Page 13 of Hunt the Dusk
I arched a brow. “Yep, and you are?”
“Holly. Holly Abbot. Heard you needed some tracking help.”
A grin bloomed on my lips. Lorenzo had come through.
Chapter 6
Holly needed samples from the missing supernaturals—clothing they’d worn, hair, blood, items that were special to them—anything that she could use as a connection to the missing creatures. Merry offered to take her to visit Mrs. Diago, the wife of the missing wendigo, and then on to the cemetery and the crypt to speak to the young female ghoul about her missing boyfriend, Lomax. There was nothing we could do until Holly had prepped her tracking spell, which would take a couple of days once she had what she needed.
I’d expected her to just be able to ‘do’ magic, because Lorenzo could just do it without the use of spells, but Holly explainedthatability came with time, and some mageri never achieved it, but she was adept in some things like seeing through glamour and sensing arcane influences as long as a conduit was used.
While she went off with Merry, Padma offered to take me dress shopping for my date, and Edwin stayed to man the office.
It felt indulgent going shopping while everyone else was working. As if I was slacking off, but Padma reminded me that the dress was for a date that would get me closer to answers about the fire, so itwastechnically work.
I wasn’t a fan of clothes shopping at the best of times, preferring to approach it as clinically as possible—make a list of what I need, go into the stores that sold those items, pick up said items, pay, and walk out. I didn’t browse. Padma seemed to have the same attitude, and the fifteen-minute walk to the parade of shops was enough for us to decide what kind of dress we needed. Black, knee-length, either off-the-shoulder or sleeveless, and figure hugging but comfortable.
We found exactly that in the second store we looked in, along with red kitten heel shoes and a red handbag.
Shopping over, we grabbed lunch and headed back to the office.
Holly and Merry returned midafternoon, having gathered supplies. Merry was flushed and bright-eyed with a serious case of helmet hair.
“How was the bike ride?” Padma asked.
“It was amazing!” Merry grinned up at Holly. “She just weaves through the traffic.”
Holly winced. “We’re not really supposed to do that.”
“Oops.” Merry giggled, and Holly smiled fondly at her.
Looked like those two had made friends. “We should get you set up with a desk for your stay.” A thought occurred to me. “How longcanyou stay?”
“As long as you need me,” Holly said. “I’m in no rush to get anywhere.”
“Holly’s on sabbatical from teaching at the mageri institute,” Merry said.
“Oh?” Padma looked interested. “What do you teach?”
“Arcane botany and herbology,” she said with a shrug. “It pays the bills but isn’t the most riveting of professions.”
“Well, things never get boring here,” Merry said.
Padma’s brows shot up. “They don’t?”
Merry’s cheeks went pink. “Not really.”
“I’ll bring a desk in from the interrogation room and set up a computer for you,” Edwin said.
“Is there anything else you need?” Padma asked.
“A coffee would be great,” Holly said. “And a room I can use to prepare the tracking spell?”
“I’ll get the coffee,” Merry said.
“There’s a room off the kitchen,” Padma said. “You can use that.”
The rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully with more data input and Holly getting set up, and soon enough, it was time to go home. With my date at seven, there was no point in me going back to the chapter house. By the time I got there, it would be time to head back to New Town.
