THE GOOD TROLL DETECTIVE

MANTLE AND KEY PARANORMAL AGENCY™ BOOK ONE

RAMY VANCE

MICHAEL ANDERLE

THE GOOD TROLL DETECTIVE TEAM

Thanks to our Beta Readers

Kelly O’Donnell, Rachel Beckford, Larry Omans

Thanks to the JIT Readers

Wendy L Bonell

Dorothy Lloyd

Diane L. Smith

Dave Hicks

Peter Manis

Zacc Pelter

Deb Mader

Jeff Goode

Paul Westman

If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!

Editor

The Skyhunter Editing Team

This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

Copyright © 2022 by LMBPN Publishing

Cover Art by Jake @ J Caleb Design

http://jcalebdesign.com / jcalebdesign@gmail.com

Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

A Michael Anderle Production

LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact support@lmbpn.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

LMBPN Publishing

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Version 1.00, January 2022

ISBN (ebook) 979-8-88541-002-1

ISBN (paperback) 979-8-88541-066-3

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Author Notes Ramy Vance

Author Notes Michael Anderle

Books by Ramy Vance

Books By Michael Anderle

Connect with The Authors

CHAPTER ONE

She hadn’t broken her date’s arm, face, or back yet, so that was good. Really, the time with the back…it was only temporary paralysis. Needless to say, it had also been a relationship ender.

She liked the guy sitting across from her at the cozy Italian restaurant booth. A twenty-four-year-old med student she’d met at the police academy, and he certainly knew how to dress. Ripped jeans and an untucked button-up shirt. His hair gelled but not in a douchey way.

They were sitting at a booth against the wall. Private. Intimate.

He leaned over the table separating them, his chin resting on his palms. “Penny for your thoughts?”

Maine blinked. “Um. Just thinking of past dates I’ve been on.”

Jason grinned and stretched out his arms along both sides of his booth back. “I’m curious, but how do I stack up against them?”

She tilted her head. “This is only our first date. Too soon to tell.”

His face grew serious. “Forgive my…um…studious nature, but I’d like some tips on how to beat my competition.”

Maine wished she was sitting next to him rather than across from him. He had lean muscular arms and seemed like a wholesome guy, maybe from the country. He seemed like one of the good ones. That wasn’t always easy to find in NYC where everyone always seemed to have an angle. For most guys she met, that angle was usually in her pants. For the few guys that seemed to care about her as a person, well, she usually ended up breaking not their heart but at least one of their bones.

By accident, of course.

She was a half-blood, her father a troll and her mother a human. Maine had inherited her mother’s lithe body, perfect teeth, and shiny hair, but unfortunately her father’s super-strength and who only knew what else. She’d had to deal with that her whole life, and it was a real pain.

Maine wanted to live as a normal human in the normal human world. She didn’t like life “behind the Veil.”

“Wouldn’t that be cheating?”

Jason shrugged. “What was your last date’s name?”

Maine’s lips curled. Jason was proving to be interesting. “Peter,” she said.

“What did he do?”

“Starving artist.”

“I see. When did it all go sour?”

Maine bit her lip. “When I broke his nose.”

Jason leaned forward in the booth. “You punched him?”

“No. He was trying to open my car door, but I opened it too quick and smacked his face.”

Jason felt his face, miming an injury. “Ouch. Remind me not to try to be a gentleman around you.” He chuckled, and Maine joined in.

Attractive, intelligent, and funny. It was tough to find a man with two of those attributes, let alone all three.

“And the one before this Peter guy whose face you pulverized?”

She narrowed her eyes at him jokingly. “I didn’t destroy his face. It was only his nose.”

“Sure. Sure.” He waved for her to continue.

“Before Peter was Dmitri.”

Jason smirked. “What did you do to scare him away? Crush his hand when you shook it?”

She reached over the table and smacked the knuckles of his hand. Playfully. She had broken the hand of a former date’s father when they shook. That was because she’d forgotten to take the strength-dampening elixirs provided by her…

Father.

“Dislocated his arm,” she answered.

Jason raised his eyebrows. “Do tell. You two wrestling or something?”

“Ice skating. He was a total klutz, and when he fell, I reached down to help him up and—” She made a popping noise with her mouth.

He leaned forward again. “So you dislocated his arm because you hate klutzes? Sheesh.”

“No. It was an accident.”

“Spilling your coffee on a date’s shirt, that’s an accident. Pulling their arm out of their shoulder socket…”

“I swear.” Maine studied him for a bit. She probably shouldn’t have mentioned that about Peter and Dmitri.

Jason returned her gaze. Then he started laughing. “I’m joking. I’m joking.”

Maine was about to say something when the waiter came with their food. A salad for Jason and a porterhouse steak and baked potato for Maine.

Jason eyed her plate enviously but didn’t say anything.

“Penny for your thoughts, Mr. I-ordered-a-salad?” Maine smirked.

He raised his eyebrows. “I think I should’ve ordered a steak.”

He was impressed. Of course, he didn’t know about her troll strength, which demanded food to fuel it, or she got hangry.

Damn my father and his stupid troll genes…

So no, not hangry. Trangry. She chuckled at the thought.

Her father always sent her a strength-reducing elixir every month, and she took it like a normal human would take their multivitamins. That always kept her otherworldly strength in check so she appeared normal, although she still had to be careful. This month’s elixir hadn’t arrived yet, which was strange. She would’ve called her father to find out why…but that would’ve involved her interacting with him, something she’d rather not do.

If another elixir didn’t show up in the next day or two, she’d have to reach out. She was ten days past when she should’ve taken her last dose.

Jason looked embarrassed. “I didn’t want to overindulge. Now I’m considering asking if you’ll share.”

Maine speared a chunk of meat and placed it in her mouth, glancing at him as she chewed. “That’s a pretty big salad,” she said with food still in her mouth. She swallowed. “We might be able to reach an agreement.”

They both shared a laugh and portioned off some steak and salad to exchange.

“How’s the police academy going?” Jason slid some salad onto Maine’s plate.

“You mean after I broke that training officer’s arm during close quarters training?”

A look of astonishment came over Jason’s face. “That was you?” He chuckled. “It makes sense now. Wow, if I’d known that, I might’ve reconsidered asking you out tonight.”

She could tell that Jason was joking. “Yep.” She pushed some slices of steak onto his plate. “A few more weeks left, a couple of exams, and it’s official. I’ll be a rookie officer.”

Jason rested his arm against the table, studying her. “I can’t believe I’m on a date with a future cop. That’s badass.”

Maine shrugged, trying to play it cool. “I’m on a date with a future doctor. That’s pretty badass too.”

Jason forked some of the newly acquired steak into his mouth, trying not to come off as greedy. His eyes rolled upward in bliss. Then he turned to her. “Back when we met during that CPR training I was assisting with at the academy, I never would’ve guessed we’d be sharing food at a nice restaurant. Why did you say yes?”

“Because of that intense moment we had while trying to save that damned resuscitation mannequin’s life. We seemed compatible.”

“I didn’t think I’d stand a chance with you. You seemed so…qualified. And determined to be the best.”

Maine washed down some food with a sip of water as she thought back to the medical training that day at the academy. “You seemed to be the best at your job too.” She glanced to the side. “I probably make it look easy, but it’s tougher than you might think, proving myself in a profession dominated by men.”

He thought this over as he swallowed some salad. “Understood. Aside from you being a beast, I didn’t think I’d stand a chance with you with all the competition at the academy. I mean a girl like you, training with a bunch of ripped, sweaty men…”

She shook her head. “It’s not like that. I don’t…” She made a face. “I think I scare most of them.” Jason wasn’t wrong though. The eye candy was a perk of the job, but most of the guys weren’t single or were jerks. It didn’t help that she was the fastest runner in her group and could lift as much as the strongest man—and that was with her taking her father’s strength-reducing elixirs.

No wonder she intimidated them so much.

She faced Jason. Her words were serious. “Do I intimidate you?”

He stared at her for a moment and pushed his plate aside. As Maine wondered what he was doing, Jason leaned toward her and placed his elbow on the table, his arm standing almost vertical. “Not a chance. But I would like to test how strong you are. Consider it a medical experiment. Arm wrestle?”

Shit. This was it. This was the part of the date where she broke him. The only question was, would it be a snapped ulna? Crushed metacarpal? Dislocated elbow? Was that even a thing?

Concerning her strength, it probably was.

“I don’t think…” she started.

“I insist. I won’t let your freakish strength scare me off that easily.”

The words “freakish strength” off-put Maine. What was she to do? Say no? Make a scene? If she and Jason were to become serious, she wouldn’t be able to hide her…attributes from him for too much longer.

So she nodded, moved her plate aside, and pulled up her sleeve. Then she set her elbow on the tabletop next to his, their forearms forming a steeple as their hands connected. Her heart skipped a beat.

Please don’t hurt him. Please don’t hurt him…

“On the count of three,” Jason said. “One, two, three.”

Maine felt an insignificant amount of force pressing against her palm.

Jason grunted. “Wow. You really are…strong.” His face flushed with the effort he was exerting to try to push her arm to the side. He didn’t seem angry. If anything, he was amused.

“Tell me when to start,” Maine said coyly.

With a roll of his eyes, Jason grunted. “Okay, do it. Finish me off. Before too many other people notice me.”

She nodded. This would be the real test. If she managed not to break any of his bones—or sprain a muscle or ligament—she ought to be in the clear and the rest of the date would be a breeze. He really did seem like a great guy.

“Okay,” she said calmly. Then, picturing a feather in her mind, she eased her palm against his. When his hand flopped with a crash to the tabletop, she winced.

She had tried to let his hand down easy.

Jason tore his hand away and clutched it to his chest.

Horror tugged at Maine’s face. “Are you…okay?”

Jason looked up at her with taut shoulder muscles and a serious face.

Shit.

Then Jason’s posture softened, and a grin cracked his face. “Holy cow, you are so freakishly strong. I love it!”

She relaxed, unaware of all the tension she’d been holding in herself.

Maybe being freakish wasn’t such a bad thing.

She was about to say something witty when a sexy female figure in a gold dress sauntered up to their table. A gorgeous woman with silky dark hair, supple curves, and big breasts sat next to Jason.

That’s when Maine knew she wasn’t in the clear after all.

CHAPTER TWO

With charm oozing from her every pore, the attractive woman eyed Maine from across the table. Jason, in turn, watched the woman sitting beside him. There wasn’t much room in the booth so their legs were touching.

“You,” Maine accused, sensing something off about the woman’s charm. “You’re not…”

Human? the newly arrived female projected into Maine’s mind.

Maine thought about that. “How did you…”

The woman lifted a dainty hand to her smooth forehead. I have traveled a long way. Lift the Veil so we can talk, please.

Maine didn’t like the woman’s tone, and she didn’t like how she could somehow talk to her via mental projection or whatever it was.

The Veil, the woman said as Jason fawned over her cleavage. Lift it. You possess magic. So I know that you know how to lift the Veil.

The Veil. She hadn’t looked at the world without the Veil since the last time she spoke to her troll father—six years ago.

Used to it or not, lifting the Veil was as easy as pressing a button or, more accurately, pulling a veil off your face.

Before she did it though, Maine passed a hand in front of Jason’s face. The woman’s presence—boobs—enraptured him so much that he didn’t react.

Men.

The woman tapped her slender fingers on top of the table. Troll, I’m waiting. She must have put Jason under some sort of spell or something. The sooner Maine got to the bottom of this, the sooner she and Jason could get on with their date.

Maine drew a deep breath and mentally “lifted the Veil.” She suddenly saw the woman sitting before her morph into a life-size fairy complete with a set of beautiful, swooping dragonfly wings on her back. Sparkles glimmered in the air around her like a visible aura.

Maine’s mouth dropped open in amazement.

Then a calm, monotonous voice spoke in Maine’s ear. Weakness: salt on her wings.

“Huh?” She turned to face Jason.

The internal voice spoke again. Weakness: left knee—broken as a child. Redheads—his type. Balls—sensitive area to male hum—

She shook her head, looking away from Jason and focusing on the voice.

It was distinct, unnatural, and sounded more robotic than human. No, not mechanical. More troll.

She turned back to the fairy, suddenly understanding how to project her thoughts to the other female. I’m not a troll. I’m a halfling. Not full troll like my father. Maine instinctively reached for the salt.

Ah, yes. Your father. That’s why I’m here today.

What about him?

The fairy reached into a sparkling delivery satchel slung over her shoulder. I’m a fairy courier. On behalf of your father, I was sent to deliver to you—

A bottle of strength-dampening elixir?

The fairy eyed her sharply. No. Papers.

Huh?

Your father’s last will and testament.

My father’s…will?

None of this made sense. This courier fairy had brought her father’s will? Did he want her approval or something? It didn’t make sense.

It didn’t help that Jason was now an inch from the fairy’s ear. He’d gently lifted a strand of her stunning hair and seemed about to lick her earlobe.

The fairy noticed at the same time as Maine.

Quit trying to steal my date, fairy, Maine said.

With a dainty hand, the fairy pressed Jason back in his seat to give her some space. Then she sprinkled some kind of dust into his face, and Jason sat bolt upright as if in a trance. “Now be a nice boy and behave, okay?” she whispered into his ear.

Jason nodded gleefully and stared forward with glazed eyes, pleased to serve her.

The fairy turned back to Maine. Ugh. Humans. When Maine gave her a confused look, she added, Fairy pheromones drive humans crazy, as if that answered everything.

You sprayed him with some more.

The fairy shook her head. No, talcum powder. It dampens my smell. None of that matters.

Maine looked at Jason—he still looked dazed, such was the power of fairy pheromones.

The fairy took Maine’s hand. We must speak.

She pulled her hand away. I’m not going to let you ruin my date. This is a nice guy in a large city brimming with not-so-nice guys.

The fairy glanced over at Jason still sitting upright with unseeing eyes. Then she snaked a hand under the table toward his lap. A second later, she peeked down at her lap.

What the hell are you doing? Maine asked.

After a few moments, the fairy lifted her perfect face and met Maine’s gaze. This guy? You think he’s great?

Yeah. Wholesome, in a country sort of way.

The fairy pressed the dainty fingers of one well-manicured hand to her forehead. Troll girl. You have much to learn. Then she continued aloud in a conversational tone. “You don’t have a chance with him. He’s hooking up with a redhead after this dinner date with you. A really ‘wholesome’ redhead, if you know what I mean.”

