Alchemy and Arson

by Lily Webb

  “Why didn’t you just ask for my help then?”

  “Like I said, I had to be sure I could trust you first. I know about the work you’ve done around here, but I was still leery,” Marcel said.

  “But you’re not now?”

  “No, not even a little bit,” Marcel said, his smile widening. I didn’t know how to take that, but I smiled back at him anyway.

  “Good. Since we’re sharing secrets here, did you know that Tony and Lorelei gave Hilda a loan to open Hypnotic Tonics?” I asked. Marcel’s smile vanished.

  “No,” he said. “I mean, of course I knew about Lorelei’s, but I didn’t know Tony had a financial interest.”

  “So do you think Tony was the one behind the explosion at Hypnotic Tonics too?” I asked.

  “Who else could it have been? The Council tried to pin it on Sage, but I never believed that. No one in their right mind would blow up their own store while they were still inside it. Lorelei gave Hilda money too, so it wouldn’t make sense for her to torch the shop. There’s no one but Tony who fits the bill,” Marcel said.

  “And if it’s true that Hilda owed Tony money, we can only assume that Tony would’ve had access to pretty much anything he wanted in that store — including the ingredients to make Wild Fyre. Hilda and Sage would’ve had to give him anything he demanded because they owed him money they couldn’t pay back,” Marcel said.

  “That’s it! He was trying to destroy all the evidence,” I said, comprehension dawning on me. “He couldn’t trust Hilda and Sage not to rat him out. Outside of him, no one else besides those two would’ve had access to the formula or the ingredients to make Wild Fyre, and they were both in on selling him ingredients.”

  “Bingo. He needed to wipe the slate clean, remove all witnesses, and rid himself of the burden that was Hypnotic Tonics,” Marcel said.

  “Exactly, and based on the stacks of cash I saw in his office, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if the money he gave Hilda wasn’t his to give,” I said.

  “Probably not, so when the loan sharks came calling for their money and Tony no longer had it, he saw one way out,” Marcel said. “Killing Hilda and Sage would make sure his involvement in Circe’s death never got out, and he could tell whoever he owed money to that he’d lost a ton of cash on a bad investment. They wouldn’t be happy about it, but they’d understand and give him more time to come up with the money.”

  I had to admit, it was brilliant on Tony’s behalf. I wouldn’t have pegged him as being so smart — and had it not been for Marcel, I wouldn’t have known any of it. Maybe I did need to start networking more with other reporters in town.

  “The only problem is that Sage survived,” I said. “And she swore it was Lorelei who had bombed Hypnotic Tonics.”

  “Of course she did. If she implicated Tony, she’d be in just as much trouble as he was because she probably provided the ingredients and made the Wild Fyre for him,” Marcel said. “If Lorelei went down with all the blame, Sage would get out scot-free.”

  “She’s the key to all this. She might not have committed the murder, but she signed her name to it and had to have known Tony’s intentions,” I said. Marcel nodded.

  “Though to be fair to Sage, I don’t think she had any idea what was going to happen last night,” he said. “I think our friend Tony was trying to tie up the last loose ends.”

  “Which means he’s still not finished,” I said and dread swelled in my chest.

  “Not until all the evidence goes up in smoke,” Marcel said.

  “He’s going to try to kill Sage, isn’t he?” I asked.

  “What other choice does he have?” Marcel asked. “It’s either that or let the truth come out and spend the rest of his life in prison — or worse when the loan sharks catch up to him.”

  “We have to stop him,” I said. “The Council is holding Sage somewhere, but not even they can stop Wild Fyre.”

  “And that’s assuming he isn’t already there. Let’s go,” Marcel said as he reached for his camera, and I didn’t bother arguing.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I powered down Fang Street with a stitch in my side. Marcel had run far ahead of me in a blur of motion because we assumed we’d look doubly suspicious walking through the Werewolves’ Quarter together — a witch and a vampire did make odd company, even on a good day.

