by Tegan Maher
I studied the container. “Salted caramel bacon?” I asked, wishing I had a spoon right then and there.
His green eyes glittered with delight. “I figured it would be right up your alley.”
Tempest eyed the carton. “Do you have two? I have a feeling one isn’t going to be enough.”
Laughing, he reached in and pulled out another one. “I had a feeling you’d say that. Yes, I made four, so I’ll send you home with three—one each.”
I opened my backpack, which I’d spelled to be both bottomless and weight-resistant. No matter what I put in there, it never got heavier than ten pounds. Opening up the ever-cold pouch inside it, I dropped the ice cream in, arranging them so that our candy wouldn’t get crushed.
“Thank you so much!” I said, in a hurry now to get home for a whole lot better reason than solving a murder.
“My pleasure. Just let me know what you think of it. Personally, I feel like I outdid myself.” He beamed with pride, and I couldn’t help but grin back. The place truly was magic. It was almost impossible to experience any negative emotion, but whether it was because coffee and chocolate were natural sources of happiness or because he’d spelled the place was beyond me. It didn’t really matter; I’d be a fan regardless, because ... coffee and chocolate in the same place.
Colin and I each got a coffee and Tempest ordered a hot chocolate even though it was already pressing eighty degrees out. Charlie kept the shop cool by necessity, and I was loathe to leave the bright and happy space. Just a few minutes of pleasure before we dove back into the murderous reality that had become our lives for the moment.
We chose a wooden table that had been worn to a dull sheen by the window and pulled a few goodies from the bag to munch on as we drank. I was counting the luscious orange filling as a fruit and calling it a healthy breakfast. I also snuck a slice of the bacon, since I could also, in good conscience, label it as a breakfast food.
“Hey,” Tempest said, wiping a chocolate mustache off her white muzzle. “Isn’t that Liz’s sister?” She pointed out the window, and sure enough, Veronica was crossing the street.
“I thought Steph said she was pulling a midnight shift guarding troops somewhere that would take hours to get to,” Colin said.
“She did, but maybe she needed to come for supplies or something. And she does have the ability to use a portal. Even create one, apparently.”
He cast me a doubtful glance. “She’s a Valkyrie. Do you really think they stock up in the Gate?”
I shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t even know where they live. In all the times I’ve talked to Steph, I don’t think it’s ever come up. She talks about home, but I guess I just pictured it as some otherworld place. For all I know, they could live here.”
Tempest held up her hand. “What did she just give him?”
Veronica had stepped off into an alley to talk to some tall guy in a green cape and pirate-like boots. She’d pulled something out of a leather satchel she was carrying, but we were too far away for me to see what it was.
They argued for a few moments, then she handed it over. They exchanged a few more words, then he turned and went one way and she went the other, glancing around furtively as if she was worried about being seen.
“Well,” Colin said as she disappeared around the block. “That wasn’t shady at all.”
“Hold up,” Tempest said. “You don’t know that was anything but innocent, and remember, you didn’t pick up any deception from her last night.”
She had a point. Still, the optics were bad. Anybody who’d just watched that would have said it was suspicious. I said as much.
“Of course it looked suspicious,” Tempest said. “She gave a mystery package to a dude who looks like a pirate. But remember, this is Abaddon’s Gate. All sorts of people come here, and you can’t jump to conclusions after watching a three-minute interaction. You can’t make her guilty just because it’s easy. Talk to Steph first and see what she thinks.”
“That would be perfect,” I said, “If Steph were thinking clearly right now. But in case you’ve forgotten, the last time we saw each other didn’t exactly have the best vibe. I can’t imagine how she’d react if I threw something like that at her with only my suspicions as proof. Like you said, it could have been perfectly innocent.”
My phone dinged with an incoming text, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it was from Blake. The feeling went away as soon as I read it.