No, I don’t know what you mean, Maine said quickly. Are you reading his mind?

No. His text messages. The fairy lifted Jason’s phone from her lap.

You can’t steal people’s phones. How did you break his password?

Jason still sat upright, smiling in an odd, cheery sort of way.

The fairy looked at Maine as if she was a petulant child. Uh, magic. Duh.

Right… Well, I don’t believe you. Jason is one of the good ones.

The fairy, perturbed, turned to Jason and spoke aloud. “Please confirm to the girlchild across from you that you have a snuggle date with Alexa after you leave here tonight.”

Jason nodded.

The fairy turned to Maine with a look that said, Satisfied?

Maine shook her head. Alexa? That could be his pet cat. Or dog.

With a sigh, the fairy turned back to Jason. “Elaborate on your snuggle dates, please.”

Jason grinned, happy to be of service. “Alexa is my ex. We still see each other sometimes. I go over to her place. We talk a lot. Actually, she talks a lot. I didn’t want to go over there tonight but depending on how this date goes, I was thinking of…you know.”

What? Jason was going to an ex’s house after this date to…hook up? From what she knew of him, it seemed completely out of character. Maine felt like puking. “I can’t believe this!”

She surprised even herself at how loud and forceful her voice had been. She’d never said anything in an outraged voice before with the Veil lifted. This was the first time she’d lifted the Veil since her dad had taught her how to. The action wasn’t like flexing a muscle. It was something innate to magical beings.

She shook her head and faced Jason with a hopeful expression on her face. Part of her wanted to give him a chance to explain. Maybe there was a chance that this wasn’t what it seemed. Then she recalled how he’d ogled the fairy’s chest.

Across from Maine, the fairy crossed her arms. I’m only trying to spare you the pain.

Maine tightened her fist at her side. The fairy was right. Jason was another loser with the angle of getting in her pants.

She placed both palms on the table and leaned toward Jason. “You know what, Jason? You’re an asshole, and I think it’s time to leave.”

So commanding was her voice that it interrupted the fairy’s pheromones and Jason snapped to attention. He faced Maine.

“It’s not what it sounds like…”

Maine pointed toward the restaurant’s door.

After seeing the look in Maine’s eyes, Jason scrambled over the fairy’s lap and out of the booth, turning back to Maine. “This isn’t…I’ll call you later—”

“Please don’t,” Maine called, realizing afterward that silence had fallen over the restaurant and all eyes were on her.

She dropped her gaze to the table in front of her.

Very nicely done, the fairy said. I’m impressed. Now shall we talk?

* * *

“So how did it happen?” Maine asked. The server had already taken the plates away, and Maine had begrudgingly paid for both rather expensive and partially eaten meals.

The fairy’s brows and dragonfly wings twitched. “How did it happen? I was assigned to come to find you. I came and found you.”

“No, my father. How did he die?”

“Oh. Murder.”

“Murder?” Maine sat forward, alert. Several of the restaurant’s patrons turned her way at her raised voice. She couldn’t help but notice again how her voice was so much more commanding when she had the Veil lifted.

Strange.

“Yes.” The fairy met Maine’s eyes. “Murder. It’s when someone deliberately kills someone else. Humans murder, the same as magical beings.”

“I know what murder is.” Maine wiped her face with her hand as if trying to wipe away her frustration. “I know I didn’t like my dad, but still, I never expected him to go like that.” She drew a breath. “I have so many questions.”

At least she now knew why her father hadn’t sent her a strength-reducing elixir yet this month. She’d thought maybe the bottle had gotten lost in the mail, certainly not that he was dead.

The fairy said, “His attorney will be able to answer your questions when you return home to settle his affairs.”

“What’s there to settle?” Maine asked. The last thing she wanted to do right now was to return home, not when she was so close to graduating from the police academy.

The fairy glanced down at a formal-looking document in her delicate hands. She passed it across the table to Maine. “There is the issue of the inheritance of your father’s Mantle.”

“Mantle? Like his cowl? I don’t want his clothes.”

“Not clothes. Mantle.”

“Whatever it is, I don’t want it. Can’t I sign some release papers or something?”

“I’m afraid it’s not that simple. You must speak with your father’s attorney back in Maine. Ah, how fitting that you’re from the state of Maine, and you’re named Maine. Such an honor to be named after your birth place.”

Maine stared at the fairy. “Are you serious?”

“I am.”

Magical people could be so bland and obtuse, her father especially.

Part of her felt that she should grieve her father’s passing. Part of her felt that she shouldn’t because he was always so unemotional himself, like Spock but without the ears.

He was a neglectful man who’d left her mother. He thought that being a good father meant showing up a few times a year—without presents! That wasn’t true. He would often bring her a handcrafted wicker man doll. She didn’t care if the dolls were supposed to protect her. They were creepy.

“You know my name.” Maine cleared her mind of her father’s memory. “What’s yours?”

“Blue Dots.”

Maine stared at the fairy incredulously. “Your name is Blue Dots…” Then she noticed the blue dots on the fairy’s dragonfly wings. “Right.”

Next, the fairy slid a business card to Maine. It read, Maki-Mae, Attorney at Law. There was a Maine address underneath.

“That’s the name and address of your father’s attorney who you must see,” Blue Dots said. She slid something else across the table.

Maine picked it up. “Is this a Greyhound bus ticket?”

The fairy nodded.

“That’s more than a ten-hour bus ride. I’m not going to Maine.”

“It’s the quickest way you’ll get everything sorted.”

“Now isn’t a good time to leave New York. I’m graduating soon.”

“Is any day a good time for a family member to die?”

Guilt scratched at Maine’s conscience. She wasn’t her father. She was a human, and she felt bad for him even though he’d been an asshole. “A bus ride will take too long. Can’t you magically whisk me away to my dad’s place? Maine is only a few states over.”

“I’m sorry. This is all I can do.” The fairy held up a second ticket. “Unfortunately, this too is how I must travel back. I took the One-Way here, but there is no One-Way back.” She shook her head as if what she said not only made sense but was something she and Maine could commiserate over. “I remember the days they used to fly us first class to make express deliveries. Too expensive these days.”

Maine glanced at her ticket.

“So are you coming?”

“I don’t think you understand. I can’t leave the police academy now.”

Blue Dots adjusted her posture. “It’s already taken care of. Another fairy courier went to the academy to inform your superior of your father’s passing and arrange for your training to continue after the funeral is all wrapped up. That is, if you wish to return to this…concrete jungle, after visiting home.”

“Oh, I will. This ‘concrete jungle’ is my home now. Not some backwoods town in Maine.”

The fairy perked up. “So you’ll go then?”

She didn’t want to. Still, it was her duty, wasn’t it?

“Yeah, I’ll go. First I’ll need to pack a duffel bag back at the apartment.”

“Very well. We share the same bus so I shall accompany you.”

Maine didn’t know what to think about that. As she prepared to stand, she said, “How did you get my superiors at the academy to understand? They don’t let cadets leave and come back like this.”

The fairy gave a wicked grin and twitched her nose. Maine thought she saw a twinkle in the fairy’s eyes. “Right, fairy pheromones.” She studied the fairy’s magnificent oversized dragonfly wings. “I don’t know much about magic and magical beings.”

“It shows.” The fairy regarded her thoughtfully. “My advice: brace yourself. Because once you return home, you’ll have quite the immersion into magic.”

CHAPTER THREE

Blue Dots crossed her arms, leaning against the wall of Maine’s New York apartment. “Hurry it up, please? We’re going to miss the bus.”

Maine shoved another light jacket into her already packed duffel bag. From her childhood, she knew how cold Maine could get even in the summer during the mornings and nights. She turned back to her dresser and held up a turquoise and a pink hoodie, trying to decide between the two.

“Ugh. Bring them both,” Blue Dots whined.

“Hush it, fairy.” Maine paused, throwing a glance at her roommate’s door. It was closed, but judging from the sounds coming from within, her roommate had a new boyfriend.

“Ah, that.” The fairy also looked at the door. “My pheromones must be intensifying their lust.”

Maine studied the fairy. “Who needs Viagra when you could bottle fairy pheromones?”

Blue Dots gave Maine a dismissive look. “What do you think is in Viagra?”

“Um…” She turned her attention to the two hoodies in her hands and back to the fairy. She currently had the Veil closed, but she knew the fairy still had large dragonfly wings out to either side of her shoulders that she couldn’t see. “I have a question.”

“Humans are so curious.”

Maine grunted, stuffing both hoodies into her duffel bag. “Wouldn’t you be if you didn’t have wings, but you found out some people did?”

“Point taken. To answer your question, it’s magic—like how I was able to hack your date’s cell phone. My wings are there, hidden from this world in terms of all physical means.”

Maine frowned, somehow managing to close the duffel bag’s zipper. “So your wings exist, but not in this world?”

“Yes. Exactly. The Veil is like a separate realm or plane interlaid upon Earth. Now can we please go?”

With a sigh, Maine stood and hefted her heavy-duty duffel bag to her shoulder. To an ordinary human, it would be quite heavy. She was part-troll.

She was about to head toward her apartment’s front door when she heard footsteps from her roommate’s room. She turned toward it, but the door was still closed, thankfully. She didn’t want to see what was going on in there.

Suddenly the fairy stiffened. “I smell a vampire nearby.”

“What?” The statement was so random that it caught Maine off-guard. “Vampires aren’t a thing.”

“Oh yes, they are.” Blue Dots leaned toward her with a scolding finger, and her cleavage thrust out. “They don’t exist in the form humans tend to portray them as in the cultural arts. Instead of tearing out throats, they feed on sexual energy.”

“You’re making this up.”

“No. I’m not.”

“Then give me one example of a real-life vampire.”

The fairy thought about it. “Basically any male model.”

“Huh?”

“And Tom Holland.”

“Okay, now I know you’re making this up.” Maine tugged on the duffel bag’s strap, slung across her shoulder. “Let’s go—”

Her roommate’s door burst open and in the doorway stood a tall thin man wearing only a pair of skinny jeans. He had chiseled abs. His skin was a bit pale but in an attractive way, and his hair was short and stylish. He pierced Maine with dark predator eyes.

“Let me guess. You’re a vampire?”

The fit young man gave a lazy shrug and leaned up against the doorframe with one hand. “I prefer ‘lust demon,’ but you may call me a vampire.”

“Maine, be careful,” Blue Dots warned from over Maine’s shoulder.

Maine didn’t need a reminder that not all magical beings were nice. “Did you hurt my roommate?”

The vampire shrugged. “Nah. I don’t hurt humans. Wore her out, though. Humans are so easy to please. They poop out on you so soon. She’ll wake up in a few hours, completely unharmed.”

He pushed away from the wall and took a step toward Maine. He looked…hungry.

Maine gripped the strap of her duffle bag, still slung over her shoulder. “Why are you here?”

He gave a wicked grin and pointed one finger at her. “I’m here for your head.”

“I thought you don’t hurt humans.”

“You’re not a human. And there’s a mark on your head. I kill you. I get paid. I retire someplace nice.”

“Be careful,” Blue Dots repeated.

Maine scoffed. “You can try. I don’t think you know who you’re messing with.”

“A puny little girl.”

She gestured with one hand. “Come and get me—”

He did.

He lunged with a speed she hadn’t anticipated, but some special lessons she’d taken at the police academy had honed her combat instincts. Also, there was her innate troll instincts and abilities.

She dodged to the side as effortlessly as he’d darted forward and kicked out at his shin.

He snarled and turned on her savagely.

“Lift the Veil!” Blue Dots cried, pressed up against the apartment’s kitchen wall.

The fairy was right. Maine wasn’t dealing with a human opponent. The Veil would show her the vampire’s true form.

She lifted it…

She didn’t initially see much difference in the vampire’s physique. Then he snarled again, and she saw the pointy teeth. His eyes weren’t only dark—they were pitch black.

Weakness: Sunlight. Running water. Garlic—

The vampire swiped out at her with sudden ferocity, and she popped back a step out of the way. In the process, she heard a tearing rip and glanced down at a flapping piece of the jacket she wore.

Vampires had claws instead of fingertips, it seemed.

She’d have to grab a new jacket after she wrapped up this fight. She lifted her eyes to his. “Asshole, I liked that jacket.”

He cocked his head at her. “You have so many jackets…” He dove for her again, and Maine swiveled out of the way and rotated hard, gripping the strap of her duffel bag as it slid off her shoulder. She swung it like a cloth mallet, striking the vampire in the side under the arm. He toppled onto a futon, collapsing it.

Maine found herself enjoying this fight. As much as she hated her freakish troll strength and agility, it felt good to cut loose on a bad guy like this—a magical bad guy who could hit back as hard as she could.

This wasn’t the police academy where she had to hold back against her fellow human counterparts. Still, she had to remind herself that she couldn’t kill this vampire. Even though it would be self-defense against a magical assassin, human society and the police academy wouldn’t be able to see it that way. They would frown upon her killing someone in her apartment.

Maybe she could subdue him and scare him off. It was worth a shot.

The vampire was on his feet again in a few moments. He crouched in an offensive stance and threw back his shoulders, extending his claws and showing off his fangs in a vicious growl.

Maine glanced over her shoulder at Blue Dots. The fairy was crouched next to the oven with a large nonstick skillet clutched in both hands. She looked like the quintessential busty, helpless female in a horror movie.

With dragonfly wings.

“You know,” Maine said, “I think Hollywood’s portrayal of vampires is pretty spot on…”

With a cry of rage, the vampire charged, claws out. Maine, set in a good defensive stance, waited until he was in front of her before pivoting away like a matador. As she did so, she gave the duffel bag a good swing and slammed it into his back from behind.

The blow sent him face-first into the kitchen wall beside Blue Dots, still cowering behind the pan. She got out of the way and, before the vampire could recover, Maine slipped the heavy-duty duffel bag’s strap around his neck and gave a tug.

She pulled the stunned and snarling vampire toward her chest, keeping him at arm’s length from behind. He put up a good fight, trying to twist around and claw at her but she had the strap around his throat in a pressure lock. Carefully, she shoved him forward until he pressed against the wall of her apartment.

“Why the hell is there a mark on my life?”

The vampire gasped. “I…don’t know.” He attempted to reach up and cut the strap with his claws, but Maine kicked him in the crotch from behind. He grunted painfully.

