Friday came, and Felix arrived at Acheron Deep before his scheduled session: same security procedures, same corridors, same flat expression on Gideon’s face.
The only thing different was that Felix wasn’t walking in empty-handed this time. He had a small stack of books tucked under one arm.
Gideon glanced at them. "Books?"
"Yep."
Gideon looked from Felix to the books. "Seraphina."
"She told me she likes reading."
"And you decided to bring her some."
"She needs something to do besides psychology texts."
Gideon just shook his head. "Good luck."
"Thanks. I’ll probably need it."
Seraphina was sitting on her bed when he stepped inside, yesterday’s psychology book lying beside her. Her eyes went to him, then to the stack under his arm, and stayed there a beat too long.
"Good morning."
"Morning." Her gaze didn’t move. "What are those?"
He carried them to the small table. "Books."
She gave him a flat look, unimpressed.
"You told me you like reading," he said. "So I brought you some."
She approached the table and studied the stack: a mystery novel, a historical account of some long-dead civilization, a collection of philosophy essays, a fantasy adventure, and a book on human behavior. She picked up the mystery novel.
"Why these?"
"Didn’t know what you liked. So I brought a bit of everything."
"You chose them?"
"Mostly. Asked the librarian for a few recommendations."
She looked back down at the stack, and something in her expression softened just slightly. Felix noticed and said nothing about it.
He sat instead. "Pick whichever one you want."
She weighed the options carefully before settling on the historical account.
He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
She nodded.
"Why that one?"
"It’s real."
"That’s your whole reason?"
"Fiction is written by people."
"So is history."
She glanced at him, and he laughed.
She opened it and read in silence, and Felix let her, watching her hands, the way she turned pages, the slight slowing whenever something caught her attention, the faint twitch of her eyebrows when she disagreed with something on the page. He was just learning her.
She closed the book eventually. "This author’s biased."
"You’ve read only a few pages."
"I noticed it on page six."
She reached for the mystery novel next. "This one?"
"Try it."
She read a few pages, then kept going. Five minutes passed, then ten, without a word from her.
Felix leaned back. "So?"
She didn’t look up. "Interesting."
"That sounds promising."
"Not enough evidence yet on whether the killer’s actually the person the author wants me to suspect."
She kept reading, and he kept watching. Yesterday had been about getting her to talk. Today was simpler, just giving her something to talk about and somehow, that was working even better.
She closed the book after a while. "You choose interesting things."
"Thank you."
She looked at the rest of the stack. "Will you bring more?"
"If you tell me what you like."
"I don’t know yet."
"Then we’ll figure it out."
Silence, and then a small nod. "Okay."
Felix settled back. "Let’s start simple. Do you like stories where the protagonist is just... good?"
She considered it. "No."
"I prefer complicated characters."
She looked down at the book in her lap, quiet for a moment before asking, "What do you like?"
"What?"
"Books."
"Oh." He thought about it. "Adventure, mostly."
She watched him more closely. "You like freedom."
He didn’t have an answer for that, and she went back to her book without pressing.
Eventually Felix checked the clock. "That’ll do for today."
She looked up. "You’re leaving?"
"Unfortunately." Her expression barely shifted, just a small flicker of disappointment underneath.
He stood, leaving everything on the table. "Keep the books."
"All of them?"
"Yep. You haven’t finished deciding what you like yet."
She stared at him a moment, then said quietly, "Thank you."
"You’re welcome." He turned for the door.
"See you next Thursday."
"See you," she murmured, barely audible.
The door closed behind him. Seraphina looked down at the five books scattered across her table.
She picked the mystery novel back up, and started reading again.