by Nova Nelson
“Ah,” she said, appearing only slightly soothed by my weak explanation. “Well then, let’s bury the hatchet.”
After I shook hands with each of them, Springsong announced that they’d better go find Bloom, and I wasn’t sad to end the conversation.
Yes, knowing that they believed I would bring about destruction to the realm shined some light on their treatment of me and their misguided attempts to protect the town when the Winds of Change began to blow through, but I still wasn’t entirely on board with them. After all, it’s hard not to take it personally when someone is involved in a plot to murder you.
Finally, I was able to make it to my seat at the table. Grim and Monster were already there, hiding underneath it, ready to pounce on whatever scraps they could get their paws on.
And I had no doubt there would be many, especially when I realized who was seated across the table from me.
“Hey, Darius,” I said.
Darius Pine was a complete sucker for Grim’s begging. Maybe it was because the two of them had a long-standing bromance from running in the Deadwoods together, back before I’d arrived in town and possibly even before Grim had died and changed from hellhound to grim.
I had no doubt the head of the werebears would throw an entire plate’s worth of scraps to my ever expanding familiar.
“How’s it going?” said Darius in his deep voice.
“Oh, you know.”
“Yeah, I sure do.”
What I’d seen of him since Eva’s disappearance was mostly confined to his somewhat regular visits to Medium Rare. He was usually with Ansel when he dropped by, and while Ansel flirted shamelessly with his wife while she worked, Darius did a very fine job of pretending he was okay.
But I saw through it. Because I was a pro at pretending to be okay. I recognized all the signs.
Eva had long insisted that she and Darius were just friends, and maybe that was true, but I had a sneaking suspicion that that view was one-sided and she might have meant more to him than she’d realized.
Who could say, really, other than Darius, and he wasn’t the type to talk about feelings. It was entirely possible that, while he struggled to find romance, their friendship had given him just enough feminine influence in his life to not feel so lonely during his endless search for The One.
Or it could have been much simpler. He could have been in love with her.
Either way, I felt a kinship with him.
Movement caught my eye behind Darius, and I leaned to the side to get a better view. It was Landon a few tables over, and he was waving. Next to him was Grace. Now that the tensions had settled somewhat between witches and weres, she’d been able to come out of hiding. Only time would tell if the baby she was carrying would be witch or werewolf (apparently Eastwind didn’t have the technology or magic to tell ahead of the delivery). I suspected both she and Landon were hoping for a witch. Then there’d be no way to prove it wasn’t Landon’s in the first place and their lives—and the baby’s—would be much simpler.
I tried to imagine him as a father but couldn’t. I was sure he’d figure it out, though. The two of them had probably read a hundred books each on parenting by now.
Stu broke off from his conversation with the Tomlinson family, who were gathered around the table on the other side of him, and turned to me. “Thought you were going to bring a friend.”
“Why bring one when I already have one here?” I threw an arm around Stu’s shoulders and hugged him playfully.
Stu stiffened, and I chuckled. It was so easy to make the man uncomfortable. And so fun.
“And I have the Darius Pine sitting across from me,” I continued. “Eastwind’s most eligible bachelor.” I winked at him, and he laughed. Stu laughed as well. “Who needs a plus-one when I already have a plus-two?”
“True,” said Stu, “but I will argue with you on the most eligible bachelor thing. What’s the criteria for that? If it’s total time single, I’m pretty sure I hold that title.”
“You got me there,” Darius said. “But maybe we can fix that before long.”
Jane and Ansel took the two seats on Darius’s right as Jane asked, “Fix what?”
“Stu needs a date,” I explained. “I think Darius and I have just made it our life’s work to set him up.”
Darius nodded, and Jane asked, “Is that so you two don’t have to worry about yourselves?”
“Of course not,” I said unconvincingly.
“What about you two?” Ansel said, pointing at Stu and then me. “Why not give it a shot? Maybe your shared love of interviewing me while I’m trying to do my job at Whirligig’s will bring you together.”
I turned to Stu. “He has a point. And now that I think about it, whenever I get myself into trouble, who should turn up to have my back but you? Have you been following me, Deputy?”
Stu’s face was bright red. “You know full well, Ms. Ashcroft, that—”
“I know, I know,” I interrupted, slapping him on the back and feeling not even a little bad about prodding him. “You’re way out of my league.”
That finally broke him, and he chuckled along with the rest of us.
“This seat taken?”
I looked over my shoulder and was met with the icy blue gaze that had rudely interrupted my thoughts at the most inopportune times over the last two months.
Stu cleared his throat in a way that sounded a lot like, “Told you so.”
“Nope. All yours,” I said.
Donovan took a seat as the laughter died down. “Wow, did I kill the mood?”
“Depends on what mood you’re talking about,” said Darius.
Jane jumped in. “We were just convincing Stu and Nora that they’re destined for each other. No big deal.”
Donovan’s lips formed an easy grin and his dark eyebrows rose up toward his hairline. “Is that so? Why, because neither can keep their nose out of other people’s business?”
Much to my displeasure, his question elicited howls of laughter from Ansel, Jane, and Darius.
