Chapter 10

CHAPTERTEN

Ezra woke the following day to her arms burning. She screamed into wakefulness when she realized she wasn’t dreaming.

"Stop!" she begged. Her vision cleared, and she saw the two men standing over her. She had fallen asleep on the couch in Judah’s study the night before, her mind still working on the puzzles he had left her.

"Stop, please, stop. I’m awake!" she screamed. The pain in her arms stopped, and she fought not to vomit. "What is wrong with you people? You couldn’t just wake me up like a normal person?"

"You can’t ignore this like you did when we knocked on the door," the man said. It was the same one from the other night with the intense eyebrows. A young man was standing next to him and hadn’t stopped staring at her. Ezra sat up and rubbed at her tender arms. It was then she realized it wasn’t a man at all; it was a golem.

"I thought you said my father didn’t help you," she said, getting up to inspect the golem. In the low light, it could easily be mistaken for a man.

"Judah didn’t make him. I did," a new voice said. Another man came into the office with a steaming cup of coffee. He had black hair, dark eyes, and looked rumpled around the edges. Maybe she wasn’t the only one who had a rude wake-up call that morning.

"By all means, help yourself," Ezra snapped.

"I made extra for you. Wow, the famous Ezra. Judah would never shut up about you," he said.

Ezra ignored that jab and went back to the golem. "Beautiful work. Are you an artist?"

"Amongst other things," he replied.

Ezra held a hand over the golem’s face and felt familiar magic. "Judah made this shem for you? I thought it didn’t work."

"It works, but not for very long," Mr. Intense Eyebrows said. "I brought it here in case you can see something we have missed."

Probably a lot of things, knowing Judah.Her father clearly had a plan to fuck with the Cabal, and Ezra wanted to uphold that family tradition.

"Maybe it’s not the shem at all, but the clay," she said, looking at Mr. Artist.

He narrowed his eyes. "There is nothing wrong with my clay. It was made to the very instruction."

"Judah’s instructions?" Ezra asked, raising a dark brow. So much for them being the Cabal of the Wise. "Seems to me that there might be nothing wrong with the shem after all."

"Is there a way for you to test it?"

Ezra touched the golem’s hand, admiring the craftsmanship despite her annoyance. "The clay or the shem?"

"Both," the older man replied. "You are right. We have no idea if the clay is the problem."

"I can find out," Ezra said.

His expression darkened. "Show me right now."

Ezra’s arms burned in warning. Fuck this guy. "I need the shem. And that coffee."

Mr. Artist’s eyes narrowed. "Get your own."

"Shut up and give it to her," the man snapped. The younger man let out a huff and shoved the cup toward her. Ezra smiled and took it, having a big mouthful. It was too bitter, but the look of annoyance on his face made it taste sweeter.

The room sizzled with magic, and Ezra turned as the golem opened its mouth. Mr. Intense Eyebrows took the scroll from its mouth and gave it to her. She didn’t have to unroll it to know that the sigil on it was different from the one Judah and she had made together. She needed to give them something so they would leave her alone for a few more days.

"Follow me," she said, taking the scroll and the coffee and heading for the basement.

When Judah and Ezra had created their golem, they had destroyed their shem only hours after getting it to work. Like most of the magic she created, the sigil had stayed in Ezra’s mind in perfect recall. She could make it right there and then if she wanted to.

Ezra had wanted to destroy the golem too, but Judah wouldn’t have it. They had made it together and wanted to remember the time they spent working on it. She turned on the lamps because the basement hadn’t been fitted with the crystal lanterns.

The basement had gotten even more cluttered since she had been in it last. There was no hiding the tall wooden box leaning against the brick wall like a coffin.

"What are we doing down here?" Mr. Artist said.

"Checking your work," Ezra replied. She pulled the lid off the box and revealed the golem inside. Her heart hurt looking at its fine glazed features. She pressed two fingers over the clay man’s lips, and he opened his mouth.

"I wondered what happened to Judah’s golem. He said it was destroyed," Mr. Intense Brows commented. "It is beautiful work."

"Thanks," Ezra said grudgingly. She placed the shem inside of its mouth, and the golem shuddered to life.

