At that point, I just shake my head and put my phone away. What’s that one saying? Boys will be boys? Something like that.
More times than not, Bracken or Cosmo are the ones to escort me to class. This morning, it’s Cosmo.
“Hey,” I say softly. “How are you holding up?”
He glances at me. "You're sounding an awful lot like a girl who wants to offer her shoulder for me to cry on. Go ahead. I won't mind if your hands start to wander."
“Cool your jets,” I tell him, suppressing a laugh. “I’m serious. This can’t be easy on you.”
“What? Investigating a murder after a maniac came at me and tried to kill me? A maniac I used to think of as a friend?”
“Yeah, all of that.”
Cosmo stops flying, hovering in place, and I stop in front of him.
“I can’t stop to think about the past,” he says firmly, being serious for once. “I would rather not talk about it.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to open closed wounds.”
“Considering the wounds aren’t closed…” He shrugs one shoulder.
“Your wounds are all healed, aren’t they?”
"The physical ones? Yes. I'm scarred, but I mean… I'm not mental or anything, but…"
“No, I know what you mean. I sometimes wake up in a cold sweat. I know I’ve had a nightmare, but I can’t remember it, but I’m pretty sure… I think they’re nightmares about when Thistle came at me. It’s so hard.”
“You like to investigate all of the crimes committed on campus.” He juts his chin toward me. “Do you have any thoughts on this?”
I laugh. “Not yet. Don’t tell your boss, okay? But I wouldn’t mind looking into things. Professor Luna was one of the good ones. I hate that she’s been killed. Her murderer… has to be found.”
I almost slipped up and said murderer or murderers, but I caught myself in time. It wouldn’t be the end of the world for the guards to know that detail. In fact, maybe I should offer it, but I just know that’ll make everyone think Bay and her demon boyfriend.
“Is there anything I can do to help the investigation?” I ask eagerly.
“To be honest, there’s not a whole lot we have to go on,” Cosmo says. “We’re stuck. We can’t figure out a motive. She didn’t have any enemies. There’s nothing to point at any one person.”
“What about any two persons?” I whisper.
He eyes me suspiciously. “Do you have reason to think the killer didn’t work alone?”
“I don’t know. I’m just spitballing here.”
Cosmo laughs. “Swallow or spit? Do you spit? You do know that guys prefer—”
“Cosmo.”
“Yes?”
“I have Bay for a sister. If I want to learn about what guys prefer, I’m pretty sure she can fill in any blanks that I have.”
“Oh, there’s no doubting that,” Cosmo says smoothly, “but, as they say, practice makes perfect, and if you want someone to practice on…”
I burst out laughing. "Thanks, but no thanks. I don't really think I'm a one-night kind of gal."
"There's the beauty of practice. It's not just once and done. And I'm not a one-and-done kind of guy. You should ask your sister about it."
I furrow my brow. “You two…”
“Once or twice. Normally after she had a bit to drink. I should say after we both had a lot to drink. A lot a lot. But she never regretted it in the morning. I didn’t either.” Pain flickers over his features for a moment before he gives me his lazy grin again.
“Cosmo?”
“Yeah, Rosemary?”
“Would you tell me if you loved Bay?”
"Of course I love her. She's a great fairy. Beautiful. So damn hot. I didn't think she could get any hotter, but those dark wings, her black hair with the purple… Fuck me, she's amazing."
"So, you don't love her."
“Only lust, baby. Hate to break it to you, but Cosmo here…” He points his thumbs at himself. “I don’t do love.”
“Hmm,” I say. “You can go ahead and lie to yourself, but—”
“Rosemary, please.” A look of desperation crosses his face. “Don’t play like this.”
“I won’t tell Bay—”
"No. I mean, don't let Zoth know, okay?"
I bite my lower lip. “He scares you? I wouldn’t have thought—”
“I don’t scare easily, but that guy… There’s something about Zoth that I just don’t like.”
“Do you think it’s because he’s a demon?” I ask.
“No.” Cosmo laughs, his body relaxing some from being all uptight. “Some of my friends are demons. I have nothing against the race in and of itself, but there are light fairies and dark fairies, you know? Not all demons are killer dark. You know what I’m saying?”
“That makes sense.”
“You know, demons don’t need a motive for some of the shit they pull,” Cosmo says slowly. “Has Zoth ever been on campus?”
“Not that I know of.”
Cosmo goes to turn. “You’re going to be late.”
I grab his arm. “Cosmo, don’t go after Zoth.”
“If he’s the—”
“He’s not,” I say in a rush.
“How do you know that?” he asks suspiciously.
“For Bay’s sake, don’t go after him.”
“If we find proof—”
“If you find proof, fine. Nail his ass, but only if you have proof. Don’t even question him until you have it.”
“You’re worried he’ll hurt Bay, aren’t you? You aren’t convinced he didn’t kill the professor.”
I hesitate. “I don’t think he did, but I don’t know Zoth. I don’t know what he’s capable of. Bay knows him, and I trust her judgment.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t trust my own judgment or hers for that matter. You saw through Spring and Thistle.”
