Page 32 of A City of Hearts and Feathers (The Order of Anubis #1)

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Z eki Kartal's shop of the arcane and esoteric was located in a tucked-away side street in Kurtulus. It was rare that regular, non-magical humans came across it, and when they did, they thought it was one of the many eclectic antique stores that Istanbul was famous for.

Kahil didn't like that Zoe was out from under the safety of the Order. He knew she needed to see her uncle, and he couldn't keep her locked up, but fuck , did he want to.

Neither of them had talked about their breathless confessions of love after sex the previous evening. Kahil couldn't believe the words had left his mouth. He meant to keep all those messy feelings to himself until the time was right.

The time is always right because you never know how much you have , his conscious pricked him. He might have endless years ahead of him, unless Arslan found a solution to his curse. Zoe didn't have centuries. Kahil needed to make the most of what he could get with her.

Zoe seemed to notice his worry because she took his hand and gave it a squeeze. He really could have wrapped her in a blanket and locked him in his apartment to keep her safe. Preferably in his bed, naked, with him between her luscious thighs.

No dirty thoughts when there's work to do . He couldn't help it. She was the most interesting, sweetest, sexiest?—

"Hey, earth to Kahil? You in there?" Zoe asked, waving a hand in front of his face.

"Yes? What? Hello," he said and then kissed her because he really couldn't help himself. He needed to ground himself, and to feel her alive and safe in his arms. She always kissed him like she was dying and his lips were the antidote. He couldn't get enough of it.

Zoe's hands were going around his neck when the shop's door opened and Azize appeared. "Hey! Stop that! I don't need to see you putting your tongue in my cousin's mouth."

Kahil's tongue went back where it belonged, and he gave Azize a charming smile. "If you don't like it, you should stop staring and interrupting."

"Tsk. Get out of my way," Azize said, playfully pushing him aside so she could hug Zoe. "Seriously, I barely see a smile out of this one for months, and all of a sudden, he's a grinning idiot. You must be the best lay in Istanbul."

"Oh my god, both of you stop," Zoe begged.

"She is," Kahil replied at the same time.

Azize tossed her glorious curls back and laughed. "Let's get you inside, hmm?" She looked about, and her face fell into a pretty pout. "No Kerem today?"

"He's busy organizing the auction with Arslan," Kahil replied. It was one thing Zoe was happy to ask for help with. "You can ogle him another time."

Azize raised her chin, and for a moment she looked exactly like her formidable mother. "I don't ogle Kerem! I just feel better when he's around to keep everyone out of trouble. Lydia's smiling reprobates have already been sniffing about today, and it's put me on edge."

Kahil scanned the streets and the rooftops, his teasing mood vanishing. "Did they cause any trouble?"

"No, no. They just want us to hand Zoe over to them 'for her own good'," Azize said, rolling her eyes. "Like we would ever do that. The sphinx warned baba last night that there could be trouble. We were ready for them and sent them on their way."

"You were right about Lydia being the worst," Zoe said, following her cousin into the shop. "I honestly found Akamos easier to deal with."

Kahil's skin tingled as he stepped through the front door and under the shop's wards. They weren't as strong as those that Oman had in place, but knowing Zeki, a stronger layer of magic could be activated in times of trouble.

The shop itself was cluttered with books, little statues, jewelry, lamps, candles, and other items. Some of them hummed with power, others were only pretty. Everything was unique and interesting.

Zeki came out of a back room, his silver shot hair and beard a little tousled and unkept. His aura had a faint tinge of magic running through it, and Kahil knew he'd been with a client not long ago. The Kartal family members who had the seer gift could give spookily accurate predictions about the future when asked. Kahil made a point to never ask. If he knew anything about his future, it would make his almost immortality intolerable.

"Ah, there they are. Causing trouble with Lydia, have we, niece? I'm so proud of you," Zeki said, crushing Zoe in a bear hug. "Come over to my work desk, and we will have a look at those book covers of yours. Azi, make sure Kahil doesn't steal anything."

Kahil made an offensive gesture at him. "Like I would want any of this garbage." Zeki only laughed, and Azize gestured to Kahil to follow her.

The shop had a long bar of a counter, and Kahil pulled up a chair. Sometimes Zeki and Azize were kept busy with people wanting to know their future, and it helped to have somewhere clients could sit to wait their turn.

Azize went around the opposite side of the bar and poured them both fresh tea.

"Are you going to give me a lecture about Zoe too?" Kahil asked.

Azize stirred some sugar into her cup. "I don't need to, do I? You know if you hurt her, I will use magic to make your dick roll up into your body, never to be seen again."

