Page 40 of Heart of Mischief

“No,” he said, shaking two brightly colored, jewel-shaped candies into his left palm. Then he lowered them to where Henry was seated between them. “But I bet he does.”

Charlie snorted. “Henry would never take food from you.”

“Whyever not?”

“Because he doesn’t trust you, obviously. You stabbed him. Right after you tried to murder me. And Lou. And everyone else.”

“Mmm,” Elias hummed. “Fair point.” He moved his hand closer to Henry’s face, leaning down to whisper. “They’re tropical flavored. One hundred percent sugar. My personal favorite are the blue ones.”

Tentatively, Henry leaned forward and sniffed at the gummies.

“Oh, please,” said Charlie. “You think Henry’s love can be bought withcandy? He and I are a team. He would never—”

She stopped talking when she realized that Henry had swiped both Gushers from Elias’s palm and was gobbling them down with alarming speed.

When she looked up, Elias was smirking triumphantly.

“Okay, fine. He ate them,” she said. “But Henry is, I kid you not, obsessed with sweets. Just because he took the candy doesn’t mean that…”

Her voice trailed off as she watched Henry finish the Gushers and nuzzle affectionately at Elias’s empty palm.

She stared at the little creature for several blank seconds. Yesterday, Henry had growled at Elias like he wanted to turn into his gremlin self and eat the mare for dinner. Now he was…cuddlinghim?

“Are you kidding me?” she whispered to Henry.

The vätte looked over and shrugged, before turning back to Elias and pointing eagerly at the Gushers package, vying for more.

“Traitor,” she mumbled.

“How interesting,” said Elias. “Vätte naturally sense when their tethered humans are in danger. You know that’s true; I’m sure you’ve both felt it before.”

Charlie pressed her lips together but didn’t respond.

“Therefore”—Elias gestured to the vätte now snuggling up to his leg—“one plus one equals two, right? Henry can tell I’m not a threat to you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Charlie snapped a little too loudly. “Of course you’re a threat to me. You tried tokillme.”

“Times have changed,” he responded breezily, laying one arm across the seat. His skin brushed Charlie’s neck as he looked back and put the car in reverse. “I told you that already.”

“Yeah, well, times haven’t changed forme.”

Elias spun the wheel with one hand, pulling away from the curb. “They most certainly have. Take things with your brother. I mean, you two weren’t exactly besties when I met you, but things haveclearlygotten worse since I left. So much tension there. And you don’t have to be a mare to feel the fear running between you two.”

“Fear?” Charlie scoffed. “I’m not afraid of my brother.”

Elias eased onto the gas, picking up speed. “I love listening to people in denial. It’s like conversing with a wall.”

“This is ridiculous,” said Charlie. “Can we move on to morepressing matters? Such as the two innocent teenagers that were murdered last night?”

Alex and Maudie Fields. Though their family lived in Silver Shores, Charlie didn’t know them personally. According to reports, they’d attended the private school two towns over, a Catholic academy that spanned preschool through twelfth grade. Still, Charlie had recognized their faces, probably from mutual friends on social media or just seeing them around downtown.

It didn’t matter that she hadn’t known the Fieldses the way she knew the Morrises. The description of their fingerless bodies found splayed and bloody on the marina boardwalk was no less horrifying.

Four kids dead in less than twenty-four hours. It wasn’t right.

“Doesn’t it seem like too much of a coincidence that both targets were a boy and a girl around the same age?” she asked as Elias finally pulled away from the curb. “It’s like Rattatosk has a type.”

“Or,” said Elias, as they sailed down Charlie’s street, “like he has orders. Like he’s looking for someone specific.”