She applied more pressure with the strap. The vamp’s head jerked around to face her, his eyes bulging.

“I don’t—”

Another tightening of the strap took the vampire to his knees. Beside him, Blue Dots shrieked and smacked the pan over the back of his head.

He gasped in a ragged breath. “Okay. Okay! I’ll talk.”

Maine gave the strap some slack, nodding for him to continue and nodding in approval at Blue Dots. She instructed the fairy to turn on all the stove top burners, and the fairy did so.

“The hit on your life, it had something to do with your father. And his Mantle.”

“Seriously? Ugh. I don’t want his stupid Mantle.”

“That’s all I know.”

Maine retightened her grip on the strap.

“Seriously. I don’t know anything else.” He gulped, knowing he was outmatched and beaten. “Are you going to…kill me now?” He glanced up at her with pleading pitch black eyes.

She couldn’t kill him—especially not in a place as public as this, but she couldn’t let him know that. “I could be persuaded to let a lowlife like you live…”

The vampire clasped his hands together off to the side. “Yes. Fine! I’m done hunting you. You have my word.”

With the strap still tight against his throat, Maine turned to the fairy. “You think he’s lying?”

“I’m not lying,” he gasped.

Suddenly, Maine released her grip on him and slid the strap off his neck.

He felt his neck with his hands. “Thanks—”

She stepped to the side and kicked him in the pale, chiseled chest, sending him flying backward toward the stove. When his back connected with it, his shoulders arched over its top, sizzling when they touched the glowing stove top burners.

“Agghhhhhhh!”

The vampire picked himself off the stove and Maine grabbed his wrist and swung him airborne through the kitchen. He landed on the kitchen table, shattering it upon impact in a splinter of IKEA craft.

He was on his feet in an instant, hurrying toward the front door. “I promise! I’ve finished hunting you.”

Maine dashed after him, standing in the doorway as he sprinted down the hallway. “If I see your fanged face again, I’ll pulverize it.”

“Message taken.” The shirtless vampire disappeared into the elevator at the end of the hall. “But know this. Others will come for you—”

The elevator door closed, cutting off his words.

Maine huffed, then clapped once as if to rid herself of the fight. “What a pushover.” She turned back toward the fairy setting the pan down and turning off the stovetop burners.

“A pushover that destroyed your kitchen table,” Blue Dots said.

“I never did like that table.”

She picked up her duffel bag and, after peeking in on her roommate to make sure she was unharmed, guided Blue Dots out the front door. “Now, let’s go catch that bus.”

Not only had her father been an asshole in life, but he was also continuing to be an asshole after death. She couldn’t get rid of his stupid Mantle quick enough.

“Home, here I come…” she muttered.

CHAPTER FOUR

Blue Dots the fairy wasn’t joking about immersion into magic when Maine returned home.

On the overnight bus ride from New York to rural Maine, Maine lifted the Veil several times. She usually did it each time a new passenger stepped on board at new stops. She forgot there were so many magical beings living among humanity.

As much as they enamored her, mostly she wanted to forget they existed. She looked like a human. She wanted to live a human life. She didn’t have wings or horns or cleft feet. She would never fit in with them.

Each time she lifted the Veil and looked at someone, a calm, monotonous voice in her head would announce their biggest weakness. For an elderly human woman with a walker, it was osteoarthritis and hair perms. For a seductive siren in a skin-tight dress and a scarf, it was silver blades and watching reruns of American Idol. For a young ogre wearing a hoodie, it was licorice and cheap beer.

She wondered vaguely what her weakness was, then didn’t want to know. She wanted to know why she was getting these messages when she lifted the Veil. She didn’t think all magical beings got them, so maybe it was a troll thing. Per the fairy’s instruction, she’d have to ask the attorney.

Blue Dots sat beside her, slumped back in the bus seat with her eyes closed and a pair of Beats headphones over her ears. Maine sighed and closed her eyes, trying to find a comfortable position. There was still a long ride to go, and after being hunted by a vampire assassin, she doubted she would get much sleep.

* * *

Blue Dots woke her.

“We’re there.”

Glancing up at the fairy, silhouetted by morning sunlight, she blinked.

“Maybe I’ll see you around town.” The fairy bounded off the bus.

Maine yawned and checked her phone. She had a few calls and voicemails from Jason, but she wasn’t about to listen to them. He was sweet when they met at that CPR class. He was the instructor, and she needed the credit as part of her training.

They had a connection, solidified over an un-resuscitative mannequin, and their first date had been going well… until the whole fairy and redhead incident, and well, Maine didn’t have time for assholes.

She got up and shuffled down the aisle to the front of the bus. When she reached the driver, she wondered if he was a human or a magical being. She’d never looked at him throughout the ride. She lifted the Veil now and saw that he was a middle-aged man wearing overalls. Weaknesses: Barbie dolls and cigarettes…

Grimacing, she got off the bus.

A metal sign greeted her next to the bus stop. WELCOME TO RAINWATER, MAINE. Population: 990.

That was interesting. The town had always seemed bigger when she was little.

Oh well. Time to find the attorney. She pulled out her smartphone and brought up her GPS app but couldn’t find a signal.

A crap town with crap phone and Internet signals, she thought.

Another yawn suddenly overtook her, and she arched her back and stretched both arms wide. As she did so, her hand connected with someone.

“Hey, watch it!” said a kindly man wearing spectacles as he toppled to the ground. It was a mailman, and he’d dropped his mailbag. Maine bent over and tried to help him up while keeping her duffel bag from sliding off her shoulder. He crouched back a step. “Hey, hey, now I’m not looking for any trouble.”

“Trouble? I don’t mean any trouble.”

He scratched behind his head. “It’s just that you hit me so hard.”

She fidgeted. “An accident, so sue me.” She caught herself. “Don’t sue me.” She had to remind herself that she wasn’t in New York anymore. Life was gentler in a place like Rainwater.

Calmer.

People didn’t have to yell at each other on the side of the street to hear themselves over the sounds of honking horns and traffic.

She stared at him, which prompted him to start talking again.

“My name is Sam. I don’t mean to pry, but you’re new around here?”

She nodded, then shook her head no. “It’s a long story. I was born here. I moved to New York. Now I’m back for a short time.”

“Hm. Now that didn’t seem so long a story. What made you decide to come back?”

She paused. “My father recently died.”

His eyes bulged. “Your dad was Valkious?”

“Yep.” She sighed.

The mailman shook his head sorrowfully and gave a slight bow. “Oh. I’m so sorry. This…must be hard for you.”

Maine had a feeling that this man was a magical being. She lifted the Veil and saw that the mailman was a satyr. A satyr! Cloven feet, but the rest of his body was more or less human. He had some horse-like ears and a snub nose, but he looked friendly. She couldn’t help but picture him with a pan flute to his lips, playing a tune…

Weakness: Slow. Weakness: below average strength. Weakness: Easy to distract. Weakness: Friendly toward your father and therefore you. You can use this against him. You can destroy him with trickery and—

She shook her head, placing the Veil back on and therefore silencing the voice. That damned voice. She wondered if the strength-dampening elixir could free her of that, too. It seemed to be getting more talkative and more…evil?

Shrugging, she turned to the now normal-looking mailman. “I’m looking for his attorney to go over some things.” She showed him the business card the fairy had given her.

The mailman stepped up to her and lowered his spectacles as he read the print on the card. “Maki-Mae, eh? Rainwater ain’t a big town. But its side streets can be tricky for newcomers.”

Sam gave her directions to the attorney’s place, and Maine thanked him and excused herself.

With the directions, she found the attorney’s office quite easily. It was a ground-floor unit in a multi-unit complex.

Attorney Maki-Mae—the “wise” choice, read a sign on the front door.

She opened it and stepped inside.

A low, simple couch lined one wall. Men and women occupied all of it except for a seat at the very end. The people came from all walks of life and looked agitated as if they’d been waiting a while. Or maybe they were annoyed by the tiny chihuahua in the middle of the floor yipping at a trio of large ugly cats.

Maine turned and surveyed the rest of the room. Framed pictures of Japanese landscapes hung on the four walls. A desk sat against the wall opposite the long couch with a woman behind it and a computer. On the desk were several picture frames containing Japanese quotes.

The receptionist glanced up at Maine and swiped dark curly bangs out of her eyes.

“Name?”

Maine fidgeted. She didn’t want everyone here to know that she was the daughter of the dead town asshole. Instead of speaking, she slid the last will document the fairy had given her across the desktop.

The secretary scanned it over once, then gave a curt nod. “Please take a seat. Maki-Mae will see you shortly.”

Maine glanced out at the people already in the waiting room.

Shortly.

Yeah right. This would take the better part of the day to meet with the attorney and settle her father’s affairs. She walked a wide arc around the yipping chihuahua on the floor and plunked down on the last remaining spot on the couch. She set the duffel bag on her lap.

She yawned and closed her eyes, exhausted from the long bus ride. Thinking of all the magical beings riding the bus with her earlier, she wondered if anyone else in the waiting room were magical beings or if they were humans.

Yip. Yip. Yip-yap!

She cracked open her eyelids. That damned chihuahua was still yapping. She wondered which of the people waiting here was its owner. Why wasn’t one of them claiming it or trying to comfort it?

She was about to close her eyes again as she waited, but then she took a closer look at the chihuahua. It had a glossy chestnut coat with some interesting black markings on its fur: both ears, one of its paws, and a symbol on one flank that oddly enough looked like an old-fashioned door key.

One of the three ugly cats stepped forth and smacked the chihuahua over the nose with its paws.

Maine didn’t like that. There were two types of people she didn’t suffer: assholes and bullies. These three cats were the latter, and maybe the former too.

The closer she looked at the cats, the more she noticed something interesting about them. They didn’t look like cats.

They did, but they didn’t. It was something about their faces. Maybe it was their sharp teeth or cagey eyes. Perhaps it was the coarseness of their facial fur.

Something was wrong, and she had a distinct feeling that these weren’t cats at all.

Another of the cats smacked the chihuahua’s nose, this time drawing a swatch of blood. The chihuahua went mad with high-pitched yipping. Suddenly, the black key pattern on its rump began to glow faintly.

That wasn’t normal. Maybe the chihuahua wasn’t a dog either.

As Maine stood from the couch to intervene, she mentally lifted the Veil.

The chihuahua still looked like a dog, albeit with slightly larger muscles and piercing black eyes like a demon. Its head looked more wolflike, but since it was so small, it seemed almost comical. Its tiny curly tail was bushy like a wolf’s as well, and its yip was no longer a yip. Instead, its barks were words tainted with an edgy whine, pent up, and full of pipsqueak menace.

“If these people weren’t here, I’d tear ya ta shreds, ya hear me!”

The three cats sneered. As Maine had thought, they weren’t cats. They were…

She scrunched up her face. Gnomes? With cat hair and whiskers? Cat-gnomes?

The three of them were about a foot tall with sagging wine-colored robes, hanging jowls, and yellow cat eyes. Their fingers were like tiny reptilian T-rex claws.

They were bullies.

One of them tilted its head from side to side. “What are you going to do, little chihuahua?”

“I am not a chihuahua. I am a dir…” The chihuahua hesitated, then threw back its tiny shoulders and snarled, raising its hackles. “I am the Noff. I bring the Key to damage, destruction, terror. And mayhem!”

Noff? Key? Chihuahua? Maine couldn’t help but be amused.

Again the black key pattern glowed faintly.

Another of the cat-gnomes chuckled. “Whatever, you pint-sized freak.”

Enough of this, Maine thought as she stepped up to the creatures. Without looking directly at them so that she wouldn’t have to put up with that odd troll voice in the back of her head, she said, “Leave him alone.”

As in the restaurant, she was stunned by the commanding nature of her voice. So too were the cat-gnomes. They whipped their furry, pudgy faces toward her with bulging eyes. They cowered back a few steps toward the check-in desk.

The chihuahua meanwhile shot Maine an embarrassed look and scampered out the front door.

So it must not have had an owner. It must have been here to see Maki-Mae for some reason of its own.

Before she could think it over much further, an office door opened and a woman said, “Ms. Maine? I’ll see you now.”

CHAPTER FIVE

The rest of the people in the waiting room grumbled as Maine followed Maki-Mae into her office.

Maki-Mae was tall, beautiful, and silent. She moved in a businesslike, purposeful way and possessed an odd calm. Her long black hair floated out behind her over her shoulders, and as she skirted around a walnut desk, she offered Maine a seat on the other side with a gentle hand motion. She gave Maine a sort of tragic yet comforting smile.

Harionago, said the voice in Maine’s head. Beware the barb-tipped ends of her hair. Weakness: Urge to intervene when witnessing an injustice. Weakness: Strong-willed men. Weakness: Curling irons…

Maine averted her eyes for a moment and lowered the Veil, thus cutting off the annoying voice in her head.

“I am glad you came,” Maki-Mae said in a clear voice as she turned and selected a binder from a bookcase behind her. Instead of wearing a suit, a tight-fitting red kimono that somehow had a businesslike air to it covered the woman’s graceful body.

Maine glanced over her shoulder at the closed door to the waiting room. “How did I skip in front of all those people? I didn’t exactly have an appointment.”

Maki-Mae looked at Maine gravely. “Your father.” She didn’t say anything further.

Biting her lip, Maine thought, The man was such an asshole that his attorney wants to wrap up his estate as quickly as possible. Yeah. That made the most sense.

The walnut desk was mostly pristine except for a framed Japanese saying on one side.

“What does that say?” Maine asked.

The attorney nodded. “Seek inside first the information you seek outside.” She looked at Maine. “Tell me. What is it that you seek from the outside world?”

Maine thought about it. “A good life? A good life for others? I don’t know. I want to get bad guys off the street so they can’t hurt or bother others.”

Frowning, the attorney said, “So you seek justice?”

“I don’t know. Why do I have to answer that question?”

Maki opened the binder sitting on the desk in front of her. “You don’t have to. It does help to know one’s purpose in life though, wouldn’t you agree?”

Maine shrugged. “I’m a twenty-something girl sitting in a law office of a hick town in Maine. Isn’t that advice a little heavy?”

“Heavy is the mind without a clear path.”

“Yeah,” Maine said, “but what’s that have to do with me and my father’s affairs?”

Drawing a deep breath, Maki-Mae flipped through the binder. It was a thick one.

