But Tobias wasn’t a shadow anymore, that was for sure. He looked good, very good, in his dark suit with his hair carefully styled. A far cry from the disheveled, exhausted man I’d first met. His repeated exposure to the incubus ghost who’d possessed him for most of his life had left Tobias with a little bit of a devilish sparkle in his dark eyes. Just a little brush of the spirit’s mojo, I figured. It had also left him with the ability to summon and channel demonic spirits, as he did at his new job as a demon caller at the Spook Society.

  Tobias was grinning when I turned to face him, and he didn’t waste any time in pulling me into a hug. We hadn’t had a chance to see each other much since everything blew up for him, and my friend Bailey, a medium, had helped to get the ghost to move on. Toby had decided to keep his newly empty house and stay in the Hollow. I’d lost out on a sale, but I’d gained a friend, so all in all, I think I came out the better.

  “It’s good to see you,” he said as he finally stepped back. “How have you been?”

  I laughed. “Busy. Things have been picking up at Hallowed Homes.” And then I frowned as I tried to puzzle out why he was standing here, in my open house. “What brings you here, Toby? Did you decide to move, after all?”

  Tobias shook his head, still smiling. “I’m afraid not, or I would, of course, have come to you straight away.” He glanced away and cleared his throat and seemed a little uncomfortable suddenly. “I have to confess... I actually came here tonight... well, because I knew you’d be here.”

  “Oh.”

  He nodded. “And I wanted to see you. It’s been a few months... and, well, I just... well, I was wondering if you were seeing anyone?”

  A flush climbed up into my cheeks. It was silly, really. Blushing when I was a Succubus. Getting attention from men wasn’t exactly a novelty for me. It had been happening since basically puberty. Before Poppy started brewing potions for me, it had been a-multiple-times-a-day kind of thing. Of course, it hadn’t been a date that the men had been propositioning me for.

  The thing about Tobias asking me out—well, it had nothing to do with my Succubus nature. I mean, not only did I wear my repelling potion like it was my favorite perfume, but Toby’s constant exposure to an incubus spirit meant he was actually immune to my demon whiles. Which meant that him asking me out meant he was actually interested in me, Fifi, and not succubus Fifi. And that was, in a word, rare.

  In fact, I could count how many times that had happened and still have three fingers left over. Well, two if I included Marty, but he wasn’t interested in me romantically, just as a friend. Marty was a null, immune to magic and, thus, immune to me. He was also a really sweet guy. I’d held a torch for him for a long time, but he’d been hung up on Poppy since the day he’d met her. I didn’t think he’d even noticed another woman. It was too bad Poppy didn’t feel the same. I’d heard they’d broken up, and I’d had to firmly squash the little part of me that had perked up at the news.

  The other exception was Roy. He was a Sasquatch, but that didn’t give him any kind of immunity. My pheromones had just never seemed to work on him, or at least, he’d never let on that they had. I thought I’d just gotten lucky, that I’d found a good guy who wanted me for Fifi, not for the Succubus. But, as it turned out, Roy believed that we were soulmates. And not in the fluffy romantic sense, but soulmates, as in we were literally bound together by fate. Apparently, a witch in his family had confirmed as much for him, and he’d confessed it all to me. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about the whole thing, to be honest. Roy was an amazing man. Kind, strong, he liked to take care of people, and his being tall and extremely handsome sure didn’t hurt. But…

  Maybe it was selfish, and petty, but all I really wanted was for someone to want me, Fifi, and not because of any magic or soul mated connections that were fated before we’d ever met each other. I just wanted a man to meet me and fall for me—the real me.

  I was still working through it all, but I smiled contritely to Tobias. “I am seeing someone at the moment, Toby, I’m sorry.”

  He looked visibly disappointed, but the smile didn’t falter on his face. “I figured. But I didn’t want to miss my chance, on the off possibility that whoever you were seeing wasn’t... well, something serious.”

  That made me laugh, and I was glad he didn’t appear too disappointed by the news. Tobias was a good guy.

