Mac tore open the bag of crisps. “I’m a genius, what can I say?”
“There are bowls in the kitchen,” I said. “Freshly washed, even.”
Mac disappeared into the kitchen as Cordelia appeared on the windowsill, her little nose twitching. Kebabs?
“Yes, Cordelia.”
Excellent. She trundled over to the couch and climbed up to sit between Eve and Seraphia. They must have met earlier, when Cordelia had delivered the book to Eve, because Seraphia took it in stride.
“I can’t find them,” Mac called.
I joined her in the kitchen and fished the bowls out of the tiny cupboard, pointing with my elbow at the little fridge. “There’s some wine in there, if you want to grab it.”
“Do I? It would be pure barbarism to have a girls’ night without wine, even one that’s aimed at solving an ancient deadly mystery and will involve—unfortunately—no drunken antics.”
I grinned and filled the bowls with crisps, then took them out to the living room and handed them around. Mac joined me and passed out the mini boxes of wine, pouring Cordelia a smaller serving in a cup. Cordelia glared at her.
Mac couldn’t understand Cordelia when she talked, but the look was easy to read.
“Hey, don’t blame me.” Mac raised her hands. “You have the lowest body weight, and I’m just doing the maths. We don’t need an unconscious raccoon on our hands.”
Cordelia scoffed and drank her wine.
I sipped my wine and contemplated everything we’d learned. Everything I’d learned since my arrival. “You know what’s weird?”
“What?” Mac asked.
“There are no misfits in Guild City. Everyone ascribes to a guild, or they get booted. No weirdos allowed.”
She shrugged. “Those are the rules.”
“Yeah, but there are misfits in the rest of the world. It’s strange that there are none here. Seems like it should be impossible.”
Mac frowned. “That’s a good point.”
“It’s always been the way of things,” Eve said. “It helps hide us and protect us if everyone has to be in a guild and follow the rules.”
“But surely a few weirdos wouldn’t throw off the whole magical system. I mean, they’d still have to control their signatures, right?” I asked.
“Right.” Seraphia pulled her knees up to her chest. “You know, Carrow, you’re right. It is very odd. We try to shove everyone into a box and stick them in a guild, but what if they don’t really fit?”
“They get kicked out of town.” Mac’s words were a growl. “It’s bloody unfair.”
“Who made these rules, anyway?” I asked.
“That guy, Councilor Rasla, from the statue you saw earlier today,” Seraphia said.
“The one with bird shit all over his head?” I asked.
Mac grinned. “The very same.”
“So he’s the one who laid the foundation of exclusion in Guild City.”
“Yes.” Eve sipped her wine. “Though I’ve never thought much of it before now. When you grow up with something, you tend to accept it and not to look too closely at it. It’s just part of life.”
I didn’t like it. Not only because I wasn’t included in a guild, but because it seemed wrong. As wrong as the cursed magic that hovered around the city wall. “Why do you think the darkness in the wall called to me?”
Mac’s gaze flicked to mine. “Now, don’t go thinking you’re secretly evil or anything. Because you’re not.”