by Nova Nelson
He dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “Semantics, really.”
“Not even a little bit.”
But it was obvious that nothing I could say would add a drop of guilt to his veins.
He said, “Nature adjusted, anyhow, and equilibrium has yet been achieved with no resulting catastrophe. At least none that can conclusively be attributed to this.”
I continued staring through the portal. Judging by the shadows on the other side, it was midday there. I’d noticed this anomaly in the last portal I found myself staring through, that the times of day didn’t quite match. It had been night on both sides when I’d first died and come to Eastwind, but that seemed to be more of a coincidence than the rule with inter-realm travel. “And it leads back to Texas?”
“No, no. It leads to Louisiana.”
I couldn’t believe it. “My Louisiana?”
He scoffed. “I hardly think you can claim it as yours.”
“But you mean the Louisiana in my old world, right? This isn’t another Wisconsin situation?”
“In terms you’ll understand, yes, this portal leads back to the world in which you were born. And the world in which Tanner and Eva have been living quite safely since they left Eastwind.”
“You… How do you… How long have you…” I couldn’t formulate a dozen questions at once, and they all seemed equally important. So naturally, the most irrelevant one popped out. “Have you been going between realms? Is that how you know pop-culture references from my old world?”
He clasped his hands in front of him and tilted his head to the side. “Well done, ten points to Gryffindor.”
I’d never have believed a perfectly executed Harry Potter reference could leave me so furious. But there it was.
I returned my attention to the circular window leading to Louisiana.
Tanner was out there somewhere. I could step through and find him. I could make a run for it and not look back!
Huh, that was probably the irrational behavior the count had requested I refrain from indulging. Or maybe he’d meant something more along the lines of what I did next.
I stepped forward, closing the distance between the portal and myself, and smacked Sebastian Malavic across the face so hard, I busted his lip on one of his fangs.
His shock only lasted for a millisecond before it warped into pleasure, which only made me want to slap him again, and harder. But instead, I got in his face, pointing a finger an inch from his nose, and hissed, “You’ve been waiting, haven’t you? You just want to make me miserable, so you waited until I was settled into my new life with Donovan, until I’d finally started to move on from Tanner, before you dumped this on me. Admit it, you were just waiting for the worst possible time.” My hands were shaking, and I tried to will them to stop so he didn’t get the satisfaction of knowing just how much he’d gotten to me.
He held up his hands in a sign of surrender. “I admit it. And why wouldn’t I?” He licked the dark blood from his lips. Was that his blood or the blood of a recent snack? “I haven’t had a beautiful woman slap me like that in centuries. Wouldn’t change a thing, to be honest.”
Had it also been centuries since a woman had kneed him right in his balls? Because I would have been happy to accommodate him. But that might be pushing things too far. It ran the risk of making him truly angry at me, which was dangerous. Or he might enjoy it far more than the slap, which was worse.
So instead, I decided to deprive him of the one thing he craved so badly. I couldn’t change what had already happened, but I could keep from giving him any more satisfaction from my response. I cast one last look at the glowing gateway, feeling a weight in my chest pull me toward it, toward Tanner, wherever he was, and then I turned on my heel and marched out of the count’s castle without saying another word.
I made it all the way off the narrow peninsula and to the edge of town before I collapsed on a stone bench and put my head in my hands. It’d been so long since I’d cried, having grown sick of it quickly after Tanner left and swearing it off, I was worried that it wouldn’t come, that I wouldn’t be able to relieve the pressure building in my chest and I would simply explode. But nope, there were the tears.
I like to get all my crying done at once. It’s an efficient way to handle emotions. But it means ugly crying and a whopping dose of self-pity condensed into a short amount of time. Thankfully, I’d mastered this technique; my life had never accommodated general weepiness.
And so the self-pity tumbled down on me in an avalanche.
What was I supposed to do? I had started this new life with Donovan. I had already gone through the worst of the pain of losing Tanner, and now would I have to relive it all over again? I didn’t want to make this choice! I didn’t want this choice to exist!
But then again, it could mean finding Tanner. Didn’t I want that? The five of us in our circle couldn’t all be in the same realm again, that was clear. The power we possessed was too strong and would upset the balance like it had before, causing all kinds of terror.
But I could go through. I could leave Landon here with Grace, and I could go.
And so could Donovan. He could come with me, and he could find Eva and bring her back.
If she wanted to come back.
Maybe he would stay there, and Tanner could come with me back to Eastwind. Did I even want to return to Eastwind? Did I want to be back in Texas?
It was all too confusing, and I hated it. But if I wasn’t careful, my confusion would make me lose focus and I’d end my crying prematurely, before it was all out.
Get it together, Ashcroft! Are you here to cry your eyes out or not?!
I was. So I steeled my mind and refocused on the pity party. There were streamers, a cake, a piñata—the works.
Finally, when I couldn’t squeeze out any more tears, I wiped my nose on my sleeve, dried my eyes, and took a few deep breaths.
I didn’t have to make a decision right now. Malavic said the gateway had been open for over three hundred years. It would stay open for a while longer.
