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Granted, Melony had managed to hold both me and Greta when we had our confrontation earlier that morning, but maybe that was simply because she’d taken us by surprise.
Hmm. Now that I actually had more than a few fleeting seconds to think things over, I realized just how much wasn’t adding up here.
Melony had surprised Greta and me at the house earlier that day. And when she left us, I ran to my house and found Fluffikins waiting. He conjured a broom and flew me back to the PTA complex with him. He’d also said Melony wasn’t able to travel by magical means.
If that was the case, how could Melony have had the time to find Parker and follow him to the edge of town, have a talk, and then have a confrontation within
that space of time before Parker joined us at the conference room table?
Yes, he was the last to arrive, but still we were only talking a span of maybe ten minutes here. For the first time since moving to this little town, I wished I’d brought a car with me. The town was considered tiny because of its population, but it still boasted a fair amount of land.
I punched my address into the maps app. Mrs. Haberdash’s property—including my guest house—was centrally located, which made it easy to walk into town when I needed to. That had been a big selling point for me, actually.
Now that I was studying the map, I noticed we were dead center in the square-shaped area of the city’s boundaries. I used my index finger to tap the city border and added it as a destination point. My app informed me that the quickest route by car would take about twelve minutes.
I didn’t have exact timestamps for the events of this morning, but the accepted timeline seemed off.
Parker had either gotten confused or was purposefully lying to the board. Greta had already confirmed that.
But he’d also proudly told me he was a local, born and raised in Beech Grove. In fact, it was one of the first things he said to me—well, after accusing me of being a murderer, that is. I doubted he’d have made an error in calculating the time given his familiarity with the town, and I also doubted he’d tell a lie he knew could be easily disproved.
So why hadn’t the others noticed this inconsistency?
Or had they but chosen not to acknowledge it?
I was missing something big here, and I doubted I was the only one.
See, this was exactly the kind of thing that happened from making decisions too fast! Yet another reason it was so important for me to start my days with a slow, contemplative shower. Thanks to Fluffikins, I hadn’t even gotten a quick and cold shower that morning.
I’d only had a single serving of coffee, too.
And it wasn’t even eight o’clock yet. Yawn.
I rummaged through the late Mrs. Haberdash’s jewelry box and lifted a large emerald ring to inspect it more closely.
“Drop that,” someone ordered from the doorway in a gruff voice. Despite the added vitriol, I instantly recognized the speaker.
I turned to face Parker, holding the ring tight. “Make me,” I challenged through clenched teeth. I was taking a big chance here and prayed my instincts were bang on.
He paused for a moment, but that was enough to confirm my suspicions.
“You’re not Parker,” I said, slipping the ring onto my finger and placing a hand on each hip in open defiance.
27
Parker unleashed a fiery blast and sent it careening right at me. Yeah, this definitely wasn’t the same guy I’d met the day before.
I tried to dodge, but the surge of magic shot out so fast I didn’t have a chance. The flames crashed straight into me, but I hardly felt a thing. Only warmth, acknowledgment. The light in my chest glowed as the borrowed angel armor absorbed the full impact.
“They know,” Parker growled, and for a moment he looked too stunned to take any further action.
But that moment quickly passed and he hurled himself onto me, trapping my smaller body beneath his large, muscly one.
“Let me go!” I flailed against him.
“Tell me where the others are,” he demanded, but still he couldn’t force me to do it against my will. This wasn’t Parker. He didn’t have the same powers.
“No,” I told him with another grunt. “I won’t tell you anything until you explain who you are and what you want.”