  “How are things going at Spook Society? Are you settling in well?”

  Tobias brightened, and launched into a story about a client he’d had, and I listened while keeping half an eye out on the other guests. Hmm, strangely enough, I didn’t see the weaselly guy any longer.

  I hadn’t just asked to change the subject, I genuinely wanted to know how Tobias was doing. Thanks to the spirit haunting his house, Tobias had ended up a bit of a shut-in for years, only venturing out when he was unconscious and had an incubus piloting his body. I was glad he was out of the house and making connections again.

  Even while I was listening to Tobias’s story, I was aware of someone hovering in my peripheral. It was a talent that years of retail and other work had honed. I took a quick glance, just on the off chance that it was someone actually interested in the house and eager to ask me questions that didn’t involve ‘is there more sour cream?’.

  That quick glance told me it wasn’t a customer. It was just the weaselly looking man, and he was examining Mrs. Petryka’s China hutch. I kept watching him out of the corner of my eye, even as I continued chatting with Tobias. There was just something about the guy that put me on edge. And, as sad as it was, sometimes people used open houses as a chance to pilfer small items. I wasn’t about to risk some of my client’s knickknacks going missing up someone’s sleeve.

  The weaselly guy took a quick glance around, as if he was checking to see if anyone was watching him, and then he turned and headed up the stairs to the second level of the house. Since it was an open house, the second floor wasn’t off limits or anything. But the guy’s demeanor had my back teeth on edge so, I made my excuses to Tobias, with a promise to catch up soon, and drifted up the stairs.

  I lingered in one of the bedrooms, keeping an eye out for the weirdo, who I was pretty sure was using the restroom. It only took a couple minutes before the weaselly guy poked his head out the door, and once he apparently decided the coast was clear, he sauntered back towards the stairs. I almost hoped he was up to something nefarious, because he hadn’t washed his hands—at least, I hadn’t heard the sound of the faucet running. Yuck.

  Stepping into the bathroom, I took a quick glance around. Nothing seemed out of place, and because Mrs. Petryka kept such a neat home, it would have been pretty obvious if something were missing. The paintings on the wall were still there, all the little seashell soaps, the hand towels and bath rugs all present and accounted for.

  The only thing that struck me as being off was the smell. No, not that kind of smell. It was a kind of musty, earthy smell. Like someone had tracked mud in from outside, but there was no sign of anything on the floor, or the little bath mat in front of the claw-footed tub. Maybe it was my imagination. I hoped it was, because otherwise Mrs. Petryka was going to flip out—she was one of those women who liked to keep the outside out.

  Just to be sure, I took a quick peek in the mirrored cabinet hanging over the sink, but there were no awkward spaces there, either, so probably nothing had been stolen. As I closed the cabinet, that strange scent drifted back to me again. And yet there was no sign of dirt anywhere. Soon the smell vanished but I couldn’t help but notice that my fingertips, where I’d been inspecting the cabinet, were now buzzing with what felt like electricity. Very strange.

  Way to be paranoid, Fifi, I thought as I slipped out the door, shaking my head. The recent upheaval in Haven Hollow had made me paranoid, I guessed. Now I was jumping at shadows.

  Sometimes weird people were just weird, even in Haven Hollow.

  Regardless, I still had an actual job to do. So, I straightened my jacket, and drifted back down the stairs to do what I did best, and find the perfect family for a truly stunning, and much-loved house.

  Chapter Two

  A few uneventful days later, I pulled up outside the Haven Hollow Police Station to pick up a Faerie Princess for lunch.

  Police Chief Taliyah Morgan probably wasn’t what most people would picture when they thought about Fae royalty, especially wrapped in a magical glamour that kept her looking as human as she had when she’d first blown into town.

  But Taliyah was anything but human.

  Taliyah had spent nearly half a century believing she was human, thanks to the seal on her power that her court, the Winter Court of Faerie, had placed on her, smuggling her into the human world to try and save her from dying in a coup. She’d been taken in by the Morgan family, and raised blissfully unaware of the political nightmare waiting for her return. Not to mention a prophecy about her, and a betrothal to the Prince of the Autumn Court, Prince Reynard, otherwise known as Fox Aspen. And as princes went, I had to admit that Fox was a very handsome one.

