Storm a-Brewin'

by Nova Nelson

  I suspected that was more to do with the magic that tied a witch to her familiar rather than any conscious moral decision on Grim’s part. Or maybe it was his canine nature that bound him to be loyal. Who knew and who cared, as long as it might save my hide?

  The rain had slowed to a drizzle, and Tanner knew a convenient blow-drying spell that we were able to use on Grim under the awning out front so our meal wasn’t ruined by the smell of wet dog under the table. Unfortunately, Tanner didn’t know a good spell for dog breath, but I was fairly used to that by now, and simply told Grim to shut his mouth when it got too overwhelming.

  He never listened.

  At our table by the window, while we sipped our champagne and citrus blasts and waited for our meals to arrive, Tanner frowned down at the newspaper in his hands.

  He ignored me, concentrating on the story that had continued from the front page. A moment later, he shut the paper, folding it back sloppily.

  “They got almost all the facts wrong.”

  “Of course they did,” I said. “I don’t even know how you read the Eastwind Watch. The gossip at Echo’s Salon is generally more accurate. I’ve only been here eight months and I already know that.”

  “You’d think they’d get it right. Why else did I spend an hour talking with Flufferbum if he’s going to misquote me and scramble all the facts?”

  “I have no clue why you bothered speaking to him. I wouldn’t have.”

  The agitation at the article didn’t make total sense on its own; after all, Tanner knew the score with the Watch. Everyone did. My suspicion was that it was the accompanying photo and headline that left him in a grouchy mood. I wasn’t a big fan of it myself. On the front page of the paper was a picture of Ansel Fontaine and two words: Attempted Murder.

  It was strange to be mad at Ansel for his recent behavior and be worried for him at the same time. According to Tanner, Bloom had gone searching for him the night before but hadn’t yet located the werebear. And once she did, he would be tried for using a witch snare on three of his friends, and if he was convicted, which I figured he would be, he would be spending eternal life in prison. As far as I could tell, Ironhelm didn’t mess around with parole—a sentence was a sentence.

  “Is Bloom still out there looking for him?” I asked.

  Tanner knew immediately who I was talking about. He yawned and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, far as I know.”

  Was Ansel hiding out at the Bouquets’ new house? Should I tell Tanner what I’d seen the night before? It was so strange, I almost felt like the whole thing was a dream. Hyacinth and James were enough of an odd couple, but for Ansel to fall for her?

  “This Safe Haven thing is a real piece of work,” Tanner said, rapping the paper with his knuckles. “You think it’ll pass?”

  I sipped my drink, letting my gaze wander out the rain-dappled window. “I honestly don’t know. It just might. I feel like I can’t size up anyone lately.”

  He groaned. “Same. You think you know people …”

  Just then, someone I did think I knew pretty well passed by the window. When Jane’s eyes landed on me, she did a double take then hurried toward the front door.

  “Nora!” she said, rushing over, and before I could invite her to sit, she’d already grabbed a chair from the table over and sat. “I am so sorry.”

  She looked like she hadn’t slept at all, and might even have spent the night crying. Dark circles under her eyes marred her even skin tone.

  I didn’t know exactly what to say. “It’s okay, Jane. It’s not your fault.”

  Her jaw tightened and her eyes narrowed. “I swear, once I can track his bear hide down, he’s going to wish he’d never been born.”

  I reached out and grabbed her on the arms to hopefully steady the building rage. “Jane. It’s okay. We’re all fine.”

  “When I heard what had happened, and then read the paper … I can’t believe it. Sure, he’s not perfect and he’s really had his head up his you-know-what about witches lately, but to try to murder three people who he has no real beef with? It doesn’t make any sense. Do you think he could have been, you know, possessed?”

  I’d considered it, certainly. I had no interest in believing Ansel had this sort of hatred in him, either. “Maybe. I didn’t notice any signs last night, but I also wasn’t looking for them. So, maybe?” It was all I could offer her, and she seemed more than happy to take it.

