“Thank gods for Tristan. I don’t know that it will hold back that velociraptor, but help is on the way. I think we’re all right as long as it still has clowns to go after.” I told her to stay put and we’d get back to her, then hung up and turned to Delia. “There’s a force field preventing the clowns from escaping, but I doubt it will hold the dinosaur. Tristan’s magic is good, but it’s not that good.”
“Jax is on the way. He’s got a couple guns that should be able to take down the raptor. He’ll be here in less than five minutes.” She shivered, watching the clown carnage. “You know, I want to be sympathetic but damn, those clowns were juggling body parts.”
“Yeah, it’s hard to muster up sympathy. The raptor’s pretty good at catching them. There are only ten left, it looks like.” I paused. “Who’s Jax? New deputy?”
Delia blushed. “New beau.”
“You’re kidding? Delia Waters has a beau? As I live and breathe, I never thought I’d see the day!” I grinned. Delia had been so focused on work over the years that she had never bothered with much of a personal life, as far as I knew. At least one that included romance.
“We met about a month ago. He’s…easy to hang with. He doesn’t require more attention than I have to give and he’s cool with me having a career that some men can’t handle. Most werewolves—the men—are so alpha they couldn’t deal with me being a sheriff. But Jax isn’t a werewolf.” She blushed again. “He’s Fae. And he has a full life of his own.”
I decided to give her a break and not tease her too hard. She was new to romance, and I didn’t want to make her self-conscious. “That’s great. Oh, that’s pretty.” I groaned as the velociraptor decided to stop for a snack. One of the clowns was now headless.
Delia winced. “Ugh. Jax collects guns. He doesn’t use them a lot, though. Oh, he’s a deadly shot, but he’s not into hunting. He just likes having a private armory.” She paused as a black Tesla X pulled up.
I whistled. “If that’s Jax, your boyfriend has one hell of an expensive car.”
“He inherited a lot of money. He’s rich, which doesn’t hurt anything,” she said, a smile escaping the corner of her lips.
“Yeah, I’d say so. As long as he brings the guns.”
He jumped out of the driver’s seat. He was tall and thin, with very Fae-like features. He was pretty, in a rugged sort of way, and his hair was brunet, falling to the edge of his collar. He had a nose ring. He seemed so incongruous with Delia’s more sturdy, solid werewolf nature, but opposites had a way of attracting, and I reminded myself not to judge by looks. Delia was pretty, but seemed too grounded to date a member of the Fae. But like she said, the male werewolves were very alpha, and Fae tended to be much more liberal in their gender roles.
He blew her a kiss, then opened the back door of the Tesla and pulled out a long gun case. Carrying it over, he went down on one knee, unlocking the case and readying what looked like one hell of a big-assed gun. I wasn’t sure exactly what kind it was, but it should be able to take care of the dinosaur. I hoped.
Jax handed Delia a pair of headphones. He had a pair for himself and one for me, as well. “Put these on.”
I had shot a gun or two in my time, and knew better than leave my ears unprotected. I fitted them on immediately. If that gun went off, it could deafen all of us. Delia donned hers as well. Jax fit his own pair on, then lifted the gun to his shoulder, steadying himself.
Before he could take aim, I shouted, “Stop.”
He paused, looking at me.
“Will the bullet pass through the force field, or is that going to rebound on you?” I had a sudden vision of that massively powerful blast hitting Delia, or me, or somebody passing on the street. Even though Delia had cordoned off the area, you never knew who might take it into their head to go wandering by.
Jax frowned, then shrugged. “I can’t tell unless I get closer.” He handed Delia the gun. “Keep that trained on the dinosaur. If all hell breaks loose while I’m there, shoot it. Brace hard, because the kickback is unreal.” He dashed across the street before we could stop him.
As Jax approached the force field, the velociraptor turned, charging toward him. Jax jumped out of the way as it crashed through the force field. Delia didn’t waste a second. She steadied herself and brought the gun to bear, taking aim on the charging raptor. A loud explosion rocked the air as she pulled the trigger once, then a second time.
