Witchy Sour (The Magic & Mixology Mystery Series Book 2) (17 page)

“I didn’t mean those sort of feelings, I meant...” Harpin trailed off. “As if she’s your daughter. Or better yet, your granddaughter, old man.”

“I’m her hired help, and that’s the end of it,” Gus said. “Thomas, can we finish our conversation before I shove my finger so far up this man’s nose it comes out his ear?”

Next to me, Ranger X’s shoulders shook quietly in the night.

“Are you laughing?” I whispered. “This isn’t funny.”

X swiped a hand underneath one of his eyes. “Gus is a firecracker.”

I started to respond, but something was wrong.

Listening closely, I shut my mouth and waited. The conversation on the path in front of the ice cream hut had halted and the footsteps stopped. I shot Ranger X a wild-eyed expression, but he just leaned back against the wall and looked up to the sky, his breathing silent and his body stilled. I copied him as best I could, but my heart sounded like a jackhammer against my ribs, and if the three men in front of the shack didn’t start walking soon, I was afraid my palms would sweat enough to flood the entire island.

Thankfully, the man named Thomas spoke up again. “We’ll need to bring her in at some point.”

“Then we do it on my terms,” Gus said. “When I say, where I say, and how I say.”

“That’s not how this works,” Harpin said. “We don’t do what’s best for Gus, we do what’s best for all of us.”

“All of us?” I mouthed to Ranger X. “Who?”

He gave a brief shake of his head, but I couldn’t tell if he had no idea, or if he wanted me to be quiet.

“Do you want my help or not?” Gus asked. “I’m in this all the way, but if you still doubt me after everything...if you need more proof, then maybe I should just get out while the gettin’s good.”

“That’s not what Harpin was saying,” Thomas said, once again ironing things over. “What he’s trying to say is that we’ll have to bring her in eventually, and that there’ll be a narrow window of time to do it.”

“Fine,” Gus said. “I can work with that. But you have to give me warning, and you have to give me a chance to talk to her first. I’m going to be the one to tell her everything and that is final. If that deal can’t be made, then consider me done.”

“Not a problem,” Thomas said. “You’ll receive at minimum twenty-four hours warning. Will that suffice?”

After a beat, Gus replied grudgingly. “Fine.”

“Does she suspect anything?” Thomas asked. “You said she’s smart.”

“She is damn smart, but I don’t think she suspects anything yet. We haven’t given her a reason to, but I can’t be seen with you any more in public. It’s only a matter of time.”

“Good. Let’s keep it that way for as long as possible,” Thomas said. “We need her oblivious for now.”

“What about the rest of the Cretans?” Gus asked. “How long are they staying?”

“It’s their right to be here as long as they want,” Harpin said. “What’s it matter to you?”

“It matters to me because Lily’s gonna start asking questions. Curious and smart can be a dangerous combination around someone who has a secret,” Gus said. “And I’ve got plenty of secrets.”

“Then lie.” Harpin hissed. “You said you could do it.”

“Enough, we have to keep moving,” Thomas said. “You have the information we need, Gus?”

Another long beat. “Yes.”

“If you’re lying, I can talk to her,” Harpin said. “It’s been a while since we’ve spoken.”

“Because she despises you,” Gus said. “Which is fortunate, since she’ll never expect us to be partnering on something of this magnitude. She knows I dislike you just as much as she does.”

The silence that followed was laden with tension. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even bring myself to look at Ranger X.

“We’re done,” Thomas said. “You have one day, Gus. Tomorrow night, we’ll meet.”

“I need longer than a day.”

“You don’t have longer than a day, so get it done,” Thomas said. “Goodbye.”

Ranger X and I sat still for a long while. The first two pairs of footsteps to fade into the distance belonged to Thomas and Harpin, their robed figures vanishing into the night as they headed east. I strained my eyes to see the color of their ribbons, but I could only make out that they were a bright color, which contrasted against the black of the hood. Meanwhile, the third set of footsteps never disappeared.

“Is he gone?” I breathed to Ranger X.

He shook his head.

