by Gina LaManna
We’d waited behind the ice cream hut for at least thirty minutes, maybe longer, before setting out on foot.
“Maybe the date ended early.”
I sighed. “Does that explain why he’d go and put on his graduate robes and meet some old buddies? I don’t know what to think.”
“I don’t either.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“About what?”
“Everything!” I threw my hands into the air. This time, I didn’t notice the fish swimming below the bridge or the lovely scent of lilacs lingering on the night breeze. “What was that all about? Gus working with Harpin? What on earth could be so important that two arch-enemies agree to work together? They hate each other’s guts. Anyone could’ve seen that from the two seconds they stood next to each other.”
“There are things important enough for people to overcome their differences,” Ranger X said. “The only question left is what is so important.”
“That could be anything!”
“No, I don’t think so. I’d argue it’s quite limiting.” Ranger X slipped his hand to my lower back, guiding me over a rough patch of cobblestone. “Consider it this way. You dislike Harpin, yes?”
I could barely hide the curl of my lips into a frown. “You could say that.”
“So what would it take for you to work with him?”
“A lot.”
“Exactly,” he said. “You wouldn’t go over there to ask him for a hand if you needed furniture moved, no matter how much you wanted that furniture moved. You wouldn’t ask him for money, you wouldn’t do anything that might require a favor of you in return unless...”
“Unless something, or someone, I loved was at stake,” I said quietly. “But what does Gus care so much about?”
“That’s for you to think about,” X said. “But remember what I said earlier. Before you judge him, ask. It sounded like he doesn’t want to lie to you back there. Maybe all you need to do is ask and he’ll explain things to you.”
I hesitated. “I don’t want to put him at risk. That Thomas guy sounded like he meant business. As for Harpin, he’s his own force to be reckoned with.”
“Don’t you think he owes you some explanation if you’re going to be involved?”
“When you put it like that...”
“I’m not swaying your opinions either way. You heard what you heard, and you saw what you saw. You have a missing spellbook that was stolen by an impossibly adept thief, and you witnessed a meeting of strangers where one of those men, a man you care about, was supposed to be somewhere else. I’ll leave it up to you how to proceed.”
“What could they be working on?” The answer felt just out of reach, hovering around the edges of my consciousness and begging for me to name it. “I feel like I should know this, but it’s just not coming to me.”
“Then forget about it for tonight. Gus is gone for now, the rest of The Isle will soon be asleep, and you need your rest. You’ll have another day tomorrow at the bungalow and plenty of time to think about it then. Best to do it with a clear head.”
“I suppose you’re right,” I said slowly.
“More importantly, I don’t want to end this non-date on a sour note. Can we enjoy the last five minutes of our stroll?”
I smiled. “I’d like that.”
True to form, the next five minutes passed too quickly and too easily. They were such happy minutes I didn’t want them to end. Ranger X had pointed out the various sea shells on the shore, describing their names, their patterns, and how they were formed. When we reached the beach in front of the bungalow, we stopped.
“Here,” he said, holding out his hand. “I found this at the very start, but I wanted to save it for last.”
“Best for last?”
He nodded, and then opened his palm. I leaned in, gasping at the sight of a beautiful pebble.
“That is the most incredible color I have ever seen. May I touch it?”
“It’s yours.”
I reached for the stone as reverently as if it’d fallen from the sky itself. Blue on the outside, swirls of silver danced through the middle, illuminating the rock from the inside out. A fuzzy, golden halo circled the outer rim, reflecting off a blue so pure it looked like bits of another world had been gathered and packaged in a bundle full of air. “What is it called?”
“Angel’s Breath,” Ranger X said. “These pebbles are known for their luck. Carry it in your pocket for when you need it the most.”
“Does it work?”
“They say each time a soul enters the afterlife they are given one pebble to leave behind on earth. Whenever a person wishes on the stone, it’s that soul’s duty to determine if their intentions are pure. If the answer is yes, your wish will be granted, the stone will lose its glow, and their spirit is able to move on.”
