by Esme Addison
“After our family dinner, I decided to look deeper into our guest’s past.” She shrugged. “If my little sis is going to be working for this guy, I need to know he’s legit.” She looked around the table and raised an eyebrow. “And he’s not.”
Minka sat up taller in her chair. “How do you know?”
“I had a friend on the force tail him for a couple of days. Unofficial and as a favor to me. Everything was normal except on the last day, when my friend followed him to a restaurant in town. He was on a call with someone, and they were discussing the images he had on the table before him.”
“What kind of images?” Alex asked, wondering where this was going.
Kamila looked around the room. “My friend paid a waiter there to snap a few pics when he visited the table. They were satellite photos.”
Alex stared at her cousin. How many ethics, morals, and laws had Kamila broken to get this information?
“I’ll do whatever it takes to keep my family safe, okay?” Kamila looked at her cousin, clearly having heard her thoughts. “That guy had all my spidey senses tingling.”
“He owns a mining company. It’s probably just work related,” Minka said, her voice hopeful.
Kamila pulled out her phone. “Take a look for yourself. Someone at work who owed me another favor enhanced them for me and identified them with geospatial software. Look familiar?”
Alex shrugged, squinting at the fuzzy images. “I don’t know what I’m looking at.”
“The software made a match with ninety-eight percent accuracy. It’s the Wesleys’ old homestead.”
“Wow,” Minka said. “I can’t believe you were so sneaky!”
Kamila rolled her eyes in response to her sister’s comment and showed everyone her screen. They could see black and white aerial images of land on the coast, with specific areas circled in red. “Montgomery Blue is clearly looking for something.”
“That land … it’s the same land Bryn killed for,” Alex frowned. “Neve had the address for that location in her things at the B&B. Dylan said she wanted a tour. And now, Montgomery has satellite images of the same property. Are there minerals off the coast of the Wesley homestead?” She rubbed her temples. “Dylan told me he didn’t want to work with Leviathan. But maybe he was trying to do something in secret.”
Minka laughed. “Like you can mine in secret. Guess we’re not removing Montgomery from our list.” Then she sobered. “And I guess I’m not working for his super-awesome nonprofit.”
“No,” Alex said. “Not until we know if he’s a murderer.”
Minka huffed. “I can’t do my part to help the planet until this case is closed. Alex, can’t you solve this already?”
Alex gave her cousin a reassuring smile. “I’m doing my best, Mink.” She turned to the rest of her family. “So, now we have a deeper connection between him and Neve. Were they working together?”
“Looks that way,” Lidia said. “The question is, on what?”
“Bryn wanted that property, killed two people because she thought—the Wesleys thought—the Warsaw Shield was hidden on the property. And Pepper and I saw an Instagram post of Bryn and Montgomery on a yacht about a year or so ago. Dylan said he wanted to do business with the Wesleys, but so far he’d refused.”
Kamila heaved a sigh as she stood. “What could connect Neve, Montgomery, and the Wesleys?”
Alex was thinking. Putting pieces together. Recalling memories, snatches of conversation … and then: “I have it,” she said, looking at her family. “The thing that ties them together, That connects them, is the land.”
“The land,” Minka repeated. “I don’t get it. How?”
“Not the land exactly. What’s underneath it—or what could be hidden there.”
“Oh,” Lidia said, finally getting it. She nodded. “Well, I suppose that makes a kind of sense.”
“Stop with the riddles already,” Kamila exclaimed. “What is it?”
“The Mermaid of Warsaw’s shield,” Alex said. “The story goes that it’s buried on the property somewhere. It’s the reason Bryn’s locked up right now … and maybe, just maybe, the reason Neve Ryland was killed.”
“Wait, that doesn’t make sense,” Kamila said. “Nobody believes in mermaids. No one but Magicals know the Mermaid of Warsaw was real, and absolutely no one thinks the Warsaw Shield is real.”
The room went quiet.
Kamila’s eyebrows knitted together. “Do they?”
Minka bit her lip. “Neve did. I mean, she never came out and said it, but she researched myths, she painted them, she gave presentations on them. I have to think she believed in them just a little bit.”
Now would be a great time to tell everyone about the mermaid gene, Alex thought to herself. But she just couldn’t bring herself to share the information. She didn’t want to worry her family, didn’t want them to know that they could be in danger, especially if it all turned out to be nothing. For now, she’d keep the information to herself.
“Neve wasn’t a Magical.” Kamila said. “And neither is Montgomery. They can’t know about the Warsaw Shield.”
“Well,” Lidia said quietly, “perhaps.”
“Perhaps what?” Minka asked.
“Just a minute,” Aunt Lidia said, heading for the library. “I’ll be right back.”
The women stared at each other in silence.
Minka looked at Alex. “Did you notice anything … Magical about Montgomery?”
Alex told them about how she felt when she tried to access his thoughts.
Lidia returned with a large book with soft, worn green leather. The family history, lovingly and methodically recorded by their ancestor. She flipped through the pages carefully. “Minka, dear, put on another pot of coffee, please. I think we’re going to need it.”
* * *
After coffee had been brewed and the table was cleared, Lidia set the book on the center of the table and gestured for everyone to come near.