Weird things going on. There’s something off about the body. She looks much older than she did ten minutes before she died. Come back ASAP
I read it just loud enough so Colin and Tempest could hear, then slid the message closed.
Colin’s face had gone white beneath his tan, and I’m sure his thunderstruck expression was a reflection of mine.
“Did she look older to you last night?” he asked.
I shrugged and did my best to remember. “Maybe. Her face was pale, but after my brain had registered who it was, I sort of got tunnel vision that was focused on the barbecue fork somebody skewered her with. Also, it was dark, so I might not have noticed anyway. There’s a reason candlelight’s so popular for romance. It makes us all look younger and smoother.”
“Okay,” Colin said. “Now it’s my turn to play devil’s advocate. First, if it was one of the souls, why would they have stabbed her rather than just suck out her essence? And don’t you think she would have looked much more ... desiccated if she’d had her essence drained?”
“Good points,” I said. “We’ll find out more when we get back.” I was still leery of using my phone too much. Even though I’d spelled it to Hades and back, I couldn’t shake the suspicion. Several months before, my phone had been hacked and I’d gotten a message that was supposedly from Michael that had nearly gotten me kidnapped. Call me crazy, but almost dying wasn’t worth a few texts.
While we gathered our stuff, I wished I’d have gotten the text before we’d seen Veronica so that I wouldn’t have been distracted. It was broad daylight, and I’d have likely confronted her. She wasn’t going to attack me at ten in the morning in the middle of the street even if she was guilty of murdering Liz. Maybe. The Gate was weird. Unlike human cities, different rules applied and not everybody was as worried about justice as they were about minding their own business. After all, if you stuck your nose in the wrong place, there were much worse things that could happen to you than dying.
Chapter 17
AN HOUR LATER, WE WERE sitting at the tiki waiting for Blake. Now that Charles was cleared, I felt a little better. Even though Steph may not like what I had to say about Veronica, she wouldn’t push punishing an innocent man. I wanted to talk to her again, but not until after we’d heard from Blake.
He’d texted to say the PCBI was sending a witch who specialized in dark magic to examine Liz and that he’d meet us at the tiki afterward. How long that would take, though, was anybody’s guess. Until then, I was trying to take advantage of having the weekend off.
Cyri and her boyfriend Aiden were there. They’d been together for several months now, and things looked to be getting serious. They were adorable together. Fairies were extraordinarily attractive anyway, but these two were just beautiful.
“So,” I said when he went to the bathroom. “I haven’t seen you guys in a while. How’s it going?”
She flipped her lavender ponytail and laughed, her luminous blue eyes sparkling with good humor. “They’re going well. Though we fairies don’t move like humans and witches do. We live for hundreds of years, so there’s no rush to get married and start popping out little rainbow-haired heathens. We could date for a decade and that would still be considered a relatively short courtship.”
I scrunched my brow. “Seriously? I mean, I know you live forever practically, but still, dating for ten years still screams commitment issues, don’t you think?”
She laughed again, the sound tinkling, and adjusted the top of her electric-blue bikini. “No. Having a shorter courtship th
an that screams reckless. Think about it. A lot of fairies aren’t as progressive as us younger ones are, and divorce is still frowned upon by the elders. It has to be really bad to get them to release you. So, since we’re gonna be stuck together for hundreds of years, you can see why I’m okay with not jumping in with both feet until I’m a hundred percent sure. I look your age. I’m a hundred and ten, and I’m still considered a twenty-something by our standards. Trust me—I’ve seen some serious ugly from fairies who didn’t have the sense to wait.” She shook her head. “Nope. No way. Not me. Even my life is too short to waste any time being that miserable.”
“But don’t you love him? You guys are always canoodling,” I said, watching as Aiden came back from the restroom. His gaze was glued to Cyri. It was obvious he had it bad for her, even after all this time. If I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn they were still in the new and shiny phase of their relationship. Though I guess if I looked at it from their point of view, they were. What she was saying made sense.
