Gods and Swindlers (City of Eldrich Book 3) (42 page)

“What makes you say that?”

“The looks you and Marnie were giving each other. When she fixed your wrist.”

“How do you know about that?”

Terry snorted. “The beaming smile. The way you started waving it around. Oh, and maybe how you can use your hand again.” He shook his head. “She can fix broken stuff, but she can’t make new stuff, am I right?”

Meaghan sighed. “So she says.”

They roamed in silence for a few minutes longer, until Terry announced, “What a dump. They should tear down this moldy pile of rocks and build something new.”

“But this is traditional,” Meaghan said. “Mustn’t interfere with tradition.”

“Why not?” Terry said. “I was a tradition until humans figured out how lightning worked. Now I’m folklore.”

“And a comic book hero, don’t forget that,” Meaghan said. “You ever see those movies?”

“Saw part of the first one, up to the bar scene in the middle, then I had to go sit in the lobby and drink coffee and wait for Steph. You know the scene I’m talking about?”

“Never saw it,” Meaghan said. “No idea.”

“I had a lot of fun back in the day, but I did a lot of damage, too. Watching that big blond kid drain a beer mug brought it all back.” He looked sad for a moment, then smiled. “Let’s go home. This medieval crap makes my head hurt.”

Much to Dustin’s dismay, Sam decided to return to Eldrich with Meaghan. “My being here is too much risk to you and to the archive. Hank and Aggie, they will let me stay with them.”

Terry gave Meaghan a surprised look over Sam’s head.

Meaghan shrugged and mouthed, “Why not?”

The portal Dustin opened for them dropped them right next to the mangled guardrail at the end of Holly Lane.

The sun was shining brightly and the snow was already beginning to melt. A snowblower and chain saw serenaded them.

Terry headed home to check on his house, Sam in tow.

Meaghan found Russ and Hank in the middle of Holly Lane, surrounded by the partially dismembered dragon.

Russ shut off the chain saw as she walked up. “Are we definitely in the cleanup phase?”

Meaghan nodded. “Yup. For now at least. Terry says to save the skin. He wants to tan it.”

“He knows how to tan dragon hide?”

“Apparently,” Meaghan said. “What are you gonna do with all this?”

“Put it in cold storage. There’s a couple of places down in Williamsport where I can lease freezer space. Dragon meat’s considered a delicacy in the magical worlds. If I set up the food truck in the woods, Hank says folks’ll stampede their gateways trying to be first in line.”

“What’ll they pay you with? Gold? Magic beans?”

Russ made a face at her. “Yeah, ha ha. Ever hear of diplomacy? A good meal might change some minds about you. After today, your kickass cred is solid. Time to show your softer side.”

“With what? Dragon tacos?”

“Ooh,” Russ said. “Now there’s an idea. I could do Dragon Taco Tuesdays. Make it a weekly thing all summer.”

Meaghan left them knee deep in dragon guts, Russ chattering happily at Hank about what else he could make with the dragon meat.

She found John farther up the street, clearing the Franzettis’ driveway.

He shut off the snowblower. “Russ says they’ll be home tomorrow and we almost burnt down their house. Their tree is gone, but at least they can reach their garage now. It seemed like the right thing to do.” He pulled her into his arms. “Are you all right?”

“I’m stinky and hungry and tired,” she said. “But, yeah, I’m good. How about you?”

“Better. When I remember feeling my wings, I think about last night instead.” He grinned at her. “We will do that again, yes?”

“Oh, yes,” Meaghan said. She kissed him, then hugged him tightly. “We will do that again. Many, many times.”

The power came back on about an hour later. A quick check of the local TV news confirmed her suspicion that the snowstorm had magical origins. The rest of the northern tier of the state had gotten three to five inches of snow. Eldrich had gotten three to five feet.

The governor had declared Sylvan County a disaster area. The elevated local snow totals had the meteorologists stumped, but they were too excited by the thunder snow to care.

If you guys knew what really caused it, you’d pee your pants.

Miraculously there had been no casualties.

