9
Ness
The bellover the door at Bad Moon Café chimed dully. The air inside the café seemed stagnant. I scanned the café for any signs of my coworkers and found Addie staring blankly out the front window. When I approached the front counter, Addie startled.
I stole a moment to peer outside to see if she might have been staring at anything in particular. The street was empty, though. A pedestrian strolled past, but there was nothing about them that stood out before they disappeared once again. Addie hadn’t been looking at anyone or anything.
Her mind had been elsewhere.
“You’re thinking about the body in the woods, aren’t you?” I whispered.
Addie shook herself. Several strands of hair slipped out of her tight braid. “Don’t worry about it. I’m all right.”
I bit my lip and debated telling her what had happened. I never should have brought Addie with me in the first place. Had I been a better friend, I would have told her to give me a general idea of where the body might be. Then I could have gone on my own.
Even though I wasn’t on shift today, I tied my hair up, washed my hands, and stepped behind the counter to make myself a coffee. Addie protested that she could have done that for me, but a customer came in and distracted her.
I passed Addie what she needed while I prepared my iced hazelnut mocha. Once I stepped out of her way, I took the first sip of my coffee. The sweet taste of chocolate and hazelnut soothed my tired soul.
“Who’s coming in next?” I asked Addie.
She twisted and glanced back at the schedule. “Vi and Cerri, though it looks like Cerri gets off first. Audra scheduled Vi to close alone. That should be interesting. Is she giving Vi another chance?”
I did my best to continue the casual conversation while Addie worked. It was the least I could do to take her mind off what had happened the other day. I wanted to ask about her arcana but knew that it would derail my efforts.
Addie’s stomach growled. Since I had nowhere else to go, I offered to buy her lunch. I didn’t want to go home, and I wasn’t sure if Ryder would be back. He might have finally found a way out of Lakesedge.
The thought saddened me. I clenched and unclenched my fists because I could still feel Ryder in my hands. Had he not been there for me the night before, Harvey would have killed me.
Ryder hadn’t been himself, not completely. I had been able to tell from the moment he arrived that there was something wrong. Beryl had taken him, and she’d tried to break him with faery food again. The gold in his eyes told me as much.
How had he been able to break through the enchantment?
Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t notice the man standing in front of me until his scent hit me. I froze, every muscle locked in place. He’d found me again.
Lifting my gaze, I locked eyes with Harvey.
Well, that wasn’t completely true. Harvey didn’t have two eyes anymore. Where his right eye had been was now a concave eyelid. My hound laughed gleefully at Harvey’s situation, but I took a cautious step back.
He closed the space between us. I flinched, thinking he would strike me. He didn’t even reach out to grab me. Instead, Harvey towered over me.
“It’s broad daylight,” I whispered, annoyed with how small my voice sounded.
“Your days are numbered,” Harvey growled.
I backed up, but Harvey kept pushing closer and closer. Finally, my back hit a brick wall. Harvey braced his hands against the wall on either side of my head. I tried to control my breathing, but my chest heaved as every breath became shallower and shallower.
“You don’t kill me here. This isn’t Lakesedge.” I wasn’t as confident in those words as I should have been.
The sunken side of Harvey’s face mocked me. I’d taken his eye away from him. It seemed as though shifting couldn’t bring it back, either.
I’d maimed him.
“You’re right. You’re safe out here in front of all the humans, but the moment you step on Lakesedge territory again, I will hunt you down and rip you limb from limb. When I’m done, I’m leaving the pieces of you on your parents’ front lawn, so they know that they raised nothing more than a sack of meat.”
Indignation straightened my spine. The spiteful presence of my arcana unfurled as my fists tightened. I tugged the arcana up, closer to my tongue. In my mouth, it coated everything with a slick layer of magic that would later make me gag.
This was not a kind of power that I wanted to use often, but Harvey kept pushing me.