by Tegan Maher
Colin’s lip curled into an amused grin. “It’s really not, but please, continue. Do we have a new person of interest?”
My attention scattered when a party of nine witches rounded the corner from the main resort right as a new party of four surfer-boy-looking werewolves came up from the beach. I stood up to help, but Bob growled at me. Actually growled.
“I’m perfectly capable of doing two things at once,” he said. “you keep your butt glued to that chair, and don’t get up unless it’s to go to the beach or somewhere equally non-worky. I promised both myself and Jolene that I’d staple you to your seat if you couldn’t resist the urge to help.”
“But—”
He waggled a furry finger at me. “No buts. Sit down and pretend like you know how to take a day off.” With that, he spun on his heel toward the group of werewolves.
Blake and Colin locked gazes, then laughed. “I guess he told you, didn’t he?” Blake said, and I was glad to hear some of the humor back in his tone.
“I guess so. In that case, I’ll stick around and have another beer.” It occurred to me that he hadn’t mentioned the results of the witch’s examination of Liz’s body. I started to ask him about it when Tempest, who was catnapping on her pillow, picked her head up and went on full alert.
“Mila and Calamity are here,” she said, her tone sharp.
“Where?” I asked, craning my head around to scan the area.
“Gotta be close,” she replied. “I’m picking up her presence.”
She no sooner finished talking than they popped around the corner of the tiki.
“I thought you knew,” Blake said with a quizzical glance. “She’s who the PCBI sent to investigate.”
“Long time, no see,” Mila said, smiling as she approached us. “Now who’s not replying to messages? I texted you an hour or so ago to let you know I was coming.”
Chapter 18
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?” I asked, yanking my phone from my pocket. Sure enough, it was dead. I should have figured that, because anytime I did magic, my phone went wonky. I stood up and pulled her into a hug. “Well, I hope you were texting to say you were gonna hang out for a bit. But first, I’m dying to hear what you found. I’d just asked Blake about it when you popped around the corner.”
“Hang on a second,” she said. “Kat stopped to use the little girls’ room and I’d rather wait so that there’s no distraction when I give you my results, such that they are.”
She climbed onto a stool and squeezed an orange wedge into the margarita Bob had already put in front of her. I had no idea how he knew always people were coming, but he always had my beer ready by the time I made it to the bar, too. He was sorta the Radar O’Reilly of the tiki. By the time she took her first sip, Kat had joined us and ordered a beer.
“Now, not that I’m not glad to see you, but why are you guys investigating? Isn’t that some sort of weird conflict of interest?” I asked. I wasn’t trying to be difficult. I was truly curious. I wanted to know as much about her new duties as possible. If nothing else, I processed stressful situations better when I had as much info as possible, and her chasing down evil witch souls ticked all the boxes on the list of things that would keep me up at night.
“Maybe in a regular situation,” she said, “but like I explained earlier, I’m the only specialist in arcane potions they’ve been able to recruit so far.” She put her hands out, palms up, and smiled. “So here I am.”
“And you think maybe they had something to do with Liz’s death?” Colin asked.
She scrunched her forehead, a look I recognized as one she used a lot when she was trying to puzzle something out. “That’s the weird thing. At first glance, I considered it because she’s clearly been aged. The bodies are usually dried to the point of being empty husks, but I figured maybe you guys interrupted the killer before she could siphon off all the magic.”
Pausing, she took a sip of her margarita. “But I was wrong. None of the tests we did on her, scientific or magical, reveal any sort of poison. There was magic residue on her body, but nothing conclusive. That could have been leftover from where one of you guys touched her, or even from a recent magical battle. We’ve had our fair share, and sometimes those curses and hexes leave a mark even when you deflect them.”
“Now what, then?” I asked.
“I wanna examine the scene,” Mila replied.
“Are you sure?” Kat asked. “It’s going to be flooded with so many different types of magic that I’ll be amazed if you get anything, and you cared about her.” She softened her tone and put her hand on Mila’s arm. “Are you positive you want to see where it happened, Mi? You know stabbings are messy. I doubt they’ve ... gotten it clean.”