No reported casualties
, Meaghan reminded herself as she finally climbed up the stairs to check on Luka.

The house seemed empty after the last day and night. As soon as the main roads were plowed, Brian and Marnie had taken Kady and Jeff and the baby home in Steph’s SUV, and Lynette’s son had dropped by and picked up her and Gretchen.

Hank and Aggie were at the Donners’ house, continuing to recuperate from the elves’ freezing magic. They and Buzz were stranded until the roads were clear enough to get the Millers home and Buzz back to Williamsport.

Natalie and Owen had gone over across the street, too, as soon as cell service was restored. Owen had a business empire to run and a wounded boss to cover for.

Meaghan knocked on the half-closed guest room door.

“Come on in, Meg,” Steph said.

Luka lay curled on the bed, looking small and frail in the bright sunlight. Melanie sat in the armchair near the window and Steph sat next to the bed.

“You saved the archive, Luka,” Meaghan said. “The elves are gone.”

Luka nodded, but didn’t move.

Looking at him, Meaghan realized she still didn’t know anything, not really, about the animosity between the fair folk and her new neighbors.
More secrets. Still so many secrets.

But she wasn’t angry this time. She remembered what Russ had said about people keeping secrets for their own reasons and sometimes all you could do was wait until they were ready to tell you.

She could wait. For now.

Melanie gave her a meaningful look and stood up. “Meg, I need to run some things by you. Why don’t we go downstairs and chat while I make lunch for everybody?” She glanced back at Steph.

Steph nodded.

“How bad is it?” Meaghan asked when they got to the kitchen.

Melanie slumped into a chair. “His eyes are . . . gone. Burnt right out of his head.”

“He said something about it being in the myth?”

Melanie nodded. “Loki is an ambivalent figure in much of Norse mythology. He does good and bad things for the other gods. Some of his acts benefit them, some harm them, often at the same time, and he’s usually unraveling the consequences of some mischievous act.”

“And for that they burn his eyes out?”

“Not for that. He finally goes too far. He kills Odin’s son, Baldur, who’s young and beautiful and beloved by the gods. And as punishment, they chain Loki to a rock and a giant serpent drips venom into his eyes.”

Meaghan drew in a sharp breath. “And the fair folk thought it would be fun to do the same thing to Luka. As soon as I think I can’t hate them anymore, they prove me wrong. Can Marnie help him?”

Melanie shook her head. “Not at the moment. She’s going to keep working on it.” Melanie paused. “Which raises another issue.”

“Marnie and Patrice,” Meaghan said “It’s not a coincidence they both have these big scary new powers. Dad thinks there might be a third one on the way.”

“Another element of the prophecy.” Before Meaghan could protest, Melanie continued. “I know you don’t believe in prophecy, but you might want to start. Keep in mind, you did in fact kill a dragon with a sword like the prophecy said.”

“No,” Meaghan said. “I killed a dragon with a jar of moonshine and a burning rag.”

“But the sword—”

“The sword was only there because Dustin tried to tick items off a cosmic to-do list. If the sword hadn’t been handy, we’d have used something else. It wasn’t the sword that mattered; it was the steel it was made from.” Meaghan stood up and opened the fridge. “The fair folk set this whole thing up. They were the ones running the scam, not Luka. They wanted to force me to face down that dragon and lose so they could discredit me. That’s conspiracy, not prophecy.”

“But, Meg—”

“I won’t live my life according to somebody’s magical bucket list.” She pulled the bag of ham out of the fridge. “Will you grab the bread from the pantry? Russ is up to his armpits in dragon guts and I’m hungry, so let’s make those sandwiches.”

The fatigue hit Meaghan as soon as she put her plate together. She couldn’t face Luka again. Not yet. She sent Melanie upstairs with a tray and ate alone in the kitchen.

After a quiet cup of tea, Meaghan snuck upstairs, took a long hot shower, and put on her softest sweats. She dropped onto her bed and slept without waking until the following morning. She had no dreams, at least none she remembered.