“I didn’t see through Thistle. He gave himself away,” I protest.
“Yeah, well, Bay didn’t see what they were capable of. She could be blind again. We can’t not consider him just because we don’t want her upset.”
"We don't want her in the crosshairs. If Zoth did kill Professor Luna, he'll be ready to kill again. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if she got hurt because we went after him. Fire and brimstone, he might hurt her even if he isn't the killer just because we suspect him!"
“If he’s the killer, we have to find out, for her sake. Even if he isn’t, if he would hurt her for us suspecting him, she’s already in danger.”
I swallow hard. “Maybe I’ve been looking at this from the wrong angle,” I say slowly.
“What angle?”
“For her sake, I believed Bay. I thought she would never be with a killer, so I wanted to prove Zoth was innocent. So many blame Damon, and I want to prove him innocent too. But…”
“Rosemary, I know you don’t want to hear it, but everyone is on the table until we find the motive and can rule people out.”
“How was she killed? Where? What time?” I blurt out. “Can’t we rule out people based on the timing of the murder?”
“We don’t know when exactly she was killed. As for how and where…” Cosmo grimaces. “We haven’t released those details to the public.”
“I won’t tell…” I can’t finish.
Cosmo shakes his head. “I can’t tell you that.”
My heart sinks, and I swallow hard. “Does that mean I’m a suspect?”
“Everyone is on the table,” he repeats softly.
My heart skips a beat, and my chest physically hurts.
“After all, as near of a window as we have, you were missing,” he adds.
Chapter 25
“I can explain that!” I blurt out.
“Not right now. You have class.” Cosmo starts to fly off.
But I stay put. “I want you to know what I was doing.”
He flies back and grabs my arm gently by the elbow and guides me back to flying. “You need t
o get to class.”
“I know, but—”
“You aren’t really on the suspect list.”
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t think I did it. I want everyone to know I didn’t do it.”
“You don’t—”
“Whoever in the department does telepathy can do it on me,” I blurt out.
He lifts his eyebrows. “You don’t have to.”
“I know, but I want to.”
Cosmo chuckles. “You’re a bit forceful when you want to be. No wonder Damon likes you so much.”
“You know Damon?”
“We’ve talked a few times. He thinks a lot of you.”
“I know,” I murmur.
“If you won’t take a turn in the hay with me, do it with him at least once.”
“My sex life is not on the table for the telepathy.”
“For the last time, we aren’t going to use telepathy on you.”
“Why not?” I ask.
“Just because we can’t rule anyone out doesn’t mean we don’t have lists for who we’re more strongly considering.”
“Still. Just hear me out, please? I went to the human realm.”
Cosmo stops us. “Why?”
“I was hurting. I got into fights with everyone I cared about most and then Zoth too, and I had to get away. The worst part of all was that I tried to help save a kid from drowning, but he died anyhow.”
“You didn’t reveal yourself, did you?”
“I didn’t, but I wish I did. If I had, he would still be alive. Cosmo, he was so young, so little, his body so tiny, and I got him out of the water, but it was for nothing. Nothing at all.”
“Rosemary, it wasn’t for nothing. You got him out of the water. His mother could hug him, hold him, bury him. She could do all of that only because of you. Yes, magic might have been able to save him, but if you weren’t there, the water might’ve carried his body so far that he couldn’t be recovered from the waves. Or maybe an animal would’ve gotten to him.”
I wince, flinching hard enough that his grasp on my elbow is released.
“You did make a difference, Rosemary. And that’s why I wanted to become a guard here. I know Bracken sees this post as a means to an end, but I want to stay here. I want to keep the academy safe, and that’s because of you finding Thistle. You helped to ensure my would-be murderer ended up in prison, and that made an impact on me. Thank you.”
Tears fill my eyes. “But I wanted to save him,” I murmur.
“Not everyone can be saved.”
We’re silent for the rest of the flight over. He’s given me so much to think about, both good and bad.
After classes, I call up the boys for a three-way conversation. Texting gets old.
“Do you guys have any ideas about the motive for the murder?” I ask.
“There are too many questions,” Sage says.
“Maybe someone from her past,” Damon suggests. “A past student, maybe? An old flame?”
“Is she married?” I ask.
“Was she,” Sage corrects gently.
“I keep doing that.” I grimace.
“Me too,” Damon says.
“We need to look into her past,” I say. “Learn about her family, her friends. Her coworkers. Any romantic partners. All of that.”
“We can do that,” Damon says.
“We might as well. We aren’t getting anywhere with the guards,” Sage admits.
“They are keeping close-lipped about where and how. Do you think there’s a reason for their secrecy?” I ask.
“Maybe they’re afraid that there will be a copycat murder,” Damon says.
“A copycat murder?” I ask, confused.
Damon laughs. "For once, I know something the great detective doesn't. Sometimes, a crime can inspire someone else to commit a similar crime."
“Oh. Yeah, that’s the last thing we need.” I shudder.
“At least there’s only been one murder this time around,” Sage points out.
