The Burning Chaos (Smoke and Mirrors Book 2)

by Melissa Giorgio

  PARNABY FROWNED HIS DISPLEASURE WHEN Leonid and I showed up at his mansion around noon, but he waved us into his office, indicating that Leonid should shut the door behind him. It was just the two of us today; I’d convinced Leonid that Vernen should stay home, and I hadn’t seen Elyse around, although something told me after what had happened the day before, she wouldn’t venture too far from Parnaby’s side.

  As usual, it was stifling hot in Parnaby’s office, and I quickly removed my coat and hung it on the back of my chair before sitting. Books and papers cluttered his desk, so unlike the neat piles that took up every available space in Leonid’s room back home.

  Leonid and Parnaby began discussing a case Leonid had been working on for the past couple of weeks. After the prison had been destroyed, Leonid and his other soldiers began patrolling the streets. I knew Leonid missed the prison, but he wasn’t certain if he’d return to it after it was rebuilt. There were too many dark memories associated with it, he explained, and he enjoyed the freedom of coming and going throughout Dusk as he pleased. The prison may have been his home once, but now he shared a home with me. “And nothing,” he’d said, “save a dragon dragging me out by my ankle, will get me to leave this home.”

  A dragon. If Jaegger had been present, he would have snorted at that.

  “Did Irina tell you about what happened yesterday?” The mention of my name brought me back to the present. Parnaby’s gaze flicked to me briefly before settling back on Leonid. “During the show?”

  “No.” Leonid scratched the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable. “We had an incident last night, and we never had a chance to talk.”

  The president leaned forward, his eyes gleaming. “An incident? Do tell.”

  “Oh, well, it was just…” Leonid lowered his voice and blurted out the rest of the sentence. “I was robbed.”

  “By a child,” I added.

  “You’re not helping,” he complained. When Parnaby made a noise that sounded suspiciously like laughter, Leonid glared at him. “And you’re not helping either, sir!” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t want to discuss this. What were you saying about yesterday?”

  Parnaby explained the situation, his eyes going dark when he got to the part where his magic had been frozen. “We need to find out what happened. The sooner, the better.”

  “How?” I asked. “It’s not like you can go around asking people if they used their magic to stop yours.”

  He shot me a very nasty look, and I shrunk in my chair. Even though I knew—hoped, really—Jaegger would protect me from his magic, this version of Parnaby still scared me. We hadn’t argued since the day he said he would kill Vernen if he showed he could use magic, and I hoped to keep it that way.

  Leonid put a hand on my arm, squeezing it reassuringly. “He wants us to keep our eyes and ears open for anything that might be relevant to this, Lark. Same as always.”

  Except that I already knew something. Possibly. That woman who’d been in Parnaby’s place—there’d been something about her that roused my suspicion. But how could I tell them about her without mentioning how she’d known to touch my hand with the sliver of the Essence inside?

  “What?” Parnaby asked, staring hard at me. “Do you know something, Irina?”

  I cursed silently. Why was my face so easy to read? You would think after years of acting, I would know how to hide things, but apparently I was an open book to everyone around me. “Look, I don’t know if this means anything, but there was a woman standing in your spot when I got there yesterday. In fact, with her hood up, I thought she was you.”

  “Yes, Elyse already mentioned how you picked the wrong person out of the crowd.” Parnaby raised his brows. “Do I really look like a woman to you?”

  Exasperated, I said, “I told you, her hood was up!” Leonid was smirking, but he quickly wiped it away when I turned to him. “If I gave you a description of her, could you and your men look for her?”

  “Of course.”

  “Don’t waste your time,” Parnaby said. “How will you find a single woman amongst hundreds of thousands? Not only that, but I’m sure she has nothing to do with this. Irina simply made a mistake when she approached that woman, a mistake I hope she won’t commit during the next performance.”

  This is why I didn’t want to say anything! I fumed. I knew he would dismiss me easily!

  Annoyed, I kept quiet for the rest of the meeting, absently rubbing the scar on my palm. I wished Jaegger would speak to me again, but despite calling to him a few times, he remained silent.

