Of course, Valere’s worry couldn’t possibly be the same as mine. Instead of pressing, since Valere wouldn’t answer me anyway, I turned to the collection of books we stood in.

The Hot Flower. The Winter of the Heart. The Duc’s Errant Governess.

My jaw dropped. “Dear Le Savant.” Novels! All of them. “We’re going to have to face—”

Valere plucked the first volume of The Winter of the Heart from the shelf and skimmed the first few pages. As I stared at him, he snapped the book shut and held it out to me to hold.

I looked down at the volume, bound with a cheap pink paper cover with black lettering for the title. I’d never held a book, never mind a romance novel, with a paper cover. Only leather.

“Hold this for me.” Valere raised the book up to me higher. “Unless you wish to look as well.”

I took the book. “Er, why should I hold it?”

He glanced at me, and I felt the sudden cold pang in my stomach like I was failing an exam. “They have their new arrivals in, and I can only select one.”

My jaw dropped again, and it took a long, uncomfortable moment before I picked it back up. Valere, if he noticed, didn’t give any indication, but scanned the shelves. I read the title again.

Perhaps… perhaps it was not a romance novel, but a more serious work. The title was inconclusive after all. The Winter of the Heart could mean anything — it could be poetry, for all I knew, which would be little better. Vespasian would still disapprove.

Valere handed me another one, this time the paper cover marbled in blue, and the title just as stark. The Marquis’ Reluctant Mistress. Dear… oh dear…

Well, that explained Valere’s momentary interest in the cafe earlier. He hadn’t been shocked when a lady had professed to reading novels. No, Mademoiselle Alpha had stumbled upon a subject apparently dear to Valere.

I should report this reading habit to Vespasian. Vespasian would regret ever considering Valere, then. Except, what if he went on to consider Ashley or Dominic? I couldn’t possibly compete against them either. I breathed out, feeling the air brush against my lip. And what if Vespasian didn’t care about Valere’s hobby at all? Vespasian would dismiss me from his presence, irritated I had once again wasted his time.

Valere jerked his head up from where he browsed the shelf, then turned his head to stare past me and toward the window, like a hunting dog catching wind of a rabbit.

I would have laughed if not for the cold pit in my stomach that I stood holding romance novels while according to Valere, a hunter’s apprentice dusted not ten feet from where I stood. Valere took back the books he’d given me, glancing intently between them as if he couldn’t decide which to buy.

He’d said his finances only extended to buying the one. Well, if it meant we could flee sooner, I would take the plunge. I snatched both volumes from his hands, only receiving a tilt of a head in response, and strode to the front desk.

The clerk came around the desk, setting the duster on the corner. He made no indication he noticed how my cheeks inflamed. “Did you find everything you were looking for?”

“They’re not for—” I glanced at Valere and bit my tongue.

The clerk, though, had already moved on, reciting a price and wrapping the books in brown paper. Thank Le Savant. When I handed him payment, though, I caught sight of two sheathed swords, both I recognised as crafted in Le Chasseur’s own sword’s image, waiting on the counter behind the desk. I dropped the coins, missing his hand. My cheeks flaring up again, I babbled my apologies.

The clerk glanced back at his swords, and turned back to me with a knowing smile. “Hunter Apprentice Thierry Mathers, at your service.”

My eyes widened, my lips opened. “I… A pleasure, Hunter Apprentice Mathers.”

“Thierry, please,” he said. “I’m just a shoppe clerk at the moment.”

I eyed him for any sign it was mere courtesy, or if he really did prefer I call him by his given name. “Thank you… Thierry.”

He dipped his head. “Be careful, though, and head straight back to school. Vampires have been sighted around here.”

“Vampires? Is that why you’re here? Wait, vampires, even here, in Le Savant’s town?”

I’d been worried about the abstract clothes thief. But vampires?

“Of course,” Valere said. “They’re everywhere. Only someone’s just noticed.”

“True.” Thierry gave Valere a cool look.

“We’ll be careful,” I promised, taking the wrapped purchase.

Valere didn’t wait for me, but strode onto the dark street intermittently lit by public lamps maintained by the Marquis du Guillory. Guillory had retired from the Sorcerer’s Guild some years back, preferring his sacred duty of caring for his lands around L’Oeil and West Ridge.

“Wait up, Valere.” I ran after him. By the time I caught up, we had neared the spoke street leading back to West Ridge, and my chest heaved for air. I somehow managed to ask, “Does your family have a history of sorcery?”