The bullets blazed toward the dinosaur, one landing in its chest while the other impacted its head. The raptor let out a screech that sounded all too like a bird. Another moment, and it collapsed, vanishing as it hit the ground. The clowns had vanished too—all of them, dead or alive. The force field had been disrupted and we were staring at an empty parking lot.
Jax jogged back to us. “Thank gods you’re a good shot, or I would have been mincemeat.” He briefly touched her arm, but that was the only display of affection that he gave.
Delia was smiling, but her expression was strained. “Sandy’s dreams are getting worse. Are you any closer to figuring out what to do?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but it’s not easy.” I paused, then told her what I had found out about the cure to Sandy’s coma. “I’m waiting for Garret to get back to me.”
“For everybody’s sake, I hope he hurries.” Delia handed Jax the gun. “Thank you. Without that baby, we would have had a real problem on our hands.”
“My pleasure,” he said. “I’ll talk to you later.”
She waved and he blew her a quick kiss before taking off again.
“Well, nobody can say he’s not handy in a pinch,” I said. My phone rang right then. It was Garret. “Hold on, let me take this.” I moved to one side and answered. “Hey, any luck so far? I really hope you have some good news.”
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I do. I think. Irena said she’ll give you the herb you need, but you have to go to her. Underwater. Is there any way you can manage it? Can you scuba or breathe underwater by some miraculous luck?”
“I’ll figure out a way. When did she say I could come?”
“Tomorrow. So you’d better figure out how by then. You do swim, don’t you?”
“Like a fish. But how the hell will she be able to talk to me if we’re underwater?” I had no clue as to how the merfolk—or sirens—communicated while under the waves.
“Leave that to her. Trust me, she’ll be able to. I’ll call you later with more details. Just find a way and find it quick.” He hung up.
I turned to Delia. “I can’t scuba dive because it makes me feel claustrophobic. Wearing a mask on my eyes is hard enough, but breathing canned air? Not so easy. Do you know anybody who has a good spell for breathing underwater? I need one by tomorrow night.”
She frowned, then shook her head. “I don’t know, but I’ll ask around. Why don’t you go ask Auntie Tautau. If anybody knows, she would.”
Auntie Tautau. I shivered. The group of women known as the Aunties were incredibly powerful. They were witches, unaligned to any coven or group, and were quite often likened to the Fates. How they came to be was a mystery, but they were good at making what seemed impossible happen. Nobody could push or goad them into helping, though. They had to decide on their own, and nobody could ever predict what route they would take.
“Good idea.” I sucked in a deep breath. Might as well go to the top instead of starting at the bottom. “I’ll head over there now and hope that she’s home. I’d call but I don’t think that does much good. If she doesn’t want to pick up, she won’t.”
I waved to Delia, who was headed in to talk to Malita, then I slipped back into my car and headed for the outskirts of town. Time for a talk with Auntie Tautau. I could only hope she would prove helpful and that it wouldn’t cost me too much.
THE COTTAGE WAS usually hidden by a wide tangle of vegetation, and the summer made it only more so. Set off from the road on a tidy patch of land, the house was well kept, with a wraparound porch. Ivy grew
up the walls, and bushes and shrubs obscured the walkway.
A thousand flowers of all kinds covered the lawn, which never seemed to grow higher than a few inches, and the fragrance from roses and zinnias and mums filled the air with a heady spice. I found a stick at the head of the sidewalk and used it to dissuade the spiders who had spun their webs from one side to the other. The webs were so thick that I had knocked down twenty of them by the time I reached the house. I wondered if Auntie Tautau did this every day, but then decided she probably was able to walk right through them.
As I set foot on the first porch step, the door opened and Auntie Tautau peeked out. She was wearing a new dress—surprise, surprise. Instead of a muumuu, she had on a tidy floral housedress, over which she had belted an apron with wide pockets. The dress was a swirl of red and green flowers on a white background, and the apron was lemon yellow. She was still wearing the hat that never failed to catch my eye. A wide, stiff, straw hat, the crown was adorned with a pink ribbon and a crow. The crow was very much alive. Auntie Tautau herself was a benign-looking grandma type. Her hair hung down her back in a long gray braid.