  In stark contrast to the last time I’d been here with Beau, there were dozens of people out on the street. Maybe it was because it was after dark? Were the werewolves nocturnal too? I had no idea.

  Regardless, most of them looked harmless, though they did stare at me like I was more than a little suspicious — who could blame them, they had to know who I was — but I tried to pay them no mind. The only thing I cared about was getting to Tony before he had the chance to do anything rash.

  With my hands in my pockets, I strolled across the circular square toward the flashing light of Pupperoni Pizza. Surprisingly, it was the only light on in the place. Either Tony and Adriana had closed early, which seemed unlikely, or Tony was too busy plotting his next murder to be bothered running a pizza parlor.

  Marcel said he was going to scope the place out from afar with his vampire vision and supercharged camera, but I wished now he hadn’t. It wasn’t like I could just run up to the front door with every werewolf on the street watching me. Granted, none of them were in wolf form so at least I didn’t have that to worry about, but still, I felt like no matter what I did or where I went, at least a dozen pairs of eyes would be on me at all times.

  But I didn’t know what else to do, so I walked up the stairs of the restaurant, doing my best to look like an inconspicuous tourist who was curious if the restaurant was open. I pressed my face to the glass cutout in the door, which fogged as I breathed, but all I saw was blackness inside.

  A chill ran down my spine. I couldn’t say where Tony was, but he definitely wasn’t in the restaurant.

  “Zoe,” a voice hissed from somewhere behind the restaurant and I jumped. Careful to make sure no one was paying to close attention to me, I went back down the stairs and rounded the corner of the building toward the woods behind it. Squinting against the darkness, I didn’t see anything.

  “Over here,” the voice hissed and I took a few steps further into the woods. The glint of the moonlight on glass caught my eye and I breathed a sigh of relief when Marcel stepped forward and I realized it was his camera’s lens that’d caught the light.

  “Did you see anything?” he asked.

  “Nothing. There’s not a soul in there,” I said.

  “Yes, there is,” Marcel said. Given that he had at least twice the range of vision I did, I had to take his word for it.

  “There is?” I asked.

  “The shades are drawn so I can’t make it out with my eyes or with my camera, but there’s definitely movement,” Marcel said. “Whoever’s inside doesn’t want us to know anyone’s home.”

  “What are we gonna do?” I asked. My first instinct was to call the police, but based on everything Marcel had told me about how they liked to protect their own, I highly doubted they’d show up — and even if they did, it might be too late by the time they got to the restaurant.

  “What can we do?” Marcel asked.

  “What if Tony’s got Sage in there?” I asked. “We have to do something. Can you tell if it’s one person or several inside?” I asked.

  “No idea,” Marcel said. “I even tried using the infrared lens on my camera but the shades are blocking it.”

  “Then I guess we’ll just have to rely on the element of surprise,” I said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Now’s not the time to chicken out. We already know what Tony’s capable of, and it’s more than a little suspicious that the parlor is all closed up this early on a Wednesday night,” I said. Truthfully, the last time I was inside there wasn’t any business to speak of, so it was possible they’d just gone home early.

  But as much as I wanted to be
lieve it, I couldn’t.

  “So you’re just going to sneak in there somehow and then do what, exactly? Zoe, we’re dealing with a murderer here,” Marcel said.

  “What else can we do? The police aren’t going to be any help and anyone else we tell probably won’t believe us,” I said.

  “True, but what happens if you break in there and no one’s even in danger? Something tells me Tony’s not going to just let that go, and based on what you’ve been through with the Council lately, I don’t think you have any favors left to cash in with them,” Marcel said.

  He wasn’t wrong, and it made me think of Grandma. I’d gone through so much trouble to get her into town, and she’d never forgive herself if I got hurt while she was here — and Raina would probably kick me out of Veilside forever if she found out.

  But I couldn’t leave Sage in there all alone with Tony.

  “Here, take this,” I said and handed him my phone from the pocket of my robes. The last thing I wanted was for it to ring while I was in the middle of breaking and entering.

