by Nova Nelson
Tanner leaned forward and put a hand on hers. “Maybe you’ll see them at the Hallow’s Faire today.”
She perked up. “Are they still around?”
He nodded. “I just spoke with them this morning.” A joyful grin broke through his somber demeanor. I’d need to ask him what they said, but for now I’d just let him enjoy the memory.
Jasmine let go of one of her folded hands to put it on top of Tanner’s. “Oh, that’s just lovely, darling. I hope we do get to speak with them this evening. It would be a welcome distraction in the general ambiance of Halloween terror.”
Because I knew Tanner was going full force with the rapport thing, I decided to play bad cop and cut to the chase. “Do you think it’s possible High Priestess Springsong killed Dean and Aria?”
Hans shook his head firmly. “No. Deputy Manchester looked into that thoroughly and concluded she didn’t. I know it looks iffy based on what we described, and at first she was on my list of likely suspects, but whatever the deputy found convinced him otherwise, and he’s the professional here, not me. I also know he liked Aria quite a bit—not inappropriately, but the two used to be next door neighbors before she married Dean—and I have no doubt he would have covered every angle before he crossed off a suspect from his list in this matter.”
While the overwhelmed deputy had let things slip through the cracks before, Hans made a solid point.
Still, I’d be chatting with Manchester the first chance I got.
“Wait,” said Tanner, his hand slipping from between Jasmine’s. “Stu Manchester worked the case?”
“Of course. Deputy Titterfield was already too old to blow his nose at that point. I think he passed only a few months later. Stu was the newest to the force but already taking up the slack. He was first on scene, I believe.”
“How come he never mentioned that to me?” Tanner asked, clearly more to himself than anyone else in the room.
But Jasmine answered anyway. “He probably didn’t want to upset you by opening old wounds.”
Tanner nodded. “Probably so.”
“I believe Springsong also had a strong alibi, but I’m not sure what it was. You’d have to ask Manchester. Either way, the crime rattled everyone so much, Bloom ended up interviewing the suspects personally—even we were called in. If Springsong was responsible, Bloom would have known it.”
I’d learned enough about the High Priestess in my short time in Eastwind, though, to know that just because she didn’t commit a crime didn’t mean she wasn’t involved in it. I thought about Grace Merryweather. While the rest of her circle had been arrested for the mess that drove her to escape to Avalon and then Wisconsin, scared and pregnant and alone, it had been Springsong, along with Mayor Esperia, who had shown up at Ruby’s, claiming murder when they really had no reason to suspect that. And we never did figure out who staged the murder scene by the Scandrick compound.
And then there were the doppelgänger attacks, the one on Medium Rare and the one on Sheehan’s. Springsong hadn’t committed either of those herself, but she sure wasn’t crying over the fallout of both establishments that fostered peaceful coexistence between species having to shut their doors. And the doppelgängers who’d committed the crimes hadn’t to my knowledge provided an adequate explanation for why they’d done what they had, especially kidnapping prominent High Council members who would have voted against the laws both Esperia and Springsong were pushing.
Stu might have crossed the High Priestess off his list, but she was right at the top of mine.
Tanner took a sip of his tea, and I followed his lead, since I’d thus far neglected it and I had no desire to offend the Stringfellows after they’d been so helpful. And because I suspected offending them would have given Donovan a lot of personal satisfaction.
Only after I took my first long sip, inhaling a rich jasmine and blueberry scent, did I remember the last time I’d interviewed someone and accepted tea from them. That had landed me befuddled in a basement.
But Hans and Jasmine didn’t strike me as a threat. And Tanner and Donovan were with me. Was I becoming paranoid?
Huh. Kind of made me feel like a genuine detective.
“Thanks so much for your time,” Tanner said, standing, and the rest of the room followed.
“Sure you don’t want to stick around and tell them more of your accomplishments?” Donovan asked.
“Donny,” his mother snapped, shooting him a sharp look. “Don’t take your career frustrations out on Tanner.”