My cousin gave her a small smile and patted her hand. “Thank you, sweetie, but I’ll be fine. I’m more worried about getting justice for Liz than I am about what I might see. Remember, it won’t be the first time I’ve seen her blood in the sand.”
“What?” I asked, the reality of what she was really doing crashing over me like one of the waves I’d made in the ocean just the day before. It seemed almost surreal to me that everything had been so normal such a short time ago.
Her wry half-smile confirmed it. “Sometime we’ll sit down, and I’ll tell you all about my adventures lately. They’re ... something.” She turned to Kat, pity scrawled across her face. “This is why I made Charles stay back. I knew we’d probably have to see the scene, and I didn’t want to drag him through that again.”
Kat clenched her jaw but didn’t say anything else. She must have truly cared about Mila if she was that upset about visiting the scene, and I was glad. I wanted my cousin surrounded by people who cared whether she was hurt or not.
Mila finished her margarita, and Blake, Colin, and I slugged back our beers.
“Ready?” I asked, watching for any sign of crumbling. She was like me, though, and tended to keep her emotions in check at least until whatever crisis we were in was over. If I knew her, and I did, she’d mourn plenty once she figured out what had happened to her friend.
“Ready,” she said, taking one last pull from her straw.
Rather than port, she wanted to see the path Liz had taken, so we walked to where she’d died. We didn’t talk much because Mila seemed intent. She’d stop and send out her powers every now and again, then continue on.
“Well, here it is,” I said when we got there. The grass was trampled from the crime scene crew, and sure enough, the grass where Liz had lain was still dark with blood. Mila closed her eyes and pulled in a deep breath. I watched her eyeballs move behind her lids, and I knew she was trying to read the scene in her mind.
She sucked in a breath, and it had grown so quiet that the sound was loud. I jumped a little and took a step back, and a twig cracked under my shoe. Since I was wearing thin flip-flops, it was uncomfortable, and I scooted my foot over. What I saw when I looked down started a chain reaction in my brain similar to dominoes as everything clicked into place.
I bent over and picked up the broken halves of a black flowered chopstick, comparing it to the ones Kat even now had her hair held back with. It was a perfect match to the black one.
“Uh, Kat?” I said, my mind still reeling. I knew in my bones she was the killer, but I didn’t know why. It didn’t make any sense, and she hadn’t even been here that night. At least, not that I’d seen. I realized, though, that the luau had been packed, and it had been dark.
“Yeah?” she asked, turning to me. When she saw the broken chopstick, the blood drained from her face.
“Care to explain how this got here?”
Aside from the lack of color, she did a great job of maintaining her composure. “I have no idea. It probably dropped from somebody’s hair when they were walking through here. I lose mine all the time.”
Confusion and hurt crossed Mila’s face, but she thrust out her hand. “Give it to me. We’ve been working in close proximity for months. I can tell you if it belongs to her or not.”
Panic practically oozed from Kat, and I pushed out a pulse of magic that sent an invisible bubble around us that held us all captive. Nobody was leaving until this was settled.
Mila took it and her lip curled. “I don’t even have to work for it. It’s hers.”
Kat’s gaze darted from Mila to the chopstick and back again, then her face crumbled. “I didn’t mean to,” she said while tears ran down her cheeks. “She invited me to come to the luau. When I showed up, I saw her and Charles arguing. When I went to see what the problem was, I overheard him trying to convince her to tell everybody about their relationship.” Her face turned ugly. “I didn’t even know they were dating, and there she was, with the best guy I’ve ever met, and ashamed to tell anybody they were seeing each other. Before she came along, he was falling for me.”
“Oh, Kat. He wasn’t,” Mila said, her face a mishmash of emotions. “He came to me right before Liz joined the team and said he was worried you were developing feelings for him. He suggested a transfer, but at that point, there was nobody. Then he met Liz, and he decided to stay.”
