He stared at me, unblinking. “Then why are you the first to volunteer to go on midnight wolf hunts, trap leprechauns, or wrestle gargoyles in the front yard!”
“Hey, it’s not like I signed up for any of this stuff,” I argued, throwing my hands up. “You can’t make me out to be some kind of reckless thrill-seeker! I only get involved when I have to.”
“I’m not blaming you, Holly. It’s just that ever since you moved into the manor, things have been chaotic. There’s always something going on. At first, I’ll admit, I was drawn to it. To your spirit and the adventure. It reminded me … well, it reminded me of another time. But at the end of the day, I want something quiet. I want to work during the day, eat a nice dinner, go run the woods just for fun, not because there’s a shotgun-wielding lunatic chasing me down. On the weekends, I’d like to go to the movies or hang out at the beach, not break into vampire clubs or teach our friend how to be a werewolf.” He rubbed at the bridge of his nose, his eyes closed for a moment. “Maybe that’s disappointing to you, but it’s the truth.”
“Adam, we can have a normal life.” I reached out and took his hand, pulling it away from his face until he looked at me. “What I want doesn’t look all that different than what you do. Sure, I go into the haven now, but that’s just for business. I don’t want to live there. Not anymore. I’m sorry that I didn’t realize you were struggling with what happened with Sasha, but I promise, I’m not going to take any unnecessary risks and as long as my friends are safe, I’m not charging into danger.”
I smiled at him but he pulled his hand away.
He glanced down at the table. “I’ve been thinking about relocating.”
The words hit me like a sledgehammer.
“What? Relocating where? When?”
He met my gaze and I realized he was dead serious. “Too much has happened here. I want to leave the memories behind. I was hoping you would go with me. We could have a fresh start in a new town.”
“Adam, I … I don’t want to leave. This place is the closest thing to home that I’ve had since I left San Francisco.”
He held up one hand. “It’s not something we have to decide right now. I haven’t started making plans or anything, but it’s something I’d like you to consider.”
I sagged back against my chair. It felt like someone had knocked all the wind from my lungs.
Adam stood and carried his plate to the sink.
As I watched his back, a jolt of magic pulsed, like a sharp tap on the shoulder. “My trap,” I said. “Can we finish this conversation later?”
Adam clenched his jaw but managed a small nod. “Sure.”
I started to invite him but the words died before they reached the tip of my tongue and I hurried from the kitchen.
Chapter 12
“Holly!”
Nick was already on the front lawn when I stepped out onto the porch, stuffing my arms into my coat.
“It worked!” he said, pointing at the lawn gnome. A circle of light surrounded it, and encapsulated inside the glittering lights was the small—and irritated—leprechaun. Nick laughed. “I can’t believe it worked.”
I forced a smile. “You doubted my spellwork? I’m offended.”
“What do we do next?”
I looked past Nick to the nearby houses. They were a ways off, but a strange ball of light in the front yard might prove hard to explain if any of them were to notice. “Let’s take him to my greenhouse,” I said.
“Okay. Um, how do we do that?”
I lifted my hand, harnessed the power waiting for me, and waved my hand at the leprechaun. The gnome stayed put, but the capsule of light moved over the grass, so gently that not a blade was disturbed.
Once inside the greenhouse, I released the orb and it deposited the leprechaun onto my worktable with a soft plop. He crossed his arms and puffed out his red cheeks. “What’s the meaning of this?” he demanded.
I held up the square sticky notes. “These belong to you?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Hey! Where did you get those?”
“We found them in the woods. You were being a bit of a litterbug,” I replied.
The leprechaun shifted uncomfortably. Though, to be fair, that could have been the cold, hard table’s fault.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“I’m not telling.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, we’ll call you McGregor.”
“Why does everyone think that just because I’m a leprechaun means I must be Irish? It’s insulting. Stereotyping at its worst!”
Nick cocked his head. “You’re not Irish?”
