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sidestepdestinyMy shift is nearly up at Semele's when I get a text from Simon: On my way home. do you want Chinese? I text him back with a yes please and my order, and don't receive a reply. I don't think much of it, but when I get to our flat an hour later and there's no sign of Simon or our dinner, that raises a few flags. He should have been home well before me. The Chinese place loves him because our order is always gigantic, they wouldn't make him wait this long.
I call Simon a few times to no avail. I try not to worry, I really do, but peril and Simon are old friends and I've yet to successfully come between them.
The logical thing to do, I decide, is to take the usual route to the Chinese place and ask if they've seen him, look for anything fishy. I take the path Simon should have taken, and I question the staff. Intensively. They haven't seen him, there was never an order placed. I go back the same way, thinking, what now?, when my luck takes a turn. I see his phone off the sidewalk, laying inconspicuously under a bush, like it's been tossed carelessly away. Simon loves his phone, he would never do this. I grab it up and look it over, but it tells me nothing. No calls or texts besides the one he sent me and my answer.
For a long, terrible moment, I don't know what to do. I don't know who would hurt him. No, that's wrong. I do know who would hurt him, if they had reason to suspect me.
I walk briskly toward the warehouse, and call the hospital to make sure Simon isn't a patient. He isn't. When I get to the warehouse, Roger greets me with a look of baffled amusement. "You're early," he says, and I have to resist shoving him against the wall and demanding answers. I pretend like nothing's wrong, and here...nothing is. Everyone is acting normally. The regulars are here. No one is accusing me of being with the police, no one's acting shifty.
I cut out early without explanation. Well, technically I wasn't due there yet anyway.
Again, I'm lost. Then, of course. Katherine.
It's a long shot. I'm not sure what reason she'd have to take Simon again, except maybe to fuck with me, but it's the only lead I've got. I call her and demand she releases Simon.
"I haven't seen your farmboy." She sounds bored.
"So you say."
"Oh, please."
"...You're not in love with me again, right?"
She hangs up.
I realize the call was a last ditch, desperate attempt. Who, then? What? The Humdrum? I need help, someone more powerful than my nose and my paltry finding spells. I go to High Gate Terrace and knock on Magnus' door, hoping to find him and Alec at once.
I call Simon a few times to no avail. I try not to worry, I really do, but peril and Simon are old friends and I've yet to successfully come between them.
The logical thing to do, I decide, is to take the usual route to the Chinese place and ask if they've seen him, look for anything fishy. I take the path Simon should have taken, and I question the staff. Intensively. They haven't seen him, there was never an order placed. I go back the same way, thinking, what now?, when my luck takes a turn. I see his phone off the sidewalk, laying inconspicuously under a bush, like it's been tossed carelessly away. Simon loves his phone, he would never do this. I grab it up and look it over, but it tells me nothing. No calls or texts besides the one he sent me and my answer.
For a long, terrible moment, I don't know what to do. I don't know who would hurt him. No, that's wrong. I do know who would hurt him, if they had reason to suspect me.
I walk briskly toward the warehouse, and call the hospital to make sure Simon isn't a patient. He isn't. When I get to the warehouse, Roger greets me with a look of baffled amusement. "You're early," he says, and I have to resist shoving him against the wall and demanding answers. I pretend like nothing's wrong, and here...nothing is. Everyone is acting normally. The regulars are here. No one is accusing me of being with the police, no one's acting shifty.
I cut out early without explanation. Well, technically I wasn't due there yet anyway.
Again, I'm lost. Then, of course. Katherine.
It's a long shot. I'm not sure what reason she'd have to take Simon again, except maybe to fuck with me, but it's the only lead I've got. I call her and demand she releases Simon.
"I haven't seen your farmboy." She sounds bored.
"So you say."
"Oh, please."
"...You're not in love with me again, right?"
She hangs up.
I realize the call was a last ditch, desperate attempt. Who, then? What? The Humdrum? I need help, someone more powerful than my nose and my paltry finding spells. I go to High Gate Terrace and knock on Magnus' door, hoping to find him and Alec at once.
