Chains of Silver (Alchemy Empire Book 1)

Chapter 12a

This was a very long chapter, all one scene, so I have broken it into two pieces. You'll get the first part today and the rest of the scene next Thursday. If it seems to end abruptly, that's why. 

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We ended up stopping at our separate rooms before we left the theater. Dietrich didn’t want to go out in public looking so disheveled, and I wanted to grab my little goddess torch. We met again at the apprentice entrance to the theater, where we scanned ourselves out through the bio monitor.

“I hear you invented this,” he commented as the machine scanned his finger.

“Before, we had a door monitor, but that meant having someone staff the door every evening. Master Fenrey thought it would be good to have better security. Especially after what happened to me.”

“I suppose that makes sense.” It was almost a question, as if he were waiting for more information.

He’d be waiting a long time. I shrugged. “Not really. I went down the fire escape.”

I felt his eyes on me, but he didn’t say anything more.

Once we were on the street, I gave him a once-over. He had changed into a black frock coat, dark blue waistcoat, and dark gray trousers. A freshly-tied cravat and a top hat finished the outfit. I felt dowdy in comparison, but an apprentice couldn’t afford the luxury of separate outfits for day and evening. And it didn’t matter—where I was taking him there wouldn’t be many people to see.

“You clean up nicely.” 

“Thank you.” His smile didn’t reach his eyes, but it seemed he was really trying to be sociable. “So are you going to tell me where we’re headed?”

“No.” I skipped ahead and walked backward in front of him. “If it wouldn’t have created a scandal, I would have blindfolded you and led you around in circles so that you wouldn’t be able to find it later on your own.”

“Like a bandit’s lair?”

“Exactly.”

The thought appeared to amuse him, which is exactly what I’d hoped. “If all bandits were so pretty, men would be signing up on lists to be robbed.”

  I fell in beside him again and lightly slapped his arm. “Oh, that was very smooth. I didn’t know you could flirt so well.”

He looked startled. “I don’t. I never flirt.” 

I thought about that a moment and realized it was true. “Why not?”

“I…” He frowned, his face suddenly looking almost childlike. “I don’t know how.”

That made me laugh. “You are a brilliant, and may I say, attractive genius-presul. How can you not know how?”

He shrugged, his face reddening. “You have to be light-hearted to flirt. I fear I am far too serious—more than is probably good for me.”

“You are rather intense.”

He gave me an ironic smirk. “You noticed.”

“But you have a quick wit and a true fondness for people. You could learn to flirt.”

He seemed amused by that. “You think I should?”

“Oh most definitely. Your education will never be fully complete until you are able to flirt.” I fluttered my eyelashes and made pouty kissy faces until he chuckled.

I pulled away from his side again and strode dramatically down the brick sidewalk. “Imagine—” I spread out my arms as if I were a storyteller drawing in my audience, “—you are three weeks out from a show and you suddenly decide that your set design will not do and you need to start over. If you’re good enough at flirting, your set designer will be happy to redo everything without killing you. So you see—flirting could save your life.”