“That is an incredible story,” I said, turning the rock from one palm to the next, the smooth outside feeling like a mixture of satin and glass. “But you didn’t answer my question. Does it work?”
“You’ll have to find out.”
I slipped it into my pocket. “Shall I test it now?”
“Save it for when you need it most,” Ranger X said. “Right now, you don’t need luck. But I would like one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“A non-kiss.”
“But—”
“This is a non-date, and a non-kiss. It’s only fair,” Ranger X said. “I have manners, and I won’t bring it up again, I promise.”
My head told me to say no, but my heart, my body, and my soul all said yes. Three against one were tough odds, and this time, my head lost the battle. “Make it good.”
Curling me into his arms, Ranger X’s lips met mine in a furious tangle of heat. The heady taste of wine mixed with the fresh sea salt. As his tongue slipped between my lips, all thoughts disappeared. No worries lingered and no fears surfaced. It was just the two of us, his strong hands twisted between my locks, pulling the hair tight against my scalp as he trailed his lips down to my neck. I shivered, my own arms snaking around his neck and just holding on, absorbing the moment until he pulled back, his dark eyes swirling with desire.
“That was some non-kiss,” I said. “Wow.”
“I would like to non-kiss you again,” he said. “A lot.”
“We might as well get it out of our systems, right?” The irony was not lost on me—he’d said that exact phrase just weeks before. Apparently, we weren’t out of each other’s systems yet. “What do you say?”
“One more can’t hurt.”
This time, he lifted me into his arms and walked a few steps into the water. The spray from the waves lapping at his ankles misted around us, wrapping us in a cloud of fog. My skin was chilled and his lips were warm, while a furnace burned in my stomach. He held me in his arms and kissed me until the goose bumps overtook my skin and my lips were raw.
Finally, we walked toward the bungalow together, hand in hand. All pretenses of our non-date gone.
“Thank you for the amazing night,” I said. “And for all of your advice.”
He raised a hand and ran his fingers along my exposed collar bone. “I hope we can have another non-date sometime.”
We stood still, neither of us able to break apart first.
“I should be going,” he said eventually, without moving.
“Yes, I should get some sleep.” Instead of turning toward the porch steps, I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. No kissing, no touching, just an embrace that made me feel safe. My eyes closed, and I nearly drifted off to sleep. His hands gently unlocked mine from around his neck, and I forced my eyes to open.
But instead of locking on his gaze, something in the distance caught my eye. I took a step back, stumbling, gasping, spluttering at the sight in the distance.
“Lily, are you okay? What is it?” Ranger X held me close. “What’s wrong?”
“Look!”
Together we turned, and thankfully, he had a g
ood grip on my waist because my body sagged against his side. There, floating in the lake, was a pile of robes. As each wave crashed to shore, the bulk grew nearer and nearer and nearer until the truth was unmistakable.
Inside that bundle of robes lay a body.
Chapter 16
I must have fallen asleep at some point during the night, but I couldn’t remember when my nightmares became real and my thoughts dissolved into dreams. After discovering the body washed ashore, Ranger X had leapt into action. He turned on a dime, transforming from non-date mode to Ranger mode in a second.
After sending for help, we huddled together until backup arrived. Then the minutes turned into hours, and everything became a blur. Into the wee hours of the night we were answering questions, surveying the area, and trying to figure out how a body had ended up on the beach outside of my bungalow.
The body had not been formally identified, but I could venture a guess as to who it might be: black robes, black ribbon across the hood, male facial features—it didn’t leave a lot of options. I explained about the hooded stranger asking for The Elixir to the Rangers, and they’d nodded and muttered to one another, never bothering to clue me in on their theories.
