Reg broke into a sweat, which, of course, would only increase how strong her scent was to the Sasquatches.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…”
“They can’t smell it themselves,” Etienne told Ilka. “They don’t have proper scent organs.”
She waved this away. “They must be taught. I would never allow any of my attendants to eat meat.”
“Reg Rawlins is not my attendant. She is a friend who offered to help.”
“And she smells like flesh,” Ilka maintained. “And snakes.”
Etienne’s gaze slid sideways to Reg.
“Snakes?” Reg repeated. “Why would I smell like snakes? I haven’t touched or eaten any snakes.”
Ilka shrugged. “I do not know what you have been doing. But it comes out of your pores.”
Reg appealed to Etienne. “I haven’t been doing anything with snakes.”
“Perhaps from your visit to the cemetery?” Etienne suggested. “There was a snake there, was there not?”
“There was a snake there, but I didn’t even see it, let alone touch it. I don’t see how you would be able to smell that, especially a day or two later.”
“I can smell it,” Ilka maintained. “Like you have been handling snakes or their products.”
“I haven’t. There was a man killed who was a snake handler, but I only saw him; I didn’t touch him.”
Ilka considered. “Maybe that is why you smell so strongly of death and snakes. But you must have been very close to him for some time if it is true that you did not touch him.”
“Well… I practically tripped over the guy. I didn’t, but I was close. And they kept me there for a while because we were waiting for the groundskeeper to open the gate. Do you really think that would be enough to make the smell cling to me still?”
“No, I do not,” Ilka said flatly. The implication was that Reg was lying and Ilka did not believe her.
There was silence around the table for some time. Reg tried to eat, but everything had turned dry and tasteless and kept sticking in her throat when she tried to swallow. She wanted to get up and leave, but Etienne had asked her to stay to chaperone them and she didn’t want to let him down. She surreptitiously tried to build a protective spell around her to keep them from being able to smell her and being able to read her thoughts. She scratched her nose and sniffed her hand to see if she could smell the offending odor on herself. While she didn’t smell putrefying flesh like she had on Tybalt, she did smell something sort of musky and wondered if it were snake.
How could she smell like snake when she hadn’t had anything to do with them?
Chapter Thirty-Five
It was one of the most awkward evenings Reg had sat through. Normally, she would not have stayed, particularly after it had been pointed out how much she stank. But every time she made a gesture or looked toward the elevator, Etienne gave her a pleading, puppy-dog look, and she couldn’t bring herself to insist that she go home.
She didn’t try to visit with them; she just sat in the corner staring at her phone and ignoring their conversations. They didn’t do anything that she thought a real chaperone would break them up for. They sat apart and didn’t cuddle or kiss, just held hands occasionally or made cow eyes at each other.
Eventually, she was released from her duties to go home. Etienne asked if he might stay with her one more night and then he would find other accommodations if he were not able to go home yet. Reg couldn’t bring herself to deny him. He had rescued her when she had been in desperate circumstances, and it wasn’t his fault that Ilka had taken it upon herself to sail to America and try to take their relationship to the next level. That had clearly been all her.
“I am sorry to take so much of your time today,” Etienne apologized when they were back at the cottage. “And for… any awkwardness.”
Reg nodded. She fed Starlight without saying anything to Etienne in response. She hoped that the smell of the fish didn’t bother Etienne too much. And she hoped that it did. Just a little. Because she was irritated at Ilka treating her the way she had and Etienne not standing up for her more. Saying that she didn’t have a proper scent organ was not precisely the kind of defense she would have expected from a friend.
The phone rang in the small hours of the morning. Reg was lying in bed because she didn’t have anything else to do, not because she was ready to sleep. She had been up too early that morning, so she was tired, but not sleepy. She petted and cuddled with Starlight and binge-watched an old TV series on her phone and wished that the next day was over so that she would have the cottage to herself again and didn’t have to worry about Sasquatch mating rituals.
Reg saw it was Corvin. She swiped to answer the call. “Hi, Corvin.”
“Regina,” he greeted, voice husky and inviting, as always. “Is everything okay? You didn’t call me. I’ve been worried about you.”
“There’s nothing to be worried about. I told you that I’m fine.”
“And yet… I don’t get the feeling that is true. Things feel disrupted and unsettled, and I know that you’ve had a run-in with the police.”
“Everyone in town knows I’ve had a run-in with the police,” Reg agreed unhappily.
“I’m sure not everyone read that article.”
“No, there was probably one person who didn’t.”
Corvin chuckled at Reg’s dark humor. “So tell me truly. What’s going on. Are you well?”
“Just the same old stuff,” Reg lied. “Still figuring this whole new world out. Nothing serious, I’ll get it sorted out.”
“I would be happy to help.”
“I don’t need help right now. I’ve got enough people who want to know all about everything that’s going on in my life and to fix it. I don’t want it all fixed. I want people to leave me alone.”
