by Ashley Meira
“Damn it.” I buried my face between my knees, letting out another heavy sigh. “These ingredients can be found in any local market. Even excluding everything that can remain six hours after brewing, there are still hundreds of possibilities and variations.”
“So, it’s going to take a while,” Ipos said. At my glare, he continued with, “I came with a small attaché. Give me a list of whatever is left in that cauldron, and I’ll see if they can come up with anything.”
Because a bunch of demons were going to be more adept than a witch at potion brewing? I pushed my annoyance aside, recalling Lily’s words. She was right: all that mattered was finding out who did this. It should be me, though. Someone murdered her right under my nose. How could I have been so ignorant? I should’ve known. I should’ve been able to do something, anything, to save her.
Alexander helped me up. “I realize Lady Maxwell meant a lot–”
“Means,” I immediately corrected.
“Right.” He bowed his head. “I’m going to stay and help with this investigation.”
I pursed my lips but didn’t have enough fight left in me to protest. “Fine, do whatever you want. I need to get this stuff back to my lab so I can try to reverse engineer the poison.”
“We’ll need to interrogate the staff, too,” Ipos said.
“All right,” said Rowan. “I’ll do that, then stay with Lily.” She turned to me. “You can take our guest with you.”
“What? No, he can stay–” I paused as Rowan glared at me. Right. He could stay here and rifle through Lady Cassandra’s things instead of being babysat by me. Fuck my life. “With me. He can stay with me.”
My lab was in the basement, just underneath my kitchen. It was cozy, if occasionally stifling. Everything was bathed in a soft yellow light that had Alexander asking how I managed to see anything. The look on his face when I said witches could see in the dark almost brought a smile to my face – you’d think a hunter would know better. Still, the way his nose wrinkled was cute enough to cheer me up the tiniest of bits, which counted for something.
Trying to figure out the missing ingredients for a potion I didn’t know the exact use of was like being told to recreate a stew and only being given a potato to work with. Actually, this was easier, because I could barely make an omelet, but whatever. After two hours, I was able to make some progress; abyssal peppermint and void creeper were the most likely candidates, but I still needed to find the catalyst.
If my mother were here, she’d be able to help. I was sure of it. According to what very little my father had told me, and what I’d been able to pry from Lady Cassandra, she’d been quite an accomplished sorceress before she disappeared. In fact, she was the one who invented Corrigan’s Ire, which is why they named it after her.
That was all I really knew about her. That, and the fact that I had inherited her eyes. Call me crazy, but I don’t think that’s enough information for someone to have on their mother.
She disappeared long before I could even spell the word “magic,” much less learn anything about it. So, all my magical knowledge came from instructors at the Order’s academy. They were all very talented people, but unfortunately, the potions curriculum was limited to basic, mainstream stuff. Besides that, most of them were more interested in the flash and awe of raw magic than any deeper principles. Don’t get me wrong, there’s something perversely satisfying about being able to snap your fingers and have someone spontaneously combust, but the only thing that a fire spell could do right now was help heat up my cauldrons.
My mother, on the other hand, was a worldly and learned magic user as well as a renowned potion master. She could have probably figured out which potion this was and made two different antidotes by now. At least, she could have if she were still around. She vanished without a trace when I was four. No letters, no clues, nothing for over twenty years.
“Anything?”
Alexander was leaning against the opposite wall, potentially checking out my ass. I mean, there was no way to know for sure, but being a hunter meant knowing when you were being watched. And I definitely felt eyes on what I’d civilly call my lower back. Despite our disagreements, I hadn’t changed my mind about going a round or two. That is, after everything finished brewing.
“It’s going to take time,” I said, gesturing to the bubbling cauldrons. “These are the three best candidates so far, but even if we can figure out which potion it is, there’s no guarantee we can find the killer–”
He held up a hand to stop me. “One thing at a time. Do you think Lady Rowan will be able to pull any information out of the staff?”
