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Aurelia

I should have gone upstairsto pack my things. There was no use in staying in Nea Sterlis any longer, but I couldn’t bring myself to give up just yet. Nor could I regret the resources I’d expended trying to win Selene. It had, objectively, been a failure, but it hadn’t been a waste.

Nothing that concerned Selene could have ever been a waste. So I sat in the bar of the Palace, sipping a glass of whiskey and wondering just what in seventeen hells I was going to do now. I untied my bow tie and unbuttoned my tuxedo shirt, feeling better almost instantly. The thing had been choking me.

I drained my glass and motioned to the bartender for another. The wolf shifter nodded. Her smile was sympathetic. “Don’t drown your sorrows just yet,” she murmured as she passed me my glass. She gazed at something just behind me.

My heart fluttered into my throat, and I slowly turned around. Selene, looking resplendent in her light blue evening gown, a bevy of diamond stars in her hair, clutchedThe Book of Hoursto her chest. She’d wrapped it in white tissue paper, but I knew it was theBook. It had to be.

“What are you doing here?” I managed to choke out without sobbing with relief. My chin quivered involuntarily.

Selene grinned, her smile a dazzling thing. She laughed, too loud for some in the bar, apparently. But not for me. Everything she did was perfect in my eyes. “Come on,” she urged me. “I have a cab waiting to take us to the train station. We can still make it.”

I glanced back at the bartender, who laughed along with Selene. “Whatever she is up to, you’d better go with her,” she said. “Your drinks are on me.”

“Thank you,” I said.

Selene held out a hand for me and I took it, happy to be pulled back into her orbit once more.

****

The train station was nearly empty. Selene and I had hardly spoken, but for her to tell me how she’d found theBookand slipped out of the party without notice. But we didn’t talk about anything else, about what this all might mean. We were both on pins and needles, waiting for Lysistrata to arrive. When she finally did, she was alone, pulling a wheeled suitcase, her nose in a romance novel.

Selene squeezed my hand tightly. We hadn’t talked about what to say or do in this moment. “I’ll follow your lead,” I said, keeping my voice soft.

Whatever happened next, I wanted it to all be her choice. I never wanted her to look back and wonder what I really wanted, or what my motives were. I only wanted her to remember holding my hand as we stepped into the future, hopefully together.

“Librarian Endymion,” Selene called out.

The ancient sorcière stopped, looking up from her book to squint at Selene. “Yes?”

“I am Selene Krane,” my darling girl said, that sweet, earnest look on her face. “And this is Aurelia Hart, who made a terrible discovery that Iinsistedwe tell you about.”

Lysistrata Endymion frowned, looking at the book cradled in Selene’s arms. “What is that, child?”

Selene offered it to her. “Aurelia discovered that Geyrion Wyndsal bought this on the black market last season. She worried you might not believe her about its origins, but I told her that you’d worked with my mother—Hypatia Krane—at Acadia, long, long ago, and that you were absolutely above such petty judgments.”

She was talking too much, too fast, but it was working. The librarian openedThe Book of Hoursand gasped. She shut the book, hugging it to her chest now, just as Selene had done. Her sharp eyes slid from Selene to me. “You will be hailed a hero, Aurelia Hart,” she said in a creaking voice. “This is, perhaps, the most valuable book the Order of Mysteries has ever possessed.”

I bowed my head to her, hardly believing this was working. I pressed a hand to my heart and glanced sidelong at Selene. “It was my honor, Librarian.”

“There is a reward, of course,” Lysistrata said. “I will need you to come with me to Nuva Troi tonight. We must begin the paperwork right away, before the Wyndsals take action.” She stared shrewdly at Selene. “Am I right to assume they do not know it is missing?”

Selene shrugged. “They might never notice it’s gone. It was on a shelf, next to a copy ofThe Gentleman Rogue.”

Librarian Endymion shook her head. “That makes no sense. Why would it have been shelved there? WhileThe Gentleman Rogueis a masterpiece, it is not remotely in context toThe Book of Hours.”

Selene raised her eyebrows. “I am sure I couldn’t say, Librarian, but I suppose I was distracted by the collared flamingo shifters and the blood fountain.”

Librarian Endymion grimaced. “Horrible people.”

Selene nodded, sagely agreeing. “Lucky for us that Aurelia rescued the book.”

“Yes,” the Librarian said with a satisfied smile. “How lucky we are.” She took a long, appraising look at the two of us. “I am going to go buy Aurelia a ticket to Nuva Troi. Will you be joining us?”

Selene shook her head. “No, I have things to wrap up here.”

I frowned as the Librarian made her way back across the terminal, clutchingThe Book of Hours. “Why aren’t you coming?” I asked as soon as she was out of earshot.