Page 6 of Dark Night Golden Dawn
Before he could answer, she added:Anything in my size in your treasure trove that I can wear to the Statuary this weekend?
And then, because she’d missed him horribly and wished they could be the way they were before Mark:Please tell me you’re going to these things too. I won’t make it without you.
She waited, feeling shaky and impatient, hoping he’d respond. She’d drifted apart from everyone that mattered when she and Mark had moved in together, but since the breakup, she’d heard from Enzo a few times and they’d made halfhearted plans to have dinner that neither had followed through on.
After what felt like eons, her phone vibrated in her hands.
Client here. Come by at lunchtime?
She sighed with relief and shot back immediately.See you at one.
Enzo hearted her response and she tucked her phone into the pocket of her frumpy pants, feeling some measure of relief. Enzo would take care of her clothes, and maybe their friendship could get back on track in the process.
Selene returned, with Larkin, Meline and Indigo in tow. All three still lived at home and they swept into the shop like a wave of buoyant energy, especially the twins, who both kissed her and asked if she was all right. They were like the sun and the moon, identical but for their hair. Meline was tow-headed, her hair so fair it might be silver, and Indigo’s was darker even than Thea and Larkin’s. The worry that poured off the three of them told her they knew the true depth and breadth of what the gossips and socials were saying about her. Akatei bless them though, they didn’t say a word. Larkin squeezed her arm as she pushed a cart of new books ready to be restocked past her.
Meli was on the phone and computer simultaneously already, scheduling the various Order of Mysteries events that would take place at the shop in the early evenings in the coming week. Indigo unlocked the front doors, and a ray of weak sunshine pushed through the clouds as the first customer arrived. As everyone got to work for the day, Harlow’s heart swelled. The seven of them were a well-oiled machine, working in perfect harmony.
Her mothers were the perpetual hosts, solving literary conundrums and matching people with books they never imagined they needed. No one left the Monas unsatisfied or without a sense that they’d come in contact with the Mysteries. Customers ranged from the lower Orders to curious humans, and Aurelia and Selene were as much a part of the attraction to the Monas as the books themselves. Harlow and Thea set about their work in restoration and curation, in the third-floor workroom, and the morning passed quickly in companionable quiet.
The workroom was Harlow’s sanctuary. Shelves of new acquisitions lined the walls, with two large library tables at the center of the room. One was for Thea’s restorative work, and the other for Harlow’s cataloguing. Until her magical abilities manifested fully, she was in charge of making detailed notes about each of the acquisitions and Thea’s restorations for the Order of Mysteries’ records, before any of the volumes were distributed for sale, or for the Order’s private collections, which were vast troves of magical knowledge.
For the most part, while the Orders socialized with one another, they remained quite separate when it came to governance and sharing knowledge. The outward reasoning was that each was specifically talented in one area of the world beyond humans’ perception, and that it was best to cultivate those talents, rather than water them down with frequent intermixing. Anyone with half a brain understood this was the Illuminated’s way of keeping them from forming meaningful coalitions. With just enough tension strung taut between each of the lower Orders, the Illuminated never had to worry about them rising up together.
That had only happened once, eighteen hundred years ago, during the War of the Orders. Those that had risen against the Illuminated had made a valiant effort, but were crushed within two years of the war’s start. Though there had been perpetual peace since that time, the Illuminated made it clear that resistance against them would result in far more dire consequences now than it had then. They’d developed and controlled the only weaponry allowed on Okairos, and their vast financial and securities organizations made it all but impossible to push back, even a little. They liked to think of themselves as a benevolent oligarchy, but in truth, they were no better than the human mafia in most ways. And of course, they controlled even those heinous criminals.
The Illuminated controlled everything. Even this store, which they could take in an instant, though the maters had owned this property for hundreds of years. If they wanted it, they could have it. If they wanted one of the sorcière to marry Finn McKay or Alaric Velarius and restart their gene pool, they could have that too. But Harlow was determined that neither she, nor her sisters, would be the sorcières entangled with them.
Alaric might not be so bad; in fact, of all the Illuminated, he was one of the best. And his parents were as kind as the older Illuminated could be. But Finn McKay was ruthless, intimidating and cold. Harlow knew that all too well. The words of a first edition copy ofLore of the Liluswam in front of her eyes.
Why won’t you talk to me?
What wouldIhave to say toyou?
Harlow tried to shut out the memory of how those beautiful slate-grey eyes had narrowed at her. How he’d turned and walked away, without so much as a look back, as her heart had crumbled to ash. She clutched the buttons of her ugly blouse, as though she could stop it from happening if she gripped hard enough. But nothing could change the fact that Finn McKay couldn’t be trusted.
With a deep breath, Harlow attempted again to focus on noting the quality of the text and images inLore of the Lilu,but nothing she read stuck. Usually, the topic of the Order of Night’s most taboo creatures would fascinate her. Tales of the infamous incubi and succubi and their many fantastical abilities had terrified Harlow and her sisters as children. She turned a few more of the fragile pages. A beautifully macabre illustration of an incubus turning a screaming sorcière into a succubus as a gallery of vampires watched sent shivers down Harlow’s spine. She tried for another ten minutes to read the essays within the book, but despite its salacious topic,Lore of the Liluwas remarkably boring.
It was nothing like the stories Thea had told her when they were small, of incubi who could steal a sorcière’s heart and turn them into a soulless monster. Harlow shivered at the memory. Even vampires were afraid of the incubi, but, incredibly, this collection of essays had reduced these impossibly strong creatures to a catalogue of physical attributes and hypothetical ways to kill them. That was of no interest; there hadn’t been a case of incubism or succubism since the War of the Orders. Unlike vampires, who were humans who had been turned by the magic in vampire venom, the incubi were near-impossible to sire, and they were the only ones who could turn sorcière to succubi. Both species of the Order of Night had died out long ago.
Harlow sighed and slidLore of the Liluoff its cradle and into its polyethylene sleeve, then turned her attention to watching Thea work at restoring something that resembled a bestiary. Her sister’s hands pulled shimmering strands of magic from the air around the book. Thea’s elegant fingers moved deftly as she wove reality to fit her vision, and a particularly lovely illumination of a gryphon began to emerge from the page.
“What book is that?” Harlow asked.
Thea glanced up. “It’s a first edition ofThe Heraldic Order,not particularly rare, or old, but the illuminations were done in an early modern style.”
Harlow watched as the words describing the Heraldic shifters became clearer.
“Can you even imagine what a world with gryphonic shifters must have been like?” Harlow asked.
Thea shook her head. “It’s tragic, I think.”
“Fucking Illuminated,” Harlow swore, whispering it, even here in the privacy of the workroom. They’d executed immortals who’d joined the humans in the War of the Orders, including the Heraldic Order, which had consisted of shifters whose alternae were dragons, gryphons, alicorns and the like. Nowadays, most of the Trickster’s Chosen could only shift into common animals. Nothing that threatened the Illuminated.
Thea sighed, but made no other remark. Harlow pulled her stool up to her sister’s table, watching her continued work. “Nonetheless, your work is beautiful as ever. That looks nearly new.”
Thea looked pleased at Harlow’s praise. “Thank you, pal. It’s really coming along. I should finish this one today.” She glanced at the little clock on the windowsill. “Oh! Don’t you need to be at Enzo’s soon? You’d better get going!”
Harlow nodded. “You're right. I’ve got to go.”
