by Lily Webb
“Victor Thornheart,” I said, and Xander stared at me like he hadn’t heard. He blinked a few times, slowly and deliberately, and when my words sank in, he collapsed into the stool beside mine, making the machine jingle. A single coin tumbled out of the return.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“One hundred percent,” I said. “I was on my way to the bank to speak to Victor myself when I saw him on the bank’s steps covered by a sheet. The police and the FBI were there, but they weren’t in the talking mood.”
“Dear Lilith,” Xander gasped. “What happened?”
I paused, unsure of what to tell him. He was either clueless or he was trying to fish out what I knew to match his story to it.
“I’m not sure. The police shooed me away pretty quickly. I think I’m starting to get a reputation around here for asking questions I have no business asking,” I said, watching Xander’s face closely for a reaction.
“Like how long my breaks are and what I did on them?” Xander asked, and I shrugged.
“Busted,” I said. Xander’s face twisted into a scowl as he leaned back on the stool to stare me in the eyes.
“After what I told you about how Percy plucked me out of The Magic Touch, do you still think I could’ve killed his brother? For Lilith’s sake, Zoe, you saw how close Victor and I were,” Xander said.
“Right, but maybe that changed when Victor fired you and threw you back into the hell of service sector jobs you thought you’d escaped forever,” I said, staring at Xander’s uniform.
“You’re wrong. Obviously, I’m frustrated with my situation but I would never kill anyone, much less two men I respected. Well, okay, maybe one of them more than the other, but still,” Xander said.
“Then where were you around five o’clock this afternoon?” I asked. “Be very specific.”
“Here, in the staff area behind the casino. It’s the only place where we’re allowed to smoke,” Xander said. “I can get my new manager for you if you don’t believe me. We went on our break together, so she can verify.”
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear — because it meant I was back to square one. But then I remembered something Xander had said before.
“Why didn’t you tell me the warlock I found you were playing chess with helped finance the construction of this casino?” I asked. “Is that how you got the job here?”
Xander stared at me, still trying to process what I’d said.
“Who told you Ash was involved?” he asked.
“Your new boss, Giovanni,” I said, and Xander let out a sigh.
“Yeah, fine. Ash pulled some strings for me.”
“How do you two know each other anyway?”
“We made friends while I was still working at The Magic Touch,” Xander said. “He was a regular customer and I worked pretty much all the time. He started up a conversation with me one night while I was tending bar and we stayed in touch, even after I got hired at the bank.”
It was odd to me that a super rich warlock would want to hang out in a dark, depressing dump like The Magic Touch, but then again, maybe that was what he liked about it — no one would’ve gone looking for him there.
“What else did Giovanni tell you?” Xander asked.
“Not much, honestly,” I lied. He’d said plenty about Percy and Victor, but I didn’t want to tip my hand too much, just in case. We were in a casino, after all, so what better time to practice my poker face?
“I knew I shouldn’t have taken this job but I was desperate,” Xander said.
“Wait, why do you think you shouldn’t have taken it?”
“If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you about this right now, would I?” Xander asked.
“Fair enough, but is there anything else to it?”
Xander glanced over both his shoulders, though for who or what I couldn’t say. Save for the gargoyle holding my wand hostage — who didn’t seem to be remotely interested in our conversation — we were entirely alone in the casino.
“I heard something today, something I don’t know how to process,” Xander said.
“Are you sure you want to do this here?” I asked. “I mean, we don’t know who or what might be listening. Lilith only knows what kind of cameras and microphones they have hooked up to these machines.”
“Well, if that’s true, we’re both already in trouble anyway, so how much more harm can we do?” Xander asked. I shrugged. As long as he was willing to talk, I’d listen.
“What did you hear?” I whispered, barely able to hear myself over the ringing and dinging of all the machines in the area.
“I was still getting the lay of the land, so to speak, after they put me out on the floor this afternoon. It didn’t take long for me to prove that I knew what I was doing, but once I was in the thick of things, I got a little turned around,” Xander said.
“Yeah, not hard to do. This place is a complete maze, and I’m sure they designed it that way on purpose,” I said.
“Exactly. Anyway, I went through a door that I thought led to the kitchens to drop off some dishes, but it was actually some sort of meeting room and Giovanni was inside talking on the phone,” Xander said and I whirled in my chair to face him again.
“What happened?”
“He didn’t notice me, thank Lilith. He had his back to the door and I realized I’d made a mistake pretty quickly, so I bolted back out the way I came, but while I stood there trying to figure out where to go, I picked up pieces of his conversation,” Xander said.
“What did he say? And who was he talking to?” I asked.
“I have no idea who it was, but I’ll never forget what I heard come out of Giovanni’ mouth,” Xander said. “Whoever it was he was on the phone with, he told them that it was ‘a job well done,’ but that was all I heard because I ran before I got caught.”
I nearly fell off the stool. But as damning as that one piece of information was, it wasn’t conclusive. For all I knew, Giovanni could as easily have been talking about something inside the casino, or another deal he’d struck with some other shady character in the financial world.
