Faerie Dust Dead (The Luna Devere Series Book 2) (14 page)

He stood in the same spot as
I’d left him, still smiling. His eyes sparkled with glee when he saw my
offerings. From the edge of the path, I tossed them to him. The pixies and I
never get too close to one another, especially since none of us truly trust the
other not to play a prank. While I’m not a prankster, it’s well-known that
pixies are.

Greedily, he sprang forward,
clutching the bits to his chest. I grinned at his gleeful laughter. Once the
pixie had studied his gifts, he turned his gaze toward mine.

“Some time since we’ve met, it
has been, good woman,” he said in a lilting tone, similar to the faeries
song-like speech pattern.

“Indeed, pixie. What brings you
here this day?” I countered.

“News from across the way, I
have.” The pixie tipped his head toward the direction in which Arianna lived.
“Misled you have been. Where the glass maker works, no pixie stands guard.
Great her magic is, pure her nature is not, nor kind is she. Unlike you,
generous she will never be,” he said with a serious demeanor.

“What can be done about this, I
wonder?"

“On your toes, you must be, or
lose ourselves and our homes, we all might,” the pixie warned. “Do what we
pixies can, we will.” With that, the pixie once again appraised his treasures,
then bowed, and was gone.

His words worried me. I’d been
warned twice, in a short space of time, to stay alert and watch my back. Devin
couldn’t get home fast enough to help me with all this. I clicked the door lock
in place on the inside door, and went to the creation station while I tried to
focus on the upcoming cupcake menus for the next few days.

Table cloths tumbled in the
dryer while I browsed cake and frosting flavorings. I scribbled notes on a pad
for what cupcakes might please the customers, and ensured all the ingredients
were on hand to make them. Thank goodness the delivery truck would bring
supplies in the morning; I was running seriously low on flavorings.

The dryer alarm buzzed,
signaling the load was done. I pulled the cloths from the tumbler and ironed
slight wrinkles from each one before taking them upstairs to dress the tables.
I thought about Calis, Arianna, and the warnings from the fae. Had I been in
danger all this time without realizing it? Were the fae and I targeted by those
who’d benefit most by displacing us. The deeper I thought, the clearer the
picture became.

If Arianna had truly burned her
parents out of their home, the threat to my life and livelihood could be
extremely serious. Carlos, or Calis, was no better. He had his own agenda,
which, when all was said and done, might or might not include Arianna. Could he
want the woods and the Junction property for his own gain? How did Arianna fit
into that scheme? Was Calis using her because she had no qualms where murder
was concerned?

They didn’t seem to get along
whenever I was present, but, if Calis was Carlos, his acting skills would come
to the fore, right? I sighed, rubbed my forehead, and felt the weight of the
situation drag me down.

The day’s receipts sat on the
kitchen counter awaiting deposit. Rolling my shoulders backward and forward, I
eased the stiffness out of the back of my neck before I drove to the bank. I
swung the car through the night deposit lane and slid the zippered folio into
the slot. I glanced at the clock, figured it was early enough for a visit, and
called Annie on my cell phone to ask if an impromptu visit was okay.

“Sure, come on over. Have you
eaten yet? I can fix you some supper, if you’d like,” Annie offered.

Definitely hungry, I agreed to
the offer and scooted toward her house. By the time I arrived, inviting lights
glowed from her windows. Annie waited at the door as I sauntered up the walk.

Taking in my attire, Annie
asked, “You’ve been working since we left, haven’t you?”

I glanced down at my work
clothes and grinned. “Indeed, I have. The place doesn’t run by itself, and it’s
a pleasure to delve into hard work, especially with Devin away.”

“You aren’t going to
Massachusetts this weekend, then?”

“Since he’ll be home by
Wednesday, I didn’t mention the trip.” I grinned. “I wasn’t willing to give him
the chance to renege on his decision. For a while there, he was insisting I
shut down the Junction and move out there, to be closer to Ida and William. I
said thanks, but no thanks. How could I leave this place, it’s like I was born
to be here?”

