Page 35 of By Mistake
"I don't want gifts!"
"Tell me, or I'll just buy out an entire bookstore, Andi."
Andrus's face went adorably red then."Don't call me that."
Oresti's mouth curved."You like it, though."
"Did I say that?"
"Your face says it all, darling, like always."
"Get out," Andrus hissed.
Instead, Oresti crossed the room, leaned over the desk, and kissed him quick and sharp."Stay out of trouble while I'm gone."He looked at Shimari."You stay out of trouble too."
Shimari scoffed."We'll see who causes trouble before the night is out, your Highness."
"In a half hour or so, make it look like everyone has gone to bed for the night.See you all in a few hours."Saluting them playfully, nodding to Greivs, Oresti departed.
He slipped out the kitchen door, then cut through another three back gardens before finally stepping out to the street itself—and then down a narrow alley between two houses across the street before trespassing across gardens again.
Then he simply waited.If he was right and the watcher wasn't supposed to be in the house he was using, he'd be leaving soon to make his report.
Sure enough, just minutes after the others would have made it look as though they'd gone to bed, the back door to the kitchen slowly swung open and a shadowy figure crept out and across the garden to the back gate.
Never noticing Oresti, crouched in the dark just paces away.When he'd gone, gate closed behind him, Oresti followed, scaling the fence to avoid the creaky hinges of the gate.He followed at a distance, but close enough that he wouldn't lose the man—presumably a man, he rarely encountered women doing this kind of work, for whatever reason—at corners and such.
Fortunately, they didn't walk very long, just over a few blocks to the not-quite-seedy parts of the city.
Unfortunately, all the man did was tuck an envelope under a bench after lighting up a cigarette and smoking for a few minutes.
When he'd finished his smoke, he snuffed out the end, tossed it on the ground, and headed off further into the night.Oresti let him.If they were using a drop instead of meeting in person, there was nothing more the man could tell him.
Shimari, I need you.
A moment later, with only the barest whisper of a pulse of magic, a large, sleek black cat appeared at his feet, tail flicking and swishing, eyes glowing ever so faintly green.
"Cute," Oresti said with a snort.
Shimari stretched with all the luxuriant indolence of a real cat, shaking himself and delicately licking one paw before flicking him a look.
Oresti explained the situation."Can you tell if anyone or anything is lurking before I snatch the letter for a quick look?"
Shimari fluffed off, vanishing into the dark in a way that Oresti and the man he'd shadowed would never be able to manage.Oresti wasgoodat slinking around, but Shimari made him look like a bumbling child.
After just a few minutes, the fluffy menace reappeared at his feet and gave a strong impression ofall clearwith an underscoring ofpathetic, sloppy, lazy humans.
Huffing in amusement, Oresti slunk over to the bench and sat down to retrieve and read the letter.
"Just a bland report, nothing useful in it," he said with a sigh.
Shimari jumped up on the bench and then suddenly he was human-looking again, green eyes slowly bleeding into red.He took the letter and read it, then his eyes glowed softly as he looked for things beyond Oresti's senses.
When he was done, he looked up and leaned in—and bit hard at the edge of Oresti's jaw.
"Ow,"Oresti said.
"Stop your whining."A single drop of blood fell from one of Shimari's fangs onto the tip of his finger and down onto one finely pointed claw.He traced a portion of the writing with it, the letters shimmering red before fading back to normal.The letter looked precisely as it had, and Oresti could only feel the magic that now lay within it because he knew to look for it.
