I had a feeling he was right. “Will you call me if you get any new information on the case?”
Galen nodded. “Don’t get your hopes up, though. Ashley has a lot of strikes against her right now.”
“But you’re going to continue searching for another suspect, right?”
“Yes.” He gave me another kiss, his shoulders jolting at the sound of someone knocking on the front door. “Are you expecting someone?”
“Just the other guy I’ve been dating.”
Galen scowled. “Really? After what I just said?”
I shrugged. “I have horrible comedic timing. I’m kind of a spaz. You should already know this. What do you want from me?”
Galen snorted as he moved toward the door. “Whoever it is, he or she has awful timing. I’ll get rid of them.”
I trailed behind, curious about who would bother visiting this early. If I’d learned one thing about Moonstone Bay, it was that island life didn’t really mesh with early-morning activities. Those who had to get up early to work did so, but they weren’t happy about it. Everyone else slept until at least nine.
“Whatever it is, we don’t want any.” Galen made the announcement before tugging open the door, pulling up short when he caught sight of Madame Selena. “Oh, it’s you.”
Even though it was early … and a weekday … Madame Selena was dressed to impress. She wore an ankle-length skirt and had her hair (which I had still yet to see) pulled back under an ornate turban. She wore sparkly shoes, had her overly long fingernails painted purple and had slathered on enough makeup that the Kardashians would’ve been jealous of her Sephora shopping basket.
“Good morning, Galen.” Madame Selena looked grave as she surveyed his rough-and-tumble appearance. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Aren’t you psychic?” Galen’s tone wasn’t exactly icy, but it wasn’t welcoming either. “I thought you knew everything that happened on Moonstone Bay. Isn’t that what the sign in your shop window says?”
“I believe the exact phrasing is that I know all and see all.” If Madame Selena picked up on Galen’s overt dislike she didn’t show it. “As for being psychic, I try to keep my spirit helpers at bay unless I absolutely need them. I don’t want to infringe on anyone’s privacy.”
“Yes, that’s what I always think when your name pops up,” Galen drawled.
Madame Selena waited on the other side of the screen for a long moment. Finally, she asked the obvious question. “Are you going to invite me in?”
“It’s not my lighthouse.” Galen walked away from the door, causing me to frown as I watched him meander toward the kitchen.
I scrambled to open the screen door and offer Madame Selena entry. “Did I know we were meeting today?”
“You should have.” Madame Selena was blasé as she glanced around the lighthouse. “I thought you wanted to learn more about your powers.”
“I do.” That was true. “I just … didn’t know we were meeting today.”
“No time like the present.” Madame Selena’s smile was so bright it almost blinded me. It was also so fake it was almost painful and forced me to flick my eyes to the kitchen doorway, which Galen happened to be walking through. He’d put on his shoes and grabbed his badge and gun, telling me he was on his way out. “Oh, Galen, are you leaving?” Madame Selena made a tsking sound but didn’t look altogether unhappy.
“I have work.” Galen put his hand to the small of my back and prodded me toward the door. “Hadley, will you walk me out?”
“Um … sure.”
Galen didn’t release the pressure until we were on the front porch and could talk without Madame Selena hearing. “Listen, I don’t want to tell you your business … .”
“But you’re going to.”
Galen exhaled heavily, as if tugging on his limited patience. “I just want you to be careful. Madame Selena is … odd.”
“This whole island is odd,” I pointed out. “What is it about her that you don’t like?”
“I didn’t say I didn’t like her.”
“Your reaction to her showing up was fairly obvious.”
“Ugh.” Galen made a growling sound before briefly pressing his forehead to mine. “I want you to be careful. I don’t think Madame Selena is dangerous, but I also don’t think you need her. You’re fully capable of figuring things out by yourself.”
He had more faith in my newfound abilities than I did. “Three weeks ago I didn’t believe magic was real.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know how to move forward with this.” I was at a loss. “I need help.”
The look Galen shot me was almost pitying. “You really don’t need help, but I understand why you believe otherwise. I swear you’ll figure this out … and I’ll help where I can. If you feel you need Madame Selena, though, I won’t stand in your way. She knows a lot about a great many things.”
“And yet you don’t seem to like her.”
“She’s nutty.” Galen smirked as I rolled my eyes. “I’m sorry. She wears on me. Maybe she won’t wear on you.” He leaned forward and gave me a quick kiss. “I will be in touch if I have any information.”
“Okay.”
“I will also be in touch toward the end of my shift so we can make plans,” he added.
“What if my other boyfriend wants to do something?”
Galen’s expression darkened. “Why do you always have to take it too far?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I think it’s a gift.”
“You might consider returning that particular gift for store credit.” He gave me another kiss. “Have fun. I hope Madame Selena answers whatever questions you have. As for the rest … we’ll talk tonight.”
That sounded ominous. “Talk about what?”
“How hot you are for me and why you feel the need to cover for that with inappropriate jokes.”
Now it was my turn to scowl. “You make me tired.”
“Right back at you.”
