Page 16 of Elixir of Strife
“But we couldn’t have stayed,” I said, reaching for my coffee again, in need of caramel and comfort. “All the bottles exploding? Sorry, but something truly fucked up was going on. I could feel it in my gut.”
Max nodded firmly. “I believe you.”
I wasn’t expecting that from him at all, but it mattered. Something warm glowed in my belly, and it wasn’t just the macchiato, either.
“This does present a very unhappy possibility, though,” Max continued. “Someone else was there that night. Someone who wanted the elixir for themselves. They knew that the bottle would survive whatever kind of magic they used to destroy all the other glass in that warehouse.”
“Which is obscure knowledge in itself,” Roscoe said, jabbing his finger at the open pages of his book. “See? Says so right here.”
Johnny patted the back of his hand. “Yes, yes, sweetie. We’re very proud of you.”
I thought that Roscoe might consider that sort of thing patronizing. Instead he leaned back in his chair with a satisfied smile, a happy puppy. I bit on my lower lip, trying not to chuckle.
“That’s the thing,” Max said. “Neither of our clients said anything about a super-strong bottle. And we do have one issue. Since we didn’t snatch this particular elixir — uh, Leon, you’re not going to like this.”
I blinked at him, then felt my insides collapsing. “Aww, man. No way. Are we fired? Are they threatening to cut our pay?”
“The second thing. We’re only lucky that there’s another Aqueous Elixir in town. Allegedly. Daniel just needs a little time to pinpoint its location. Said something about hearing it on the grapevine.”
Johnny tipped back his last mouthful of coffee — hot and black — and grimaced as he swallowed it down. “Heard about that. Druids and elementalists and the like, especially the ones who like earth magic. Might be an actual grapevine out there.”
Max nodded. “Kind of like how the spiders have their own information network. I’ve heard some of them call it a Web.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Is it worldwide?”
Max stared at me blankly.
“You know. Like a worldwide web? The internet. You know what, never mind.”
“Oh. Okay. Yeah, that’s funny. And yeah, I’m sure they have an international spider network, too. But what good are we as finders if we can’t even sort out a measly local job?”
Ross leaned his cheek on his knuckles, grinning loosely as he rested his elbow on the table. “Are you saying that you’re planning to take your enterprise international, Maxy?”
He shrugged. “Who knows? But I didn’t say that, anyway. Even though it would be super cool.”
Johnny shook his head. “You hear that, Witch Boy? Rich Boy over here is already thinking about scaling up his business. Like he needs the money.”
“But I do,” Max said, grumbling under his breath.
I reached across the table to squeeze his hand, trying my best to be sympathetic to the poor little rich kid with the thousand-count thread sheets and a bathroom that almost certainly didn’t have black mold in it.
He smiled back. I liked seeing this softer, sweeter side of him. It still didn’t explain why he was so alarmingly grabby in his kitchen last night, but who was I to complain? This scorchingly hot man wanted a piece of me. Several pieces. Best to roll with it, right?
“We’ll be more prepared for the next one,” I told him. “I’m sure of it. I wish the Jade Spider could have given us a heads-up about this bottle business, though.”
“The spiders try not to make a habit of withholding useful information from their finders, I think.” Roscoe closed his book, then lovingly ran his hand along the cover. “It’s just as likely that Vera simply doesn’t have a library as robust as mine.”
I tipped back the rest of my coffee to hide my reaction. Easy for Roscoe to say when the Jade Spider had done exactly that on our last job, holding back what she knew about the Quartz Spider and how he liked to abuse his access to their information network.
No news on that, actually. Still at large, I had to assume. It wasn’t like I was subscribed to the Masque newsletter, not that I even knew if they had one. But Brendan Shum — the Quartz Spider — had expended his supply of quickening sand during our fight. We just had to believe that it was too rare for him to find more.
Johnny rapped his knuckles on the table. “Guess there’s nothing for it, then. You boys are stuck sitting around until your client points you elsewhere. Maxy. Want to help me pick out a playlist?”
“Nothing better to do,” he mumbled, following Johnny into the café’s back room.
I stayed in my seat, twiddling my thumbs, wanting to pore over Roscoe’s collection, but also completely terrified of having my soul sucked into an ancient, possibly angry magical book. I opened my mouth, meaning to ask if any of them were actually safe for perusal, when the front door burst open.
“Guillotina,” I called out. “Over here. Good to see you.”
