I did as I was told. He walked beside me, close enough that his arm brushed mine. I focused on the street ahead, the pressure of my palm against my sternum, and the very specific work of keeping my magic from answering whatever had just come out of that building.
We turned left. Then right. Then through a covered passage between two buildings, which led to a small courtyard I hadn't known was there.
Nicco stopped. Looked at the passage entrance behind us. Looked at the courtyard. Looked at me.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I breathed. The hum had settled, not gone, still there, but lower, the other note fading as the distance grew. “Yes.”
“Good.” His jaw was set in the way it was when he was managing something he found unacceptable, which was usually my reaction to something he said. “Don't go near that building again.”
My eyes widened at his tone. “I wasn't going near it on purpose! You’re the one who walked me past it!”
“I know.” He looked again at the passage entrance. Nothing was coming through. “Someone came out.” He shook his head slightly. “I wasn’t expecting that. It’s rare for the door to open.”
“I felt them,” I whispered as I looked back toward the entrance.
He looked at me then. “Youfeltthem?”
“Yes.” I held his gaze. “Doesn’t everyone?”
“No.” He looked grim. “They're trained to sense power.”
I pressed my fingers against my sternum. Had they sensed me?
“I didn’t know?—”
“That.” He said it quietly. His eyes dropped to my hand. “That thing you do.”
I went still.
“You've been doing it since I met you,” he said. “Every time something happens, or you’re scared, or you don't want your reaction to be seen, your hand goes there.” He looked at my face. “I've been counting.”
“Counting? How many times?” I asked, before I could decide whether I wanted to know.
“Enough.” A pause. “Enough that anyone watching you for more than a few days would know exactly where to look.”
The courtyard was silent. Overhead, the ice-light from the Glassfyr towers bathed everything in an unusual glow. Somewhere in the city, a Verei Kahn walked, unaware of how close she had come to something the institution eagerly sought.
“I didn't know I was doing it so openly,” I said.
“I know you didn't.” He looked at me steadily. “But stop.”
“If I don’t know I’m doing it, it won’t be easy to stop,” I bit back.
“I know. Stop it anyway.”
I looked at my hand, still resting against my chest. I lowered it deliberately and put it at my side. “It's not that simple.”
“Nothing is.” He turned away, scanning the courtyard exits. “But you need to stop, and you need to do it before someone else like me notices.”
Was there anyone else like him? Not the time for that thought at all.
I looked at the passage's entrance. At the city beyond it, enormous and indifferent. “They’re obviously not like you. They didn't follow us.”
“No.” He glanced at me sideways. “This time.”
We found Baxley and Larana at the meeting point without further incident. The courier job was set up, the payment secured, and the merchant satisfied that he was putting his documents in safe hands.