“If anyone could, it’d be her. Some of the servants here are descended from the people who used to serve her.”
Rowan had been a hunter hundreds of years ago. She’d agreed that, upon her death, her soul could be placed in another vessel so that she could continue teaching hunters for the years to come. Unfortunately, the only vessels suitable for such a spell were animals. That didn’t stop her or other prominent hunters from postponing their voyage to paradise – or damnation – in order to stay and help future generations. It did, however, make it hard for some people to take them seriously. Of course, these people were put in their place quickly enough – the Order has great respect for their ancestors.
“How much longer?” he asked.
“An hour, maybe two.”
“Do you need to stay here?”
“I’d prefer not to come home to a pile of ash. So, yeah. Why?”
“I wanted to go check on Ipos and maybe visit the staff myself. Don’t worry, I’ll go with Lady Rowan so she can ensure I don’t go through Lady Maxwell’s things,” he said, smirking in a way that made me think of a few other things we could do to pass the time.
It was good to know grief wasn’t having a huge effect on my libido. Hey, I wouldn’t complain if my life was just filled with sex and setting things on fire instead of death and unanswered questions.
“You can do whatever you want. Didn’t Lady Maxwell give you carte blanche for your investigation?” I was unable to fully hold back the bitterness in my tone.
“For the Fortune Square killings, yes. However, I think people would be suspicious if I started asking about their leader.”
“Just flash them one of your pretty smiles.”
“Is that a compliment, Miss Maxwell?”
“Lady Maxwell,” I said with a cheeky grin. I still felt like shit, but hey, fake it ‘til you make it, right? “Or, y’know, Morgan.”
“I suppose you are due for a promotion now, aren’t you? I’m sorry that it had to be under such circumstances.”
I nodded toward a pair of chairs in the corner, and we moved to sit down. “I doubt they’ll give me the job right now, though I admit I haven’t really been thinking about it. It’s unusual for someone as young as me to be put in charge, anyway.”
“The Council makes the final decision. You might get lucky.”
I wouldn’t mind getting lucky, big guy. The lab wasn’t really designed for comfort, so the seating area was cramped. With such little distance between us, I could pick up little details about Alexander. Like the fact that he had freakishly long eyelashes for a guy, or how there was a small handful of barely visible freckles scattered across his face.
Apparently, I’d been staring for longer than I thought, because Alexander arched a dark brow. Nice job on being inconspicuous, Morgan. I hadn’t been out on the job for over two months, and I was already out of practice. This was a great precedent for taking over the Maxwell family, I’m sure. Next, I could mix up the safety and the ammo release, let the clip fall right out when a rabid shifter charges at me.
“Is there something on my face?” The cocky smile he had on told me he knew exactly what was going on. Stupid, sexy jerk.
“Eyes, ears, a nose.” A very kissable mouth, so on, so forth.
He let out a breathy laugh that was way sexier than it should have been. “They said you were smart.”
“They do. For example, they say you think that you’re the best at everything.” There was a challenging glint in his eyes.
It’s on, pretty boy. “I don’t think I’m the best at everything, though I do consider myself rather talented in some areas. I doubt Lady Maxwell chose me for my good looks.”
“True enough. That’s another thing I heard, actually: you’re as beautiful as you are dangerous.”
I couldn’t fight the smile his words conjured up. It was nice to know I wasn’t the only one who thought the other was attractive. “Do you always hit on women you plan to arrest?”
He smiled back. “Only when I believe they’re innocent.”
“Well then, am I living up to your expectations?”
“I don’t know.” His eyes were smoldering, sending heat through my veins. “I haven’t seen you in action yet.”
Victory in hand, I stood up and sauntered toward the staircase. My hand caressed the banister, and I turned to shoot Alexander an inviting look. “I guess we’ll just have to fix that, won’t we?
