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No longer amused with me, he frowned. “Dunno. She’s made herself scarce last week. But she said she’d come. So, probably?”

That was excellent news. Because of the essence. I wouldn’t want to have to return to the vale and hunt her down to fulfill my side of the bargain.

“I hope she’s all right. She looks stressed,” Gideon said, his usual easy demeanor tenser.

I thought back to the few times I caught a glimpse of the witch over the last week. In a hurry, grabbing a sandwich at the cafeteria. I packed my own lunches—I’d pass on bland food potentially seasoned with poison. That said, our office was too cramped and tiny to eat in there, so I tagged along with Gideon most days. Kleos waved at him a time or two, and rushed out. I figured she must be busy at work.

Archivists were some of the most in-demand employees in the Guard, flying around every division. They collected, categorized, analyzed, described, restored, safely stored and preserved any artifact brought in. Taking five entire sublevels, nestled between the Guard and the Hall of Truce, the archives was a great library, a museum, an armory, and a vault combined.It was my understanding that trainees ran around grabbing new items left and right.

“She won’t be impressed when she hears about our bounty, then.”

Just from the raid this morning, there were a hundred or more individual items to catalog.

“What?” He chuckled. “No, Kleos doesn’t get stressed about work. The nerd loves getting her hands on interesting stuff. Plus, paperwork and filing shit makes her happy. It’s something else. I’ll wrangle it out of her eventually, if it lasts much longer.”

The thought of the brute wrangling anything out of anyone was laughable. He was as subtle as a jackhammer. Perhaps his plan was physically wrestling it out of Kleos, in which case, he might just succeed.

“Let me know if I can help.” The moment the offer was out, I regretted it.

I meant it. But I hated the knowing, goofy smirk Gideon currently sported.

“You do realize I don’t have designs on her, don’t you?” I spelled out for him. “She’s just…interesting.”

“Mm-hmm.”

He didn’t stop grinning. It took some effort, but I prevented myself from punching him. “Let’s get the paperwork over with. If I never see a bloody Guard report again, it’ll be too soon.”

Gideon pouted. “I’m gonna miss you, man. You’re sure I can’t convince you to stay?”

I laughed all the way back to the office.

“Can I have your pen?”

I knew it was only going to earn me more mockery, but I was desperate. There was no way I’d finish by six if I had to copy all the nonsensetwice.

Gideon lifted his head from his own pile of paperwork. “What?”

“The pen.” I gestured to the chewed-up ballpoint pen, half broken, and taped up by now. “That’s the one Kleos enchanted, right? Could I borrow it today? I’ll give it back to you at the end of the day,” I added quickly.

I didn’t want to.

I spent far too many hours last weekend trying to figure out how she managed that specific enchantment, all to no avail. Sue me, stationery wasn’t part of my areas of expertise. And I still had twenty pages to fill up.Twice.

“Come on. You owe me a pen anyway.” I’d ruined a lovely one saving his ass. “And I have at least three hours of work left, and it’s my last day. Please?”

It wasn’t a word I often used, but I didn’t think Gideon was the kind of man to gloat over it.

“Two seconds,” he replied, holding his index up before bringing his phone to his ear.

I narrowed my eyes at him dangerously.

Tell me he didn’t…

“Yeah, Kley? You busy?”

A slight pause. I took the opportunity and bared my teeth at him. He only smiled.

“Please can you come up? I’ll put the kettle on.” He hung up, self-satisfied. “There.”