“That’s all my dad’s?”

The attorney nodded. “Your father set up a trust several years ago, with my help, of course. It is very thorough. He wanted everything taken care of so things would be easier for you in the event of his death.”

“So thoughtful of him,” Maine said lightly.

Maki-Mae lifted her eyes from the binder. “Yes. Your father was a very thoughtful man.”

Maine interpreted the woman’s remark as sarcasm. How could it be anything but sarcasm? She gave her head a slight shake.

“You may disagree, but you are just like your father,” Maki-Mae said before turning back to the binder’s contents.

Maine crossed her arms. Was the woman being sarcastic again? It didn’t seem like it, but with magical beings, it was often hard to tell. She’d humor her. “Oh? How so?”

The attorney’s words were soft but concise. “So too would he have stood up for the dire wolf in the waiting room.”

“Dire wolf?” Maine laughed. “Wait, you mean the chihuahua?”

Maki-Mae sighed. “Our eyes see what they wish to see.”

“No, I’m pretty sure that was a talking chihuahua.” Maine thought back to the dog’s appearance, remembering its wolf-like features after she had lifted the Veil. However, it still had the stature of a chihuahua. Whoever heard of a toy dog-sized dire wolf? “How did you see what happened if your office door was closed?”

“I was coming out of deep meditation and sensed the disturbance. Also, I have good hearing.”

“Right. Why does a dire wolf need an attorney?”

“The human aspect is strong in you,” the attorney said. “Such spunk. As for your question, surely you can understand that I do not discuss my clients’ matters with others. Now, shall we discuss the true matter that you have traveled much distance for?”

Maine shook her head to clear it of the thoughts of the dog back in the waiting room. She’d probably never see the dog again so it didn’t matter what its deal was. “Yes. Shall we?”

When Maki-Mae next spoke, it was with focused formality. Gentle, but clear. “Your father’s will entitled you to all of his possessions and even his apartment, if you want them—”

“I don’t.”

The attorney continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “Also, there is the matter of his Mantle, which you have inherited after his death.”

“Don’t want it either. You know, a vampire almost killed me over that stupid Mantle.”

“I truly am sorry to hear that.”

Maine looked at the woman. “Maybe you didn’t hear me correctly. There’s a hit on my life because of something my father willed me. I don’t want it.”

Maki-Mae smiled patiently. “I’m afraid…it’s not that easy.”

“You’re the attorney. Make it easy.”

“I would if I could, but there are special rules in play. The Mantle is a very powerful magical item which once in possession, is passed down genealogically by firstborn descendent unless gifted to another while the possessor is still alive.”

“Can’t I reject it?”

At this, the attorney frowned. “You can. You must meet some terms first.”

“Terms?”

The attorney flipped the page before meeting Maine’s gaze. “To reject it, you must find a suitable person to switch the inheritance to, in essence, to take your place.” Maki-Mae leaned forward grimly. “If such an exchange is to happen, you must do it on the fourth moon of the lunar rising.”

“When’s that?”

“Tuesday.”

“So six days from now? I don’t want to wait around that long.” She smacked the duffel bag on her lap in frustration. What would she do for six days in this Podunk town? There were sure to be tons of magical creatures to admire and talk to, but she wanted to be back in New York, at the police academy about to graduate.

Where she belonged.

The attorney softly closed the binder. “We often receive what we do not ask for.”

“You mean like the stupid troll voice in my head that keeps telling me people’s weaknesses?”

Maki-Mae frowned. “That would be the voice of the Mantle.”

“The Mantle. Ugh. I definitely want to get rid of it then. It’s so annoying every time I lift the Veil.”

“You can turn it off, you know.”

Maine blinked. “Really? How?”

“You must simply will it to stop speaking. Try it.”

Maine scoffed. It was that easy?

“Go on,” the attorney urged.

Shutting her eyes hard, Maine thought, Shut up, you stupid Mantle. After a few moments longer, she opened her eyes and looked directly at Maki-Mae.

Weakness: Had strong feelings of respect toward your father. A vulnerability you can use to your advantage—

Maine violently shook her head. “Agh. It didn’t work. Why does the voice always seem so…evil?”

The attorney placed both of her palms on top of each other on the table in front of her. “A demon created it.”

“Of course it did.”

“It’s fortunate that your father gained possession of it.”

There was so much wrong with that statement that Maine didn’t know where to begin. She was going to get rid of it in six days. “Look, I get that I magically inherited this Mantle, but what is it? How is it communicating with me if I don’t have possession of it?”

“The Mantle,” Maki-Mae began calmly, “is a magical cloak that is tethered to its beholder whether it is worn or not. It is currently at your father’s apartment in his locker chest.” She paused to regard Maine seriously. “If you intend to don the Mantle itself, it will provide you additional attributes and further enhance your troll strength and abilities.”

Maine snorted. “Then I will not be donning it. I want to get rid of my troll powers.”

The attorney looked somehow…disappointed but said nothing.

“I mean, why would I want to go walking around the world wearing a Sherlock Holmes cloak?”

“The Mantle can be seen only with the Veil lifted. Humans cannot see beyond the Veil. Only magical beings.”

“Still don’t want it…” Maine raised a hand to stifle a yawn. “If I have to stay here for another six days, I might want to check out my father’s apartment. I could use a nap. If I’m lucky, maybe he left some strength-reducing elixirs. Know where they might be?”

“The elixirs would probably be in his locker chest.” Maki-Mae uttered a spell, unlocking a locked drawer behind her desk.

“Of course, they would be.” Next to the Mantle, Maine didn’t add.

“When did my father die? How was he murdered?”

The attorney retrieved a plain white envelope from the drawer. “A week ago. Looks like asphyxiation but the coroner has yet to finish running all the tests.” She slid the envelope across the desk.

Trying not to imagine the body of her dead father, Maine opened the envelope, the sole contents being a plain gold key.

“The key to your father’s apartment,” the attorney explained. “I will write down the address. As you’ve probably noticed, GPS doesn’t exactly function reliably in this town.”

“I’ve noticed,” Maine muttered. “What do people do for fun in this place?”

“If you seek boredom, boredom shall find you. My advice, seek the new.” Maki-Mae gave a quick wink. “I know you don’t want to be here, but you have only until the fourth moon of the lunar rising to live with the Mantle’s powers.”

Maine studied the key in her hand. If she had six more days in this town, it would be nice to have a place to lay her head at night. A free place to lay her head.

Too bad it had belonged to her father.

The attorney finished writing the directions to the apartment on a sticky note and handed it to Maine. “A word of caution. Upon using that key to unlock the door to your father’s place, you must utter a keyword before crossing the threshold. Otherwise, a fireball from within will attack you.”

Wrinkling her nose, Maine said, “Is that supposed to be a metaphor?”

“No. You will be charred alive.”

Maine scoffed. She recalled the fairy’s words about immersion into magic when she returned home. First a satyr mailman. Then a chihuahua-sized dire wolf being picked on by cat-gnomes. Now a fireball-protected front door?

Blue Dots hadn’t been exaggerating.

“Okay. Yeah, whatever. What’s the password?”

Maki-Mae pressed her lips together. Then she said, “The password is Maine.”

CHAPTER SIX

Her father’s apartment wasn’t far away. It was in a decent part of town down a small side street. The road wasn’t paved. Instead, interlocking bricks comprised it. That, combined with the small trees lining the concrete sidewalks on both sides lent this section of town a quaint, peaceful quality. The air smelled of fresh pine from the forest directly behind the small two-story building.

She was, however, annoyed to find that his apartment was on the second floor above a pet store. How was she supposed to take a nap with the barking, meowing, and squawking of a pet store on the floor below?

Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she thought.

A simple wooden stairway led up to her father’s apartment. On a hunch, she lifted the Veil to see if the building looked any differently. It didn’t.

As she was about to ascend the wooden stairs, the Mantle’s voice said, Weakness: Fire. Strong wind—

“Shut up!” Maine blurted, and a few human passersby flashed her curious looks. She forced a smile at them.

The Mantle gave weaknesses to inanimate objects too?

She started up the steps and came to the wooden balcony landing in front of the apartment door. Sitting beside the door was a pot of blooming red flowers. Maybe geraniums.

Quaint.

Her father had never been a fan of flowers from what she remembered. Just then she noticed a small tag inside the plant’s foliage and bent to inspect it. She found a folded piece of paper that read, Thank you!

Huh? For what? Who was it from? There was no name on it.

Replacing the paper and making a mental note of it, Maine stood and faced the door. With the gold key, she unlocked it and pushed the door open, careful not to cross the threshold.

It wasn’t really protected by a fireball spell, was it?

Oh well, being relatively new to magic, she couldn’t afford not to take the attorney’s words seriously. Feeling stupid, she uttered the passcode, “Maine,” and the entire door frame shimmered with a faint glow. The glow faded, and a voice whispered, “You shall now pass.”

She twisted her head to check for who had said that—it wasn’t the Mantle’s voice in her head—so it must have been the fireball spell itself, letting her know that it was safe to enter.

She stepped inside, glancing around at the interior.

While it was small, it made her New York apartment look like a closet. There was a small mudroom immediately to the side with a washer and dryer. A hall tree stood on the other side in a corner beside the door. The hall tree was bare, but for a moment Maine expected to see the Mantle hanging from it like a wraith.

She didn’t know why that imagery had come into her mind. Maybe because of its nefarious-sounding voice, which was quiet now since she had the Veil closed.

Proceeding farther into the apartment, she saw a kitchen set up on one side. It was an open area with some tall countertops and two bar stools. A fridge, a stove with an oven, and a sink completed the kitchen. Unfortunately, there was no dishwasher so she’d be washing dishes by hand unless she ate out.

Suddenly her stomach grumbled. Getting trangry, she thought as she checked her duffel bag for a snack. Nothing.

Damn. She rummaged through some cabinets but couldn’t find any food. There wasn’t even a microwave in the apartment.

With a sigh, she continued her inspection of the premises.

On the opposite side of the kitchen was a cozy living room area. There were two leather sofas positioned on either side of a fireplace and a simple, low coffee table in front of one couch. It was the more worn out of the two—probably where her father Valkious sat. But why did he have two couches? He was a bachelor as far as she knew.

Behind the worn couch and against the wall was an oaken chest with iron banding like ones you might see in medieval days.

My father has an actual oak chest as a locker chest… she thought, impressed. How cool was that? If her father had some strength-dampening elixirs, they’d probably be in that chest. But she was tired and wanted to check out the rest of the apartment.

She pushed on to the back wall. A small bathroom complete with a shower lay on one side and a bedroom on the other side. Aside from an antique-looking oak dresser, a queen-sized bed with a brown comforter and sheets was the only furniture inside.

The neatly made bed looked so inviting. She tossed her duffel bag on it.

She considered going back to check the chest, but she was tired and let herself fall backward on the bed.

Sleep took her.

* * *

She was awakened by a chorus of dog barks from the floor below her. It took her a moment to realize they were from the pet store.

“That’s going to get old fast,” she muttered, rubbing her face and getting up from the bed. Stepping into the bathroom, she splashed some cold water on her face and toweled it off. She stood there for a time, looking at herself in the mirror.

She was curious if the Mantle would name her weaknesses if she lifted the Veil now.

She lifted it.

Weaknesses: Too many to list.

“What the hell?” she muttered.

Gets hungry often.

“Hey, a girl’s gotta eat.”

Unhealthy obsession with Batman.

“He’s a cool yet complicated character.”

Weaknesses: Has chip on shoulder the size of New York. Unreasonably angry at her father. Unwilling to accept that her father wasn’t a bad—

She dropped the Veil.

Okay, so that was a bad idea.

She headed out into the living room area. Now was as good a time as any to check the chest for strength-reducing elixirs.

She crouched before the chest, expecting it to be locked. When her hand touched the lid, the chest vibrated and made an unlocking sound and went still as if cued to open at her touch.

Frowning, she opened the heavy lid. Then she frowned even more. Somehow the chest seemed deeper and wider than it had when it was closed. She closed it and quickly reopened it, confirming the phenomenon. It was as if the chest’s interior expanded when open.

Magic.

Her father had everything inside in meticulous order. Magical weapons and gear in one corner, books and other tomes in another. One corner contained some garments, and the remaining corner had…

Glass vials.

She thrust a hand inside the chest to snatch one up to see if it had strength-dampening elixir in it when suddenly the stack of garments shuddered.

“What the—”

A pair of brown trousers slid off the stack as an invisible shape flung itself up and at her.

“Get off me!” she yelled, fighting with her hands as an unseen cloth phantom flapped around in front of her, smacking her over the head, shoulders, and sides. She couldn’t see exactly what was attacking her; its shape blurred whatever was behind it like an invisibility cloak.

She backed up a step and turned, bumping into the worn couch and tumbling backward onto the leather seat. As she fought to right herself, the cloth phantom continued to assault her with flapping, smacking arms.

She clawed through the air and managed to get a grip on it when a ghostly tailcoat cracked her over the forehead, throwing her bangs up.

“Ow, you little bastard.” It had to be the Mantle she was fighting with.

Shit—even the Mantle was trying to kill her!

Why? And why was it invisible?

Rolling off the couch to the floor, she swept her bangs out of her eyes. Then she scrutinized the air around her, searching for a disturbance.

She saw it. A thin ripple lashed out at her like a whip, and she managed to catch it with her hands before it could raise a welt across her cheek.

“Hah—got you.”

She had the idea to lift the Veil. So suddenly had it attacked her from the chest that she hadn’t even thought to do it earlier. As she lifted it, her attacker fell limp in her hands, and she gasped.

Not surprisingly, it was the Mantle.

It had stopped fighting her the moment she’d lifted the Veil. Now it hung quietly. It was very lightweight and smooth, possibly rainproof. The whiplike fabric that had struck out at her was a cord that wrapped around the waist to cinch the cloak closed.

She took a closer look at it. Instead of the houndstooth detective’s style she’d imagined it would be, it was a slick, black hooded cloak. It kind of looked like a sexy Little Red Riding Hood costume.

Excited by the magic emanating from it, she had the urge to put it on and did, feeling an inner calm wash over her as she pushed each arm into the sleeves and raised the cowl over her head. She couldn’t be sure, but it seemed to tighten around her to fit her curves like custom-fitted fabric.

She was about to go into the bathroom to check out her new look in the sink mirror when the voice in the doorway said, You have a guest at the door.