“Wait a second, back up. When was this?”
“Maybe around four thirty or five? I’m not sure, but I know it wasn’t long before I took my last break,” Xander said. If I’d had a shred of doubt about Xander being responsible before, it’d turned into a chasm.
“Do you have any idea who Giovanni might’ve been talking with? Any idea at all?” I asked, and Xander shook his head.
“Believe me, I wish I did,” Xander said. “I had no clue that anything had happened to Victor, but now I can’t help wondering if Giovanni’s conversation is connected to it.”
“We’re in the same boat,” I said.
“That reminds me,” Xander said as he reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket. He pulled out a small pad of paper, yellow and lined, flipped several pages through it, and thrust it in my face.
“Look, I even wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget,” Xander said. Sure enough, the same four words were there, traced over so many times I was amazed Xander hadn’t torn a hole in the paper. I lifted the page up and found the same words carved into the page underneath it.
“Can I take a picture of this?” I asked.
“Sure, but I don’t really know why you’d need it,” Xander said.
Ignoring him, I pulled my phone out of my bag and tapped to open the camera. It was never a bad idea to have photographic evidence of anything, because people sometimes changed their stories when they thought they could get away with it. After our conversation, I was relatively sure Xander wasn’t the one who’d killed Victor and Percy, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
I snapped the photo and dropped my phone back into my bag.
“Thanks,” I said, glancing over my shoulder as if I thought it mattered. It wasn’t against the rules, as far as I knew.
“I think you need to talk to Giovanni again,” Xander said. “I mean, I know it’s e
ntirely possible that what I heard wasn’t what I thought, but I’m telling you, Zoe, since I started working here, I’ve seen some things that make me wonder about the whole operation.”
“Like what?”
“There’s a lot of money moving through here, and if it’s not going to the bank or to the employees, then where is it going?” Xander asked. “I don’t know if they were trying to impress me or what, but during the orientation they gave me a tour of the casino and I couldn’t believe the bags of money they kept in this place.”
“It’s a casino, of course they have a lot of money on the premises. I’m surprised they would let you see it like that though,” I said.
“Like I said, I think they might’ve been trying to impress me, or maybe just scare me into keeping my mouth shut, I’m not sure which,” Xander said. “But between all the money and what I heard Giovanni say on the phone tonight, something doesn’t feel right.”
I thought back to Tony Romano and his shop, Pupperoni Pizza, both of which I’d recently learned were part of a werewolf mafia ring when I linked Tony to the string of arsons in Moon Grove. Was Giovanni part of the ring as well? It was definitely within the realm of possibility.
“I’ll try to get to the bottom of it, I promise,” I said. I wasn’t looking forward to being alone again with Giovanni, especially if it meant being ferried up to his throne room on the top floor, but if that’s what it took, that’s what I do.
“Good, thank you. Anyway, I should probably finish up, I’m supposed to be gone already,” Xander said. “I need this job.”
“Okay, don’t let me keep you, I don’t want you getting in trouble on your first day on my behalf,” I said. “Good luck, I hope it works out for you.”
“Same to you,” Xander said and I shivered as he turned and walked away. Though I was sure he didn’t mean it in any way other than to be friendly, it made me wonder what I was about to walk into with Giovanni.
My phone buzzed in my bag, tearing me out of my spiral of fear. When I yanked it out I saw Raina’s name on the screen. My heart lodged itself in my throat as I tapped to accept the call.
“Hello?”
“Zoe, where are you?” Raina asked, her voice shrill.
“I’m at Stubbe’s Palace. Is everything okay?”
“Can you get to Veilside’s library in the next few minutes?” Raina asked. “While I was looking over the records, Head Warlock Heath Highmore interrupted me. It seems there are some things we need to discuss. Important things.”
The phone shook in my trembling hand, threatening to drop and shatter on the floor. What in Lilith’s name could the Head Warlock of Moon Grove possibly need to tell me?
“I’ll be there in ten minutes, tops,” I said.
“Hurry,” Raina said and the line died. I slung my phone into my bag, stormed over to the gargoyle guard to reclaim my wand, and charged out of the casino into the evening air, barely able to suck any of it down as I ran.
Chapter Twelve
I bounded up the stairs to the Veilside Academy of Magic’s library. There wasn’t a gargoyle standing guard as usual, but maybe Raina had alerted them ahead of time I was on my way.
Inside, my feet screeched against the polished floor as I stuttered to a stop at one of the dozens of lengthy tables floating between the bookshelves like driftwood. There, Raina sat in a pool of her sapphire robes trading whispers with Heath Highmore, the Head Warlock of Moon Grove.
Heath gazed up and smiled at me, crinkling the crow’s feet carved into the corners of his eyes. His black satin robes spilled over his chair, shimmering in the library’s dim light.
“There she is, and in a hurry, no less. That’s my kind of witch,” Heath said and winked at me.
“I got here as fast as I could. What is it?” I wheezed through the pain in my side and the dryness in my throat.
