I faced Bea with a big smile, as I pushed the mystery of why Reynard was interested in autopsies aside, before looking at Burian again. “Then you’re an actual coroner?” I questioned. “Able to dissect a supernatural creature and figure out the way in which he or she died?”

  “Aye.”

  I smiled even more broadly. We might be in luck here, after all. It would seem Burian might be just the creature we needed to serve as a makeshift medical examiner for our dead elf and the remains of the grim.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “I need you to come with us to Haven Hollow,” I told Burian, because I was fairly sure Taliyah wouldn’t part with Cranough’s body anytime soon. Better to try to bring Burian to her than bring Cranough to him.

  “Absolutely not,” Burian answered, wrapping his arms against his chest as he shook his head vehemently. “I can’t leave this place. I’m nae allowed.”

  “This is important,” Bea started as I wondered if maybe we could get Cranough’s body to Burian somehow. Would Taliyah allow it? I wasn’t sure.

  “We need you to look at the body of a deceased elf,” I continued.

  “An elf?” The creature asked as it eyed me narrowly. “From which court?”

  This was a subject on which I wasn’t sure how he’d react. “The Autumn Court,” Bea answered, and Burian’s eyes went wider.

  “What happened to this elf?” he continued.

  “Someone murdered him and the grim he accompanied,” Bea answered.

  “What his name?”

  “Cranough,” I answered, watching him carefully, but there was no recognition in Burian’s face. “We’re trying to locate a mortician who can examine him…” I continued.

  “We need an autopsy.”

  Then Bea and I turned our hopeful expressions to Burian as he took a step back, continuing to shake his head. “Nae. Nae. Nae me. Me can’t help you… even if Me wanted to.”

  “And why’s that?” I grumbled.

  Burian looked at me. “Me responsibilities are to the Prince only—an’ sealed by oath.”

  “Can’t you talk to him and explain we need your help?” I asked. “I’m sure once he hears the deceased elf is from the Autumn Court, he’ll be interested in finding out more.”

  “No,” Burian insisted. “Reynard wouldn’t like it that I’ve talked with you at all, and me don’t care to make him angry. Now leave me be.”

  I stood there looking at him, completely surprised he wasn’t willing to help us, considering the dead elf was one of his own. I could understand if he didn’t want to help if the elf were from another court (the various faerie courts were all in rivalry with one another), but this seemed highly suspect, not to mention odd.

  Then something occurred to me—could one of the rival courts be responsible for the death of Cranough and Darragh? As soon as the thought birthed itself, I released it because it didn’t make enough sense. Cranough hadn’t been a high-ranking member of the Autumn Court. He’d been just another proxy, and I didn’t imagine his murder would matter enough to the Autumn Court, as awful as that sounded. Not to mention, faerie courts tended to keep their disagreements with one another to themselves—and they never would have killed Darragh, not wanting to involve outside paranormal creatures. So, no, there was no motive for another court to have killed Cranough.

  “Listen,” Bea pleaded with Burian. “I know we’re not from the same court, you and I, but we’re all bound together by a common fae thread. And Cranough was from your court.”

  “So what?”

  “So, we really need your help with this, and I don’t know who else we can ask for such a favor.”

  “Me loyalty to Prince Reynard be more important than me helpin’ you.”

  Bea sighed, but nodded all the same. The fae didn’t break their word to someone, no matter how that word was secured. Whether given by choice or by coercion, it resulted in the same outcome—a fae’s word would not be broken. Asking Burian to do something that conflicted with an oath to Reynard was a hopeless situation.

  “I have some tithes I could give you,” Bea continued as Burian looked at her with a spark of interest lighting up his eyes. “Some are quite lucrative,” she continued. “I think I could make it worth your while and the prince need never know about our arrangement.”

  “Tithes? What sort of tithes?”

  “What is it you’d like? I’m sure I have something that could be helpful to you,” Bea said.

  “Hmm…” Burian answered as he looked up at Bea and tapped his long, skinny fingers on his chin. “Mayhap I could coax the prince into considering your request if them tithes could benefit him.”