After the shock left her face,
Annie grinned. “Are you sure he wasn’t under the influence of faerie dust or
somethin’? It simply doesn’t sound like Devin, at all. He’s a down-Mainer more
than anyone else I know, and to think he’d ever consider leaving this area
permanently, let alone the state itself, is questionable. He’s got a great
reputation as a carpenter and as a person, and besides that, he’s well known in
these parts.” She shook her head and sighed.

“You’re right,” I said as I
followed Annie into the kitchen. A place setting was laid out with a side salad,
a bowl of minestrone soup, and a couple tasty-looking biscuits. My stomach
growled, I chuckled when Annie gave me a wide smile as she settled in the chair
opposite from me.

Between bites, I said, “I had
wondered as much when he rambled on and on about moving, and how wonderful it
was at Ida’s. When I flatly refused, he didn’t even seem to hear me. Maybe it
was
faerie dust, after all it can make you quite giddy and nonsensical.” I chuckled
and finished the bowl of soup.

With her no-nonsense attitude,
Annie grumbled, “He’d better not bring that subject up while I’m around, or
I’ll bend his ear about you two not leaving Maine.” She snickered. “I’m just
glad he’s coming home.”

“Me, too. There’s been too much
going on that I can’t handle, along with the Junction. My business and staff
are important to me, and by gosh, nobody’s going to take that away.”

“Now that you’ve eaten, tell me
what brought you by tonight, Luna.”

The bowl and salad plate were
empty. I pushed them away and pulled forward the glass of ice water Annie had
poured and took a few sips. She waited patiently, and though I knew Annie
understood that magical critters lived near my shop, it was still a bit awkward
for me to discuss them with her. When she looked about to demand an
explanation, I relented.

“Okay, you can get that
determined look off your face,” I said with a hand up to ward off any words she
might say. “There were two incidents when I closed the shop this afternoon.
First a faerie warned me about Calis – as well as a bad faerie friend of his –
being a danger to us all. She’d have said more if Calis hadn’t chosen that
moment to appear. We had words, and he left in a huff. If that wasn’t bad
enough, a pixie arrived not much later and offered his take on what he feared
might come, and he even intimated Arianna was working with Calis. Before he
disappeared, he said the fae will do what they can to help.”

Intent over what I’d said,
Annie leaned forward and gasped. “It’s a good thing I know you aren’t crazy,
Luna. This is the strangest thing to happen yet – even considering fae folk is
beyond the scope of some folk’s understanding. I do find this a bit odd. Do you
think there’s any merit to these warnings?”

“As far as that goes, I think
the fae are right on the mark. They would be fearful of losing their homes and
all, so in answer to your question on the merits of the warnings, I’d have to say
yes. When this whole drama began to unfold, the day I went to Ari’s and told
her of the theft, she said a pixie was in her studio watching over her. I was
taken aback by the news, especially since pixies don’t care to be indoors, and my
concern over why a pixie would do so has bothered me. I have no clue why Ari
would make up such a story, but there was definitely an air of tension in the
studio. Someone else might have been lurking in the shadows, or it could have
been Calis, for that matter. Ari quickly rushed me from the building, so I
didn’t have a chance to check it out.”

“Hmm,
there has to be a
good explanation for all this, Luna. Not a faerie explanation, but a reasonable
and real explanation. You’re in touch with things I can’t see, and I don’t
question that, but I do know humans are often predictable. So much so, that
they make the same mistakes over and over. Why not have Stephanie run checks on
both Arianna and Carlos to see what they’ve been up to, who’s been calling
them, and that sort of thing? Cops dig deep when there’s mischief afoot, you
know,” Annie said, followed by a nod.

Her advice was always sound and
I agreed to speak with Stephanie as soon as I could. Annie’s ability to make
sense out of any issue was one of the reasons I liked her so much. From the
doorstep, she waved as I drove toward the police station.

A couple police cruisers sat
outside the station as I drew up to the curb. I passed an officer in the
corridor as I walked up to the dispatcher’s desk and waited until Stephanie got
off the phone. She glanced up, smiled, and asked what I needed. It didn’t take
long to explain Arianna’s odd behavior and that I thought Carlos might be hanging
about as Calis. I finished my request with, “I know this sounds crazy, but
after sharing this with Annie, she advised me to ask for your help.”

