Faerie Dust Dead (The Luna Devere Series Book 2) (9 page)

Filled with trepidation, I
asked, “The w-woods? I don’t think Leslie will have time to wander through
there. Why would she be interested in doing so?”

“My father was attacked between
your house and Arianna Gentile’s. Arianna was a suspect for a while, but there
was no evidence to support suspicion of her involvement.”

“What was the extent of his
injuries, Stephanie?” I shivered, and put it down to the crisp autumn breeze.

Hesitant, Stephanie said, “He
was bashed about the head and then sprinkled with a sparkly substance. The
police couldn’t make head nor tail of it, found not one lead, and forensics
couldn’t figure it out either.” She sighed, rubbed the back of her neck with
her hand, and continued, “I’ll drop Mom off and pick her up after she’s
finished working each day until she gets used to the routine. That should take
care of my worries for now.”

For a brief moment, I wondered
if I’d been smart to offer Leslie the job. Then, with a mental head slap, I
knew I’d been wise to do so. My hunches were usually solid and my job offer
felt right to me.

“I’ll do my best to keep an eye
on her, but honestly, we’re so overwhelmed during the hours she’ll work, I
doubt your mother will have time to breathe, let alone take to the woods,” I
said in an effort to reassure her.

“Great, I’ll have her here on
time. I’m sure she’ll tell me everything once we get in the car. Thanks, Luna,”
Stephanie said with a smile and then she walked toward the front of the
wrap-around porch to meet her mother.

I returned to the dining room,
listened to the din of voices, and wondered where the time had gone. Calis was
absent, or so I thought. He strolled through the arched doorway from the gift
shop into the dining room, a teacup in one hand and a faerie in the other. He
scanned the room. When he saw me, he beckoned me to join him. I took a deep
breath, checked on the help, and then scooted across the room to where Calis
stood sipping tea.

“I have better things to do
than hang around with you all day, Calis,” I said, taking his arm and leading
him away from onlookers. From the stares the women gave the man, I figured they
must see more in him than I did. He was well built, and strangely handsome, but
when compared to Devin, Calis didn’t make the cut.

Calis shoved the faerie into my
hand and said, “You can put this back. I find it disgusting that a believer
such as you would stoop to using them for profit.”

I drew him back into the gift
shop and snapped, “I beg your pardon? You’re accusing me of using the faeries?”
In a snit, I said, “I think not. As a matter of fact, humans, and that’s not a
category you might fit into by the way, adore fae creatures. They are magical
and mysterious to us, and we can’t get enough of them. They appeal to our
artistic senses. You and I know how mischievous they can be, but most people
have no inkling when it comes to that. The most that folks know about faeries
is from Disney’s
Tinker
Bell
,” I remarked.

“Don’t get huffy, it was a
comment, not a judgment,” Calis murmured. He edged closer as I set the statue
back in place. I felt the heat from his body – electricity fairly sparked from
him, and filled me with unease.

“Must you get so close?” I
asked.

“Do I make you nervous, Luna?”
Calis asked.

With my face an inch or so from
his, I remarked dryly, “Not in the least. I simply don’t like my personal space
invaded.”

His eyes, warmer than they had
been, seemed to lighten when he smiled and darkened when he grew discontented.
I studied his features, taking in every bit of them as I put some space between
us. Calis was more than handsome, but in an otherworldly way. What world? I
didn’t know and wasn’t sure I ever wanted to find out.

Calis studied me. “You hired
that woman to work here, did you not?”

“I did. Though, it’s no concern
of yours,” I answered.

“Are you sure? Her husband died
in the woods, am I right?” he asked.

“Uh, huh.”

“You must take care with her
then. She may become a liability rather than the asset you so richly deserve.
Keep track of her, Luna, for your sake as much as hers.” Calis opened the side
door and left me standing alone in the gift shop with my mouth agape.

My curiosity had reached
immeasurable dimensions, as had my lack of patience with people who wouldn’t
tell me more than they thought I should know. Calis fit the bill, and I was
miffed over the fact that he remained cryptic rather than forthcoming. I
figured he’d be back around five or six in the evening to taunt, or haunt me
some more.