  But I bet if I met that woman again, he would talk. That particular thought caused me to perk up. Parnaby didn’t want to waste his men’s time searching for her? Fine. I wasn’t one of his men.

  I would search for her myself.

  UNFORTUNATELY, SEARCHING FOR A SINGLE woman in a city as large as Dusk was a daunting task. When we returned home, we found Aden in the kitchen with Vernen. The two of them were eating sandwiches and playing cards, something they’d done almost every day since Vernen came back from the dead. Even though Aden didn’t live here, he spent most of his time visiting, much to Leonid’s repugnance. He had never forgiven Aden for attacking me, despite how many times I told him to. We weren’t exactly close friends, but we had managed to put that awful moment behind us. But Leonid was stubborn. As far as he was concerned, Aden was someone who couldn’t be trusted. He would have been banned from the house altogether, but Vernen enjoyed his company.

  “Ah!” Aden cried, throwing down his cards. “You beat me again, Vern!”

  Vernen smiled softly, his eyes brightening when Leonid and I stepped into the room.

  “Good. The game’s over?” Leonid pointed at Aden. “Go home.”

  “Leonid,” I scolded. “Let him stay. I want everyone to hear this.” I filled them in on how I needed to find the woman, leaving the parts about the magic out. While Aden did know Parnaby could use actual magic, Parnaby had forbidden me and Leonid to speak about what had happened at the magic show to anyone else. “Do you know how I can find her?”

  “Lark, do you really think this woman is important?” Leonid asked as he bustled around the kitchen, putting together two sandwiches.

  “Yes. She was…” I trailed off, rubbing my arms as I felt a chill. “There was something about her, Leonid.”

  “You look like Leon,” Vernen said suddenly. We all turned to him in surprise. “When he gets a feeling about something. That’s how you look, Irina.”

  I smiled softly. “Maybe Leonid is rubbing off on me. What do you say, Captain?” I asked as I accepted a sandwich from him. “Is your instinct telling you I should follow through with this?”

  Leonid considered it, his gaze going distant. Was that the look Vernen meant? “You should,” Leonid said. “I know Parnaby thinks it’s a waste of time, but I’ll have my men look for her. Why not? We’re already patrolling the streets. Maybe we’ll get lucky and cross paths with her. You.” He slapped Aden hard on the shoulder, and the blond winced. “Go fetch West. He’s in Sector One of the slums. You shouldn’t have too much trouble finding him.”

  “But I didn’t finish my sandwich,” Aden complained.

  When Leonid sent him a vile look, Aden jumped to his feet and rushed out of the house.

  “Leonid, was that really necessary?”

  Leonid sat down in Aden’s chair and gestured for me to take the seat to his right. “Yes, it was. West—Weston Grayson—is my best sketch artist. He’s the one who transcribed those dark markings from Banth—” Leonid cut himself off with a wince as he glanced at Vernen. But the other soldier was staring at the cards spread out in front of him, chewing thoughtfully. I wondered if he was still with us, or if he had gone to his other place. He could spend minutes or even hours in that other place, missing out on what was going on around him. Afterward, he was fine, but in the beginning it had been scary to lose him like that. Leonid still insisted it was a phase, but after two months of this occurring, the rest of u
s had come to realize it was a permanent condition.

  “So you want me to describe the woman to West?” I asked, breaking the awkward silence that had settled in the kitchen. “And he’ll draw a sketch for the rest of you to carry around Dusk when you patrol?”

  “Exactly.” Leonid looked pleased. “You’ll see, Lark. We’ll find this woman.”

  I hoped he was right. Before I could say anything else, Vernen blinked back into focus and convinced the two of us to play a round of poker with him. Leonid produced a bag of candies—it still amazed me that we had things like candy and meat for sandwiches after a life of stale bread and old vegetables—and we used those to bet. Three quarters of an hour later, the front door opened and Aden entered the kitchen, followed by West.