Hours later, the Rangers finally left. In their wake, the cool calmness of the night turned into a black void—a scary, lonely place that had me jumping at every cricket chirp and stick crackle. The body had been removed and the spotlights turned off, but even then, sleep didn’t come, just as Gus had predicted.
The only Ranger who didn’t leave was X. He insisted on staying at the bungalow and keeping watch, despite my best attempts at protesting. Eventually I gave in and pulled him into the kitchen where we shared a cup of coffee and some somber silence. I was too wired, too tired to talk, too exhausted to feel any emotions.
I didn’t remember walking up to bed or undressing, but I must have done it because the next thing I knew, light was streaming through my windows and I was tucked safe in my bed.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept uninterrupted. I secretly thought that Gus loved to wake me abruptly from my dreams by shouting as loud as physically possible from the bottom of the staircase. Speaking of, where was Gus?
A sudden memory of offering Ranger X the couch downstairs hit me then, and I realized that Gus had probably shown up this morning ready to shout up the staircase as usual, but Ranger X had likely demanded I be left alone. I sighed. As much as I had insisted that Ranger X didn’t have to stay over, I had to admit, it felt nice to know someone had my back.
“How on earth did you not tell us?” a familiar voice chided. Poppy poked her head up from the side of my bed, and I leapt up so hard I nearly smacked my head on the ceiling. “You kept it a secret from us, how dare you!”
I clutched my hands to my chest. “What are you doing here? You just about gave me a heart attack. And how did you get in?”
“Well, we had to climb in the window, seeing how you had a surprise guest staying over downstairs.”
“We?”
“Hi,” Zin said with a wave, popping up from the other side of the bed. “I’m here too.”
“What are you guys doing here?”
“We came by to check on you. Poppy didn’t see you setting up shop on her way to work at the supply store this morning, so we poked our heads in to see if you were around.”
“We were quite surprised to see X sitting in your kitchen drinking a cup of coffee—”
“—with a definitely ‘slept in’ couch and blanket set up over in the corner.”
Poppy waggled her eyebrows. “Why’d you send him down to the couch without you? Doesn’t he know he’s supposed to cuddle you in the morning? At least on a first date.”
“We didn’t do anything!” I said. “It wasn’t a date.”
Poppy and Zin shared a look, rolling their eyes at one another.
“What are the kids calling it these days?” Poppy asked. “Hanky-panky? Tickle the pickle? Hide the—”
“Tickle the pickle?” Zin said with a snort. “If that’s the best you can do, you really have to start dating. Nobody says that anymore.”
“Okay, you should talk, Miss Wannabe Ranger.”
“There wasn’t any date,” I said, mostly to break up the argument. I felt a tiny bit of guilt not admitting the full story. Though we’d been desperately referring to what we had as a non-date, everything about the kiss we’d shared had felt real.
“I see how it is,” Poppy said. “I make one date with Hettie, and I miss all the fun.”
“Why did you sneak through my window this morning?” I grumbled. “That’s a bigger problem.”
“No way, José,” Poppy said. “We’re your cousins and your best girlfriends. We do things like that for each other.”
“I’m not hanging around climbing through your bedroom windows.”
“That’s because we don’t have men sleeping over downstairs. Men that we’re keeping a secret from our best girlfriends,” she said pointedly.
“That’s not the only reason we stopped over,” Zin said, casting a glance over to Poppy. “There’s one more thing. We need some help.”
“With what?” I asked. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s nothing,” Poppy said dismissively. “And Lily knows about the problem anyway. Just deal with it and stop complaining, Zin.”
“Deal with what?” I looked between the two. “Someone tell me what’s going on here.”
“Poppy is hiccupping like crazy,” Zin said, wrinkling her nose. “It’s loud, and it smells like a rotten fish slept with a chicken and they had rotten fish eggs. It goes on, and on, and on, and she can’t stop!”
“It’s not that bad,” Poppy said, waving a hand in front of her face and stifling an untimely hiccup. “Really, it’s minor.”
