So I told him what Marrow had told me. He didn’t say anything when I finished. I held my breath, counting the beat of our footsteps as we walked along. We’d opted to take the tunnels to avoid the crappy November weather outside.
I hadn’t wanted to come down here ever again after what happened to Mr. Ankil, but it wasn’t so bad with Paul beside me. That was until I’d been confronted with his silence. Our footsteps were too loud. The rush of the canal water running parallel to the walking path sounded eerie, like the moan of a tortured ghost.
“So,” I said, unable to stand it any longer, “you think I’m a freak, don’t you?”
Paul stopped and faced me. He cupped my chin with his hands. “You’re kidding, right?”
I shook my head as much as his hold on my face would allow. His grip was firm but not hard. He bent his head toward mine. When he kissed me, the dark dreariness of the tunnels disappeared in an onslaught of tingly heat that rushed through my body from head to toe. My mind emptied as physical sensation took over. I’d heard the expression “getting lost in a kiss” before, but I never knew what that meant until now.
It was by far the longest kiss we’d shared and still it didn’t last long enough. I sighed as he pulled away.
“No,” he said, and for a moment I had no idea what he was talking about. My brain had come unhinged from reality. “I don’t think you’re a freak.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good.”
“Besides,” he said as we started walking again. “I’m sure you’ve heard what I am by now.”
I flinched at the bitterness in his voice. “Halfkind.”
“That’s right.” He looked over at me. “Who told you?”
“Selene.”
“I figured. Her mom works as a secretary in my uncle’s office. Bit of a gossipmonger.”
I felt I ought to say something in defense of my best friend’s mother, but since I didn’t know Mrs. Rivers, I decided not to. I knew better than anybody how different from our parents we could be. And how alike, sometimes.
“They call me a mule,” Paul said. “Like I’m too stubborn to learn magic. Or too dumb.” He touched a finger to his brow and in a self-mocking voice said, “Or maybe I’m too smelly. Real mules stink, right?”
I let out a fake laugh. I knew he was trying to make light of it, but there was no disguising the resentment I sensed in his words.
Paul shrugged. “It’s all good. I may not be able to do magic, but I can do things with a computer most magickind couldn’t imagine.”
“That’s right, Mr. MIT bound.”
“Hopefully MIT bound.”
“I have faith.” I squeezed his hand. “And I don’t care that you can’t do magic.”
He squeezed back. “I know.”
We walked on for a few minutes in silence.
“Okay,” Paul said sometime later and in a voice considerably brighter. “I’d really like to help you with your investigation—be more involved. That is, if your partners don’t mind.”
I glanced up at him and saw a playful smile on his face. “I don’t know,” I said, teasing back. “We’re doing so well on our own obviously. What makes you think you’ll be much help?”
Paul tilted his head. “Well, my uncle is a magistrate, and I have easy access to his house.”
“So?”
“So … I also happen to be pretty good at snooping, too, and at hacking into personal computer files. Maybe I can find something useful.”
I stopped walking. “Hack Magistrate Kirkwood’s computer?”
Paul turned toward me. He let go of my hand only to take hold of my shoulders. He began to rub my arms up and down. “Sure, why not?”
It was hard to stay focused with him touching me like that. “Uh, maybe because he’d be really pissed if he found out?”
Paul grinned, but there wasn’t any humor in it. “Just so happens that pissing him off is one of my favorite pastimes.”
“Oh, yeah, how come?”
“Because he hates me.” He said it in the same joking voice, but I detected that bitterness again.
I put my hand on his chest. “Why do you think that?”
“It’s true. I’m a mule, you see, an utter disgrace to the family name. Honestly, I’m surprised they even let me use it.”
I didn’t laugh at his feeble attempt at humor this time. I was thinking about the fall he’d taken down the stairs that put him in the hospital. But the idea that Paul’s uncle hated him enough to give him a little accidental push was absurd. “Well, in that case, what do you think you can find out?”
“Hmmm, well, I’d like to say the identity of the third Keeper, but I doubt it. The separate kinds make a habit of hiding that sort of stuff from one another. I imagine the only people who know are the person himself and maybe a few of the darkkind senators. I’d bet even Consul Vanholt doesn’t know.”
I sighed. It would’ve been useful information. “Okay, so what else then?”
“I might be able to find out the details of the Keeper spell, the mechanics of how it works.”
“Sweet. I mean, I guess that’s a good enough reason to include you in the investigation.”
He pulled me into a hug. “I’m sure you won’t regret it.” Then he pushed me away from him just enough so that he could look down at my face. “But is there anything else I should look for?”