Before she could reply, he was headed back toward us.
“What are you two plotting now?” he asked, running his hand over his turquoise hair. “You look like you’re up to no good.”
“I was just explaining how our dating rituals are different than hers.”
“Ahh,” he said, grinning. “So you were plotting. Developing a plan to snare me in Cyri’s web of love.”
It was my turn to laugh. “Yep. Busted. She said she just can’t live without you and wants to get married tomorrow down on the beach.”
Horror crossed his face as he examined us closer to see if I was kidding. “That would be a terrible idea. We hardly know each other!” He snapped his mouth closed, but by the look on his face, he was afraid he’d protested a bit too much.
“What?” I asked, brows raised. “You’ve been dating for what, over a year now? How can you say you don’t know each other?”
Smug superiority crossed his face. “You see, that’s where you short-lived people mess up. No being can possibly get to know another well enough to bond with them for life in so short a period.”
I huffed a disbelieving breath out my nose. Not that I didn’t necessarily agree with him on the year thing, but I was intrigued to hear if he felt the same way she did. Since Cyri was one of the most laid-back people I’d ever met, I knew it was okay to mess with him a little without worrying she’d get all crazy-woman if he answered differently. “So what, for you, is an ample amount of time?”
He glanced at Cyri, suddenly not so sure of himself. Or, more accurately, not so sure he should voice his opinion out loud. He cleared his throat and shifted his weight on his stool. “Well, not that Cyri and I have even reached the point of discussing such a thing yet, but if you insist on knowing, I think”—he cringed a little and looked at her—“ten years or so is a good getting-to-know-you period. A good point to evaluate the relationship.”
Since he’d missed her saying the exact same thing, I tried to hide my smile when she rubbed her chin, straight-faced, and appraised him with a raised brow. “A full decade, huh?”
He squirmed a little. “Not that I don’t adore you.”
He glared at me, but it lost most of his effectiveness when he picked up his tall froufrou drink and poked himself in the nose with the umbrella. “See?” he said, plucking the offending garnish out of his glass and tossing it onto the bar. “Now you’ve gotten me into trouble.”
Cyri laughed and kissed him on the cheek. “No, she didn’t, silly. That’s a perfectly rational timeframe. I was just ... how do you say it, Des? ... pulling your chain.”
One of the coolest things about working with so many different cultures was watching them adopt other phrases and habits from others while they were here. I grinned. “Yankin’ is what I usually say, but pullin’ works, too.”
Blake popped around the corner. He still looked tired, but he’d showered and shaved, and his khaki shorts and pink polo shirt were fresh. “Where’s Colin?” he asked as he slid onto a stool beside me.
“Right over there,” I said, motioning to an out-of-the-way table in the shade. “Ari called asking about the legal end of all of this, so he popped over there where it was quiet. He’s been talking for probably ten minutes, so he shouldn’t be much longer.”
Ari, or Arariel, was the angel of water and the chairman of our board of directors. Mila hadn’t been wrong when she’d pointed out that we had some powerful mojo pulling the strings around here. He was also a good friend of mine, but that was irrelevant at the moment.
“The legal end of the murder, you mean?” Cyri asked.
I jumped in surprise. We’d thought we were doing a good job keeping it quiet. “Shhh!” I said, leaning in. “We’re trying to keep it behind the scenes.”
She laughed. “Oh, that horse left the stable about ten minutes after it happened. There were several vampires at the luau who heard every word you guys were saying.”
I scowled, thinking back to the muffling spell I’d put around Blake and me. I hadn’t bothered when I’d told Steph and Mariah, though, and I kicked myself. Stupid vampire hearing.
“Don’t be such a worrywart,” she said, flapping her hand as she took a sip of her appletini. “You humanesque folks freak out much more than the rest of us do over stuff like that. I mean, not that any loss of life isn’t tragic, but it’s also not the end of the world or even the worst thing that could happen. It’s a resort for supernaturals, for goddess’s sake. Some of us aren’t nearly as civilized as others. It’s bound to happen every now and again. This place is still the safest place any of us go.”
