by Nova Nelson
“Half-moon,” she said.
Stu nodded. “I thought so. That means the High Council will be voting on any resolutions from the last two weeks. The Council has a strict rule that all seven members must be present to go forward with a vote. If Count Malavic wasn’t in attendance …”
“The tax increase couldn’t be passed,” I finished for him. “That’s one heck of a theory, Stu.”
He grinned and bowed his head politely. “Thank you. If you didn’t know any better, you might guess I’ve committed my life to law enforcement or something.”
Stella fluttered over to the door and held it open, and we took the hint and made our way out of her library.
“I left the bottle at the register,” she said. “Take it as needed after similar episodes, but hopefully there will be no more need for it. Kayleigh will ring you up.”
Nanuk’s Nibbles had been on my list for a while as somewhere to try, but I’d never had the occasion to make the trek up to Fluke Mountain to give it a try. It was the closest thing Eastwind had to fine dining, and, I admit, I was skeptical of how good it could be. The only thing worse than no fine dining is fine dining that’s just okay. But it was the restaurant Tanner had chosen for dinner that night, and I wasn’t going to be a party pooper about it.
After the first two rounds of tapas, I finally conceded. “Okay, this place is pretty incredible.”
Tanner sat opposite from me at the two-person table by the window. Our view definitely didn’t hurt the experience as we overlooked the rest of the town, and I even glimpsed the edge of Widow Lake, though I couldn’t see so far as Mount Reign.
“I’ve wanted to take you here forever,” said Tanner, “but I wasn’t sure if you’d like it.”
I laughed. “Why’s that?”
“I know you said you used to do fine dining, so I thought you’d be picky. I guess part of me thought small-town cuisine wouldn’t stack up to what you were used to, and I didn’t want you to think less of Eastwind for it.”
Ouch. His assumption wasn’t far from the truth. But I wouldn’t tell him that. “I wouldn’t think less of Eastwind just because one restaurant isn’t to my taste.”
“It’s not just one restaurant, though. It’s our only fancy restaurant.”
“What about Franco’s Pizza?”
We stared at each other for a moment before both shaking our heads. “Nah,” he said.
“Yeah, you’re right. It’s not that fancy.” I popped another stuffed fig into my mouth, savoring it. “Well, I think this place is great. A town doesn’t need a bunch of fancy restaurants if it nailed it on its first try.”
The waiter, Zander, a young werebear from Darius Pine’s sleuth, took the bottle of white wine from the ice bucket on a small stand next to us and refilled our glasses and then disappeared again. The restaurant, which only held a dozen tables, was packed at this hour, but I didn’t recognize many of the faces. Not a whole lot of overlap between these diners and the ones I saw at Medium Rare. Except for Hyacinth and James Bouquet. But it seemed James had the good sense to keep his wife from approaching us as we’d found our seats a half hour earlier.
After another sip of wine, I said, “We’re just here to talk, right?”
He nodded. “Unless … I bet we could find somewhere, a bathroom or a storage closet, to—”
I held up a hand. “No, talking is good for now.” No point letting him get excited when what I was about to say would likely bring him right back down again. “I mean, I was just wondering because I want to ask you something, and I know it’s going to sound insecure, but, well, it’s been a long day, and I guess all my usual self-assurance went out the window when I woke up in Count Malavic’s bedroom.” I realized what I’d just said and added, “Not what you think. I’ll get to that in a second.”
His mouth hung open. “Uh, yes. Yes, you will. But go ahead.”
“Why me?”
Tanner blinked. “What do you mean? Why you what?”
“Of everyone in Eastwind. Why did you go for me? I’m a workaholic, I truly cannot stop myself from being involved in other people’s business, I’m not cute and fashionable like Zoe or small and gorgeous like Eva. I’m not even alluringly deadly like Jane. Eastwind may be short on fancy restaurants, but it’s not short on stunning, interesting, intelligent women.”
He placed his hand on the table, and I took it in mine. He leaned forward, meeting my eyes almost defiantly. “You’re asking me why I’m in love with you?”
