Read Online Alex Verus 5: Hidden by Benedict Jacka - Free Book Online

inventory.
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    L una stayed in her room for the rest of the day—strictly speaking it’s not “her” room, but it’s the only spare bedroom and now that Anne and Variam don’t live here anymore she’s the only one who uses it. I was less than halfway through the items by the time the sun had set, and was just debating whether to put in a couple more hours or leave it to another day when Luna reappeared in the doorway. “Can you get through to Anne?” she asked.
    “I have no idea.”
    “Check.”
    I wanted to tell Luna to go away, but something in her voice made me glance at her, and the look in her eyes changed my mind. I took out my phone and studied it. “She’s not going to answer.”
    “She hasn’t been picking up all day.”
    “So maybe she left her phone off.”
    “She
never
leaves her phone off, and if she does she always calls back. Even if she doesn’t want to talk she leaves a message.”
    I opened my mouth, but Luna cut me off. “Look, I’ve talked to Anne more than you have. The only times I’ve ever seen her do something like this is when something’s wrong. I want to go and check up on her.”
    I looked at the pile of uninventoried items. “Can it wait?”
    “No,” Luna said. “I’m worried and I’m going to her flat. Coming?”
    “Why should I come?”
    “Because I think something’s happened to her,” Luna said. “And if I’m right, then it’ll be dangerous. You’re my master so you’re supposed to protect me, and the only way you can do that is if you come too.”
    “How about I just order you not to go?”
    “I only have to follow your orders when I’m acting as your apprentice. You can’t order me not to visit my friends.”
    “You just
said
it might be dangerous and that you’d need my help.”
    “So you agree it’s dangerous?”
    “No! There’s no reason to believe it’s dangerous!”
    “Well, in that case, you shouldn’t mind me going, should you? You know, to the place you just agreed might be dangerous. And if I do just decide to go, you can’t actually stop me. So you can let me go off on my own to something you’re supposed to be protecting me from, or you can come too.” Luna looked at me expectantly. “Up to you.”
    I stared at her.
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    “Y ou are the most annoying apprentice I’ve ever met,” I told Luna fifteen minutes later.
    We were in a taxi heading south, the rain drumming on the roof as the wipers swept back and forth across the windscreen. Other cars swooshed past, their lights turning them into luminous ghosts though the curtain of water. The taxi driver, a heavyset man with close-cropped black hair, had taken one look as we got in and wisely elected to keep his mouth shut.
    “You can shout at me afterwards,” Luna said. She was in the backseat and looking out at the rain.
    “Why did I get stuck with you? Everyone else gets apprentices who do as they’re told.”
    “Right, like you did?”
    We would have kept arguing, but the presence of the taxi driver put a lid on how much we could say and the argument tailed off into silence, which was probably for the best. Luna kept staring out the window as we crossed London.
    The weather hadn’t improved by the time we reached Honor Oak. I paid the driver and watched the taxi disappear into the rain. “So now what?” Luna asked. She’d brought along a big golf umbrella and was quite dry. The umbrella was more than big enough to share, except that her curse meant that I couldn’t get close enough and had to stand out in the rain getting wet instead, which seemed highly unfair.
    “Wait out here and watch the door,” I said shortly. The weather wasn’t improving my mood. “I’ll check her flat and then we’ll go.” I headed for the building without waiting for an answer.
    Once I was inside, I shook water out of my hair and started upstairs. I hadn’t path-walked to see what would happen when I