Donovan’s cheeks flushed red, and I was surprised when I didn’t feel satisfaction but rather pity for him. My attention jumped to a large portrait on the wall over his shoulder. In it, his brother was beaming, light shining down on him like he was ordained by the gods. I looked for a similar one of Donovan but found none.
“It’s fine, Jasmine,” Tanner said lightheartedly. “I’ve been taking heat from him for a while now. For some reason I still like him.”
She beamed at him. “He’s lucky to have a friend like you.”
She turned to me, and there was mischief in her eyes as her smile spread wider. “And one like you, Nora.”
Sweet baby jackalope… Had Donovan told them about…?
I tried to catch his eye and got the feeling he was avoiding my gaze on purpose as he rubbed the back of his neck and examined an old picture on the wall.
After we thanked them for the tea and the visit, the three of us headed outside, where the spirit Jasmine had shooed out of her home was waiting.
“Can’t you just banish that thing?” Donovan said irritably, his hands shoved in his pants pockets.
Instead of letting him change the subject immediately, I said, “I didn’t know you had a brother.”
“Oh, you mean The Great and Mighty Leonardo Stringfellow?”
“Sounds like you two got along swimmingly.”
“Hard not to, what with him being so nice and perfect all the time.”
“Oh wow, you really can’t stand him, huh?”
He kicked at a pebble, launching it an impressive distance. “Not even a little. Luckily, Eastwind was too tiny to contain his greatness, so he moved to Avalon. Problem fixed itself.” He sighed. “Well, I’m gonna let you two lovebirds get at it. I’d better track down my girlfriend and figure out what she’s mad at me for now. See you at the faire tonight?”
“Yep,” Tanner said, and Donovan nodded and headed for Fluke Mountain, kicking at more rocks as he went.
After watching him for a moment, I turned to Tanner. “Stu Manchester?”
He offered me his arm to take. “You a mind reader now?”
I wrapped my arm around his. “Not yet. And if there’s a god or goddess of this universe, that day will never come.”
Then we headed off to have a little chat with the were-elk deputy.
Chapter Eleven
We stopped by Necro Coffee for our fix since it was close. My body was officially going through withdrawals without my regular diner coffee (what was I thinking with tea only?!), so a hit of caffeine took precedence over my general dislike for the place and its slogan written on the front glass: “Coffee so good, it’ll wake the dead!”
Always struck me as a little insensitive to necromancers like me who had to deal with that nonsense on a regular basis.
The stop also gave Tanner an opportunity to borrow the cafe’s owl to send Stu a letter. Since the entire department had thrown in their hats during the Halloween madness and taken a day off, we couldn’t just pop down to the station or track him down on the streets. However, our plan was to meet at the station anyway. It would be nice and empty.
What wasn’t nice and empty was Necro Coffee. I didn’t bother stifling my laughter as we entered and I took in the chaos going on. Ghosts hovered around every single patron as the living swatted and cursed at the dead, who were not respecting their wishes one bit. Spirits popped in and out with little cracking noises, and I watched as one poofed into existence in the middle of a man’s table w
here he was already shaking slightly as he drank his coffee and attempted to read the Eastwind Watch—though whether the shaking was from overcaffeination or general anxiety about the day was anyone’s guess. The apparition’s sudden appearance caused the man to yelp and spill his coffee all down his front. “Not you again!” he bellowed enigmatically before standing up so quickly his chair fell over backward and sprinting toward the door, abandoning what was left in his mug and using the newspaper as a shield over his head as he rushed past us, knocking Tanner back a step on his way to the exit.
I kissed two fingers and pressed them to the back of the glass where the insensitive slogan was printed, whispering, “Bless you.”
As we approached the restless line, a female ghost bolted up to us, moaning and wallowing. Before she could get a word in, I held up a hand and said, “Can’t you tell I’m a Fifth Wind? Go bother someone else today, and if you still have a bee in your bonnet tomorrow, we’ll talk.”