3
Ipos was already back at Lady Cassandra’s home by the time Alexander (“Alex,” he’d said as we were getting dressed. “I figure we’re past certain formalities.”) and I returned. If he noticed that I was wearing a different shirt or that Alex’s sweater looked a bit rumpled, he didn’t say anything. Today definitely hadn’t been a good day for my other shirt, though. First, it got Lily’s snot all over it, then the buttons were ripped off.
Alex took the spot next to Ipos while I sat next to Rowan and Lily. She leaned against me immediately, her face still ruddy from crying. I fixed the blanket around her and asked if she was alright. The only reply I got was a halfhearted grunt and a tired shake of her head. Lady Cassandra was the only family Lily had left. To find her that way… It was a wonder she managed to keep herself together this well.
“Any news?” Ipos asked. The unabashed amusement on his face told me that, yes, he had indeed noticed something.
“The servants know nothing,” said Rowan. “Cassandra didn’t want people fussing over her while she was sick, so she gave them the weekend off.”
“Were they telling the truth?” I asked.
“They were miserable, but not guilty.” Rowan’s tail swung back and forth as she perched on the arm of the couch. “I detected no falsehoods and none of them smelled particularly…nervous.”
Alex, unaccustomed to Rowan’s penchant – and fetish, though she’ll deny it – for making people ill at ease, appeared taken aback by the edge in the feline’s tone. I thought back to when I first met Rowan. She’d been invited to give a speech at the academy, and by the time it was over, three students had broken down into tears.
“I’ve narrowed down the potential ingredients to a few handfuls,” I said, “but I’m positive there were at least two spoonfuls of void powder, which is good because that stuff is regulated. The main issue is the catalyst.”
Lily sniffled. “Catalyst?”
Rowan hopped onto her lap. “The ingredient that binds the rest together and ‘anchors’ the potion.”
Lily nodded along in a daze as Ipos spoke up. “You couldn’t find the catalyst?”
“I did,” I said. “It’s king’s root – pearl seeds that have been steeped with lion tea leaves. It’s a very rare and dangerous ingredient.”
“What?” Lily’s voice was raspy as she spoke. “They sell those things at almost every market.”
Rowan shook her head. “Separately, yes, but not mixed together. Pearl seed is very delicate; it melts easily. Lion tea leaves burn extremely hot. So, it takes a very skilled hand to produce king’s root – if you’re off by even half a degree, everything is ruined. Also, the root needs to be used in a potion within two hours of creation, otherwise it’s inert.”
Lily’s eyes shone with a hope that tore at my heart. “It should be easy to make a list of suspects then, right?”
“You can buy king’s root,” I said. “For a king’s sum, ironically enough. However, it’s only sold by demons since they’re the only race capable of preserving the root’s effects past two hours.”
Ipos nodded. “And it’s only for a few extra hours.”
“So, we still aren’t close to finding the murderer,” Lily whimpered, her knuckles white and trembling as she gripped the blanket.
“We’ll find them.” I hugged her close to me. “There’s a time limit on the effectiveness, remember? Even preserved by a demon, there’s only a window of about eight hours or so, which means they got it nearby.”
Alex turned to Ipos. “What about the caravan? Were they carrying king’s root?”
“Not according to the manifest,” Ipos said. His eyes gleamed, and I knew he was pleasantly surprised at Alex’s aptitude. “But there were a great deal of missing – stolen – including their entire stock of pearl seed and lion tea leaves. Totally not suspicious, right?”
I reeled back. “God, don’t tell me an entire caravan was slaughtered so someone could steal that stuff. That’s just fucked up.”
Alex sighed and rubbed his temples. “This just got way more interesting, and not in a good way. We’ll need to look at any local potion masters.”
“Jane is one of the best,” said Lily, “but she’s out of town. Morgan’s been filling in for her.”
“Which is an absolute joy,” I said flatly. It hadn’t been so bad, actually, but I wasn’t in the mood to look on the bright side of things. “And before you ask: yes, I am the only other person in Haven besides her that is capable of making king’s root.” I gave Alex a pointed look. “You’re not going to accuse me of murder again, are you?”
