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What would Gideon say? Recoil? Demand how I could let such a vile person exert any influence on me? Withdraw his club invitation tonight? I genuinely couldn’t tell.

“He—” His mouth closed. “Damn. I mean, he’s still around, huh?”

I took a certain degree of amusement in his bafflement. “Yes.”

“And he trained you?”

I might have broken Gideon’s brain. “He did. His power’s exactly like mine, so he was the only one who could, really.”

That was an understatement. Cassius didn’t train me, he raised me, from the day I was born to the day I was no longer a menace to the rest of our family.

“So, you got the tea and cookie side from Mom and the murder side from grandaddy?” he attempted to joke, though his expression hadn’t yet cleared.

While I’d certainly made the conversation awkward, Gideon wasn’t running.

No insult had crossed his lips. I wasn’t surprised.

I’d guessed as much, but I appreciated the confirmation.

Gideon was someone worth keeping a relationship with.

Who knew all this time in the Guard would get me a new…

if not friend, perhaps friendly acquaintance?

“Clearly, you haven’t met my mother,” I replied.

Upon consideration, casually meeting her might have led him to believe she was the kind of woman who’d sign up her son for etiquette classes.

“My father is the gentleman. The tea, the clothes, the manners—that’s him. He seemed to believe instilling some charm in his sons was necessary to make people forget they could snap and kill everyone at any time. My brother sucked up all the schmoozing genes. I stuck to the propensity for murder.”

“Your family is crazier than mine, and that’s saying something,” Gideon said with a chuckle.

A quick knock at the door and I was tense again.

“Come in, Kley!” Gideon called out. “You missed some fascinating founders gossip.”

She walked in, and I frowned, taking in the bags under her eyes. “Really?”

I hadn’t noticed those at a distance.

“Hardly.”

Already standing next to the kettle, close to the door, I levitated her saucer to her, taking the other two and placing Gideon’s on his desk before returning to mine.

“Lucian was trained by his grandfather ,” Gideon shared, his tone making no secret of who he meant.

I expected further expressions of shock, but Kleos didn’t so much as blink. She seemed too exhausted to muster the effort.

“Well, you were trained by yours, and my grandmother taught me to brew potions,” she replied, bringing the cup to her mouth.

Kleos hummed in appreciation, eyes opening up.

“Oh, this is good ! And the cup!” Lifting it up, she looked at the teal porcelain with its golden art deco design. “This looks like it’s worth more than what I earn in a week.”

“That’s Lucian’s. Make it a month.”

I rolled my eyes, though it was an antique, so he might not be wrong.

“Oh, gods, don’t let me break it. I’d better sit down.”

She started to move toward Gideon’s guest chair, but her cousin interrupted her. “Actually, Lucian’s the one who wants you.”

The utter asshole left it at that.

Clearing my throat, I explained, “Your enchantment. The one you placed on Gideon’s pen last week. I would very much appreciate if you could tell me how to do it. I have a lot of duplicates to handle.” A supplementary excuse came to mind. “Oh, and I owed you this.”

I retrieved small glass container filled with purple liquid, brilliant silver particles floating inside.

Kleos gasped, crossing the room to sit on my guest chair.

It hadn’t seen a single backside in six months. She should have dusted it first.

“Oh my, that’s a ton of it! I found some blooms the other day; a dozen of them gave me like, a few drops. And you were right. It did help tremendously .”

Then why did she look worse for wear?

I shrugged. “It was a very good cupcake. And as I said, we have plenty in the Underside.”

“Thank you, Lucian. Of course, I’ll enchant a pen for you.” She extended her hand expectantly.

“I’m rather intrigued. I’d prefer if you told me how you did it.”

“No.”

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

“There you go again,” Gideon muttered under his breath.

“Sorry. The rules are the rules. I don’t give away my secrets,” she told me primly. “If you want something I’ve invented, you’ll have to come to me .”

I looked at her in a completely different light, everything I thought I knew tilting off its axis.

That was…

Hot. It’s hot, Lucian.