The air in my lungs turned heavy, and I only just managed to keep my mouth from falling open, but I don’t know that I did as good of a job hiding the shock from my eyes. “You’re … Uh, yeah, I guess that’s what I’m asking.” Was this where I said it back? He didn’t leave much of an opening for it, and I was actually grateful because I wasn’t sure what I would have said in return. I decided the best course of action was to shut up and let him answer my question.
And also not pass out. Would the pills from the Pixie Mixie help keep the room from spinning like it was? I’d sure give it a shot whenever I got an opportunity to pop one.
“I love you, Nora Ashcroft because I can’t help loving you. I knew it the second you first walked into Medium Rare, and each moment I spend with you only confirms it. You’re intelligent, brave, honest, genuine, and beautiful. You’re like a mystery I want to solve but know I never will. And I want to keep trying. I know I don’t deserve someone like you, but dammit, Nora, I’m going to do everything in my power to keep you around.” He raised my hand to his lips and kissed it gently.
Speak, Nora!
It was my turn to say something.
“I—” I what? I loved him too? Did I? Or maybe what I’d been about to say was, “I kissed Donovan.” It was a coin toss, really, so I was glad I had stopped myself.
He smiled and squeezed my hand. “You don’t have to say it back, Nora. It’s okay. People don’t always fall in love at the same rate. But I want you to know how I feel. I’m not usually good at expressing emotions, but you mean that much to me.”
I nodded dumbly. But once the pressure was off of me saying the words back, I realized two things.
First, I did love Tanner. At least I was as sure as I could be on that point. I would do just about anything for him. And I knew he would do the same for me. Plus, I wanted to tear his clothes off most of the time. If that wasn’t love, I didn’t know what love was.
Except, that wasn’t far off from what I felt for Donovan most of the time. I didn’t feel it as strongly as I did for Tanner, and it was always accompanied by a giant red flag. And that brought me to the second thing I realized:
I couldn’t tell Tanner how I felt about him until I told him about Donovan. I was as clear on that as I was about the love thing. I didn’t want to give him hope by telling him I loved him only to blindside him with the truth later. No, I had to muster up the courage. Maybe not telling him the truth was protecting him, but it wasn’t honest. And in the end, all it really did was protect me from the possibility of him leaving me, selling his portion of Medium Rare, and never speaking to me or his best friend again. Or at least that was the worst-case scenario I’d imagined.
“I’m sorry, Tanner. I want to say it back, but—”
He placed his other hand on top of ours. “I told you. You don’t have to say it right now. Seriously. It would mean more when I knew you meant it one hundred percent.” He chuckled. “The last thing I want is to hear it because you feel pressured and then have to spend days wondering if you really meant it or if you were just trying to be nice. Anyway, let’s talk about something else.”
“Okay.”
“How about you tell me the story of how you woke up in Count Malavic’s bedroom.”
There wasn’t a trace of jealousy or suspicion in his words, and I appreciated it more than I could say. So instead of trying to express that, I dove into the story of my field trip with Deputy Manchester and Grim (who I hadn’t invited to dinner) earlier that afternoon.
“Why do you say that?”
“You’ve met the guy, Nora. He’s just … He’s so fanging likable, ya know?”
“You think it’s Oliver then?”
Tanner chuckled. “Not a snowball’s chance in a dragon pit it’s Oliver. You know, a teacher reprimanded him in class once for forgetting to write his name at the top of his essay and he cried so hard his mother had to come pick him up. He was inconsolable.”
I cringed. Poor Oliver. Not only because he was so tightly wound, but because he lived in a town that remembered all his worst childhood moments. “I mean, I wasn’t the most mentally stable in grade school either.”
Tanner shook his head. “Not grade school. This was like two weeks before the Mancer Trials.”
“Good golem,” I said. “Maybe he was stressed?”
Tanner chuckled. “True. I’d never seen someone more stressed. You know he missed a perfect score on his Mancer Trials by one point?”
“I heard.”
“He went into hiding for, like, three months after that. Why would someone hide after achieving the highest score in Eastwind history? Phew. Not worth being so smart, if you ask me.”
Zander dropped off another round of tapas, and I said, “It has to be Liberty or Oliver, though.”
