Page 16 of Of Magic and Murder

Distracted by Olivia’s commentary, I miss it when Max stiffens. However, I don’t miss it when he leaps easily to a standing position, whirling around, surveying the trees behind us. His nostrils flare once. Twice. His expression tightens.

Then his head snaps toward the trail behind him to his left.

“Killer?”

Killer?

“I know you’re out there. I know you were supposed to stay back at the cabin, safe and sound in bed. But I know your scent anywhere… you might as well come on out, Honey.”

Oh. I forgot. For some reason, Max’s pet name for his mate is ‘Killer’. She always seems a little exasperated yet undeniably pleased when he uses it, though now it’s Max who sounds very exasperated as the bushes along the trail rustle.

I look over there. Sharon does, too. Olivia… she hovers over to her corpse and shakes her head.

Max taps his foot, waiting. A moment later, a little grey-and-white face pokes out from beneath the leaves. The opossum steps closer, and I see that collar around his neck and the star-shaped badge that’s pinned there.

Gus. That’s Gus.

And where there’s Gus⁠—

A second opossum appears right behind him. This one is about twice his size, and if I could see that well in the dark of night and the shadows of the woods, I know her eyes would be purple. This is obviously an opossum shifter in their fur, and undeniably Honey Lobo.

Max closes his eyes. “Killer, go back to the cabin.”

Honey scampers toward her mate, rising up so she can rub her muzzle against the side of his leg.

I bite the inside of my cheek. Somehow, I’m not surprised that Honey (and Gus) decided to sneak after Max. Maybe I shouldn’t have woken the opossum shifter up so that she could connect me with Max. Probably shouldn’t have blurted out that Olivia was dead, either, and that I was talking to her ghost. But I did, and Honey must’ve thought she could help her mate.

That, or she’s just super nosy.

Gus… Honey has teasingly mentioned that the wild opossum takes his new role as Deputy Gus very seriously. Now there’s been a crime, and here they are, and Max looks like he wishes they were anywhere else but here.

Max opens his eyes again as he feels his mate brushing up against his jeans. “Honey.”

She chitters softly.

“Honey…”

Gus joins in.

Max sighs. His voice loses its Alpha edge when he tries again. “You don’t need to see this. I told you that at home. It’s… it’s not good.”

In response, Honey immediately scurries across the clearing.

For one horrible second, I think she’s going to ignore him and go straight to Olivia’s body. She doesn’t. Instead, she comes to me, tapping my boot with one tiny paw before she turns her snout Max’s way.

I don’t speak opossum, and I’ve given up on casting any spells that would make them talk, but, in this case, I don’t have to.

“She’s pointing out that I don’t need to see it, either,” I translate.

Honey nods emphatically.

Max’s jaw flexes. “Penelope had to bring us here.”

“Because she refused to tell anyone else,” I mutter, shooting a look over where Olivia’s standing guard over her ghost.

“No one else can see me or hear me,” Olivia reminds me. “It had to be you, Penelope, so buck up and stop whining.”

I continue ignoring her.