Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

MAR

T he world narrowed as if I was falling into a deep abyss. Ringing filled my ears. Thoughts raced through my head at breakneck speed, colliding and fracturing into incoherent fragments.

Anger, fear, frustration—I knew them all so well.

They slipped through my fingers like sand.

But none of that mattered.

My feet were already moving, desperation propelling me into motion. I raced through my room and onto the balcony. I had to catch the intruder before they could get away, before they could steal Nie.

No one was on the balcony.

I leaned against the railing and peered down. The cold iron barricade filled my nostrils with a metallic scent and dug into my palms.

I wouldn’t blink, not until I saw a sign of where Nie had been taken, not until I caught a glimpse of the one who had taken her.

My eyes burned.

Don’t lose your head.

The kernel of truth haunted me. I should have tried harder to interpret every possible meaning of the warning as soon as I received it. I should have anticipated this.

I saw nothing but a still and dark night. I heard nothing but the sounds of distant waves. The shadows that had enveloped the inhuman figure could only mean one thing—the reaper had done this. Bernadette had killed Nie, and she’d returned to take Nie away from me a second time.

What other explanation could there be?

“I checked my room,” Levi said from behind me. “They’re gone.”

His voice startled me.

A dark chill seeped through my skin and settled into my bones. My feet stung. My legs felt weak. My lungs compressed.

The they Levi was speaking about the reaper who’d broken in. All I cared about was Nie.

“She’s gone.” As the words slipped through my lips, any energy I had left slipped away with them.

Nie was gone, and it was entirely my fault.

I’d freaked out and run away when I’d seen the shadowy figure on my balcony, forgetting about Nie. I’d left her behind, completely defenseless. The scene repeated over and over in my head, a relentless assault I couldn’t escape.

An unbearable ache gnawed at my insides. I wished I could go back, just ten minutes, and do it all differently. But it wasn’t too late to make things right, it couldn’t be.

“I have to go after her,” I said, more to myself than to Levi. I let go of the railing and turned with renewed purpose. “I have to?—”

Levi stepped into the frame of the shattered glass door and stopped. He stood there, filling the space with his annoyingly broad shoulders, blocking my path.

“Move,” I told him, then in case he was as dense as he was frustrating, I added, “You’re in my way.”

He didn’t acknowledge my command in any way. Instead, he tightened his jaw. Moonlight sharpened his already pointed features, giving his usually genial face a harsher appearance.

I wanted to shove him out of my way, but he had a formidable size advantage. And something about the look on his face made me hesitant to try.

“How exactly does your healing work?” he asked, voice flat but not harsh.

“That’s a stupid question.”

He was wasting my time, still not reacting, still not getting out of my way.

“My healing works the regular way,” I said.

He narrowed his eyes, clearly not believing me.

“That…intruder is getting away. If you don’t move, I’ll make you move.” How exactly I was going to do that, I had no idea. But in most circumstances, I’d found a knee to the testicles generally did the trick.

Levi tilted his chin ever so slightly, shifting the shadows on his face. It dulled the harshness I’d seen.

He said, “If you don’t have advanced regeneration, or at the very least freezing of injuries like your sister does, we’re going to need to deal with your feet before going anywhere.”

My brain felt like it was moving too slowly as I tried to digest everything he’d said. My feet? My sister?

I glanced down to my bare legs and the bloody feet at their ends. Only upon seeing the damage did my nerves decide to strike with sharp, stabbing pain. I’d stomped right through broken glass on my way to the balcony.

Worse, I wasn’t wearing any pants.

Without having packed any clothing for this impromptu getaway, I only had the new underpants that I’d purchased and what I’d been wearing when I’d arrived. I’d taken off my bra and pants to sleep.

At least I hadn’t decided to sleep naked.

I squared my shoulders, embodying shamelessness and confidence I didn’t feel. It was a practiced posture that masked the little voice in the back of my head screaming for me to cover myself before Levi noticed my near-nakedness.

As if he hadn’t already seen me.

But it didn’t matter what he saw, or what he thought. He didn’t matter.

For what it was worth, he looked me straight in the eye.

“What sister?” I asked.

“I know you’d prefer not to share anything about yourself with me, Marshmallow, but you can’t expect me to pretend you weren’t carrying your sister’s head in your bag yesterday.”

Marshmallow.

He’d called me Marshmallow again with a straight face. Between exhaustion and the absurdity of everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, I almost cracked a smile.

Levi knew about magic. He’d known about Nie, having heard her die die die chants in the alleyway when I’d first arrived in Nevermore. He hadn’t reacted then, but he’d heard and he knew everything.

I stared at him, ignoring the pain in my feet and having absolutely no idea what to say.

“Why don’t you let me help you with your injuries,” Levi said, “and you can tell me why your sister so adamantly cheers for my demise.”

Absurdity bubbled up through my chest, because apparently I’d lost it. I pressed my lips together to suppress the irrational laughter that poised itself to escape.

It took me a moment to get it together and respond. “Nie wasn’t talking to you.”

