“Excellent, always great to get a job reference from someone a few acorns short of an oak tree. What makes this seer sure I’m the one?”
“I don’t know.”
“And seers can be wrong?”
“Yes,” he says curtly and remarkably fast.
My stomach flips. That was a fast yes. I recall the way the others on the staff act around me. “Have you had other candidates?” Now my stomach’s twisting. I don’t like the thought of them touching someone else. Not that Kieren has even touched me.
“Yes.” His tone has dropped, and he glances away from me.
“How many others have there been? Wait, I don’t want to know.” I purse my lips and tap my foot. “I just slept with Roark. I slept with Roark, and you’re paying me to be here.” I sink to the sofa. “I’m just what my mother said I would become.”
“What is that?” His brow furrows up.
“A hooker—her word for a sex worker. She said if I got my degree in art, I might as well just go out and sell my body because I’d never be able to feed myself. Then they cut meoff. Stopped payment on my senior year of college. Stopped paying rent on my apartment. It’s why I’m here. I was planning on saving all the money from this job.” I use air quotes when I say job, but I don’t look at him. I can’t. I’m staring at my sandals. “To finish my degree. Better yet, the work I was going to do here would get me into a good masters or doctorate program. I... I...” I’ve messed up again.
No. I’m not letting this get to me. I can figure this out.
Kieren’s eyes glow in the smokey room. “You are not a sex worker. We aren’t paying you to have sex with us. We’re paying you for a job, and I expect you to continue with the high-quality work that you are most certainly qualified to do. Yes, we created a job for you because we couldn’t just ask you to come and hang out with us. But in your— We obviously need the job you’re doing for us. I didn’t realize half the things you’ve talked about: sunlight, acid-free boxes, moisture. My dragon’s been unsettled thinking about how you said we’ve put our hoard in jeopardy. Excuse me, collection. Please stay. We need you to stay.”
“You could hire someone more qualified.” Why in the world did I say that? Of course he knows he could hire someone more qualified. But no, it’s a good question.
“Perhaps someone with a doctorate who has become jaded. Someone who pushes paintings from our realm to the side because they don’t recognize the artist’s name. Someone who catalogs and assigns a value but doesn’t appreciate what they are holding because they’ve done it for years, decades.” He steps toward me. “We don’t want that. I don’t want that. You have a passion for art, and you care. My dragon likes how excited you are about the collection. About how careful you’re being with our hoard. Please, Raine, stay.”
I clamp my eyes shut. And when I open them again,some of the smoke has cleared. He wants me to stay, and I need the money. Six months of this salary will pay for the rest of my degree and living expenses while I’m doing it. If I’m careful, it could even pay for part of grad school.
“I should go,” I say, “but I’m not strong enough to. Leaving your collection would hurt, and you’re right, it needs someone, and it might as well be me. I’ll stay.” I put my hand out for him to shake, and he stares at it. Right, he won’t touch me. I pull it back. “I think I have one more question.”
“Like I said, you can ask as many as you like.”
“Why won’t you shake my hand?”
“It’s because of the lightning, the way we find our thunder mates. To speed up the process, we perform a ceremony.”
“What sort of ceremony?” My mind races to some weird movie Wren and I watched one summer when I was in middle school. Knives and robes and blood.
Kieren smiles and points to the tapestry. “Behind that curtain is the portal to our realm––The Thessari.It’s a conduit that allows us to draw power from our realm. Next week, the Thessari will be in perfect alignment for drawing the most power. The four of us will gather in front of the portal. We’ll say some words, and I’ll cup the side of your face with my palm. Having one of us touch you for the first time helps with the energy of the ceremony.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.” His eyes hold mine.
“And then we wait? Six months?”
“Hopefully it won’t take that long.”
I nod. “Six months doesn’t seem like a lot of time for all I need to do with the collection.”
He laughs. “Well, you better keep working, then.”
“That I can do.”
“Any other questions?”
Waiting all that time to see if I’m struck by lightning? “The lightning? Is it real lightning?”
“No, a mark appears. For some, it knocks them unconscious.”