  Bea and I exchanged a brief look. Burian was thinking about the trade, clearly, but was it a good idea to give her tithes to the prince when she had no idea what he’d use them for?

  “No,” Bea said as she shook her head. “I don’t want anyone else in on this trade. The tithes would be for you to use when you need them. They would have to be private, from one fae to another. Our secret.”

  “Me can’t keep secret from the prince,” Burian said, frowning up at her. “You know ‘tis not in our nature to betray our masters.”

  Bea sighed loudly and shrugged at me, as if to say she’d tried.

  No amount of coaxing was going to change Burian’s mind, clearly, so we finally gave up and left him to his work, returning to the 4Runner to make the long drive home. I felt exhausted and disappointed after spending all day searching, only to end up with nothing at all.

  Once we were seated inside the SUV and I’d turned on the engine, I took out my phone and hit Taliyah’s contact info, watching as the call connected. I’d have to let her know about our progress, or lack thereof.

  “What a waste of a day,” I said on a sigh as I glanced sideways at Bea. She seemed equally disenchanted with this entire endeavor.

  “Fifi, is that you?” Taliyah asked when she picked up the line.

  “Yep,” I answered.

  “Well? What did you find out for me?”

  I sighed, long and hard. “We didn’t get much. The doctors on my mother’s list were dead-ends, but along the way, we did come across a brownie, who appeared to be breaking into a building.”

  “Hmm, do I need to get involved in that?”

  “No,” I answered quickly—Taliyah getting involved in whatever was happening between Burian and Reynard was the last thing I wanted—especially because I was fairly sure Reynard didn’t know Taliyah was back in Haven Hollow. As far as he knew, she was still in Portland and still under the magic keeping her ignorant to her true self. The only reason Taliyah had come to Haven Hollow was to help care for her ailing brother, Cain, before he’d died. And then she’d stayed on to look into his murder. “The point is, we asked for Burian’s help because he was actually an… aspiring mortician, but he refused to help.”

  “Ugh, the little bastard!”

  “Right,” I answered. “I’m hoping maybe we can take up the cause with Reynard, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he demands the remains of Cranough, because Cranough is from his court.”

  “Cranough died in Haven Hollow, which is my—” Taliyah started, but I interrupted her.

  “Your jurisdiction, I know, but the supernatural community doesn’t work like the human one does and all I’m saying is that if we want Reynard to work with us, we might have to work with him.” I took a deep breath. I couldn’t come out and tell her Reynard was her intended, and she was heir to the Court of Winter because it wasn’t my place. But, I also didn’t think it was a good idea for Reynard to know she was in Haven Hollow, because who knew what would happen then? Maybe he’d try to force her hand before she was ready? He was a prince, and he was unpredictable, so I figured it was best for Taliyah to lay low.

  “Anyway, we’re headed back,” I continued.

  “Thanks for doing what you did,” Taliyah answered. “And I’ll consider your request.”

  We said our goodbyes, and I disconnected the call.

  “I’m hungry,” Bea said as she turned to look at me. “Are you hungry?”

  I nodded. “I could eat.”

  So, we stopped off at a little Mom-N-Pop diner along the highway for dinner. Bea ordered a salad with over ten different vegetables and I ordered a decidedly unhealthy cheeseburger and fries. This was at least one benefit to my being a succubus—I could eat whatever I wanted without worrying about gaining weight or the adverse health effects. Any excess weight just burned off, owing to my extremely high metabolism. That extremely high metabolism was also one of the reasons why I needed to drain so much energy from my lovers.

  “Do you think that maybe a hunter killed the elf and the grim?” Bea asked. It was a thought I’d already had when Marty mentioned it earlier.

  I cocked my head to the side. “Yes, it’s possible, but if a hunter was responsible, that means they’d basically have gone AWOL.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Just that hunters aren’t supposed to kill indiscriminately—they must have orders to do so.”

  Bea shrugged. “Maybe they did have orders? Maybe there was a hit on Darragh?”

