Page 103 of Veil of Death and Shadow

“You grow more intriguing by the hour, Agony.”

Menace landed on a nearby tree, close enough to watch us from safety. It usually took him a while to warm up to new people. Though something told me he was just as intrigued by Kieran as Kieran was of him.

Maybe Menace was the reason I was . . . the way that I was. Why the world sometimes blurred into two; why I could see Kieran and Claudine. I’d been touching him when magic poured into this world. Maybe his crombie-ness infected me, too?

I studied him for a moment, considering the possibility. If he could see Kieran, did that mean that he’d be able to see and interact with Claudine or Greta?

Then again, they might not come back after Kieran shooed them away.

As we approached the medical center, my thoughts clouded with another memory. “Mrs. Pederson.” I turned towards Kieran. “You were here. The day that she died.”

Something flickered in his expression, but it was gone before I could decipher the reaction. “I was.”

“Why? Do you know what happened to her?”

His lips flattened into a tight grin. “Just paying respects to a former charge was all. I was in the area.”

When I tried to ask the series of questions tangled on my tongue—why then, when was she his charge, why hadn’t he been there in the weeks she’d been catatonic—Kieran shook his head, stopping me before I could voice a single one.

“We won’t discuss my other charges. I’m a gentleman. And everyone deserves their privacy, Agony.”

Before I could push back, the door to the center swung open.

“Mareena,” Aidan’s expression softened into a smile, “good, you’re here. I was afraid you might have changed your mind.”

“Thisis your date?” Kieran eyed him head-to-toe, nose curled. “First impression?” No one had asked, but that clearly wasn’t stopping him. “You can do better. Youhavedone better. Quite recently, too.”

This was not a date.

This was two friends grabbing dinner and a few drinks.

And it was looking more and more like a ridiculous idea.

I shot a discreet, warning look at him—apparently noteveryonedeserved their privacy—then returned Aidan’s smile. “Nope, I’m here.”

Aidan had chosen a small restaurant, just a twenty-minute walk from the med center, and I’d spent nearly the entire time with my attention divided between making conversation with him, while trying to ignore the guardian angel stalking us.

Kieran refused to give us more than twenty-feet of space, and I could practically hear his running commentary about Aidan, even though every time I glanced back his lips were sealed—nothing but the dregs of mirth in his eyes.

Menace seemed to be tailing Kieran just as discreetly as Kieran was tailing us.

Every few minutes his loud caw would ricochet through the mostly-empty street, and he’d occasionally hover just above theangel’s head, as if he wasn’t entirely sure whether or not he was real.

“The crows in this city grow bolder every day it seems.” Aidan ducked as Menace flew between us. He landed on a crooked post above the restaurant, the chains holding the sign attached fluttering under his weight. He let out another loud caw that cracked in the wind. “Pretty soon they’ll be running it.”

I offered him a small smile, widening my eyes at the crow to behave himself. “Better them than the compounds, I suppose.”

Aidan opened the door for me, ushering us both across the threshold, and when it slammed closed behind him, I took that as a hopeful sign that Kieran might back off for an hour or two and go do . . . whatever it was that dead guys did when they weren’t haunting someone.

But of course, not to be deterred by such an obvious signal that his presence wasn’t wanted, he simply walked through the door, a cocky smirk plastered on his face.

Ten minutes into the meal, Kieran seemed to understand that I wouldn’t respond to his running commentary; and only after draining my second glass of wine was I able to semi-ignore his presence long enough to properly engage in conversation with Aidan.

Kieran sat at the empty table beside us, his head propped up by his hand, as he watched us the way that people passively watch a dull play.

Aidan pressed his napkin to the corner of his mouth. “Jo tells me Frank was awake for a bit this afternoon.”

My fork, which was halfway to my mouth with a scoop of rice and curry, fell back to my plate. I winced at the soft, metallic clang of the metal. “When? What happened?” I stood up, ready to go see him, but then the past tense of his words sank into me like lead, so I sat back down. The one day I wasn’t around wouldof course be the day that Frank was awake. I’d missed him. “Did Sora get to speak to him?”

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