  Anyway, the seal had been meant to break last Christmas, during the heart of winter itself, so that Taliyah would regain all her memories and knowledge, as well as magical power, just in time for her nuptials. And then she would take her rightful place as Queen of Winter.

  At least, that had been the plan. Then I’d decided to get involved, and mucked everything up.

  I’d just… I’d hated how everyone in town had known who Taliyah was, and what future was in store for her, except Taliyah herself. It just hadn’t seemed right, everyone knowing her secret, and then just springing it on her at the last second that her entire life, if not an outright lie, was what? Extreme performance art?

  Not to mention, Taliyah had kids. Two young boys. I’d been so worried that, if they had managed to inherit any of Taliyah’s power, that they’d start manifesting and she wouldn’t have any idea what to do. What if one of her sons just started growing icicles one day, and Taliyah, completely unaware of the supernatural, and a hardline skeptic at that, would have absolutely no way to help them? Well, that was before I’d learned that Taliyah had adopted both of her boys and she, therefore, wasn’t related to them.

  Regardless, I could hardly ignore that Taliyah herself had to be removed from Faerie as an infant, so the people vying for her throne wouldn’t exactly hesitate to hurt two little boys in order to get what they wanted. If Taliyah didn’t know what was going on, then she wouldn’t be able to protect them. She wouldn’t even know she needed to protect them.

  It just hadn’t felt right to me. So, I’d pulled up my big girl pants, gone over to her house, and laid it all out for her.

  And that hadn’t gone especially well.

  Let’s just say that the seal hadn’t liked being broken early, and I’d actually had to call in help from my Spring Fae friend, Bea, because Taliyah had ended up temporarily catatonic from old and new memories ricocheting around in her brain.

  Long story short, I’d messed things up. I’m not sure what went wrong, but instead of Princess Olwen ascending the throne, Taliyah had stayed pretty much Taliyah, just with added Winter powers, and about three extra feet of silver hair. She’d turned down the throne, broken her betrothal to Prince Reynard, and absolutely refused to uproot her kids to take them to the land of Faerie, and, again, since she’d had to be smuggled out as a literal infant to save her life, I could see why she wouldn’t want to risk her fully human sons.

  Unfortunately, Taliyah refusing the throne had also kicked off a civil war of sorts in Faerie. And Prince Reynard refused to help us here in Haven Hollow, since Taliyah had broken the betrothal by going off and marrying someone else—Maverick Depraysie. At least that was what Bea had told me. As power moves went, I had to tip my hat to her.

  I pulled up at the curb in front of the station, and Taliyah slipped into the passenger seat, not even looking up from her phone as she buckled herself in. Ever since I’d told her the truth, she’d sort of looked to me as a true friend—I figured since no one else had felt sorry enough for her to spill the beans. I was happy being her friend, not only because it was a good idea to be on the good side of the potential Queen of Winter, but also because I liked and respected her and always had.

  There was a tiny frown between her brows as she read her screen.

  “Everything okay?” I finally asked when the silence stretched on.

  Taliyah grunted and fell silent again. Finally, she slipped her phone back into her pocket and scrubbed a hand over her face.

  She looked tired, I realized, and I didn’t think it had anything to do with the glamor. Beneath the magic, I knew Taliyah’s face had smoothed out into the ageless beauty that all Fae seemed to possess. Her hair had turned fully white and grown to her hips, much to her irritation. Before, Taliyah had seemed to prefer an above the shoulders hairstyle. Apparently, even an extreme Faerie make-over had its drawbacks. But no amount of magic could hide the stress lines at the corners of her eyes.