The feisty leprechaun leveled him with a stare. “What are you, anyway? I can’t pick it up. Some kind of shifter?”
I steeled myself but Nick charged ahead. “How about this, I’ll tell you what I am if you give us your name.”
“Come on,” I said. “We all know getting your name isn’t some kind of trick to getting a magical wish or something. Just cooperate and you can get out of here, back to whatever it is you’re doing.”
Nick raised a finger. “But you need to find a new hobby. Leave the garden gnomes alone.”
“Yeah. What’s with that anyway?”
The leprechaun glared at us for a moment longer, then the harsh look faded and he blew out a puff of air. “Fine, fine.”
I wasn’t sure I believed him any farther than I could throw him—which, considering his stature, might actually be a ways. Regardless, he was a trickster and I’d learned long ago that with creatures like leprechauns, if their lips were moving, there was a good chance they were lying, or as they would put it, speaking in riddles too complicated for us more simple-minded beings.
“My name is Barnaby.”
I frowned. “That’s not Irish?”
“No. It’s English, thank you very much,” he countered, his tone testy. “You’re thinking Blarney. The stone.”
“Ahh. Right.”
“Huh.” Nick smiled. “Learn something new every day.”
Barnaby crossed his arms. “Can we get to the point here? I have better things to do than educate you two.”
Nick raised his eyebrows. He probably hadn’t been expecting the supernatural world to come with so much sass. He stepped forward and held up the sticky notes again. “We know you’re the one running the scavenger hunt around town.”
“In between gnome kidnapping,” I muttered.
“Now, these notes lead to a cabin in the woods and we want to know why.”
“I don’t know anything about those notes!” Barnaby insisted.
“So, they’re not yours?”
Barnaby glared. “Not those ones. I only had those because I ripped them down last night. Someone else is trying to horn in on my game!”
“Any idea who?”
He jerked his head back and forth, his lower lip protruding into an impressive pout. “It’s not fair! This is the one time of year we leprechauns get to let loose and have some fun and someone wants to steal my thunder!”
“We think these clues point to a cabin out in the woods. Were you out there last night looking for it?”
He hesitated, searching our faces for a moment. Finally, he sighed and dropped his arms, his chubby hands automatically clasping together in his lap. “They weren’t very good. The clues, I mean. Whoever wrote these obviously doesn’t have the skill of a leprechaun. We spend all year coming up with riddles. Those look like they were thrown together with absolutely no thought! It’s a disgrace!”
“What are the clues supposed to be for?” Nick asked.
“Long ago, we were free to romp and play. All the stories about us were true. We hid gold and left clues. When someone finally stumbled upon it, we had ways of seeing if they were worthy of the pot of treasure! We’d ask riddles and if they were right, they kept the gold. Sadly, those days are gone, now.”
“What happened?” Nick asked.
Barnaby shrugged his miniature shoulders. “We lost all the gold.”
<
br /> “Oh.” Nick glanced at me and I blinked. “I’m—uh, sorry to hear about that.”
“See, gold has no value in our society. We barter and trade with one another. The gold we’d found and collected was as disposable to us as an empty soda can is to your kind. We gave it away because it was fun! A game!
“Jeez, where were you guys a few years ago when someone ran my windshield through with a surfboard,” Nick said.
I smiled. “Only in California.”
“Something tells me you wouldn’t have been able to sort out the riddle,” Barnaby replied, dead serious.
Nick bristled. “Hey!”
Grinning, I patted his shoulder before shifting my attention back to Barnaby. “So, what are these clues leading people to, if not gold?”
“Trinkets, mostly. Occasionally some of their human money. We made an agreement that we would scale things down and only set out clues in the week leading up to St. Patrick’s Day.”
I nodded. “Makes sense.”
