“They probably didn’t,” I said. “Just posted someone to watch your flat and waited for them to call in.”
“Oh. Could you …?”
“No problem.”
It didn’t take me long to sweep the area for spies. My area of Camden isn’t large and I know it like the back of my hand. Meredith left after a kiss. I watched her go, then returned to the shop in a good mood. My doubts about Meredith from last evening didn’t seem to matter anymore. Although I was planning to stay in the shop all morning, I didn’t feel like keeping it open for customers. Instead I flipped the sign to CLOSED and settled down at my desk to wait.
Most mages will think twice about attacking another mage’s home. Not only is it messy, but mages tend to treat fortifying their house as a personal hobby. My shop had been raided five months ago, and since then I’d gone to some effort to set up a few surprises for intruders. I could probably give even Cinder a run for his money if he tried to break in, and for exactly that reason I didn’t expect him to do it-mages who make a habit of launching attacks on prepared targets tend not to live very long. But after last night I wasn’t in any mood to take chances, and I spent a couple of hours exhaustively searching the futures for attacks. I came up blank, which was moderately reassuring. At least nothing was being planned right at the moment.
The glazier arrived while I was working and replaced the window. Once he was finished the morning light was pouring in again, making the shop much more cheerful. Luna arrived ten minutes later, and to my surprise, Martin was with her.
I’d included Martin in my invitation more for Luna’s sake than anything else; I hadn’t seriously expected him to show up. But he followed right behind Luna as she let herself in. I raised my eyebrows and he had the grace to look embarrassed. “Martin,” I said.
“Hey,” Martin said. “Listen, I’m really sorry about Saturday. I was just kind of out of it. Didn’t think about what I was doing.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So, uh, how much do I owe you? I meant to pay for it, it was …”
“Martin, did you listen to a word I said? You didn’t pick it. It picked you.”
Martin hesitated. “Uh … okay. Sure.”
“Look,” Luna said. She’d been watching from one side and now she sounded like she was choosing her words carefully. “We did listen. I told Martin why the thing was dangerous. We talked about it and we did some research too. This thing’s really famous.”
“Eyewitness reports?” I asked. “Or stories?”
“Just stories. But they matched with what you said.”
“I’m guessing they didn’t have happy endings.”
Luna nodded.
I looked at Martin. “But you decided to keep it any-way.”
Martin looked confused. “Well, yeah.”
“And you think this is a good idea because …?”
“Look, we’re not idiots, okay?” Luna said. “We talked it over.”
I took a breath. “Okay,” I said once I’d gotten myself under control. “What did you figure out?”
“The monkey’s paw only takes things,” Luna said. “It was in all the stories. It can’t make anything new but it can take something away and give it to someone else.”
I stopped. I’d never considered it but now that I thought about it, it made sense. “All right.”
“And you told me imbued items have a purpose, right?” Luna said.
“Yes,” I said slowly. “Okay. I see what you’re getting at. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s been bad news for everyone else.”
“Only if you use it wrong,” Martin broke in. “Look, all the characters in the stories are stupid. They wish for something that’ll kill them. All you have to do is word it right and you can get anything you want! You’d have to be crazy to give it up.”
Luna and I both looked at him. I looked at Luna. “It worked,” she said defensively.
A nasty feeling went through me. “What?”
Luna didn’t answer. “You used it,” I said.
“Martin did.”
“For what?” I asked Martin.
But it was Luna who answered. She rose from where she’d been sitting on the edge of the table and walked to Martin. Four steps brought her next to him, and she placed a hand on his shoulder.
My jaw dropped. “Wait!” I called, starting to move, then stopped. Looking at Luna with my mage’s sight, I could see the silver mist of her curse being drawn off her in a steady flow. Instead of soaking into Martin, it was streaming into something in the pocket of his jeans … the monkey’s paw. Luna’s curse wasn’t gone, it was just as strong as ever … but instead of hovering around her it was being drawn in.
“It’s okay,” Martin said with a grin. He slipped an arm around Luna’s waist with an easy familiarity. “Safe, see?”
I just stared with my mouth open. I knew I looked stupid, and I had the feeling both Martin and Luna were enjoying it, but I was trying to understand what I was seeing. Luna was touching Martin, yet instead of flowing into him, the mist was sliding along the surface of his skin, funnelling into the monkey’s paw. I’d never seen this-wait, yes I had. Just once. It must be the same-
“It was Martin’s first wish,” Luna said, echoing my thoughts. “Protection from magic. We’ve been testing it and it works. It works. My curse can’t hurt him!”
I kept staring, trying to make sense of it. I’d seen it once before. Arachne had woven a ribbon to counter Luna’s curse, drawing it in and nullifying it. But it had lasted only a few hours before crumbling to dust and Arachne had admitted to me afterwards that it had taxed her to her limits. If what Luna was telling me was true, this thing could nullify all magic, not just Luna’s, and do it indefinitely. There wasn’t a mage alive who could match that.
I suddenly realised that both Martin and Luna were looking at me, Martin cocky, Luna expectant. “Taking,” I said. “What the monkey’s paw does.”
Luna nodded eagerly. “That was what I thought. It’s what it’s made to do!”
In other words, Martin had just done in one evening what I’d failed to do in five months. “I guess that’s good,” I said after an awkward pause.
“Of course it’s good! Aren’t you happy?”
Luna was looking at me, her eyes bright. Martin still had his arm around her, but she seemed to have forgotten. I shifted uncomfortably. I knew how Luna wanted me to react and it wasn’t what I was feeling. “I hope it works,” I said at last.
“It does work! And if it can do this, think about what else it can do! Maybe it could take my curse away completely!”
Alarm bells went off in my head at that. But Martin shifted. “Come on, Lun.” He pronounced it loon. “We said we weren’t going to try that.”
Luna flinched away from Martin, seeming to remember he was there, before stopping herself. “Listen, we were hoping you could help us,” Martin said. “With figuring out how to use it. I mean, you know as much about this thing as anyone, right?”
“Maybe,” I said slowly.
“Okay, so how many wishes do you get? Three?”
“The man I got it from said five,” I said. I could see Luna listening attentively. “I know one man who used it four times. He disappeared right after.”
“So five,” Martin said.
“What happened to him?” Luna asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. The last conversation we had, he was asking how to make the thing do what he wanted.”
“So it was doing what he told it to, right?” Martin said. “He just wasn’t wishing for the right things.”
“Maybe,” I said reluctantly.
“What about after all five?” Luna asked. “Once you’ve finished? Someone else can use it, right?”
“Yes-no! Luna, don’t even think about it!”
Luna’s expression didn’t change; she’d obviously expected my reaction. “Those stories are just to stop people trying it, aren’t they?” Martin said confidently. “They don’t want anyone else getting something this good.”
I looked at Martin in disbelief.