“Would you like to go home the quick way?” he asked.
Five minutes earlier, she would have said yes. But there was something rejuvenating about getting out from under Blackwell’s thumb and into the woods. There was something rejuvenating about seeing this man.
“I think I’m well enough to get there the long way this time,” she said. “I’ve nothing useful I can tell you, in any case, so I shouldn’t be wasting your employer’s resources.”
“Have you decided I am, in fact, disagreeable?”
She laughed. “Not at all. You’re welcome to come with me.”
As he fell into step beside her, she thought of asking how the investigation was coming along. But then it struck her—she didn’t want to know the answer. Blackwell could force it out of her.
So she reached for something harmless. “I hope you haven’t been out here all day in this heat.”
“No, I spent most of it elsewhere. Other assignments called.”
If hearts really could sink, hers would have. It felt as heavy as a rock in her chest. Even the thought of having to regurgitate this conversation for Blackwell couldn’t stop her from asking, “Have you concluded this one? Is that what you came to tell me?”
“No. Truly,” he added, glancing at her, perhaps sensing her distress from the sharp way she’d asked. “Once I’m determined to do something, I don’t quit.”
The rush of relief this brought on left her a bit shaky. She put a hand on an oak tree, steadying herself as she stepped over a log. “I thought—I thought you might have given up.”
“How could I fail with an agent on the inside?”
He was teasing her. But she worried there was truth to it, that perhaps he really was counting on her to bring him evidence.
“Our omnimancer isn’t about to let me see anything I”—she paused—“could use”—another pause—“to incriminate him.”
She looked up at Garrett, but this clue so subtle it got past the Vow was apparently too understated to raise his suspicions. His “oh?” was no less cheerful than his usual.
She sighed. “He’s aware I loathe him.”
“Pity.”
She tried to say, “Youwillkeep investigating him?” But this apparently was one step too far. She couldn’t form the words.
“I don’t understand why he was so adamant about hiring you, knowing you would hate the very idea,” Garrett said. “You grew up together, didn’t you? Is there some history I’m missing?”
She sketched out the sorry story, without explaining why her mother had taken a dislike to Blackwell.
“Ah.” Garrett’s expression darkened and she saw a hint of steel under the sunniness. “Rotten of him to—are you all right?”
“Yes,” she choked out, pomegranate strangling her efforts to addand now he’s making me do magic.
Garrett seemed to have a leaf in his hands without reaching into his pockets for it, or perhaps he was just that fast. A murmured spell, and it transformed into a metal canteen. “Here,” he said, putting it into her hands. “It’s perfectly safe to drink, I promise.”
She sipped at the water inside and handed the canteen back, noting its dents. “You created this out of thin air?”
“No—it’s mine. I called it here.”
“Can you do that withanything? It seems like an invitation to robbery.”
He laughed. “That would make life easy for the criminally inclined, wouldn’t it? But no, I can’t get just anything. You need it to be in a specialized sort of room. I keep this canteen in one in case I’m ever stuck somewhere and dying of thirst.”
“And has that ever happened? Almost dying of thirst, I mean?”
“I’m sent a great many places,” he said. He was standing so close that the remnants of pomegranate faded underneath his scent—spicy aftershave and soap. She inhaled, feeling dizzy.
“Shall we?” she said, and strode deeper into the woods.