“You did the right thing by
coming to us, Luna, especially since Ari is a person we keep an eye on. Your
break-in has us on the look-out for suspicious characters and abnormal actions,
so I’m glad you stopped in. I’ll present this to the chief when he’s on his
shift later tonight. I’ll give you a call after that, all right?”

“Great, I’d appreciate that.
Devin’s return this coming week will take this anxiety off my shoulders, too.”
I bid her goodnight and left the station, relieved to have asked someone of
authority for help.

Chapter 11

Nothing out of the ordinary happened during
the next two days, until we readied to close up shop on the second day. A
nondescript car wheeled into the parking lot, stopped outside the front steps,
and a man stepped from the driver’s side door. I noticed he wore cowboy boots,
jeans, and a jersey underneath his blazer. Tall and reed-thin, he glanced
around, plunked his cowboy hat on his head and turned his gaze to the front
door of the shop, to exactly where I stood.

In two long steps, he climbed
the steps and I met him face-to-face as I swung the door open.

“We’re getting ready to close
for the day,” I said apologetically.

“Though I’m told you serve the
best cupcakes hereabouts, and your business is doing very well, you’ll want to
hear what I have to say,” the man said with a slight twang.

The clanging noises from the
kitchen suddenly ceased. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Annie peer around
the serving doorway, while Dilly gawked from the kitchen entry. I gave them a
shrug, and turned back to the stranger.

“You may as well come in,
then,” I said and waved him forward.

“Thanks, ma’am. You must be
Luna Devere, is that right?”

“Correct… And you are?”

“I’m Carlos Moreland, the owner
of the land between here and Arianna’s. You knew my father, Frank Moreland,
didn’t you?”

Dumbstruck, I stood with my mouth
open and must have looked completely ridiculous. When I found my voice, I
nodded and said, “Why, yes, to both of those questions. Please, have a seat.” I
motioned him to the nearest table and excused myself for a moment. I scooted
into the kitchen, asked the girls to finish the workload and to stay until
Carlos left. I’d been given too much confusing information lately to consider
being alone with this man.

I returned with a tray filled
with cups of tea and a dish of cakes, which I placed between us. “Help
yourself, Mr. Moreland.” I motioned to the array of goodies and sat in the
chair across from him, awaiting enlightenment.

As he indulged in a cake and
sipped the brew, Carlos explained that he’d been contacted by the police
department concerning his father’s property and his own whereabouts over recent
weeks. “Carlos, please call me Carlos. I live in Dallas, now and was preparing
to come here and look over the land when the sheriff called. It was perfect
timing, really.”

“Stephanie Jones, the police
dispatcher, is a friend of mine. I mentioned I thought someone might be passing
themselves off as you, but by another name. Stephanie offered to check with the
sheriff and then called the other night to say the sheriff was looking into
things. She’ll be in touch as soon as there’s any information to share. I’m
pleased to meet you, Mr. Moreland – uh, Carlos.”

“Why would you think someone would
pretend to be me, Ms. Devere?” Moreland asked.

“Call me Luna, everyone does,”
I said with a smile. “Frankly, there have been odd goings on around here and I
was afraid that I was the center of a hoax.”

Moreland leaned back, dusted
his fingertips off and stared at me with a narrowed gaze. “What kind of
odd
things, Luna?”

Reluctant to mention faeries
and pixies to the man, I searched for a way to tell him without seeming a
nutcase. “This business was broken into not long ago and certain art work was
stolen. When I explained the theft to the artisan, I was told there were
strange things happening in these parts – unexplainable things.”

Again, he peered at me and
waited. I floundered for a better explanation, but came up with nothing. I’d
opened my mouth, when Annie stepped forward and said, “She the butt of a
prankster, plain and simple. Arianna is at the bottom of it, and for what it’s
worth, I think she’s off her medication.”

Carlos turned in his chair,
looked at Annie for a moment and said, “Annie, I haven’t seen you in years. You
never change.” His chuckle was matched by her own as she glanced at me.

“Thanks, or maybe not, since
I’ve aged since you were in this part of the country. You look totally
different. Where’ve you been, Carlos?”