“See?” Ansel said, “I’m not the only one who sees the potential.”
I shared a glance with Stu and we both rolled our eyes before the conversation moved onto other things.
The young servers started to set out the appetizers on each table, and I was more than a little satisfied by the surround-sound of people crunching on tortilla chips as they shoveled queso into their mouths.
There were other appetizers, of course, but mine was the loudest. My competitive side took great pleasure in that.
Before the entrees arrived, Liberty Freeman called everyone’s attention to the stage and introduced Eastwind’s most powerful people: Mayor Cordelia Esperia, High Priestess Springsong, and Sheriff Gabby Bloom.
While they were each dressed elegantly—Springsong in her shimmery green that the East Winds favored, Esperia in a fiery orange and gold to represent the South Winds, and Bloom in her powder blue gown (she could pull off any color, I was convinced)—there was something else that sucked my focus toward them. Perhaps it was just the power they carried with them. Between the three of them, they controlled the Coven, the High Council, and all law and order in Eastwind. And after years of butting heads, they were finally uniting.
Goddess save anyone who tried to cross them. Especially Bloom.
Since the mayor was technically the highest ranking official, she started off the welcome. She stepped forward while the other two women’s tall, slim figures waited imposingly behind her.
What followed was a generic welcome to the feast. But then she got to the good stuff.
“As you know, Eastwind has had a memorable year, for lack of a better word. We’ve welcomed many new friends who have become pillars of our community. There’s Zoe Clementine, who joined us from Avalon and has done a fantastic job caring for Eastwind’s most vulnerable animals over at the sanctuary.” She nodded, allowing time for the crowd to politely applaud, and a few tables over I spotted Zoe blushing and Oliver clapping so
hard I thought his soft hands might fall off. “Of course we can’t forget Emagine Independence, who’s taken our dear Liberty right off the market.” A round of applause was interrupted by whooping when Liberty grabbed Emagine and pulled her into an unabashed kiss, making even the mayor cackle delightedly. “And then we have Nora Ashcroft, who—” I didn’t get to hear the rest of her introduction, though, because something happened that I never in a million years expected.
The crowd erupted.
To be clear, they erupted into cheers, not boos.
I know. Like I said, totally unexpected.
Jane was the first to stand, and Stu followed soon after. As more and more people got to their feet, I found Donovan’s eyes. He was laughing.
That son of a ghoul knew exactly how awful this was for me.
“Don’t you dare,” I said, as he shifted in his chair. “Don’t even think about it!”
But, of course, he didn’t listen to me, and he stood along with the rest of them until, as far as I could see, I was the only one sitting.
“Stand up, you idiot,” Grim said from below the table. “Give them a wave or something. Whatever it takes to make them shut up.”
So, I pushed up onto my feet, and, feeling more like a fraud than I ever had before, I nodded and managed a little wave.
It did the trick, and everyone took the cue to kindly knock it off.
I wished I could have enjoyed it, could have felt like I deserved any of it, but when I tried to convince myself of that, all that I could hear was a louder voice telling me that no one would have done that if I wasn’t Tanner’s girlfriend. It was pity applause. Or maybe they thought I was a hero, but the only reason I did anything even slightly heroic was because it was my presence in this realm that started the whole downward spiral.
The queso threatened to crawl back up from my stomach, and I swallowed it down. Throwing up in front of everyone would be bad, but wasting queso was unforgivable.
“And of course, there’s one new member of our community who isn’t here tonight. She, along with our very own and much-loved deputy bravely gave up their lives in Eastwind so that we could continue enjoying ours. Right now, I ask that we all have a minute of silence to honor Evangeline Moody and Tanner Culpepper.”
For fang’s sake, they weren’t dead. They were just in my old world. And it wasn’t so bad.
Frustrated and feeling all kinds of strong emotions I couldn’t put a name to, I looked to the only other person who would understand. No, not Darius this time.
Donovan’s expression didn’t tell a particularly complicated tale. His head was bowed like everyone else’s, and he stared down at his hands in his lap with a look of pure sorrow on his face.
I fought off the urge to grab his hand, to offer him what little comfort I could. He would hate it if I did that, wouldn’t he? Before I could decide, the minute was over, and Springsong took over with the speech.
“And let us also honor those who passed this year.” She shut her eyes, and to my amazement, she recited them all by heart. “J.C. Shackles, Bruce Saxon, Martha McGovern, Heather Lovelace, Henry Greengrove, Ruth Sullivan, and Denise Youngtooth.”
That seemed like a lot of people for such a small town. Although maybe not for a small town with as many deadly creatures as this one. I only recognized three of the names. One was Bruce Saxon, whose death had welcomed me into this strange place, and whose spirit took a bit of extra coaxing to stay dead. Then there was Heather Lovelace, the murder disguised as suicide with a sneaky bit of silver poisoning.
And then there was Martha McGovern, who had been one of my earliest open-and-shut cases that had only taken me about a day to set right. She was a paranoid leprechaun, set on the idea that someone had murdered her. But once I discovered that she was ninety-eight years old, had a known heart condition that should have taken her out two decades earlier, and there were multiple witnesses who had seen her fall over in the street, clutching her chest and yelling, “My heart! It’s finally happening! Thank my lucky charm!” there wasn’t much more protesting she could do, and she relented and begrudgingly found peace.
