Page 68 of A City of Hearts and Feathers

"I know you all felt guilty about what happened to Oman and tried to make up for it by looking out for us. It was very kind, but I'm not like Emre. I needed the space to breathe. Greece helped with that." Azize topped up their tea. "You all live so long, and I didn't want you seeing me as a child forever. Do you think you would be with Zoe right now if you had watched her grow up? No. She would be your baby niece forever."

Kahil pulled a face. "Okay, you have a point there. For what it's worth, if that was your plan, it worked. I don't see you as a little girl and neither does… Oh. Ohhhhh."

Azize, the most confident woman he'd ever met, turned bright pink. "Whatever you are thinking, it's wrong, Kahil."

"Is it? Because I won't say anything to anyone. I promise," he said sincerely. "You're sweet on Kerem?"

"Not another word. It's nothing. Just a dumb crush." Azize pulled her hair over one shoulder and didn't look him in the eye. "I'd never do anything about it anyway. He'd never see me that way, and I won't make a fool of myself by trying to get him to."

"Azi, you don't know that, and he's…"

She lifted a finger and pointed at him. "No. Be quiet. I can't even think about it. If you breathe a word of this to Zoe or anyone else, you know what will happen?"

"Dick rolling into my body? Got it." Kahil drank his tea, wondering how he could have been so blind to her crush over the years. He doubted Kerem would've noticed either because he was hopeless at noticing anything worthwhile. Arslan probably knew and was waiting for them all to catch up. He always was better at spotting those kinds of things.

Zeki and Zoe joined them a short time later with the enchanted bindings back in her satchel. Zoe sat on a stool next to Kahil and accepted a tea from Azize.

"So does anyone have any good ideas who I should sell this book to at the auction? Because I'm all ears," Zoe asked.

Zeki chuckled. "I suggested to Oman that he make a few fakes and give both sides a copy to get them off his back."

"If it was me, I'd go full biblical with it," Azize said, tapping her spoon against her lip. "I would split it up and give some to the light, some to the dark, and some to the Order. It's fair, and they would never work together or share their pieces."

"I don't want any of them to have it, but I have to get rid of it, or they will never leave me alone," Zoe complained.

"You could always think like a mercenary like your Uncle Ahmet," Zeki said, pulling a face. "He would sell it to the highest bidder and not lose a wink of sleep about it."

"Baba! Don't say that," Azize cried. "Uncle Ahmet might not like magic, but he knows better than to give light or dark too much power. He would probably sell it to a museum if he did anything with it."

"Oh, so it can go and sit in their basements with all the Byzantine artefacts and be lost forever? Great idea. Because nothing has ever been stolen out of a museum's basement. That's not mentioning what would happen if some silly scholargot it into their head to try out some of the experiments in it," Zeki complained with a shake of his head. "No. It's always better to know where something like that is at all times."

Kahil rubbed Zoe's back and let them argue about it. While Azize and Zeki bickered, Zoe leaned into him. "What do you think, Kahil?"

"I think I will support you in whatever you choose to do with it,balim," Kahil replied and pressed a kiss to her temple. "And that I will kill whoever tries to stop you."

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Zoe stood before the mirror in Kahil's bathroom and tried to fix her eyeliner for the third time. She shook out her hands to try and get rid of the nervous tremble out them. After tonight, she wouldn't have to worry about anyone coming after her. She hoped.

Zoe had spent the rest of the day in the library and had finished all the binding she had needed to. She had a plan. She just needed to keep her cool and see it through, no matter what. Kahil said he would support whatever she did, and Kerem and Arslan had echoed that sentiment.

"You're not alone," she told herself, and she actually believed it. She had been in Istanbul for a short time, but she felt like she finally had people around her who believed in her. If only her mother could have been there too. Zoe picked up her phone and shot her a text.

Zoe: The codex will be out of my hands tonight, and we won't have to worry about it again.

Mom: I hope so, for your sake, love. Watch your back. I don't want you trusting anyone until it's over.

Zoe: I won't. As soon as it's done, I'm going to find baba's killer.

No reply. Zoe let out a breath. She wouldn't avoid her father as a topic anymore, no matter how it upset Anita. She would find who killed him if it was the last thing she ever did.

There was a gentle tap on the bathroom door. "Zoe? You okay in there?" Kahil asked.

"Yes, I'm coming." Zoe finished her eyeliner, ran a hand over her black suit jacket and trousers, and opened the door. She was not ready for Kahil. "Oh, my stars."

"What? What's wrong?" he asked.

Zoe fanned herself. He was wearing a black-on-black suit, his hair in a braid and had a black and gold cloak over his shoulders. It was his official Order cloak with a stiffly molded hood shaped like the head of Anubis. He still managed to look feral around the edges with a gleam of violence in his eyes.

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