Maine froze. She wasn’t expecting anyone.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Stepping quietly to the front door, she opened the peek hole and looked out.

Even with the Veil lifted, she saw nothing.

Below her, the sounds of dogs and now cats were carrying up through the floorboards.

She set her hand on the doorknob and opened it. A large bug flapped past her into the apartment and hovered in front of her face. At least, she thought it was a bug. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a tiny woman fluttering in the air in front of her with a pair of beautiful butterfly wings on her back.

Butterfly fairy. Weakness: Fire. Cold. Strong gusts. Rain. Pretty much everything…

Maine shut the door. “Who are you?”

The three-inch-tall butterfly fairy blushed and did a double-take at Maine. “Wait, you’re not…Valkious.” Her words were tinny and melodious. Upbeat.

Maine had never seen a fairy like this before, but she could tell that this one had dressed up for the occasion. The tiny magical being wore a tight white dress that showed off her cleavage, and her hair was blonde and lacquered in shiny curls. A seductive perfume trailed behind the fairy like an unseen jet trail.

“No.” Maine waved the scent away with her hand. “I most definitely am not a middle-aged troll man.”

The tiny fairy bobbed her head, glitter sprinkling off her dress with the motion.

Maine continued. “What would have given you that idea?”

“You’re in his office, for one thing. Two, you’re wearing his Mantle.”

This wasn’t an office, but the fairy had her with the point about the Mantle. Maine realized her cowl was still up and reached up to flick it back. It cascaded quietly down along her back.

“Wait,” the fairy gasped. “Are you a thief?”

“I’m Valkious’ daughter.”

The fairy trilled. “I didn’t know he had a daughter. A halfling daughter, at that.”

Maine threw up her hands dramatically. “Well, here I am.” She studied the tiny buxom fairy hovering in front of her nose. She noticed that the fairy had a pronounced dimple on both of her cheeks when she smiled. “The name is Maine. What’s yours? Wait, let me guess. Is it… Dimple Cheeks?”

The fairy nodded eagerly. “Yes! How did you know?”

She sighed. “Lucky guess.” She flicked her eyes from Dimple Cheeks to the door. “Is this a social call? Or can I…help you with something?”

The fluttering fairy beamed. “Yes. I’d like to talk with your, uh, dad about something.”

Maine gave her a long, hard look, not having the slightest clue what this fairy might want with her father or vice versa.

Weakness: Has a crush on Valkious—you can use that to your advantage…

Maine frowned. If the fairy was trying to get with her dad, how would that relationship even work? The fairy was three inches tall… “He’s dead.”

“Oh…” The fairy blushed. “My, I think I’m going to faint. I need to sit.”

Although a bit peeved with this unexpected guest, Maine turned and guided the fairy toward the two leather couches. Maine selected the worn couch for herself, and Dimple Cheeks touched down upon the armrest of the other one.

The fairy sniffled. “I…I had no idea. When did it happen?”

“A few days ago.”

The fairy peered up at her. “It’s so unexpected. Was it an accident?”

“Murder.”

“Oh, dear.” The fairy fainted, plopping backward upon the couch’s armrest.

Weakness: Unconscious—now is your time to strike!

Maine mentally commanded the Mantle to shut up and surprisingly, it did. It was much easier to control while wearing it, she noted. Also, the Mantle was remarkably comfortable and lightweight. She could get used to wearing magic body-fitted flattering clothing.

Instead of taking the Mantle’s advice and “striking,” Maine first checked to make sure the fairy was breathing. If not, she didn’t know what to do. She’d passed Jason’s CPR training class back at the police academy, but it nowhere near qualified her to perform the maneuver on a three-inch tall magical being.

With her freakish troll strength, she’d probably crush the poor fairy with her pinky finger chest depression.

The thought of Jason made her shake her head.

She brought her focus back to the fairy. She was breathing, so that was a relief. How could she wake her up? Maine got up and went to the sink. After rummaging through some overhead cabinets, she found a clear shot glass and filled it to the brim with tap water. She brought it back to the passed-out fairy. Splashing cold water on a person’s face was a known way to wake someone up. She dipped her forefinger in the water and flicked it at the still fairy.

Water drops speckled the fairy’s face and dress but had no effect. Maine dipped and flicked again. This time, when the water droplets struck Dimple Cheeks’ face, the fairy’s torso shot up, her eyes wide.

“What happened?”

“You fainted. I sprinkled water on you.”

Dimple Cheeks scowled. “You gave me a bath. Do you even know how much this dress cost?”

“A pound of fairy dust? Sorry. Are you okay? You were fine one moment. Then you passed out.”

“Because you said someone murdered Valkious. Who would want to do such a thing?”

Maine let her gaze drop to the floor. “I don’t know.”

“I’ve got an idea.” The fairy’s voice rose with excitement. “You could find his killer!”

“I’m a little out of my element here, considering magic isn’t my forte.” The idea did appeal to her. She’d confessed to Maki-Mae that her purpose was to get bad guys off the street. Her father was an asshole, but he was her asshole. The guy who had offed him deserved justice…

She needed to think over everything she knew first. She turned back to the fairy. “Why did you come here today? Just to try to pick up my father? I know you like him.”

Dimple Cheeks hooked a strand of blonde hair over her ear and trilled. “It’s not like that. W-well,” she stammered, “maybe a little. I also have a job for Valkious.” She shuddered. “Had a job. I didn’t know he’d passed. We butterfly fairies tend to keep to ourselves. It’s so tragic. For the whole town of Rainwater.”

Maine scratched her forehead but let the statement go. “What kind of job?”

“Butterfly fairies have been disappearing all over town. First Green Eyes. Then Silver Shoes. And no one’s heard from Sparkle Legs in over a day.”

“I’m sure there’s some kind of explanation.”

The fairy threw both tiny hands up. “Something bad happened to them. I know it. Can you please investigate?”

Maine thought about it. “Maybe the other fairies skipped town. And Sparkle Legs…well, it hasn’t been forty-eight hours. Maybe she—or he—will turn up.”

Dimple Cheeks looked ready to cry again. With a sniffle, she glanced up at Maine. “Will you please help them?”

“I…” Maine didn’t know the first thing about magical beings. She had no idea where to begin a search for missing butterfly fairies. A few minutes ago, she didn’t know that butterfly fairies were a thing.

Her stomach grumbled angrily, reminding her that she needed to eat.

Now.

She was getting trangry. Really trangry.

After she ate, she could think better. Until then…

“I’m sorry. I can’t accept your case at this time.”

The fairy looked shocked at first. Then her pretty face scrunched up in pain. “You say you’re Valkious’ daughter? You’re nothing like him.”

“Gee. That’s funny. Because earlier today, I was told I’m just like him.”

Wiping her nose on her white dress, Dimple Cheeks said, “Valkious helped everyone. In fact, he never refused a case, even if the client couldn’t afford to pay him.”

Clients… That explained the flower delivery outside the front door. A client had paid her father in the form of flowers. For what? What did her father do for the inhabitants of Rainwater? Track down missing magical beings?

She peered down at Dimple Cheeks. “What exactly did Valkious do for this town?”

“He helped us. No matter what, he helped us.” The pouting fairy sprang to her feet and gave her butterfly wings a test flap. She hopped up and took flight toward the door. “Not like you, jerk.”

Dimple Cheeks had barely uttered the words, but Maine still heard them. It seemed that wearing the Mantle improved her senses. That was pretty cool.

It was still evil, and her father had possessed it.

Used to rougher language at the police academy when she ran laps around many of her fellow male trainees, the fairy’s words oddly stung a bit. Maybe because she was acting like her dad. The fairy was right. She was being a jerk.

“What did you say?” she called after the fairy, her trangriness getting the best of her.

She watched as Dimple Cheeks pulled to a hovering halt before the front door and waited expectantly for Maine to open it for her. After a moment, the fairy turned and clasped her hands together in front of her. She was about at eye level for Maine, who had stood from the couch.

“I said, ‘can you please open the door for me?’” the fairy said in a faux-nice tone.

Maine didn’t say a word as she strode over to the door and opened it. The fairy fluttered away, off into the town.

Maine bit her lip. She was surprised to find the word still irritated her.

Then her stomach grumbled.

She wasn’t a jerk. Not really.

She only needed some food.

CHAPTER EIGHT

She decided to leave the Mantle at the apartment. She didn’t want any more of her father’s potential “clients” asking her for help as she searched for a place to eat. She was going to need some help of her own to survive this town for six more days until she could get rid of the Mantle per the magic stipulation. Especially with assassins after her.

Recalling the vampire’s last words that others would come for her, she gritted her teeth. She’d have to be ready. She was part-troll—she could take care of herself.

When she reached the bottom of the wooden steps outside the apartment, she heard several birds squawking on the sidewalk. She turned and faced a large ornate silver birdcage sitting on a foldout table. A young man stood next to a sign that read, Give a parrot a home?

The parrots inside the cage, who had been screeching madly only a few moments before, fell silent as they eyed Maine. They cautiously lifted their clawed feet one at a time on their perches as they adjusted their stances.

“Scared,” one of the birds squawked as it retreated to the corner of the cage.

“You okay?” the boy asked. He looked a few years older than her and had dark hair and a winning smile. He wore jeans and a nice polo shirt with a name tag on it she couldn’t read, which meant he probably worked at the pet shop.

Hunger was gnawing at Maine’s insides. Her eyes were constricted, narrowing her eyesight to tunnel vision. “Hungry,” she grated out, and the guy nodded knowingly.

She was about to turn away and search for a restaurant when the boy reached into his pocket and tossed her something.

Although she hadn’t been expecting it, her troll senses had heightened, and she easily caught it. She peered down at it.

A candy bar.

Maine gritted her teeth together as she tried to return the boy’s smile but judging by his reaction, she didn’t think it came across as one.

Damn my dead father and his damned troll strength and hunger he had to pass on to me…

Tremors shook her hands, and her eyesight was constricting even further. She needed to eat the candy bar before she went full troll.

The candy bar in her hands was starting to blur. She couldn’t read the name on the label.

Her hunger had never hit her this hard before. Of course, she’d never been this long without a strength-reducing elixir. Why, oh why hadn’t she checked the vials before heading out?

Oh right. Because an annoying butterfly fairy who had the hots for her father had stopped by.

She could still hear Dimple Cheeks’ voice in her mind.

“Not a jerk. I’m not an asshole,” Maine grumbled as she backstepped and sat in a sort of crouch against the pet store’s brick wall. Then she brought the candy bar up and shoved it into her mouth.

She bit through the wrapper, and soon chocolate was melting into her mouth.

She sighed.

She continued to chew, reducing the candy bar to a wadded-up, shredded wrapper. Less than a minute later, she extracted the wrapper from her teeth and tossed it into a sidewalk trash can.

After drawing a few deep breaths, her eye muscles relaxed, and her vision returned to normal. Tremors no longer tickled her arms, and she knew she was out of the danger zone. No hulking out today but it had been close.

“Scary,” the parrot squawked again, and Maine realized the pet store boy was still standing beside the foldout table watching her. She realized he was kind of cute, not that she was looking for a relationship right now.

She forced a smile at him. “I can explain…”

Seeing that she was back to normal, the boy waved dismissively. “Eh, it’s Maine. I’ve seen some strange things. Glad you’re feeling better.”

“Me too.” She glanced down the street. It looked like shops. “I’m new in town. Any chance I could find a good restaurant nearby?”

The boy thought about it. Then his face lit up. “You could try the Sacred Sourdough.”

“Sacred Sourdough? You pulling my leg?”

He laughed. “I swear. That’s what it’s called.” He looked at her. “My name is Tony. What’s yours?”

She glanced down at the sidewalk. “Maine.”

“Like the state?”

“Yeah. My dad was a dick. You can go ahead and laugh now.”

“Laugh? I think that’s a badass name.”

“You don’t think it’s a bit weird?”

The boy rolled his shoulders. “If your name was New Hampshire, now that would be a little weird.”

They both laughed. Then Tony pointed down the street and instructed her to take a left and a right, then another left, and she’d be at the restaurant.

She thanked him, but before she left, she stepped toward the foldout table and inspected the parrots and the silver cage they were inside. “Is this handmade?”

The boy nodded. “I was an art major in college.”

“How long have you worked at the pet store?”

“I own the pet store, took it over from my mother. She’s not able to run it anymore.”

Maine smiled. Why couldn’t her father have bequeathed her a pet shop instead of an evil Mantle?

“It’s very nice work.” She lifted her eyes from the parrots to Tony. “I’ll go check out that restaurant now.”

He bobbed his head. Then he grabbed the handle on top of the birdcage. “Might want to hurry. Looks like it might rain.”

Maine glanced skyward. It was gray, but the clouds didn’t look that threatening. She’d have to hustle.

She headed off down the sidewalk before a new bout of hunger could strike. When she was well down the sidewalk, she peeked back over her shoulder. Tony had taken the birdcage inside and was now folding up the table.

She picked up her pace.

She made the first left turn, and the clouds opened up. It started to downpour. Recalling that the Mantle had a hood and looked like it might be waterproof, she mentally kicked herself for not wearing it.

She hurried down the sidewalk, the rain falling in thick sheets. There was no one else out here, and she could see why. When it rained here, it poured. She’d forgotten that from her childhood.

The heavy rain made it so that she could barely read the street signs at times and she nearly missed her right turn. Also, all the buildings here looked the same. The mailman hadn’t been joking about tricky side streets. She was searching for the final left turn when she had the feeling that someone or something was watching her.

Following her.

She picked up the pace. So did whatever was following her. Stopping suddenly under the shelter of a sidewalk tree, she lifted the Veil and peered out into the rain. The tree branches afforded some rain protection so that was nice. If Dimple Cheeks thought that getting flicked with water droplets was taking a bath, the fairy must never have gotten caught in heavy rain.

She couldn’t see anything out there watching her, and for once, the Mantle’s voice was quiet. It couldn’t sense anything with a weakness to identify.

She mentally kicked herself again for not wearing the Mantle because it enhanced her senses. With it on, she’d probably be able to see through the downpour.

Then she saw something. Street lamps were coming on now, and under one ten yards away she saw the reflection of two dark eyes like shiny black marbles staring back at her.

She readied herself. Another assassin? she wondered.

She shifted into attack mode, wondering what kind of magical being this could be. Or was it some feral animal from the forest?

