by Kelly Ethan
With no answer forthcoming, she sighed and went back to her reading. “The clan’s matriarch is Marjorie. Previous heir was Melinda, who left with a mate of questionable origins. Current heir is Adelind, mate Ronald, and one female offspring.” Female offspring was Es, moody teenager. Xandie mused the problem over. “Priss froze at the bakery when she spotted the teenager. Plus, she’d said her father always told her a good dragon was a dead dragon.” Did Priss have an inherited grudge against dragons?
“Doesn’t clear her name. It adds more questions.” She needed details and murder girl wasn’t divulging any tidbits. Still thinking things through, she bustled around, cleaning and adjusting books on shelves. She checked the appointment book for any requests. Then she raced through the pile of notes, writing appointments and copying information. Books and scrolls jiggled and bounced in the shelves as an industrious Xandie cleared her desk.
Reaching the final note, she read it twice before speaking. “Seriously? You couldn’t have brought this to my attention earlier?” The lights overhead flickered furiously. “Sorry, sorry.” She held a hand up. “My bad.” She turned her attention to the note. “Archibald Penne requests an updated report on his family tree.” Why investigate your own family tree? “Unless someone had new information and he’d wanted to verify it before going to the old battleax, Marjorie Penne.” Archibald argued with both women. But Priss had a sword and a father who hated dragons. Xandie had an idea what her new friend hid.
Sliding the request between two pages in the dragon text, she re-shelved it. She still needed more concrete material evidence.
But first task, tackle hormonal supernatural teenagers and the exhausted staff of the academy. Priss had a job there. Surely the school had a record of her details? Now all Xandie had to do was figure out how she could acquire it.
Point Muse, never dull.
Five
“Point Muse Academy, the red brick educational black hole, where hormonal mini-adults go to stagnate,” Es Penne intoned in a macabre voice-over as she gave Xandie a tour of the school.
Was it luck or fate when the office picked the dragon for the tour? “I take it you’re not a fan of the academy”
Es hunched her shoulders and toyed with a silver-streaked lock of black hair. “It’s okay, at least I’m away from the parents.”
Moody teen with parents who don’t understand, a teenage cliché. Xandie hadn’t realized she’d spoken the words aloud until Es snickered.
“Mostly I stay with my grandmother. Can’t stand my parents sniping at each other or my dad’s social sucking up. He’d do anything to be the center of society.”
“My father’s the same, except in Andrews, and he’s a human librarian, not a dragon.” Maybe she’d underestimated the sulky teen. Es had her own valid reasons to not care. “Is your grandmother hard to live with? I heard she could be difficult.”
Es burst into a full belly laugh. Wiping her eyes, she took a deep breath and paused at the open gym doors. “Yeah, she’s got a rep for being cranky, but we get on well. The old girl’s got life in her yet and she doesn’t care about other people’s opinions.” Es waved Xandie into the gym. “This is the academy’s pride and joy. My father donated the money for it. Aren’t I a special snowflake?”
Xandie stared. Nothing like this in Andrews where she’d gone to school. A large gymnasium, complete with three full-size basketball courts, an indoor track, wrestling facility and a fencing room were on offer. The students even had access to strength training equipment and cardio machines.
“Over the top. That’s Ronald Penne for you.”
“If he’s your father, shouldn’t he have a different name?”
Es lead Xandie over to the fencing room. “Not if you’re from a socially non-existent family and get the Penne heir pregnant. Then you drop your own name and become a fake Penne. Told you, my dad’s about social climbing.”
Didn’t sound as if Es liked good old dad much. Xandie wondered what Adelind, her mom, was like? She’d spotted Ronald at the gallery on the night of Archibald’s murder, but the heir hadn’t appeared. She stepped into the fencing room, Priss Makepeace’s current working space. “So, Ms. Makepeace is filling in for your old fencing instructor?”
Es leaned against a wall. “Yeah, for the last few weeks. Not much longer though, I guess.”
“Because of your cousin’s murder?”