  “If I’m not back in ten to fifteen minutes, call the police,” I said.

  “What? What am I supposed to tell them if I do have to call?” I asked.

  “Tell them there’s a situation at Pupperoni Pizza they need to know about and that they should get over there as fast as possible unless they want another fire,” I said. Now that Moon Grove had been through two of them, I had a feeling nothing would be as motivating to the police as the threat of another.

  “Zoe, please, there’s gotta be another way,” Marcel begged.

  “Unless you want to do it for me — and I don’t imagine you want a close encounter with fire — there’s not,” I said. “Just stay out of sight and watch my back. Hopefully, this is all for nothing,” I said, though I knew better than to believe it.

  Even if I got into the restaurant and Tony wasn’t there, whoever was could probably tell me where he’d gone. Best case scenario, it was Adriana hanging out in the restaurant alone cleaning up in the dark, totally unaware of her husband’s plan.

  I didn’t want to think about the worst case scenario.

  “And make sure you take plenty of pictures, we’re going to need them,” I said as I stepped away from Marcel. He hissed after me, but I paid him no mind as I crouched down and approached the back door of the restaurant. Luckily, a large dumpster parked beside it blocked me from anyone who might’ve been looking.

  My heart hammering in my chest, I rested my ear against the cold metal door and strained to hear anything from inside. Nothing came, not even the sound of running water or the scrape of plate against plate being washed.

  Fearing the worst, I wrapped my hand around the doorknob and gave it a twist. Amazingly, the door creaked open and I jumped back from it, every hair on my body standing straight up.

  “Adriana?” I hissed into the darkness and I held my breath while I waited for an answer, but it never came. “Sage?” I asked, but still no answer.

  Though I would’ve given anything to walk away, I knew I didn’t have a choice. Besides Marcel, no one suspected Tony of anything, and if I didn’t try to stop him, Lilith only knew what he might do — to Sage or to others.

  After taking a series of deep breaths, I stepped over the threshold into the dark restaurant and froze, giving my eyes time to adjust. Despite the number of times I blinked, I still couldn’t see a thing, until finally my eyes refocused and a kitchen appeared among the shadows. To the right, a giant industrial sink lined the wall, and to the left, a small set of three stairs led into the restaurant.

  I lifted and placed my feet carefully, terrified of stepping on something and falling or making noise to alert anyone I was there — though they probably already knew from me hissing various names. I brought my hands up closer to my head to protect it, just in case something or someone decided to lunge out at me from the darkness and headed for the stairs.

  I’d just reached the bottom when a muffled whimper sent my heart careening into my throat and I whirled around, nearly falling down the stairs.

  “Who’s there?” I hissed, squinting in the direction the whimper had come from. “Sage?” I called and a moan answered, drawn out and terrified. I followed it back into the kitchen, using my hands to guide me through the darkness. The sink was like a rail leading me toward the back right corner, and when I reached the end the moan came again.

  I gasped when I looked down and saw Adriana sitting with her hands and legs tied together like a wild animal. A thick wad of what looked like medical gauze was shoved into her mouth, held in place by crudely-applied duct tape.

  My hands trembling, I pulled the tape off and yanked the gauze out of her mouth.

  “Zoe, oh, thank Gawd,” Adriana sobbed.

  “What’s going on?” I whispered.

  “It’s Tony,” Adriana said, clapping a hand over her mouth like it pained her too much to say the rest.

  “Is he here?” I asked. Adriana nodded and jabbed a manicured, bejeweled finger through the darkness at the stairs.

  “Did he do this to you?” I asked and Adriana sobbed.

  “I don’t know what’s happening,” she whispered, somewhere between choking and crying.

  “Okay, okay, stay here and stay quiet,” I said. My heart rate tripled as I crossed the kitchen again toward the stairs. At the foot, I strained to hear what I was about to walk into, and though I heard a muffled voice, I couldn’t understand what it said — nor who’d said it.