Zin shook her head, and then looked to me with a desperate expression on her face. “Can you please fix her?”
“Is this a side effect of the Vamp Vites running low?” I asked.
“Maybe.” Poppy looked sheepish. “I’ve never had anything like it before. I can’t seem to stop.”
She hiccupped again, as if emphasizing her point. The smell was so noxious I had to dip my nose into my nightgown and breathe into the freshly laundered fabric to block the scent.
Zin rapidly fanned her face, her eyebrows knitting in disgust. “Do you see what I mean?”
“Wow,” I said. “That is definitely a problem.”
“Now we know why Poppy doesn’t have men sleeping over,” Zin said. “She can’t even share a house with us. Hettie threatened to kick her out this morning if she couldn’t stop hiccupping.”
“I’ve never had this before.” Poppy covered her mouth with her hand. “This is weird. Make it stop, Lily.”
“Have you ever had low levels of your Vamp Vites before?” I asked. “Are you only taking half of your dosage?”
“I’m down to a quarter dose per day,” she said softly. “I don’t want to rush you, but I’m starting to get scared. What happens if you can’t find the ingredient you need? Are you sure Gus has no idea where the last Mixologist secured it from?”
“No, I asked him twice. He has no clue.” I waited a beat. “But there is one person who may know a solution. I’m going to talk to him this morning, but before I do, it’s my turn to tell you guys a story.”
“You’ve been holding out on us!” Zin said too loudly. “You and Ranger X are a thing.”
“We’re not a thing, but we did have dinner together last night. As friends. Except, we had an interesting walk home.”
“You kissed!”
I halfheartedly denied it, but the blush on my cheeks gave me away.
Poppy pointed at me. “I knew it!”
Dodging the question, I filled the girls in on everything from seeing Gus conversing with his former classmates, to learning that Gus was a Black Ribbon wizard, to finding a man’s body washed up on shore. I left out the kiss, only because the girls already looked shell-shocked at everyth
ing that had happened, and I didn’t want to add another iron to the fire.
“When you two peeked downstairs, did you find Gus?” I asked, finishing up the story. “I haven’t seen him since last night.”
Poppy shook her head. “If Gus had been here, things wouldn’t have been so odd. It was mostly suspicious that Ranger X was hanging downstairs by himself.”
“We thought that you and Ranger X might have requested some alone time.” Zin winked. “We couldn’t think of any other reason that Gus would stay away. He loves that storeroom.”
“I told you, X and I are not a thing,” I said. “But if you want to keep teasing me about it, then let me bring up the fact that Gus went on a date with your mother last night.” I swiveled to face Poppy and raised my eyebrows. She turned white, and I gave a half smile. “That’s what I thought.”
“We’ll agree to tone down our teasing if you stop mentioning that tidbit,” Poppy said, glancing nonchalantly at her nails. “Enough dating talk. Where’s Gus?”
Chapter 17
“Hey,” I said as I made my way down the stairs a few minutes later. “How’d you sleep?”
Ranger X smiled at me over a cup of black coffee, his gaze somewhat tender, compared to the fierce expression he’d worn after discovering the body last night. “I’m fine, I can sleep anywhere. What about you?”
I gave a one-shouldered shrug. “Not awesome, but I’m not sure that awesome could be expected after the day I had.”
“I made coffee.” Ranger X stood up and moved toward the coffee pot. “Have a seat. Mimsey whirled in here a moment ago shouting about breakfast.”
My eyes fell on the table where he’d brought my most favorite mug in from the outdoor bar and had it waiting for me. My heart melted at the thoughtfulness behind the gesture. As he stood and reached for the coffee pot, I waved him off. “Thank you. I can take it from here.”
“Let me pour you a cup,” he said, sounding so proud of the fact that he’d managed to brew a proper pot of coffee that I found myself sitting and saying thank you without argument. He looked up anxiously as steam rose from the top of my mug. “How is it?”