"Mistress," the golem said in a deep scratchy voice.

"Come out of there and let us look at you," Ezra instructed. The golem did as it was told.

"So it was the clay that was defective? I swear, Zachariah, I copied Judah’s instructions to the letter," the artist said.

"I know you did. Judah was playing with you guys, and you didn’t realize." Ezra chuckled, making note of the man’s slip of his boss’s name. Idiot. She brushed some straw off the golem’s shoulders. "How about you take this one with you and see how the shem holds up in a proper golem?"

Zachariah moved in front of the golem. "It might pass as human if you have a coat and a hat to hide the shine on him."

"No problem," Ezra said. She went through the boxes that were meant to be donated before she left and found one of Judah’s coats and a squashed fedora that she was getting rid of. She dressed the golem and commanded it to obey Zachariah.

"You are being very helpful. Too helpful," Mr. Artist said.

"I never said I was your enemy. Besides, I’m bound to help, and I want my freedom. What do I care why you guys want golems? It’s not my business," she said with a shrug.

"You are far more pragmatic than Judah. We could do great things together," Zachariah told her. He touched her cheek gently. "Be good, and we will be friends in no time."

"Sure we will," she replied, wanting to break his finger and scrub her face with salt.

They all went back upstairs, the golem following them dutifully. It hurt to see it walk out of her house, but Ezra didn’t have a choice. They should have destroyed it and not been sentimental.

"Keep working on Judah’s spells. We will know soon enough if this golem works better than the last," Zachariah said.

"No problem. Maybe don’t wake me up with torture next time. I’m a reasonable person. I don’t need the extra motivation," Ezra replied and forced a smile onto her face.

"Perhaps. We will be keeping a close eye on you all the same," he said, and the three of them disappeared across the square.

"Fuck you both," Ezra whispered. She waited a few moments to ensure they were gone before locking the door. She raced back to Judah’s study and dug about on the top of the bookshelf. She pulled down the recording device she had hidden up there the night before. Judah had been right to keep his office monitored.

"Please work, please work," she whispered. She turned on the artifice, and it hummed to life. Images of the two men and Ezra screaming hovered in the air in front of her. "Got you bastards."

Ezra chewed her lip. Surely, Zahir would have a way to track the men down with images alone. She couldn’t risk going to the djinn again, not if Zachariah had people watching her house. She grinned. He wasn’t the only one. She had felt djinn magic after her visit to the king. Maybe he was watching her too.

Ezra took the crystal out of the machine, slipped it into her pocket, and grabbed her purse. She walked out into the sunshine and went to check the market that had been set up in the square.

Ezra bought fruit and bread, browsing through the stalls until she felt a flicker of djinn magic. A woman was selling handmade jewelry.

"What pretty necklaces," Ezra said and gave the woman a smile. "I don’t suppose you could get a message to your king for me?"

The woman’s smile slipped. She looked so human that Ezra would have never picked her for a djinn except for the magic. "I have no king, signorina."

"It’s okay, I know Zahir sent you. Tell him I need to see him, but I’m being watched. I have information he wants," Ezra said.

The woman’s eyes flashed with gold. "You had better. He’s not a patient creature. You see the old man playing chess over there? That’s the other spy," she said with a smile. Another customer came to the stall, and the djinn wrapped a necklace and passed it to Ezra. "An excellent choice, signorina. I hope it brings you luck. As for your other inquiry, I will see if my craftsman is free to meet with you to discuss a commission."

"Thanks. It’s a time sensitive project," Ezra replied and walked home. She let her eyes slide over the men playing chess in the sunshine. There was no magic coming off them at all.

It was late afternoon when a phoenix unexpectedly flew through the window of the study. It opened its mouth, letting out a cry before it exploded on the carpet.

"Ahh! Don’t set my house on fire!" Ezra scrambled to pat out the flames that were scattered over the papers she had been working on.

Fiery words appeared in the air. It was an address on the other side of Cannaregio with the words, "PARTY. TONIGHT. Z."

"Finally," Ezra murmured and went to get ready to meet with the King of the Djinn.