by R K Dreaming
“That changed after he met his beloved Dianthe.”
“Dianthe? Goddess, men just can’t keep it in their pants.” Then she shook her head. “No, I don’t believe it. Rodan would never do all that for just one water sprite.”
“Not a sprite. A half-fae. His own daughter.”
Her eyes opened wide, and then she gave a bitter little laugh. It was as if she finally understood.
“The bastard!” she whispered. “He thought he could steal from me just so he could have the family he always wanted.” She held out her hand. “Give me the key.”
“Why? It’s not worth a single penny to anyone but Dianthe. It’s not like you can sell it to get the money back.”
Realising this was true, she dropped her hand.
“Do you know where this Dianthe is?” she said. “Maybe I’ll sell her back to the fae.”
I did not bother to disguise my disgust.
“How did you know it was me?” she asked, her voice hard now, the sweet breathy tone gone.
I was exhilarated. I was so close to the truth I could almost smell it.
“Because you lied. You said you didn’t care about a safe deposit key, and yet here you are tearing this place apart for it.”
She shrugged. “Rodan gave me a key to his house. I have every right to be here. I just wanted to feel close to him. He was my friend. I am sure the police will understand.”
“Nice try,” I said. “But will they still think you’re little Miss Innocent when they find out you were married to the criminal Troy Mockingbird?”
“What marriage?” she said. “One you claim a dead spirit told you about? You on the other hand are trespassing. I arrived here to find you tearing the place apart, destroying evidence. I wonder what the police will make of that. They don’t like you much, do they? No surprise, given your recent criminal activities. No wonder you’ve gone off the rails. Poor little sanguith who saw her mother murdered. Is that why you staged these murders to make it look like The Reaper did it?”
“There’ll be a marriage record somewhere,” I said. “Witnesses.”
“But it was so long ago. And they would have to look so very hard. I doubt they would bother. And even if they did, I married a brute. He was a terrible man. It was all I could do to escape from him with my life. You said it yourself. And of course I hid the marriage. I was so ashamed of him and what he did. It would have ruined my new life and my new business. People will understand.”
“You’ve been so clever,” I said.
She took a step towards me. “You’ve been suspicious of me from the start. How did you really know it was me? I have to know.”
“Because you did love him,” I said. “Corkmony. I’ve been wondering about that. Such an ugly name for a woman like you to choose for herself. And then I saw the placeholder at the ball with your name on it, and it popped into my head. Bridgit Corkmony. An anagram for Troy Mockingbird.”
She smiled now, as if pleased someone knew.
“Even while separated,” I said, “you couldn’t bear to not keep his name. You still loved him. So what happened? It was his death that sparked all this, wasn’t it? Something went wrong with whatever you two were doing, and it enraged you, and you killed Rodan for it. Marilyn was just your ploy to cover it all up. A beautiful woman who was the perfect Reaper victim.”
Bridgit gave a little laugh. “Very clever.”
“Did Troy tell you to come to Brimstone Bay and get cosy with the Trade Minister?” I said. “And to get into business with Rodan Hale who had all those Magicwild contacts? You weren’t helping those sprites, were you? You were trafficking them. Selling them to the highest bidder. And Rodan didn’t even know.”
“The poor sap had no idea,” she said.
“So it was all for greed,” I said bitterly.
“It was for love!” she spat out. “You think Troy was free? He would never have left me! He was abducted by that gang. We’d trespassed onto their territory with our smuggling operation, you see. They snatched him as vengeance. And I had to keep working, or they were going to kill Troy. So I did what I had to.”
“But then he got killed and you went off the rails.”
“It was Rodan who got him killed,” she screamed, tears of rage pouring down her cheeks. “I didn’t know how. I just knew it was his fault. One of the gang escaped. He came to me, said the fae had sent killers. Said I’d have to give him money or he would lead them right to me. But when I checked my savings, all the money was gone!”
“Did you kill him too?”
“Naturally. It was easy. A few tears, a little flirtation, a little feeding, and it was over. He was a fool. He deserved to die.”
“And it was you who sent me that warning in the card? With the coin?”
“To scare you off. Didn’t work though it seems, because here you are.”
“I’m not a coward.”
“No. Just stupid.” She smiled suddenly. “Because here you are. In my power.”
She was standing between me and the door. And she was a succubus. I felt a thrill of unease.
I knew I should call for Charming, but I had to know one more thing.
“How do you know the Reaper?” I asked her coldly.
“Troy knew him. I didn’t. He stole the coin years ago. Troy was always a little bit of a klepto like that. I told him it would get us into trouble. But in the end it came in useful. I sent it to you to confuse you, put you off my scent. Thought it would terrify you. You should have heeded my warning.”
My racing pulse eased. She hadn’t known the coin was Charming’s. It had just been a bluff.
“You’re heartless.” I said bitterly. “Marilyn did nothing to you.”
“Rodan got my husband killed,” she snarled. “My life was over, and he stole from me. He was a dead man. Marilyn was just a convenient tool to put the police off my scent. And it’s worked.”