The two eyes were set close together and were quite low to the ground. They moved toward her in a sprint through the rain.

She’d find out very soon what she was up against.

She tightened her hands into fists and lowered herself into a fighting stance…

Then eased up. It wasn’t an assassin.

It was the dire wolf chihuahua.

He scampered up, joining her under the canopy of the sidewalk tree. Although his small head and stature were wolfish, he didn’t bare his teeth, and she determined that he wasn’t a threat.

Weakness: Thinks he is bigger than he is—use this against him. Weakness: Highland bagpipe music and dancing—can easily be distracted by bagpipe music and kilts…

Maine blinked. “Highland bagpipe music?”

“What choo talkin’ bout?” the dire wolf yapped, coming to a stop in front of her shoes.

She scratched behind her wet and tangled hair. “Nothing. Are you following me?”

“I have been following you from a distance ever since you…since we interacted at Maki-Mae’s.”

“Uh, creepy.” She folded her arms over her soaked shirt. “Why?”

The dire wolf hesitated, then let out a confident bark that still sounded like a yap. “Because I, the Noff, must now protect you from those three cat-gnomes.”

“Wait a minute. Cat-gnomes? That’s what they’re really called?”

“They are ferocious opponents adept at usin’ magic.”

Maine snorted. “I’m not adept at using magic, and I’m not afraid of them.”

“Hmph.” The dire wolf let out a low whine. “I’m still goin’ to protect you.”

“I don’t need protecting.” She tried to overlook the fact that she was speaking with a talking magic chihuahua. “Is your name Noff? Or the Noff?”

He threw his small, wolfish head back. “I am the Noff!”

“Okay. I’m going to call you Noff.”

Noff wagged his tail. “You’re new to town. Lemme show ya the ropes. Eh?”

Maybe the dire wolf was lonely.

All of a sudden, the rain stopped as abruptly as it had started. Maine shook out both arms. Water dripped everywhere.

“So,” the dire wolf said. “We got ourselves a deal? I tag along to protect you and give you tips about life behind the Veil?”

Maine stared down at the dire wolf. “Tell you what. I’m heading to a restaurant, and I’d rather not go in soaking wet. If you can dry me off, I’ll let you join me.”

She didn’t think he would be able to, but maybe he’d have some idea of how to help her.

“Certainly.” The dire wolf shivered, and for a moment Maine thought he was going to shake his coat out, thereby spraying her with even more water. Then the black key marking on his rump glowed faintly. “I am the Noff. I am hot like the sun!”

A bright light flared up where the dire wolf had been standing, and Maine raised an arm to shield her eyes. When she lowered her arm a couple of seconds later, she was stunned to see that her clothes and hair were now dry as if she’d run through a giant hairdryer. Her skin and clothes felt nice and cozy.

She glanced down at the dire wolf. His coat was completely dry as well.

He rolled a furry shoulder confidently. “That’s your first lesson in magic. So, uh, what restaurant we headin’ to?”

Looks like I got myself a guard chihuahua… “It’s called the Sacred Sourdough.”

“Oh yes. Sacred Sourdough.” Noff’s long pink tongue licked his lips. “I approve. Excellent table scraps. Heh. Heh. Want me to lead the way?”

“Sure.” She was still amazed that she was dry after that downpour. Maybe her day was starting to look up.

CHAPTER NINE

Maine frowned up at the restaurant’s façade. She was standing outside the front entrance of two tinted glass doors. The bricks comprising the restaurant’s walls were cracked and crumbly. It looked like a dump.

“You sure this is the right place?” Maine said.

Noff licked his lips.

The sign over the door announced in elaborate flowing gold script, The Sacred Sourdough. It looked like the sign of a nice restaurant, but when she looked at the exterior, it looked like a dump.

Noff padded up to the door and stood on his hind legs. He put his front paws on the glass and yipped.

Maine lifted the Veil to hear his words.

“Come on. Whatcha waitin’ on?”

Maine thought she ought to turn around and leave, but she was hungry. She cracked open one of the doors. The aroma of freshly baked bread smacked her over the nose, and she stepped inside, holding the door open for Noff.

“’Bout time, woman. I’m hungry.”

“Watch your mouth, chihuahua.”

“That ain’t…nice,” the dire wolf whined and started to say something else, but Maine lowered the Veil, and Noff’s words turned back to yaps.

Having put her talking guard dog in his place, Maine looked for someone to seat them. There was no one. With a name like the Sacred Sourdough, she expected a sit-down restaurant. Instead, she found herself in a greasy spoon—a diner.

She thought back to her childhood and didn’t remember this place. It must be new. Except it didn’t look new.

Tables crowded the center floor, and there were additional booths and tables along the walls. Directly ahead of her in front of the kitchen was a long stainless steel countertop with high-backed metal chairs around it, serving as additional seating. Lighting panels hung from the ceiling, dangling on long cords, giving the place an outdated vibe.

The place was packed. She couldn’t locate a single available seat.

She was about to lift the Veil and question Noff about the restaurant when she spotted an open seat at the stainless steel countertop in front of the kitchen.

She strode up to it, ignoring the curious glances patrons all around her were giving her. She ignored them. Small towns could be weird.

At her heels, Noff was yipping about something. She ignored him too.

When she reached the open seat, she turned and faced all the people watching her. Then she pulled out the metal chair and sat.

Noff’s yapping suddenly went quiet.

Maine glanced up at a stunned restaurant worker behind the counter. “Menu, please?”

Instead of giving her a menu, the employee ducked into the kitchen, leaving Maine to look at the patrons sitting at the counter. An older man in suspenders with a plate of greasy hash browns on his plate sat on one side of her, and a younger woman with scrambled eggs, biscuits, and gravy on the other. Both of them looked at Maine like she was crazy or deranged.

Maine cracked a grin. “Do I stink or something?”

The restaurant patrons remained silent.

She shot Noff a glance. He was backing toward her stool, eyeing the patrons with his lips peeled back. Maine stood and faced the hostile crowd. “I know I’m new here, but there are no rules against picking your seat, right?”

There was silence. Then a gruff voice boomed through the diner. “You can’t sit there.”

Maine spun toward the voice. Her eyes locked on a man wearing mechanic’s overalls who was nearly seven feet tall. He had a hefty gut and bulging arms. He wasn’t someone you wanted to cross.

Of course, you also didn’t cross a hungry troll.

“Why can’t I sit here? Because I’m a woman or something?” Then it dawned on Maine that there were a lot of magical beings in this town and maybe this had to do with that. “Oh, or is it because I’m a halfling?”

It was time to lift the Veil.

She did so.

The massive mechanic was no longer a man but a minotaur with black hair and eyes glowing red. While he looked kind of comical wearing the mechanic’s overalls, he was nonetheless more terrifying in his true form.

“Leave,” he commanded, coming forward, his footsteps causing the restaurant’s hanging lights to shake, throwing odd shadows about the interior. With the Veil lifted, she saw that the light panels were now ornate chandeliers of various shapes and sizes.

Quaint.

Noff backed up against Maine’s legs and gave a quick shake as if to prepare himself for battle. Maine didn’t think the chihuahua would stand a chance against the minotaur, but he seemed intent on guarding her as he’d said he would.

Maine realized with astonishment that in addition to the lighting, the restaurant’s interior looked different with the Veil lifted. There was gold flourish everywhere, from the corners of tables to the ceiling and the backs of the metal chairs. The chair she’d selected to sit at was entirely gold—all the other chairs were silver with gold on top of the backs.

Shit. Had she unwittingly sat in some person of great importance’s chair by mistake? Still, even if she had, that was no reason to treat her as these people had.

Suddenly she noticed that with the Veil lifted, the food smells had intensified too. They smelled so good that she feared her mouth was watering. Was this restaurant serving magical food or something? She wondered what the food would smell like if she wore the Mantle since it enhanced her senses.

The dangling chandelier lighting continued to shudder as the minotaur mechanic stomped onward, stopping five feet away from her. The Mantle would’ve helped against this threat too.

Geez, she’d never imagined this town could be so dangerous when she was a kid. Had some beast like this minotaur killed her father? Strangled him to death?

As she settled into a fighting stance, Noff gave a low growl and snapped his teeth. “Lady, ya might wanna stand back. This might get rowdy.”

Frowning, Maine couldn’t tell if the toy dog was serious or not. His body positioning suggested that he was completely serious.

She lifted her gaze to the minotaur looming above both of them. For once she was glad to have her super-strength. Even if she embraced her troll side, she wasn’t sure she could take him on. She was going to try. She’d come into this place to grab a meal, and they’d treated her like a criminal.

Noff barked and shook his coat. The key marking on his rump glowed.

“I am the Noff! And I bring the key to damage, destruction, terror. And mayhem!”

The minotaur winced at the dire wolf’s shrill voice and raised one leg surprisingly fast. It stomped down at the dog and Noff strafed to the side. Then Noff pounced up with supernatural speed and latched onto the minotaur’s elbow, hanging by his teeth.

The minotaur laughed and faced Maine.

“You send a baby dire wolf to attack me?”

“Not a baby, you asshole,” Noff growled, holding onto the minotaur’s elbow.

“That’s my friend.” Maine wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, trying to determine if the minotaur had a weak spot so she could end this fight quickly without anyone else here getting hurt.

Weakness: A blow to the prairie oysters ought to do the trick…

“Prairie oysters?” she muttered, for a moment trying to figure out what the Mantle meant.

The minotaur’s eyes narrowed at her. “You taunt me with such a crude human joke?”

She shook her head. “Not my words—”

“Sure sounded like your words. Or are you next going to make fun of my ears?”

“I’m not going to—”

Weakness: Ruptured eardrums. Susceptible to loud noise, a result of attending too many Metallica concerts in his youth…

“Look, Mr. Metallica,” Maine said. “We don’t need to get into a death match over some stupid gold chair.”

Gasps sounded from all around her. Now magical beings were starting to stand all over the room. Among the furious patrons, she saw werewolves, kappas, and a banshee.

Maine huffed. “Seriously. What am I missing here? It’s a chair.”

“I’m gonna rip ya a new one, ya hear me?” Noff yapped, still hanging ineffectually from the minotaur’s elbow. “I’mma bring the damage, destruction, terr—”

The minotaur swatted Noff with his other hand, and the chihuahua went still, his teeth still locked in a grip over the hairy elbow.

That was enough. Maine took a step forward, eyeing the minotaur’s bulging…prairie oysters under his mechanic’s outfit.

Then she stopped as the sound of frantic footsteps exited the kitchen. From behind the counter, a young man in a white chef’s hat and a chef’s uniform put his hands over his mouth and yelled, “Everyone, stop!”

CHAPTER TEN

“What is the meaning of this?” The chef’s eyes were crystal blue and mesmerizing as they reflected the restaurant’s lights. Straight blond hair hung loosely to the side under his white floppy cap and flour powdered the front of his chef’s uniform and apron. He looked like he’d come straight from an episode of The Sarah Glass Show or Hell’s Kitchen.

Weaknesses: Brick ovens. Pretty girls…

Behind Maine, the minotaur fidgeted. He readjusted his stance and let his hairy arms drop with an unconscious Noff still attached to his elbow.

At the sight of the chef, all the other restaurant-goers retook their seats.

“S-sorry, Sage,” the minotaur mumbled and hung his head.

The chef, Sage, gave his head an irritated shake. “I’ve got a batch of truffles frying that I don’t want to burn so can someone please explain to me what all this madness is about?”

His voice was calm with an underlay of firm control. Maine had an idea that magic was behind it. She stepped up to the countertop and leaned over it on her forearms.

Upon closer inspection, they were eyes to die for. Not that she’d fall for them. She was about to answer when the minotaur beat her to it from over her shoulder.

“Sir, she sat in The Chair.”

Sage’s face was impassive. He flicked his eyes to the gold chair and back over Maine’s shoulder. “You nearly started a fight in my restaurant over a…chair?”

“But it’s The Chair.”

The chef continued, “I’ve never seen this woman before. Even though I sense troll blood in her veins, she’s never set foot in my restaurant. How is she to know about our customs?” He tossed a confident smile Maine’s way, and she had to remind herself to keep her wits. Hot eyes and a sexy smile. And he could cook…

The minotaur huffed. “And she made a derogatory remark about my genitals.”

“So?” Sage slapped both palms onto the counter. “Are you a victim? Do you know how many times I’ve faced harsh words and criticism for my life’s decisions? So what if she’s got a potty mouth?”

Maine raised a finger. “I don’t have a potty mouth.”

The chef shifted his focus to her. “And you, a newcomer. Siccing a dire wolf on one of my regulars? You should be ashamed. I ought to kick you out.”

Her stomach grumbled so loudly that the entire restaurant probably heard it.

“It wasn’t like that,” she said after it had quieted.

“Excuses.” Sage shook his head, and someone from the kitchen shouted, “Fire!”

The chef’s shoulders sagged. “That would be my truffles burning.” His eyes were hard and sullen. He was about to turn and return to the kitchen when Maine licked her lips.

“I’m sorry, okay. I wouldn’t even be in this town if my stupid father hadn’t died.”

At this, Sage tilted his head at her. Their foreheads were only a few inches away now over the countertop. “Who was your father?” he asked softly.

“A place as nice as this…you’ve probably never heard of him.”

His eyes saw right through hers. “Try me.”

“Valkious.”

His face looked momentarily hurt, then grew serious again. “Now that was off-taste. Really. Who was your father?”

“Valkious.”

Sage didn’t say anything for a time. Then he turned and headed to the kitchen, throwing a white kitchen towel over his shoulder. “Don’t go anywhere,” he said as he walked away. “We have much to talk about.”

Odd, Maine thought. She heard teeth chomping together, and she turned as Noff released his hold on the minotaur’s elbow and dropped to the floor.

“Aw man, is the fight over already?”

“Yes, Noff. Now come here before we start another fight with these nice people and get kicked out.”

* * *

While she waited for Sage to show up, she quietly walked throughout the restaurant, taking in the elaborate architecture of the place. It looked like a historical building that someone had preserved with loving care. More than once, she replaced the Veil over her face to see what a normal human would see.

Dusty corners, dirty walls, chipped and uneven tables and chairs. Certainly no gold flourish anywhere.

“How does the health inspector not shut this place down?” Maine wondered aloud.