“Archibald’s okay, but he was like my father. Always looking for a way up and a quick buck. I’m not surprised someone took him out, just that it was Ms. Makepeace.”
“Why? You don’t think she could kill anyone?”
The teenager’s answer interested Xandie, since Priss hated dragons so much.
“Oh, no.” Es shook her head and her choppy bangs settled back into place. “She could kill someone with that sword. You should see her train.” The teenager waved at the floors. “We have thick martial arts mats and a special sprung hardwood floor that helps absorb shock. When she trains, she’s focused, lethal. If she would kill anyone, it would be with a sword. I can’t see her doing it with poison.”
“Poison killed him? What kind?”
The dragon bit her lip and averted her eyes. “I heard a rumor, no clue if it’s right. My parents won’t tell me, and my grandmother doesn’t want to worry me.”
Dragon white lie. Xandie changed the subject. “How’s Ms. Makepeace as a teacher?”
“I love the slicing and dicing with the swords. Makepeace is strict, but she doesn’t play favorites. That’s rare here.” Es shrugged, noncommittal teenager. “But I’m not sure she’s comfortable teaching super kids. She’s kinda uptight. She doesn’t do much with me, but I’m used to it. Not many people like the Penne clan.”
The teenager appeared to enjoy the outsider role. “Thanks for the tour. Could you take me to the office? This campus is big enough I’ll get lost.” Xandie smiled at the dragon who heaved a sigh and led Xandie out of the room. Turning left, she clomped a few steps further and turned left again before coming to a stop outside a frosted glass door. “This is the side entrance. The front door’s closed because most the staff is at lunch. Take a seat. The receptionist won’t be long.” She took a few steps and then turned. “The teachers and the office staff are in the break room. If they see you in reception, they’ll pop back in.” The teenager whistled for a moment. “If someone was digging for dirt on staff and they were quiet, the receptionist wouldn’t realize they were there.” She winked at Xandie and stomped out of sight, moody dragon hair swinging behind her.
“Sneaky teenager.” Xandie slipped inside. A glossy wooden bench divided reception from the waiting area. Two desks were behind the bench with silver filing cabinets next to them. Frosted doors on either side of the desks faced the wooden bench. And both doors were closed. Xandie squinted and made out two body outlines. The receptionists breaking for lunch.
She slid behind the bench and opened a filing cabinet, rifling through the papers, but none of them were staff. She abandoned the first cabinet and moved to the second. This was harder as it was closer to the lunchroom.
Xandie eased the drawer out and skimmed through the files. She’d hit the jackpot, the staff files. She thumbed through until she hit Makepeace.
“You know, Ms. Meyers, I’d have given you any information if you’d asked. There’s no need for surreptitious behavior.” A statuesque woman with flowing blonde ringlets towered over Xandie’s five-feet-five height.
When in doubt, bluff it out. Xandie frowned and tapped the folder. “I’m disappointed to see the records in such disarray. And have you heard it’s the digital age? These could be a fire hazard.”
The blonde goddess trilled a laugh. “My goodness, so brazen. I adore you, Alexandra Meyers, and can see why the library picked you.” The blonde Amazon slid the file out of Xandie’s hand and gave it a fleeting glance before dumping it on a cabinet.
Busted. “Thank you. And you are?” Please don’t work here, she chanted mentally.
�
��I’m one of three head mistresses. I’m Melissa Syne and I’m thrilled to meet you.”
Thrilled? Xandie called tall-tale and decided on a blunt attack. “Why are you thrilled? I’m stealing staff files from you.”
The woman pointed to the purloined paperwork. “This? There’s been a misunderstanding. It’s not stealing when it’s gifted.” She placed the folder into Xandie’s sweaty hands.
Xandie sagged against the filing cabinet. All her thieving adrenaline dissipated in the face of too much sweetness. “Okay, what gives?”
“It devastated us when we lost Sera, but we rejoiced when you accepted your family duties.”
“Why is the boss of the academy concerned with what I do?”