  I had met most of Leonid’s men, either during my stay in the prison, or in the weeks after it had been destroyed, and I had seen West in passing, but we’d never spoken before. His warm brown eyes took in the room with a sweeping glance, and he smiled. “Playing cards, Captain? This is what you do while the rest of us are freezing our asses off?” West was of average height with light brown hair, tanned skin, and an open smile. He was ruggedly handsome with just the perfect amount of stubble dusting his cheeks, but a splash of freckles across his nose made him appear boyish.

  Leonid reclined in his seat, looking smug. “It’s good to be captain, isn’t it?”

  “Aden said you needed me?” West pointed to the satchel hooked over his shoulder. “Or, more accurately, my skills?”

  After placing a card down, Leonid nodded in my direction. “I need you to draw a sketch of a woman Irina saw yesterday.”

  “That shouldn’t be a problem.” West turned to address me. “Is there another room we can use? I wouldn’t want to disturb the captain’s game.”

  Putting my cards down on the table, I stood. “Let’s use the sitting room. Aden, play for me? You can keep all of my winnings if you beat Leonid.” Aden nodded, lifting my cards and considering them for a moment before placing a modest bet of two candies.

  My captain snorted. “That will never happen.”

  West stroked his chin. “You better watch out for Vernen. He has the best poker face I’ve ever seen. He’s beaten me every time we’ve played.”

  As if to prove him right, Vernen laid down his cards to reveal a straight flush. Leonid and Aden groaned in unison, pushing their candy toward Vernen, who smiled slightly.

  “See, I told you,” West said with a wink. Following me into the sitting room, he settled down on the couch while I went to the window and pulled back the curtains to let in some of the gray, winter light. West opened his satchel and began laying supplies out on the table. First came pencils in an array of colors, then a sketchpad, and finally some ink and a quill. “This room has changed.”

  “You’ve been here before?” I asked, taking the seat next to him on the couch. I glanced around the room, seeing what he was seeing. Besides the couch and table, there was a long cabinet pressed against the wall. There were a few of Leonid’s bottles and glasses strewn across the top along with various trinkets my other roommates had picked up along the way. Paintings of landscapes hung on the walls, and plants covered the windowsills. Elyse insisted on the plants and promised the house would be full of flowers come spring.

  “Yes, after the incident with those men who attacked you,” West said. “Leonid asked me here as part of the investigation. I’d drawn those dark marks from the crime scenes over and over again until I memorized them, so if I saw them here, I would recognize them for what they were immediately.”

  Ah, so he saw the house when Bantheir was still a part of it. After his betrayal, I wanted nothing to do with the man. Unfortunately, he’d been a part of this house just as much as I was. Despite how much I loved the familiar, slanting building, it was still tainted.

  But we had worked hard to remove Bantheir’s presence from the house. Parnaby had taken anything he deemed magical first, and we donated the rest of it to shelters in the slums. I don’t know if they would ever find a use for Bantheir’s flashy capes or the mirror he used to practice his speeches in front of, but I couldn’t keep them in the house. It was bad enough that his memories haunted me at every corner and in every room.

  “It looks better now,” West continued cheerfully. He picked up his sketchpad and opened it to a new page. “It looks more like a home.”

  I smiled, happy he thought so.

  “So who am I drawing?”

  Wrapping one of my curls around my finger, I frowned. “How does this work? Do I just… describe her to you?”

  “That’s exactly what you do.” He picked up a pencil and tapped it against the paper. “Tell me everything you remember about her. Don’t leave out any details. If something I draw looks wrong, tell me why, and I’ll fix it.”

  I shut my eyes briefly as I recalled the mysterious woman. Had I gotten a good enough look at her? I had been so nervous and worried, not to mention shocked, when I pulled down her hood to reveal her instead of Parnaby, and at first her features were blurry to me. But then I remembered her hooded gray eyes, and the rest of the details began filling themselves in.

  West worked as I spoke, his pencil making a soft scratching noise against the paper. I peered over his shoulder, watching as the woman came to life. “You’re really good,” I breathed as he worked first on her nose and then her eyes.

  “Thank you, but again, if something doesn’t seem right, tell me.” He flashed me a smile. “You won’t hurt my feelings.”