  “We got in a huge argument after we left Sheehan’s. The things he said didn’t make any sense. Then he took off, just left me out there in the rain. So I went home. I figured he was going somewhere to shift and blow off steam. Only, he didn’t come home. He still hasn’t. I came out here to look for him, partly to lay into him, but also … you know what the penalty for a potentially lethal witch snare is, right?”

  Tanner and I nodded.

  “The idiot is going to jail. I’m sure of it. But I still don’t get why.” She put her head in her hands, and I flashed Tanner an anxious look before rubbing her back.

  When the waiter approached with our meals, Jane snapped her head up, seemed to remember where she was, and said, “Sorry. I should be going anyway.” Then she hurried out of the cafe.

  My appetite was somewhat lessened after the encounter.

  Jane’s husband was missing, and I had information that might lead straight to him. “I have to tell you something,” I said to Tanner. “Can I tell you as my boyfriend and not as a deputy?”

  “I don’t know if it works like that,” he said, unfolding his napkin and draping it over a thigh. “But I’ll do my best.”

  “Last night—”

  “I smell corn beef hash.”

  I grabbed the plate and set the entire thing on the floor for Grim so he’d shut up.

  “Sweet baby jackalope,” he murmured a second before digging in.

  “Last night,” I continued, “when I was walking home from Sheehan’s, I passed the Bouquet’s new house. One of the windows had the blinds up, and the lights were on, and I saw Hyacinth through the window.”

  “You’re right,” said Tanner, “the deputy in me would have to advise you not to spy on people.”

  “I wasn’t spying,” I said. “Okay, I was. But this is Hyacinth. You know she would do the same.”

  He shrugged a concession.

  “Hyacinth wasn’t alone. Someone else was with her.” I leaned forward to whisper. “It was Ansel.”

  His eyebrows pinched together. “What? Ansel was at the Bouquets’?”

  “Yeah, and not only that, he was … dancing with Hyacinth.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean it was just the two of them and they were slow dancing. It seemed really intimate. Should I have told Jane about it?”

  “No!” he said, then he calmed himself. “No, no. Maybe eventually you should tell Jane, but did you see the state she was in? She’d have either fallen to pieces or shifted into a bitch right in the middle of this place to sniff him out and murder him.”

  He had a point. “You won’t tell Bloom, will you?”

  He cringed. “I think I have to, Nora.”

  “But—”

  “I’m sorry. I either need to take the side of the law or the side of the werebear who tried to kill the woman I love. It’s not a hard decision.”

  I jabbed at my scramble with my fork. “Well, when you put it like that …”

  “I’ll tell you what,” he said. “I’ll give it a little time. Maybe Ansel will turn himself in. If I have a free moment tonight and I’m in Erin Park, I’ll swing by the Bouquets’ to check it out for myself.”

  “You won’t tell Bloom?”

  He sighed. “Not yet. But I can’t guarantee she won’t realize I’m hiding something and grill me on it, and it’s not worth losing my job to cover for Ansel; I’ll tell Bloom everything I know if she asks.”

  “Fair enough.”

  But I hoped it didn’t come to that.

  Chapter Eleven

 
Though I told Tanner he didn’t need to be there and should go get some sleep, he insisted on being present for the second inspection. He did still technically co-own Medium Rare with me, even if his role was limited, so he had a right to be there if he wanted.

  Grim’s feet kicked in his sleep while he lay on his side beneath the countertop, no doubt dreaming of hunting something horrifying in the Deadwoods. It was times like these when I missed having a cell phone on hand the most: if I could have recorded his big dumb legs flopping around like that, I would’ve had blackmail on him for a while. If he refused to do what I wanted, I could simply threaten to show it to Monster, Tanner’s familiar and, I strongly suspected, Grim’s secret crush. Even if she wasn’t his crush, he wouldn’t want her to see anything that would make him seem anything less than a gargantuan death omen with a no-care attitude.

  But alas, I didn’t have a recording device like that on hand.

