Flowers and Fates by Julie Nisse

Author:Julie Nisse [Nisse, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magical Mystery Books
Published: 2021-12-20T23:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Eva held her tongue until we were halfway home. “It could still be vampires,” she said. “It’s not too late to start hunting them.”

“You’re unbelievable,” I said. “There aren’t any vampires in Mistlevale. Trust me, if we had bloodsuckers, they’d have already screwed up one of my weekends.”

“No one’s twisting your arm to solve this case.” Eva shrugged. “Go be with your sasquatch. Let the detective earn his paycheck.”

If Eva had said this at Der Wolfhoff, I would totally have agreed with her. But the longer I’d thought about it, the more irresponsible that felt.

“Did you forget your daughter’s prophecy?” I asked. “Val seemed very sure this case was bad news for the lodge. We need to find the person who killed Avery or the Star’s corruption will get worse.”

“It wasn’t a person.”

“Shut up.”

We drove the rest of the way in silence. Eva seemed more amused than irritated, which bugged the crap out of me. How could she be so calm about the fact that someone in Mistlevale, right now, had drained all the blood out of a young woman, then cut her up to play Cannibal Jenga?

When we reached the lodge and I was stripping out of my snow gear, I realized I still had Vancia’s poinsettia in my coat’s buttonhole. The flower, while small for its type, still looked as fresh as the moment the pale woman had handed it to me. My witch sight showed me the faintest strands of magic woven around the stem, all of it purest white. I figured it was some sort of preservative spell, which was a nice touch. I removed the flower from my coat, then carried it into the kitchen to drop it into a vase. It looked nice as a centerpiece for the simple dinner table, so I left it there.

“Don’t eat that,” I said to Meownster. “It’ll poison you.”

My familiar looked up at me from the floor and yawned. The big lunk followed me when I headed upstairs to break the very bad news to Hank.

“You’re not here, so I guess something happened,” the sasquatch said after we’d exchanged hellos and I’d flopped down on my bed.

“An excellent deduction,” I said. “I thought we had the guy pinned, but I was wrong.”

“Well, this sucks,” Hank said. “It’s not your fault, but it would be nice if someone else could solve a murder once in a while.”

We laughed at that, though I felt the pain in the sasquatch’s voice. Neither of us were rolling in dough, and this vacation had eaten up a big chunk of our disposable income. It was our Christmas present to each other, and now it was all screwed up.

“I’m really sorry,” I said.

“Not your fault,” he repeated.

“Kind of is.” I stared up at the old posters on my ceiling and let out a frustrated sigh. “I have to put my foot down on this kind of stuff. Set some boundaries so my whole life doesn’t get tossed on its ear every time a new mystery rears its ugly head.

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