Page 32 of Office of the Lost

“You’re not supposed to have that… thing… in here.”The taller one, whose crest had been dyed an eye-peeling shade of acid orange, pointed at a sign posted on the tastefully pebbled walls.No pets.

Crispin shot Leo a warning look.“I’m so sorry.It was a matter of life and death and there was nowhere to leave him.”He reached out awkwardly to pat Leo on the head.“He’s very well trained.”

Leo snapped at him.

“Doesn’t look like it,” the other one said, taking his boyfriend’s hand and pulling him away.“We’ll be back in twenty minutes.Get it out of here before then or we call building security.”They disappeared into the elevator.

“I really hate this place.”Leo growled.

Crispin nodded.“That’s good.Grunt and growl.It will help sell the whole pet thing.”

Leo glared at him.

“That’s good too.”He needed to get them out of sight, and there was one person—only a thin panel of wood away—who could answer his questions.

He pounded on the door.“Juzir, let me in.Look, I know you’re scared, and I have an idea why, but if we’re both right, it’s just as dangerous leaving us out here as it is letting us in.”

He could try to magic his way through the door, of course.But first of all, that would be rude, and he tried to never be more rude than the situation absolutely required.And secondly, Juzir had probably set up wards to protect his apartment, and you never knew what might happen when one magic butted up—rudely—against another.“Seriously, Juzir, you owe me for the whole Beckia situation.”

Beckia Trönt had been the prettiest ogre Juzir had ever set his eyes on, and Crispin—who didn’t get the appeal, but to each their own—had helped set up a clandestine date for his young wizardly friend.It had gone spectacularly wrong, but that wasn’t the point.“Come on, Juzir, open the door.”

“I don’t want to.”His old friend sounded just as surly as he had when he’d shown up at the dorm soaking wet, fresh from being dragged into a pond and manhandled by his ogre date.

But he was speaking.That was progress.“Remember that time you got yourself locked into a quadragic equation and I helped you figure out how to get out without losing one of your limbsandthe ability to say the number nine?”

A long pause.“Yes.”

“You trusted me then.”Crispin looked up and down the hall, nervous that the couple would return or that someone else would catch them.“I need you to trust me now.”

Nothing.Juzir was stubborn… as stubborn as a Nephraxian oxhound on the hunt.

Crispin turned away, ready to lead Leo—don’t think about the kiss—out of the building, when the door cracked open, just a smidge.

“Give me a minute.”It slammed shut again.

Leo was staring at him.“You two go way back, don’t you?”

Thea, tucked into Crispin’s pocket, burst into song.

Leo frowned.“Ouch.‘Careless Whisper.’What did you do to him?”

Crispin blanched, “I didn’t… it was just one time… we never….”

The elevator chimed.

“Oh crap.”Leo slammed a hand over his mouth.

As the elevator doors opened, so did the door to Juzir’s suite.His short green arm reached out and pulled them inside, slamming the door shut just before the new arrivals would have seen them loitering in the hall.

“Bring it over here.”He indicated a lone wooden chair with a nice-sized tail hole in the back, surrounded by candles and chalk marks on the floor.

“I’m perfectly capable of bringing myself.”Leo marched over to the chair and plopped down like a petulant child—which he basically was, if Crispin was honest.

Juzir’s eyes went wide.“It speaks?”He stared at Leo, then turned an accusing gaze on Crispin.“Don’tmake me regret this.”His tail slashed around angrily, coming close to knocking one or more egg-shaped vases off of wide shelves.

“Ithas a name.Anditis tired of pretending to be a pet.”Leo pulled off the rope and threw it toward Juzir’s gray couch, which also had holes for tails.“Hey, that’s weird.”

The length of cord hung in midair.

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