Inwardly scowling, I flicked the wayward feeling aside, disappointed with myself. Connor had set the boundary—and it was one I knew was best for me as I was prioritizing friends and keeping my family secret. I was going to follow the boundary and not waste time wishing on dreams.
Even more important than wasting my time and energy, I was not going to be a bad friend, especially since Connor meant so much to me.
This is why I need to keep practicing, so I can build more friendships and not be so reliant on the few I have.
Regaining control over myself, I grinned at my friend. “In that case, isn’t it a good thing, then, that we’re neighbors?”
Connor blinked. “Pardon?”
I fished my keys out of my pocket and opened my apartment door. “Because you find me entertaining?” I reminded him.
“I do find you entertaining. All the time.” His usual smirk returned and he repeated. “All the time.”
A few days passed—I got a weekend off and spent some time working on my paper for Sarge, something I was starting to attack with a frantic energy since November was just around the corner and I had the distinct feeling I was not handling the assignment the way Sarge wanted me to.
Monday night patrols went off without a hitch, we even got time to close out a few cases and clean up some whiteboards when we got back to the Cloisters—though the picture of the missing person the human police sent over in September stayed up.
I stared at the whiteboard that still had the missing woman’s photo.
Maybe we should follow up with the human police about her. I don’t know much about criminal activity and statistics, but I know enough to know that it’s very bad that so much time has passed without even seeing her.
Hopefully the police had found her, and they’d just forgotten to tell us. Either way, it was worth asking Sarge about at one of our squad musters.
I glanced back down at my report on the library fire and subsequent investigation. I was supposed to be checking to see if there was a detail I’d forgotten to include. The papers—dry on my fingertips—kept sticking together, and I’d bent more than a few corners as I tried peeling them apart.
Grove stood a few feet away wiping down one of the whiteboards while Tetiana watched, shuffling the deck of cards used for the team’s rousing games of go fish.
“This was a wonderful night,” Grove announced. “It was so quiet!”
April groaned from her desk. “You had to say it.”
Grove set his eraser down and turned towards April. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That you’ve doomed us, and now we’re going to have something annoying happen,” April said.
“We have less than an hour of the shift left,” Juggernaut pointed out.
“Doesn’t matter,” April leaned back, the florescent lighting accenting her high cheekbones. “We’re in for a rough ride.”
A door whooshed as it was thrown open and Sarge strode inside, his silvery hair ruffled as if he’d been pulling on it. “Gather up, night squad,” he barked.
The door opened again, and a petite, blonde haired woman entered behind him carrying what looked like a ream’s worth of paper.
I stood up, my desk chair creaking, and joined my squadmates in a cluster by the whiteboards.
Sarge navigated his way through the huddles our desks were pushed into, but stepped aside and bowed to the woman when he reached us. “Night squad, this is Adept Hazel Medeis of House Medeis, protégé of Elite Bellus—the wizard representative on the Midwest Regional Committee of Magic.”
Hazel Medeis flashed a quick smile that was equal parts beauty and sass, and wriggled her fingers in a tiny greeting at April—a member of her wizard House—before her humor faded. “Hello, night shift! I wish we were meeting in better circumstances, but I’m here to deliver some bitter news.”
Bad news, delivered by an Adept…what are the chances this is about House Tellier and the library fire?
I already had my arms locked behind my back and my shoulders set, so I took a deep breath to steel myself.
“The Wizard Council has officially decided not to pursue any deeper investigation into House Tellier,” Hazel adjusted the white and blue jacket she was wearing—it was a wizard coat with the crest of House Medeis over the breast pocket. I saw a familiar flash of black on her belt when her coat moved, which I recognized as a gun holster.
Makes sense. House Medeis is the only wizard House that trains in firearms—it’s why April was also given a gun.