In an instant, he was on me. He moved so fast I didn’t see him coming. He scooped me up into his arms like I weighed nothing, like touching me didn’t overwhelm every one of his systems.

My composure didn’t fare so well.

One of his arms curled around my back, the other tucked in the crook of my knees, so his bare forearm was pressed against my bare thigh. It was a gentle embrace. It caring almost, even though he had no reason to be caring.

He smelled like freshly fallen rain. He felt warm and firm. He felt safe.

Alarm bells went off in my head as he carried me back into my room. I needed to make a break for it, or there would be no catching up with Bernadette and Nie. But I couldn’t convince my body to move.

Levi set me on the edge of the mattress and knelt to examine my foot. All I could do was stare.

“Don’t move,” he said in a tone that left no room for argument. Then he rose to his feet and disappeared through the hole in the wall, only to reappear a moment later with a first aid kit.

Once again, he knelt down in front of me.

And I still wasn’t wearing any pants.

As he opened his kit and searched through its contents, he said, “I’ll assume you don’t want to tell me what Nie is short for.”

“Is your name really Levi?”

“Yes.”

I believed him. “Why can’t I find you online?”

“You’re not looking in the right place,” he said.

Like The Library or the dark web?

I asked, “What is the right place?”

“You’d have to search for my stage name. Mr. Feathers.”

“Seriously?” I stared at him.

He didn’t crack a smile or show any sign that he was joking. “Go ahead and look me up.”

I snatched my phone from the nightstand and typed in Mr. Feathers . Tons of images and Levi on stage came up, along with a bunch of photos with children. Given the props in the pics… “You’re a magician.”

“A traveling one.”

This man had given me no reason to assume he was my enemy, aside from it being strange that we’d run into each other twice in one day, in different towns. That was still suspicious. I’d run into Caspian twice though, too. And whatever had broken into my room—Bernadette, most likely—and taken Nie had broken into Levi’s room, too.

Whatever trouble was brewing in Nevermore, it had aligned itself against both of us.

“Nie is short for Marnie,” I said.

Levi nodded and lifted my foot.

His touch was tender and sent unwelcome tendrils of warmth up my thigh. My nerves danced. My mind buzzed.

“And what is Mar short for?” He flicked his gaze up to meet mine. “Or do you like me calling you Marshmallow?”

Marshmallow was a fluffy word for a sweet and fluffy substance. I should have hated both the product and his calling me that. But I didn’t.

I could have left him to keep calling me Marshmallow, but I didn’t want to. A big, quite possibly moronic, part of me wanted to trust him enough to tell him the truth.

“Marnie,” I said.

He ran an alcohol wipe over my skin. The cloth left a cold trail in its wake, a pleasant contrast to the heat of his touch. Then something even more obscene happened.

He blew on my skin— on the wet alcohol trail.

My toes curled involuntarily.

My heart shot up into my throat.

I nearly screamed and kicked him in the nose. I pressed my thighs together because I would not let him see what he was doing to my panties.

“Cruel for your parents to give you both the same name,” he said, offering no sign that he noticed the blush creeping up my cheeks or the very clear change in the air between us.

When I didn’t respond, he continued, “Your healing looks typical, just as you said. I’m going to have to give you stitches if you’re going to be able to walk on this.”

“I won’t be able to walk with stitches,” I said.

He smiled at me. “You will with mine.”

Every defense I’d built up over the years dropped at that smile, leaving me feeling more exposed than I had in a very long time. It was as terrifying as it was exhilarating.

He leaned his face closer to my foot. If he licked it, I was definitely going to kick him in the nose.

He whispered, “Languet dolor tuus et sanitas tua.”

It sounded like Latin. Instinctively, I tried to pull my foot away. This was getting too weird, and I should definitely not be pantsless with this man whispering to my toes.

I should be chasing after Nie.

His grip on my ankle tightened, not roughly, only firmly enough to hold me still.

“I’m not into foot stuff,” I said, though the fireworks spreading throughout my body told a different story. Those sparking nerves shrugged and said maybe for him we could be.

“I assure you, Marnie, my intentions with your foot are pure. Hold still now.”

He said my name. And I liked it even better than when he’d called me Marshmallow.

This was bad, really really bad.

He lifted a glowing golden needle to my foot. I winced, waiting for the fresh stab of pain. It never came. Instead, I saw him working, but I felt nothing…until I did.

All of the pain stopped, every ache and stab from the glass that had shredded my sole was gone as if it had never happened.

“Finished.” Levi released me.

I pulled my foot up onto the bed so I could see what he’d done to me. There was no evidence I’d been cut at all.

He’d healed me.

He knew about magic, didn’t think twice about a talking head in a bag, and he completely healed a gaping wound with a whisper and a thread.

“What are you, Levi Rivers?” I asked, half in awe, half in accusation.

A faint crease appeared between his brows. His gaze dropped momentarily as a shadow of contrition crossed his features. “That is one story I’m not yet ready to share.”

