It took every ounce of my self-restraint to keep my nose from wrinkling. “Shall I take your word for it, then?”

“Get her cleaned up, let her sober up a little, and you will see.”

“I mean no offense,” Brahm said, “but it’ll take more than a hot bath and a stiff cup of coffee to solve this girl’s problems.”

Tashiana grimaced and shifted her burden. Brigette’s head lolled against her shoulder. “You asked me for a powerful Magician, and I’ve found one for you. Beggars can’t be choosers.”

Brahm opened his mouth to protest, but I signaled for quiet. “I don’t know you, Tashiana, but Brahm trusts you, and I trust him... mostly. I’m not saying I’m hiring this girl, but I’m willing to give her a chance.”

“She might not even want the job,” Brahm said. “It’s not like we can ask her.”

I touched his arm the way I’d touch an agitated horse. “We can, once she’s sober, fed, washed, and rested. If she says no, we’ll send her on her way.”

“Back here?” He jabbed a finger at the store and its filthy interior. “She’ll be dead in no time if she keeps this up.”

“Then maybe you can find a job for her like you did for Gideon’s father, at the Schulzes’ halfway home for people who have trouble coping with the world.”

He shot me a dark look.

“She’s not in this state for the fun of it.” I shoved my hands on my hips. “I doubt she’s like this because she’s a horrible person with moral failings, either.”

Tashiana snorted. “What do you know about addiction, girl?”

“Nothing.” I rolled a shoulder. “But I’ve stood on the edge of a deep crevasse of desperation before. Luckily some kind people were there to help me cross it without falling in. Maybe no one was there for Brigette when she needed a bridge.”

“I was there.” Tashiana raised her chin. “I’ve been there for her the whole time. She’s only alive because of me.”

“Who is she to you?”

“My sister.”

Her answer surprised me, but with the shape Brigette was in, it would’ve been impossible to identify a family resemblance. Her coloring was lighter than Tashiana’s, but that meant nothing. It wasn’t uncommon for family lineage to affect siblings differently.

“What’s happened for her to wind up in such a state?” Brahm asked.

“It is the Magic. Gives her headaches—the debilitating kind. She cannot cure the pain with Magic because it only makes it worse, so she self-medicates. It is a bad cycle. I have done all I know to do for her. Maybe someone else can do what I could not.”

“You’re clearly a kind spirit.” I patted Tashiana’s shoulder. “I knew I liked you.”

She harrumphed and waved off my compliment, but when Brahm took Brigette from Tashiana’s arms, the warrior woman gave him a brief smile. “Be good to her. She is fragile.”

I gathered Adaleiz’s reins and untied her lead from a hitching post. “If she accepts my offer, I’ll send you a message so you can say goodbye to her before we go.”

Tashiana shook her head, long braids flaring around her shoulders. “I’ve said goodbye to her already. She knows where to find me if she needs me.”

Neither Brahm nor I wanted to make the long trip back to the Schulzes’ estate carrying an unconscious woman, so I left Brigette with Brahm and searched for a driver on a busier thoroughfare. I found a carriage for hire and ordered the driver to take me back to the apothecary shop. Brahm loaded Brigette onto the seat across from me and gave her a piteous look before backing away. “I’m afraid we might’ve bitten off more than we can chew.”

“I’m afraid you might be right.” I tugged the door shut, swept aside the privacy curtain, and watched Brahm mount his tired old horse. Adaleiz followed when he tugged her reins, but the carriage sped up, leaving them behind.

I closed the curtain and studied the wreck of a girl across from me, lying limp, unaware, snoring as loudly as a dozen fat houseflies. “You’re probably trouble, Brigette. But maybe you’ll also be a blessing in disguise.”

***

With some strong encouragement from me, Brahm agreed to have his footman, Ernst, carry Brigette to my room while he headed off his sister. Ernst and I scurried up a set of back stairs, as quiet as mice, and hurried Brigette into my room. I didn’t know what Hannah would think of us bringing the shabby little Magician into her home, and I preferred to avoid that confrontation if possible.

“Let her have the bed, Ernst,” I said.

He laid her down as though she were made of glass, and I drew a blanket over her.

“Think we ought to start a fire for her, m’lady?” He nodded at the empty fireplace. “She looks like the sort who wouldn’t be warm, even in the dead of summer.”

I understood what he meant. Skin and bones were hardly enough insulation to keep a body warm, but the room felt stuffy. On my own, I would have opened a window and encouraged a breeze. “How about a pot of tea instead? I’ll give her another blanket if she’s cold when she wakes.”

He bobbed a bow, and as he retreated from the room, Malita and Niffin stepped in to take his place. Niffin passed me a pair of folded spectacles. “We saw Brahm. He said to give these to you.”

“Did you see Hannah?”

Malita’s gaze flitted to her feet. “We have been, um, hiding from her.”

Niffin showed none of the self-restraint I’d been exercising as he inspected my newest companion. His lip curled, and his nose crinkled. “Is this a Magician or an old bag of rags and bones you found in someone’s rubbish pile?”

“Shush.” I shot him a sharp look. “She’s sleeping, not dead. I don’t know if she’s what we’re looking for, but I won’t start out having her believe we think badly of her.”

“She is sick?” Malita crouched beside the bed and stroked a frizzy curl back from the girl’s brow. “She looks like death.”

“It’s a long story.” I motioned to my seating area. “I’ll tell you what I know so far.”

Malita and Niffin sat while I perched at the foot of the bed and rehashed the morning’s events. Ernst returned with another servant, bringing two pots of tea and trays loaded with cups, sandwiches, and an assortment of cakes and pastries.

He set the items on a small table in the seating area, shooed the other servant out, and bowed toward me. “Anything else, m’lady?”

“Thank you, Ernst. If we need anything, I’ll call for you.”

He retreated from the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

Niffin sniffed at the sandwich tray while I poured a steaming cup of tea, added a heavy dose of sugar and cream, and shoved the cup under the Magician’s nose. If I were more patient and nurturing, I would have let Brigette sleep, but I was neither of those things.

“Brigette?” I pushed the tea closer to her face, letting the steam envelop her nose and cheeks. “Wake up, please. We need to talk.”

Her eyelids fluttered, but she remained insentient.

“Brigette.” I shoved her shoulder. “Wake up. The world is on fire.”

One eye peeled open, glazed and unfocused. “Go away.”

“Not until you wake up.”

“Who...?”