“Yes, but I do know that some serial killers will have a quiet period between kills, and sometimes, that quiet period can last for years before they’ll strike again.” I nod slowly. “Okay, you research her past. I’ll go talk to someone in the front office. Maybe I’ll be able to get something out of her since the guards are so mum.”
We talk a bit more, a little bit of teasing and flirting, and then I hang up. I catch myself smiling until I look in the direction of Bay’s room. She hasn’t come back since our fight. I’ve tried calling and texting, but she won’t answer or respond. I’m so worried I lost her. What if she’s in danger because of me?
“Don’t worry, Bay,” I murmur even though I’m alone in my room. “I’ll find a way to protect you even if I have to protect you from yourself.”
Raine doesn’t seem the happiest as I approach her, and I can’t blame her. Things are not going well for Light Fae Academy, and they haven’t for periods the past two years as well.
“Ever since you and your twin showed up, we’ve had so many crimes happen on campus,” she grumbles.
“We aren’t to blame,” I protest.
“Yes, well, maybe not, but you can’t ignore the fact that for centuries, we never had one issue…”
“Not any issues?” I press.
She purses her lips at me. “Why are you here, Rosemary? I have a lot of work to do and—”
“Oh, I promise I won’t keep you. You do know that despite all of those crimes that have been happening, I helped to find the perpetrators, right?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean you will this time. The guards and the police are working together to ensure there won’t be any more murders or any crimes at all.”
“Yes, that’s good and fine and all, but they haven’t gotten anywhere, have they? There hasn’t been a second murder, true, but is that because of their presence or the curfew?”
“Both, and I don’t see an issue with either, so…”
I clasp my hands in front of her and give her a big smile. “Raine, I’m just curious. Do you think that murderer was someone on campus?”
She smiles right back at me, both grins a bit sardonic. “I don’t even know if the murder took place on academy soil.”
“True, but don’t you think that it’s most likely someone who knew Professor Luna? A student? Maybe not even a current student, but one from years past?”
“Oh, I doubt that,” Raine protests.
“Why? Because of your screening process? You wouldn’t have thought Spring or Thistle would become criminals or else you wouldn’t have allowed them to attend here in the first place, right? If you were wrong about them, then you could have been wrong about another student, whether now or past.”
Raine bites her lower lip. “I allowed Spring to come here because I believed the guards were going to keep a close watch over her. She had issues at another school.”
"I think I heard about that, no specifics, though."
“The specifics are not your concern, but the guards, well, they failed me, and as you may or may not know, the vast majority of them were let go after your first year.”
“And Thistle?”
Raine heaves a sigh. “Thistle was a troubled sort, yes, but I saw good in him. I saw his capacity for love. What I did not see was just how much darkness he had in him that could overwhelm and overpower the light. Be that as it may, the mistakes of the others aside, I truly must insist that this could not have been the work of a student, not current or past. Before you can question me on this point, I have been at this post for over one-hundred and fifty years. Spring and Thistle were the only two too ever commit crimes.”
I swallow back my thought.
She narrows her eyes. “You think I have lost my touch, don’t you?”
I give a big, old smile because I can’t lie.
Raine flares her nostrils. “I will not deny that I have made judgment calls in the past about students that others might have turned aside, but in each of those cases,
those fairies rose to the occasion and changed their lives around. They are doctors or nurses or other respectable professions. They make a difference in our world. Not all who have darkness in them are evil, and I thought you would know that.”
“Because of the darkness in my sister.” I grimace.
“Because of the darkness inside yourself,” she says simply. “We all have dark and light.”
I nod, unable to speak. As many times as I’ve shared that sentiment, I’ve never truly ascribed it to myself.
“Could it…” I clear my throat. “Could it have been a teacher then? A guard?”
“My dear, if I knew or had a suspect in mind, I would have shared that already with the police and the security guards.”
“Of course. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”
“No, no, Rosemary. It wasn’t a waste of time. Not if I could set your mind at ease. Did I some?”
“Maybe a little.”
Raine gives me a smile, the first one to be genuine. "I know times are troubling now, but you do not have to worry. The culprit will be found, and peace will be restored here. I'm certain of it."
I smile and nod before flying away, and I hope, I so desperately hope, that she’s right.
Chapter 26
Like every night, I can’t sleep. My mind is crippling me, and I can’t help wondering and worrying that Bay is involved somehow. There has to be a way for me to prove her innocence so that the entire world can know that she wouldn’t commit such a terrible, hateful act.
But as much as I think that Bay isn’t involved, I’m wondering more and more if Zoth is. Raine’s convinced a student didn’t do this. Zoth isn’t a student.
How can I get close to him, though?
For the longest time, what has Bay been begging me for?
A double date.
I grab my phone. The numbers glow in the darkness. It’s late, very late, but I know just who to text. He might be up yet.
Not Sage. He’ll never be able to act the part because of his hatred of demons.
Damon.
Although I do send Sage a text to not freak out, that it’s just a ploy to try to trap Zoth. I do not want him to hear about this from Damon.
Light Fae Academy: Year Three Page 12
