“That’s fine. Pester all you like. Neediness is very attractive in a woman.”

“Well, do you respond to physical threats?” asked Kelly.

“When I’m being threatened by a lady with your figure – hell yes.”

Kelly laughed. “Oh God, a pervert magician. You’re an interesting one. Where do I meet you people?”

“The library, if memory serves me correctly. You were in the single-woman reading section.”

“It was the trashy romance section, I do believe.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, at least the staff room conversation will be interesting tomorrow.”

“It would be a lot less interesting if you knew the secret.”

“If you tell me, I’ll pay for dinner,” said Kelly, giving it one final shot.

“Fine,” agreed Cael. “The entire time you were scanning the menu, your eyes were looking away. When a person scans a food menu and subconsciously decides what they want, they bring that part of the menu to their front-and-center. That item dominates their direct field of vision and everything else around it is scenery. In your case, the chicken parmesan was directly in front of you, meaning you subconsciously wanted that. However, I think you’ve had it before, so you were facing an internal struggle over whether to experiment or stick with what you know. You chose the latter.”

Kelly sat in silence for a few seconds, impressed. “That’s quite amazing,” she said. “And here’s me just thinking you were a pervert.”

“Well, don’t discount that part of me just yet. Also, you don’t really have to pay for dinner. What kind of gentleman would that make me?”

Suddenly, Cael’s phone began to vibrate on the table. Kelly looked down.

“Someone named Tyler wants you. Is that one of your other women?”

“I wish,” said Cael. “That’s my, err, assistant.” He let the call go through to voicemail. Almost immediately, another message came through. Cael pulled his phone back to his side of the table.

2 NEW MESSAGES.

“I think that might be important,” said Kelly.

“He can wait. So, tell me-” Cael began before the messages on his screen grabbed his attention. He had accidentally opened them when he took the phone back.

The first message simply said: Get to Epping Forest. You’re going to want to see this.

The second was something else entirely. It was a photograph of a woman’s mutilated body, cut up like nothing Cael had seen in his life.

“Do you need to go?” asked Kelly.

Cael hesitated for a second. “I’m sorry. I do need to go. Can we perhaps rearrange?”

“Sure. You’re quite a character.