“The Great Library was dedicated to the goddesses of the arts. The nine muses. I’m a descendent, as are my two sisters, who run the school with me. Calliope and Clio.” She leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “I’m better equipped to handle teenagers since I’m descended from the muse of tragedy but don’t tell my sisters that.” She straightened. “That information needs to be back by the start of the day tomorrow. Do we understand each other, librarian?”
Xandie nodded mutely.
The muse clapped her hands. “Wonderful. Now, we have career day coming up and we’d love to have you talk about working as the librarian. We’ll arrange that later. Goodbye, Alexandra.” She propelled Xandie out.
What just happened? Had she met a groupie? Xandie walked determinedly out. She needed to see if her cousins had found any information on Archibald’s cause of death. They could go over the school file together. Three heads were better for solving a murder.
Lila wiped her sweaty face and heaved in a shuddering breath. “It was horrible. You should have seen her. She fawned over the guy while he cut into Archibald’s chest. Holly had to wipe drool off her chin. I puked, and she drooled. I’m shocked at her priorities. Just shocked. Today’s youth are so desensitized.”
The cousins gathered in Lila’s apartment as Harrow House had too many busybodies and Theo was bathing Horatio, the imp. No one wanted to bear witness to a naked imp.
“I’m two weeks younger than Xandie and four weeks younger than you.”
“Exactly. The younger generation.” Lila nodded sagely.
Holly responded by pegging a French fry at her cousin’s round face.
Lila retaliated with her own food bomb.
Xandie snatched the food before all the delicious oily takeout ended up as missiles. “Besides blood, puke and drool, did you find anything else?”
“My area of expertise.” Holly picked a fry out of her hair and munched. “Someone poisoned Archie. I can’t identify it yet since it’s only a partial sample.”
Xandie groaned. “That’s frustrating.”
Lila kneeled next to her cousin. “Are you sure she’s innocent? Really sure?”
Xandie remembered the remorse in Priss’s face after the gnome incident. The sadness and dejection when questioned in her holding cell. “I’m sure. The woman’s hiding a secret, but she didn’t do it.”
“Well, alright then. That’s all I need. Let’s read her file and see what we can find out?” Lila handed the contents out to everyone.
Dead silence reigned as the three women read through Priss Makepeace’s life.
“That was so boring.” Lila threw her part on the floor. “Slayer girl has been a fencing instructor for four years. Taught at private colleges in Massachusetts and volunteered at a sporting club for under-privileged sorcerer teenagers. She’s a saint.”
“Athletic more than saint,” Holly corrected Lila. “She holds national records for fencing as a junior. But once she hit eighteen, she disappeared from competition. Appears again five years later. I wonder why she disappeared?”
“Her father died.” Xandie flapped her sheet of paper. “The school ran a check. They had trouble getting history on her family, especially her father, Simon, because they moved so often. But when Priscilla Makepeace turned eighteen, her father died. Officials recorded his death as a work-related accident, but it’s vague. I think she went to ground, trained and popped back up as a fencing coach.”
“Wow, that’s traumatic.” Holly teared.
“But there’s something else. Priss told me the academy reached out to her when the permanent instructor went on maternity leave.”
“And?” Lila demanded.
“That’s a lie. She reached out to them and offered her services. At the exact same time the instructor left on early maternity leave.”
Lila pursed her lips. “She paid the other instructor to disappear?”
“Yeah. But why?” Xandie dropped the papers on the chair next to her.
“What about the library?”
“It keeps showing me the same dragon clan migration information. The chapter on the Penne’s mentions the heir Adelind and her mate, Ronald. Hang on.” Xandie snapped her fingers. “It did mention a missing heir, Melinda Penne, who ran off with a guy of questionable origins.”
“What does questionable origins mean?”
“It means he was a dragon slayer.” Priss stood in the doorway of Lila’s apartment.
Xandie, Lila and Holly spun about.
“And Melinda Penne was my mother.”
Six
“The twin cops released me on bail this afternoon. I wandered for a while. Then saw the lights on over the bakery. Thought I’d see if you were here.” Priss stepped inside.
