Playing Hooky
An Inkling of Magic - Chapter 20
Elspeth closed her eyes and let out a sigh when she flopped down onto the familiar armchair. Though it had been less than it week, it felt like a lifetime ago since she'd last enjoyed it's comfort. It was funny though. This had been her sanctuary away from Derek and here she was taking refuge in it with Derek.
“Comfortable?” The amusement in his tone was so thick that Elspeth could easily imagine the smirk and raised eyebrow that accompanied it.
Time was that that tone would have annoyed her, but she was startled to find that her first reaction was the desire to stick her tongue out at him like she would have had Kieran or Farren have said it.
Her eyes popped open and she swallowed thickly. “Very.” Her voice overly chipper and shaking a little as she fought to rein in the unsettled feeling the realization had stirred up.
Despite the war raging inside of her every time they were together and he pushed her to trust him just a little more, it was starting to feel easy around him – not comfortable per se, Derek had a knack for making her feel unbalanced, but familiar. Familiar enough that he had somehow picked the lock to the chains she had wrapped around her tongue and she was finding herself falling into the same pattern of banter that was reserved for but a special few.
Derek's eyes narrowed, his brow creasing as he studied her face. “Are you alright, Elspeth?”
She didn't know what was worse. The fact that either she had gotten so accustomed to reading him that she could now easily pick up on the concern written in his eyes and lingering in his voice or that he no longer seemed to be all that interested in hiding how he felt in front of her. Oh, he was still very unclear and cryptic as to what he felt, but that he felt anything wasn't a secret anymore. While impassive Derek might have been frustrating and unnerving, Elsepth was learning that emotional Derek was downright frightening.
“Yeah, I'm fine,” she hastened to assure him, shoving aside the conflicted mess he was making of her own emotions, “but we'd best get started if we're to get back to school in time to avoid that confrontation with Kieran. Even if he doesn't confront us, which I fully expect him to do if he gets wind of us playing hooky, he might put a bug in Farren's ear about it.” The thought of her brother made Elspeth flinch. “And that's another problem. Farren's declared he'll be picking me up from school today. He's been acting...oddly...since I went radio silence on him yesterday thanks to our little drive into the boonies.”
She could tell in his eyes that he didn't believe her, but he didn't press it. Instead, Elspeth watched as Derek sauntered over to pluck one of the cushions that she had discarded from its resting place and proceeded to place it on the ground beside her chair with another cushion braced against the bookshelf and sat on it. Then, leaning back with his legs crossed at the ankles, Derek pulled out the folded sheets of paper from inside the black leather jacket Elsepth rarely saw him without and extended them to her, his eyes locked on hers.
She reached out to take them, but he didn't let go. His voice was as soft and smooth as velvet when he spoke. “For the record, neither your lapdog nor guard dog worry me, but, for your sake, I'll play nice this one time.” He paused, an impish little grin spreading across his face that just promised trouble. “Well, I'll try anyway, but I make no promises it'll be successful.”
~...~...~...~...~...~
Elspeth frowned and flipped the stapled pages over again. It couldn't be. She'd lost track of how many times they'd gone over them already looking for anything that stood out about the places that had been broken into other than their connection of books. She nearly tore one of the pages when she frantically turned them over again and again in rapid succession staring at the names printed there.
Derek straightened when he heard her gasp. “What is it?”
She stared at the list in front of her. How could she have missed it?
“Elspeth?” Derek asked when didn't say anything.
Elspeth swallowed hard, her eyes still fixed on the name that had first jumped out at her. “I...I think I might know what the break-ins have in common. At least some of them any way.”
“And?”
Her mind went numb and it was as if her tongue had forgotten how to work. Vaguely, Elspeth was aware of the buzzing coming from her backpack on the other side of the chair, but she kept on staring at the list willing herself to be wrong. A hand touched her shoulder and another beneath her chin before it carefully tilted her face up until she was met by a pair of worry-filled, green eyes looking down at her.
She blinked when she saw Derek standing over her, his place on the floor abandoned in favour of examining her. It finally snapped her out of her daze and she opened her mouth to say something when the buzzing she thought she'd heard before sounded again.