Alex leaned close and read the words printed in perfect calligraphy, script she recognized as her great-great-grandmother Zofia’s, on the top of one of the pages. “Smok. That’s Polish for … what?”
“Smok,” Lidia said, “means dragon.” She traced her finger over a black ink sketch. “My grandmother wrote about a historic order of Magicals who only practice black magic. Their only purpose is to create evil and increase chaos in the world.” She read ahead and then shuddered. “Their motto”—she took a deep breath before continuing—“rule … through fear, terror, and discord.”
“Holy cow,” Minka exclaimed. “That’s so low vibration.”
Kamila’s face twisted in revulsion. “Sounds like a modern-day terrorist group.”
“Or maybe Bryn missed her calling,” Alex joked.
But Lidia did not smile. “They are the reason the Council created the allowable rate of black magic to be used annually. There are different types of Magicals with different origins. Some are positively oriented and some … are not.” Lidia looked around the room. “We’re not all descended from the Mer.”
Minka’s mouth dropped open. “I’ve never heard this. I thought we were all of mermaid descent.”
Kamila looked disturbed. “Their motto … it’s not ruling they’re interested in. It’s repression and oppression … Who are these people?”
“There can be no good without evil,” Aunt Lidia began. “Nor dark without light. Our world demands duality. Balance. There are people not so different from us who descended from”—a shadow crossed her face—“dragons.”
“Crap,” Kamila muttered. “And so the plot thickens.”
“Wait, are you saying dragons are real?” Alex sputtered.
“As real as mermaids,” Lidia answered. “Well, like real mermaids, dragons themselves no longer exist; however, they live on in some people just like mermaid genetics do. Dragon Descents—their technical name—command fire just like we command water, and as a general rule, they’re angry and aggressive, though some are b
etter at hiding it than others. Dragons shared an ancestor with mermaids, but we diverged eons ago.”
“You’re saying in addition to mermaids, dragons are also a thing?” Alex stood up, throwing up her hands. “I guess I can understand that mermaids are half human and they mated with humans—that makes a kind of sense. But dragons? How does that work? I mean … dragons?”
Lidia gave her niece a patient look. “Are you through, moja droga—my dear?”
Alex stopped pacing and sighed. “Yes, Ciocia.”
“There are many stories about how the Dragon Descents were created.” Lidia shrugged. “Who can know which one is correct? Some people believe they are reptilian humanoids with the ability to shift from reptile to human form, possibly from a dinosaur ancestor that didn’t go extinct. Others believe that fifty or sixty thousand years ago, certain humans were genetically modified, upgraded—or downgraded depending on your viewpoint—with dragon or reptile DNA.”
“That sounds disgusting.” Alex finally said.
“Whatever the case, these people have been around for thousands of years and are wholly driven by their reptilian brain, something we all have, by the way, while most non-Dragons are not. They can command fire just as we command water, and they have additional non-Mundane powers.” Aunt Lidia smiled understandingly. “I know it’s a lot, but you can’t think that mermaids are the only game in town.”
Scowling, Alex looked around the room at her cousins and her aunt before shaking her head. “I can’t deal with this. I just want to be normal. I want our world to be normal.”
“See?” Kamila said. “That’s how I feel. Welcome to my world.”
Alex closed her eyes for a moment, seeing her father’s image. She looked at her aunt, at Minka and Kamila. “If I had followed my father’s directions, I would still believe the world was normal, and I’d still think I was a Mundane. But I wouldn’t have you guys.”
“You can always choose not to practice.” Kamila said. “It makes things slightly better.”
But Minka couldn’t stop smiling. “You guys, come on! Give it a rest. This is so-o-o cool. Dragons are cool. And it makes sense—there are a lot of dragons in Polish culture. I mean a lot.”
Lidia shot her daughter an indulgent look. “I don’t know about cool, but dragon myths are certainly prevalent. Only we know those myths are based in fact. Europe, Asia, Africa, the ancient Americas … In fact, many royal families claim to descend from dragons. It’s the source of their power, the God-given right to rule. The Chinese royal family, the British royal family—look it up. I’m not making this stuff up.”
Alex felt like her head was about to explode, but she needed to know more. “What does this have to do with Montgomery?”
Lidia sighed. “I had my suspicions about Montgomery when he refused to come into the house before he was invited.”
Alex paused, remembering the moment. “He did stand at the threshold until you invited him in and he accepted … I didn’t think there was anything weird about that at the time. Just that he had good manners.”
“It reminded me of something.” Aunt Lidia waved a hand dismissively. “But it could be nothing.”
“Wait.” Kamila snorted a laugh. “Isn’t that wait-to-be-invited-in rule for vampires? And please don’t tell me they’re real too.”
“No,” Lidia said patiently, “there’s no such thing as vampires as represented in books and the media. Some things really are just made up. Perhaps that rule was taken from the Dragon Descents. It’s one of theirs. They have a lot of power and hardly any sort of ethical guidelines, but they do have that one. They can’t make anyone do anything unless they want to. It’s called”—she went back to the book and ran her finger down the page—“simply the law of free will. They can do all sorts of horrible things if the person they’re being done to allows it.”