 

Chapter
7

 

Six o’clock on the dot, Calis rattled the
door handle to signify he wanted entry. I flipped the lock and flung the door
wide open. Why I’d bothered to lock up after the help left was another mystery
to me. He sauntered across the room, checked to make sure we were alone and
then said, “Your beast isn’t about, is he?”

A snort was all I could give
him for an answer. It surprised and tickled me to no end to think he feared
Riddles.

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of
my cat?” I asked.

“Not at all, I merely wondered
if he was around,” Calis denied.

“Right. He’s upstairs in the
loft. If you miss him, I’ll happily let him loose,” I teased with a snicker. My
words seemed to annoy him, which made me laugh out loud.

Piqued, Calis remarked, “Then
let’s get down to business, shall we?” He pulled a chair away from a table and
pointed to it. “Take a seat, I’ll fetch you some tea.”

His gracious offer of tea from
my own kitchen left me uncertain whether I should take him seriously, or just
ride his wave of secrecy until it crashed against the rocks. Either way, I was
in for a surprise – I could feel it in my marrow.

Not only was there a pot of
tea, two teacups and a variety of cupcakes on the tray, but Calis served as if
he’d been brought up educated to the finer details of the high life. I waited
until he set the pot down and then sipped the Earl Grey he’d poured for me.
Fortifying as Earl Grey is, I couldn’t help but wish I had a sandwich, or
something more than a cupcake, to go with it.

“Have you eaten at all today?”
Calis asked.

“Do you really care?” I
countered.

He offered a slight shrug and
said, “No. It’s just that you’re not as perky as you were earlier in the day,
and I wondered if it was due to a need for sustenance.”

With a narrowed glare, I
marched into the kitchen and retrieved my lonely sandwich from the top shelf of
the fridge.

Seated at the table once more,
it didn’t take long to make short work of the light fare while Calis waited
patiently.

“If you’re done stuffing your
face, can we talk about what you learned today?” he asked.

“Sure, I learned that Mr. Jones
was bashed about the head and sprinkled with faerie dust. Satisfied?” I said
after I gulped my tea.

His eyes brightened.
“Interesting. Was there a suspect?”

“Arianna was questioned, but
nothing was proven. I don’t think she killed him, and she’d never use faerie
dust in that manner anyway. We need to look in a different direction. Besides,
what does Mr. Jones’s death have to do with what we’re looking into now? He
died a year ago.”

“Trouble has been brewing in
other locations, not just here, Luna. There’s been a couple incidents elsewhere
of late. A string of events are beginning to take place all over the area. The
one with Mr. Jones was a part of them.”

“What kind of trouble are you
talking about?” I asked.

“Faerie dust has been linked to
several other deaths. The worst of it is the death of faeries themselves. I
think a troll or pixie might be to blame, but if that’s the case, we’ll have a
hell of a time proving it and finding the exact culprit. Trolls and pixies tend
to resemble one another when seen by those unused to them. In the mountains,
trolls are larger and meaner than they are here, though pixies have darker
magic. Here in the glen, both tend to be less fearsome, though this present
dilemma proves otherwise.” Calis sighed, leaned back in the chair and stretched
his arms, linking his hands behind his head.

Dressed in jeans and a dark
sweater, Calis almost looked human. I knew he wasn’t quite of this world, but
figured others might not be able to tell the difference.

“Do you always look this way,
or have you altered your appearance to fit in?” I asked him curiously.

“What you
see
is what
you get, Luna.” His smile wasn’t warm, but not exactly cold either. I was
troubled to think I couldn’t read him as easily as I read other people.

“Tell me about the journals. Or
better yet, show them to me,” Calis commanded.

It would do no good to refuse,
so I gave in. “Wait here, I’ll get them.”

The stack of books I brought
downstairs filled my arms. Riddles lay asleep on the bed and hadn’t flicked an
eyelash when I entered the loft and left again. His all-day outing must have
taken its toll. I smiled over his inertia and plopped the books on the table in
front of Calis. “Here you go. I don’t know exactly what to look for, so maybe
we can find it together.”