“Why, Maudlin, how good to see you. Come in.” Her Irish accent matched the interior of her house—it was all lace curtains and heather, and filled to the brim with knickknacks. She escorted me into the living room and motioned to the sofa. “I’ll fetch tea.”
I knew better than say no. Never, ever say no to an Auntie. While they looked domestic and loving, they could dispatch any of their enemies with ease. If not with their magic, then with whatever muscle they could summon up.
“I’d love some,” I said, settling back against the cushions. I didn’t offer to help. She wouldn’t have accepted the offer.
Auntie Tautau motioned to the fan that was blowing a cool air through the house, and it turned toward me without the slightest sign of effort. “There you go, it’s a bit stuffy today.” She vanished into the kitchen and a few moments later returned with two glasses of iced tea and a plate of sugar cookies. “Light fare for a warm day.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, accepting a glass and taking two of the cookies. “Do you know why I’m here?” Sometimes it seemed like the Aunties could read minds.
“No, dear. Not this time. I haven’t been playing with my spy glass today.”
I paused, uncertain whether she was joking or not. But I decided it wouldn’t be polite to ask. I took a sip of the tea and ate one of the cookies before diving into the conversation.
“Auntie Tautau, I need help and I’m not sure where to go. I need to breathe underwater for a while so I can talk to a siren, and I don’t handle scuba gear very well.”
“Well then, you do have a problem. So, you need to speak to a siren?”
“I don’t even know how sirens or merfolk communicate underwater. I’ve never thought about it.” I paused, then decided to tell her everything. I explained about the merfolk and the beach, and Sandy’s restaurant and the hit-and-run, and the ghost snail. “So you see, we have to bring her out of the moriatis. And to gather the last herb for the antidote, Irena insists I come to her.”
Auntie Tautau listened quietly, not saying a word until I was done. Then she popped into the kitchen and returned with the pitcher of tea, refilling my glass. I realized I had drained the first. I ate another cookie and waited patiently. With the Aunties, either you waited until they were ready, or you might as well hit the road.
After a few minutes, she walked over to the desk and sat down, withdrawing a piece of what looked like a blank sheet of parchment from the drawer. She dipped a quill pen into an inkwell and began to write. The crow on her hat turned its head to stare at me. I stared back, unsure of whether to talk to it or not.
Auntie Tautau paused. “You can say hello to Merriweather. He’s a friendly sort, once he gets to know you.”
I laughed. “Well, then, since I know his name I feel a bit more comfortable addressing him. Hello, Merriweather.”
Merriweather suddenly flew off of her hat—the first time I had seen him in flight—and came over to perch on my shoulder. He tilted his head to the side, cawing in my face before leaning over to gently poke my nose with his beak.
“She’s coming back,” he said, startling me. Then he flew off into the kitchen without another word.
“I had no idea crows could talk.”
“Crows can mimic human speech, yes. But Merriweather is a raven. And Merriweather actually talks.” She didn’t even look over her shoulder. “Merriweather is a very special friend of mine.” And with that, she went back to writing whatever it was she was writing.
Another five minutes and she pushed her chair back, blowing on the page to dry the ink. She waited another moment, then rolled it up and tied it with a blue ribbon, then handed it to me.
“This, once you read it, will allow you to breathe underwater within a twelve-hour period. The effects will be negated temporarily when you surface, but if you go back under during that period, will work fine. Once twelve hours have passed, it will vanish as if it never had been.”
I took the scroll. It tingled in my hand. “Is there a price?”
“Oh child,” she said, rocking back on her heels. “There’s always a price. You have already paid it, though you don’t realize it yet. You’ll know, when the time comes, what that price has set into motion. Now, another cookie and then, off with you. I’ve my garden to tend.”
