Page 76 of Until the End of Ever
She sucked in a breath. “What?”
I shrugged. “As you said. There aren’t orphanages in the vale. Where do you think desperate kids runto?”
“Fuck,” she swore. “I’m sorry—that’s logical. And awful.Fuck, I hate this world, sometimes. I never even knew. Or wondered.”
I brought my arm around her shoulders, squeezing it. “You know now.”
“I want to help,” she stated, making me smile.
“The dozens of people you healed this week would say you already do.”
“The kids. I want to help the kids,” she specified.
“You can’t save the entire world. Not this week. Let’s make sure you’re safe, first. Then we’ll help the rest of the world.”
“But—” she started.
I opted to kiss her in order to distract her. If she wanted to help my—our—community, I was all for it, but our focus had to stay on her for the moment.
The next petitioner wanted more public toilets, and everyone agreed that was a necessity, so my father announced he’d look into it. I’d give it a week until he’d managed it.
There were only about five speakers bringing matters great and small to the general attention, and we all worked to resolve them as usual. Halfway through a petition asking for a public athletic pool—as opposed to the leisure pool we already had—Ed waved at me, pointing to the refills he’d already poured, and I levitated the drinks to us. Ronan, too busy chatting up either Fiona or Rupert Rosenberg, potentially both, didn’t notice his until it was tapping his head.
“Are they really going to create a pool because someone asked for one?” Kleos asked, stunned.
“No, they’ll do it because it’s a good idea.” I smiled. “There are always spaces we should update, like the Roman baths on Life Avenue. There’s plenty of room, and most of the plumbery should already work. Andsomeof the baths can likely remain intact; but there’s no point having enough for thousands of people, when barely anyone uses them these days.”
“Roman baths,” she echoes. “What even is that?”
“A spa of sorts. Warm communal bathing pools, with hammam, sauna, that kind of things. There’s a private one in the manor, if you’d like to give it a try. Cassius still uses it. But it’s very much a thing of the past, so it’ll be a good spot for a pool.”
As the chatter about the pool was dying down, my father asked, “Would anyone else like to be heard?”
I took a step onto the platform cleared in the middle of the atrium for the speaker.
Before I’d managed a word, Abrax Hyperion called, “This better not be an engagement announcement with a fucking Pendros hybrid.”
I knew he was going to push the envelope eventually.
Most founders hated the nobles who’d turned coat, allying themselves with the vale, where they had more power than they used to down in the underside, the Pendroses most of all. And the new bloods? We showed nothing but contempt towards them. Their magic was weak, as was their knowledge of the city they inhabited. I included myself in the lot. I still was indifferent to repelled by most of the valers I knew. But Kleos, for all her ignorance, was open to learning about the world around her, curious and accepting. And if the Pendroses were indeed as manipulative, shallow, and vain as her mother, she’d shown little to none of those traits. But Abrax didn’t know her. He didn’t care to. That was beside the point: he didn’t have the right to insult any woman I chose to have by my side.
“Well,” I said pleasantly, “I suppose it’s been a while. I challenge you.”
The crowd exploded in cheers. They truly did love a duel, particularly one liable to end with someone carried across the road to the hospital.
I held a hand up to ask for silence, and the applause died. “But before I make that oiled-up ponce bleed, a word: I came to speak because the Guard is currently concealing an ongoing murder investigation showing no signs stopping anytime soon.”
A dead silence followed those words.
“There’s a ritualistic murderer on the loose, likely to strike once a week. The victims have been both valers and unders, so I would like to propose a temporary safety measure: no one is to move anywhere alone. Travel in pairs. Ensure you have salt on your person. Any unidentified spells, throw it, run, and alert the closest dispatch.”
Murmurs of assent followed my announcement.
“What about the valers?” someone called. “If there’s a murderer, shouldn’t they be warned, too?”
“They have their runners patrolling their side of the city, and it’s the choice of their Guard to keep the matter silenced. If you have any valer friends, pass on the warning. The best way to protect them—and us—is to find the person behind the rituals and stop them. I’m already on it.”
Again, my words were met with nods and yeses, so I redirected my gaze to the stands again, pulling one of the minimized items always in my breast pocket.