“Every leprechaun does their own game. As for me, I don’t particularly like talking to humans. I find them tiresome. Used to do rainbows, but that got too time consuming. Creating a rainbow takes a lot of energy. So I put my own spin on the trail of shamrocks.” He reached into his jacket and held up a pack of sticky notes. He wriggled his eyebrows. “Pretty clever, huh?”
“It’s obviously working,” I replied. “You’ve got the whole town buzzing about it. Everyone is keeping an eye out for one of those notes. That’s kind of the problem though. Someone else is using your strategy, but for nefarious reasons.”
Barnaby’s eyes narrowed again. “Nefarious! What are you trying to say?”
“The place these notes lead to is now a crime scene. Someone was shooting in the woods two nights ago and the next morning, the police located a body.”
“I don’t know anything about that!” Obviously flustered, Barnaby threw his hands in the air. “All I did was take the notes down so no one else could find them!”
“Where did you find them?”
The leprechaun dropped his eyes to his ankles, where a band of magic swirled, keeping him locked in place. “I’ll tell you, just as soon as you take off the cuffs. I’ve got bad circulation.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You think I’m that stupid?”
He crossed his arms again and glared at me. “You want to know where the notes came from, let me go.”
Nick inclined his head and with a sigh, I flicked my hands and released the bond from his ankles. He made a show of rolling them in circles as though he’d been cuffed for months, not a handful of minutes.
“Okay, come on, tell us where the—”
I caught the glint in his eyes a moment too late. With a snap of his fingers, an explosion of blue smoke filled the greenhouse. I couldn’t see Nick through the thick fog, but heard him sputter and cough.
Holding my breath, I stepped back and felt for the door handle. I shouldered the door open and hurried out into the cool night. “Nice try, Barnaby,” I said through gritted teeth, spotting the portly leprechaun barreling toward the tree line at the back of the property. With a sneer, I raised my hands and fired off a stunning spell without an ounce of remorse as he toppled over and yelped when he landed hard on the frost-covered ground.
Nick appeared at my side, eyes watering. “Nice shot,” he coughed.
“All I can say is that he better hope his little smoke bomb didn’t kill any of my plants or I’ll let Flurry carry him off to his nest!”
“Let me go!” Barnaby howled as we approached him. “You can’t keep me prisoner!”
“Oh, yeah?” I crossed my arms and scowled down at him writhing at my feet. “Pretty sure we could. But luckily for you, that’s not what we want.”
“That does sound like a lot of work,” Nick added, smiling over at me.
“Hold up your end of the deal and we’ll hold up ours. Tell us where you found the notes and we’ll let you go.”
“Argh!”
“Last chance, Barnaby.”
“Or else what?” he demanded, pumping his little fists as he struggled to break free of the spell completely.
I conjured a ball of magic and let it dance along my fingertips.
“Okay! Okay! I found the notes in the parking lot at the head of the hiking trail that goes along the bluff. They were stuck together all in a pile beside a real fancy looking sports car. I don’t know who left them, or where. All I know is they weren’t mine!”
Nick and I exchanged a quick glance and then I released the hold on the leprechaun.
Barnaby sprung up to his feet and dusted himself, growling something under his breath.
“One more thing,” Nick said, raising a finger. “What’s the thing with the lawn gnomes?”
Barnaby shrugged. “I just like them.”
“All right, we’ll make you a deal. We’ll let you keep playing your game, but you have to promise us, no more messing with the gnomes and if you see any of these imposter notes, you’ll bring them to us right away.”
Barnaby tucked his chin, fixating on his shiny black shoes as he thought it over.
Nick sighed and reached into his pocket and retrieved two shiny coins. Haven currency. The glittering coin automatically caught Barnaby’s eye and he flicked out and nabbed them from Nick’s hand. “Okay! You’ve got a deal!”
Without waiting, he jumped into the air, clicked his heels, and tore off into the woods.
I laughed. “How did you know that would work?”
“I figured they’re kind of like magpies. Anything shiny is irresistible.”
We stood at the edge of the woods a moment longer.
