A Walk Amongst Shadows (Book 2)

“Where were you yesterday!?” Deja asked, her tone accusatory. I shut the door to the medicine room behind me and walked over to where she was seated.

“Um, home?” I responded, “I always take a day off after I’ve worked four or five days in a row.” For months now I had been working days at a time. It had gotten to be too much at times, and I had gotten into the habit of taking one or two days off depending on how much my help was needed. Up until now, it hadn’t been an issue.

“Simon was looking everywhere for you.”

I suppressed a groan. Of course he had. “I’ll go find him.” I sighed, hoping I wouldn’t find myself in some sort of trouble.

“Hey, let’s grab a drink after work, I miss you,” she said sweetly.

“Sure, that sounds great!” I bid my friend farewell and headed towards the patient quarters. In all the chaos over the last few weeks, I had spent hardly any time working with Deja. The idea of spending time together just she and I sounded excellent, and I was already excited for my workday to end.

“Rose!” I heard Evangeline exclaim. “Thank the heavens, where on earth have you been?” She asked as she rushed to my side.

“Yesterday was my day off,” I stated plainly.

She looked offended. “We needed you though.” She paused. “I’m sorry, that came out wrong. I guess I lost track of the days. We got a little overwhelmed yesterday, having you around would’ve been a huge help.”

“I’ll get started on rounds right away,” I responded, giving her a cordial nod before walking past her and down the hall. I was able to see to my first three patients of the day before running into Simon. He had his head buried in some notes and ran straight into me.

“Rose! You came back,” he nodded through a thin smile. “Ah, I see you’ve already started without me.”

“I-I’m sorry, was I not supposed to?”

He looked up from his notes again. “No, no it’s fine. I was just grabbing my notes before we got started.”

I furrowed my brow. It’s not as though I were teaching him anything. “Evangeline told me things got pretty busy around here yesterday. Do you think it might be better if we split up? We could cover more ground that way.”

“Nonsense, we’ll stick together.” He snapped his book shut and led me to the next patient.

I sighed and followed. I went from patient to patient. Healing ailments, mending torn muscles, fractured bones, and so forth. Ever under the watchful eye of Simon, who continued writing furiously in his notebook. I had no idea what he was noting. Surely, there is only so much to be recorded of witnessing magic. I had gotten used to ignoring my “partner” though and continued working as though he weren’t there. Still, I found myself increasingly annoyed by his presence. He hadn’t done any healing since I began using magic openly. I certainly did not need his assistance either. He would be far more useful to the apothecary if he went back to running his own rounds or even taking a shift in the medicine room. Much to my surprise, it didn’t take me nearly as long to see all the patients as I thought it would. Given the way Evangeline had reacted, I figured I would’ve been there most of the day helping them catch up after my absence the day before.

“You’re not going to leave, are you?” Simon asked.

“I thought I’d go see if Deja needed help in the medicine room,” I replied.

“I’ll let you know if we need you,” he said before turning to go who knows where. Certainly not to see any patients.

I grit my teeth, frustrated. I swung open the door to the medicine room and started prepping my workspace.

“You joining me this afternoon?” Deja asked, her face lighting up.

I nodded. I went to the ledger to see what was next on the list and began collecting everything I needed. I must have been a little hasty in my actions because Deja immediately got serious.

“What’s wrong?”

I glared at the door to the patient quarters.

“What happened?” she pressed.

“Nothing,” I quipped, “literally nothing. I was the only one tending to any of the patients while he sat and observed,” I said, putting air quotes around the word as I spoke.

“Not surprising. “Deja replied, her tone level. “Apparently, he got rejected by a few of the patients that came in yesterday.”

“He what?” I asked, lowering my voice.

She looked up from her workstation and leaned in. “A few patients made a fuss about wanting to see the mage. They sat here all-night refusing treatment until you could come in to see them.”

“What did he do?” I couldn’t imagine that interaction going well.

“He was furious. I heard him ranting to Evangeline about it. He ended up storming off for a while. Blew through here mumbling about how he’s worked too hard to be treated like this.” She twirled her hair in her fingers as she spoke. “I almost felt bad for the guy…”

I took a deep breath. “Wow, I had no idea.” No wonder he had been so testy with me today. I doubt that I would’ve been much different. I felt guilt in the pit of my stomach. “This is all my fault…”

“Of course it’s not. I mean, I guess, technically it is… but you never intended for it to happen.”

I sighed. “Sounds like he needs a drink more than we do,” I teased.

Deja giggled. “Let’s ask him to join us!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Maybe it will make him more pleasant to be around.”

I laughed.

Simon agreed to join us but not until after I assured him that Aris would not be accompanying us. He took it all in jest and helped me and Deja finish cleaning up the medicine room. I was a little concerned to be spending time with Simon outside the apothecary. Granted, things had gotten a lot better between the two of us since the day he met Aris. Luckily for me, I had Deja with me. She filled the silence with idle chit chat as the three of us made our way to the nearest pub. Still a little unfamiliar with all the available options, I elected to follow Deja and Simon’s lead and ordered an ale. I tried to play it off like it was no big deal. Deja knew about my naivety to most customs in the city, but Simon did not, and I quite preferred it stay that way. Deja gave me a sideways glance as we all took a seat with our drinks. The drink called “ale” was a little bubbly and had an odd aroma.

“Well ladies, I must say, it’s a nice treat to get away from the apothecary,” Simon said.

“Cheers!” Deja grinned as she held her mug out.

“Cheers!” Simon and I chimed in. I took a sip of my drink and immediately regretted my decision. I hadn’t expected much given the odor, but I certainly had not anticipated the wheat flavor. I choked it down, hoping it would go unnoticed. Deja was quicker. Nearly choking on her own drink as she stifled a laugh. Simon looked from her to me confused.