  Crouched down, I stepped up the stairs as slowly and quietly as possible, praying to Lilith or whoever was listening that the stairs didn’t creak. At the top, a two-way metal door led into the heart of the restaurant, and I tried to visualize in my head where it might open.

  I crept to the door, resting my back against the wall as I did so, and cursed the Council for taking my wand away. There probably wasn’t much I could do with it anyway, but it would’ve made me feel somewhat more secure just to have something in my hand.

  The person I’d heard spoke again, louder this time. It was definitely a male, but I couldn’t make out who it was or what they’d said. Though every voice in my head screamed at me to do otherwise, I knew it was now or never. If Tony had Sage in the other room like I thought he did, even a few seconds could make all the difference.

  I took a series of the deepest breaths I could manage and pushed myself up onto my feet using the wall. After counting to three several times and chickening out, I braced myself and charged through the swinging door, nearly tumbling to the ground on the other side.

  It wasn’t at all what I expected.

  In the center of the restaurant, Tony sat in a rickety wooden chair, his arms tied behind his back with duct tape. Sage Snow stood over him, a glass vial in one hand with her other holding Tony’s mouth open.

  “No!” I shouted and Sage froze, the amber liquid inside the vial stopping at the lip.

  “I guess today’s your lucky day, isn’t it?” Sage asked as she patted Tony’s cheek. He seemed unable to speak. Had Sage cast some sort of silencing spell over him? And why was she trying to force-feed Tony a tonic?

  “Somehow I knew you’d show up,” Sage said.

  She corked the vial and tucked it into her violet robes, the same ones she’d been wearing during the Council meeting earlier. Was her helplessness and hurt over Hilda’s death all an act? And what other surprises did she have hiding in her robes?

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “What does it look like? Tying up loose ends,” Sage said. She stepped around Tony and sat in his lap, forcing another moan out of him.

  “I thought —”

  “That things would be different in this room?” Sage interrupted. “I don’t doubt you did. Honestly, I’m amazed you were able to put it all together, or at least, most of it.”

  “You killed Circe?” I asked. It didn’t make sense. I’d seen the photos Marcel took of Tony turning into a wolf outside of Circe’s house and there was no mista
king the green liquid in the vial in his hand as anything other than Wild Fyre.

  “Not exactly,” Sage said, still smiling.

  “You either did or didn’t,” I said. Sage tsked at me and shook her head.

  “No, I have my little pup here to thank for that,” she said and tapped Tony on the chin. “I wasn’t the one who started the fire.”

  “Why? What did she ever do to you?” I asked, anger and confusion bubbling at the back of my throat.

  “The same thing you’re doing now: asking too many questions,” Sage said as she pushed herself out of Tony’s lap to stand. I took a few steps backward, afraid of what she might do. Sage smirked at me.

  “The simple answer is she knew too much,” Sage said. “Thanks to Lorelei breathing down our necks at the shop, Circe got wind that Tony was spending a lot of time with Hilda and me. She found that a little too interesting to leave alone. At least Lorelei knew to keep her mouth shut, probably because she had something to lose too.”

  “Circe knew about Tony’s loan to Hilda, didn’t she?” I asked.

  “Yes, unfortunately. One of Tony’s little doggy friends ratted him out,” Sage said.

  “Doggy friends?”

  “The mob, Zoe. You’ve got a good brain on your shoulders, use it,” Sage snapped.

  Wow. Though I’d heard the words come out of her mouth, and wondered about it myself, I still found it hard to believe there was really such a thing as a werewolf mafia. Moon Grove never failed to surprise me.

  “Why would they tell Circe anything about that though? Wouldn’t that open their ring up to more questions?” I asked.

  “Mobsters will do anything to get their money back, and Tony wasn’t the only werewolf with a relationship to the Council,” Sage said with a shrug. Did that mean Tony had help from the mob in his negotiations with the Council for werewolf power too? It would make sense for the mob to want in on something like that.