Page after page, illustration
on top of illustration, Calis moved through the books on a mission to find what
only he knew was important. He sat back and glanced up at me while I watched
him closely, looking for a sign of his thoughts. A useless effort on my part,
for sure, the only way I could read him was by his eyes. At the moment, they
were neither dark nor light, but somewhere in between. Anybody’s guess was as
good as mine. Then he stilled.

“What is it?” I asked.

He flipped the open book toward
me so I could see what had his attention.

“See these pixies? They’re the
ones I described to you earlier. Wily, mean spirited, and darkly powerful.”
Calis flipped to another set of pages he had marked with a napkin from the
table. “This troll is from the valley, not the mountain. Your father was mistaken
in his assessment.”

“What does that mean?”

Calis studied me for a moment.
“Did he wander into the mountains where you lived as a child? Was he fearful
when he returned?”

“He would trek deep into the
woods occasionally. My mother never liked that he did so. She refused to admit
why she worried, but said she preferred it when my father didn’t go so far off
on his own.” I thought for a minute as memories flooded back. “I remember once
when he returned from a jaunt up the mountainside, he was quite bedraggled and
covered with scrapes and bruises. My mother told me to stay in my room while
she dealt with him.”

“What happened?” Calis asked.

I shrugged. “We lived in an old
Victorian house. I stood behind the banister on the second landing listening to
their conversation. I couldn’t see my parents, but my father said he’d been
chased down the mountain side by something. I can’t remember what chased him,
but I know it almost caught him. He didn’t return there after that, but from
then on he remained in the valley, studying flora, faeries, pixies and the
lot.”

“Have you ever seen a troll in
these woods?”

I glanced at the illustration
in the journal and then at Calis. “No, never. Have you?”

He shook his head. “No, I
haven’t. That doesn’t mean they’re not in this area. Even so, I’m sure you’d
have known by now if there were any. It’s likely they wouldn’t allow you to
travel the woodland in safety.”

I shook off the chill as it
traveled up my spine and I forced a smile. “You’re not serious, are you? I’ve
walked these woods for nearly two years.”

He slanted a glance my way,
snapped the journal shut, and stood up.

“I’ll be by late in the day
tomorrow. If you must go to Arianna’s travel by car.”

“Just like that? I should stay
out of the woods and off the beaten path because you think there’s a bogeyman
in there? Give me a break…”

He leaned in fast and was an
inch or so away from my face, his hands flat on the petite table. “Listen to
me, you’d be smart to stay away from whatever is in there. How you’ve managed
to get by this long is beyond me. Frankly, you’re about as foolish a woman as
I’ve ever encountered.”

I jumped from the chair,
knocking it backwards. I stretched my arm out and pointed to the nearest exit.
“And you’re a pain in my butt. Now get out.”
Who did this man – or something
posing as one – think he was?
Hadn’t I gone through enough in the past few
years? I’d been married to a nutcase who psychologically and verbally abused
me, used me to try and get hold of my inheritance, and then had shown up in
town to take my business away from me by using my land in a scheme of sorts.
When he was murdered, I’d become the chief suspect.

I may have been foolish when I
was young and naïve, but no one could call me that now – not and get away with
it, anyway. I stopped to wonder how many women he’d met. If he wasn’t quite of
this world, then he probably didn’t have many occasions to meet real women.

He’d strode to the door without
as much as a backward glance. I didn’t believe for a moment that he took my
angry words as a threat, or that he’d taken them seriously at all. Assured he
would return when he promised, I was curious as to where he’d be all day long.

The door closed with a brisk
snap – not a slam, mind you, but darn close to it. I heaved a mighty sigh,
slumped in the chair, and wished I’d never been a faerie seer and that my
father hadn’t been one of those people who thought it necessary to investigate
their world. It was now my burden to carry.
Thanks, Dad.

I scrubbed the Junction clean,
stocked shelves, readied kitchen supplies for the next day, and headed to the
basement after I’d left the loft door open for Riddles. He joined me while I
was hard at work at the creation station. Several trays, lined with waxed paper
were ready for marzipan creations I had in mind as cupcake embellishments.

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