Page 63 of A Thousand Cuts

Fix shook his head. “No, it’s not forbidden to talk about, just slightly hard to explain. You kind of…hone your own methods from the basic things they teach you. Every curse type has a theory behind it—things you need to cast it in the first place. And those things have agents that counteract them. So, for example, nuisance curses use everyday objects and materials. The goal is to make it as easy as possible to do and not require too much preparation. To break them you need to separate the curse from the material it’s on. Every cursebreaker kinda takes it from there and personalizes it.”

“So how did you come up with your thing?” Liam asked and Fix felt a tinge of pride that Liam was taking an interest in his work.

“It came from one of my favorite instructors at Nexus. She said casting nuisance curses was like graffitiing the walls with dumb things. It brought nothing of value and just served as an annoyance to those who saw it. So in my mind, breaking those curses was like rewriting over the graffiti. Erasing it if possible. Spray paint was messy, so I picked markers. I use different ones to detect curses and the materials used, and then I use the white one, the ‘clean’ one, to erase them.”

“That’s so interesting.” Liam’s eyes were wide. “You also… I saw you use your tattoos?”

“Just the one.” Fix opened the button on his sleeve to show Liam the trace of a tattoo leading to his cursemark. “This line connects to the center of my cursemark. It’s where I draw the magic from to break the curse.”

“Wow,” Liam said. “I think it’s a bit sad the public knows so little about you. We all depend on you so much. You give up so much to do this and, like…people act like it’s just a casual, normal thing they can overlook.”

“We’re used to it,” Fix said, heart swelling at Liam’s words. It felt so good to be seen by someone. Someone who wanted to know. “But thank you for asking. And for listening.”

“Of course,” Liam said.

They lapsed into a comfortable silence. It felt fucking awesome, but what he needed to bring up would no doubt ruin it.

“I was thinking… Would you be okay if I looked into the person that followed you last night?”

Liam visibly shivered. “How would you do that?”

“Retrace your steps from Cane’s to your home, see if anyone saw anything. Some of the businesses have cameras that might have caught something.”

“You think you’d be able to find them?”

“I can’t make any promises, but I want to turn over every stone.”

“You—”

“You’re not allowed to say I don’t have to do that,” Fix said before Liam could finish his sentence.

Liam scowled at him over the rim of his mug.

“You don’t know what I was gonna say,” he mumbled petulantly, and Fix squinted at him in question. “And now you’ll never know. Stew.”

“I could always…” He leaned in closer, brushing his fingers against Liam’s, making the mug in his hand shake. “…make you tell me.”

Liam choked on his tea a little, setting it down, sinking into his chair, and glaring at Fix for teasing him. Before Fix could say anything his phone rang again, and he remembered that, urgent or not, he did have a job to do.

“I have to head out,” he said, downing the rest of his tea.

“I’ll walk you out,” Liam burst out too loudly, jumping to his feet. “I mean, um, I have to take King out for a walk and you’re going out too so I just… We can walk out together. Not that I need to see you out. You know the way.”

“Liam,” Fix said softly. “I’d love for you to walk me out…”

“But?”

“I’m not keen on letting you walk around on your own.”

Liam swallowed, eyes moving to the window before he bolstered himself. “I’ll have King with me. I wouldn’t worry about anyone touching me while he’s around, and it will only be for a moment.”

As if summoned, King abandoned his search for food and glued himself to Liam’s legs, glaring at Fix once again.

“Point.” Fix rubbed a hand over his beard. “Just…stay where people can see you, okay?”

Liam nodded.

“Ready to go then?”