Page 101 of Wicked Enemy

Cold numbness spread through my body as Wright dismissed me and ordered me down to the archives. I walked in a daze down the stairs and towards the massive room full of books and folders and case reports.

When the head archivist told me to start sorting files in one of the sections, I barely had enough presence of mind to nod that I had heard her. I wasn’t even sure if Ihadheard her.

My footsteps echoed between the shelves as I staggered over to the section she had pointed towards. Blindly, I started pulling out folders and stacking them into a pile to take back to the desk I had been assigned.

Demoted.

Archives duty.

Those thoughts kept bouncing inside my skull over and over again.

I slumped down on the chair behind the desk. It was located in one of the corners, and the light from the closest oil lamp almost didn’t reach it, which made it feel even darker and more cramped than it already was. The whole place smelled of dust and old paper. As if the air didn’t move at all down here.

For quite a while, I just sat there on the chair and stared numbly at the stack of files before me.

Maybe I should have taken Levi up on his offer?

The thought jolted me out of my stupor.

Shaking my head, I sat up straighter. No. This wasn’t the end. Both the parliament and Wright needed someone to blame for this, but it would blow over soon. And then, I could probably grovel my way back into the South Side Department. It wouldn’t be pleasant, but it would work. In the brief time I had known Captain Wright, I had come to realize that he loved the feeling of lording his power over others. And he craved their submission.

So, all I needed to do was to wait for the worst of the shitstorm to blow over. Then I would just have to swallow my pride and crawl back to him, apologizing and groveling and licking his boots as I begged for my job back. He wouldn’t be able to resist the power he would have over me if he agreed to reinstate me, so he would let me come back again.

Drawing in a deep breath, I gave myself a decisive nod. I had a plan. A plan that would work. Now, I just needed to make the best of it until I could set it into motion.

With my confidence back, I reached for the first stack and began sorting through it. The head archivist had been right. The folders in that section were a mess. Different years had been shoved together in no particular order.

I put any thoughts of Levi and his offer out of my mind as I began sorting the folders by date.

Surprise shot through me as I lifted a red file that read:The Black Emerald Incident.

For a few seconds, I just stared at it and the date written underneath in neat black script. It was the date my father had died. And The Black Emerald had been the name of our tavern.

My mouth dried out. Flexing my fingers, I shook out my hand to stop it from trembling. I was being ridiculous. Ulric had already showed me this file when I first joined the force. I had already read it. But still, just seeing it here again brought back a slew of memories.

I glanced towards where the other people worked. None of them were looking in my direction. In fact, I couldn’t even see most of them behind the mountain of bookshelves.

Sliding my gaze back to the red folder, I set it down on the desk before me.

Maybe I would be able to notice something different this time, now that I had more experience. And now that I knew more about the dark mage world. Maybe I could find some kind of clue as to which dark mage had killed him.

After drawing in a bracing breath, I opened the folder and picked up the case report.

Confusion rippled through me. I frowned at the papers inside. There were more of them than I remembered. I flicked a quick glance over the pages. They didn’t even look the way I remembered them.

Shaking my head, I decided that I must have gotten confused because I had been so emotional when I read them last time. But I was less emotional now, so I drew in another deep breath and began to read.

We were alerted that a dark mage meeting would take place at The Black Emerald that night, so Senior Constable Frederick Holburn’s team joined mine as we went there to handle it.

So far, the report was accurate with what I had read last time, so I really must have just misremembered what it looked like. Shaking my head at my own forgetfulness, I continued reading.

When we arrived, we found four dark mages seated at a table. They immediately spotted us. We called out orders to surrender, but they refused so we attacked instead.

I frowned. The constables attacked? My memories from that night were muddled from the fear and panic, and because I had been hiding under a table, but I had always thought that one dark mage gang had burst through the door and attacked the other dark mages already inside. But according to this report, the people who barged inside and attacked had been the constables. With confusion still marring my brows, I kept reading.

We were able to kill two of the dark mages. Unfortunately, the others managed to flee before we could apprehend them. However, there was also a civilian casualty. Dan Sterling, the owner of The Black Emerald.

I swallowed back the tide of emotions that washed over me at the mention of my father.

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