Page 56 of Moonlight Hearts

So I picked up the box.It was off-black, heavy, and didn’t look exactly new.It might have been polished to a shimmer once, but now it reminded me of copper that had gone cloudy.

“You don’t have to give me things,” I said while working up the courage to open the gift.

“And you don’t have to kiss me and allow me to make love to you, but you do, so here we are.Stop staring at it and open it.It’s really more of a practicality than a gift.”

I flipped the lid.Suspended on a fancy miniature cushion was a wristwatch.I didn’t know watches, but I guessed Soyer did.This one looked stylish, the little hands silver, the face shimmering.It had more than just the time dial; there was one for days of the month and another for the months themselves as well.There was a third, and it looked like it was showing the phases of the moon.In small, elegant lettering, it read Breguet on the watch face.

“This is… Thank you.It’s beautiful.Did you make this?”

Soyer huffed.“No.I saw it, thought of you, bought it.”He reached across the table and put a hand on my wrist while I was still looking at the watch, which was likely worth more than I’d made in the last ten years.“Listen to me.I always wear a watch like this when I go out to hunt a witch.They don’t like them.You have felt their magic and know what it can do, but the one thing they can’t do is manipulate clockwork.It stumps them.Amory, when you look at this watch, you can be certain that what you see is reality.Their magic can’t bend clockwork.”

My mouth fell open.My heart skipped a beat.My vision clouded as the tears came, and I dropped the box with the watch inside on my plate, which was full of crumbs.

“Oh, fuck.”

“Hey.”Soyer was on his feet in a flash, at my side a heartbeat later.He wrapped his arms around me and held me close.“It’s fine.You’re okay, Amory.It’s just a little old watch.You don’t have to cry over something like that.”

“But…this is…this is going to keep me safe.”

He sighed.“No, I’ll do that.This lets you know when there’s magic around you.Also, I’d rather die a hundred times than have you face another one, but if you ever come face to face with a witch again, they’re not going to like this.Clockwork works like holy water does for fictional vampires on them, only real.It repels them.If you ever have to, use it.”

“Okay.”

“But also, stay the fuck away from witches.”

I chuckled without humor, then coughed because the tears had clogged my throat.“I wasn’t planning on getting close to one ever again.”

“Good boy.Do you want me to put this on you?”

I nodded, realizing my tears had soaked into his shirt.I pulled back and wiped my face with my hand.

“Yeah.”

“Try to stop crying.It’s just a small thing.”

“But it was expensive though, wasn’t it?”

Soyer shrugged.“I bought it secondhand.”

That made me feel slightly better as he fitted the strap around my wrist and made sure that it was snug, but not too snug.

I liked how the watch looked on my wrist, liked how it felt.I couldn’t stop myself from looking at it even once my tears had dried and we enjoyed our breakfast.Much like my necklace or my ring, Soyer had picked this out for me, even if it was secondhand, and that made it special, precious.

“I’m going to take good care of this watch,” I eventually said.

Soyer looked as if this pleased him.“I’m glad, my heart.Really glad.”

Chapter Seventeen

Wetookacabto get to the same office building through which we’d left the underground the other day, and while it was brighter, there still weren’t any people here—at least, none that I could see—but when we got off the elevator in the underground, two men were waiting to go up, and they stepped aside to let us pass.One of them had a to-go cup in hand from the stall on the platform.That was more people than I’d ever seen go up or down besides Soyer and me, so as far as I could tell, this was the commuter route.

“We have to get your car too, right?”

Soyer held out his hand for me to take, and I did.

“We’re taking it back.We could get some more ice cream too.”

I failed to elbow him again.“You mean I can get the cherry for you again?”