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“Do you want to learn how to use a gun or a knife?” Nick asked abruptly at last
“Ahaha,” Jamie said “No?”
Nick raked a cold glance up and down Ja to skin hiood with a sword”
“I prefer to think of myself as slender,” Jamie told him
Nick gave Jamie a blank look, then said, “Come on I’ll drive you to my place and teach you how to throw knives”
“What!” said Jamie “Why?”
“Because I a individual who is truly concerned about your welfare,” Nick drawled “You co?”
Jalanced at him and at Alan, and carefully did not look at Mae It occurred to her, with a painful little shock in her chest, that Jao back home with her
“Okay”
Jamie didn’t want to be around her, and Nick hadn’t asked her to co into the car and driving away, leaving her by the side of the road Then she turned and looked into Alan’s eyes
“Do you want to come and take a ith me?” he asked “I know you must have some questions”
His blue eyes were steady and so dark they looked like deep waters, like you could fall into them for miles
“I do have a few questions,” said Mae
“Okay, so here’s my first question,” Mae said as they walked back to the city center “Who the hell is Celeste Drake?”
“She’s the leader of another icians’ Circle,” Alan said “The Aventurine Circle I don’t really know icians’ Circles go, I believe they’re not the worst Not her number than in most Circles have real uses for their power I think Celeste herself is a doctor, and I know one of the Circle has a special interest in using ; the time we heard that was the one and only tiical research on his own There are a couple of historians who use scrying bowls to see the past”
“Well, speaking as a feroups of unspeakable ical evil”
“Yes,” Alan said gravely “It’d be shocking if the evil , that wouldstupid enemies would be a terrible blow to my manly pride”
Mae laughed at hirinned back at her, easy and charently, and he didn’t break stride
“So why are we feeding Gerald to the Aventurine Circle in particular?”
“I still have a few contacts in the Goblin Market,” Alan said “Word is that Celeste’s looking for hiine it’s to express her displeasure about the Obsidian Circle invading her turf when they ca after Nick Her Circle’s based in London, you see”
“Anddeal”
“Every circle a ician ever draws is a reflection of the one circle of stones their group is nails they wear link into the saicians’ Circles have their circles buried in the ground, soht as old druids’ circles They all guard theht of another Circle co near theirs Black Arthur didn’t ask Celeste’s permission to move his Circle into her city He took what he wanted and planned to crush anyone in his path”
“That was kind of Arthur’s way”
Alan nodded “It’s left Gerald in a coicians have left his Circle and taken different sigils He had todesperately, and one of the big Circles is after his blood for trespass And it’s all very convenient for us”
Mae touched her new talisht have invented soive hier is the Aventurine Circle?”
“Don’t worry,” said Alan “They’re strong enough”
They passed under the shadow of the trees that lanced up at thereen summer armfuls
“These used to be called dancing trees”
Mae smiled “I didn’t know that”
Alan’s s sunlight that sifted through the leaves and glanced brilliantly off his glasses “Yes, they used to hang people in them and leave them up in the branches Sometimes in pieces Then in the wind the pieces would—”
“Okay, I get it,” Mae said hastily
“Oh,” said Alan in a different voice “Sorry about that I just thought it was interesting”
Mae wondered if that was how Alan dealt with terrible and frightening truths, how he dealt with Nick: by htmares come to life a subject of intellectual curiosity
“Wouldn’t it be an instead, “wouldn’t it be si in touch with this Celeste woman, if Nick just dealt with Gerald and the others?”
Her shoes hit cobblestones as their conversation crashed into silence She kept walking; after the first glance she looked at the sandstone walls and not Alan’s tightly controlled face
“How do you think he’d deal with theh to snap
“Well,” Mae said, and thought of her own hands covered in hot blood The words died on her lips
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“Do you want to learn how to use a gun or a knife?” Nick asked abruptly at last
“Ahaha,” Jamie said “No?”
Nick raked a cold glance up and down Ja to skin hiood with a sword”
“I prefer to think of myself as slender,” Jamie told him
Nick gave Jamie a blank look, then said, “Come on I’ll drive you to my place and teach you how to throw knives”
“What!” said Jamie “Why?”
“Because I a individual who is truly concerned about your welfare,” Nick drawled “You co?”
Jalanced at him and at Alan, and carefully did not look at Mae It occurred to her, with a painful little shock in her chest, that Jao back home with her
“Okay”
Jamie didn’t want to be around her, and Nick hadn’t asked her to co into the car and driving away, leaving her by the side of the road Then she turned and looked into Alan’s eyes
“Do you want to come and take a ith me?” he asked “I know you must have some questions”
His blue eyes were steady and so dark they looked like deep waters, like you could fall into them for miles
“I do have a few questions,” said Mae
“Okay, so here’s my first question,” Mae said as they walked back to the city center “Who the hell is Celeste Drake?”
“She’s the leader of another icians’ Circle,” Alan said “The Aventurine Circle I don’t really know icians’ Circles go, I believe they’re not the worst Not her number than in most Circles have real uses for their power I think Celeste herself is a doctor, and I know one of the Circle has a special interest in using ; the time we heard that was the one and only tiical research on his own There are a couple of historians who use scrying bowls to see the past”
“Well, speaking as a feroups of unspeakable ical evil”
“Yes,” Alan said gravely “It’d be shocking if the evil , that wouldstupid enemies would be a terrible blow to my manly pride”
Mae laughed at hirinned back at her, easy and charently, and he didn’t break stride
“So why are we feeding Gerald to the Aventurine Circle in particular?”