Everleigh

  The Far Past

  The place was packed.

  The location:

  I’m not telling.

  I clutched the cover to my chest,

  not her best,

  not her worst,

  but it was bad.

  “Hi,” I said.

  I placed the book on the table and opened it to page one hundred and fifty-four.

  T.W. Smith smiled.

  She looked like a mouse.

  A mouse with big, wire spectacles—

  I called her Mimi.

  You know her as Matilda.

  “Most people prefer having the autograph on the title page,” she said.

  “I don’t want your autograph.”

  But Mimi wasn’t offended.

  Mimi was intrigued-

  I’d broken protocol twice.

  The defiance of it all.

  “How can I help you, then?”

  “On page eighty-nine, Tegan says it had been nine days since her brother’s disappearance. But on page one hundred and fifty-four, they rule out Daniel as a suspect because he was out of town. The dates he gives in his interview actually mark his return the day before Tegan’s brother disappeared, not the day after. Tegan wouldn’t miss that. Neither would the entire investigative force. Daniel needs to get his story straight, or they need to be on to him much sooner.”

  A groan,

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  A grunt,

  An angry reader behind me who was still only on page one hundred and twelve.

  Too slow.

  Not my problem.

  “I’ve seen you here before,” Mimi said. “What’s your name?”

  “Ever.”

  “Just Ever?”

  “Aye.”

  Mimi beckoned a chair with her mind.

  “Sit with me, Ever? We’ll talk while I sign.”

  The Near Past, Another Undisclosed Location

  “I found four typing errors. The plot is solid, but it’s predictable. And I think Tegan’s getting stale as a protagonist. You might want to consider alternate points of view.”

  “Insightful and diligent as always. Thank you, Ever.”

  “Okay.”

  Mimi smiled. “What do you know about Zacharias and Sebastian Vonsinfonie?”

  I shrugged. “Fables aren’t really my thing.”

  “It’s all right. I know who you are, Ever. I’m not who I appear to be, either.”

  Not a mouse,

  but a mole.

  Still Mimi.

  “You are Sebastian’s protégé,” she said.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Sebastian Vonsinfonie is dead.”

  We both knew he wasn’t.

  “Let’s talk about Zacharias, then.”

  “Why.”

  “Because I need your help.”

  “With what.”

  “I need you find him.”

  The Nearer Past, The Weird Room

  “I know where he is now. He's sleeping, but I’m not waking him up.”

  “There’s nobody else I trust.”

  “Then I guess he’s staying down. If you knew who I was, he’ll know who I am. Not to mention, if the other Anima find out what I did, they’ll kill me. My position’s delicate.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  She wasn’t talking about them,

  she was talking about her.

  A truth,

  not a threat.

  “I’m not risking my life to reunite some lady I’ve never met with my father’s strange, compulsive brother.”

  Mimi smiled.

  A problem delivered without a solution was an even more annoying problem.

  “Lidia Roska’s cycle is starting again,” I said.

  “A new group of Partisans?”

  “There are two here already. An Amali-Celestian mixed-bred priest and a scruffy Strachan. I'll convince one of them to wake Zacharias up for us.”

  “A twice-blessed? Remarkable.”

  “Aye, he’s really sexy, and I like his big, organized brain. But he doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. The scruffy one is who we need. His brain is weird, but he’s smart, capable, and irritatingly personable. Like him, like him. I’ve been spying on him spying on the priest.”

  Mimi’s quill made a note: Spy spying on spy.

  “An interesting story mechanic,” Mimi said. “How many layers deep could it go?”

  I shrugged. “You’re only limited by your skill. But if you’re going to steal my vibe, I expect to get paid.”