I nodded. “Thank you for admitting it.”
Bridgit laughs. “Oh you fool. You think you’re going to get out of here alive to tell the law? I think not.”
I opened my mouth to call for Charming, but she came at me faster than I thought possible. I could not even scream. Squeak went flapping away with a squawk just in time, because her hands had closed over the bare skin of my throat, squeezing. And she was shockingly strong.
But worse, I felt a horrible numbness on my skin where she touched me. An awful tingling, draining feeling like something essential was being pulled out of my very being.
Squeak was screaming.
I could not scream. I could not even cry out.
Don’t touch her Squeak, is what I thought. Don’t touch her!
“Die,” Bridgit hissed.
My knees gave in. I sagged into the desk and she bashed my head against its edge with shocking force.
Something rolled out of my pocket. From the corner of my eyes I saw a stunbommer. I had no time to question how it had got there. My hands scrambled for it in a panic.
I shoved it at Bridgit, but she saw it coming. She grappled with my hand, and I pressed the button too late. It was pointing the wrong way, but the magic ignited. The stunbomm flew at the mirror and bounced off, coming directly back at me. I wrenched myself away.
It hit Bridgit in the chest. She made a shocked grunting sound and slumped. The magic spread from her to me, frazzling me, making every cell in my body throb until my ears were ringing.
But she had got it worse than me.
Gasping, I wrenched myself out from under her knees.
I felt sluggish. Slow. My body reluctant to move. I had never been hit by a stunbomm before.
I could feel Bridgit moving beside me. Weakly, but she was moving. Her hand reached for mine. For my slack fingers. And she eased the stunbommer out of it.
I cried out a faint wail of panic. I could not let her touch me. I could not snatch the stunbommer back in case she used her Hunger.
I staggered heavily to my feet. I ran lumbering out of the door, half
falling down the stairs, Squeak flapping after me.
“Char—” I whispered hoarsely, but choked on the word.
Bridgit was at the top of the stairs. She didn’t run down. She was pointing something at me. Not a stunbommer, but a gun. There was a bang as she fired.
The bullet flew past my shoulder, ripping a line of fire into my flesh. I fell down the last few stairs. She came closer. She was right above me, aiming to kill.
And ahead of me the front door was opening. I crawled towards it. Charming was standing in the doorway. Charming was here. I screamed a warning, and jerked as a bullet blasted at me.
Charming’s hand rose almost in a blurry arc. He fired what looked like a crystal wand. It exploded into shards. The force of the magic flew over my back. I heard Bridgit hit the ground with a solid thunk.
And then Charming was helping me up to sitting position, checking me over for broken bones. I looked at her still form, and then at him in shock.
“Did it work?” I said. “Are you free?”
Chapter 26
SIGOURNEY
The next morning I awoke tired but too full of energy to rest. My shoulder hurt where the hospital had patched up my wounds, but I would recover.
Charming had promised we would talk today.
He had been eerily calm yesterday as he’d cleaned up Rodan’s house to leave no sign we had been there, then called the local police anonymously to tell them exactly who had killed Marilyn and Rodan, and where to find her.
He’d also given them the details of what had happened to Troy Mockingbird and the gang. No way were we going to let the slimy Polliver take credit for closing that case. I only wished I could have been there to see the look on his face when he found out he wasn’t getting his coveted chief position.
Charming had gone to bed as soon as we’d gotten back home. He had not chided me for walking into danger without him, or for interfering with catching Amelie’s killer.
There had been a curious gravitas about him, and I was impatient to talk to him, but when I stopped outside his bedroom door and called him very quietly, he did not respond.
I padded downstairs, not wanting to disturb him.
I checked my shoulder and the tattooed genie lamp was still there. I had an inkling of what this might mean, but wasn’t sure.
I found Squeak downstairs and she immediately flew onto my shoulder, as if we were long lost friends. I made breakfast for three, and she and I ate together, because Charming still had not come down.
“You think I should wake him Squeaky?” I asked.
She continued to peck at some cucumber.
“No, let him rest,” I decided.
Too impatient to stay still, I went to a nearby supermarket in search of cherries. I had returned home and finished baking the cupcakes by the time Charming came downstairs.
I was utterly relieved at the sight of him. For some reason, I had been afraid he might have vanished away in the middle of the night.
He eyed up the cakes in interest, though they were more lopsided than I’d hoped for.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Peace offering?” I said.
I finished drizzling the lemon icing on top of each one, and topped them with a fresh red cherry.
I nudged one towards him and he smiled. A little warm glow spread through my heart.
I couldn’t help but lean across and plant a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you for saving my life.”
He looked at me solemnly and said, “I’m trying really hard not to tell you off.”
“I know.”
“But it turned out you were right in the end,” he said softly. “Thank you, Sigourney.”
I swallowed the lump that had sprang up in my throat.
He picked up a cake and looked at the cherry. “You really did dream of my mother,” he said quietly. “These were my favourite.”
There was such a wistfulness about him that I just knew what he wasn’t saying.
I swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, Charming. It didn’t work, did it? Finding the killer didn’t set you free?”
He shook his head.
I was filled with such disappointment that I stuffed a cake in my mouth to stop the tears that were threatening to come to my eyes.
Charming ate his more slowly, savouring it. Then he ate two more. “These are good.”
“I’m sorry it didn’t work,” I said again.
He sighed, and dragged his hand through his dark hair. “I had so hoped it would…but it seemed like it would be too good to be true, and it was.”
“At least Amelie and Rodan are at peace now,” I said. “You brought them that.”
“You did,” he said.
I shook my head. “I messed up. She would have got away if you hadn’t come. And worse.”
His eyes darkened as they landed on the bandage on my shoulder. “I should have told you about that stunbommer,” he said.
“I don’t think it would have helped. But you did. I didn’t even summon you, but you came.” I looked at him questioningly.
For a moment back there I had been so terrified that I had messed everything up, and that it was all over for me, and the one thing I had thought of was not of Gaia or of The Reaper, but of Charming never being free.
“I really thought it was Garrett,” he said. “I was absolutely sure of it, especially when I found out he had been hiding his magic. But then…”
“But then you decided to trust the great oracle Sigourney Maltei?” I joked.
“Yes,” he said simply.
I stared at him in surprise. “Really?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know why. Garrett had even admitted to having an affair with Amelie, but something felt off. It turned out he’d hidden his magic because it gave him an edge over other people, including his wife.”
“A cheat in every sense,” I said in disgust. “Was he the one who leaked the news of the secret wedding to the press?”
He nodded. “To stir up trouble for the couple. He wanted Marilyn back.”
“Poor Noah.”
“The kid let himself be blinded by loyalty. He was the only one who knew about Garrett’s magic and had always helped Garrett keep it a secret.”
“Some repayment. And now Garrett gets away scot-free, his pristine Hollywood image intact.” This made me angry at the injustice of it all.
Charming shook his head, and held up a copy of the morning newspaper. “Not scot-free. The press found him and Noah brawling and screaming at each other after I left them. Looks like the secret is out. And it sounds like Garrett’s wife isn’t going to be so forgiving either.”
“Serves him right,” I said. “I hate when cheats get away with it. So what convinced you he wasn’t the killer in the end?”
“The realisation that Garrett had been right in front of your face. You would have seen it if he was The Reaper. Even if your powers are different now, I realised you would have seen it.”
I nodded solemnly. It meant a lot that he had chosen to trust me. My half-baked powers had done just enough for us, and I was immensely grateful to them.
“What shall we do now?” I said.
I meant about his being trapped, but he only said, “Take that key to Rodan’s daughter Dianthe. You know who she is, don’t you?”
I nodded, because I realised that I did. She had been right under my nose.
Rodan and I etherhopped to Bridgit Corkmony’s house. We needed to catch her secretary before the young woman disappeared.
She was apologetic as she answered the door, saying that Bridgit was not available.
“We didn’t come to see her,” I said. “We came to see you.”
“I was getting ready to leave,” she said guardedly.
She continued packing her box of belongings on her desk. She picked up a name plate that said Janey Andrews on it and dropped it into the box.
Squeak hopped over to her desk, and she stopped to pet her, saying softly, “Little darling.”
/> Squeak purred in sheer bliss, and the girl smiled.
“I’m sorry about your father,” I said.
She stiffened. Then turned to look at me, fear etched onto her fine features.
Features that I had never bothered to look at before. She didn’t look much like the photograph that had been on Rodan’s desk. She had to be wearing a glamour.
She took a step back from me and Rodan, looking like she was going to flee.
“No,” I said quickly. “We’re not here to harm you. We’re here to give you this. Rodan wanted you to have it.”
I held out my hand, showing her the silver key that Rodan had paid for with his life.
She looked at it in disbelief. Her breath came out in little gasps.
“But… I searched his house. It wasn’t there!”
“It was inside a hidden safe.”
She reached for it with trembling fingers, as if she dared not believe it was true, but stopped short. Tears poured down her cheeks. Her other hand went to the bulky scarf wrapped tightly around her throat and pulled it away, revealing that awful collar that I had once thought looked like a pretty tribal ornament. I flinched when I saw it.
It was my flinch that finally persuaded her that this was not a trick.
Her fingers closed over the silver disc in my palm. She clenched it tightly in her fist and, scrunching her eyes shut as if praying hard, she lifted it to touch the collar.
And that was all it took. The horrid thing around her throat simply disappeared into thin air. When she opened her clenched fist, the key was also gone.
Murmuring a cry of shock, she collapsed down onto her chair, touching the skin of her throat as if it was unreal. Then she buried her face in her hands. Her shoulders shook with sobs of utter relief.
Relief. An emotion I ached to feel. That I had wanted for so long.
I reached over to touch her hair. “It’s going to be okay.”
“My father…” she choked out.
“We’re so sorry for your loss. Rodan’s spirit clung on to this world because he was desperate to make sure that someone would help you. And he found me. He’s at peace now.”