  I took a deep breath. “I don’t know… I guess we’re going to have to talk to Fox and maybe we can get him to help us with the autopsy.” Since Fox and Prince Reynard were one and the same person, I figured I could kill two birds with one stone.

  “Why does Reynard go by Fox?” Bea asked.

  “Because he’s also a detective of sorts and doesn’t want to blow his princely cover.”

  “But everyone knows he’s the prince of the Autumn Court, right?”

  I shrugged. “I mean… I guess so?”

  After dinner, I dropped Bea off at her house and then went home to wash away the frustrations of the day. A hot shower and a mug of chamomile tea was just what I needed and luckily, Angelo was nowhere to be found.

  ***

  The next morning, I headed to my office, stopping off at Poppy’s store along the way to pick up more of my Repelling Potion. The guilt I’d recently felt regarding my kiss with Roy was still present and accounted for, but I shoved it to the dark recesses of my mind so I could focus on the task at hand.

  When I walked through the door, I found Wanda standing at the counter, talking with Poppy. It was perfect timing—I could use the extra brain power.

  After the customary greetings, I filled them both in on everything that had happened over the last day or so.

  “Do you think the murders have anything to do with Janara?” Wanda asked, introducing an angle I hadn’t thought about before. And, judging from Poppy’s expression, she hadn’t either.

  “I don’t know. If they are related, I can’t imagine what the connection might be,” I replied, shrugging. I wasn’t really sure how Janara would have played a part when she and her faerie accomplices were all locked up within a magic faerie circle in the middle of the forest.

  “Maybe we should check the circle where Janara and her attendants are being held,” Poppy suggested. “Just to make sure they haven’t somehow escaped?”

  “That’s a good idea,” I replied.

  ***

  About twenty minutes later, the three of us stood around a bowl of water as Poppy dropped a few dropperfuls of Dream Oil, which was meant to cause a prophetic dream, but could also, apparently, cause waking visions.

  “Here, anoint yourselves with this,” she said, handing Wanda a blue glass bottle.

  “What is it?” Wanda asked.

  “Faerie Spirit Oil,” Poppy answered. “It’s a new one I’ve started carrying at the store, and you’re supposed to use it when working with the fae. I think it might help us more easily conjure the faerie ring.”

  Wanda nodded and rubbed some of the oil into the pulse points in her neck and her temples. I did the same.

  Then we held hands while we closed our eyes and hovered over the bowl of water.

  “Flame of fire, flame of light,” Wanda said and at the sound of sizzling, I opened my eyes to see a flame that popped out of the center of the bowl of water. As I watched it, it flitted this way and that, the yellow slowly giving way to a bright orange and then a deep red.

  “Bring me now the second sight,” Wanda continued as I closed my eyes again. “Help us to see… the circle holding the Winter faerie.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  After Wanda finished her spell, the water within the bowl began to cloud over and all three of us could see our reflections. Then a second later, our images dissipated, to be replaced with hundreds of tall pine trees. As the vision continued to unfold, the pine trees yielded until a clearing between them came into view.

  The faerie circle…

  I leaned even closer to the bowl of water, checking the circle where Janara and her attendants were being held captive. The cracks in the magic holding them prisoner were obvious—they looked like deep striations in the otherwise bright, glowing red of the circle. There were bound to be even more cracks soon because the magic was, little by little, fading.

  “I don’t know how much longer the circle is going to hold,” Poppy said, apparently having noticed the cracks as well.

  “We’re going to have to work on that,” Wanda frowned. “We can’t risk Janara and her misfits getting loose.”

  “No, we can’t,” Poppy agreed, her face a mask of concern.

  “Well, one thing’s for sure—Janara can’t be behind the deaths of Cranough or Darragh,” I said. “Because even if the magic is cracking, the circle is still standing.”

  “Right,” Poppy said.

  “Back to square one,” Wanda added.

  I was getting very sick of square one.

