The magic shop sat at the edge of the square, wedged between a tavern that never closed and a bakery with a window full of cakes we couldn’t afford. Lidi didn’t even look twice at the cakes, which I used to obsess over when I was a kid.
Inside, the smell was wild: spice and acid and something that reminded me of cider that had dwelt too long in the root cellar. The shelves were packed, floor to ceiling, with jars, bottles, and cages for inanimate things that shouldn’t need bars to keep them from moving.
Lidi darted in ahead of me, making a beeline for the glass dragon perched on the front counter. It was bottle green, but its wings were obsidian touched by rainbows, and its eyes were little golden beads that seemed to track every move. I touched its cool, smooth head between its horns, feeling a strange pulse of longing.
Orx grinned when he saw us, but didn’t stand from behind thecounter. As usual, he was rolling dice, over and over onto a smooth piece of felt beside his lockbox; it seemed to be his compulsion.
“If it isn’t the most dangerous girl in town,” he said, nodding at me.
“Don’t believe the gossip. There’s nothing dangerous about me,” I said, and he snorted a laugh.
“I’ll pretend to believe that, since I think maybe you do,” he said. He looked at Lidi. “And the little starling. Come to liberate the dragons?”
Lidi didn’t answer, just ran one fingertip over its glass snout.
The mark on my back was starting to burn. Was it because Fieran had just come into my mind?
Orx gave me a long, measuring look. “You’re not here to buy, are you?”
“I’m buying if you have what I need.”And if by some miracle I can afford it.
He laughed, and the sound filled the shop. “Buying? Or plotting?”
“That’s quite the accusation. I’ve never stolen from you,” I said, though I’d thought about it, a dozen times.
He leaned in confidentially. “But we both know you consider it every time.”
I waited until Lidi had disappeared down a row of shelves, though that was nerve-wracking in itself. Gods knew what damage she could do in this place of things that were as fragile as our finances. “Do you have anything to help Tay? To buy him real time.”
He shook his head, slow. “Not for that. I don’t cross the Fae. And even if I did, you couldn’t afford it.”
“You don’t know that,” I disagreed.
He gave me an amused look. I turned my back on him and moved down the row of aisles, looking for Lidi. She was standing at the end of the third aisle, staring up at something high on one of the shelves.
“Lidi,” I called. “We should go.”
“We just got here.” She frowned at me as she turned, but whatever she saw on my face changed her mind.
As she skipped toward me, I closed my eyes and prayed to gods I didn’t believe in that she wouldn’t break anything. She and I seemed to have inherited the same sense of grace.
Orx reached for one of the candy jars behind him as Lidi meldedherself to my side without costing me a small fortune in breakage. “Take some candy for the walk home.”
The thought of walking home and leaving Tay behind with the healer hurt.
He offered one to Lidi, who took it and popped it into her mouth. Her eyes went wide, but she didn’t spit it out.
“It’s sour and sweet by turns, just like life,” Orx promised. “If you don’t like the flavor now, just wait a moment. Nothing sour lasts.”
“Nor the sweet either,” I muttered.
“Take one.” He shook the jar at me. “I know you have a sweet tooth, even though you won’t admit to wanting anything for yourself. Not even candy.”
“That’s not true.” I took it.
He scoffed. “If I didn’t embarrass you into eating it, you’d save it for your sister.”
I rolled my eyes and popped it onto my tongue, even though he was right. It seemed to burn, sharp and hot, then softened into sweetness.
