Page 24 of Leviathan's Song
His eyes focused on mine and then closed for a second. “I think I’m too hot,” he said after a moment. There was no draw in his enchantment that I could feel this time. His hand lifted to his thin headscarf—still emitting a faint green glow from before—which was draped loosely around his shoulders and tried without success to pull it free. I hurriedly pulled it free from his neck and gathered it in my arms.
“Can we get out of here for a bit and cool down? Where can we get you some water to drink?”
He was nodding his head before I finished my last question. “There’s a back way out,” he said, slurring a bit as he spoke. He hooked an arm through one of mine and turned, but I walked in front of him this time, pushing through the crowd as best I could and yelling or patting to get people’s attention when they didn’t notice me. ‘Aura of the reaper’ I did not have.
With his direction I found a metal door in the back corner and asked the intimidating looking bouncer posted beside it if he knew where we could get water for Levi. He slid his eyes over to my companion and I saw recognition there before he nodded and started to wave us through.
Before he could get the door open, a large sweaty man with a bald head tried to block our path, and I froze, but the bouncer’s hand was on his chest pushing him away immediately. I looked at his face, thinking he was the man who had come to my house, but he was just a stranger from the crowd trying to tell Levi how much he loved his work as the bouncer pushed him away.
“Give them space,” the bouncer yelled, and then waited to make sure the other man turned and walked away. “I’ll be right back,” the bouncer said to Levi. “Try to steer clear of the damned groupies.” He stepped away, going back the way we’d come from.
I opened the door and shivered as we stepped outside into the relatively cooler night air. The cool, quiet alleyway felt miles away from the riotous interior of the warehouse, and I tried to breathe out my nervous energy. At any other time, this would have felt like a warm, balmy evening, but after the sweltering heat from inside, the air felt chilly against my damp skin.
Levi slumped back against the metal wall of the building and began tugging the collar of his shirt loose, opening the three buttons that held it closed, and then dropped his hand while his eyes found mine.
The bouncer from beside the door returned with a green glass bottle, commonly used to hold water for sale, and he held it out for us. “Thanks, Ramar,” Levi mumbled as he took it and broke the cap.
“Don’t mention it,” Ramar said in a deeply scratchy voice that spoke of years of heavy smoking. “Like,at all, ‘cause I stole it. Management needs to take better care of the talent. Cheap little pricks.”
Levi coughed and choked on his water before clearing his throat for a proper laugh as Ramar walked back inside and let the door swing shut. He finished half the bottle before letting his head thump back and offering me a drink. I took a few small sips and then—realizing how desperately thirsty I actually was—took some longer pulls before returning the bottle. He was in much worse shape than me.
“Sorry about that,” he said with his head still tipped back against the wall. “I’m not built for this stuff.”
“What do you mean?” I studied his face carefully and noticed that the redness in his cheeks was beginning to fade, if only just a bit.
“Well,” he said with a huff. “I may not be anactualmer—not enough that they’d claim me anyway—but I have enough in me to make me more susceptible to the heat than most people.” I couldn’t tell if he sounded a little bitter when he said that. “Deep ocean being what it is means mer folk are built for cooler temperatures, generally.” He raised his head and leveled his eyes at me. He was definitely looking a little perkier.
“Does that bother you? That you’re not an, as you say, ‘actual mer’”?
“Pffft. No.” He took another swig from the bottle. “Hell, no. Nothing like hauling a ninety-pound tail with you to class because it started to rain… or your jerk friend threw a cup of water on you.” He narrowed his eyes while staring at the ground, presumably at a memory.
I blinked. “That sounds oddly specific.”
“Grim didn’t believe me that I couldn’t transform and thought he’d test me on it one time, right after we met. We both got detention because I tackled him.”
I huffed a startled laugh, having a difficult time reconciling the friend Levi described and the silent man who reaped the souls of the dead.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. He raised the bottle of water and touched the hooded scarf in my arms when he noticed my confused expression. “Most people think it would be great to not be able to sweat, but turns out it’s not really ideal for landwalkers.”
“Oh.” That made sense. “Pour some of that over your head.” I nodded to the bottle. He bent away from me and poured some water in his hair, shaking it out before straightening. As he did, a spectral appeared in front of his face, wispy and glowing faintly in the night.
He reached in his pocket, activating a calling stone, and a man’s harried voice groused, “We got incoming! Try to clear them out!”
Levi gave a low curse as the light winked out and turned to jerk the door open.
I felt his magic swell as he pushed some of his energy into two amulets, one on his chest—probably on a necklace—and one in a pocket. His voice boomed out even louder than when he’d been singing above the crowd. “Everybody, get out! Enforcement is on its way!Godspeed!” On the last word, his enchantment gave such a firm emotional shove that I actually stumbled a step backward.
Chapter 9
He clutchedat my arm as people began pouring out of the exit, and I followed him down the dark alleyway into a labyrinth of tiny streets.
“Ditch that.” He snatched the glowing scarf from my arms and wrapped his glass bottle in it, tossing the package into a dumpster with a low thud as we ran. Our largest moon was full tonight, providing just enough light to keep me from turning an ankle as we navigated narrow passageways and tight turns.
I spied an Enforcement uniform between a gap in the buildings and felt the strength-boosting and defensive magics they were known for hiring into their ranks. We climbed a few steps to a higher level and made our way to the next street as quietly as we could.
Most people must have been leaving through the front entrances, but there were still others crashing around through the alleyways behind us. Levi peeked around the corner before we darted out across the street and into the next alley.
It hadn’t really occurred to me we’d be in trouble for attending a rave, but the thought of an Enforcer chasing me down a dark alleyway made my adrenaline spike. For a split second, I considered that I still had my wasps on me, and then was instantly flooded with guilt that I would consider using them against people just doing their jobs, especially people just enforcing the law when I was breaking it.Ugh.This was one of the reasons I didn’t like making golems—you never knew what people might be tempted to do.