“Not a fan there, Rose?” Deja asked, coughing slightly, to clear her throat.

Simon grinned. “Come on, surely you’ve had ale before,” he teased.

I coughed, trying to get rid of the flavor. “’Fraid not,” I sputtered.

The two laughed. I passed my drink along to Deja to finish off. Maybe one day I would acclimate my tastes to the ale here, but today was not that day.

“You know Rose, you’re starting to build quite the fan club,” Simon said after another long drink.

“Yeah…about that,” I glanced anxiously to Deja, “Deja told me about yesterday, I’m really sorry. I-”

He held up a hand. “Nonsense, not your fault,” he assured me with a wave. “Wait, is that why I’m here?”

I smiled sheepishly. “I felt bad,” I added.

He laughed. “Well, I truly appreciate the sentiment.”

I sat back in my seat, feeling a little more relaxed as he and Deja prattled on about an upcoming festival.

“Did you go last year?” Simon asked turning towards me?

I shook my head.

“This will be her first Night of Masks!!” Deja bounced in her seat clasping her hands together.

“Night of Masks?”

“Yes! It’s a huge city-wide festival. Everyone gets really dressed up and wears a mask.”

“What kind of mask?” I asked, remembering the ones we used to wear during the Vorstu.

“Any kind really,” Deja explained, “some people wear really fancy ones, some will pick masks that look like animals, there are full-face masks, partial masks, you get it…”

I nodded along. “What does everyone do?”

“There’s a lot of food, drinking, dancing, usually street performers, you know,” Simon rambled on, “typical festival stuff.”

I nodded knowingly once more, even though in truth, I had no idea what was standard at a festival outside of Wren’s Glen. “Do the two of you usually go?” I inquired.

Deja nodded eagerly.

“I skipped last year to head up the apothecary. But Evangeline told me she’d work this year so I could go,” Simon chimed in.

“Yay! It’s going to be such a good year for it!” Deja clapped like a small child as she polished off her drink. “I’m going up for another, do you two want anything?”

Simon and I declined and she spun around and made her way to the bar.

Simon leaned forward towards me and spoke in a low voice, “listen Rose, I don’t mean to alarm you, but there’s a man over in the corner that has been watching you ever since we got here.” I saw his eyes flash to the corner behind me. I chanced a quick look behind me and locked eyes with none other than Stellan. Upon meeting my gaze, he grinned and held up a glass in my direction.

I let out an exasperated sigh.

“You know him?” Simon asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Sorta,” I hesitated.

“Is he a-”

“Yeah, he is. I’ll be right back,” I said pushing out of my chair and walking past Deja who was returning with her second drink. I heard her asking Simon where I was going as she sat back down. I made my way through the crowd to the back corner where Stellan sat. He was sitting alone. I took the seat directly in front of him.

“Can I buy you a drink love?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes. “What do you want?” I asked, keeping my tone pleasant.

“I just spoke with my dear friend Eloise who informed me of your dalliances with these mortals.”

“And?” I asked.

“And I fear you are making a grave error dear girl. It is a dangerous thing to trust a mortal you know.”

I sighed, “so you’re here to keep an eye on me then?”

“Well, you certainly are a delightful one to watch, and if my brother asks, I can always reassure him it’s in the name of your safety.”

I grimaced. “How kind of you,” I replied sarcastically. “Care to join us? Or are you just going to lurk in the corner all night.”

He smiled wickedly at me. “I have no desire to dine with mortals but do give them my kindest regards.” His voice dripped in sarcasm.

“Will do,” I said as I made a motion to stand up.

“Always a pleasure when our paths cross,” he cooed as I turned to go back to my table. Simon and Deja looked concerned as I sat back down.

“Everything alright?” Simon asked.

“What did he want?” Deja sputtered before Simon could finish asking his question.

“Nothing,” I replied. Seeing their unconvinced faces I added, “he’s just a friend of Aris’. We met a while ago.”

“He isn’t following you or anything is he?” Deja asked.

I shook my head. At least I hoped he hadn’t followed us here.

“I’d be happy to walk you home later if you’d like,” Simon offered.

“I appreciate it, but I’ll be alright,” I assured. I didn’t feel like explaining how I was able to reach out to Aris if I was ever in danger, mostly because I barely understood it myself. I also didn’t want to hurt Simon’s ego. He was less capable of protecting me from someone like Stellan than I was.

“If you don’t mind my asking, how is it that you came to be acquainted with shadow walkers in the first place?” Simon asked intently. I wondered how long he had wanted to ask me this very question. I could sense Deja tense up.

“Unlike everyone at the apothecary, the people in my village weren’t so accepting of a mage living in their midst. Aris helped me escape.”

Simon looked confused. “But why? It seems so counter to their nature.”

“I think you’d probably be quite surprised by the nature of shadow walkers.” I didn’t care to elaborate any further and I certainly didn’t want to share what I knew about the prophecy with him.

He merely shrugged. “If you say so.”

We spent another hour together in the pub before deciding to call it a night. Luckily, there had been no more talk of Aris or questions about my life before coming to the city. The three of us walked together as long as we could before I had to split to head towards home. Simon assured me he’d get Deja back to the apothecary safely. I wasn’t sure how late it was. But the lack of noise coupled with the growing darkness led me to believe it was later than I had thought. I pressed on, following the roads I had come to know. Only… did I know them? I looked around me and suddenly realized I was not completely sure where in the city I was. Walking around a street corner and then another I cursed myself in frustration. I was lost.