Xandie peered out the window. Without them realizing, the sun had set while they were going over their evidence.
“Aren’t you the only suspect? Why did the cops let you out?” Lila frowned.
She shrugged. “They only took me in for questioning and they found another print on the poison bottle. They aren’t one hundred percent sure I’m the murderer now. They’re still investigating. I’m free for now, but not off the hook. And I need your help.” She shuffled from foot to foot.
Holly threw a cushion. “For God’s sake, sit and let the baker feed you.”
Priss took a single armchair as Lila jumped up and bustled into the kitchen. She leaned forward. “I’m sorry for not telling the truth, but my life’s complicated.”
Xandie snorted. “That’s an understatement. But at least the library isn’t on the fritz. The dragon book it shoved at me mentioned Melinda as a missing heir.”
“Not missing, banished. My mom fell in love with a slayer. My father, Simon Makepeace. She tried telling her mother, but Marjorie Penne wouldn’t listen. Even her own sisters, Adelind and Belle, turned against her. Adelind’s mate Ronald passed on a letter from her mother detailing her banishment.” She paused when Lila dumped a large meat and salad sandwich in front of her, along with a glass of milk.
“Eat first. Talk later.” She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for Priss to consume her food before she sat.
Priss drained her milk after she finished the sandwich. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
Lila motioned for her to continue her story.
“Ronald broke protocol and gave my parents money. He apologized, and that was the last time my mom saw her family.”
“The library’s never wrong. The information mentioned missing, not banished. Are you sure you have it right?”
Priss drew crumpled paper from her pocket. “This is the letter. It’s my only proof except for my birth certificate and my parents’ marriage certificate. But the rest is at my place. I’m renting at Hazel’s bed-and-breakfast on Elm Street.”
Xandie grabbed the letter and smoothed it out. It was a handwritten diatribe about Melinda’s mate, his dragon-slaying lifestyle, and how the family head refused to countenance such a mate in the family. She’d never allow Melinda and Simon under her roof. Even banished her own daughter and refused to see her again. “Wow, harsh. No way to misunderstand those words. Surely when your mom had you, Marjorie changed her mind?”
“Not that I ever heard. My father said once a dragon’s mind was made up, there was l
ittle anyone could do to change it. Not even with the tip of a sword.”
“Your dad wasn’t much of a charmer.”
“No.” Priss offered a watery smile. “My mother’s death ripped a hole inside him. He functioned and took care of me, but he lived and breathed revenge against the dragons. Any dragon. Most of what I learned came from textbooks I hid away from him. As far as the books go, they state dragons are only compatible with other dragons. Human hybrids don’t exist.”
“Yet clearly you do.” Holly sniffed and dismissed the letter. “Nothing wrong with hybrids. We’re extra special; it just takes time for us to find our own way. You have any dragon woo-woo?”
“I can make claws.” She held fingers up and concentrated. Sharp silver talons slid out from the tips of her fingers. “And I don’t get sick, ever. I guess I have dragon immunity, but nothing else so far.”
“Rewind. Did your mother even tell Marjorie about you?” Lila arched an eyebrow.
“She was on her way to force her mom to acknowledge me when she collided with a crop duster, outside of town. Both her and the pilot died. That wasn’t too long after I was born.”
“Point Muse doesn’t have crops, so why have a crop duster buzzing overhead?” Lila frowned.
“The investigation into the pilot’s death stated he was off course. They suspected he’d been drinking.” She stared at her hands. “My dad returned to dragon slaying. He died when I was eighteen. I became a fencing instructor, but I swore I’d get even with my mom’s family.”
“That’s not helping your murder suspect status. Hang on...” Xandie narrowed her gaze. “You’re behind the missing artifacts, aren’t you? There’s a rumor the Pennes had stolen and hoarded them.”
“Tried to frame them, but the police never moved against the Pennes. I even snuck into her hoard. But it didn’t work. Instead, the cops took me in for questioning.” She dropped her head into her hands and moaned. “Everything’s such a mess.”