“Ignore it,” Derek said when her eyes flicked to where she'd dumped her backpack.
“It's probably –”
He snorted and rolled his eyes. “Of course it is. Ignore it anyway. Now what did you find that made you zone out like that?”
“He's not going to go away you know.”
“No, and neither am I. Now, will you stop avoiding my question?” Derek asked, raising an dark eyebrow at her expectantly. If there was one thing Elspeth was learning about Derek, it was that he refused to back down once his stubborn determination set in which, judging from his exasperated tone and the way he was now staring her down, it had.
“My parents.”
She watched as a look of confusion passed over his face. “What do your parents have to do with a series of attempted burglaries?”
Elspeth hesitated, but it was much too late to turn back now. “They're antique dealers remember?”
“I remember. Go on,” he said, giving her an encouraging nod.
Her eyes dropped from his to the sheets her fingers were now fidgeting with. “Well, while most antique dealers will have a passing, broad spectrum knowledge across various types of antiques, they will only have a couple of areas in which they particularly specialize in. My mom's specialties are in fashion, jewellery, and silver, but my dad...” she took a deep breath, “my dad specializes in furniture, lighting, and...and books.”
“You recognized some of the names on the list.” It was more of a statement than a question.
Elspeth shook her head. “Not some, all of them.”
She heard him suck in a breath. “All?”
Elspeth raised her head to look at him and almost flinched at the mask his face had donned. It wasn't exactly impassive, but it was cold and reeked of danger as it didn't quite extend to his eyes which had darkened once again and burned with what she could only describe as resolve. But resolve for what?
Realizing that she was starting to stare, she shook herself out of her daze and nodded. “All. Here, let me show you.” Scooting forward to the edge of her chair, she quickly flipped to the first sheet and turned them so he could see them.
Derek crouched down to get a better look when she pointed to a name.
“This one here, Roderick Harcord, my parents sold him a rare, second edition of some book of poetry from the late 1700s. And this one? Garrett Solendmire? He purchased an obscure history book from 1843. And Alice Inglewicke bought a leatherbound with gilt edges, 1814 edition of the Grimms' Fairy Tales. Not as valuable as a first edition, mind you, but still a very early copy nonetheless.” Elspeth paused her excitable soliliquising when she heard Derek chuckling and raised her head. “What?” Her eyes narrowing at the odd spark of mirth in his eyes.
A smile pulled at the corners of his lips. “Do you always remember what your parents have bought and sold in such specific detail?”
“Yes.” This time Elspeth did stick her tongue out at him and immediately wished that she hadn't.
He laughed and the spark in his eye only grew. Whether from her action or response, she didn't know, but that playful almost predatory look was back in his eyes that she never knew how to deal with.
“You're mocking me.”
Derek stopped laughing, but the look in his eyes never dimmed. He shook his head. “No, this might surprise you, but I actually find it rather endearing.”
Her breath hitched. It did surprise her and, more than that, it frightened her. Why does he keep looking at me like that?
“Anyway,” she continued, trying to get things back on track and to ignore the mixed feelings he was stirring up, “the point is that every individual on this list is either someone that my parents have sold to or bought from within the last five years.”
He frowned. “And what about the stores?”
“It's the same there. My dad loves picking up an undervalued gem from a dealer that doesn't know what they have,” Elspeth replied. “He's also sold a great many things to them too. Usually more along the lines of furnishings for their stores rather than books for their inventory, but he does that too on occasion if there's a profit in it. The only ones on this list that my parents haven't had any dealings with are the libraries because my dad will have an absolute fit over the condition issues if he sees a beautiful, old book marred by a library property stamp, dogged ears, and the scribblings of a delinquent patron's two-year-old. And that's to say nothing of the mystery stains that might have been the remains of someone's lunch, torn pages, missing pages, card pocket or date slip glued to the back of the book, or the smells better left unidentified.”
Derek's frown deepened, his eyes clouding over as he looked deep in thought. There was a serious note in his voice when he broke his silence. “Did Mr. Grimmlich ever buy from your parents?”
