Scholar of Decay by Tanya Huff

him, not in Aurek.
    Louise heard the jealousy in his voice and hid a smile. “He frightens me,” she said.
    From the shrubbery, the white wererat stared at her cousin with open-mouthed admiration. The little Nuikin didn’t stand a chance.
    “He spoke to me at Joelle’s party,” Louise continued, her hands clutching Dmitri’s in heated entreaty. “And there’s a taint of …” Her grip tightened, and she delivered her final pronouncement with no trace of self-consciousness. “… wizardry about him.”

    It wasn’t until he stepped out over the ruins of the door that Aurek realized the hour had grown so late. The sun had obviously set some time before, and evening had nearly been overtaken by night. He shrugged his pack higher on his shoulders and carefully made his way down the crumbling townhouse stairs. There were families—or at the very least, people—living in the houses on either side, but the building he’d searched was empty. All the buildings he searched were empty. Apparently, the traces of power that drew him kept others away.
    “Have you found anything of interest?” inquired a silken voice from the shadows.
    His heart beating a little faster, Aurek turned and waited as Jacqueline Renier approached. She burned in the dusk like a black flame, and he wondered how many moths had scorched their wings flying too close. “I would have informed you if I had,” he told her flatly, keeping any and all reaction completely hidden.
    “Good. I appreciate a man who remembers his commitments.” Falling into step beside him, she shot him an enigmatic look from under thick lashes. “But after all this time, you must have found something?”
    “Little things,” he admitted. “Broken things.” Her silence seemed to pull a further explanation from him. “Today, I found a mirror.” Whole, it would have been used for simple scrying. “Or, if you prefer, I found pieces of a mirror.”
    “Which you left where they were.”
    “I have no interest in mirrors.” His lips pressed to a thin line, he waited for her to ask him where his interests lay.
    But after a long pause, all she said was, “I can see that. You’re growing a beard.”
    Aurek felt as though something had just slipped through hisfingers, but he had no idea what it might have been. Until this moment, he’d had no doubt that Jacqueline Renier would take full advantage of any opening he might give her.
    They walked together in an almost companionable silence and once, when a number of paving stones had disappeared from their path, leaving a rough and shallow hole, Aurek held out his arm, forgetting for that instant just who exactly he was with. Jacqueline looked down at the bend of his elbow in some astonishment, then, with a gurgle of laughter, allowed him to help her over the break.
    At the bridge to Lacheur Island, she stopped, and he realized that she wasn’t going to accompany him across. “You’re a fascinating man, Aurek Nuikin, and not much fascinates me anymore.” Her manner bordered on friendly as she extended her gloved hand.
    He took it, and lightly brushed his lips over the knuckles. Get your sister away from my brother. The words hung in the back of his throat, but something stopped him from voicing them. The last thing he wanted to do was direct Jacqueline’s attention to Dmitri. He found himself saying instead, “I was wondering, who took that piece out of Louise’s ear?”
    “I did.” Jacqueline smiled at the memory. It wasn’t a pleasant smile. “An uncle once said he couldn’t tell us apart. Now he can.”
    She withdrew her hand, half turned, and murmured, “I hear that your wife is dead. How sad.” When he made no reply, she added, “I’m sure you did all you could to prevent such an unfortunate … accident.”
    Natalia. He closed his eyes for an instant to deal with the sudden overwhelming feeling of guilt, and when he opened them again, Jacqueline was an impossible distance away. He watched, almost