Page 98 of Marked by the Demigod

They're staring, wide eyed, up at Iakov, their purrs motoring through the sheets. "They like everyone more than they like me."

* * *

Instead of having her drive,he teleports her directly outside the library, clutching her tight, his fingers not quite digging into her arms, not quite painful but not quite comfortable.

"You gonna take me home tonight as well?" She asks, as soon as that teleportation jitters gets out of her system.

"No, I'm going to leave you to get home from Pasadena all by yourself with no transportation," he says, the sarcasm in his voice somewhat dimmed by the frantic way he looks around. His hands still on her, he nods, not so much looking at her but looking out at the rush of commuters walking into the Pasadena City Hall.

Still disoriented, still somewhat angry at him, she rubs a hand on his arm in a way that she hopes is soothing. "No one here is going to hurt you, they just want to get to their own jobs."

His gaze snaps to hers. "I know that." But instead of scathing, his voice goes soft. "It's just. A lot." As if suddenly aware of his grip, he releases her, and her skin prickles without his touch. "I'll...see you. Later." He hesitates, then disappears.

No one around seems to notice, continuing to rush to work and to the coffee shop and back.

* * *

The grand roomof the library has its air conditioning back, and there's a small crowd of school kids clustered around the teaching computers, almost like it was before. The circulated air hits her face, and she loses her courage to contact the twins as soon as it does, as if it is blown away.

So instead she shoulders her purse, the leather strap digging into her neck. "Right." She mutters, and climbs the four floors of stairs to Dave's old office and starts to program again.

* * *

Halfway through her shift,her phone rings, startling her out of a particularly involving section of corrupted code. The air conditioning chills her, now that she's not concentrating hard, so she hugs herself while answering the phone.

"Aimes, are you safe?" Katya says, her voice garbled.

Aimes swivels to look at the door. "I'm in Dave's office," she says, struck by the weirdness. "Repairing the computer code."

She can hear Katya's relieved exhale as soon as she says that. "I think they burned down your apartment complex."

"You think?" She says, the sarcastic words falling out of her mouth as if in self-defense.

Another quick inhale. "Your apartment is still standing. Just the complex. But the wards."

It's as if she's falling through the mesh of the swivel chair, her limbs not wanting to move, her legs lead. "How?" She asks, her heart strangely not pounding. "Was anyone hurt?"

"I don't know."

"My cats --"

"I don't know."

Aimes blinks, unable to process anything but the fluorescent lights and the brief movements of air.

Tentative, as if not wanting to upset her further, the phone briefly crackles. "Are you okay?"

And that seems like too much of a question to answer, but her heart isn't pounding and her hands aren't shaking. "I'll call you back." And she abruptly clicks off the phone, staring at it, breathing hard.

They tried to smoke her out.

AIMES (2:02 PM): They tried to burn out my apartment.

The dots appear three times on her screen, but no reply comes for a while, and she stares at the screen and just. Breathes.

TALL GUY (2:11 PM): It's still standing, the pets are scared but okay, just some smoke.

Her brows furrow.

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