I WAS UNCOMFORTABLE WITH my new guest, but I remembered my manners long enough to offer tea and cookies. Madame Selena accepted both with grace and a bit of gluttony.
“These are very good cookies.” She shoved a full one into her mouth and smiled, continuing to talk even as she chewed. “May never had cookies this good.”
“Oh, well … .” It took everything I had not to stare as the crumbs clung to her lips. “I got them at the market.”
“Not much of a baker, huh?” Madame Selena winked as she slurped her tea. “May wasn’t a baker either. She always said she had better things to do.”
I warmed to the conversation. “I don’t know a lot about May. Were you close?”
“Um … I’m not sure I’d use that word.” Madame Selena held up her empty teacup and I obediently got to my feet and filled it from the pot I’d set on the small cart at the edge of the living room. “We were professional rivals of sorts. We respected one another. We realized there was enough room for both of us to operate without costing the other anything.”
“That’s good.” I had no idea what else to say. “She hasn’t been around much. May, I mean. She’s here occasionally, but she disappears in the middle of a conversation … kind of like she gets bored out of nowhere or something.”
“I wouldn’t take that personally.” Madame Selena’s smile was soothing as she accepted the fresh cup of tea I delivered. “May hasn’t been back very long. It takes spirits a long time to learn about their new abilities.”
I widened my eyes. “Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“I guess that makes sense.” I grabbed my own teacup and sipped. “Do you know how it works? The ghost thing, I mean. Why she came back as a ghost at all?”
“She made a choice.”
“She chose to come back as a ghost?” I found the entire conversation illuminating. No matter what Galen thought, I believed that Madame Selena was going to expand my knowledge base exponentially. I basically knew nothing, so that wasn’t
saying much. “Why would she do that?”
Madame Selena shrugged, noncommittal. “Haven’t you asked her that?”
That was a good question. “I guess not.” I leaned back in my chair, conflicted. “When I first realized she was in the house I freaked out a bit. I didn’t know ghosts were real until I found her in the kitchen. I didn’t know witches and shifters were real either.”
“On Moonstone Bay it’s easy to forget that paranormal abilities and pagan traditions have been shunned in many places.” Madame Selena sounded like a wise woman. That didn’t stop me from worrying that Galen was right about her. Maybe she was nutty in a way that would be a hindrance instead of a help. “Here, the paranormal is … well … normal. Where you came from, the opposite is true. The ‘normal’ people on this island are the ones who stand out, if that makes sense.”
It did. Er, well, at least in an odd sort of way. “That still doesn’t explain why May would want to be a ghost,” I pointed out. “Wouldn’t it be better if she moved on and settled … on the other side?” Even as I said the words I found myself wondering if there was an other side. Every long-standing belief I’d ever held was suddenly up for grabs. “I mean … what about Heaven?”
Madame Selena pursed her lips as she regarded me. “I’m not one for getting into religious debates.”
“That’s not what I’m asking you to do.” I meant it. “I’m simply wondering if … um … there’s anything out there beyond this world. I mean, if May didn’t come back as a ghost, what would’ve happened to her?”
“It depends on what she believes.”
That was … interesting. “I’m not sure I follow.”
“A person’s belief system plays into their final resting place,” she explained. “For example, if you believe in the Christian faith and you’re a good person then you move on to Heaven. If you’re a bad person, you get a one-way ticket to Hell.”
That sounded frightening. “Wow. Um … wow.”
“Yes. There are even grim reapers who show up to collect souls.” Madame Selena sounded unbelievably knowledgeable. “That’s why we aren’t overloaded with ghosts. The reapers take care of it.”
Huh. “If the reapers take care of it, why is May still here?”
“Sometimes the reapers fail and a soul chooses to stay behind. Obviously May decided to stay behind.”
“But … why?”
“Perhaps she thought she had unfinished business.”
“What would that business be?”
Madame Selena’s eyes lit with mirth. “Have you ever considered, my dear, that her unfinished business is you?”
The question threw me for a loop. “No. I … no. Why would I be her unfinished business?”
“Because she lost her daughter and only had you left,” Madame Selena replied without hesitation. “True, she didn’t know you. My understanding is that your father didn’t allow that. You were still her flesh and blood. She left you the lighthouse. Part of her probably knew that you would come here. I’m guessing she wanted to stick around to meet you.”
“I’ve asked her questions, though. I’ve pushed her on what happened with my mother. She doesn’t want to answer. She conveniently disappears.”
“That could be because she’s weak.”
“Or it could be because she doesn’t want to answer my questions,” I grumbled.
“That, too.” Madame Selena beamed. “Only May can tell you what’s going on. You need to be firm and ask her.”
“Okay.” I wasn’t convinced. “What else are we going to do today?”
“I thought we would start with a long talk about the nature of being a witch.”
That sounded unbelievably boring. “Sure.” I feigned enthusiasm. “I love long talks about stuff like that.”
“Good. You’ve got quite a few in your future.”
I ignored the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and kept my smile in place. “I can’t wait.”
“Good. I have much to teach you. More importantly, you have a lot to learn.”