I ate another cookie, then took the scroll and left, thanking her again.
She walked me out to my car. “You might not thank me, once you’ve seen what this brings to fruition. But you need the help, and I can only give it as I do.” And with that, she left me at the curb and went back into her house.
Chapter 14
BY THE TIME I got home, it was past one. I foraged in the refrigerator for something to eat, made a sandwich and then carried it out to the backyard and sat at my picnic table. Along with my phone, I also took the new spellbook I had bought.
A light breeze wafted past, and a veil of clouds moved in. It was in the mid-seventies, warm but not too warm, and I ate my roast beef sandwich before I began to flip through the spellbook. The words were a puzzle, but as I skimmed through the pages, a smattering of my German came back. But it wasn’t enough to ensure accuracy.
Kelson didn’t know the language—I had asked her, but maybe Aegis could speak it. Or…maybe Franny? But something told me to hold off on asking her. I wasn’t sure why, but my intuition warned against it. Closing the book, cautious not to spill any ketchup or mustard on it, I pushed it back and finished off the sandwich. I also had a bag of chips. My trainer Wilson would smack me for eating them, but the past week had been entirely too stressful and if I wanted potato chips, I was going to have them.
“Hey, Maddy.” Ralph peeked over the back fence. “Can I talk to you a minute?”
I didn’t feel like talking to Ralph, but waved him in. “Come on over. Have a seat.”
His hooves clip-clopped like those of horses on cobblestones as he entered the gate and crossed the pavement to the edge of the lawn. He looked particularly good today, which surprised me. Usually Ralph washed up a little scruffy. But today his hair was silky and shining, and his leg fur—visible below the hem of his shorts—was also looking clean and brushed. He was wearing a button-down shirt open to just above his bellybutton, and carrying some sort of booklet or paper in his hand.
As he approached, he sat down on the other side of the table, glancing at my spellbook. “That’s an old one, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “Well, it’s a hand-written replica, so new but yes, very old. You don’t speak German, do you?”
He blinked, then laughed. “No, Maddy, not a word. Hey, I wanted to ask you about something. I thought we might go in on some joint advertising for Labor Day weekend. You know, we could advertise something like… ‘For a romantic getaway, stay at the Bewitching Bedlam. If you want something spicier, come to the Heart’s Desire Inn.’ ”
/> I stared at him. Who was this and what had he done with Ralph? Instead of a belligerent rival, I was facing what seemed like a reasonable fellow business owner.
“That might actually work. What gave you this idea?” What I wanted to ask was, When did you start taking meds? But that seemed rude.
He blushed. “It was actually Ivy’s idea.”
“Ivy?”
“Ivy Vine. She’s my new girlfriend.”
“Ivy Vine. Okay, so who is she? When did you start seeing her?” I had never heard of Ralph actually having a girlfriend, let alone a new one.
He didn’t seem to notice my sarcasm, but instead, rambled on.
“She’s a wood nymph. I met her at a full-moon party last month, up at Durholm Hall. She’s so nice and pretty. I’ve never been much good with women—well, when it comes to relationships—but Ivy’s changed all that. I’m head over heels for her, Maddy. She convinced me to stop drinking so much, though I still party with my brothers once a week, but there seems to be so much more to do now.” He stopped, blushing again. “I’m sorry, I talk too much.”
“No, not at all.” Far be it for me to discourage him from better habits. “She sounds lovely. Bring her by some time. I think this would be a great advertising plan, except that right now I’ve got a bit of an emergency on my hands that’s requiring most of my attention. But if you can wait for a week or so, I hope it will be cleared up and we can talk then.”
And that would give me time to see if Ivy’s influence was holding steady. I wasn’t about to tie myself to any promises with a satyr who had, until recently, been one of my avowed rivals. His avowal, not mine. Ralph and his brothers had tried to ruin my business several times and it resulted in more than one misfortune.
“That’s fine. How about if I check in with you a week from Monday?” He pulled out his phone and marked the date on the calendar.