“You’re pretty good at the whole bartering thing,” I said, turning back toward the manor. Smoke still poured out of the greenhouse a few yards away. I’d have to leave it open for a little longer before closing it up for the night, shutting out the frost. I glanced over at Nick. “I should take you with me when I go to see Sasha.”
Nick reared back. “What? Since when are you going to see Sasha?”
“I haven’t figured it out yet, but I figure she’s the best chance we have at figuring out how to get you back to normal. If there’s a chance I can get that information from her, it’s worth trying to strike a deal.”
“Holls, she’s crazy. You can’t reason with her.”
“She’s evil. That’s for sure. Crazy? I don’t think so.”
Nick slipped his hands into the front pockets of his thick coat. “I know I haven’t been coping with this whole wolf thing very well. I’m sorry you’ve had to put up with me. But, please, Holly, don’t do anything reckless on my account. We both know that Sasha isn’t going to fall for a few gold coins. She’s going to want something much more costly.” He shook his head. “I’ll be fine. It’s just going to take some time, like you and Evie have been saying all along.”
A small smile crossed my lips. “Tonight was the first time you’ve felt like you.”
He returned my grin. “Yeah. I think you’re right.”
I brushed his shoulder. “I made you a promise, Nick. I’m not giving up until we know what’s going on.”
“Thank you, Holly.” His voice was thick, making the space between us feel even closer. Our eyes met and his brow creased. “You all right?”
“Sure,” I replied, trying to infuse brightness into my voice.
From the look on Nick’s face, he wasn’t buying it.
I sighed and glanced up at the backside of the manor. The light was out in the kitchen but the one in Adam’s bedroom was on. Frankly, I wasn’t buying it either.
Chapter 13
The following morning, I took the sticky notes to Chief Lincoln. The only problem was that I had no idea how I was supposed to pass off the evidence without getting into a whole lot of complicated explanation. I could hardly say, “um, sir, I was out walking and found these. Isn’t it weird they point to a murder scene?” Of course, that still sounded better than the whole leprech
aun thing.
When I pulled open the door to the police station, I still hadn’t quite landed on just what to say.
By some stroke of luck, I ended up with a little extra time to think, because before I could even get into Chief Lincoln’s office, Cassie strolled into the bullpen, carrying a couple of turquoise-blue Siren’s Song pastry boxes. Judging by the speed at which every officer hopped up, this was a regular thing.
Cassie smiled when she saw me. “Holly? What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to see the chief.”
“Oh?” She arched a brow. “We, if I’d known you were in the area, I would have had you help me bring all this over.”
I stepped forward and took a box from her, but it was no sooner in my hands than one of the officers took it from me. I smiled at Cassie. “Sorry, I was planning to stop by afterward.”
Chief Lincoln came out of his office. “Sweetheart! What are you doing?” He noticed the boxes being passed around and gave a knowing smile. “You spoil them,” he said. “I’m going to have to petition the mayor to get a treadmill set up in the basement!”
A round of boos rang through the room.
“We all know who the real danish monster is, Chief!” one of the officers called out over the jeers.
I stifled a laugh as Chief rolled his shoulders back and ran a hand down his relatively flat stomach. He’d put on a little paunch since he started dating Cassie, no doubt thanks to her killer skills in the kitchen (in addition to the free pastries), but was still in great shape and could handle himself in the field. No questions asked.
As the round of teasing continued, I sidestepped to where the officers had set up their command post for the investigation. Crime scene photos showed the evidence collected in the woods. Several shots showed the exterior of the small cabin. My eyes drifted over to the more grisly photos and quickly dropped to the table before the large whiteboard. I wasn’t necessarily squeamish, but there was a huge difference between seeing something on a TV show or movie and having it become reality a few miles from your backyard.
There was a table underneath the board of photos. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like the police had much to display. With no clothes, personal effects, or ID, there wasn’t much they could gather on the victim.
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