Next, the Sheriff stepped forward and there was no need to ask for silence—the crowd hung on her every word. “I want you to take a look around you. These buildings were nearly demolished only two months ago. But those seated at the table with you were able to come together and rebuild. Eastwind will no longer accept division in our community. Our common enemy is hate, not one another. The only thing we will not tolerate is intolerance. And murder, obviously. Guess I should go on the record as having clarified that.” She shrugged. “It’s no secret that I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye with these two women. And I have a feeling we’re going to clash again soon and often. But we’ve made a promise to each other, and now I make that promise to you, that we’re not going to stop trying. We won’t stop talking, even if we disagree. Especially if we disagree.
“In just a few short hours, we’ll be entering into the year 314 for some of you and 1457 for others. Do yourself a favor and wipe the slate clean. Forgive so you unburden yourself of the weight of the grudge.” She grabbed a flute of sparkling wine from a small table on the stage and held it up. Everyone along the tables grabbed their various drinks as well. “Here’s to a new year, second chances, and for goddess’ sake, no more murders. Seriously, the only person who needs a vacation more than I do is Ted.” She threw back the glass in a single large gulp, and we followed suit (though I didn’t see anyone finish their drink quite like the sheriff had, but then again, maybe no one needed a drink quite like she did).
Springsong stepped forward again, and said, “Now if you’ll each join hands with the person on either side of you, we’ll close with our traditional blessing.”
I grabbed Stu’s hand without much thought—it was as rough as I thought it’d be, and he gripped my hand like it was being detained.
When I turned to Donovan, I glimpsed that moment of hesitation in his eyes. I knew what he was thinking. Would our connection ritual still have any lingering effects? Did our connection from the circle still stand now that the circle was broken?
“We don’t have to do it,” I said.
The hesitancy was gone from his expression when he said, “Yeah, we do,” and grabbed my hand.
I swallowed hard when I felt the energy between us, but I wasn’t sure what precisely was causing it. Was it magic or something more ordinary?
“Mother Moon and Father Sun, winds from the east and west, north and south, spirits and stars within…” Springsong began.
I could hardly hear it over my own heartbeat in my ears.
For fang’s sake! What was wrong with me? I was supposed to be mourning the loss of the man I loved! It had only been two months! There was no way I had space inside me for that deep loss and…
And what?
Whatever it was that was flowing through me, that feeling that had simmered since the moment he’d sat next to me and rose to a boil when he’d taken my hand in his.
“… and so it is that we deliver our past to you and request your guiding power to shape a better future.”
The High Priestess fell silent, and so did the rest of us.
Of course, I cracked my eyes to see if everyone else still had their heads bowed and their eyes closed.
They did.
Finally, Springsong proclaimed, “Let’s eat!” and a wave of chatter washed over us. I quickly let go of each man’s hand as the servers delivered the plates.
Jane caught my eye right away. What was she grinning about?
And why couldn’t I keep from grinning right back?
Once everyone’s belly was good and stuffed, the celebration moved just a few blocks away to Fulcrum Park at the heart of town. Soft quilts had already been laid out over the grassy parts, and I followed Jane as she picked out a large, especially soft one for us to sit on. There was plenty of space for Ansel, Darius, and Stu, as well, and not enough space for Donovan, but he made some anyway, insinuating
himself between Darius and myself so the werebear was forced to the very edge of our blanket where it met the one next to ours.
Landon and Grace had already staked their claim on that one. Landon laid on his back, staring up at the sky, and Grace was on her side, nestled against him, using his shoulder as a pillow. The Landon I knew only a few months ago would have been embarrassed to be caught in such an open display of affection, but I guess some things are so good there’s no point in being embarrassed.
Because we’d taken our time migrating from the Emporium after dinner—we’d opted for another round of drinks before moving on—we didn’t have long to wait before the town’s South Winds started their flashy display. (Grim and Monster had headed back to Ruby’s early, opting out of this part of the festivities, though I couldn’t get him to admit it was because he was scared of fireworks.)
The first bang caught me by surprise, and I jumped at the sound of the blast. I almost missed the spectacular sight as it exploded into a sparkling heart. The next one exploded into an arrow that sailed right into the heart, causing both glimmering shapes to evaporate in a shower of pink and purple.
These weren’t like any fireworks I’d ever seen, but why should they be?
I followed Donovan’s smart lead and leaned back, bracing my hands on the ground behind me to get a better angle. It was right as an array of pyrotechnics spelled out the town’s name in the cloudless sky that I felt his arm brush up against mine. And for a moment, it felt like one of the fireworks had found its way into my stomach.
I assumed the contact was an accident. But then I felt his hand move over mine. I turned my attention away from the show to see what he was playing at.
He was staring right at me, and the colorful explosions weren’t the only things I saw in his clear blue eyes.
I knew what he wanted. It was what everyone was here for. A fresh start. And I couldn’t give him that, as much as I wanted to. The things I’d experienced since arriving here were too deeply embedded in me.