“Yeah. And I don’t want to talk about it either.”
She nodded. “Fair.”
Bas got up and went to talk to one of the barristers and came back with a borrowed pen. “I’m going to sketch you a sigil that you can draw under your bed. It will act as a ward until you learn how to create your own.”
Bridget watched as he began to scribble on a napkin. She leaned over the table, fascinated. He had good hands, she couldn’t help but notice.
“Why are you helping me?” she asked.
“That shadow creature we saw in the library is dangerous. I chased it off, but I know it will be back. I don’t know what it is, but I know it wanted to feed off your consciousness,” Bas said, his hands not stopping his sketching. “You are exposed to it, and worse, and I’ll sleep better at night knowing you have some protection.”
Bridget pulled at the sleeve cuff of her shirt. “Why do you care? You don’t know me.”
“But I want to, and I can only do that if you’re alive,” Bas replied. “You are unique. I like that. Most people aren’t.”
“Do you…” Bridget struggled, not knowing how to say what she wanted to without it coming out horrible. “Do you find normal people hard? Being around them and stuff?”
“Yeah, I do. I play the game, wear the mask, but I know they won’t ever really get me. I don’t understand them either, if I am being honest.” Bas looked up from the design on the napkin. “It helps if they have magic and understand how weird it can be. I was raised with magicians, so I am lucky that way, but it’s hard to explain to anyone what we are—whowe are—when we spend so much of our lives in our heads, looking at worlds no one else will ever be able to see.”
Bridget nodded, her heart hurting. That was exactly the feeling she always had too. She was nervous, but she forced it down. “I need to process all of this. I think you can understand that?”
“I do. That’s why I’m not going to explain what this sigil does, just give it to you,” Bas replied and put it on the table between them. Giving her the choice of whether or not to take it.
“I’m overwhelmed, but I think I would like to be your friend,” she said in a rush, not meeting his eye. If she did, she would lock up and push him away because that’s what she always did.
“In that case,” Bas said, pulling the napkin back and scribbling on it. “That’s for you too.”
Bridget took the napkin from him when he offered it, the tips of her fingers touching his. His phone number was written underneath the sigil.
“Thank you for this. Especially after I was so defensive and threw a book at you in the astral,” she said, carefully folding the napkin and putting it in her pocket.
“Don’t worry about it. I want to be your friend too,” Bas said and then looked at his watch. “Well, I’ve hit my three-hour ‘being around people’ limit, so I’ll be off.”
“Yeah, I need to go lie on my floor and stare at my roof for the rest of the night,” Bridget replied and laughed even though she wasn’t joking.
“There’s nothing that a good lie on the floor can’t fix.” Bas wasn’t joking either.
Is this what they mean by the perfect man?Bridget couldn’t help but wonder.
Bas opened the door of the coffee shop for her again, and Bridget paused in front of the bookstore.
“It was nice meeting you…outside the astral I mean,” she said, smiling a little and hoping she didn’t look deranged.
There was a buzz in the air, a pause, like she wasn’t sure if she should kiss him good night or not. They both felt it because Bas was staring and hesitating as much as she was. The wind off the river blew hair in her face, and Bas’s eyes tracked her hand as she brushed it back. His eyes weren’t just their twinkling blue anymore. They wereglowing. Was that magic too?
Bas quickly looked away and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Sweet dreams, Hawk Girl,” he said, walking away.
“You too…Bas.” Bridget stared after him, her chest doing a strange, tightening squeeze that didn’t loosen until he was out of sight.
When Bridget returned to the shop, Marge stood in the open doorway. “Now,that,my girl, is aman,” she stated.
Yes, yes, he was,Bridget thought and suddenly regretted not kissing him after all.
7
Bas woke to his phone flashing beside him. He had fallen asleep the previous night, willing Bridget to message him. She hadn’t.
He knew he had overwhelmed her, but he contained his excitement at finding her as much as he could.