I told myself to shut the hell up. It was cunning .

So the sweetheart of the vale wasn’t just too powerful for her own good, she also had a bit of a devious mind.

Well, if she was this cheeky with me, I could return the favor. “Do you truly want me to come to you every time I need help, love? Your magic will fade. I might have many other duplication emergencies. You’re risking a lifetime of having to perform services for me.”

“That’s the plan.” She smiled, leaning in. “I want a long line of people who simply cannot live without me. Adding the Lucian Regis to it will be the crowning jewel of this week’s achievements. A pen, if you please.”

I selected my favorite one, ignoring that it was likely unwise. I didn’t need to duplicate documents after today.

Kleos took the black fountain pen, engraved with my name and a rune to ensure it never needed ink, looking at it reverently. “Bloody hell, is everything you own worth a fortune?”

I thought about it for a moment. “I own a stack of candies?”

“And is it hidden in a box worth five hundred golds, by chance?”

“Touché, Valesco.”

The spell was cast just as quickly as last week, completely silent, leaving nothing but a faint golden mist.

I kept watching her, because quite frankly, as tired as she seemed, she shouldn’t have been able to perform magic, let alone that fast and efficiently. I ought to have told her to leave it after one glance at those undereye circles.

“A moment,” I said, when she moved to give it back to me.

I ignored the pen. Lightly, focusing all my mind on my intent, I placed two fingers against her wrist, right at her pulse point. The same jolt instantly coursed through my body. I had to wonder if her skin was covered in lightning spells. Ignoring it, I proceeded.

It wasn’t natural for me to give . My power was meant to take the life force of others. But I’d spent most of my life draining it when I expected to interact with my peers, and transferring energy to someone else wasn’t all that different from putting it into an object.

Kleos’s startled gasp was highly distracting. I could imagine exactly the same sound, and look, in other circumstances.

I only offered her a little, until her eyes brightened, and those damn bags faded.

“There. A favor for a favor. Now I owe you nothing, and you cannot add me to your list of minions, witch.”

“That was—” She stopped there, lost for words.

“What was that?” Gideon asked.

Hades’s bloody helm, I forgot all about his presence.

“You were glowing. Like, not, hey, you changed your facial regimen. Lamp-post glowing, Kleos.”

She didn’t answer, her eyes as full of questions as his.

I shrugged, making light of the situation. It wasn’t hard. Or rather, any other day, it wouldn’t have been hard. After taking in that vamp poison, I wasn’t at my best. But Kleos looked worse .

“I merely gave her a little vitality.”

“It’s like—five thousand Red Bulls, but softer. Nicer,” Kleos tried to explain. “All of the energy, none of the jitters. I don’t know what to say, Lucian. Thanks.”

I took the pen from her hand, my fingers again brushing hers, and yet again feeling energy arc between our skins. “You enchanted this for me. No thanks necessary.”

“Wait, you can do that ? Why haven’t you done that to me?” Gideon’s pout rivalled my dramatic best friend’s. “We had a three-day stakeout last month and I didn’t sleep the whole time!”

Suddenly, I understood why I put up with Gideon’s antics and ended up not entirely hating him after months of it.

I was used to the same energy. It took me a long while to draw the parallel, given that they otherwise looked, dressed, and talked nothing alike, but Gideon had a general energy similar to Ronan’s.

I was already immune to his brand of insanity.

Oh hell, if these two ever met, I’d need to be on the other side of the planet.

“One, I was equally tired,” I lied. “And two, you still acted like a bunny on crack on day three. You didn’t need it.”

“I can’t believe you can do that. Fuck, Kleos, you’re all awake.” He turned to me. “Some dark wizard you are. You should rebrand yourself as a godsdamned fairy godmother.”

I wordlessly shot him my middle finger.

“Ugh, I am dying of curiosity. And jealousy. Can you do it to me?” Eagerly, Gideon leapt to his feet, offering me his hand, as naively hopeful as a puppy. “I want to know what it feels like!”

I smiled pleasantly. “No.”