Aiden rolled his eyes. “That’s the truth. We went to Vegas a couple of months ago and thought for sure we weren’t going to make it out alive. Humans are irrational over there. We were playing blackjack, and winning, too. To be honest, it’s not much of a challenge. All you have to do is keep track of which cards have already been played. There were very large men in dark suits who invited us to the back to meet the management.” He shuddered. “There we were, expecting a congratulations for playing the game so well, and they detained us for over an hour in that concrete hell before they—get this—threw us out and kept our winnings.”
Cyri was nodding. “It’s true. I had no idea at the time what we did wrong. We decided then and there that we’d just come here.”
Blake raised an eyebrow. I could see him tallying the money the resort had lost at blackjack. Cyri and Aiden were regulars. “And just how often do you guys go to the casino here?”
Aiden scrunched his face and shook his head. “Hardly ever. There are so many better things to do. Now those fairy pools you’re working on over there are a different matter. Are you going to have cottages available for reservation near them?”
Cyri nodded enthusiastically. “If so, we’d like to book them for our family reunion. Even the oldest of us would likely feel at home there, and then when we wanted a change of scenery, we could just pop over here or down to the ocean. It’s the best of all worlds! I don’t know whose idea that was, but it was brilliant.”
Blake smiled and gave her a speculative glance out of the corner of his eye as Bob sat a cold beer down in front of him. “We do have cottages, as a matter of fact. They’ll be ready in another month or so as long as construction keeps going as planned. Before we discuss price, though, how many people in your family like to gamble?”
I smiled when Aiden looked befuddled and Cyri laughed. “We can talk numbers when you’ve had a chance to forget this conversation. So, what’s going on with the murder investigation?”
“We’re working on it,” Blake said, taking a long swig of his beer. “Aside from that, I have no comment.”
“No official comment, or no comment at all?” Cyri asked, giving him a sassy wink.
“No comment at all,” he said, his tone wry.
“Oh, c’mon,” she said. “Everybody’s curious. Nobody even knows for sure who died, though we’ve all surmised it was the half-Valkyrie. The one
who doesn’t wear the band to mark her as one of their kind.”
I pivoted my head toward her. “Why would you assume that?”
“It doesn’t take a genius,” Aiden said. “We saw you talking to Stephanie and the other Valkyrie who’s been her constant companion, and we put two and two together.” She drained her drink then stood. “Now, we’re going up to play some blackjack,” she said, winking at Blake.
“I’ll catch you guys later,” I said, grinning as she pulled her lacy white bathing-suit cover on.
She nodded and gave me a quick hug. “If you need to ask us anything else, you have my number. Good luck. But Des?”
“Yeah?” I asked, handing her their beach bag, which was sitting on the bar next to me.
“Be careful. If you can figure out who did it, that’s great. But be sure. They’re a fierce people with prideful laws that dictate harsh, decisive punishments, and they also don’t take baseless accusations lightly, especially when they come from an outsider. Tread lightly until you’re positive.”
I nodded and gave her another hug before they walked away.
“Well that went well,” Colin said, rejoining us. “Ari just wanted to make sure we had the bases covered and see if we needed anything from him.”
He glanced first at me then at Blake. “What’s up with you two? You look like you just saw somebody kick a kitten.”
“No,” I said. “This is definitely not me after I’ve seen somebody kick a kitten. That would be Ninja-Barbie Destiny. This is what I look like when I find out everybody on the resort knows about the murder. Now even if we do find another suspect, we’ve lost the element of surprise. The person of interest will already have an answer formulated.”
He rolled his eyes. “Somebody’s been watching crime TV.”
I punched him lightly on the arm. “What? That’s what a person’s called when you pretty much know they’re guilty but don’t have any solid proof.”