City of Magic: The Complete Series by Helen Harper (book club recommendations TXT) 📕

Fab was concerned; the last thing I wanted to do was to burst their bubble unnecessarily. ‘I’ll tell you later,’ I muttered.

Monroe watched me for a moment, concern in his expression, but he knew better than to probe while we were out here in public. One of the best things about him was that I didn’t always have to explain myself. He knew. He understood. ‘That guard wants to talk to you,’ he said eventually. ‘The surly one.’

‘They’re all surly.’ In fact, I was feeling pretty damned surly myself.

‘You know which one I mean. The leader. Boil?’

I smiled slightly. ‘Boyce.’

‘Yeah. Him.’

I was tempted to say that Boyce could go and chuck himself in the canal with the monster that lived there then I decided that he might have something interesting to say. I drained my drink and hopped off the stool. Anything was better than hearing more about what Fab might or might not have said.

Monroe and I pushed our way out of the bar, leaving a merry chorus of gossip about Fabian Barrett behind. ‘They’re all star struck,’ I muttered.

Monroe threw me a sharp look. ‘They all think he’s going to save us. So did you yesterday. What’s changed in the last few hours?’

I told him about our conversation. Monroe’s lips tightened. ‘Someone else might have blabbed. He was wandering around the enclave talking to everyone he met. Any one of them might have told him about the Travotel. Perhaps he just got confused.’

‘Yeah,’ I said, unconvinced.

‘But,’ Monroe added, ‘he was also encouraging as many people as possible to show off their magic skills for him.’

My mood darkened. ‘We’re not supposed to overdo magic. If we do, we might cause more damage to the atmosphere.’

‘Our visiting billionaire has a persuasive edge. Julian was practically purring when I met up with him earlier. Barrett told him he was doing an excellent job with the enclave’s infrastructure.’

I grimaced. ‘Flattery gets you everywhere.’

‘Indeed.’ Monroe shoved his hands into his pockets. ‘Julian also mentioned that Barrett had stated his concern that there might be some nasty side effects from the magic.’

‘I’ll bet he did.’ I folded my arms, hugging myself to stop the brief shiver. ‘He might be right but that sort of speculation is very unhelpful. What on earth is Fab actually up to?’

‘Never fear,’ Monroe said. ‘We’ll find out.’

‘You’re unusually optimistic.’

He gave me a crooked smile. ‘I have the love of a beautiful, blue-haired enchantress. I have nothing to be downbeat about, no matter what Fabian Barrett is up to.’

I let Monroe’s positive warmth wash over me and leaned over to give him a quick kiss. ‘Yeah. I suppose as long as we get the supplies we need, it doesn’t really matter what he does. Not in the long run. His machinations are probably more to do with bigging up his reputation in the outside world than to do with us.’

Monroe kissed me back. ‘Amen.’

Boyce was waiting for us on the other side of the barricade with Felicity right next to him. Two of the other guards were outside the white tent, like the night before. There was no sign of Fab. That was probably a good thing.

I raised a hand in greeting and walked over. ‘Hey,’ I said. ‘What’s up?’

‘I thought you’d want to know,’ Boyce grunted, his eyes shifting away from me. ‘I saw that creature of yours. The small black thing.’

‘Lucy?’ I blinked. She’d been locked in her cage. She couldn’t have got free on her own.

‘Yeah.’ He jerked his head down the street. ‘It was down that way. I tried to go after it but it ran away.’

Monroe looked at Felicity. ‘Did you see Lucy too?’

She shook her head. ‘No. I heard the squeak and I saw Boyce trying to go after her, though.’

Shit. I curled my hands into fists and stared down the dark, empty road. How had that happened? ‘You scared her off,’ I accused.

Boyce didn’t blink. ‘That wasn’t my intention. I thought you’d want to know she was here, that’s all. Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m not your enemy any more than Mr Barrett is.’

Obviously Boyce had been filled in on the details of my chat with his employer. I hissed through my teeth. Then I tried to smile and be polite; I’d been brought up better than to make animal noises. Unfortunately. ‘I appreciate your help,’ I said stiffly. ‘She must have escaped from her cage. You shouldn’t worry. She’s just a baby.’

‘A baby who will one day become a monster,’ Boyce said.

Monroe ran a hand through his hair. ‘If Lucy managed to get herself here on her own despite that cage, she’s more than capable of looking after herself. We’re not responsible for her, Charlotte.’

‘Except we are,’ I insisted. ‘It’s our fault she’s on her own.’

‘She chose to run off. We’ve done all we can.’

I shook my head. ‘No, we haven’t.’ I started striding down the street. ‘Lucy!’ I called. ‘Luuuuucy!’

Monroe caught up to me, grabbing my elbow and forcing me to stop. ‘It’s dark and it’s late. We can look for her tomorrow. It’s too dangerous to be out at this time of night.’

‘She probably came out here searching for us. For me. We have to make sure she’s alright. You said it yourself, it’s too dangerous to be out right now.’

‘Charlotte…’

I gave him a look. ‘She ran away from Boyce because he tried to shoot her yesterday. She won’t run away from me. If I don’t find her in the next twenty minutes, I’ll come back. I promise.’

Monroe’s expression didn’t change. ‘This is a bad idea.’

‘Most of my ideas are bad. I just execute them with so much flair that everyone thinks they’re amazing.’

He tutted. ‘Fine. Twenty minutes. Not a second longer. And it goes without saying that I’m coming too.’

‘You’re awesome.’

‘That also goes without saying.’

It was my turn to tut. From a few metres away Felicity rolled her eyes. ‘You two are as bad as each other. If you’re not back by ten, I’ll send out the