“Right. You just happened to screw me over. It was such a surprise!”
“Listen, I want us to at least be cordial to each other as colleagues. And maybe someday work our way back to being friends, because I cherish you, Chrys. Really, I do.”
“If you’re truly trying to be a good colleague who wants to work his way back to being my friend after unsuccessfully screwing me over, I need you to realize that perhaps now is not the time to do so.”Damn, Jonesy.Didn’t know she had that in her. “We are meredaysout from what was supposed to be opening night of the fall musical, and I’ve had one cast member murdered, one blamed and suspended, and one who just dropped out.”
Now Embry really did gasp.Dropped out? Who dropped out?!
Rye’s hand shot up, taking hers with it, and pressed her knuckles against her mouth.
Too little, too late.
Suddenly, there was the squeak of springs. The tapping of steps they now knew to be Jonesy’s.Shit.
The blood rushing through Embry’s system stalled out along with her breath as her ears strained to pick up the direction of those footsteps. Rye’s grip on her tightened, his own pulse racing against her grip, her stomach, his heartbeat hammering against the arch of her upper spine.
They were caught, they were—
“Now, if you’d please excuse me,” Jonesy’s voice began—not right outside of the built-in closet but across the room. Another set of footsteps, heavy and reluctant, joined hers. “I have plenty of work to do before my first class period. As my colleague and former friend, I’m asking you to leave the premises.”
“But—”
“Nobuts, Julius. Please. If you truly mean your apology, you can save the rest of it—is there more?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. You can save the rest of it for another day.”
A deep, wing-fluttering sigh came. Then acceptance. “Another day, Chrys.”
There was a squeak of rubber soles on tile as he did an about-face. But then Jonesy called out, “Oh, and before you go, please hand over your key to the back door. I should’ve taken it backmonthsago.”
There was another sigh, then a jangling as Heston removed the key from a ring.
“You can exit through the front. It should lock behind you.”
Moments later, the door slammed, the chair squeaked, and Jonesy broke into tears.
CHAPTER 22
THE BLACK CAT
THEY ARRIVED AT THEBLACKCATCOFFEESHOP IN DOWNTOWNRavenwood around six thirty, the autumn sunrise casting a pink glow on the pavement as Rye held the door and they literally stumbled inside. Well, Embry stumbled. Her usual grace and athletic prowess abandoned her as she crossed over a threshold she knew as well as any in Ravenwood.
Embry wasn’t sure if she was physically exhausted, or if it was from the mental exertion of spending a half hour smashed against avery nice body. Not that being trapped with a walking ad for the virtues of rowing as a sport was that terrible in practice, but she’d had to expend a massive amount of energy while attempting to forgetwhothe owner of the very nice body was.
Mercifully, Jonesy hadn’t lingered long after she’d begun to cry. It was maybe fifteen minutes of soft sobbing and muttered nonmagical curses before they heard the squeak and swivel of the roller chair, footsteps, and the snick of a lock.
Embry suspected that not only had Mr. Heston’s appearance ruined Jonesy’s carefully applied makeup, requiring her to fix it before class, but he’d also ruined her plan for predawn productivity by smashing her focus with a ham-fisted apology. Jerk fairy.
As Embry righted herself and the bell jingled their arrival, an approving giggle came from beyond the pastry case. “Well, if it isn’t an iced oat milk lavender latte and a flat white with a dash of cinnamon.”
Both Rye and Embry paused at the cheery recitation of their standard orders by the witch grinning wickedly behind the counter.
“Van, you’re serving today? But your hand!” Embry gasped.
This woman had been wounded in a battle sparked by Embry’s mere existence and now she was working behind the counter of her own coffee shop instead of resting up.
She brandished a bandaged palm. “Nearly as good as new thanks to Allegra’s talents. That woman can do anything with a needle and thread and the right salve. I’m only wearing this because she wouldn’t let me leave the house without it.”