“Perhaps what they think is broken is not.”
“Yeah. Maybe that’s it.” Reg had always resented the authority figures in her life who had labeled her broken. Traumatized. Learning Disabled. Disturbed. Psychotic. Was it any wonder that she resisted people who said they wanted to help? “As if finding out that I was part siren wasn’t enough… to suddenly have to deal with all of the stuff that entails… being triggered by water when I’m surrounded by it on three sides. People vandalizing my house and casting spells at me. I didn’t need anything else right now.”
“What else is going on?”
“Etienne visiting me. The snakes. This body in the cemetery.”
“Snakes?”
“Did you know that they can smell snakes?”
“The… err…”
“Forest people is what they call themselves. They can smell snakes,” Reg reiterated.
“Well, I suppose they do have a smell, and most creatures have a better sense of smell than humans.”
“They say they’re human too.”
“Well then… our species or sub-species. We’re kind of blind as far as smell goes.”
“She said that I smelled like snake just from being in the graveyard.”
“She…?”
“Ilka,” Reg snapped, then realized there was no way for Corvin to know that or anything about Etienne’s and Ilka’s presence. “Sorry. Etienne’s… fiancée.”
“Ah, congratulations are in order. The Department for the Preservation of Endangered Species will be happy to hear that.”
“Well, we’ll have to see whether they actually do the deed first. They’re not quite on the same page about everything.”
She could see his shrug in her mind’s eye. He didn’t really care whether the couple got together or not. It was interesting, but it wouldn’t have any impact on him personally, and for Corvin, everything was weighed by how it affected him.
Not that Reg could argue that she didn’t evaluate most things the same way.
“So… what’s this about snakes? In the graveyard? And you smelling like snake?”
“Oh… yeah.”
“I’m very interested.”
“The guy in the newspaper. He was killed by a snake. I guess they didn’t release that detail.”
“No. They said the cause of death was still under investigation.”
“And I guess it is. Jessup hasn’t said anything, and she said she would let me know. When they confirmed the cause of death. But he had a snake bite on him. And diamondbacks can be deadly with just one bite.”
“They have the snake?”
“No.”
“But you saw it.”
“Mmm…” Reg tried to figure out how to say it. “I saw a snake… and thought it might be the same one. Or the same kind.”
“I see. And the one you saw was a diamondback.”
“Yeah.”
“Those are nasty.”
“He was supposed to be a snake handler. Someone who was used to snakes. But I guess even someone really familiar with them can make a mistake.”
“Snake handlers do get bitten, at least the ones that I have heard of. But the more you get bitten, the more immune you become to the venom.”
“As long as it doesn’t kill you.”
“Exactly,” Corvin agreed.
“So he must not have been bitten by a diamondback before.”
“I suppose. But it does seem odd. Where was he bitten?”
“The throat.” Reg didn’t tell him that she had thought of vampires. And thought of Corvin himself.
“Ah. Well, if it hit an artery, that would spread the poison very quickly.”
Reg tried not to picture it. She didn’t think that the troll’s death had been agonizing. His expression had not been contorted. But maybe that didn’t mean anything.
“So, how did you come into contact with this snake?” Corvin asked.
“I didn’t. I haven’t touched any snakes. That’s why I was so surprised that Ilka could smell snakes around me. I didn’t touch any of them.”
“Any of them,” Corvin repeated. “How many of them have there been?”
“Just… two real ones.”
“And…?”
“Some that I’ve dreamed of, or had… sort of… visions of.”
“Before or after the body in the cemetery?”
“Before.”
“Premonitions, then.”
“I don’t know… maybe… but I didn’t actually see anything that happened. I just keep… seeing and dreaming about snakes.”
“And now you smell like them.”
“Well… according to Ilka, yeah.”
“This reminds me somewhat of the spiders.”
“I was thinking that too. But I don’t know why. If the spiders represented eight ghosts, what does a snake represent?”
Chapter Thirty-Six
She could hear Corvin’s chair squeaking as he settled back into it, considering. “What could snakes symbolize? Well, there is a lot of precedent. Snakes have symbolized many things over the ages, from sin to immortality.”
“That’s not helpful.”
“I’m just warming up. There’s a lot to think about.”
Reg thought quickly, trying to head him off. Although she wanted to get to sleep, she didn’t want to be talked to sleep by Professor Corvin. “What about that medical symbol? The rod with the snake.”
“There isn’t just one such symbol. The most well-known is probably the caduceus of Hermes, but there is also the Rod of Asclepius, the Staff of Moses, and the serpent Wadjet. If you go back to Sumerian and Mayan mythologies—”
“No. I just meant like the medic alert symbol.”
“The Rod of Asclepius.”
“So that represents… medical care?”
“Healing or medicine,” Corvin agreed.
“So maybe… I don’t know. I could be dreaming about snakes because… that guy would need emergency care. Only he didn’t get it. So… that sucks.”