“I guess we should get to it.”
“Indeed. We’ll start with the dawning of magic and the appearance of the first witch. That was before Jesus Christ, so we’ve got a lot to go through.”
Crap. This was so not what I had in mind when I went looking for a mentor.
11
Eleven
Two hours with Madame Selena was about all I could take. I got Galen’s “nutty” reference fifteen minutes in but managed to hold on … although just barely. It was almost lunchtime before I started cracking. At that point, I lied about having an appointment and managed to show Madame Selena the door after a bit of wrangling and a lot of lying. She was much more interested in going through May’s magic books, but she finally left me to my non-existent appointment, offering up a wave and a promise to drop in again soon.
I wasn’t looking forward to that.
Because I was a paranoid individual, I worried she would hide in the bushes and watch the lighthouse to see if I really did have somewhere to be. I didn’t want to be caught lying so early in our relationship, so I changed my clothes, locked the lighthouse and headed to town. I searched the bushes for a hint of movement as I passed but came up empty. Instinctively I knew it was ridiculous to suspect Madame Selena of spying, but Galen said she was nutty, and I was starting to believe he was selling her condition – whatever it was – short.
Lilac’s bar was quiet when I entered. She waved from behind the bar and I immediately headed in that direction, climbing onto a stool and accepting the iced tea she automatically offered with a smile.
“Thanks. I almost wish I could toss some whiskey in this to get the day started with a bang, but I’m guessing that’s probably a bad idea, huh?”
Lilac arched an eyebrow. “It depends. What sorrows do you want to drink away? You didn’t have a fight with Galen, did you?”
I thought back to our morning interlude. “I don’t think ‘fight’ is the right word.”
“What word would you use?”
“Banter. We bantered.” And his huge ego somehow managed to double in size, I silently added. “It wasn’t a big deal. You don’t have to worry about it.”
“Well, that’s good. At least I think it’s good.” Lilac’s gaze was probing. “You look … flustered.”
I was fairly certain that wasn’t a compliment. “I’m fine.”
“You still look flustered.”
“I had an early-morning visitor.”
“Oh, are you talking about May?” Lilac offered me a sympathetic cluck that I didn’t quite understand. “Did she see you and Galen doing the dirty?”
“No,” I sputtered, wiping my mouth to clean up the sprayed iced tea. “Why would you even ask something like that?”
“Word spread before everything shut down last night that Galen was spending the night at your house. I figured May was the only one who would dare interrupt you guys.”
Huh. That was so not the answer I was expecting. “First, Galen only spent the night because he was too tired to walk home.”
“Galen’s house is like a mile from the lighthouse.”
“So?”
“So he could’ve walked a mile in fifteen minutes and been totally fine no matter how exhausted he was,” Lilac replied. “I don’t think I believe the ‘he was exhausted’ excuse you seem to want to spin. There’s no reason to get all worked up. Everyone has a pool on when you guys are going to take things all the way. It’s fine.”
I pressed the tip of my tongue to the back of my teeth as I worked overtime to calm my frustration. “You have a pool?”
“Yes. That’s normal. Don’t worry about it.”
Oh, why would I worry about that? Was she kidding? “I don’t want you guys taking bets on that. It’s … gross.”
“Trust me. There’s nothing gross about it. We have to get our kicks somehow.”
“Yes, well, nothing happened.” I had no idea why I felt the need to explain myself to Li
lac. It was a high school reaction, and I wasn’t a fan of high school theatrics when I was in high school so I felt ridiculous for being mired in the conversation. “He slept. We woke up and had breakfast. That was it.”
Lilac stared at me for a long moment. “Are you making that up?”
“No.”
“Ugh.” Lilac’s pretty face twisted into a scowl. “What is wrong with you? That man is a prime piece of steak, honey. I would be rubbing myself all over him at the drop of a hat if I were in your position.”
There was no way I would admit to what really happened. Even if I knew Lilac better, I’d never own up to that. “What’s his deal?” I inclined my head in the direction of the man sitting at the end of the bar. I recognized him from the police station the previous day. He looked to be double-fisting shots of bourbon on the rocks this morning. “How long has he been here?”
“That’s Gus Doyle.”
“I know who he is.” I tugged on my limited patience. “He got in a huge fight with Henry Conner at the police station yesterday. They were threatening each other with guns and chainsaws.” That was a slight exaggeration, but that’s how I pictured a fight going down between the two feisty and feuding men. “I kind of feel bad because of what happened with Trish.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t feel too bad for Gus.” Lilac’s eyes were thoughtful as she flicked them to the sad-looking man. “I’m sure he’s feeling sorry enough for himself.”
I was surprised by her reaction. “His daughter is dead.”
“And this feud has been raging for decades.” Lilac licked her lips. “You said something about talking to Wesley yesterday. Didn’t he tell you what’s at the heart of this war?”
“Kind of, but not really.” I searched my memory. “He just said that they were always fighting and hated each other.”
“That’s true. Their fathers started the feud long before the two of them were born. They carried it on, though, and they were happy to do it.”
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