,” Padma said, her tone low so Holly in the van up ahead wouldn’t hear.
“Then we stop her,” Edwin replied. “We go get the books back.”
She slowed her pace and looked up at him. “You’ll come with me?”
“Of course.” He scanned her face as if searching for something. “Always.”
She bumped him with her shoulder, and he put his arm around her, hugging her to his side.
When I first met him, he’d seemed too young, too inexperienced to be here, but Edwin was smart and more than capable, and it was obvious he and Padma had a special bond. It was connections like these that kept us alive in the field.
I joined them. “I’ll come with you too.”
Merry wound down the window. “Did they have them?”
“No,” Padma said.
“What’s going on?” Holly asked. “Is it anything I can help with?”
“No,” we all said in unison.
“O-kay.” She made a face. “Order business, I get it.”
“Edwin and I have some stuff we need to do,” Padma said as she got into the van. “But we’ll drop you and Merry at the chapter house first.” I climbed into the front passenger seat. “I’ll fill you in tomorrow,” she said to me.
“Are you sure you don’t need me to come with you?”
“Positive.”
“Okay. But I’m only a Raven away.”