“I think we need to dig deeper than that. The snake is such a potent symbol. The venom—and other parts of the snake—can be used for healing or for poison. It is both an instrument of death and, many have believed, an elixir of life and immortality.”
“Wouldn’t we know if it made people immortal?”
“Perhaps not. It would be a carefully-guarded secret. And there may be a special preparation technique or spell that is not widely known. Something to protect the person who uses it from its lethal qualities.”
“You think snake venom can make you immortal?”
“No, I’m just speculating… you can’t dismiss it out of hand.”
“Even if it was… what would that have to do with me?”
“Well, we haven’t connected anything up yet. Right now, we’re just brainstorming. Thinking about what it might represent. Clearly, this man’s death has intersected with you in some way.”
“Yeah… I stumbled across his body. I never met him before or had anything to do with him. And he was a troll, Jessup said. Not a human.”
“A troll. A snake-handling troll.”
“Yeah.”
“Why would he be handling snakes and how would that connect to you? Some people handle snakes for spiritual reasons. Sometimes it’s for medical experimentation. Or just risk-taking behavior.”
“I think Jessup thought it was the first one. A religious thing.”
“I would be less likely to jump to that conclusion knowing he was a troll. Most trolls are not Pentecostal. He could be something more ancient; there are African and Asian snake cults. Christians are pretty new on the scene.”
“So you think it was one of those? Or a different reason?”
“We’ll have to see if we can squeeze it out of Marta. The police will be investigating his background, so they should know if he was a medical professional or frequently participated in risky behaviors.”
“I’m not involved in any of that, though. So why would it intersect with me? Why would I be dreaming about snakes just because of some random troll I never heard of before and who I didn’t have anything in common with.”
“Has there been any pattern to these dreams or other appearances? Is it always when you are in a particular place or around a certain person? Or did they start when someone new came into your life? Like this Etienne.”
“They started a few days ago… after the closing of the Games. After the equinox. Before Etienne came.”
“But you had met him before.”
“Yes. In the… in the Everglades.”
“Ah!” Corvin sounded delighted to have made this connection. He had been with her in the Everglades. Though not, of course, when she had met Etienne. “So you had met him, and he came to you for… help with this situation?”
“I guess. Yes. I don’t think he knows a lot of people in town. Though it turns out he’s met Sarah before.”
“I think Sarah has met everyone before,” Corvin chuckled. “It’s a much smaller world when you’ve been around as long as she has. I’m just thinking, you already had a connection with Etienne, so you might have started having dreams or visions when he decided to come to see you, even before you knew that he was coming to town. And the fact that his fiancée is the one person who, apparently, can smell snakes around you adds another layer of connection.”
“But Etienne doesn’t have anything to do with the snake-handler. How could he? He’s not from here.”
“Perhaps the troll isn’t either. They could both share another connection. Have you told him about what happened? About the troll? Maybe he would be able to make the connection if he knew the details.”
Reg was reluctant to involve Etienne. The Bigfoot would be leaving the next day. If he were the connection to snakes, then the snakes would stop, and Reg would know that he had been the trigger. If they kept appearing, then she would know that it wasn’t anything to do with him. She didn’t see how Ilka could have anything to do with a snake-handling troll in Florida. What kind of connection could there be with Russia?
> “What about Russia? Do they represent something in Russia?”
“Well… there is the smey, the great Slavic dragon. They are frequently female, sometimes shapeshifters.”
“Ooh.” Reg wondered whether there could be a connection with Ilka. “What do they shift into? Yetis?”
“No.” Corvin laughed. “Snakes. Handsome young shepherds. Not yetis.”
“Dang. I thought maybe we had something there. I don’t think they could be connected to Etienne, I really don’t.”
“Well… anyone else who has recently come into your life or asked you for help? Maybe a new client?”
“No. There was Julian, of course. But he was gone before the snake dreams started. Same with Wilson. I don’t know why either of them would have anything to do with it. Clients… I really haven’t had anyone lately. I’ve been kind of… not feeling up to par.”
“You haven’t been doing any readings? Any visions in the crystal?”
“No. Just… hanging around here. Watching TV. Playing with Starlight.”
“And what does the cat think about the snakes?”
“He hasn’t seen any of the real ones. I played with him with a shoelace…”
“Okay…” Corvin didn’t see a connection there. “So, not something to do with the cat.”
“No.”
“Has anyone else seen them?”
“Forst saw the one in the yard. He chased it away.”
“Did it bite him?”
“No. He used his shovel to chase it away. I don’t remember—” Reg stopped herself.
“You don’t remember what?”
“I don’t… know. I forget what I was going to say.” She wasn’t willing to tell him about her memory blanks. No one else had been able to offer anything helpful concerning the memory lapses, and she didn’t want to tell Corvin about them. “What about Adam and Eve?” she asked to divert him. “There was a snake in the story about them.”
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