My sense began to return. Sweet baby jackalope, did this new discovery complicate everything. However, after the release, my desire to drive a stake through Malavic’s heart was somewhat lessened.
Somewhat.
Just as I stood from my crying spot, still red-eyed, though there wasn’t much to be done about that, an owl came out of the blue. Literally. It swooped down from the sky and perched on the branch of a nearby tree, hooting at me until I took the hint.
Still sniffling, I grabbed the piece of parchment from its talons, and unfolded the letter. I recognized Stu Manchester’s scribbled writing. It simply said, Miss Ashcroft. Medical examiner’s done. Something you might want to see. Come quick.
Chapter Twelve
I caught a reflection of myself in the glass doors of the Sheriff’s Department and saw that my eyes were still unmistakably bloodshot.
Oh well. If Stu asked, I’d just tell him I’d been doing drugs. He wouldn’t want to know more for fear of having to arrest his only help out in the field.
Jingo nodded for me to pass and seemed somewhat in lighter spirits when he saw that Grim wasn’t with me.
I knocked on Stu’s door, and he answered right away as if he’d been waiting just on the other side for the sound. “This way, Ms. Ashcroft. The MedEx just took her coffee break, so we have a little time to ourselves before she comes back to prep for the MagEx.”
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a fan of the examination room. It was located in the underground section of the station, near where they kept the evidence lockers. The room had an observation window overlooking it from the hallway, but we just walked right in and up to the iron table on which the covered body lie. Dmitri’s body.
A stark light hovered overhead, too blinding to look anywhere near it, but I was sure it would provide plenty of illumination to see every nook and cranny of whatever person was unfortunate enough to be on display below it.
Stu stepped to one sid
e, and I took the other. Slowly, he pulled the sheet back, and I braced myself for the worst. I knew just enough about medical examiners back home to know there was some cutting and sawing involved with the process, and refined sewing skills never seemed to be a job requirement. So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that Dmitri hadn’t gone through any of that treatment. Of course not. He might have only seen the medical examiner so far and not the magical examiner, but that didn’t mean the medical examiner didn’t have anything magical with which to gaze into the patient.
Was “patient” the word for it at this point? Seemed incongruent with rigor mortis.
There was something unsettling about how familiar his face was to me. It was like looking at an old friend, except this was the first time I’d ever gazed at his real face. I’d probably passed him in town, maybe been at Sheehan’s with him at the same time, but his had just been an anonymous face in the crowd to me. Just backdrop to whatever drama was swirling in my life at the time.
But he was like a friend now—no, he was a friend. Unfortunately, that hadn’t developed while he was still alive. And the man I was looking down at, did I even know him?
Stu cleared his throat. “The MedEx said it looked pretty clear that his heart giving out was the cause of death. I won’t go into the grisly details, but suffice it to say, the signs were all there.”
“He had a heart condition that he knew about, so that adds up.”
Stu nodded. “There were a few slashes along the torso, but they were all scarred up, so they couldn’t have been the cause.” He lowered the sheet as far as it could go without compromising Dmitri’s modesty, and I took in the scratches.
“Malavic’s dragon got him there.”
“That’s what Bloom suggested when I ran them by her.”
“What’s that?” I asked, pointing at an intricate symbol in black ink over his failed heart.
“That’s what I wanted to ask you, actually. I was wondering if you could ask him if it had any significance.”
My Insight kicked me in the seat of my pants, and in an attempt to assuage it, I stared at the marking harder. “I recognize it, but I can’t think of where from.”
“Is he here right now? Can you ask him?”
“Huh?” I looked up from the body. “Oh, no. He’s in the Deadwoods with Grim for the day.” I gazed back down at the symbol, obsidian against the tan of his chest. It was all curves and loops, like a Celtic knot with no obvious beginning or end. Where had I seen it before? Was I just imagining the connection? Or was it a knot I’d perhaps seen in a past life, whether in Texas or Ireland?
“It could just be a design he liked,” I suggested.
Stu grunted. “People don’t just mark themselves with pretty designs.”
“In my old world they did.”
“Sounds foolish and risky. Body markings always carry a significance. Whether this is some sort of gang or group he belongs to or… I don’t know. I just have a feeling it’s important.”
I nodded. “I can certainly ask him about it when I see him again.” I ran my hand over it and felt a jolt run through my arm. Strange. “It’s right over his heart.”
“The heart that gave out, yes.”
“Maybe it’s some kind of protection.”
“I think you’d better just ask him.”
“If it carries any kind of, I don’t know, magical significance, wouldn’t the magical examiner pick up on that?”
“He would. But Brightburn’s been in Avalon all week and won’t see the body for another couple of days. And if it’s just to mark affiliation, he might not pick up anything. Nevertheless, I believe it’s important to the homicide investigation.”
Homicide investigation? I jerked back to get a better look at him. “I thought you said he died of natural causes. Of his heart stopping.”
“I said his heart stopping was the cause of death, but that doesn’t mean it’s natural.”
I wasn’t convinced. While I was always suspicious that there was something sinister behind every strange occurrence in Eastwind—experience had taught me that—there was still no actual evidence supporting the theory of foul play. And there was quite a bit of circumstantial evidence supporting the story that Dmitri had a heart condition and his number had finally been called.