Chapter Fifty-Two

T
HE SNOW MELTED
rapidly, replaced by local flooding, but nothing serious. Spring, real spring was still at least a few weeks away, but the melting snow and sunshine improved everyone’s mood. As typically occurred in Eldrich, those who were clued in lied about what had happened and those in denial gratefully accepted those lies.

The snow was a freak meteorological event caused by colliding storm fronts and the mountainous terrain. The fires on Holly Lane were caused by extinguished pilot lights, built-up natural gas fumes, and sparks from electrical shorts.

They’re half right
, Meaghan thought.

The dragon’s stunning power turned out to be a blessing. The residents of Sycamore Street vaguely remembered a snowplow and something on fire but nothing else.

Still, Meaghan marveled at the human mind’s ability to deny what it didn’t want to know. It was the not-wanting-to-know part that made it work, she realized. It was a lot easier to flimflam somebody who didn’t want to know something than it was to deceive somebody who was simply uninformed.

And what denial and magic couldn’t accomplish, money smoothed over. Within days, Owen had made cash offers on the burned-out properties and lined up a design team to build a new house for Luka next door to Terry and Steph. They’d deal with Edna’s property later.

Edna called Meaghan to share the good news. “I’m staying in Florida. I bought a condo.”

“You aren’t upset about your house?”

“Hell, no,” Edna said in a cheerful voice. “When I got the news, my first thought was ‘oh good, now I don’t have to clear all that shit out of my basement.’ Between Owen’s cash and the insurance settlement, I’m loaded.”

Laughing, Meaghan hung up the phone. She’d miss Edna.

With everything under control at home, Meaghan headed into the office.

Emily had taken care of the carpet problem. The sigil-covered carpet was gone. “I did a thing out in the woods. Purification spell and a bonfire. It seemed more prudent than the landfill.”

“Good thinking.” Meaghan surveyed the new carpeting. It was a muted gray heather in a flat industrial weave. It was the most non-magical carpeting Meaghan could imagine. “It’s perfect. Thank you for taking care of this for me.”

“I did some checking on Bottaio Design, but I hit a dead end. They cashed the city’s checks and then vanished without a trace.”

“It was the Order,” Meaghan said. “Cooper.”

Emily visibly flinched. “He’s an evil, evil man. How do you know it was him?”

“Connected some dots,” Meaghan said. “Plus, he didn’t pay a leprechaun subcontractor, who was only too happy to rat him out as the architect of this whole mess.”

“Why did he do it?”

“Still trying to figure it out. Right after I figure out what the elves are up to.”

Meaghan and her staff moved into the new city solicitor’s office two days later. Her new office was bigger than her prior turret office, but with much less charm.

“This is swanky,” Jamie said, a big grin on his face, as he looked around.

“It’s all right. What about you? You like your new space?” Meaghan asked.

“No mystical vortices, plus a new Herman Miller office chair—what’s not to like?”

At the end of the day, on her way home, Meaghan stopped to look at the little exhibit the historical society had set up in the first-floor lobby documenting the original construction of city hall in the nineteenth century.

There wasn’t much to it. The building’s architect and engineer, a foreigner named Böttcher, had taken the building plans and all related documents back to Europe with him when construction was complete. Welland Eldrich, the city’s namesake and the project’s patron, had gone insane during construction.

The historical society had done what it could with limited materials. There were only two photos. Meaghan stared first into Welland Eldrich’s sad dark eyes. He still haunted the building, Meaghan knew, and he wasn’t the first Eldrich who’d lost his mind.

The other photo was a group shot, about a dozen men in dark frock coats and full beards, shovels in hand to commemorate breaking ground. Welland stood in the middle and next to him stood a tall man the caption identified at “Herr Böttcher.”

Meaghan squinted and looked closer.

Her stomach flipped over. Even with the full beard and nineteenth century clothing, she recognized him.

Cooper.

Cooper, using the name Böttcher, had directed the construction of city hall. Cooper had used Welland Eldrich to build a great big mystical ray gun.