Kahil choked on his tea. "Graphic. Definitely worse than Kerem's threat to scoop my eyes out."

Azize shrugged. She looked at the other side of the shop where Zeki and Zoe were already talking animatedly and turning the leather covers over.

"I hope she gets rid of that cursed codex soon. I don't like having people coming here threatening my family. I trust you and Uncle Arslan to keep her safe, but I still wanted to hex the smiling, do-gooder trash when they turned up," Azize said, her eyes stormy.

"The auction is going to be tomorrow night, Azi. After that, Zoe will be free of all of this. Arslan and Kerem are going over the security at the site where the auction will be held. Anyone trying to get to Zoe is going to find it a hard task." Kahil drank some of his tea, and his nose for gossip started twitching. "So what's going on with you and Kerem anyway?"

Azize spilled her tea. "Nothing. Why would you even ask such a silly thing?"

"I'm very clever, and I can tell when something is up. When you were a kid, you wouldn't leave him alone, then as a teenager you would go and hide whenever we planned to come and visit. You disappeared to Greece and came back a full-blown woman and now want to talk to everyone again. Especially Kerem. It's all a bit suspicious, Azi."

"I was a teenager! Of course I didn't want to talk to anyone," Azize scoffed. "I went to Greece to study with the oracles to become a better seer, and it was a good thing I did. I didn't want to be around three overbearing uncles who would scare off anyone I wanted to date for a start."

"That's because teenage boys can't be trusted, especially with girls as pretty as you," Kahil pointed out.

"I know you all felt guilty about what happened to Oman and tried to make up for it by looking out for us. It was very kind, but I'm not like Emre. I needed the space to breathe. Greece helped with that." Azize topped up their tea. "You all live so long, and I didn't want you seeing me as a child forever. Do you think you would be with Zoe right now if you had watched her grow up? No. She would be your baby niece forever."

Kahil pulled a face. "Okay, you have a point there. For what it's worth, if that was your plan, it worked. I don't see you as a little girl and neither does… Oh. Ohhhhh."

Azize, the most confident woman he'd ever met, turned bright pink. "Whatever you are thinking, it's wrong, Kahil."

"Is it? Because I won't say anything to anyone. I promise," he said sincerely. "You're sweet on Kerem?"

"Not another word. It's nothing. Just a dumb crush." Azize pulled her hair over one shoulder and didn't look him in the eye. "I'd never do anything about it anyway. He'd never see me that way, and I won't make a fool of myself by trying to get him to."

"Azi, you don't know that, and he's…"

She lifted a finger and pointed at him. "No. Be quiet. I can't even think about it. If you breathe a word of this to Zoe or anyone else, you know what will happen?"

"Dick rolling into my body? Got it." Kahil drank his tea, wondering how he could have been so blind to her crush over the years. He doubted Kerem would've noticed either because he was hopeless at noticing anything worthwhile. Arslan probably knew and was waiting for them all to catch up. He always was better at spotting those kinds of things.

Zeki and Zoe joined them a short time later with the enchanted bindings back in her satchel. Zoe sat on a stool next to Kahil and accepted a tea from Azize.

"So does anyone have any good ideas who I should sell this book to at the auction? Because I'm all ears," Zoe asked.

Zeki chuckled. "I suggested to Oman that he make a few fakes and give both sides a copy to get them off his back."

"If it was me, I'd go full biblical with it," Azize said, tapping her spoon against her lip. "I would split it up and give some to the light, some to the dark, and some to the Order. It's fair, and they would never work together or share their pieces."

"I don't want any of them to have it, but I have to get rid of it, or they will never leave me alone," Zoe complained.

"You could always think like a mercenary like your Uncle Ahmet," Zeki said, pulling a face. "He would sell it to the highest bidder and not lose a wink of sleep about it."

" Baba ! Don't say that," Azize cried. "Uncle Ahmet might not like magic, but he knows better than to give light or dark too much power. He would probably sell it to a museum if he did anything with it."

"Oh, so it can go and sit in their basements with all the Byzantine artefacts and be lost forever? Great idea. Because nothing has ever been stolen out of a museum's basement. That's not mentioning what would happen if some silly scholar got it into their head to try out some of the experiments in it," Zeki complained with a shake of his head. "No. It's always better to know where something like that is at all times."

Kahil rubbed Zoe's back and let them argue about it. While Azize and Zeki bickered, Zoe leaned into him. "What do you think, Kahil?"

"I think I will support you in whatever you choose to do with it, balim ," Kahil replied and pressed a kiss to her temple. "And that I will kill whoever tries to stop you."