Jessica shrugged. “Yeah, that sums up a lot of things. Hey, just out of curiosity, how did you—”
“Tabitha! Hello?” The guy moved gingerly across the lobby, trying to peer into the back hallway. “Seriously, we need to talk. Whatever you’re doing can wait. Tabitha?”
After shutting the front door again and locking back up, Jessica turned around to watch the guy frantically pacing back and forth, occasionally glancing up at the ceiling. But he wouldn’t hear Tabitha’s footsteps thumping across the floor upstairs. No one would.
“Everything’s different,” Ben muttered, gazing at the well-dusted shelves, the bright lights, the perfectly clear floors. “What did she do?”
“Nothing. She didn’t—”
“Tabitha?” He paused on his way to the hall, then pointed that way as he turned back toward Jessica. “I’m just gonna go take a look.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” She chased after him and managed to skirt in front of the guy and block him off. “I can’t let you do that.”
“You don’t call the shots in here, okay? And I know that. Just let me go talk to her. I know my way around.” Ben tried to sidestep her, but she matched him and spread her arms.
“Listen, Ben. This is gonna be hard to hear, but you’re not gonna find Tabitha anywhere. She’s gone.”
The guy blinked at her and jerked away. “She left?”
“In a manner of speaking, I guess…”
“Okay, I’m done playing whatever kind of game this is. She never leaves unless I’m with her.” He pushed past her, and Jessica stepped aside again to cut him off.
“You need to stop.”
“Tabitha!”
“Sit down, man. Come on.” She shoved him back. “I’m serious. You obviously don’t know—”
“It’s Ben,” he shouted at the staircase. “We need to talk—”
“Stop!” Jessica shoved him away again, this time with a jolt of red sparks that surprised them both.
The man seemed to see her in a completely different light now, and his hands slowly balled into fists at his sides. “Where is she?”
She raised both hands, trying to look as conceding as possible. Who knew she’d be fighting off dudes storming in here for the scryer instead of the Gateway? Guys who were surprisingly sturdy.
“Like I said. This is gonna be pretty hard to hear—”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“She’s dead.”
The statement hung in the air between them for a moment. Jessica studied his face, waiting for the realization to sink in.
Ben stepped back and glared at her. “She’s…”
“Gone. I’m sorry. She—”
The guy’s hands moved too fast to escape. The next thing Jessica knew, she was flying across the lobby with the front of her shirt balled up in his fists as Ben hauled her toward the closest bookshelf and slammed her up against it. “What did you do?”
A roll of thick, intricately woven cloth toppled off the shelf, followed by two large, heavy books with their spines half worn away by time and whatever rodents had made the bank their new home too over the years.
Jessica hissed when the lower shelf pressed into the sore spot on her back from her first toss across a room today. “Let go of me.”
“Tabitha’s dead, and you’re the one standing here right now instead of her! How’d you do it, huh?” Ben shoved her against the shelf again and knocked down a whole slew of other objects she didn’t bother trying to inventory. “Tell me right now before I—”
“It was the Requiem!” Jessica spat back in his face. “And if you don’t get your hands off me, I’ll do the same thing to you that I did to them. Got it?”
Breathing heavily, the guy shoved her one more time, opening his mouth to yell something else at a ridiculously close range. But the bank let off two sparks of crackling blue magic that darted from behind the bookshelves to zap the guy’s hands. He hissed and immediately released Jessica’s shirt, backing off in the process.
Finally. A little more help.
Ben shook out his hands and studied the bookshelf. “Give me one good reason why I should believe anything you say.”
“Well, take your pick.” She jerked down the front of her shirt, but rearranging it was pretty useless. He’d stretched the thing out forever now. “But I’d say the most important ones are the fact that she left this whole screwed-up bank to me, which I’m guessing is why you just got a warning shot and not the whole dose. And that I’m the reason you’re even here in the first place.”
Apparently, he couldn’t decide whether to scowl at her or let his eyes pop open the way they wanted. “What do you mean?”
“I mean I summoned you here.” Jessica stepped away from the shelf, rubbing her lower back. “And it worked.”
“You… You’re in charge now?”
“Yeah. For whatever good that’s doing anyone.” She snorted and tried to straighten out her shirt again. “Look, I have proof, if you want. But I was really hoping you could give me some answers—”
“How?”
“How what?”
Ben swallowed thickly, tears shimmering in his eyes as he looked everywhere but at Jessica’s face. “How did it happen?”
“Oh. Okay, maybe that’s a longer story than the rest.” Jessica stepped slowly backward toward the hallway, just in case he tried to make a run for it again, and gestured toward the armchairs at the front. “Maybe you should take a seat. And I’ll tell you.”
His eyes closed slowly, and he let out a heavy sigh. “I didn’t want to believe her.”
Jessica glanced around the lobby and found Confucius standing in front of said armchairs, staring at her. It looked a lot like condescension, even coming from a stupid lizard. Fine.
“She told you what was coming for her too, didn’t she?”
Ben looked sharply up at her and bit his lip.
That was a yes.
