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He couldn’t disagree.

“And we’ll have to talk about your dislike for my best friend—”

“I do not dislike Alessandra,” he said honestly. “Just her fiancé.”

Toni finished her water and walked to a recycling bin in the center of the room. As she came back toward him, he could tell she was still considering his words. Torr would have thought she’d jump to Kenton’s defense.

Well done, Lawrence.

“I can imagine it’s difficult to see someone differently after feuding for so long—”

“Feud?” he scoffed. It was a small word for the enmity that lay between them. “I don’t understand how Lawrence can forgive—”

“He hasn’t. At least, not completely.”

Torr watched Toni, waiting.

“There’s simply too much history, I think, no matter how he tries. But you know what they say about carrying hot coals and expecting them to burn your enemies.”

Torr had no idea what they said about coals, but he opted not to ask for clarification.

“Of the two of us, he’s always been the better man,” he said, finishing his own water and wanting to change the subject. “Any news on the Walsh front?”

Zach Walsh had broken into Ye Old Curiosities back in August. Torr had taken it upon himself to question him, against Lawrence’s wishes, and the human had admitted he’d been sent to find a family heirloom, a journal, that his grandmother suspected was hidden in the shop.

The problem?

Back when Alessandra was first coming into her Cheld abilities, she and Toni had asked Toni’s aunt for information about the Cheld. Birdie had, in turn, queried Annabel Walsh, a customer she knew to be interested in the supernatural. The attempted burglary had happened soon afterward. Zach didn’t know why his grandmother wanted the journal, but he’d mentioned “Cheld” in conjunction with it. Hence their worry. It was a tangled web.

“Nothing,” Toni said. “But apparently your threats must have worked. He and his grandmother haven’t been seen around town for a while.”

Torr chuckled. He’d warned Zach not to breathe a word of the incident to anyone, including his own grandmother. Unfortunately, that hadn’t helped them figure out what was in the missing journal or why Annabel wanted it so badly.

“Look who’s here!”

Torr looked toward the front door.

It was her.