Noff yipped and Maine lifted the Veil again so she could understand him. “The health inspector is probably a magical being.”

Made sense.

She was still amazed at how all the patrons were now regarding her with kind looks instead of the antagonizing ones she received earlier. It was all after she’d announced that her father was the town asshole Valkious…

Unless she had it all wrong about her father and he wasn’t the town asshole but more like the town—

“Ah, there you are.”

Sage rounded a table and joined her and Noff. He extended his hand to her. “Apologies for your treatment earlier. You must still be distraught over your father’s passing. I know we are.”

She shook it. His hand was warm. “Were the truffles salvageable?”

He pressed his lips together. “Let’s not talk about the truffles, shall we?” He chuckled, but it was still a sore topic for him.

“Okay. What shall we talk about?” Her stomach rumbled then, and the chef grinned at her.

“First, food.” Placing a hand on her shoulder, he guided her to an available booth along the wall. There were already two water glasses waiting for them. He whistled and a server came and brought them a bamboo bread pan with a loaf of bread. The pan also contained a serrated bread knife and a small ceramic bowl of butter. The server bowed and departed back to the kitchen.

“Ah, bread, one of the many wonders of life…” Sage closed his eyes and inhaled through his nostrils.

Maine likewise sniffed. “Wow. This smells so good.”

He cracked one eye open at her. “Wait ’til you try it.” He picked up the knife and fluidly reached over the bread, steadying it lightly between his fingers and thumb as he cut into the top of the crust. Steam rose from inside.

“Is it gluten-free?”

“You offend me with that comment.”

“I’m joking.”

“Oh.” Smirking, Sage cut two slices of warm bread and smothered each with butter. He handed one to Maine and on his cue, they each took a bite.

Maine wasn’t a bread snob, but as soon as her tongue touched the melted butter and her teeth crunched through the bread crust, her eyes rolled up in their sockets.

“Oh my God, I want to have your babies.”

Sage looked at her and nodded understandingly.

Realizing what she’d said, Maine washed down the bread with some water, trying not to blush. “I didn’t…that’s not what I meant…”

He raised a hand to cut her off. “No, it’s fine. That’s a common reaction the first time someone tries my sourdough bread.”

“You must have a lot of babies.”

Now it was Sage’s turn to try not to blush. “You’re funnier than Valkious. The human aspect is strong in you.”

Sighing, Maine said, “So we’re going to switch to that topic, are we?”

“It’s what kept you from being kicked out of my restaurant.”

She reached for another piece of bread. “Fair enough. First, tell me your secret. This bread is the best I’ve ever had anywhere.”

Sage looked pleased. “Most people don’t know this, but the secret to bread is air.”

Maine waited for more. When it was apparent that there wasn’t, she said, “Wait, that’s it? No magic sourdough starter or something?”

He chuckled. “No magical ingredients. Now, concerning your father.” Sage drew a deep breath. “He was well-regarded in town. Most people thought of him as the town—”

“Hero?” Maine offered.

He indicated the gold chair with a nod.

“So I sat in my father’s chair? A chair reserved only for him?”

“Yep.”

“Then why the hell isn’t his name engraved on the seat or something? If I had known it was his chair, I wouldn’t have sat there.”

Sage eyed her curiously. “Not out of reverence, I take it?”

“My father and I didn’t exactly get along. He was so…detached. Unemotional.”

“Interesting. Because the father this town knew was exceptionally emotional. For a troll,” he added quickly.

Maine washed down another bite of bread and picked up the knife to cut more slices. “They must have seen a side of him I never saw.”

“Maybe you didn’t know what to look for.”

She sighed as she buttered her new slice. “Before my parents split, he was never around. He was always out doing odd jobs and errands at all hours of the day. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to leave in the middle of the night. He brought in enough money to take care of us, but I thought he was a no-good bum asshole. Going out for drinks or…I don’t know.”

“The lens of childhood is an odd one. You should know, when he was out and about, he was helping clients with problems of the magical kind.” He paused to sip his water. “You know, there’s a legend in this town that your father never turned down a case. He was even known to help humans with their problems.”

Maine felt a bit guilty as she sliced off more bread. She’d thought her father was an asshole all her life. Now she was finding out that he was actually… “What sorts of problems?”

“Any problems. Tracking down stolen magical items. Investigating hexes. He even solved a couple of ritualistic murders over the years.”

“Ritualistic murders? In a town this size?”

Sage fidgeted. “With as many magical beings as we have in Rainwater, we have our fair share of supernatural crime. Not all magical beings are nice creatures. Murders, although rare, are usually kept pretty hush, but Valkious always solves them. Sorry, solved them.”

“Why didn’t he ever tell me about all this?”

“I don’t know. Maybe to protect you?”

A server appeared at their table and got Sage’s attention. Sage rose from the table.

“Excuse me, but I must return to the kitchen. I’ll send a meal out to you. On the house.”

“What? No. I can pay—”

“Nothin’ wrong with a free meal,” Noff said from under the table.

Sage nodded. “The dire wolf is right. Say, you’re rather new to this town too. I’ve only seen you in here a few times.”

Noff was quiet.

“Anyway, you both try to stay out of trouble.”

As Sage rose from the table, Maine caught his sleeve. “Wait. Earlier you mentioned that you received harsh words and criticism. Why?”

He chuckled although he appeared caught off-guard by the comment. “Besides being the owner of the Sacred Sourdough, I’m also an accomplished wizard. Maybe I’ll tell you all about my life’s drama the next time you stop by.”

With a grin, he turned and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving her wanting to know more about him.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The food dish Maine received was pork chops braised in wine sauce with cheesy au gratin potatoes and roasted asparagus. Both she and Noff approved.

After she finished, she and Noff polished off the rest of the bread loaf. She lingered long after the server took her empty plate and bread pan, but Sage never came back out.

Finally, she decided to leave. She left some cash on the table for a tip, and as she was getting out of the booth, several magical beings approached her, requesting to shake her hand since she was “the spawn of Valkious,” as they so horribly put it.

She forced a smile as she shook a kappa’s clammy hand.

The group left, and she headed out the door.

“I ain’t never heard of this Valkious guy,” Noff said as they stepped out onto the sidewalk, “but he seems like he was an honorable dude.”

Maine turned to peek back at the restaurant’s façade with the Veil lifted. Instead of looking decrepit, the brick wall had a very respectable air. “That’s what people keep saying.”

She had a thought. While she hadn’t gotten to know Sage that well, maybe she could find out some things about Noff. She’d always been a curious kid and being inquisitive would help pass the time she had to spend in town. What had Maki-Mae said about boredom finding you if that’s what you were seeking?

“So you’re new to Rainwater too? Where are you from?”

The dire wolf shrugged as he padded at her side. “Here and there. My pack is originally from New Brunswick, Canada.”

“Eh?” Maine exaggerated the word as Canadians were known for.

Noff looked confused.

“Are all your packmates the same size as you?”

The dire wolf stopped abruptly and snapped his head toward her. “Whatcha mean by that? You saying I’m small?”

“Um, no.” She changed the topic, and they both started walking again. “If you’re new to town, why were you stopping by Maki-Mae’s?”

“I need legal advice.”

She blinked down at him. “You. Need legal advice? Why?”

There was some extra spunk in the dog’s trot now. “I want to start a business.”

“Do tell.” It was dark by the time they were halfway back to Valkious’ apartment, and the street lights cast a bunch of creepy shadows onto the wet sidewalk. So instead they walked on the road. The only cars around were the ones parked against the curb.

“Guess what my business is,” Noff said.

“Car wash?”

“Huh? No. Guess again.”

“Fruit stand?”

“No way. Guess again.”

“Tax firm.”

“No.” Noff wagged his head excitedly. “Wait for it…wait for it…a bodyguard agency!”

“Oh.” Maine scratched the back of her head. “So am I your test run then?”

Noff’s wolfish lips curled back in a smile, showing off his white teeth. “Heh. Heh. Sorta. How am I doin’ so far?”

“Um. You’ve got guts.”

A pair of car headlights had flashed on up ahead, painting them with their light. It was parked against the curb so that wasn’t unusual, but something about the vehicle unnerved her.

“Guts? That’s all you got for me? Gimme some constructive feedback.”

“You’re a fighter, all right.”

The vehicle pulled away from the curb and entered the street. With the glare from its headlights, she couldn’t tell what type of vehicle it was, but taller than a car. Maybe a van. Maine stepped toward the row of trees growing along the sidewalk to be safe.

“I mean, you saw me confront that big bad minotaur, right? I was like, grrrrr. He was like, ahhh. Then I jumped up and bit him and—”

There was a screech of tires.

“Look out!” Maine shouted, crouching and scooping up Noff as she dove out of the way of the oncoming headlights.

As she fell onto the sidewalk, the screeching continued to split the night air, followed by a loud crunching thud.

Maine rolled over onto her back, her eyes darting to the vehicle that had crashed into one of the trees right where she and Noff had been standing. From the light of the street lamps, she saw that it was a dark SUV.

Noff growled. He hopped out of her arms and placed himself between her and the vehicle, its engine still running.

“The hell is going on?” Maine muttered. As she picked herself up, car doors clicked open, and three figures climbed out. They spun to face her, but she couldn’t get a good look at them because of the dark hoods they all wore.

Some sort of cloak covered their torsos. Whatever these thugs were, they were big. One of them hissed at her. These weren’t humans—they were some kind of magical beings.

“Get her,” one of them commanded. “Make sure there are no witnesses.”

The other two hooded thugs nodded while the driver, still in the vehicle, reversed away from the damaged tree trunk. By the light of the street lamps, Maine discerned a metal rack attached to the SUV’s front grill. The rack had foot-long steel spikes projecting from it.

These weren’t thugs. These were killers.

More assassins.

Maine sank into a defensive posture. “Do you know who I am?” she called, her voice magnified by the effects of the Mantle. “I’m Valkious’ daughter.”

The three minions exchanged glances. “Duh,” one of them said. “We’ll take care of you too,” said another.

So much for everyone loving Valkious in this town.

“I won’t take it easy on you.” She backstepped along the sidewalk behind her. She and Noff needed an escape strategy in case things got dicey. Not that she didn’t believe in her strength and abilities, she simply wasn’t used to leveraging them.

She also had something else. She focused on the hooded thug closest to her.

Weakness: …need a clear image of opponent’s face to read their soul…

Read their soul? Is that how the Mantle determined weaknesses? At least she now knew what part the Mantle played in Valkious’ hero activities around town. It helped him fight bad guys—as long as it could see their faces.

She realized that the three thugs were attempting to circle her.

Not good.

As they closed in on her, one of them said, “Remember, no witnesses.”

“Kill the lights,” another hissed.

As they came closer, she noticed they each had a pair of red eyes gleaming from under their hoods. Long claws adorned their fingers. Suddenly the street lamps flickered.

“Noff, what’s going on?”

The dire wolf sidled up to Maine so his fur was touching her ankle. “No clue. Never seen the likes of them before. This is one bad crew…”

Suddenly the street lamps shone brightly. Then they simply blacked out. In the darkness, the thugs’ red eyes gleamed even brighter. They must have used magic to shut off the lights. It was cloudy so the moon’s light wasn’t that bright. Maine could barely see the contours of the sidewalk, the trees, and the lightless street lamps.

There was no one else out on the street.

No witnesses.

Noff’s hindquarters shivered, and the key marking glowed faintly on his coat. “I am the Noff! And I bring the key to damage, destruction, terror—”

“Now!” the three thugs shouted, cutting Noff off. They closed in on Maine, reaching out at her with long sharp claws, but she ducked out of the way.

She wondered if wearing the Mantle would’ve made the fight easier. Now she had to make sure she didn’t trip over Noff or a hydrant on the sidewalk.

One of the hoods took another swipe at her, and she dodged it. As long as she stayed out in front of them, she could see their red eyes and determine roughly where they were. Also, their sharp claws gleamed in the scant amount of light available.

She waited until another one attacked. This time she pulled back out of its range before darting in and shoving her fist against its jaw. Whatever the magical being was, it felt like her knuckles had connected with stone.

At least it staggered the thug.

The other two thugs looked amused.

“Sure fights like her daddy,” one of them said.

Noff, enraged, launched himself at the thug, striking him in the chest. It caught the hood off-guard and knocked him back a step. He cursed and kicked out at the dire wolf as he landed on the sidewalk. Noff yelped and rejoined Maine.

“Did you bastards kill my dad?” Maine asked.

One of them snuck up on her from behind and slashed her across the shoulder. Wincing in pain, she spun and kicked the thug’s hand away, following it up with an opposite leg kick to the crotch.

“Ow!” The thug reached down to his crotch while the other two closed in on her.

She dodged the first one’s attack but wasn’t quick enough to evade the second one’s claw to the waist.

She grunted. Before she pulled back though, she reached up and threw back the thug’s hood. In the minimal lighting, she saw an ugly bald gray head with layers of scaly flaps on the top and sides. It looked like something that might live underground.

“What the hell?”

Weakness: very bright lights.

Bright lights? They’d already disabled the street lamps…

The dark SUV pulled up alongside the fight, its driver-side window down. “Hurry up and finish it!” the driver spat.

Panting with exhaustion, Maine and Noff took a step back and found themselves up against a brick wall. The three hoods closed in on them with their claws raised high.

Whatever they were, her strength and agility weren’t good enough to best them. At least not in this dark environment…

Weakness: very bright lights.

“Noff!”

The chihuahua shifted his black eyes from their foes to Maine. “Yeah?”

“Shine hot like the sun!”

A smile curled the toy dog’s lips, and he wiggled his hindquarters. The glowing key on his rump shone like an eerie night light. “I am the Noff! I am hot like the sun!”

One of the hoods laughed harshly. “The hell is that pipsqueak doing—ahh!”

Maine closed her eyes as the dire wolf exploded into a ball of white-hot light.

The thugs, including the driver, howled in rage and cussed.

This was their chance to escape.

“Noff, follow me!”

CHAPTER TWELVE

“Where we headed?”

“Back to my father’s apartment,” Maine huffed, glancing down at Noff scampering alongside her. “He’s got weapons and stuff in an oak chest.”

“Do you know how to use them?”

At the moment she couldn’t remember what kind of weapons they were. Three hardened killers had attempted to murder her. They didn’t teach this scenario at the police academy.

The sidewalk was wet under her soles as she rounded a street corner, realizing she was lost.

