The Glass Magician

Emery paused, as did two other men heading for the train. He turned around and looked to her, the sun pouring around him like a halo.

He walked back to the buggy, and Ceony flushed. Had she upset him? Was he really going to . . . ?

Emery set down his luggage. He put one hand on Ceony’s waist, the other on the unbruised side of her face, and pulled her away from the buggy.

Turning his head carefully to the right, he bent down and kissed her.

His warm lips pressed into hers, and Ceony’s entire body seemed to turn inside out. The sun’s bright rays pierced through her. The city fell away piece by piece.

She closed her eyes and reached for Emery’s neck, kissing him as she’d always wanted to kiss him, parting her lips against his, savoring him, relishing him.

The kiss lasted an eternity, and yet only a few moments. Emery pulled away slowly, leaving Ceony aching for him. She stared up into the beauty of his green eyes, and for a moment she saw everything there, all the pieces of his heart that she remembered so vividly, all the smiles and unspoken words she had earned since meeting him three months earlier.

Emery again touched his lips to her forehead, then stepped back and picked up his suitcase. He didn’t say anything more, and Ceony didn’t speak as he set off for the train. There was nothing left to say. Nothing that hadn’t already been said, in one way or another.

Ceony watched the paper magician leave, her hands clutched over her hard-beating heart. Then he vanished, and Ceony had no choice but to slide back into the buggy and offer direction to Mg. Aviosky’s home, as well as a silent prayer that Emery would return to her unscathed.





CHAPTER 19



CEONY THANKED THE DRIVER when she disembarked at Mg. Aviosky’s home—a tall, gothic structure that rested on its own corner of the street, where the main city eased into a suburb. Charcoal-colored shingles covered both its gabled roof and a turret, behind which rested a narrow chimney free of smoke. It boasted a long porch behind a short, spindled fence, and the decorative columns holding up the second story looked as if they had been stolen from giant sitting-room chairs. Ceony had been to the house thrice before, once for the celebration for her graduation from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined—before Mg. Aviosky announced that Ceony had been assigned to Folding; once to visit Delilah; and once two days ago, when Mg. Aviosky had pulled her from that awful basement in Belgium.

Yet as Ceony trudged up the steps to the house—somewhat surprised that Mg. Aviosky hadn’t come outside to meet her—her heart and mind lingered at the train station. Emery had likely boarded his train by now. If only she could have followed him and found out its destination. Surely not far, unless Saraj had left town. And if the deadly Excisioner had left town, Ceony wished the Magicians’ Cabinet would leave it at that and let Emery stay.

She rubbed two fingers against her chest as she rang the bell, trying to soothe the pain between her lungs. She imagined a canyon much like the one she had seen in Emery’s heart forming there. If he didn’t make it back to her, she knew it would rip her in two. Criminal Affairs had protected her family, but why couldn’t they also have protected the man she loved?

She licked her lips and allowed herself a moment of gratitude for her good memory. Whatever happened, she would always remember that, down to the very last, minute detail. As she closed her eyes and relished the memory, her knees turned weak. Oh, Emery, please don’t get yourself killed.

No one answered the door, so Ceony knocked. She wondered if she’d be able to retrieve her things from the flat, but surely two Gaffers could manage to collect her belongings for her. And her stay would be temporary. Only a week, surely. Maybe two.

Stepping back from the door, Ceony peered in the direction of the train station, straining to hear one of its whistles over the sounds of the city. She heard nothing but silence and the melody of an unseen songbird in the crabapple tree shading the left half of Mg. Aviosky’s yard.

She sighed and tested the knob. Finding it unlocked, she let herself in.

The house opened onto stairs leading to the second floor and a hallway leading deeper into the first. Ceony peered into the front room lit with streaks of sunlight that pushed through the closed blinds.

“Magician Aviosky?” Ceony called. “Delilah?”

Odd that they weren’t home. Given the circumstances, Mg. Aviosky should have been awaiting Ceony’s arrival. She was too rigid not to be.