That shut her up, and she floated away to moan at a nervous looking teenaged boy.
Halloween was quickly becoming my favorite holiday.
“Thank goddess you’re here,” said the barista when she spotted me. “Is there anything you can do to help? They’re swarming! If everyone weren’t so hooked on caffeine, I’m sure it would crush our business.”
I sucked in air, inhaling the schadenfreude deeply as I feigned sympathy. “Sorry, no. There’s nothing I can do about it today.”
She slumped. “What can I get you then?” The way she said it made it sound like a threat.
We placed our order and Tanner asked to borrow their owl. She looked him up and down, clearly questioning whether she had to comply with his request when he was out of uniform, but then she nodded and handed him a piece of owl parchment and a pen.
We took our coffee to-go for obvious reasons, despite the chill in the air. No spirits were bothering us now, probably because they were having too good a time inside.
Please let that place be built on some sort of spiritual vortex.
The coffee was pretty good, even if it was the fancy kind. But still…
I took one last glance over my shoulder to take in the chaos inside. I wished I’d brought Grim with me on my morning errands. He would have loved this.
“There,” Tanner said, as the owl flew away. “We got a little time to kill before Stu meets us there, even with the long walk. Wanna park it somewhere for a bit?”
“Sounds good.” We held hands, and I huddled close to him for warmth. His long khaki jacket was buttoned in only one place near the top, and the winds sent the bottom flapping around his legs as we agreed on Rainbow Falls and headed toward Erin Park.
“This coffee isn’t bad,” I said.
“I didn’t want to say it. I know you’re not a fan of that place.”
“Today’s visit was just fine. But our coffee is still better.”
He squeezed my hand and stared down at me. “Yeah, it is. Can’t wait to see Medium Rare up and running again next week, and not just for the money. Feels like I’m homeless when it’s closed.”
“I know what you mean.”
The falls were as beautiful as ever, the multicolor flow casting rainbows into the air with the spritz that hovered above it where the water dove headfirst off the cliff. The grass around it was a brilliant emerald, lush, soft, the way all grass should be.
Rainbow Falls was where Eastwind’s gold reserves were stored, which I’d learned, only after they were temporarily stolen by supreme brain geniuses Lucent, Slash, and Seamus, were also guarded by a dragon who only took commands from Count Malavic.
The thieves were arrested, thankfully, but they never would have gotten a chance to pull off the sloppy heist in the first place if it weren’t for the fact that two dumb teenaged witches had decided to conjure a drought demon that had dried up the flow and left the gold exposed.
Was this town always such a mess?
I made to leave the path and head into the thick grass, but Tanner said, “No, this way. I want to show you something.”
“Okay,” I said hesitantly, but followed, knowing he would never take me anywhere dangerous or unpleasant.
We walked on for another five minutes then turned around a bend and the path opened up again. Spread out ahead of us were green pastures and…
Oh.
My.
God.
Tanner laughed and grabbed my coffee from my hand, setting both cups on a low, crumbling stone wall. I hardly noticed.
I wasn’t prepared for what I saw just ahead or for the reaction I felt welling up in me. The urge to sprint toward the beautiful white beasts with their flowing multicolored tails and manes as brilliant as Rainbow Falls was so strong. I had to squeeze Tanner’s hand as hard as I could to keep from taking off at a dead sprint toward them, which probably would have done nothing but scare them away anyhow.
Tanner stepped toward them and paused when I didn’t come with him. “What is it?” he asked. “I thought you’d like them. You’re not scared of them, are you?”
Only then did I realized that in my attempt not to sprint straight at the majestic animals I had actually dug my heels into the ground and refused to budge another inch. “No, not scared at all.”
I got my wits about me and let him lead me toward them.
Two were grazing by the fence as we approached, enjoying the soft and healthy green grass that thrived only in the Erin Park neighborhood.
