job, and I’ve gotten to reap the benefits ever since. Dublin is a gorgeous city, especially at night, when the cobbled streets come alive with people going for meals or out for a night of drinking. We Irish do know how to hold our drink down, and I sure as hell want to test that tonight. All the better if I can deliver a heaping dose of karma to my next target while I’m at it.
"So why did you choose this place tonight?" Mads asks me as we make our way down the crowded downtown street. "I didn't even know it existed until I followed the link you sent me.”
“Really?” My brow furrows. “You know all the happening places around here. I would’ve thought you’d at least be familiar.”
“It’s strange,” Mads replies, shaking her head. “I swear I've walked past the area many times before and I’ve never once seen it.” She shrugs, shaking off the uncertainty. “Well, I guess it goes to show I don’t know as much about this city as I thought I did.”
I frown at her innocent comment, unable to brush it off so lightly. I hope she doesn’t take note of my sudden seriousness, but even as I try to focus on my excitement about the night out, I can’t escape a growing feeling of unease. Mads is the observant type, so much so that it sometimes becomes annoying. She’ll take notice of everything from an undone shoelace to a new corner coffee shop to a new tenant in her apartment building. She’s the first to tell you if you’ve spilled something on your shirt, and she’s twice as passionate about partying as she is about fashion. The odds of someone like Mads not noticing a nightclub near where she lives when she walks to work every day are slim to none. To me (and I am, granted, somewhat biased), this screams magic. Maybe it’s just paranoia, but given my target’s strange, archaic-sounding name, I can’t help but wonder… Could this club have been magically hidden? And if it is, does that mean this Neritous Cyncus guy could be magical?
The more I think about this all, the more I wonder if I should take Mads somewhere else and get my brother to help me with this karma job. Given everything that happened yesterday on my last job, this is starting to seem like it’s out of my league. A cold gust of wind blows into us as we reach the next intersection, making me shiver and snapping me out of my thoughts. Shit, I think, rubbing my arms, which are now covered in goosebumps. I should have brought a coat. Somehow, in the face of freezing cold air, the idea that I might be walking into something that’s too much for me to handle starts to seem overly-paranoid, and I vow not to overthink it. I’m going to nail this job and have a great time while I’m doing it, make Mum proud of me, and prove that at twenty-one, I’ve finally come into my own as a karma god.
"I'm sure it's just a well-kept secret,” I say, dodging around the issue altogether. “I found it randomly online, and I checked the reviews, which said it’s exquisite.” This last bit is true, but there were only two reviews when I checked,and they sounded like they were talking about the wrong place. The pictures on the website made it look like an awesome place to party, but is it possible those were magicked as well? No, come on, I plead with myself, you’re being ridiculous. Just give it a shot - if you don’t like it, you can go to that other bar you usually go to on Friday nights.
Again, none of this is something I need to - or can - explain to Mads. No, we are going to have a good night, and even if there are gods at this club, we will ignore them. Gods don’t hang out together anyway, so they should have no reason to try and talk to me. Any work that happens tonight won’t involve them, or I’ll pass the job on to someone else. No harm in checking it out, though, right?
"It's your birthday, so it's up to you,” Mads says. “We can always leave and go to our regular place if this one is dead," she adds, seemingly reading my mind. We dodge a drunk couple who nearly stumbles into us, shouting sorry as they walk away.