Page 13 of Siren's Gift

In less than ten seconds, the man slumped across the table, dead.

My wide-eyed gaze met Jade’s across the room. One look at her confused and afraid face told me everything. She was just as shocked as I was.

There was only one logical reason.

Ichiro.

Somehow, somebody must have discovered this man was giving out information, and they had informed my grandfather. Considering how easily Keiko had learned of Scott’s job frustrations, it was practically inevitable.

But how much did this mystery person or Ichiro know about my involvement?

Thankfully, it wasn’t the morning rush hour, but the two other people here were going to figure out sooner rather than later that a man had just died in their presence.

Jade appeared at my side. "What happened?" she asked, horror evident in her hushed tone.

"Magic. A poison of some sort, but not mine. I’m not sure how it was administered."

I wasn’t above killing people, but I hadn’t killed this guy. He was a source, after all. I needed him. He hadn’t even given me all the information yet, and if I wanted him dead, it wouldn’t be with poison.

The likeliest of answers was in Scott’s drink, except Jade had prepared the frappé herself. Plus, it was unlikely that Ichiro would have known what Scott was going to order to poison the right ingredients. It was possible he’d been poisoned before arriving, a delayed-action type.

"I didn’t do this, I swear," she said.

“I know,” I reassured her.

A glint of metal beneath Scott’s seat caught my eye, and I bent to pick up the object. It looked like a bug of some sort.

“That’s a hexbeetle,” Jade said, her eyes wide. “Old coven tech. Nasty little things and super illegal.”

I knew all about hexbeetles, but I’d never seen one in person. The user could fill the bug’s body with whatever they wished—poison, notes, or otherwise—and command the beetle to deliver it anywhere in the world. Poison wasn’t my method and email worked just fine for me.

A car door slammed shut outside the diner, and I glanced out the front windows. An older bald man wearing dark sunglasses adjusted his jacket. Heat rushed through my veins in a blaze of fury. It was him—Ichiro. That confirmed it. There was no way his appearance here at this exact moment was a coincidence.

I pocketed the hexbeetle and turned toward the back of the coffee shop. "Is there a back door?"

Jade nodded, her wide eyes still fixed on the dead man in front of us. Not everyone was as familiar with death as I was.

"Jade, I need your help. Please."

She took a deep breath and looked up at me. Wariness, or perhaps even outright suspicion, creased her brow.

"I didn’t do this either, I promise," I said calmly but earnestly. "But I know who did, and I need your help getting out of here before he tries to frame me."

Her eyes widened even more. "Yes, there’s a back door. It leads out to the street."

I nodded and moved briskly toward the back of the diner, knowing that she understood what I was truly asking of her, even without speaking the words.

Covering up each other’s tracks was pretty common in the Gifted community. We often had to cover for each other so that humans wouldn’t suspect that magic existed, any more than they already did, anyway. Witches were always a favorite for fantasy shows and books, and plenty of non-Gifted humans practiced what they believed to be actual magic.

Just as I slipped around the corner and into the shadows, the coffee shop door opened and Kenzo’s annoyingly loud voice reached my ears. As usual, my cousin was babbling about something mundane.

Ichiro’s sharp command rang out, cutting off my cousin. "What’s happened?"

Something toppled over, followed by splashing sounds. Kenzo shouted, and an unfamiliar voice let out a high-pitched shriek. They must have discovered the body.

I chanced a glance around the corner. One of the other patrons continued to work on his laptop, oblivious to what was happening thanks to his giant headphones. The other had a slack jaw as he stared at the body. Kenzo had climbed onto a table, and Jade was holding out her arm, keeping Ichiro back as soapy water splashed all over the floor from an overturned bucket.

Damn, she was a smart witch. That bleach smell would cover my tracks completely, just in case her camouflaging potion wasn’t enough.

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