“If that were true, nothing bad would ever happen. Who would knowingly bring bad things into their lives?”
“You’d be surprised,” Lidia said. “For example, say Montgomery wants to do drilling on our coast, which could have horrible impacts to the environment, and the town council and the mayor and even the townspeople accept the idea in exchange for, say, funding for a new baseball stadium. He’ll be doing bad things with the will of the people.”
“That sounds like every politician ever,” Kamila said with a smirk.
Lidia laughed. “There are many Dragon Descents in politics and in power in various ways. They are drawn to it, and people are drawn to them. They’re sneaky and deceptive, but also good-looking, charismatic, charming people who get things done and easily get people to do what they want.”
Lidia flipped through the book and pointed to a drawing.
Minka drew closer. “It’s a ring.” She inclined her head. “Looks like an eyeball,” she said, squinting. “In the center, I mean.”
Alex recalled seeing a ring like that rather recently. “Montgomery wears a ring. A green crystal with a black center.”
Minka’s eyebrows shot up, and she laughed. “Fraternity of the Dragons, maybe?”
“And there’s what Alex told me happened when she tried to access his mind,” Lidia added.
“Which was wrong,” Kamila asserted. “But considering … maybe not.” She frowned, trying to understand her own logic.
“Only Magicals can prohibit other Magicals from entering their minds.” Lidia thought for a moment. “Or …”
“Or what?” everyone said at the same time. They looked at each other and burst into laughter.
“Or they could be taught the technique by a Magical.” She shrugged at the women’s skeptical expressions. “It can be learned, just like someone can learn how to pass a lie detector test.”
“But what Magical would do that? Reveal themselves to a Mundane and then teach them one of our skills?”
“Anyone who is working in collaboration with Mundanes.”
Magical collaborators? Was Montgomery working with the Wesleys? “But I thought this was a secret we had to take to our grave,” Alex said, looking at her family members in shock. “Now you’re saying that there are people who know about us?”
“There are people who have reason to come in contact with us, who know of our existence and are willing to be discreet about us if we help them.”
“Help them how?” Alex asked, fascinated by the idea that there were Mundanes who knew about them. Like Neve, before she died. And like Evelyn now, she thought with a twinge of worry.
“People in power, those in the government. They know.” She looked around the room. “And they keep it secret from the masses.”
“Interesting,” Alex murmured.
Lidia was poring through the book. “This section is intriguing. I’ve read this book many, many times, but I must confess I’ve skipped over this section, not being very interested in this group of people, although they are very much like us. ‘Some choose to embrace their heritage while others abstain on ethical reasons,’” Lidia read, shooting Kamila a pointed look.
Lidia turned to a section filled with drawings of dragons and men and women with certain facial features, distinct jaw lines, chiseled features, seductive eyes … all attractive. “They can look like anyone, but they usually have fiery temperaments and issues with impulsivity. And a proclivity for black magic,” she reminded them. “That’s always a big indicator.”
Minka looked worried. “We have to find out what Montgomery is up to, who he’s working with—and all without him knowing.”
“And I can’t tell Jack any of this.” Alex said. “He’d never believe me.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
After a long day at work, Alex took a shower and decided to head to the family library to complete more research. She had a glass of blackberry lemonade on the table beside her, and her laptop before her. There had to be something she was missing about this case.
She flipped through the portfolio again, staring at the horrific images of gods raining down fire and brimstone on the
people below. People that were staring up at the sky in horror, people that were running in fear, and some that had their hands pressed together in prayer. Why would Neve create these sketches when she clearly loved mythology and the beautiful fanciful side of the stories?
She pulled up a photo of the mermaid mural and stared at it, wondering what it meant. And then she went to Neve’s websites and looked at the murals she’d painted in Honolulu and Boston. Her phone rang, and grateful for the break, she answered. It was Pepper.
“Remember I had my intern looking into Neve’s past? She found something kind of interesting. Every time she’s had an art show in some town, there’s been some sort of major break-in at certain facilities, or emergency drills.”
Alex set her drink down, not sure she was understanding. “What do you mean?”
“During her show in Honolulu, there was an incident on one of the naval bases. The media later said that it was an emergency drill with crisis actors. In Boston, a bridge was shut down for half a day for some undisclosed reason.”
Alex rested against the back of her seat. “There’s a million reasons why those events could’ve occurred, none of which have to do with Neve.”
“I know,” Pepper said, a bit petulantly. “I just thought I would share it with you. My intern is a real go-getter, and she was excited to find this connection.”
“No, I get it. It’s interesting … maybe another piece of the puzzle.” Alex thought for a moment. “She had a show here. And nothing happened.”
Pepper was quiet for a moment. “We had the power outage.”
“That’s true, but that was just a power grid issue …”
“Okay,” Pepper agreed. “That’s all I got. Did you ever find anything about the blogger?”
Alex was silent, wondering what she could share and what she shouldn’t. “I had a meeting planned, but they stood me up,” she lied. “But if I find something out, I promise you’ll be the first to know.” And that was true. If Alex could find a way to give Pepper a scoop to help her career, she would.