Rage flashed across Kat’s face. “You’re wrong! He would have loved me like I love him. I followed her into the woods and begged her to step back and let me have a shot, but no. She just had to have everything. The top spot by your side, him.”
“I’m so sorry,” Mila said, pulling a pair of magical cuffs from thin air. “But I’ve heard enough.”
She read her the magical version of her Miranda rights, then turned to Blake. “I assume you have a place where we can hold her until the Valkyries come? That is your standard, yes?”
“No,” Kat said, sobbing. “I didn’t mean to! I just wanted to convince her.”
“That may be a little more convincing if you hadn’t grabbed the barbecue fork before you followed her into the woods,” I pointed out, disgust causing my stomach to churn.
“Or if you hadn’t tried to make her look like she’d been partially drained by one of the souls,” Mila added.
The crocodile tears dried up and she sneered. “She deserved to die. She was greedy and heartless and didn’t deserve her spot on the team or Charles. She only got it because she was half Valkyrie.”
“Don’t bother with a holding cell,” I said, pulling my phone from my pocket and tapping out a text to Steph. “I don’t want her on the resort any longer than she has to be, and the Valkyries deserve their justice. Blake, will you let down the wards for a minute?”
He nodded and muttered a few words, and I let Steph know they were open. Within thirty seconds, thunder clapped and lightning crashed across the sky as a swirling black vortex opened up.
“People are gonna see that,” Tempest said just as Stephanie, Mariah, and Valerie burst from the vortex, hair flying and blending with the flowing manes of their mounts. Buttercup’s ears were pinned tightly to his head and the red lining of his nostrils were showing as they hurtled toward the ground, his neck outstretched and wings pushed back to allow for the freefall. Steph hugged his neck, her gold bracelet gleaming. The women wore identical hellbent expressions, and I understood in that moment why they’d struck terror in the hearts of men during battle.
Stephanie landed closest to me, with Buttercup bobbing his head, blowing, and side-stepping. Not the gentle giant pony I’d fed cotton candy to countless times.
“Who?” she demanded, and I motioned toward Kat. Steph’s gaze raked over her, contempt and loathing oozing from her very pores.
Mariah slid from her lathered palomino and strode toward Kat, who didn’t look quite as obnoxious and boastful as she had just moments before. As a matter of fact, I was pretty sure she’d wet her pants. Good. That’s what murders got.
Steph turned to me and her face softened as she laid her hand on my shoulder. “Thank you, Destiny. I know I haven’t been as kind to you as I should have been. It’s just, we’re a dying breed, and there aren’t many of us left, even halflings. When one of us dies, it’s like we’re sliding a little closer into extinction. Plus, she was a good kid. She didn’t deserve to go that way. She didn’t deserve to go at all.”
I could feel her anguish, and I pulled her into my arms. After a second, she hugged me back, then pushed away. “Now, aren’t you supposed to be taking the weekend off? We’ll take this from here. You go and try to salvage some of your plans.” Her brown eyes met mine. “And again, thank you. You’re a good friend, and I’m glad you’re in my life, even when I’m not the best friend back.”
I gave her a half-smile. “You’re fine. I’m just glad I could help, and sorry it happened to begin with.”
Mariah and Veronica both gave me nods of respect, and I knew that was probably the best I was going to get from them. “You’re not bad for a witch,” Mariah said. “Maybe I’ll come back with Stephanie and we’ll drink some more of your tequila.”
Good lord, just the thought of a tequila night with two Valkyries made me grin and shake with terror at the same time. “Any time,” I said.
She took Kat by the arm and half-led, half-dragged her to her mount. A few feet away from the winged horses, it apparently sank in with Kat what, exactly, was about to happen to her, and she dug her feet in, turning her head to plead with us. I looked away and so did everybody else as Mariah tossed her across her palomino then jumped up behind her. The rules were clear and the punishment, though tough, fit the crime.
“Wow,” Blake said once they were gone. “Did that all just happen like that?”
“It did,” I said, pulling in a deep breath. “Another murder chalked up to love.”