It was a good thing we waited because the footsteps belonging to Gus didn’t sound again for at least ten minutes. Though we couldn’t see him from behind the ice cream hut, I suspected he might have been sitting. Sitting and staring up at the stars because when he finally walked away, his face was pointed toward the sky as he moved at a slow, deliberate pace.

However, I didn’t expect him to be wearing a robe. An all-black robe with an all-black ribbon around the hood.

My eyes met Ranger X’s gaze, and together we watched as one of the most powerful wizards to graduate from Cretan disappeared into the night.

Chapter 15

“He was supposed to be on a date with Mimsey,” I said as we made our way over the bridge to the West side of The Isle. “What does all this mean? What did he need to prove to these men?”

We’d waited behind the ice cream hut for at least thirty minutes, maybe longer, before setting out on foot.

“Maybe the date ended early.”

I sighed. “Does that explain why he’d go and put on his graduate robes and meet some old buddies? I don’t know what to think.”

“I don’t either.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“About what?”

“Everything!” I threw my hands into the air. This time, I didn’t notice the fish swimming below the bridge or the lovely scent of lilacs lingering on the night breeze. “What was that all about? Gus working with Harpin? What on earth could be so important that two arch-enemies agree to work together? They hate each other’s guts. Anyone could’ve seen that from the two seconds they stood next to each other.”

“There are things important enough for people to overcome their differences,” Ranger X said. “The only question left is what is so important.”

“That could be anything!”

“No, I don’t think so. I’d argue it’s quite limiting.” Ranger X slipped his hand to my lower back, guiding me over a rough patch of cobblestone. “Consider it this way. You dislike Harpin, yes?”

I could barely hide the curl of my lips into a frown. “You could say that.”

“So what would it take for you to work with him?”

“A lot.”

“Exactly,” he said. “You wouldn’t go over there to ask him for a hand if you needed furniture moved, no matter how much you wanted that furniture moved. You wouldn’t ask him for money, you wouldn’t do anything that might require a favor of you in return unless...”

“Unless something, or someone, I loved was at stake,” I said quietly. “But what does Gus care so much about?”

“That’s for you to think about,” X said. “But remember what I said earlier. Before you judge him, ask. It sounded like he doesn’t want to lie to you back there. Maybe all you need to do is ask and he’ll explain things to you.”

I hesitated. “I don’t want to put him at risk. That Thomas guy sounded like he meant business. As for Harpin, he’s his own force to be reckoned with.”

“Don’t you think he owes you some explanation if you’re going to be involved?”

“When you put it like that...”

“I’m not swaying your opinions either way. You heard what you heard, and you saw what you saw. You have a missing spellbook that was stolen by an impossibly adept thief, and you witnessed a meeting of strangers where one of those men, a man you care about, was supposed to be somewhere else. I’ll leave it up to you how to proceed.”

“What could they be working on?” The answer felt just out of reach, hovering around the edges of my consciousness and begging for me to name it. “I feel like I should know this, but it’s just not coming to me.”

“Then forget about it for tonight. Gus is gone for now, the rest of The Isle will soon be asleep, and you need your rest. You’ll have another day tomorrow at the bungalow and plenty of time to think about it then. Best to do it with a clear head.”

“I suppose you’re right,” I said slowly.

“More importantly, I don’t want to end this non-date on a sour note. Can we enjoy the last five minutes of our stroll?”

I smiled. “I’d like that.”

True to form, the next five minutes passed too quickly and too easily. They were such happy minutes I didn’t want them to end. Ranger X had pointed out the various sea shells on the shore, describing their names, their patterns, and how they were formed. When we reached the beach in front of the bungalow, we stopped.

“Here,” he said, holding out his hand. “I found this at the very start, but I wanted to save it for last.”

“Best for last?”

He nodded, and then opened his palm. I leaned in, gasping at the sight of a beautiful pebble.

“That is the most incredible color I have ever seen. May I touch it?”

“It’s yours.”

I reached for the stone as reverently as if it’d fallen from the sky itself. Blue on the outside, swirls of silver danced through the middle, illuminating the rock from the inside out. A fuzzy, golden halo circled the outer rim, reflecting off a blue so pure it looked like bits of another world had been gathered and packaged in a bundle full of air. “What is it called?”

