Xiaofan nodded but didn’t speak. She was still looking warily after Caldera.

I followed Caldera out. Xiaofan shut the door behind me, and I heard the sound of the lock.

| | | | | | | | |

“Okay, what the hell was that?” Caldera said as soon as we were together out on the street.

“You were pushing her too hard.”

“That’s not your call to make.” We were a few shops down, out in the bustle of the street; Caldera stopped by a postbox and pointed a finger at me. “You are not in charge. You do not get to cut me off like that.”

“She’s my friend, not yours. The only reason we were there was because I know her.”

“I don’t care! You don’t act like that, ever. Clear?”

“Okay,” I said. “You remember when I said that you should be nice to her because she’s had issues with mages? Do you want me to explain why I told you to stop and why the way you were acting was a bad idea, or do you want me to stand here while you shout at me?”

Caldera glared at me for a few seconds longer, then turned and started walking down the street. “This better be good.”

I caught Caldera up and matched her pace. “I met Xiaofan last February,” I said. “She’d come over from China only a little while before. Her English was bad and the most marketable skill she had was her object reading, so she tried to make a living with that. That brought her into contact with mages, and somewhere along the line she met a Dark mage called Pyre. Know the guy?”

“Vaguely. Dark mage based in London.”

“Yeah, well, in Dark society he’s got a reputation for other things. Remember Torvald, Mr. I-Don’t-Take-Rejection-Well? Pyre’s kind of the less-nice version of Torvald. I did some investigating and it turns out he’s had quite a few girlfriends who were adepts and sensitives. A handful of them seem to have disappeared. Funny coincidence—the disappearances always came right after they turned Pyre down or broke up with him.”

Caldera was silent, and I knew she’d figured out where the conversation was going. “So Xiaofan tried to break things off with Pyre,” I said. “He didn’t like it. Xiaofan saw the way things were going and tried to get help. Went to a bunch of Keepers, they all turned her down. Pyre wasn’t breaking the Concord, nothing they could do. You know the story.”

“Yeah,” Caldera said. Her anger had blown over. “I remember the guy now. He’s had a bunch of warnings, but . . .”

“Yeah, well. Xiaofan’s got a regular job nowadays, so she doesn’t have to work with mages anymore. And given what happened last time she got too close to them, I don’t think it’s that surprising that she wants to keep her distance.”

We walked a little way in silence. “And?” Caldera said.

“And what?”

“You just said she doesn’t like working with mages,” Caldera said. “Looked like she got on fine with you.”