  “In that case, her nose is wrong. Completely.”

  His pencil stopped. “Ouch. That was harsh, Irina.”

  Horrified, I put a hand to my mouth. “I’m sorry! I wasn’t insulting you—”

  Laughing, he reached into his satchel and removed an eraser. In a flash, the nose was gone. “I’m teasing you.”

  “You!” A roll of bandages fell out of West’s satchel, distracting me. “Are you expecting to be injured?”

  “No, but you never know who might need to be patched up.” He leaned forward in his seat, picking up the roll and tossing it back inside of his satchel. “I like to be prepared.” West showed me the inside of his bag; besides more art supplies, it was loaded with bandages, ointments, and small bottles holding liquids in various shades of color.

  “So you’re a soldier and an artist,” I said slowly, working it out, “and a physician?”

  “Not a physician, per se, but I know how to mend broken bones and stop a wound from bleeding.” West picked up his pencil again and started sketching a new nose for the woman. “And I’m good with poisons.”

  “So what you’re saying is you’re someone I should keep around in case I cut myself, break a bone, or accidentally drink poison?”

  West smirked. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  “Where were you two months ago when Bantheir was making a fine mess of everything?” I muttered. Aden had broken his arm, and even though Leonid had set it, it still bothered him in the morning, especially when it was cold out. My stab wound on my thigh had healed, but it had left a scar behind. And Vernen…

  I shuddered. West wouldn’t have been able to save him. No one would have been able to.

  Except for me. I squeezed my left hand into a fist. Me and Jaegger. Parnaby had been so furious at what I’d done, but to this day I didn’t regret my careless words that had exchanged Bantheir’s life for Vernen’s.

  “How’s this?” West showed me the new nose.

  “Better, but…” I tilted my head to the side.

  “Still wrong?” West groaned. “You’re making me doubt myself now, Irina.”

  I stared at him, wondering if he was teasing me again or not. When his lip twitched, I knew that he was. I grabbed a pillow and smacked him in the arm with it, which caused him to break out into laughter again.

  “Are we doing any actual work in here, or are we just fooling around?” Leonid said from the doorway. “Lark, catch.” He tossed a candy to me.


  Surprised, I caught it. “You won?”

  “Hardly.” Scowling, Leonid unwrapped another candy and popped it into his mouth. “Vernen decided to be generous with his winnings.”

  “I told you,” West said under his breath as he stared at the nose. “Irina, explain her nose again to me. What am I getting wrong?”

  I picked up a pencil and tapped the paper. “It’s the bottom part, here, you see? It’s too round. Hers had more of a point at the end.”

  “Like this?” He sketched it in quickly.

  “Yes, exactly!”

  Leonid crossed the room to stand by my side, watching as West worked. “If he ever gets this right, we can distribute copies to the citizens, see if they recognize her.”

  West stared at him in mock outrage. “If I ever get this right? Captain, you wound me!” Clutching his heart, he pretended to fall over dead.

  I exchanged a bemused look with Leonid. “He likes to fool around, doesn’t he?”

  “All the damn time. Why do you think I send him to the slums so much?”

  One of West’s eyes popped open. “What? I thought you sent me there because I was one of your most trusted companions. Your dearest friend, even!”

  “Mm-hmm,” Leonid said. “Keep telling yourself that. Are you done yet?”

  “Maybe if a certain annoying captain would leave me in peace, I’d be done already!” West threw his hands up in exasperation.

  “Fine, fine. I know when I’m not wanted.” Leonid planted a kiss on my forehead before leaving the room.

  After a few minutes of silence, West said, “So, you and the captain, huh?”

  Cheeks burning, I stared at the small candy wrapped in bright blue foil clutched between my fingers. “Oh, be quiet.” I didn’t know why I was embarrassed; it wasn’t like it was a secret.

  He chuckled. “Sorry, I just find the whole thing amazing. Leonid was always so stoic, but now he actually smiles and jokes around.” Shaking his head, West finished up with the nose and moved on to the eyes. “If I hadn’t witnessed it for myself, I never would have believed it.”