“Angel’s Breath,” Ranger X said. “These pebbles are known for their luck. Carry it in your pocket for when you need it the most.”

“Does it work?”

“They say each time a soul enters the afterlife they are given one pebble to leave behind on earth. Whenever a person wishes on the stone, it’s that soul’s duty to determine if their intentions are pure. If the answer is yes, your wish will be granted, the stone will lose its glow, and their spirit is able to move on.”

“That is an incredible story,” I said, turning the rock from one palm to the next, the smooth outside feeling like a mixture of satin and glass. “But you didn’t answer my question. Does it work?”

“You’ll have to find out.”

I slipped it into my pocket. “Shall I test it now?”

“Save it for when you need it most,” Ranger X said. “Right now, you don’t need luck. But I would like one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“A non-kiss.”

“But—”

“This is a non-date, and a non-kiss. It’s only fair,” Ranger X said. “I have manners, and I won’t bring it up again, I promise.”

My head told me to say no, but my heart, my body, and my soul all said yes. Three against one were tough odds, and this time, my head lost the battle. “Make it good.”

Curling me into his arms, Ranger X’s lips met mine in a furious tangle of heat. The heady taste of wine mixed with the fresh sea salt. As his tongue slipped between my lips, all thoughts disappeared. No worries lingered and no fears surfaced. It was just the two of us, his strong hands twisted between my locks, pulling the hair tight against my scalp as he trailed his lips down to my neck. I shivered, my own arms snaking around his neck and just holding on, absorbing the moment until he pulled back, his dark eyes swirling with desire.

“That was some non-kiss,” I said. “Wow.”

“I would like to non-kiss you again,” he said. “A lot.”

“We might as well get it out of our systems, right?” The irony was not lost on me—he’d said that exact phrase just weeks before. Apparently, we weren’t out of each other’s systems yet. “What do you say?”

“One more can’t hurt.”

This time, he lifted me into his arms and walked a few steps into the water. The spray from the waves lapping at his ankles misted around us, wrapping us in a cloud of fog. My skin was chilled and his lips were warm, while a furnace burned in my stomach. He held me in his arms and kissed me until the goose bumps overtook my skin and my lips were raw.

Finally, we walked toward the bungalow together, hand in hand. All pretenses of our non-date gone.

“Thank you for the amazing night,” I said. “And for all of your advice.”

He raised a hand and ran his fingers along my exposed collar bone. “I hope we can have another non-date sometime.”

We stood still, neither of us able to break apart first.

“I should be going,” he said eventually, without moving.

“Yes, I should get some sleep.” Instead of turning toward the porch steps, I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. No kissing, no touching, just an embrace that made me feel safe. My eyes closed, and I nearly drifted off to sleep. His hands gently unlocked mine from around his neck, and I forced my eyes to open.

But instead of locking on his gaze, something in the distance caught my eye. I took a step back, stumbling, gasping, spluttering at the sight in the distance.

“Lily, are you okay? What is it?” Ranger X held me close. “What’s wrong?”

“Look!”

Together we turned, and thankfully, he had a good grip on my waist because my body sagged against his side. There, floating in the lake, was a pile of robes. As each wave crashed to shore, the bulk grew nearer and nearer and nearer until the truth was unmistakable.

Inside that bundle of robes lay a body.

Chapter 16

I must have fallen asleep at some point during the night, but I couldn’t remember when my nightmares became real and my thoughts dissolved into dreams. After discovering the body washed ashore, Ranger X had leapt into action. He turned on a dime, transforming from non-date mode to Ranger mode in a second.

After sending for help, we huddled together until backup arrived. Then the minutes turned into hours, and everything became a blur. Into the wee hours of the night we were answering questions, surveying the area, and trying to figure out how a body had ended up on the beach outside of my bungalow.

The body had not been formally identified, but I could venture a guess as to who it might be: black robes, black ribbon across the hood, male facial features—it didn’t leave a lot of options. I explained about the hooded stranger asking for The Elixir to the Rangers, and they’d nodded and muttered to one another, never bothering to clue me in on their theories.