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Iris was about to ask Li to tell her more, when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She glanced at the screen before heading into the hallway that housed the staircase and elevator. Even outside the main office, everything smelled like antiseptic.
“Hi, Mom.”
She’d known it would only be a matter of time before her mom would call, seeing as Iris had ignored her texts all the previous day. Iris paced the hallway anxiously, her boots squeaking against the linoleum, sensing her mother’s anxiety before she even spoke.
“Iris, where have you been? I got a call from Mrs. Smith yesterday. She said that she saw you volunteering outside the church with some strange young man who caused a scene. I’m assuming that wasn’t Gabriel. Is it true? Did Blair attack someone?”
Iris paused, leaning against the wall as a man holding a little girl’s hand stepped out of the elevator, the girl wailing that she didn’t want to go inside. Her father pulled her into his arms and disappeared through the glass door into the lobby.
“Who’s Mrs. Smith?”
“Mrs. Smith, the Sunday school teacher you worked with when you helped plan the nativity play, oh, has to be ten years ago now. And don’t change the subject. I don’t trust that new friend of yours. First, he runs out like he’s on fire during the service, and then he goes after some poor homeless man?”
Iris bit her lip as another few patients came up the stairs and swung open the door, moving to stand in line behind the now sobbing child with her father.
How was it possible that so many people had seen her and Blair the other night? She didn’t have time for this right now. “Mom, Blair was protecting me. That man was being violent.” When her mother didn’t respond, Iris let out a heavy sigh. “I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Iris, I just want to make sure you’re being—”
“Happy New Year, Mom.” She hung up the phone, her hand shaking slightly as she slid it into the front pocket of her trousers.
When she resumed her seat, Li cleared her throat. “Everything alright?”
Iris nodded, smoothing her hands over the stack of paperwork in front of her. While Li checked in new patients, Iris neatly placed the files back in the cabinet, as though putting everything back where it belonged might help bring a semblance of order to the cluttered fragments of her own life.
If nothing else, it was at least a relief to be out of the house, which—after everything that happened on New Year’s Eve—felt impossibly small, far too tiny to hold the enormity of Iris’ confusion. She had thought that after sharing such an emotionally intimate moment with Blair, she would have gained some kind of clarity. Instead, the tangled web between her, Blair, and Gabriel seemed more twisted and snarled than ever.
After leaving Blair’s room that night, Iris had tossed and turned in bed, her mind racing along with her heart and making it impossible to sleep. She had awoken in the morning to find a foot of snow, no power, and a silence that stretched so thin she swore she could have snapped it with a single breath.
She'd spent much of the day shoveling paths in the heavy snow alongside the others, trying to ignore Blair’s bashful gaze and stifled by Gabriel’s furtive glances.
It was almost as if he knew.
She was reminded of Gabriel’s words from November, back when he had forbidden her from speaking to Blair. Gabriel had told her that he possessed “abilities of perception.” For the first time, Iris considered the possibility that those words had been more than creative hyperbole.
Gabriel had admitted he’d once studied witchcraft, that he’d stretched beyond the bounds of usual sorcery to the point where he had made himself immortal. How was she supposed to know the limits of his abilities? For all she knew, Gabriel could read minds, or divine the future like Blair’s mother.
The thought made the turkey sandwich she’d had for lunch churn unpleasantly in her stomach.
Iris checked her phone’s navigation app to make sure she was in the right place before turning off her car. She slipped a handmade alpaca wool hat over her ears and stepped onto the pavement, catching herself on the hood of her Nissan as her right boot slipped against a patch of glare ice.
Bass Clef was located in the very center of Martenshire, a one-story cement block of a building wedged between a tattoo parlor and a laundromat. Bright flashing lights were visible through the tiny windows at either end of the front door as Iris grasped the handle and pulled it open, finding herself immediately assaulted by the pounding bass.
“Iris!” Audrey pushed through the crowd, her long bohemian blue dress swaying around her ankles, a martini in one hand. She gave Iris a tight one-armed hug. “I’m so glad you’re here!”
Iris smiled against Audrey’s shoulder. Nightclubs weren’t exactly her scene, but she was glad to be there, too. It had been far too long since she’d seen her best friend. “Happy Bachelorette Party!” Iris trilled, holding out a gift bag.
Audrey took the bag, looking Iris over with a sudden frown. “You look tired.”
Deciding to ignore that comment, Iris shrugged off her coat and draped it over a sleeve of the spring-green dress she’d changed into after work. “Where are we sitting?”
Grasping Iris’ hand, Audrey led the way through the crowd over to a small table right on the edge of the dance floor. Bright colorful lights pulsed to the beat of the music, and a DJ booth stood along the back wall. Iris resisted the temptation to cover her ears, which had always been a little sensitive to loud noises.
“Hey, Evette,” said Iris, plopping her purse down on the table and taking her seat. She smiled at the woman seated across from her, who looked vaguely familiar.
“Hey, Iris,” Evette greeted with a little wave. “This is my sister, Minerva.”
“Minnie,” corrected the woman, sticking a manicured hand across the table.