“I take it this is the first time you’ve seen the unicorns,” he said, biting back a smile.
“How’d you guess?”
We walked straight up to the wooden fence and one of the gorgeous beasts stopped and looked up at us, extending her head up and over the top beam toward us. As her jaw continued to mash the grass, Tanner took my hand that he held and brought it up to her face. Her horn looked like a giant pearl dagger, but there was nothing in her eyes indicating she would ever consider using it as such.
The moment the tips of my fingers made contact with the soft spot just above her nose, I felt a sense of calm wash through me. Tanner let go of my hand, and it was just her and me.
She turned her deep onyx eye on me and seemed to appreciate the continued pets.
“I thought you could use a break today,” Tanner said. “My parents suggested this. We used to come out here when I was little, anytime I was having a bad day. I’d forgotten about it until they brought it up this morning.”
The fact that Tanner had been talking about me with his dead parents nearly washed right between my ears without making contact with my brain. But then it got through to me that he was sharing something important, and I forced myself to break eye contact with my new best friend (fingers crossed!), to turn to face him. “Are you okay?” I asked.
He managed only a smile-like frown. “Yeah. It was weird talking to them again, but it was good.”
I stepped to the side and he instinctively moved forward to pet the unicorn. I could let him have it for a while, despite how much I wanted to stop everything and spend the next, oh, two days, in the presence of the creatures.
But when the second one near the fence lifted her head and approached, I felt a wave of relief at not having to deprive myself, and I stuck out my hand, which she nuzzled straight into. Mmm…
“What did you talk about?” I asked. “Who killed— or, um.”
“No, not that. I thought that’s what I’d ask them, but when I walked downstairs and saw them, I couldn’t bring myself to think about that. I had a lot to talk to them about. Maybe too much. They asked about you.” He grinned boyishly at me.
“Oh yeah? You mean they wanted to know a little about the woman they caught in your bed? Color me shocked.”
He swatted my sarcasm away. “No, they don’t care about that. They wanted to know what our plans were.”
“For fixing this mess?”
“No,” he said firmly. “Our plans… for this.” He waved a hand between us.
“Oh. And what did you
tell them?” Were we talking marriage again? Was that what this conversation was about?
Oh fangs and claws… was he about to propose? Was that why he’d brought me out here? It would be a perfect place for it. The timing? Not so much. Not on Halloween.
I felt my face heat up despite the cool air and bitter Winds, and I waited for his response, repeating to myself, Please not right now, please not right now… I didn’t even know what I would say if he asked. No, I’d have to say yes. I would say yes.
The worry was all for naught, though, (as it usually is) which I found out only a moment later when he sighed and said, “I told them we’re figuring that out. But for my part, I like my future a lot better when I imagine it with you next to me.”
I felt myself relax… and I felt a bit silly.
Okay, way silly.
I’d gotten my panties in a twist over nothing.
I took his hands in mine and said, “I like my present better when you’re next to me.”
His hand fell from the unicorn and he grabbed me, pulling me close. “Then I think we have a pretty good thing going, don’t you?” His face hovered only a few inches above mine, and his warm breath, the scent of coffee still on it, felt divine.
“You don’t hear me complaining.”
He was the first to break the kiss that followed. “We’d better get back to the station. Don’t want to keep Stu waiting on his day off.”
I gave each of the unicorns one last pet and as Tanner and I walked away, hand in hand, I said, “Can we come back here tomorrow?”
He laughed. “Anything you want, beautiful.”
“And what about the next day?”
“Sounds good.”
“And the day after that?”
He squeezed my hand. “I’ll come back here with you for the rest of my days, if that’s what makes you happy, Nora Ashcroft.”
When we grabbed our cups of coffee off the crumbling stone wall where he’d set them, I realized that, actually, that would make me happy.
Chapter Twelve
“It wasn’t gruesome, but it was definitely strange,” Stu Manchester explained as we sat across the desk from him in his office.