  And, obviously, there were more important matters to attend to.

  The mayor and high priestess didn’t bother coming to this inspection, though that probably meant they felt they’d gotten their point across to me and had no doubts that their man would do as he was told without their supervision.

  Alfred, the same inspector as the day before, didn’t just check the area that had failed inspection the first time, but he did another full sweep of the place, which took way longer than I had the patience for. “Can’t you just check underneath the table? I spent, like, hours scrubbing it clean yesterday, so I know it’s good.”

  He was on hands and knees underneath the corner booth, where Ted usually sat, and he backed out slowly to look over his shoulder at me. “Not the protocol, sorry. It’s always tricky with silver dust. What was clean one day can be unclean the next, thanks to the spread of residue. The contaminated area could have circulated through the air to another location. Have to do a full sweep.”

  I rolled my eyes and looked at Tanner. He remained in moderate spirits, but I could tell he was starting to doubt his decision to come with rather than sleep. His hazel eyes were bloodshot, and one lid drooped lower than the other.

  “You can leave, weirdo,” I said, nudging him playfully where we sat on stools at the countertop. “You don’t have anything to prove.”

  He shook his head. “No, I’ll stay.” He leaned closer and whispered, “That explanation reeked of unicorn swirls. Something’s up.”

  “Is that the deputy talking?” I whispered back.

  He nodded confidently. “I’m learning a thing or two.”

  “For what it’s worth, my Insight was telling me about the same.”

  Once the inspector crawled out from under the last table, having already covered the ceiling, walls, countertop, random equipment surfaces, and windows, he dusted off his pants, pulled off his gloves, and stuffed them into his pants.

  Before he could deliver the results, Tanner asked, “Are you a South Wind?”

  The inspector seemed pleasantly surprised to be asked a personal question. He grinned proudly. “East Wind.”

  “How long you been in the Coven?”

  “Oh, let’s see … near about twenty-five years. Joined up as soon as I graduated from the college.”

  “Oh nice,” said Tanner pleasantly. “And who’s in your circle?”

  Suddenly, the pleasure was tinged with a shade of suspicion, and Tanner jumped in quickly with, “I just don’t think we’ve met, but I know a lot of the Coven witches, so I thought maybe I’d heard about you through one of them.”

  “Ah.” Alfred relaxed again. “Pierce, Horus, and Cordelia make up the rest of us.”

  Tanner grinned widely. “I just saw Horus the other day! Nice guy. He offered me a cup of tea after I helped him with a neighbor dispute.” He paused, scrunching up his nose, and tapping a finger to his lips. “Wait. Yeah, he did mention you. Said you two had been friends since you were little kids.”

  “Sure have! Grew up next door to one another over in Copperstone Heights. Not in the nice part, you know, but at the edge of it. Our families rented houses on the same land.”

  “Excellent,” said Tanner, nodding. His eyes fell to the inspector’s briefcase that lay open on one of the tables. “How’d we do?”

  The inspector cleared his throat. “Yes, well, that is … um. I’m afraid you failed again, Ms. Ashcroft.”

  “What?!” I said, jumping off the stool. “Where? Tell me where you found anything?”

  He nodded vaguely at a group of tables.

  “Which one?” I said. “Point it out.”

  He swallowed and inched closer, gesturing vaguely again.

  This didn’t just smell like swirls, it looked like it, too. Probably tasted like it as well, but I didn’t want to think too hard about that.

  “This one?” I asked, pointing to one of the three it could have been.

  “Yes, I believe it was that one.”

  I looked at Tanner, who seemed similarly skeptical. Good. Maybe he would back me up.

  “No,” I said. “It can’t be that table. Because that was the one that failed yesterday, and I scrubbed every inch of that thing at least twice.”

