Page 93 of Awry
Behind Rath’s back, Reck’s face falls.And just for a moment, his gaze flicks to the picture of Zaya on the screen.He lunges forward to snatch his phone off my workstation, fucking ruining the cord I’ve got it tethered to at the same time.Then he slams his way out of the room.
Nine
ZAYA
I’m finishingmy second bowl of ice cream of the morning when Harlee and Cayley wander in through the mudroom.Not that I need to justify that consumption, but the earthenware bowls are the size of my palm.So it’s actually more like just one regular-sized bowl.Also, I tried to nap for about fifteen minutes in between the comforting consumption of creaminess.And of course, I was dead less than forty-eight hours ago.
Thick threads of Harlee’s essence are twined all around her hands, but I blink a few times and clear them from my vision.The mage has been casting for hours, but normally I don’t see residual like that.Hopefully, it’s just because I haven’t slept properly, because if that’s suddenly a new thing I do, it’s going to be an ongoing annoyance.
Cayley spins right, flinging herself on the couch in the large open family room just off the kitchen, close to the TV niche.She closes her eyes and lets her head fall backward with a sigh.
Harlee hovers in the doorway to the mudroom, hands folded in front of her, gazing toward me but slightly downcast, not meeting my eyes.
I rinse the ice cream bowl, then put it and my spoon in the dishwasher.“Cause of death confirmed?”I ask.
Cayley scrubs her hand across her face, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees.“Doc confirmed before she left.Both Ingrid and Mack dropped at the exact damn same time.Massive coronaries.Harlee got the bodies … tidied —”
“Preservation spells laid,” Harlee says quietly.“I also scoured the beach house after I moved the bodies to an empty section of the barn.Or maybe it’s a workshop?That was … it’s a simpler space for the spell work and for … viewings …”
I narrow my eyes at the suggestion that anyone else is going to be coming onto the property for a look around.Harlee swallows, twisting her fingers together.
“Right.”Cayley eyes the rambling mage for a moment, then looks to me.“The mages’ Coterie has been informed.As has the Outcast MC.Well, officially now.There will be … questions.”
“There won’t be any questions,” I say.
Harlee looks up at that.Looks at me.“Ingrid Belke was a Wisdom.”
“I know.”
“There was residual essence on the bodies … that …” Harlee swallows, then glances at Cayley.“That … suggests …”
The kitsune shifter huffs.“Now?Now you’re scared of Zaya?You couldn’t have been a bit more cautious before you sold my fucking car?”
Cayley’s tone is mild, but Harlee bristles.“It was my car.You gave it to me.And then … you just took off, who the fuck knows where, and … you came back different!”
“Actually, I’ve always been bisexual,” Cayley says in the same deceptively neutral tone.“It’s never been just a phase, as you like to insist.”
I don’t even have to know the shifter to understand that tone means ‘back away slowly and don’t return without some sort of tribute.’With her other half being kitsune, no one should really expect anything less.
Though it’s pretty apparent that Harlee doesn’t understand that part of Cayley at all.
“That’s not …” The mage casts a look at me.“What I … meant …”
I raise an eyebrow, too tired to leave my own kitchen and let them have at it with their argument.
Harlee inhales deeply, squaring her shoulders.“Those weren’t natural deaths —”
“The thread is woven alongside choice and misdeeds,” I say.That bit of litany likely sounds far too flippant, but my point is valid.All death is naturally occurring, especially under the guiding hand of fate.
And yes, I’m still blithely ignoring all the wrongness that I’m also sensing in my Aunt’s seemingly untimely demise.Well, I’m trying to ignore it.But beyond that, it isn’t any business of Harlee or the local pack or even the mages’ Coterie.The bonds between my aunt and her chosen weren’t lightly undertaken by any of them.No matter the ramifications of my aunt’s abrupt death.
Harlee eyes me while attempting to not actually meet my gaze.“If you wanted me to cover it up, you should have —”
“Who said anything about a cover up?”Cayley snaps.
“Well, no one.But —”
I interrupt before they can clash words again.“Did you get any sense of what Ingrid was scrying for?She was attempting to scry, yes?”
