I didn’t need to look at Dylan to know what his reaction would be. I heard his words as though they came from far away. ‘It can’t be me,’ he said. ‘I mean … I would, if I could. But … the virus.’
Grace nodded. ‘Of course. I should have thought. Well, there are other people we could use – if we trusted them to keep this to themselves. What about Jared? Or Pru?’
My hand broke away from Grace’s and fluttered to my neck. When I thought of Jared, all I could see was him with Darina Berry, breaking Dylan’s heart. ‘Pru would be a better option,’ I said. ‘But it doesn’t matter either way, because there’s no need.’ My teeth clamped down on my lower lip. ‘There’s something I left out of my account of when Miriam tried to kill me that time,’ I told them all eventually. ‘She … she tried to drink my blood first. And after she took just the smallest amount, she vomited all over the beach. She said that my blood tasted like crud.’
Grace blinked for a few seconds. Then she slouched back on the couch and said, ‘Well then. That’s the proof we needed. You are sióga, Ash. Or at least half. Which means … Arnold hated your father for one very simple reason. He hated him, and broke up his relationship with Abby, simply because he was fae.’
As her words hung in the air, I couldn’t look at the people around me. Ever since my arrival I’d wondered whether Abby had really been my mother. And even though I wanted to know who I was more than anything, the thought of being Arnold’s granddaughter made me fear the truth.
I liked facts. No – I needed facts. I was a person who had hunted down the truth my whole life long. Other people could deny the reality of the world, even when it was staring them in the face. They denied the supernatural. They denied the magic all around. But me? I searched that world out and met it head-on.
But now here I was, desperately trying to deny my connection to Arnold Albright. There might not be any hard, cold facts to prove I was his granddaughter. But the coincidences were really stacking up. Maybe it was time to finally accept who I was.
There was one thing still confusing me, though.
‘Grace,’ I began. ‘You’re saying that you think Arnold broke up my parents because my dad was sióga. But if that’s true, then why on earth is he trying so hard to get me into his life? If he hated my dad for being fae, shouldn’t he hate me too?’
Dylan nodded, a bleak expression on his face. ‘I have to say, I’m wondering that myself. I spend as little time with Arnold as I can manage, but even I know his opinion on the sióga.’
Greg pulled a packet of popcorn from his pocket, tore it open, and started to munch. ‘It’s true,’ he said between bites. ‘He came into the office one day last winter and caught me playing the faery side in the War of the Enclaves. He gave me a long and horrible lecture, and then he cancelled my Winter Solstice bonus. He really has a hate-on for the sióga.’
We all looked at the big bad boss, waiting for some words of wisdom. After a few moments, she shook her head and said, ‘Darned if I know what the old goat thinks about anything. But I do know this – he’s not behaving like himself. He let you go without touching the coven grimoire, Ash. He let you carry on working here. Left your memories intact. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s biding his time.’ She let out a shuddering breath. ‘But for what?’
24. Right Where I Belong
I lay on my four-poster bed, looking up at the curtain-top. It was a gauzy white material, the same as the curtains which covered my French doors. Just like everything else in this room, the bed was so very, very pretty. Although it might not remain that way much longer. Right now, Fuzz was on top of it, chasing a moth and scratching holes in the material in the process.
‘Just leave the poor thing be!’ I said.
Fuzz peeped down at me. ‘No can do. He could start fluttering in your face while you sleep and wake you up. And trust me – you look like you need all the sleep you can get.’
I didn’t know whether to laugh at him or throw something. ‘Are you going to be this rude all the time?’
He peeped at me again. ‘Rude? When was I rude?’ His eyes drifted across the room, and he pounced down from the bed and leapt up onto my dresser. ‘Go on now – get some shut-eye. I’ll look after this.’
I readjusted my pillows, huffed out a sigh, and turned onto my side. I was the kind of tired that won’t let you sleep. Wired, that’s what I was. I had gallons of coffee and a whole lot of sugar in my system – not to mention everything that was running around in my mind.
Jared had come to see me as soon as I’d arrived back at the Vander Inn. He’d been in Riddler’s Cove when the news broke about the witch hunter, and he’d rushed straight back home to make sure I was okay. Or so he said. For all I knew he could have heard the news, gone off to have a quick fumble with someone else’s fiancée, and then come home.
I told him I was exhausted and that I’d speak to him in the morning. And I would. I’d have a very short conversation with him, a conversation during which I would tell him there was never going to be a second date.
But the truth was, I wasn’t hurt by what Jared had done. It wasn’t as though we were a couple, now or when he was with Darina. The only thing I cared about was that Dylan hadn’t told me the truth. And what was the point in messing around with Jared when he couldn’t make me feel even half as upset as Dylan could?
I readjusted my pillow again, and was about to turn onto my other side when I saw Fuzz approach my French doors. He stood up on his hind legs, reached out a paw, and drew one of the doors open wide. A cold breeze rushed into the room, but I didn’t tell the cat to shut the door. Instead, I sat up and smiled.
‘Broom,’ I said, watching as it drifted through the doors and flew onto the bed. ‘You came back.’
As the broom moved itself closer to me, Fuzz hopped up on the bed. ‘Of course the broom came back, dum dum. This is where it belongs.’
I let out a burst of happy laughter, and I knew that I was finally going to be able to settle down for the night. Waves of sleepiness washed over me, and I drifted towards the land of nod.
I was a little bit witchy, a little bit fae, and a lot confused. But none of that mattered. All that mattered was that I was right where I belonged.
≈
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Witchy See, Witchy Do (A Riddler's Edge Cozy Mystery #2) Page 16