Page 63 of Demon and the Raven

Lorne chuckled. “I’ve seen him make biscuits, and there’s no to the letter about them. Things just get thrown in.”

“Maybe that’s it. I need to be more haphazard about it.”

I glanced from one to the other. “Are you kidding? Enough with the biscuits. Tell me all the news already.”

They shared a look then, and neither spoke.

“Seriously?”

Lorne said, “The ME concluded that Kathy fell off something high, she’s thinking a ladder, even though they didn’t find one, because the injuries she sustained are consistent with a fall from a height of at least ten feet.”

“A fall?”

He nodded.

“But you said her neck was⁠—”

“Yeah, I know. But it turns out, it can also read as a fall.”

“And the arson inspector?”

“The second she saw Kathy’s wet specimens from her store, she concluded the fire was caused by the ethanol.”

I looked from him to Amanda and back again. “So the ME has ruled this an accidental death. No murder, no foul play.”

“Correct.”

“And the arson inspector said no arson—which, I must say, I didn’t think so either—but still, no murder, no arson in Osprey on your watch, so…that’s great.”

Amanda smacked the back of my head.

“Ow,” I whined loudly, then lowered my voice so as not to alert the kids their mother was throwing hands. “What the hell?”

“Kathy Hayes was murdered,” Lorne snapped at me. “And the ME did her job and concluded that she wasn’t, based on what whoever killed her made it look like.”

“Yes. Which is great for us.”

“How is that great?” Amanda asked me, sounding exasperated.

Originally, I’d thought to keep from Amanda everything that went on last autumn. Her worrying more than she already did as a mother didn’t seem fair. But what also wasn’t fair was keeping parts of my life from her. Lorne and I needed more of a support system than each other. We needed someone who knew everything, and there was only one person to choose, and that was Amanda. Up to a point.

The part about me being a branded witch and my lord Arawn didn’t need to be shared, but everything else, like the fact that Corvus could and would defend itself, that I told her. Only to be outdone in that moment by my grandfather, who, it turned out, had told her years ago that he didn’t simply talk to the land, but communed with it. Literally.

I’d been a bit disappointed as I’d imagined her face when I told her.

“Well, if you wait so long to share big news, you run the risk of someone else spoiling it,” she’d stated, her expression quite haughty. “Next time spit it out, man.”

And then I’d wanted to smack her. Hard.

But what was great now was that she felt even better about leaving her kids with me if, heaven forbid, anything ever happened to her and Eddie. Because I was their singular godparent, the only person Amanda had named in her will, and Eddie had agreed. But now she liked Lorne too, as did Eddie, and she knew Corvus would keep the kids safe as well.

“Are you listening to Lorne?” Amanda snapped at me.

“Yes, but neither of you is listening to me. What I’m saying is, without murder and arson hanging over us, we can now give our full attention to finding whatever it is that killed Kathy.”

They were both quiet, looking at me.

“I bet when you briefed the mayor, she was thrilled,” I said to Lorne.