Tanner popped one of the small fried treats into his mouth, crunching down before relishing the flavor briefly. “Why does it have to be one of them?”
“Because if it’s not, we’re all out of suspects.”
“We?” He arched an eyebrow my way, and I rolled my eyes.
“Stu. Stu is out of suspects. There, you happy?” I couldn’t help but grin, though. Yes, he got me, but if anyone understood how hard it was to keep my nose out of it, it was Tanner. The man who loved me.
Chapter Eleven
The following evening, when I stepped out onto the front porch with Oliver after our tutoring session and closed the door behind me, I knew I was in for an awkward conversation. Stu had agreed to speak to Liberty Freeman, and even though I was totally and completely done trying to solve mysteries in this town, I figured I might as well throw a few questions Oliver’s way since we had plans to meet anyway.
“Just give the air writing spell a dozen more tries tonight,” he said, “and I believe you’ll have it.”
“Right. Will do.”
He was being unrealistic, though. I would need a hundred more tries at least before I could even write a simple glimmering O in the air with my wand.
“Excellent. Night.” He turned to leave.
“Oliver, wait.”
He paused, a foot hovering over the first step down from the porch, and glanced back over his shoulder at me. “Yeah?” He squinted at me like I was a calculus equation.
“I wanted to ask you about yesterday.”
He shook his head vaguely. “What about yesterday?” He stepped back up onto the porch and came a bit closer.
“At Count Malavic’s castle. When I passed you just as you were leaving.”
Oliver chuckled awkwardly. “What are you talking about?”
“Um, yesterday afternoon. Manchester and I were heading over to Malavic’s place on Mount Reign and we saw you. I said hi and … none of what I’m saying is ringing a bell?”
He frowned and stared at me through this dark, squinty eyes. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Oliver. Come on! I saw you there.”
He blinked a few times and stared at the old boards beneath his feet. “What time was this?”
“Maybe four or five o’clock.”
He narrowed his eyes further. “Yesterday, you say?”
“Yeah, Oliver.” I was trying not to become impatient, but this made no sense. Why was he pretending he wasn’t there? If that wasn’t suspicious, I didn’t know what was. And deep down, I didn’t want it to be him who’d gone after the count. I happened to like my tutor and didn’t want to see some eternal bachelor vampire hunt him down.
“I’m pretty sure I was napping during that time.”
“Napping?”
“Yeah. I didn’t mean to, but I was prepping in my living room for a lesson with Zoe, and that’s the last thing I remember. I assume I laid down on the sofa and accidentally fell asleep. Then I woke up a couple hours later and had to hurry to the sanctuary for her lessons.”
“Ah.” I could feel his eyes on me as I tried to decide on a new approach. “Okay, so here’s what I saw yesterday,” and I filled him in.
When I was done, he said, “Huh.” Then he grabbed one of his shoulders, squeezing to massage it, and said, “I believe you, but that doesn’t mean it makes sense. And did you see Count Malavic? Was he home?”
“Oh yeah, we saw him. He was in his coffin, buried under a huge pile of fresh earth.”
Oliver laughed as he said, “What? Why would someone do that to him? That makes no sense.”
“I know,” I said.
“Honestly, it sounds more like a prank someone might pull on a vampire than it does a genuine attack.”
“I hadn’t thought of that, but you might be right. So, um, would you have any reason to prank Count Malavic?”
He puffed out his lips and shook his head.
“Not even if, say, you kind of liked a certain witch and when you finally went for it, she turned you down and hurried off to meet Sebastian for coffee?”
Even in the moonlight, I could see Oliver’s face grow pale. He swallowed audibly. “She told you about that?”
“Yeah, sorry.”
He blinked rapidly and straightened the collar of his shirt, lifting his chin slightly. “No, it’s fine. I’m not embarrassed.”
“You shouldn’t be. I’m proud of you for going for it.”
“Not the first time a woman has rejected me for another man.”
Poor guy. “I think you’ve misread the situation. When I spoke with her, she said— Well, you should talk to her about it again. I’m not going to play matchmaker for you two.”