  I’d invited Taliyah to lunch partially because I wanted to check up on her and partially because I still felt guilty as heck over how everything had gone down. I felt like I’d kind of torpedoed her life by trying to help, and now she had to deal with messed up faerie stuff. Even though Taliyah swore I’d done her a favor, sometimes it didn’t feel like that. Not to mention the fact that my own friendships with certain people were on the rocks—things with Bea were strained because she didn’t want to get stuck between Winter and Autumn, since that was a prescription for pain, apparently. I wasn’t sure what kind of apology card Hallmark even made for that.

  “I’m fine,” Taliyah finally said. “Just looking over some reports.”

  That was almost like dangling a bone in front of a dog. I was so curious, and I wanted to ask, but I knew Taliyah wouldn’t appreciate me poking my nose into police matters, so I just hummed and drove on.

  Sunny’s was technically a breakfast place, but they also did sandwiches for lunch before they closed at three. Taliyah and I got a little table in the back, behind a partition topped with potted plants, where we could have as much privacy as you could get while out in public.

  We were both looking over the little laminated menus when Taliyah finally spoke up again.

  “Are you in a fight with Roy or something?”

  I choked on the mouthful of coffee I’d just swallowed and had to put the mug down in a hurry. The dark liquid sloshed over the rim, making a mess on the table, and if that wasn’t a metaphor for my life these days, then I didn’t know what was.

  When I finally managed to get some air into my lungs, I sputtered out, “What?”

  Taliyah was watching me with something between amusement and alarm. One of her hands was raised towards me, like she was going to thump me on the back until my lungs decided to stop being big babies. Soon her hand dropped back to the table.

  I cleared my throat, and smoothed my hair back from my face, trying not to look like I’d almost had to Heimlich myself against the edge of the table. “Why would you think we were fighting?”

  Even with her face hidden by the glamour, there was an intensity to Taliyah’s pale blue eyes that had nothing to do with being Fae royalty, and everything to do with being a cop.

  She leaned back in the bank seat of the booth. “Well, for one, we’re not at the half-Moon and the last couple of times we’ve talked, you haven’t mentioned him. And when I’ve brought him up, you’ve purposely changed the subject, so that led me to believe that you might be avoiding him.”

  I breathed in deeply. “Sometimes it’s hard to be friends with a cop.”

  She laughed at that. Meanwhile, I lifted my oversized yellow mug to try and give myself some cover, but I didn’t think it did a very good job of hiding my wince.

  “So...” she started with a knowing smile as she lifted her own cup of coffee.

  The hell of the thing was, she was right. Roy was part-owner of the Half-Moon Bar and Grill over on Main Street, just up the road from Poppy’s Potions, Wanda’s Witchery, and Sweeter Haunts, our local candy shop where it was Halloween all year round. The Half-Moon was probably the most popular place to grab a burger or a steak in town, and the food was really good. It would have been the logical place for us to go for lunch, not to mention closer to the station. That had been a screw up on my part.

  There wasn’t any judgement on Taliyah’s face though, and no driving need for gossip. She was just concerned. Maybe my relationship with Roy wouldn’t be the worst thing to talk about. I didn’t have many other people to vent to, with things being so tense with Bea lately, and if anyone understood complicated relationships and being jerked around by fate, it was Taliyah.

  But… I just really didn’t want to think about it, much less talk about it. I wasn’t even sure how I felt about things between Roy and me, and I thought I should probably figure that out before inflicting my emotional problems on other people.

  “We’re not fighting,” I said, a little lamely.

  But it was the truth. There hadn’t been any kind of argument between us. Things were just... awkward. I was floundering, and just not sure what to do, and I didn’t want to make any decisions until I knew how I felt about the whole situation. For the last few months, we’d been going through the motions of being in a relationship and while it had been nice, that little voice in the back of my head had continued to tell me that it wasn’t real—that the only reason Roy was with me was owing to the fact that he felt he had to be—that we cosmically joined. And in the last two weeks or so, that little voice had bothered me enough that I’d started avoiding him.

  “But?” Taliyah started.

  I groaned. “I just wanted a break from all the,” I made a vague hand gesture, trying to encompass the range of supernatural shenanigans that had been going on for a solid year and more. “Stuff.”