  ***

  Fifteen or so minutes later, we said our goodbyes, and I drove to Hallowed Homes, letting myself in and making my way to my office, where I promptly plopped down on the sofa that lined the wall across from my desk. I sat there for a few seconds, just staring off into space as I tried to figure out what I should do next.

  When I’d mentioned the fact that Taliyah and Reynard could very possibly come face to face with this case, Poppy had reacted exactly how I’d thought she would—she’d said it was a bad idea for either of them to know who the other was before the time was right. Luckily, Reynard didn’t know ‘Taliyah’ was Olwen’s human name and, furthermore, he didn’t know what she looked like because they hadn’t seen one another since they were children. Not only that, but Reynard still thought Olwen was living in Portland.

  “We have to do our best to keep them both in the dark as to their… shared destiny,” Poppy had said. “We can’t be the ones to interfere.”

  I wasn’t sure why we couldn’t be the ones to interfere but didn’t ask—when it came to magic and magical prophesies, Poppy was right—it was best not to stick our noses where they didn’t belong or, in this case, blow the cover of something that wasn’t ours to blow.

  Reynard and Taliyah aside, I was frustrated because nothing in this case seemed to be coming together. Darragh and Cranough were dead and we still had no leads. And the only possible coroner we’d found wouldn’t help us. To say I was frustrated didn’t even start to describe the way I felt.

  Why are you even bothering yourself with this? I thought.

  It was Taliyah’s job to solve crimes, not mine. Still, because I was the one who found Darragh and Cranough, this case felt personal to me. Especially when I still couldn’t discount the idea that maybe Hallowed Homes was somehow being targeted. I couldn’t risk letting something happen like this again if there was even the slightest chance it was in my power to stop it.

  Regardless, defeat had begun to set in since I felt like I was so close to the truth and yet, that truth was still eluding me. It was just too much to think about anymore.

  ***

  After a long day, I was no closer to finding any new information, and I was drained—mentally exhausted and my body needed to feed—not that that was anything new. I decided to head directly home so I could try to sleep off my frustration and hunger. I closed up my office after my last employee left for the night and exited the building, locking the front entrance behind me. I began walking toward the parking lot towards the 4Runner, but was surprised to find Poppy, Marty, and Roy waiting for me beside my SUV. And all of them were smiling?

  “Hey, workaholic. Got time to hang out with some friends?” Poppy teased.

  “I don’t know, guys,” I answered on a sigh as my attention fell on Marty. It was strange, but something suddenly clicked in my head and whatever hope I’d had about something potentially existing between the two of us suddenly switched off. I wasn’t sure if it was owing to all the disappointment I’d been suffering lately or what, but whatever hope I’d had for the two of us was now nowhere to be found. “It’s been a really long day today,” I continued.

  “Oh, come on. You still need to eat dinner,” Poppy coaxed.

  “And who can discount the value of a drink when you’ve had a long day?” Roy echoed.

  “How about tomorrow night?” I asked, sounding hopeful.

  “What if I told you we have information you might find interesting?” Poppy added, knowing just what would change my mind.

  “You should have led with that!” I answered on a laugh, following them down the driveway that led to a sidewalk which meandered into town. “No offense to Roy, but I’m a little sick of the Half-Moon.”

  “You and me both,” Roy answered with a chuckle.

  “Well, rumor has it that a little diner opened up at the end of Main Street, called The Broomstick.”

  “Already been there,” Marty said. “And they serve breakfast all day and their pancakes are spot-on.”

  “Uh-oh, competition,” I answered as I looked up at Roy, but he just smiled back at me.

  “Nah, a little competition is good for all involved.” I couldn’t help but notice that his attention settled on Marty.

  ***

  We shuffled into The Broomstick Diner and took a seat at a booth in a back corner. The ambiance was cute—witch themed with an orange and black color palette. The walls were painted orange, the booths black and the floor was hardwood, also stained black. Witches on brooms hung from the ceiling and the waitresses were dressed in black with pointy hats—each of them had a differently colored ribbon adorning their hats. Kitschy but cute.