His brow creased. “Matchmaker? But that means you think there’s a chance that … Oh. Ohh.” He did a bad job of repressing a boyish grin.
“You swear you weren’t the one who buried Count Malavic? Or if you were, you don’t remember it?”
“Yeah, I guess I can swear to both those things.”
“And I have to ask, just to clear the air.” I raised my hands defensively to preempt the offense I knew he would take. “You didn’t try to drown Zoe, right?”
“Nora!”
“I know, I know. But you’re always telling me to be more thorough, so here I am.”
He softened. “True. No, I would never try to … I can’t even say it. I would never do anything to hurt her. Period.”
“I believe you.”
We didn’t talk about it any further because I really did believe him. About the Zoe thing, at least. I had my doubts about Count Malavic. It was just too weird that Oliver had been leaving when we’d arrived and he didn’t remember any of it. Just like Zoe didn’t remember what happened between when she left Count Malavic and when she woke up after being pulled from the fountain. Was Count Malvic hypnotizing people? It didn’t make sense.
When I returned inside, Ruby was cleaning up the last few pieces of the lantern I’d accidentally shattered when I sneezed during quenching practice. “Sorry,” I said for the twentieth time since it had happened.
She swept the last of the glass shards into a dust pan, not using magic, which told me she probably enjoyed something about the process, and said, “Enough with the apologies. What took you so long out there with Oliver? You’re not getting sweet on him, are you?”
“What?” I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’m just saying, first it’s Tanner, and I understand that one, because Tanner’s the best young man I know. But then you go tripping over yourself for Donovan Stringfellow, who from a superficial standpoint, I get. But he’s an awful lot of tro
uble, don’t you think?”
I froze in the middle of the room. “How do you know about Donovan?”
“The bigger question is how does Tanner not? Ah, denial is a many splendored thing.”
“When did you … How …”
“I knew it was a possibility when you said you’d be doing a connection ritual with him. Figured it’d blow over quickly. Residual feelings from those things usually only last forty-eight hours or so, then you go right back to how it was. But then the two if you came charging in here that one night, slamming the door behind you. Woke me up, so I decided to help myself to a little eavesdropping. After all, these are my eaves.”
I inched further into the parlor. “Hold up. The residual feelings should be gone already? The things I’m feeling— I mean, his feelings aren’t from that?”
“Very unlikely. Although I never rule anything out when it comes to magic. And as you’re starting to learn, necromancy is just about the most powerful magic there is. After all, what is the one thing every living being wants power over? No need to guess, I’ll just tell you: death. It will always make each of us feel powerless. It’s also the most empowering driving force because we know there’s a finish line somewhere, and everything we ever want to do has to be completed before we reach it. Death is what makes life so special, and you and I are lucky enough to pretend we have some control over it.”
“Does that mean Ted is the most powerful person in Eastwind?”
Ruby chuckled and dumped the glass into the waste bin that never became full. “No, dear. Ted is the most irrelevant person in Eastwind. Did you not hear what I just said? The end empowers us just as much as it makes us feel powerless. When you’re not affected by Death one way or the other, what good are you?”
“Does that mean Sebastian Malavic is also irrelevant?” After all, he was undead. Death didn’t affect him like it did anyone else.
Ruby set the dustpan aside and braced her hands on her hips … or at least where I suspected her hips were beneath her baggy robes. “I’m afraid that in many ways Sebastian Malavic is the most relevant person in Eastwind. After all, he can be killed, it’s just a difficult feat that no one has accomplished in thousands of years. And more importantly, he can turn others, stealing the peace of death from them indefinitely unless someone intervenes, removing that finish line for all intents and purposes, and making sure they never reincarnate.” She shook her head and stared at the floor. “I suspect he feels irrelevant, though.” When she returned her attention to me, she appeared calm again. “Why else would you dump so much money into a town you care so little about? Money equals power, even in Eastwind. And those who try to distribute such large amounts of money are usually pretending they’re giving away their power when in reality, they’re only looking for more.” She sighed. “You’d do best to stay away from the count as much as possible. I assume he’s mighty intrigued by you and your powers.”