That only made me more curious. “Why not?”

“It’s a secret that belongs to more than me.”

What was that supposed to mean?

“I’ll give you a moment to dress, then I’d like to chase after your sister. If that suits you.” He rose to his feet.

I sat there a moment, feeling completely out of sorts.

“Yes,” I said. “Pants and go.”

A candy appeared in his palm. “Butterscotch?”

“You said butterscotch was for perverts,” I said, dumbfounded.

He cracked a smile. “I believe that was caramel, and if I’m not mistaken it was you who’d made the candy and pervert connection.”

Had I?

When I didn’t take the candy, Levi unwrapped it, popped it in his mouth, and stepped through the hole in the wall, as if giving me privacy now meant he hadn’t already seen me in my underpants.

I appreciated the gesture. But I was also certain I was right about the butterscotch.

“I said caramel was for grandmas,” I called through the open hole in the wall. “You told me I was thinking of butterscotch.”

Though I couldn’t say where exactly the pervert part came in. But it did cause a twisted delight to lighten my lungs. It reminded me of the way he’d held my foot. Maybe I was the pervert.

“There is no bad candy,” Levi called back.

“There definitely is. Have you tasted Tootsie Rolls?”

“Stale ones are great to give your worst enemies to break their teeth.”

“But can you stand eating them?”

“Sure.”

“Candy corn?”

“Touché. The waxy yellow cones are a seasonal favorite for most. But I ate three bags with my best friend one Halloween and threw up all night. Can’t stand them anymore.”

I chuckled as I dressed, then I grabbed my messenger bag. When we found Nie, which we most definitely would, I’d need the bag.

As I strapped it onto my shoulder and touched the pocket where I kept my dinky knife, I felt a bulge in one of the other pockets.

I’d completely forgotten about the petrification potions Rose had given me. I guessed I did have a weapon.

I walked through the hole into Levi’s room. His space was the mirror of mine, down to the broken glass balcony door.

There was a crucial difference, however: his room was torn apart.

Bernadette had completely eviscerated Levi’s bed, torn the drawers out of his dresser, and knocked down his lamp before breaking through the wall to my room.

Was she looking for something?

What if the entire attack had been about Levi, not Nie and me? If we were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, the reaper might not have been the culprit.

Speculation at this stage offered zero new leads, and therefore, zero help.

I stared at the colorful assortment of pajama pants on the floor, the only clothing Levi seemed to own that wasn’t white.

“Why do you wear so much white?” I asked as I looked up at him.

While I’d put on my pants, he’d traded his pajamas for a set of real pants, too. They were form-fitted, distressed in the way that made them look expensive rather than worn down. And of course, they were white.

“Easy to choose what to wear when it all matches. Is that why you wear black?”

“No.”

“White also works well to highlight the color in my scarves during magic tricks. Any other questions?”

I’d really like to know more about how he’d healed me, and about his magic. But he’d shut that topic down. So I said, “Not yet.”

We headed into the hall and down the elevator.

In the silent awkwardness of standing side-by-side and waiting for the metal doors to open, I said, “Nie and me—we’re not sisters.”

Maybe I’d been inspired by his confessions. I wasn’t sure.

Levi glanced at me with interest, but didn’t comment. Maybe he didn’t feel like he could ask me questions because he wasn’t willing to tell me that he was a librarian, or an alchemist, or whatever he was.

Holding onto private pieces of ourselves offered protection. Secrets were safe. If no one knew the true me, they could never use that knowledge against me.

We exited the elevator and headed outside.

Darkness still clung to the sky, but a hopeful feeling in the air suggested the sun would soon rise. It wasn’t night any longer, but early morning, which also meant today was Halloween.

In amicable silence, we walked around the narrow streets, searching for Nie and the shadowy figure who’d taken her. What exactly we’d do if we found them, I had no idea. But by the time the sun rose, we hadn’t found a single clue to suggest where they’d gone.

“Mar!”

Imogen’s voice made me pause mid-step.

I turned. She ran in slow motion toward me, arms waving above her head. She had the appearance, as always, of the regurgitated result of a toddler chowing down on a pack of crayons. She wore patterned pants, a tie-dye orange shirt, and sky-high red heels. Large bags hung from each of her shoulders, like she’d packed for a month-long vacation.

“A friend of yours?” Levi asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“You don’t sound happy about that.” He chuckled softly. “Perhaps we’ll have better luck splitting up. You know how to reach me if you find anything.”

The implication lingered between us, a reminder that I hadn’t offered him a way to reach me in return.

“Fine,” I said and did a gimme gesture.

He gave me his marker and offered me his arm.

My entire body heated ten degrees as I wrote my number on his arm, just from that tiny bit of touch.

“See you around, Marshmallow.”

Imogen still hadn’t reached me by the time Levi disappeared. I was grateful, because I needed a moment or ten thousand to convince my body to calm down.

If that’s how I reacted to a brief touch of Levi’s arm, how on earth would I handle working with him on the rest of this investigation?