“All right. So now that I have your attention—”
“I can’t believe I had no idea.” His voice broke at the end, and he sniffed as he shuffled morosely across the lobby. He practically collapsed into the closest armchair and leaned forward over his lap, hanging his head and staring at the worn area rug.
Well, that was a start. But Jessica really didn’t want to have to play magical therapist in here. Or anywhere. Especially when the witching vault was apparently broken and the bank couldn’t even tell her if she was headed in the right direction toward fixing it.
She stared at Ben, trying not to grimace when the guy dropped his head into his hands and his chest wracked with silent sobs.
“Yeah… I’ll be right back. You just hang tight.” With a quick warning glance at Confucius, she widened her eyes and pointed at the guy breaking down in the lobby. Maybe the lizard could read facial expressions too, maybe not. But it made her feel better to at least pretend she’d delegated the responsibility of keeping an eye on things while she stepped away.
Mostly, her quick trip into the kitchen was to fill Ben a glass of water from the sink and use that as an attempt to help him out. Jessica didn’t handle other people crying very well. It just wasn’t ever something she’d grown used to. And with everything she’d been through in her life, there hadn’t really been room for crying. Like the night she’d run away with all those burning buildings at her back and the ghostly screams racing after her down that alleyway…
Cold tap water overflowing from the top of the glass snapped her back to reality. She shook the returned memories away before turning off the sink and dumping the water out to an appropriate level. Old memories wouldn’t help her right now. They wouldn’t help anyone. Because she’d gotten rid of them for a reason. And after removing her magic in order to protect herself, it was stupid not to assume she’d had the Peddler wipe her mind for the same reason.
She just hoped the return of these memories, however that had happened, didn’t bring with it the return of whatever danger had forced her into making that kin
d of deal in the first place.
Her stomach growled again, and with a quick sigh, she opened the fridge to pull out the jar of pickles. She crunched through one spear in five seconds, then took another with her and the water for Ben before heading back into the lobby.
Good enough for now.
The guy had stopped crying by the time she reached the armchairs, though his head still hung low between his hunched shoulders. Confucius, the ever-useless reptile, was nowhere to be found.
Jessica cleared her throat. “Here.”
Ben looked up at her with red-rimmed eyes and sniffed. “Thanks.”
She handed over the glass and paused when his gaze landed on the dripping pickle spear in her hand. “Oh. Want one?”
“No…” Frowning, he looked away and took two huge gulps of water.
“Not trying to be rude or anything.” Jessica sat in the chair opposite him and crunched off another bite of pickle, leaning forward to let the dripping mess fall on the floor instead of all over the front of her shirt. For the first time, she actually appreciated the lack of the bank’s voice in her head. It would’ve given her hell for that. “I just haven’t really eaten anything today. Kinda hard with all the…action.”
Ben chuckled wryly. “Yeah, Tabitha had the same issue. I stopped bringing groceries by when I realized she’d rather eat Pop-Tarts than cook herself a meal.”
She shrugged. “Part of the job, right?”
“It was infuriating.”
“Yeah.” She popped the rest of the pickle into her mouth and chewed slowly as this grieving stranger sitting in front of her stared blankly at the rug, cradling the water glass in both hands like he was trying to draw some comfort from it.
The whole reason she’d scried for him and summoned him here in the first place was so she could ask him about the bank. To find answers about which no one else had even a sliver of knowledge. But Ben might. If she could get his head out of the mourning process for at least five minutes.
“Okay, so now that you’re here, I have a few questions.”
“What?” Sniffing again, he looked up at her and blinked with agonizing slowness. “I don’t know what happened.”
“I don’t mean questions about Tabitha. Well, technically they are about her. And the bank. And I’m hoping you can shed some light on what the hell’s going on, because this whole place is losing its mind, and I’m this close to losing mine with it.”
Ben stared at her.
And now she sounded just as crazy as Tabitha had. Only it wasn’t relegated to when she was alone with a talking building and an immortal lizard. There was an actual person sitting here.
The guy let out a humorless chuckle. “No wonder she picked you.”
“She didn’t, really.” Jessica gazed around the lobby. “She just didn’t argue when the bank made its choice, apparently. Wait, you do know about this place.”
“I mean, as much as the next guy, I guess.” Ben ran a hand through his hair and finally leaned back in the armchair. “And I used to know the witch running the place. She kept talking about finding someone to take her place. I had no idea she’d already done it.”
“She didn’t exactly have a lot of time to make an official statement.” Jessica’s own words made her wince. “That sounded awful. Sorry.”
“What happened to her?”
She studied the guy’s curious expression and had a momentary urge to kick him back out the front door again. He wanted the details of Tabitha’s death?
“The Requiem got her. Didn’t I say that already?”
“Yeah, you mentioned it. Sounds like you’re not doing such a bad job, after all.”
“Oh, thanks.” She snorted and shifted again in the armchair. “Two weeks, and there’s still a glaring lack of confidence in my ability to do…whatever it is I’m supposed to do here.”
Ben’s cheeks flushed. “Hey, I didn’t mean it as an insult or anything.”
“I’m not insulted.” Jessica met his gaze, noticed the color in his face, and shot him a crooked smile. “Trust me, I’m pretty hard to piss off. Unless you’re trying to fight me.”
