Page 59 of Angel's Flight

“Who are you?”Meg looked the man over, surely noting that he was Persian like Shaya, but smaller and softer around the edges.

“Darius Veyssi,” Darius replied with a bow of his head.

“He is my—” Of course, Shaya was the one at a loss for words.It wasn’t easy to describe what Darius was to him.No longer a servant or a vassal, not a lover of the normal sort, but still family.Still his heart in this strange land.He settled on the simplest title.“My companion.”

“Oh.That’s lovely.You know, my great aunt had a companion she lived with until she was ninety.Lovely women, both of them.So strange they never married,” Meg remarked and Shaya saw Darius holding in a chuckle.“But I didn’t come to tell you about the money!Well, I did.I had no idea where to find you yesterday or this morning, so I went to the agency to see if you were lurking about on some off chance.”

“I do not lurk,” Shaya huffed.

“You do.Technically,” Darius interjected, much to Shaya’s dismay.

“I like him,” Meg grinned.“Anyway.I went to Pomeroy’s, but you weren’t there, so I waited and then I saw him!”

Meg was nearly vibrating from excitement as she gripped Shaya’s hand.“Who?”Shaya asked, utterly at sea now.

“I didn’t think I had seen right – is that the term – and maybe I recognized him wrongly.I mean, I only ever saw him from a distance at the Opéra.Before I could check, Pierre – your man, the one who hates following you – went off and I followed him to see if he’d lead me to you and he went to the Tuileries and soon enough, you came by and I followed you here.”

“You had two people following you here and you missed it?”Darius scoffed.

“I knew he was there and I lost him when I went intoSaint-Eustache,” Shaya sniped back.

“But not me!”Meg piped up.“Because you told me to be patient.So I was, though I did stop for a crêpe, and by the time I was done, you were far down the street and I ran after you – to here!”Meg paused breathlessly and grinned.Darius cleared his throat, prompting Shaya without words.

“Yes, you did an admirable job,” Shaya sighed, and Meg grinned.“But who did you see at Pomeroy’s?”

Meg’s face was instantly dire as she leaned in to explain.“Firmin Richard!”

Now that was unexpected enough that Shaya had to take a moment.

“He’s the old manager,” Meg added softly.

“I know who he is,” Shaya muttered and looked at Darius.“Why would he be involved?”

“He was de Martiniac’s partner in his endeavors,” Darius replied darkly, because, of course, he was faster than Shaya or Meg in these connections.

“What endeavors?Is this why you’ve been avoiding me?”Meg squawked.“You know things about de Martiniac and this Madame that you don’t want to tell me, don’t you?”

“You’ve taught her well, Shaya,” Darius said with a smile that Shaya answered with a frustrated glare.

“You’re not helping,” Shaya muttered.

“But you have, and I know as well as you that this is all connected.Your spy and what’s going on at the Opéra and the ghost.”Meg looked up at him (for she was nearly a foot shorter) with piercing, impatient eyes in her innocent face.A face that he could not lie to.

“It is, but some aspects must be kept secret.I must ask you to trust me about it,” Shaya replied at last.“There are things that even I do not understand, and what you’ve revealed today makes it all the more confusing.”

“What were you doing inSaint-Eustache?I thought your people went to a different sort of place?”Meg asked, directed to both of them.

“It’s called a mosque.I wasn’t there for worship, but to examine their marriage records,” Shaya answered with a sigh, making his way to his seat by the fireplace.It was too warm still to light it, but he missed the glow.

“Trying to discover who married de Martiniac?”Meg asked, again earning an approving look from Darius.

“It’s a fool’s errand, you’re right,” Shaya said.

“Especially when one of your secrets is that you already have someone in mind,” Darius said.“Someone who was engaged to him perhaps?”

Shaya cast the other man a toothless glare even as realization dawned on Meg’s face.“I need to be sure, and it’s a very dangerous thing to investigate that family.”

“For you,” Darius corrected softly.When Shaya looked at him, there was a dangerous spark in his eyes.Meg saw it too.

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