Ipos grinned. “Maybe of a ‘little death.’”
How did he always know when people got laid? I knew for a fact that it wasn’t a demon thing, so something had to be up. Maybe it was just his special gift. That, and having the body of, ironically, a god.
Alex looked just as amused as Ipos. “All that’s left is the void powder, then. Only licensed potion makers and physicians are allowed to own that stuff.”
Ipos turned back to me. “You’re our local expert.”
I glared at the amused expression plastered on his face. “Well, Jane has some in stock, but none of it is missing. Neither is any of mine. The hospitals and clinics nearby would have it, too. The only legal way to get your hands on void powder is by requisition form.”
“And the illegal ways?” Lily asked.
“Steal it,” said Rowan. “Or if you feel like paying twice the normal price, the black market.”
Ipos stroked his chin. “If they used the black market, why bother stealing the other ingredients from that caravan?”
“We don’t know for sure that the missing ingredients from the caravan were used for this,” said Alex.
“Please,” I scoffed. “There’s no way it’s all a big coincidence.”
“You seemed to believe in coincidences when the killer’s description matched you perfectly,” Alex said dryly.
I opened my mouth, then closed it. “Someone could be trying to send a message to me. ‘We can get to you’ or something.”
“You think this is about you?”
“I think whoever decided to come after Lady Maxwell knew I’d be involved, that I’d take it personally. The attack on the caravan could just be a big ‘fuck you’ to taunt me.” My voice rose with each word, and by the end of my mini rant, I was out of my seat, my chest heaving.
“It’s possible,” said Ipos. “Free ingredients and a chance to frame – or mess with – Mori… I’ve seen people kill for much less.”
Alex looked between us, his brows coming together. “Still–”
“Who the hell cares why they did it?” Lily snapped, her wet cheeks flaming red. “Obviously, whoever thought coming in here and killing my aunt was a good idea is a complete idiot. So, screw them and everyone that helped them. Knock down the doors of every hospital and cl
inic around, work your contacts to find whoever did this, and kill them.”
The murderous rage emanating from her was palpable enough for even Ipos’ usual flippant demeanor to drop into a more sober one. While I agreed that finding and catching the killer was more important than establishing motive – trust me, I wanted nothing more than to filet the son of a bitch that did this – taking a forceful approach wasn’t the best course of action. Her outburst did give me an idea, however.
I stood up. “Let me work a tracking ritual, okay? I’ll need a local map and some void powder, both of which I have at home.”
“It’s a good thing we live nearby, then,” said Rowan.
If I thought the lab felt cramped with just Alex breathing over my shoulder, it was damned claustrophobic with everyone else around. I shook the small amount of void powder I had left onto the map laid out in front of me. The map covered the entirety of Haven – this town – and every area within an eight-hour trip, which is as far as the potion could have been made before the king’s root went bad and FUBAR’d the whole concoction up.
The ritual I had in mind was made to identify the use of certain spells, potions, or materials in a specific area, provided you had a sample of what you were trying to track. It was pretty useful for identifying rogue blood mages, ‘roided up werewolves, and all sorts of other nasties. Today, it’d be used to reveal any locations where void powder had been used in the last three days.
Of course, with my luck, a plane full of the stuff just exploded above us and there’d be void powder everywhere. I guess it was still better than a plague of locusts. I said as much to Ipos, who had the good manners to pretend to think it was funny. Rowan wasn’t in as charitable a mood and pawed at me to hurry up. Someone was going to get de-clawed when this was all over.
Despite having grown more tolerant of it over the years, Rowan still hated this ritual. Holy warriors from the Church used to use this ritual to hunt down witches. It had basically been a giant “beam-me-up” from every supernatural creature to the people that wanted to kill them. This was before hunters started understanding there was a difference between a supernatural being and an evil supernatural being, back when being anything more than a regular human meant you were on the hit list.