“Have a seat, dear,” Raina said and patted the wooden chair between the two of them. Were they about to give me some sort of disciplinary lecture? It wouldn’t have been the first time I’d gotten myself in trouble with two of the most well-respected and powerful people in Moon Grove.
I collapsed into the chair, afraid of what I was about to hear, and tried to catch my breath.
“I understand you’ve been searching for a magical necklace,” Heath started and my heart stopped.
“You know about that?”
“It’s okay. I told him, Zoe,” Raina said. “As a matter of fact, I asked Mr.Highmore to help me dig through all the records on file here because I didn’t know where to start.”
“But it turns out she didn’t need to look through any of the records at all," Heath said, his smile broadening.
“What does that mean?”
“I’ve been around Moon Grove for a long time. You know, I’m almost seventy-six years old, so I’ve seen and heard a few things in my time,” Heath said.
“Like what?”
“Like the existence of Merlin’s Heart,” Raina said, and I almost fell out of my chair as I whirled to look at her.
“Are you serious? How do you know?”
“Because I told her,” Heath said.
“But what proof do you have? I mean, other than a silly children’s story? We’ve heard about that already,” I said.
“I’ve seen the necklace, even handled it,” he said.
“Then where is it? And how did you get your hands on it?” I asked. As soon as the questions tumbled out of my mouth, ten more fought to take their place in my mind.
“Don’t worry, it’s safe,” he said. “But when Raina told me you were looking for it, I knew right away there had to be a good reason.”
“Is that why the bank was robbed? Is someone after the necklace?”
“We think so, yes. Aside from the necklace, there are things inside that bank that could make the wrong person a lot of money — or very powerful,” Heath said and a shiver rolled down my spine, catching on each one of my vertebraes on its way.
“So you admit it then: the necklace is in the bank, isn’t it?” I asked. He nodded.
“Then you have to move it! Both of the Thornhearts are dead and whoever killed them stole Victor’s wand to try to get into the vault again. They’re not going to stop until they get their hands on that necklace,” I said.
“I’m aware,” Heath said. “You forget, I’m the Head Warlock. There’s not much that goes on in this town that I don’t know about.”
“Then why are you sitting here talking to me about it? And why haven’t you found out who’s responsible for the deaths of the Thornhearts?”
“I assure you, we’re working on it. But that’s part of the reason I wanted to talk to you. What have you learned so far?”
“It’s all a tangled mess, honestly. Raina probably already told you, but I was in the bank when it was robbed. Before the robbery, the wandmaker Becker Bloodworth had an ugly confrontation with Percy, so when Percy was killed, I had every reason to believe it was Becker but I can’t prove it one way or another,” I said.
“Who else do you suspect?”
“I wondered about Victor for a while too, but clearly he had nothing to do with his brother’s death because he’s dead now too,” I said.
“What about any of their employees? Have you talked to them?”
“I have. An ex-teller named Xander Crane, he’s a cousin of my friend Mallory, used to be close to Victor while he worked there. But after Percy was killed, Victor fired Xander for allegedly sharing security secrets. Xander swears it’s impossible to do that, but even so I thought his firing might give Xander the perfect motive to kill Victor for revenge. But he started a new job at Stubbe’s Palace on the day Victor was murdered so he has an alibi I can’t poke any holes in,” I said.
“Then who’s left?”
“Giovanni Luca, the owner of the new casino,” I said. Heath’s brows stitched together.
“What makes you think he might have been involved?”
“Right before Raina called me to come over
here, I was talking to Xander at the casino and he told me he overheard Giovanni on the phone. Xander said that Giovanni congratulated the person on the other end of the line on ‘a job well done,’ whatever that means,” I said.”But given that Xander told me he heard Giovanni say that around the time Victor was murdered, it’s suspicious to say the least.”
“So I assume you intended to talk to Giovanni next?”
“Well, I did, but I got Raina’s phone call and knew I couldn’t miss whatever it was she had to tell me. Now that I know, I’m glad I came here instead,” I said.
I still couldn’t believe it: Merlin’s Heart was real. Of all the things I’d seen in Moon Grove, a magically-enchanted necklace that granted immortality took the cake in terms of believability — but if the Head Warlock said it existed, it must.
“What about you? What do you know about the murders?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, I’m not permitted to say. As you probably already know, the FBI are involved because of the stakes, and they’ve asked me to make sure I keep my information close to my chest,” Heath said.
Which meant he probably didn’t know anything more than I did.
“But there’s more to the story than that, which is the real reason we asked you to come,” Raina said.
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“It’s not as ominous as it seems,” Heath said. “But before I tell you any of it, I want to start by apologizing to you, Zoe.”
“Apologizing for what?”
“For keeping your own history from you for so long,” he said. My head buzzed like it’d bounced off something hard. Had I heard him correctly?
“What history? What are you talking about?”
“It’s about your mother and father,” Heath said and my entire body snapped to attention.
“What about them?”
“There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it: until you were around five years old, your mother and father were secret guardians of Merlin’s Heart,” he said.
No, that couldn’t be right. I didn’t remember much about my parents, but I would’ve known if they were protecting something as powerful and valuable as that necklace.