Colin raised a brow attempting to bring some levity to the situation. “Well, that’s a terrifying prospect. Should I be worried?”
“Like I said last night, you should never get too complacent!”
“She’s right,” Blake said. “Especially if you try to steal her cake.”
“Now that,” Colin said, putting his arm around me as we headed back toward the beach. “Is a murder I couldn’t blame her for.”
Chapter 19
“YOU NEED SOME SUNSCREEN,” Colin said from the pool lounger next to me. “Unless, of course, you want to spend the night having me spread aloe vera gel on you.”
I smiled and pushed up on my elbows, then tilted my sunglasses down to peer at him over the top. “Well, though I could think of worse ways to spend my time,” I said, waggling my brows at him, “I’d rather you weren’t doing it because I was burnt to a crisp, though, so please pass me the sunscreen.”
I squirted a blob of the hand-made coconut-scented lotion Mila had given me into my hand and applied a liberal layer to every inch of me that was exposed to the sun. I had a decent tan, but that didn’t stop me from burning. Unlike Colin, who turned a gorgeous golden brown with no effort whatsoever, I struggled to maintain a decent tan even though I worked in the sun eight to ten hours a day. The joys of being a redhead.
“Are you sure you’re okay with Mila doing what she’s doing?” he asked as I settled back onto the lounger.
“No,” I replied, “I most definitely am not. But I’m also proud of her. She’s doing a good thing, and she wants to do it, so I support her.”
“As long as they stay in touch and answer us within a reasonable amount of time,” Tempest added from her place on an umbrella chair behind us. “No more of that radio silence crap.”
“Well, I understand if they can’t answer immediately,” I began.
“Maybe not immediately,” she said, “but it doesn’t take more than an hour to kick a witch’s soul’s butt. There’s no reason it should take them longer than that to answer, especially when all Calamity has to do is respond in her mind with, Hey sis! Yeah, nobody’s dead. We’re all good. Love ya. Not that complicated, and I don’t think I’m being unreasonable.”
When she put it like that, I had to agree. Mila, at least, needed a phone, service, and an environment not teeming with evil souls bent on killing her.
Suddenly bored with lazing by the pool, I sat up. “Le
t's go see the fairy pools.” We still hadn’t made it to see them, and I was dying to know what they looked like. Besides, I needed to walk off the grilled cheese and fries I’d eaten for lunch.
“You two go ahead,” Tempest said. “I’m gonna go hang out with Dimitri for a bit.”
“You mean you’re gonna go lay by the fan,” I replied.
She lifted a furry shoulder and slipped her custom-made movie-star shades back into place. “Potato, Potahto. Catch you two later, and try not to stumble on any dead bodies along the way. We’ve had enough of that for a while.”
“Yeah, we’ll do our best.” Colin shook his head. “We’ll be back shortly. If anybody wants to know where we went, tell them you have no idea.”
I’d made it my mission over the last twenty-four hours to dedicate all my time to him and Tempest, and it felt great. We’d played in the water, gone to the casino, and had a great dinner at Marco’s, the Italian restaurant in the main resort.
“I could get used to this whole taking-a-weekend-off thing,” I said. “You know, minus the murder.”
He laughed. “Me too. Maybe we should try it that way one weekend.”
Though he was sorta kidding, taking an actual weekend off with him had been an eye-opener for me. I hadn’t realized how much I’d been working until I didn’t have to, and I’d spoken to Blake about finding a new manager. Or at least a new bartender and server to fill in so I didn’t have to work seven days a week. He’d offered me a fat raise to keep the management position, but I enjoyed working directly with my guests. I had some thinking to do.
Colin and I gathered our stuff then took it to the office so we didn’t have to carry it.
“Do you want to walk, or would you rather I took us at least part of the way?” I asked.
“Let’s walk,” he replied. “I’m not throwing up anymore when you port us, but it’s still not exactly a relaxing way to travel.”
“Fair enough,” I said, grinning. We walked in comfortable silence for a while, our fingers intertwined, until we came to the spot on the path where Liz had lost her life.