Grimoires and Where to Find Them by Raconteur, Honor (best affordable ebook reader .TXT) 📗

“Catch up soon,” he urged me. “I know it’s easy to think tomorrow, but it’s just as easy to forget the events of today.”

“That sounds like experience talking.”

“I used to fall into that trap often as a young magical examiner, thinking I’d remember some detail and jot it down later. I had to redo some of my work because I failed to retain it all.”

Now, that was an interesting segue into something I’d meant to ask. “How did you get started as a magical examiner, anyway? I know you’ve been doing it for several years. Was it what you intended to do when you graduated?”

He blinked his eyes open, and they crinkled at the corners in amusement. “No, not at all. When I first started university, my plan was to go into magical processing.”

“Magic…okay, what?”

“Magical processing,” he repeated, lips twisted up in wry memory. “I’m sure you’ve encountered things that were created with magical processing. Shampoos, for instance. Anything with a chemical base that has magic infused into it went through a magical process.”

So, something like a chemical engineer? It sounded that way. “What made you change your mind?”

“Hmm, a number of things. The idea of creating new products appealed to me, as I liked the challenge of it. But when I was in my senior year, barely six months from graduating, my mother urged me to shadow someone in the field for a day. It was a sound suggestion, and I took her advice. I’m glad now that I did. I learned quite a bit about it. It’s deadly dull and extremely repetitious. I discovered that the creation of new products was mostly done by the advertising department. They came up with the ideas, and then the other departments made them feasible. Not at all as I had assumed.”

He would have been good at it. Henri’s good at a lot of things. He’d also have been bored to tears. “I can see why you changed your course.”

“Oh, yes. I was casting about for some other direction, not sure what to do with myself, when a detective visited our university. He had three cases, all cold, that dealt with magical crimes. He wanted help cracking them, as he’d hit a wall and wasn’t sure what else to do to find the culprit. My professor brought together a team of six to help go through the case files, and I was one of them.”

Oh-ho. “And you liked it.”

“The challenge of it was immensely appealing.” A hint of pride entered his voice as he admitted, “We solved all three cases. The detective was ever so impressed with our work and told us frankly that if any of us were interested in becoming a magical examiner, he’d serve as a reference. I didn’t take him up on it immediately, but now knowing some of the scope of the work, it held appeal. I contacted him the next week and asked if it was possible to do an internship with his department. I wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into.”

I had a feeling I knew where this story was going. “They kept you, didn’t they?”

Henri chuckled. “The detective who brought the cases to us was Gregson.”

I laughed outright. “Oh, now that figures!”

“And, yes, he made sure they kept me. I started an internship and was hired a week later. Before I’d even formally graduated, mind you. I’d finished the classes, but the graduation ceremony wasn’t for another month. I was the first in my class to start working. It’s not the most lucrative position, but I honestly don’t know what other profession I’d switch to.”

“I mean, honestly, if you ever felt the need for a change, you could always join Ellie and her crew. She really likes you, and I think you’d have fun inventing things with her.”

He blinked at me as if he’d never thought of it. “She does do hybrid inventions that require magic, but…really? Warner likes me?”

“Henri, most people like you.” Silly man. Why did he even question that?

“Oh. I admit I’ve always had a good impression of her as well. We just normally don’t interact directly without you present.”

“Ahhh. Yeah, I can see how that influences things. But I have to ask, do you feel like you want to switch things up?”

“No, not really. I’m quite content at the station. And I refuse to let anyone else partner with you.”

Now that, I couldn’t let slide. I leaned in to kiss him, the movement chaste but lingering.

“You say that because anyone else who worked with me would fall madly in love with me.”

“Oh, madly,” he agreed, dry as a martini. “Look how quickly I fell.”

“Ha. You took years to fall, my dude.”

He regarded me with a slightly canted head, his expression hard to read.

I stared back, eyebrows rising. What did that look on his face mean? “Okay, I can’t let that look slide. What are you thinking? I’m right, aren’t I?”

“I don’t know if you are. Well, you are, but perhaps not entirely.” He lifted a hand, brushing a thumb over my cheek in a gentle caress that sent pleasant tingles dancing over my skin. “I found you fascinating from the start. I’ve known many a competent, intelligent woman in my life, and yet, I wasn’t drawn to any of them like I was to you. The first year we knew each other, so much happened. I didn’t have the room to think of emotional entanglements. My first priority was helping you settle into a life here.”

The first year. He was right, that year had been a rollercoaster. I’d barely kept my feet under me some days. His support had been one of the bastions I most heavily leaned on. Looking back, I could confidently say I would have struggled a lot harder if not for him. But the way he said that, it begged the question.

“I’ve always been curious about what the tipping point was for you. Why you decided