I felt suddenly antsy. I’d seen all I’d needed to, and I didn’t want to spend a second more in the presence of the corpse.
And it just went to show how much Stu Manchester trusted me that he allowed me to be in the same room with a deceased after I’d taken over the body of Donovan’s uncle only a few months before. To be fair, I’d had a solid reason for that. But it’s quite a thing to know that you can no longer truthfully claim, “I’ve never worn a dead guy around town.” People don’t generally overlook that sort of behavior, either. Especially not law enforcement. But I got a pass because I’d made myself useful enough. Thank Gaia for that.
“Can we wrap this up?” I said, before begrudgingly adding, “No pun intended.”
Stu brought the sheet back up to cover Dmitri’s face and escorted me out of the room. Once we were back upstairs, he stopped me before I could sprint home, and said, “There’s something else.”
“Yes?”
“I, um… You know I’m not great with emotions, Ms. Ashcroft. But I consider you a friend, and as your friend, I couldn’t help but notice your eyes were awfully red when you came into the station.”
I swallowed down the traitorous lump in my throat and let him continue.
“Is everything all right?”
“More than all right.”
“It looks like you’ve been crying.”
Drugs, I thought. Tell him about the drugs.
But Stu was my friend. I didn’t want to worry him further by convincing him that he needed to stage some sort of intervention. Besides, I wasn’t sure what the drug scene was like in this realm. I wasn’t even sure they had them, and if they did, what those drugs did.
“You’re right. I was crying.”
He cringed. “Is it anything I can help with?”
“Only if you feel like walking over to Widow Lake and driving a stake through Count Malavic’s heart.”
“Ah.” He tilted his head back and didn’t ask any more questions. “Well, you take care of yourself.”
Chapter Thirteen
Grim jumped up from his favorite spot on the front porch as I approached. It was nearly dark, so at first, I couldn’t make out if it was him or if some creature from the Murderswamp had gotten lost and wandered into town.
“Ruby won’t let me inside!” I could tell from the tone of his thoughts that he’d been agonizing over this fact for hours.
“That’s because you look like you spent the day rolling in mud.”
As he wagged his tail, a clump of the muck flew off and stuck to the armrest of the porch swing. “I did. The Deadwoods have the best mud. Years of death and decay mixed in. Everyone knows that.”
I paused a safe distance from him and assessed the damage.
His tail drooped and he lowered his head. “Will you help me?”
“Fine.”
I opened the front door and saw Ruby and Dmitri sitting at the parlor table, chatting pleasantly with one another.
“You’re back,” Ruby said. “I was starting to wonder if the count had finally managed to properly seduce you.”
Dmitri chuckled.
But I just glared. “Seduce? Not a chance. But we’ll get back to him. Can Grim come into the bathroom to get cleaned off?”
It took a little convincing and a promise on my part that I would personally scrub up all the muddy paw prints after the fact, but Ruby finally agreed. I’d like to take full credit for the persuasive victory, but I’m positive Dmitri’s friendly presence worked in Grim’s favor, too.
Once the clean up was complete, Grim joined Clifford by the cool, blue fire, and Monster quickly curled herself up in his warm fur. A hot cup of tea was already waiting for me once I’d dispo
sed of the muddy rag I’d used to scrub the paw prints. It was times like these when I most regretted not possessing the kind of magic that made this sort of menial task disappear with the flick of a wand.
“So,” Dmitri said, “you saw the count today.”
“Oh, right.” I paused. How much did he suspect about the timing? Only one way to find out: “I just had some time free, and I figured why wait?”
“You mean you had me out of the way, so you took the opportunity to go interview people about me.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but he held up a transparent hand and said, “Don’t worry. Ruby already made a strong case for why that was the right decision.”
“Ah.” I turned to her. “Thanks.”
She nodded gently.
“So?” Dmitri prompted. “Learn anything of interest?”
Fangs and claws, had I! But the portal wasn’t relevant to my investigation, and telling them probably wasn’t a great idea…
And yet, there I was, already halfway through the story by the time my good sense caught up.
“He wasn’t even shy about the fact that he’d waited six months just to cause me more psychological anguish!”
Ruby said, “Of course he wasn’t shy about that. He’s not shy or ashamed about anything. It’s a gift of his.”
“Gift for him, curse for the rest of us.” I fell silent for a moment, feeling myself run out of steam for the day. “It’s not fair. If he’d just shown it to me on November first, there’d be no decision to make! I would have sprinted through it faster than you can say ‘reckless.’ But no. He waits just long enough until I’m starting to put my life back together. Ugh! I bet he saw me and Donovan together at the scufflepuck tournament, noticed how happy we were, and decided now was the time to pull this nonsense, now that we have a solid foundation.”
“You have a solid foundation with Donovan?” Dmitri asked. “That’s news to me.”
“Ha-ha,” I said dryly. “I mean, as solid of a foundation as anyone can have with Donovan.”
Ruby added, “Was this the same scufflepuck tournament where Donovan was trying to pick a fight with a genie? Where the count had to step in and finally put a stop to it? Was that the one where you two were so happy together?”