Miss Semyaza,

After our meeting yesterday, I thought we had an understanding. Imagine my disappointment when I woke up and found our business paraded for spectacle upon the front page of Goetia’s most salacious rag.

“Most salacious rag,” she murmured, thinking she had chosen right in going to Grace.

Your loose tongue has drawn unfortunate attention to me, and the other heads of the Orders, particularly the Order of Azrael, are not amused. As you know, Chamuel is a gentle Order; however, I cannot speak for my brethren…

She understood a threat when she saw it and quickly read to the end. The letter concluded with a demand to present herself at his office within the hour, a laughable request, as he’d only given her today to clear Mariel’s name. She would not waste one precious minute being berated by him.

She stuffed the letter into her pocket and finished getting ready. The back door of the boardinghouse dumped her into an alley. She stayed to the back ways, avoided Elysium Street altogether, until she crossed Tartarus Street. She stayed on Tartarus until she could come down Perdition from the north. The hour was still early to call upon someone unexpectedly, but she found Zeke sitting on a crate in the alleyway between the still-shuttered Eden and the barn he called home and laboratory, a cup of coffee in his hand, the Howler on his knee, and a jaunty tune tripping from his lips. He looked up as she approached, and a smile spread like sunlight across his face.

“Celeste!”

“Zeke.” She returned his smile. “How are you?”

His face sobered. “I saw the paper, so the real question is, how are you?” He lifted the Howler. “It’s terrible what they say here. You’re going to get Mariel out, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she said firmly, as much for herself as for him.

“Good.” He looked around, sheepish. “Where are my manners? Can I offer you some coffee? Tea?”

“I’m fine.” Her eyes strayed to the barn behind him, the door slightly ajar.

He noticed, and his grin deepened. “Would you like to see inside?”

She had always been curious about Zeke’s inventions. He often talked about them on quiet afternoons at the Eden but had been cagey about allowing people into his laboratory to see. It was quite unexpected that he would ask her in now, but she suspected it had something to do with trying to cheer her up.

“I would be honored.”

He got to his feet and threw open the barn doors with a flourish. “Welcome to my imaginarium!”