Page 45 of Office of the Lost

Leo pushed away, breaking contact.“About that.What happens to me when we get to Oodle?”

Crispin frowned.I’ve never collected a person before.“I’m… not sure.They’ll probably find a nice place for you to live?—”

“Without you?”

The Queen was watching them with narrowed eyes.“You’ve become enamored of him.”It was a statement, not a question, and sent a shiver up Crispin’s back.It was almost never a good idea to draw the Mother of Fae’s attention.

“What I may or may not feel is?—”

Aspin leered.“Elly’s got a boyfriend.Elly’s got a —”

A single smoldering look from his mother shut Aspin up.

“He’s not my boyfriend.He’s just…” Crispin stared helplessly at Leo.What were they to each other?There was a spark, to be sure, but was it any more “real” than the one that had stung Aspin?They’d had no time to sort things out between them.

Leopold’s eyes were fixed on his as Crispin said, “He’s just the thing I was sent to collect.”It wouldn’t do to confirm his mother’s suspicions.“I need your help to get him back to the Office.When the Chaos Cloud attacked us in Leo… Leopold’s apartment, I dropped Thea and a little Chaos got inside, I think, and ever since then we’ve been jumping from world to world, trying to get home.Minkis must be worried sick, and….”

Leo’s shoulders sagged.“He’s right.We don’t mean anything to one another.”He chewed his lip until he drew blood.“I am just athing, after all.”

Oh, Leo, I didn’t mean it.

Then his mother’s cold hand was on Crispin’s cheek, the full weight of her attention upon him.The rest of the room—Leo included—faded from his awareness.

“It’s good that you brought him here.Left to run about in the world, he could become… quite dangerous.”

But you’re the one who put him there.Well, Aspin did.Still, no point in dredging up the past.It could wait.“So you can help?”

She nodded, every bit of her presence urging him to trust her.

He blinked.She’s trying to glamour me.He twisted away from her touch, and the bower returned with a crash that sounded like glass breaking.“Don’t try to get inside of my head, Mother.”

It was her turn to blink.Another emotion she rarely displayed moved across her face.Surprise.And perhaps just a touch of respect.“You’ve grown into a man since the last time I saw you.”

“Elly’s no man?—”

“Quiet.”She turned a fierce gaze on her elder son, who literally froze in mid-protest.

“Whoa.”Leopold stepped forward to touch Aspin’s cheek, apparently forgetting momentarily to be angry at Crispin.

Aspin didn’t move, though Crispin swore his cheeks reddened.

“This place is trippy.”Leo stepped back, and his gaze returned to Crispin.He clearly remembered he was mad, because his eyebrows re-knotted themselves like a pair of angry yarn socks.

Crispin sighed.“So, will you help us, or not?”

A slight smile ghosted his mother’s lips.“Of course I will help.”She turned back to the bar, suddenly filled with a selection of the finest crystal decanters from a thousand worlds—neat trick, that—and selected three of them seemingly at random.“Your…friend’spresence here represents a substantial danger to the Connected Worlds.So much Chaos in one place… and up until now, it has been contained in this vessel.But something must have happened to loosen its hold.”

“Why didn’t you just… send him back through The Door?When… when I opened it?”

She poured a sparkling green liquid into a crystal glass trimmed with gold that was probably worth the economic output of a small planet.

“If we had re-opened The Door at that time… Chaos ebbs and flows, like the tides under the moon.You’re lucky Aspin was able to close The Door at all.It was at its strongest then.”

Crispin frowned.He hated owing his brother for anything.

“It wasn’t your fault, you know.”She poured a bit of blood-red something into the green liquid.

For all Crispin knew, it might actuallybeblood.“What do you mean?”

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