Mad Honey

Chapter Twelve

A soft hand closes around my wrist. I freeze.

"Leo?"

"I'm not your Leo. But, I could help you forget him, if you'd like?" A voice purrs. It's melodic, soothing. If the person behind me were a siren, all sailors would be in danger.

"No, no thank you." My words come out as a squeak. What's happening to me?

"Alrighty. Well, it sounds like you're looking for someone. May I help? I know this city."

"Why should you help me? We've never met." I can hear a little chuckle from behind me.

"You caught my eye. You're one of the girls from the school up on the hill right, the one that takes in prey and lets out huntresses?" Yes, that's exactly what they do. How does she know that? I whirl to question her, knife already slipped from the sleeve of my dress into my palm. I turn, and then can't move. Can't breathe. I just stare.

"Cat got your tongue?" Her voice is lilting still, but she stares at me like she's studying something. She's the most beautiful person I've ever seen. She has dark brown eyes and light brown skin, long shining black hair, full lips and an arched roman nose. I'm stuck. Focus girl, ask her what you were going to.

"How do you know about the academy?" She giggles.

"Calm down. They ask me to keep an eye out for people sometimes, and I've helped girls stationed here learn the ropes. But you're not supposed to be here, so something clearly went wrong." She's right. So she's beautiful and smart? I'm gonna have to leave right now, before I'm ensnared forever. I look back down at the ground and start to walk away. "Wait! I can help you. I'm awfully bored, save me from death by dullitity." I don't think that's a word but this girl might be able to help, and she's looking me right in the eye, pinning me to the spot. I don't think I can leave until she releases me from here gaze, so I nod. "Alright, what's happening?" I take a breath, and explain the whole thing. Ten minutes later I'm panting, out of breath, and she looks thoughtful.

"You said he was a poor student right?"

"Yes?"

"Well, if you're looking everywhere you would go, and you do well at the academy, it doesn't match up. This Leo wouldn't go where you would." She's right. She's right! I've been looking where I would go, not where he would. I begin to speak very quickly.

"Ok thank you so much, you're right, you saved me, thank you, I love you, goodbye!" I'm very flustered, and run very quickly out of the port, still hearing her giggle behind me.

I can hear drunken music streaming out of the tavern. It's now maybe four in the afternoon, and I'm right back where I started. Literally. Three floors underneath the jovial Dancing Blossom is where Leo and I have been living. It's the last place I would go if I escaped, but I'm not Leo. I crouch and tiptoe up to one of the stained glass windows, red with yellow glass flowers, and peer through. The people I can see are tinted pink, a few men enjoying drinks at the bar, Eloise serving plates of chips and stuffed apples, groups of boys shouting and laughing. Leo isn't in any of the boisterous groups, even he knows that would draw my attention. So I look to the corners, where small groups of quiet gentlemen bitch, but classily. There, almost directly across from this window, there's a boy with longish hair, seems to be talking to three others about his age, a brunette and two boys with black curls, one with long and one with short. All of them have pints of something on the table and a large assortment of food, especially in front of the blonde one. I roll my eyes and scoff. It might have been less than a feast at meals for Leo, but I didn't starve him, and my cooking is good, better than pub food. My mind shifts to thinking about a kind of scone I've been experimenting with, a goat cheese and strawberry bake and then I would drizzle - focus. How do I get in? I can't walk in the front door, he would see me right away and might try to flee, so I'm going to have to slip Eloise a few francs and get in. Then I have the problem of how to get him back to the apartment inconspicuously. He isn't weakened like last time, and we have an audience. I can't threaten him with a knife or hit him over the head, so what to do? His friends would know something is off if he went with a maid or a serving wench, but maybe . . . ?