‘I know,’ he answered quietly. ‘I suppose I wanted you to see it because I want you to love the Order as much as I do.’ His hand brushed feather-light against mine and I shivered. Winter licked his lips and gazed at me with an intensity which sank all the way down into my very soul. My mouth went dry. Then he cleared his throat. ‘We should go and find Oscar Marsh now so we can save the world.’

‘Yeah.’ As disappointed as I was that the moment between us had been so fleeting, the thought that an Order witch might be doing something to jeopardise the kind of operation which happened here was making me feel sick.

Chapter Eighteen

The atmosphere inside the HR office was considerably different to last time. Clearly everyone was on their best behaviour; they had their heads down and grim expressions on their faces.

We were allowed in immediately, which didn’t make the receptionist happy. She glowered at us both for daring to interrupt her peace and quiet. She was hardly a good advertisement for HR but she wasn’t my problem and she didn’t really interest me.

When Winter and I strolled into the main office, several people straightened their spines and I clocked more than one nervous glance in our direction. Whether that was from guilt or something else, I had no idea.

I spotted Tarquin in the far corner, seated at a choice desk next to the window. Given the rain outside, at least he wasn’t getting much of a view. For the first time in a long while, I felt very angry towards him. Winter’s little side tour had opened my eyes to what the Order did for society; he wouldn’t have had to show me if Tarquin hadn’t ripped my future away from me.

Tarquin looked up as we walked through, flashing us a broad smile. It might have been directed at Winter rather than me but it still got my hackles up.

‘Don’t let him get to you,’ Winter told me in an undertone.

‘Am I being that obvious?’

‘When you’re pissed off, the tips of your ears turn red.’ I stared at him. He shrugged. ‘It’s rather adorable.’

Unable to help myself, I grinned. ‘I bet you never thought you’d call me that when we first met.’

‘Oh,’ he murmured, ‘there are many things I’ve changed my mind about where you’re concerned, Ivy.’

Something about the way he said my name made me feel very warm and very happy. At this rate, I’d be licking the soles of his feet and begging to be taken to the gym to lift weights and half kill myself. What a horrific thought.

We were almost at the corner of the room marked ‘Records’ when the door to Adeptus Price’s office opened and the man himself appeared. He seemed even scrawnier than last time. He shambled over to us as if he had all the time in the world. ‘Adeptus Exemptus Winter,’ he said, waving his arms expansively. ‘And … companion. Ms…’ He paused. Considering that he was the head of HR and I was the subject of a meeting he had attended three days ago where he was blamed for my recruitment, I expected him to remember my name.