Elspeth hesitated, her throat as tight as a clogged drain. Her thoughts immediately flew to the worn, leather chair at the front desk. There were a number of other items too that she'd spied around the place that she recognized as items her parents had sold. In fact, come to think of it, Mr. Grimmlich was probably one of their best customers.
“He did, didn't he, Elspeth?”
“Yes,” she croaked out.
A heavy sigh rushed out of him as Derek rose and started pacing their little corner store. “This changes things. We knew they had to be looking for something in particular, but I'd just assumed the only connection between where they hit was that they all carried large collections of books.”
Mid turn, his feet suddenly froze in place and Elspeth thought she saw his face grow a little paler. The flecks of gold in his eyes were so bright it was like there was storm raging in them. His whole body had gone tense. “This also means that you might be in even more danger than we thought.”
“Me? But if it's my parents –”
He cut her off. “Who aren't here right now, remember?”
She snorted. “Of course I remember, but how did you know they were gone?”
A smirk played on his lips as he raised an eyebrow at her.
Elspeth rolled her eyes. “Right. Stalker.”
“Protector.”
“Yes, you're a real faery godfather,” she snarked, but though her voice dripped sarcasm like a hive dripped honey Elspeth couldn't quite hold back her smile at his defensive huff.
She thought he might protest the moniker, but the indignant squawk that she'd been expecting never came. Instead, chancing a look at him, she found a soft, satisfied looking smile on his face which didn't immediately vanish when he realized she was watching him again.
What on earth are you doing bandying words with a fae, Els? Elspeth scolded herself when it morphed into his signature smirk and he tossed her a wink. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks and she knew that, if there were a mirror about at that moment, she would see her face had taken on a deep crimson hue.
“Moving on,” she said with a cough, “what does all that have to do with me? Wouldn't it make more sense for them to go after my parents?”
“Maybe,” Derek conceded, a dark scowl on his face, “but whoever we're dealing with has already sent a mngwa after you once and I'm quite certain that, at some point, they'll try again. Especially if they think you know anything about your parents' business dealings, which, as you've just demonstrated to me, you do.”
Elspeth stiffened when she saw the way his eyes all of a sudden lit up and his scowl slowly transformed into a toothy grin. “Oh no! Whatever it is you're thinking, Derek, just no.”
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Elspeth groaned when they pulled into the school's parking lot to see the floodgates of students yearning for freedom had been opened and they were spilling out and running all over like a stampede of half-crazed goats.
“Farren is going to kill me,” she moaned, as they slowly tooled around looking for a parking space.
“Not to worry, you'll have me by your side,” Derek said, not at all bothered by the fact that they were about to get caught having skipped an entire day's classes by the one person least likely to be understanding about it. To make matters worse, from his tone, Elspeth was pretty sure he was enjoying all this.
She snorted. “Oh yes, because that will make it sooo much better when Farren finds out that, not only did I skip school, I spent it with the one guy that is most likely to make him blow a gasket on sight.”
He grinned. “Exactly, he'll be so focused on his hatred of me, that he may even forget about you entirely. I'm sure he'll make all sorts of insignificant threats and he may even change a shade or two in colour.”
She shook her head as the car came to a stop and he turned it off. Yup. He was enjoying it. This was going to be very, very bad.
Before she had even unbuckled her seat belt, Derek was out of the car and opening the door for her. With his hand held out to her, she was tempted to swat it away, but they were already drawing curious glances as people walked past them. In for a penny, in for a pound, Elspeth sighed silently to herself before accepting his hand and saying out loud, “Maybe it would be better if I faced the music on my own.”
“Nonsense,” Derek scoffed, “I got you into this, I'll stand by you through it.”
“You should at least let go of my hand before he sees us like this,” Elspeth said when he didn't release her hand after helping her out of his car. “He might get the wrong idea.”
He smirked and started walking, tugging her along with him.
“Derek...you said you'd play nice,” she warned.
“No, I said I'd try, and don't worry, I'm sure I'll see him before he sees us,” he said.