by Holly Evans
“Well done on retrieving the stone, Miss Felis, or do I congratulate Mr. Sionnach?” he said with a playful smile.
“It was a joint effort,” Logan said.
Fein dipped his chin and walked behind his desk before he gestured for us to sit in the seats before the desk.
I pushed the leather bag across the desk towards the elf. I was glad to be rid of it. There were some artifacts that I would have liked to have kept for myself, interesting alchemical pieces that would have been fascinating to study. The stone wasn’t one of them. Something about it bothered me. I was happy to hand it over to Fein and be done with it.
Fein split the fee between Logan and me. Erin assured me that she’d receive some money in her next pay cheque when I asked. She’d been as much a part of the retrieval as Logan and I had. Erin and I had headed back to our flat, leaving Logan to speak to Fein about something. I’d assumed that Fein was planning on offering him a contract as his treasure hunter. He had done fantastic work with the Seers Stone, after all. I didn’t know how I felt about that. A part of me was bugged by the idea; was I not good enough? At the same time, I was happy to have Logan closer, or at least I hoped he’d be closer. The long stretches of time where we went without physical contact weren’t always as easy as I tried to tell myself they were.
When we got home, Wispy shot out of the darkness of the flat and hissed at me as Erin searched for the light switch.
“I know, I abandoned you,” I said quietly.
He stopped directly in front of my eyes and continued to chitter at me. I pulled the small collection of leaves from the pixie rose that I’d picked up for him from my pocket. They were a little battered, but perfectly edible, if you ate such things. I held my hand out with the leaves in the palm.
“I suppose you’re too upset with me to eat these...” I said.
Erin laughed as Wispy nuzzled against my cheek and dove onto my palm to devour the leaves as though he hadn’t been fed in weeks.
“He’s easily bribed, isn’t he?” she asked with a grin.
I laughed. “Yes, he is. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Shall we order in?”
“Asian?”
I collapsed onto the sofa with a sigh. It felt so good.
“Anything. As long as it’s food that I don’t have to cook,” I said with a smile.
“Order for three,” Logan said from the doorway.
“Staying the night?” I asked.
“A little longer, actually...”
I turned to face him entirely.
“Fein offered me a long-term position with great pay. This flat will be my home base,” he said, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
“You’re moving in with us?” Erin asked distractedly.
“Yea, yea I am,” Logan said watching my face closely.
I grinned. “We’ll have fantastic fun.”
He relaxed and joined me on the sofa. It would be fun having my partner in crime around a little more often.
“I was worried you’d hate the idea,” he said as he grabbed the TV remote.
I frowned. “Why on Earth would I hate the idea? We have fantastic fun together.”
He leaned in and kissed my cheek.
“Then you’d be ok with us having more time together?” he said casually.
I grazed his throat with my teeth. “Of course.”
I leaned into him and hoped that Fein’s hiring Logan meant that there’d be less time in the lab and more time out in the world treasure hunting. I smiled and looked forward to the many adventures that I was sure were waiting just on the horizon.
Celestial Tears (Hidden Alchemy 2) will be published in November 2017. If you’d like to enjoy more of this world, my Ink Born series is set there. They’re all free to read in Kindle Unlimited.
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