Read Incarnate (A Spellmason Chronicle) for Free Online

not!” he insisted.
    “Me, either,” Rory added with warning in her voice.
    “Don’t worry,” he said to her. “You don’t get hurt
nearly
as much as Lexi does.” His eyes turned to me and his face went serious. “You’re getting reckless, Alexandra.”
    I started to argue, but decided against it. There was no malice in what Marshall said, only the fact-based concern of a true friend. I gave him a genuine smile.
    “Thank you,” I said. “You work miracles.”
    He dropped the vial behind the counter and leaned forward on top of it. “Just promise Rory and me that you’re not going back out tonight.”
    It was my turn to avert my eyes in avoidance, busying myself as I pulled my blood-covered Burberry jacket back on.
    “I can’t make that promise,” I said. “I just . . . can’t. Too much to do . . .”
    “You need rest,” Rory insisted.
    “I can sleep during the day,” I countered, heading for the door, “when they’re inactive.”
    Rory sighed behind me.
    “Ten bucks says she doesn’t make it to the weekend without another injury,” Marshall said.
    “Wait,” I said with a growing sense of doom. “What day of the week
is
it again . . . ?”
    “Monday,” Rory said, shaking her head at me.
    “Crap on a crap cracker!” I said with dawning realization.
    “What’s the problem?” Marshall asked.
    “You’ll both be happy to hear that I
am
going home,” I said.
    “What’s the matter?” Rory asked. “Has getting knocked about enough finally beaten some sense into you?”
    “Worse,” I said, spinning back around to the door and walking out into the night, thankful that at least the rain had subsided. “I’ve got to be social.”

Four

    Alexandra
    E ntering the familiar comfort of my building on Saint Mark’s Place always calmed my soul and reminded me of my great-great-grandfather’s guildhall beneath all of its new construction. It reminded me of how far I had come as the only practicing Spellmason in the past year since discovering the location. The only thing that outdid my own transformation was Caleb Kennedy going from the alchemist who had attacked Rory and me there, to becoming actual dating material.
    I wasn’t sure reformed alchemical freelancers were typically considered the best boyfriend stock, but given how little time I had for things like practicing my artistic endeavors or just a life right now, someone who shared my arcane interests was as good as it got as a distraction from all the crazy.
    As I climbed the stairs up to my main living area and dining room, my heart raced a little in anticipation of what our planned date night might have in store for me. Much to my surprise, however, I found the dining room untouched.
    “Awesome,” I said to the empty space. I pulled off my backpack and laid it on the table, disappointed. Only then did I notice the plain white note card sticking out from under it, and that was because a piece of string snaked off the table from it and ran across the room.
    I pulled the note card free.
    The presence of your company is required for an evening under the stars.
    A small smile crept to my lips, and with curiosity getting the better of me, I followed the string across the room where it led out the doorway and continued up the stairs. It snaked around the banister the entire way, other cards dangling from it as I followed.
    Closer.
    Almost there.
    Getting hungry yet?
    Pushing open the rooftop access door, I stepped out into the familiar sight of Gramercy Park, recreated painstakingly on my rooftop. Much of the rain had dried up from earlier, and the string trailed off down one of the cobblestone paths. I turned and pushed the door shut behind me, watching it vanish as its false stone facade matched itself back into the column concealing it.
    The string continued along the path next to the running brook, and the farther I moved into the park, the more sounds of activity within there were.
    In the clearing at the center were two