“I’m sorry about that.” He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. “I get carried away sometimes.”
“Totally understood. And I’m not gonna hold it against you.” She waited for him to look at her again, but when he didn’t, she shrugged and sat all the way back in the armchair. “I have a history of getting carried away too.”
“Huh. Seems like there’s a pattern with who gets control of the bank and the Gateway and the perks of running a place like this that’s so…”
“Annoying? A pain in the ass? Impossible?”
Finally, he met her gaze and cracked a small smile. “I was gonna say complicated. You know, you’re starting to sound a lot like her too.”
“Trust me, the only thing Tabitha and I had in common was working here. And now being owners.” Narrowing her eyes, Jessica leaned forward toward him and clasped her hands in front of her thighs. “And you’re starting to sound like someone who can answer a few seriously important questions for me.”
Ben looked her up and down, his smile fading. “Like what?”
“Like why the hell the vault won’t open any deposit boxes and thought it would be fun to throw me across the room. Probably just to mix things up.”
He leaned away from her. “Are you serious?”
“Well, it’d be the worst joke in history if I wasn’t.”
“Shit.” Ben rubbed his mouth, then hung his head again.
If this guy was trying to play hardball, he really needed to work on his poker face.
Chapter Thirteen
“Okay, time to spill it. What’s wrong with the bank?”
Ben just shook his head. “I can’t talk about it.”
“Uh-uh.” Jessica snapped her fingers and pointed at him, surprising herself with the spark of black light blazing at the tip of her finger. What the hell was up with her magic suddenly short-circuiting on her like this? Ben’s eyes widened when he saw the spark of her maimed magic flaring between them, and she quickly lowered her finger. “You’re going to tell me everything you know about this place. Because as much as I hate to admit it, I actually need help.”
He sighed and rose from the chair, turning toward the front door. “I can’t help you.”
“Why the hell not?” She stayed in her chair as long as she could, but the guy wouldn’t stop to have this conversation. So she pushed herself out of the chair and hurried after him. “Hey! Don’t come in here talking about Tabitha like you know her—knew her—and then tell me you can’t talk about it. She’s dead. Whatever promise you made to the scryer, it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“I never promised her anything,” Ben muttered.
“So tell me—”
“There’s nothing to tell, okay?” He whirled around to face her again and spread his arms. “I don’t know anything!”
“Bullshit.”
Ben scoffed and dropped his arms against his sides. “You’re really horrible at consoling people, you know that?”
“Yeah, actually.” Jessica shoved her hands into her back pockets and glanced around the room. “It’s never been my strong suit. Look, I’m sorry you lost your friend—”
“Ha. Not your strong suit at all.”
“Well this is the best I can do.” Jessica bit her lip to keep herself from screaming in the guy’s face that if he didn’t start talking, she’d have to take drastic measures. Only the way her magic had been misfiring over the last few days, she was pretty sure those measures would be way more drastic than she intended. For both of them. “Listen, I didn’t have any prep for this either, okay? I took a job. Tabitha showed me the ropes, and then I found her murdered on the floor. Just my second day.”
Ben swallowed. “Where?”
Great. Back to the details.
“Start of the hall.” Jessica nodded toward the clean, glimmering wooden floor at the entrance to the hallway.
He glanced that way, pressing his lips together and frowning so deeply, she thought he might burst into sobs again. Then he turned slowly back toward her and cleared his throat. “She wasn’t just my friend. I mean, she was, but it was…more than that.”
She couldn’t help it. The thought of Tabitha and this guy who couldn’t have been much older than Jessica herself in some kind of…relationship made her grimace. “Are you serious?”
For a second, he looked completely baffled. Then the realization dawned on him, and he stepped backward. “Oh, gross. No. Come on, that’s not what I meant.”
“Okay…” Jessica raised her eyebrows. “Then what did you mean?”
“Tabitha’s—was my godmother. And before you get confused, no, she wasn’t religious at all.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t even remotely thinking she might be.”
“Right.” Folding his arms, Ben gazed around the lobby. “Look, she was my mom’s best friend. Kinda stepped in for a while after my mom passed, and we were close. She was like an aunt. A really weird, aggravating, nutty aunt who didn’t go for the usual presents at Christmas or picking me up from soccer practice.”
Jessica pressed her lips together to fight back a smirk. No, she couldn’t see Tabitha doing any of those things, either.
“And I tried to get her to tell me about this place.” He pointed at the ceiling. “Believe me, I tried. All I know is what that vault’s supposed to do. That the damn lizard running around here doesn’t get any older. Or needs to eat, apparently. And that that thing upstairs…”
“The Gateway.” Jessica nodded.
“Yeah.” Ben’s frown darkened, and he wrinkled his nose. “You should stay away from it.”
“I can’t. I sleep right next door to it every night.”
“You live here too?”
“Trust me, it wasn’t my first choice. Wasn’t even really a choice at all. None of this is. That’s why I summoned you, okay? If I’m stuck in this place taking over for Tabitha, I have to make the most of it. And I’ve already seen what happens when magicals out there think they can—”
The Cursed Fae (Accessory to Magic Book 2) Page 12