But the way Erin had talked about that book, as if it was a magical experience…I was curious, and I wanted to understand her. And I didn’t like the idea of breaking my word.

I marched back up the street and into the bookstore. At first, I thought the power was out: the place was so dark, I was worried I was going to trip over something. Then I realized there were lights, high overhead. The owner apparently just liked it this way. I wrinkled my nose: there was a weird smell, too, one I’d never smelled before.

As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I made out towering shelves of books all around me. I turned a slow circle, stunned. There was a whole world here that I hadn’t ever been part of. How did geeks find time to read all this stuff?

As I finished my circle, I saw a woman standing behind a counter, eyeing me with suspicion. Maybe she could tell I wasn’t the reading type. “Do you have, er…”—wait, what was it called? “Dark…castle?” The woman looked blank. “Palace of Night?” I tried. She still looked blank. “It’s got dragons in it.”

“Ah, Throne of Night.” She ducked down, retrieved a book and dropped it on the counter with a whud of satisfaction. Jesus, the thing was about a billion pages long. But at least I’d have something to do on the flight to wherever we were going. I bought it, then realized I had nowhere to put it. How are you supposed to carry these things? I wound up tucking it under my arm, which made me feel like a school kid.

A little while later, in the hills just outside town, I arrived at our base. We’d nicknamed it The Factory, because that’s what it used to be. When the team first formed, the place was derelict, with no windows and a leaking roof. But five months and a lot of hard graft later, it was starting to approach respectable. The rooms had been cleared of machinery and painted, the roof was fixed, the windows replaced and the heating worked. We even had a discreet metal plaque by the front door saying Stormfinch Security.

I found JD in the kitchen, waiting for the coffee pot to heat up. I put my mug next to his, threw in a teabag and poured on boiling water. And as the tea brewed, I thought about how I’d met him.