The Interminables by Paige Orwin

Author:Paige Orwin [Orwin, Paige]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2016-05-05T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

Istvan winged northward over rubble, finally free. All night. All morning. Well into the afternoon. After six earthquakes it had become clear that his particular skillset – tireless, immaterial, fast enough to cover enormous swathes of territory – was invaluable in the initial stages of disaster. He couldn’t remember how much surveying he had done. No chance at all to check on Edmund. He had eventually pleaded mental rather than physical fatigue: he could manage thirty or forty hours at a stretch, and would later if he had to, but couldn’t stand to worry any longer.Now the sun blazed to his right, clouds billowing across the sky like gunpowder given a match. The twisted spire of the Black Building loomed over former Manhattan, a solid sheet of dark steel that rushed towards and then past him, unscathed by the many lightning strikes it had suffered over the years and untouched by the earth’s violence. It swayed during quakes, nothing more.

He banked over Edmund’s neighborhood, the pagoda on the hill a little worse for wear. The man hadn’t seemed to be at the Twelfth Hour, as expected. He’d probably woken early, dusted, read another book. He was probably perfectly fine. Moping a bit over Grace, perhaps, but...

Istvan alighted on the roof, skidded down the shingles, and swung through the living room wall.

No Edmund.

Istvan didn’t panic, precisely. He did check every room in the house multiple times, terrify the cat, startle several neighbors, and finally find himself standing in the middle of the kitchen, wanting to tear off in search someplace else, and not moving because it felt like if he did he would fly apart in all directions. Edmund was probably off on some legitimate business. Edmund had managed just fine on his own for many years. Edmund didn’t need help or protection, not like that and certainly not from the likes of Istvan. He was fine. He was fine. He had to be fine.

Istvan was debating his chances of taking on the full weight of the Susurration one-on-one by the time he noticed the note left on the refrigerator.

Gone out, it said, will be undercover at Barrio Libertad for Fourth of July festivities. Hoping to find some answers. Should be back late tonight or tomorrow. Please don’t look for me.

Don’t look for me.

Please don’t–

<What?> Istvan hissed. He read it again. Then a third time. Edmund was supposed to be the rational one. The sensible one. The reasonable one, with the steadiest temperament and the greatest devotion to duty any man could have. He wasn’t wild and violent, like Istvan. He was a wizard who had seen too much. A librarian who led armies. A man who knew better, who respected his own dignity, who’d kept to the same routine for seventy years. He knew his place. He followed orders.

Will be undercover? Not returning until tomorrow?

Istvan crumpled the note in a fist and threw it. Looking for answers, oh, no – looking for Grace Wu. She had been here. This was her fault.

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