“Does yours?”

“Yes.” One I’d never live up to. But perhaps I could guilt him into discussing our project. “My father, and my father’s father, going back centuries when we first gained our title. What about yours?”

“No.” After a long moment, in which I jumped at shadows as if they contained vampires, Valere added, “My father was trained by the Hunter’s Guild.”

Ah, so it was guilt for not following in his father’s footsteps that made him uncomfortable around the apprentice. He needn’t be. Everyone knew a man could only channel one god’s power, if he was suited at all. Valere was a sorcerer, and as much as he suited Le Chasseur’s discipline, he wouldn’t be able to channel his power.

Valere stopped at the entrance of an intersecting alley, although whether this was accident or fate, I couldn’t tell, as he stared toward West Ridge, only one ear perked toward the alley. “Go on ahead.”

“My apologies. I didn’t mean to pry.”

“Go back to school.”

“We should stay together,” I said. “You heard the apprentice. There’s vampires lurking about.”

“And clothes thieves.”

I stepped back.

“Continue on. And I’ll catch up in a moment.”

“But—”

Valere sprinted down the alley before I finished my protest. What part of vampires lurking in the shadows did Valere not understand?

I looked around the darkened street, watching the light from tenements and houses as everyone with any lick of sense was already safely at home with their families, bundled up against the surprisingly chill Avril night air. And then there were the dark spots, in which any number of dangers may lurk. Shivers trailed up and down my back.

There was safety in numbers. I turned down the alley, following Valere. And it had nothing to do with clothes thieves, or my mother’s hysteria, or that Valere’s father must have taught him techniques to ward off vampires, or even Vespasian’s request to dig up arcana about Valere. Just that we’d be safer together than apart, even in an alley far darker than the main street.

I hurried forward, both hands holding onto the package behind my back, as if that would protect me from the nasty things the shiver in my lower back screamed were following me.

When I heard Valere’s voice in a courtyard around the corner, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I approached the entrance, close to the wall to prevent something from jumping me from that side at least.

I peeked around the corner. The hearth light of one house spilled into the courtyard, just enough to see the high brick walls surrounding it, but not any monsters lurking in the corners. Only two figures, both with silver hair glinting in the faint light. The closer of the two, whom I thought must be Valere with his blue uniform jacket, was turned just enough not to spot me peeking in. I pulled back.

“You shouldn’t be out this late.” The voice sounded like Valere, but not, and I struggled for a moment to put my finger on it. The emotion. There was emotion in the voice.

“I’m only still here because of you,” Valere said.

“You shouldn’t have been here in the first place. She does have eyes in the daylight. They’re looking for something to appease her.”

“I’m fine.”

“For now, yeah, but—”

“A yeah-but is a small furry creature that runs around the forest.” Wait, did Valere just make a joke?

The stranger groaned. “I never should have taught you that. You’re as terrible as Master Leveque.”

“You would say it more, but I never make that mistake.”

“Impudent.” The man chuckled. “Regardless of your perfect diction, you must not leave West Ridge. Your graduation is only three months away, and if she feels you’re not devoting your time to her interests… She was not happy you delayed at school.”

“But isn’t that what you both want?”

“To make her angry? Of course not.”

Valere made an impatient sound. “Stay at school.”

“If I truly believed that was why you stayed, to stay safe, I would. I would never want you to leave. But you cannot risk her anger just for the sake of bringing back—”

“I’m doing it for you.”

Doing what for this man? And why? What did Valere owe him?

The stranger flailed his hands in exasperation. “But I do not matter. You do. You should be thinking about how to escape her clutches after graduation, not about him… Not about turning back time, not about things that are impossible—”

“Love is worth everything,” Valere said.

Love? What love? And hadn’t the stranger said ‘him’? I pulled back further into the alley.

A hand pressed against the back of my neck.

I bit back a shriek.

“A pretty little baby sorcerer.” The voice breathed into my ear.

I should have let out that shriek, consequences be damned. While I’d been engrossed in Valere’s conversation, something had snuck up on me. And it wasn’t a clothes thief.

The hand in my hair smashed my head into the wall. The world jumped and sought to fade away, the blow knocking my senses awry, but the thing that held me licked my forehead. Licked off the… No…

Blood. My hand rose to feel the dampness springing forth from a gash in my forehead.

The thing that clutched me… It was licking my blood.