Page 37 of Of Magic and Murder

“I just want to say… I hope this won’t strain relations between the coven and the pack,” Delilah says, resuming her seat. “Faith was killed by a wolf’s claw tearing out her throat. Now it seems as though Olivia suffered the same fate. Some of my witches are already frightened⁠—”

“Tell them they shouldn’t be. We’ll find the wolf doing this and take care of them. You have my word. As long as there is anyone targeting witches in my territory, I won’t stop until I’ve put them down.”

He turns slightly, catching the way I’ve been staring at him. The smile he flashed Delilah disappears as a very predatory, very solemn expression twists his handsome features.

“I promise.”

We spend another twenty minutes with Delilah. I finally relent and accept a tea from her. Unlike his brother, Riordan doesn’t drink coffee. He passes on both tea and water, focusing on asking questions about Faith, then Olivia. Only when he notices that discussing the state of Olivia’s body and how her burial is scheduled for later that afternoon does he stand up and thank Delilah for her time.

Taking that as my cue, I tell the coven leader that I’ll stop by for tea later that week. I make a point not to peek at Riordan, though there’s no way the Beta doesn’t know I’m lying through my teeth. Instead, I stand up. Sensing my movement, Gus finally wakes up.

The opossum scratches my leg lightly, trying to get my attention. I swoop up Gus, cradling him to my chest, and follow Riordan toward the front door of the coven house.

Riordan unlocks the cruiser’s doors for us before glancing down at the notebook in his hand. “I want to go through Faith’s notes before we head out to the border of town. So why don’t we say nine o’clock tomorrow again? Then we can check out the wards ourselves.”

I stop, one hand cushioning Gus’s rump, the other reaching for the door handle. “The wards?”

“Yes. I know you’ve been to the spot where Olivia died. I’d like you to see if you can… I guess, see something where Faith was murdered.”

Right. Because I’m a seer, the only one in Moonburrow just like Olivia said, and if Faith’s ghost decided to hang around there, I might be able to tell. There’s a chance I might be able to pick up on any remnants of a spell she cast before she fell. While I’m good with herbs, I’m pretty shit with potions, so I’m no help there. But I know all the colors of magic. If any still lingers near her murder site, I’m uniquely qualified to pick up on it.

So of course I have to go. Sometimes investigating a murder means talking to witnesses. Sometimes it means visiting the murder scene. And now it seems like, tomorrow morning, I’m going into the woods where a witch was brutally killed by a wolf shifter.

And I’ll be going with a wolf shifter.

It doesn’t matter that I know that Riordan can’t be the killer. I’ve been so good, working past my nerves and my fear lately. Just thinking about being that close to another wolf while heading out into the woods… it doesn’t matter that it’s Riordan. The same thing happened when I went with Olivia and Max. I was scared then like I’m scared now, and without meaning to, I hug Gus a little tighter.

He squeaks in protest.

“Sorry,” I whisper.

Riordan looks over the cruiser at me. “Something wrong, Pen?”

Ah, shit. He noticed my minor freak-out.

I quirk my lips up into a smile I don’t mean. “Nope.”

His eyebrows rise, and I’m suddenly reminded that, even if he’s the Beta, any alpha wolf shifter who knows what he’s doing can tell when a less dominant supe is lying to them.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” I amend, and that is the truth. “But if you want me to help you with going through her notes, I can do that.”

He watches me for another moment, then says gently, “Is that something you want to do? Maybe you’ve done enough for today. I… this can’t be easy for you, and I know you didn’t sign up for this. I appreciate your help. So if you want to cut out until tomorrow… I understand.”

How does he know that the idea of going through a dead witch’s notes makes my stomach twist? That’s not all that’s leaving me anxious and queasy, but he’s not wrong… I love going through a coven’s archives, but I know I’m reading notes and spells and thoughts of witches that passed a long time ago. Faith was alive last week. It doesn’t feel right, and I’m a little stunned that Riordan realizes that.

Huh. There might be more to the Beta than I first thought…

“If you don’t need me for that, I’d like to go spend a couple of hours at the library. I told Ash that I might not make it today, but if I can, I’d feel a lot better about going.”

I wait to see if Riordan asks me why. He doesn’t. That tells me that he either knows about the disaster at Moonburrow Library and the role I played in knocking all of the books off the shelf or he doesn’t care what I do when I’m not helping him with his investigation.

I don’t know which it is, and when he nods, I let it go. I like to think that he’s being gracious and not mentioning my magic mess-up and I leave it at that.

“I’ll drop you off on my way home,” Riordan tells me. “Deputy Gus? You want to catch a ride with me or would you rather go back to the bakery and head out with Max and Honey later on?”

Gus uses his tiny pink claw to tap his badge.

“That’s what I thought.”