  He hurried over to his open suitcase, throwing in his tools and slamming it shut. “I don’t know what to tell you. My results came back positive, now as far as a third inspection, I’m afraid the High Council doesn’t take kindly to businesses wasting tax dollars on unnecessary services, and I’ve been asked to do a thorough inspection of Sheehan’s Pub that could take at least two days, so if you would like to schedule a third inspection, I suggest you make sure you’ve adequately addressed the issue by then. Since you have a couple of days to attend to it, I have no doubt—” He stopped midsentence and his eyes went wide as he stumbled back a step. At the same time, I heard Grim approach.

  The hellhound growled low as he stalked from around the countertop.

  “C-c-call him off!” Alfred stammered.

  Like Grim would ever listen to me.

  “Grim, back up.”

  “This dungheap doesn’t know who he’s messing with. No Medium Rare means no scraps, and scraps are the only thing making my life worth living.”

  I decided not to remind him that neither of us was sure if he could end his life if he tried; after all, he died once, and simply came back as a grim.

  “He’s not listening!” cried the inspector.

  “When he gets like this,” I said, “there’s no stopping him. I’ve seen it. It’s ugly. You’d better get out of here.”

  The inspector seemed more than happy to comply, keeping his back to the wall and his front toward Grim as he crab walked toward the exit.

  Grim barked at him once, deep and deadly, and the witch jumped, wailed, and sprinted away into the rain.

  I walked over to him. “Good boy.” Then I turned back to Tanner. “That was super fishy, right? It’s not just me?”

  Tanner shook his head slowly. “No, it’s not just you.”

  “There’s no way there was any silver under that table.”

  “I believe you.”

  I sat back onto the stool, leaning an elbow on the counter. “I have a theory, but it sounds a little paranoid.”

  “Those are usually the best ones. Hit me with it.”

  “Someone is forcing him to fail us.”

  Tanner suppressed a grin. “I think you’re right.”

  “You do?”

  “Yep,” he said, his smile breaking through. “And I’ve all but confirmed who it is.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Who?” I asked. “Who do you think is forcing him to fail us on the inspection?”

  Tanner stood up, walked around the counter and started a pot of coffee brewing, taking his time to respond. “Didn’t you hear who was in his circle?”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t recognize any of the names. Who are they?”

  He arched a brow at me as he snuck a sideways glance. “You didn’t recognize any of them?”

  “No,” I said, becoming impatient. �
��Should I have?”

  “Yep. Because one of them was the mayor.”

  “What?!” I slapped the countertop. “Wait, what’s her first name again?”

  “Cordelia.”

  I leaned my head back. “Ohh … That makes sense. I was wondering why you were carrying on friendly conversation with him.” I shook my finger at Tanner. “You’re sneaky.”

  He bounced his shoulders proudly and turned on the coffeemaker. “All part of the job, sweetheart.”

  “And do you have any insight as to why they’re making sure I can’t open my doors again?”

  He frowned and I could tell he was stumped. Good.

  Because I knew the answer.

  “The Safe Haven laws,” I said.

  Tanner groaned and leaned against the countertop on the other side. My eyes glued themselves to his biceps straining against the thin fabric of his gray long-sleeve cotton shirt.

  Focus, Nora!

  “They’re voting on that tomorrow,” he said.

  “When the mayor and high priestess were in here for the first inspection—”

  His mouth fell open. “They came to the first inspection?”

  “Yep. Sorry. I might’ve forgotten to mention.”

  “You certainly did. Although, it does support the theory. Why they’ve singled out Medium Rare as a target, though, is beyond me.”

  I wished I had a magical chalkboard around like the one in Landon’s office. It would have been incredibly useful for the conspiracy the two of us were stringing together. “Esperia doesn’t like Medium Rare because it fosters too much interspecies mingling. She said the same about Sheehan’s.”

  “Well, not anymore,” he said darkly. Then, “Wait.”

  I nodded. “Yuh-huh. I would bet you a hefty stack of gold coins Sheehan’s will fail its inspection, too.”

  “They’re trying to keep places like ours shut so everyone stops mixing with other kinds of creatures. And they’re trying to push business toward the establishments that wouldn’t allow certain creatures if the Safe Haven laws pass.”