Damn this town and its identical houses and tree-lined streets…

It didn’t help that it was dark, the street lamps doing little to clear her confusion. At least these were still lit. She was looking for a right turn to take her back toward the apartment. Had she already passed it?

“Noff, do you know—”

The revving of an engine cut her off. She twisted back as the SUV’s headlights scoped through the night around the corner. One of the thugs angled a portable spotlight out through his window, playing it over the neighborhood.

Noff gave a vigorous wag of his head. “First we gotta get off the street.”

The houses were all very close together here. Chain-link fences closed most of the gaps between houses. As the headlights cut through the night at her back, coming ever closer to her position, Maine angled her body toward the nearest fence. Tucking her head down, she dashed toward it, the spotlight passing along the road and sidewalk in an arc right for her.

Troll strength and agility, don’t fail me now…

Right before she came to the barrier, Maine crouched and leapt up, springing over the medium-height fence. As she cleared it, she glanced back over her shoulder in horror, having forgotten to pick up Noff first. He was so small. There was no way he’d be able to jump over…

Then time seemed to stop for a moment, and her eyes locked on the chihuahua giving his butt a quick shake on the wet pavement. He sprang up over the fence beside her with surprising speed as if he’d launched from a spring-loaded pogo stick.

“Magic,” he whispered with a wide doggish grin as he shot ahead of her, landing gracefully on all four paws and scampering behind a large bush in the front yard.

Time reverted to normal, and Maine faced forward as the ground rushed up to meet her. Blindly following her instincts, she landed on the balls of her feet, immediately performing a forward roll, the spotlight inadvertently following her. As she came out of the tumble, she threw herself sideways behind the large bush next to Noff.

The spotlight passed through the fence, casting a glowing link pattern over the grass she’d vacated.

A tiny, wet sloppy tongue licked up the side of Maine’s face, and she turned to Noff. The dog was sitting on his haunches a couple of inches away with a gleeful expression, and his lips pulled back over his teeth. “That…was…awesome!” he whispered.

She had to admit it was pretty cool. Still, they’d almost gotten caught by the light. “You sure have some hops…” For such a little dog, she didn’t add.

Noff licked his chops. “I’m the Michael Jordan of dire wolves, baby!”

The roar of the SUV’s engine rumbled as the vehicle slowly cruised up the street, stopping at intervals to inspect the neighborhood with the portable spotlight. Maine and Noff peeked through the bush at it.

The glare of light caught the foot-long spikes projecting from the SUV’s front as the headlights illuminated the rest of the street. The vehicle stopped.

“Get out and search!” a voice shouted. Maine recognized it as the driver.

Three doors clicked open, and the three hooded thugs stepped out and slammed the doors shut. “She’s gonna pay,” one of them said, rubbing his crotch where she’d kicked him earlier.

“And that bounty,” said another. “We can retire someplace real nice.”

Shit, Maine thought. How much was the bounty on her head? The vampire had mentioned being able to retire when he attacked her at her apartment.

The driver, obviously agitated, slammed the meat of his palm against the outer side of the SUV’s door. “Hurry, you fools. Split up and find her.”

Grumbling, the three hooded thugs split up and searched the street, heading toward different sections of the chain-link fence, shining heavy-duty flashlights onto the front yards and into the small trees lining the sidewalk.

The thug closest to the house with the bush she and Noff were hiding behind stepped toward the metal fence. There was a latched gate a few feet over from him, but instead of using the gate, he used his long claws, effortlessly carving a hole in the fence large enough for him to walk through.

Hope rose in Maine’s chest. Maybe she could take this thug out quietly without the others noticing…

“I sense her over here,” the thug called to his fellow assassins. “On me.”

Maine groaned as the other two hooded hitmen started toward the house.

“We gotta leave,” Noff whispered.

Nodding, she scooped Noff up under the belly and broke from her cover, skirting the house in the dark to the back yard.

“Hey, I can walk, y’know—”

She shushed him.

One of the three thugs grunted. “I think I heard something. Behind the house.”

Shit.

Once she was standing in the house’s back yard, Maine glanced up and around for her next move. Without the light of the street lamps back here to see by, she had to squint. She spotted the wooden balcony projecting from the back of the home. It had vertical metal rails and a handrail around it.

“That might work…” she muttered, lifting Noff and placing him on her shoulder. “Hang on.”

From around the front of the house, she heard the three thugs tromping through the wet grass.

Maine tensed her calves, feeling the concrete square patio beneath her feet. She jumped straight up toward the house’s second-floor balcony. Her hands clasped the bottom of it, and she reached up, finding the vertical metal rails. The structure quivered slightly but held under her weight.

“Her trail is strong back here,” one of the thugs remarked as they walked along the side of the house. They were certainly confident in their abilities and not the least bit concerned with her knowing they were coming. Maybe that was part of the game for them.

Intimidation.

Still on her shoulder, Noff whispered into her ear, “Hurry!”

Focusing her strength, Maine used her arms to pull herself up the rails. Then she angled her waist and shimmied her lower half over the handrail and onto the balcony. With her enhanced agility, she landed softly upon her feet.

From below, the three thugs shone their lights up at the house’s second story, painting Maine’s crouching form with bars of light and shadow.

One of the thugs muttered, “I don’t see her.”

“I can sense her.”

“I can’t anymore. Maybe your sense-r is broke, you fool.”

Maine did her best to keep her breathing even. It sounded like the thugs were about to leave.

“No, it ain’t. She’s here. I’d stake my split of the bounty on it.”

“Well, then where the hell is she?”

Inhaling gently, Maine knew that she and Noff had to stay quiet and out of sight for a little longer…

She heard a soft flapping sound. Directly ahead of her, she noticed a back door leading into the house’s second floor. At the bottom was a small doggy door.

It was still undulating like a pendulum, having shut behind the fluffy Maine Coon cat that was now standing on the balcony in front of Maine’s nose.

A low growl escaped Noff’s throat.

The cat stood its ground. Then it raised one front paw as if to pose a question.

Maine held her breath.

The cat swiped Noff across the nose with a pissed-off, “Rreeeargh!”

“I’mma get choo!” Noff growled, but the cat had already spun and darted through the door into the house, the doggy door flapping.

“She’s up there!” one of the three assassins shouted from directly below the balcony.

Shit.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The three assassins were still directly below the balcony on the concrete patio below. Maine glanced down at the balcony floor.

Weakness: poor craftmanship—unstable structure. Hanging from the balcony should eventually bring it down.

She had an idea. Schooled in the ways of the law, she knew she was already trespassing. Why not make it destruction of property too?

She stood and vaulted over the balcony, catching herself on the outside of the metal rails.

As the lower half of her body dropped toward the ground, one of the thug’s glowing red eyes glared up at her, surprised. She planted her shoes into his chest, sending him crashing into the other two assassins. They fell in a jumble, cursing.

Meanwhile, Maine shifted her weight upward and jerked down again, feeling the balcony quiver. Below her, the thugs were extracting themselves from each other and attempting to get to their feet. From inside the house, lights were now coming on, and she heard someone shouting that they were calling the police.

She needed to get out of here. Hopefully, the Mantle was right about the balcony.

With one more up and down movement, she felt the balcony give way, and she pushed herself away from it. As the balcony crashed down on the three assassins, Noff made a theatrical running leap off the falling structure and hopped onto Maine’s shoulders.

Landing upon the spongy wet earth on her palms, she lifted her gaze slowly, meeting the outward explosion of dust and splintered wood. The act felt primal, natural. Like this was how she was supposed to live. Fighting and outsmarting the enemy while leaning into her innate troll-ness. It felt good.

It felt right.

She rose to her full height, her eyes narrowed, observing the structure that had crushed the hulking frames of the cloaked, hissing assassins. There was no way they’d be getting up from that any time soon. Right?

The dust started to clear, and all was relatively still. A piece of wood bracing still fixed to the house’s exterior tore free and clattered to the heap below.

Absolute stillness.

Then some of the balcony’s remains shifted, and a clawed hand shot up through the debris.

“Get the halfling!” a muffled voice shouted from under the pile.

Lights started to switch on throughout the neighborhood around her and dogs started barking wildly.

Noff yipped. “We’re outta here!”

Maine kept herself low to the grassy backyard and sprinted past another house toward the perpendicular street ahead of her. She almost slipped on the wet grass, but her heightened troll abilities enabled her to right herself. She made it to the sidewalk.

Noff didn’t.

Turning back to see what was keeping him, she saw his tiny body skidding sideways through the grass.

From back at the damaged house, the three thugs gave a battle cry.

“Noff!” she whispered hoarsely, wincing as he crashed into a metal trash can against a picket fence.

The dire wolf picked himself up, gave his back end a vigorous shake, and his body launched up in a wild spiral toward Maine as if he’d shot from a cannon. Holding her arms out, she caught him like a furry football in the crook of her arm.

“Touchdown!” he yipped excitedly.

She couldn’t help but crack a grin as she surveyed the wet street stretching out before her. One ability that trolls did not appear to have: a good sense of direction.

“Noff, please tell me you know how to find our way back to the apartment.”

The chihuahua shot out of her arms and landed as gracefully as a fox upon the wet pavement with a soft pattering. He glanced around, sniffing. “I’ve got a magic nose. Follow me.”

With the sounds of the assassins coming up behind her, Maine followed closely in the dire wolf’s tracks. He was fast for such a small dog, but he did have magical abilities so it made sense. They rounded a couple of street corners. Then the pet shop and apartment building loomed about fifteen yards ahead.

“We’ve got this,” Maine huffed, preparing to enter the street.

Then there was a screech and the spike-fronted dark SUV barreled toward her from behind. It had its headlights shut off so she hadn’t seen it in the dark, waiting in sight of the apartment in case she somehow made it back here.

Noff yelped. “Not good.”

Maine grunted. No, it was not. It was too close to her, and even with her enhanced agility, she wouldn’t be able to spin out of the way.

While she knew she couldn’t avoid the SUV completely, maybe she could position her body to dodge the spikes fixed to the front of it.

“Maine!” Noff barked from the sidewalk behind her.

She angled her body a few inches to the side…

Then it all happened so fast.

There was a crash as her ribs struck the front bumper. The impact ripped her off her feet, and her shoulder impacted the windshield. Then the world was spinning, and she dropped hard chest-first to the wet pavement beside the car.

How bad she’d injured herself, she didn’t know. She achingly slipped a hand under her and didn’t feel pooling hot blood so that was good. But she was bruised up good.

It seemed that troll strength didn’t defeat a spiked SUV.

In her wounded state, she knew she needed to get to safety before the killers finished the job.

She attempted to push herself to her hands and feet. Suddenly, the vehicle reversed for a few yards, and its front tires angled toward her, preparing to finish the job.

The engine revved, and Noff yipped wildly from the other side of the vehicle.

Maine was wondering if maybe she’d be able to roll out of the way or reach up to catch the bumper. That’s when rubber squelched on wet asphalt, and the SUV lurched toward her.

She tried to lift her arms, but she was too exhausted.

The spiked vehicle was going to run her over.

In a moment, she’d be as dead as her father…

“I am the Noff. I am hot like the sun!” the dire wolf growled, having placed himself between Maine and the vehicle.

White-hot light flared, and the SUV’s tires screeched as the driver swerved to the side. Maine had her eyes shut, but it sounded like the vehicle had struck something metal.

Whoosh!

There was a sound of rushing water as a dislodged fire hydrant blasted horizontally off the sidewalk and skittered along the pavement with skidding sparks before deflecting off the brick wall of the pet store and disappearing down the street.

The totaled SUV rested over the fire hydrant’s previous location, its undercarriage pelted by high-pressure water that bled ever outward on the pavement below it.

Maine felt a tugging at her shoulder. Noff, trying to get her to rise.

With a grunt, she clambered to her feet and shuffled toward the apartment’s wooden landing not far away now.

Noff led the way, yipping encouragement at her. They reached the landing, and she started up the stairs. From the street, the SUV’s driver was stumbling around, probably concussed by the crash.

Her vision was starting to blur now. She was utterly exhausted. She felt almost delirious.

Noff yipped at her ear. “Keep going.”

An angry yell rose from the pavement below, one of the three assassins, his hulking shoulders covered with dust. “There she is! Finish her.”

She stepped up to the apartment’s door. Twisting the doorknob to no avail, she remembered she’d locked it. She reached into her jeans pocket for the key, got it out, and dropped it as she tried to insert it into the keyhole.

“Dammit.”

As she reached down to pick it up, the three thugs ascended the stairs.

“Dammit. Dammit…”

Noff placed himself between her and the top of the stairwell. The barrage of savage barks that he shot off fortified her. This time, she was determined not to drop the key.

“I am the Noff! I bring the key…”

The key.

Suddenly Maine knew the key to surviving this situation. It wasn’t her father’s weapons in the oak chest inside. It was the door.

She inserted the key. It turned cleanly to the side, and she threw the door open. The three thugs reached the top of the stairway then, and Noff backed into Maine’s feet.

“Whatcha waitin’ for? Get in!”

Maine had a different idea. She didn’t know if it would work, but she was wounded, and it seemed like her best option at survival. Besides, she couldn’t reason with these assassins the same way she had with the vampire in her apartment.

Instead of saying the password, she slid a foot over the threshold and pulled it back.

In quick response, the doorway glimmered a threatening red as a fireball grew behind it as if summoned out of nowhere.

“Get down!” Maine shouted, throwing herself upon Noff to the side of the entrance.

The three assassins lunged for them.

There was an awful whooshing spitting sound, and the assassins hissed and cursed as the impact of the fireball shoved them backward, off the balcony to the ground below.

“What did you do?”

It was the assassin driver, now standing at the top of the stairs, screaming and glaring at Maine. He took a step forward. “You are indeed powerful. We underestimated you…” He raised a clawed hand menacingly above her. “But you are wounded, and now I will finish—”

Another flaming whoosh lit up the scene as the red-glowing doorway projected a second fireball, striking the driver and engulfing him in living flames. He raised both arms into the air and screamed as he too toppled backward over the rail.

“Holy shit,” Maine muttered. “It worked.”

That’s when she saw a third fireball forming in the red doorway.

“Maine!”

In response to the password, the red glow instantly shifted to a pleasant green, and the fireball disappeared into nothingness.

Welcome home, the fireball spell said amicably.

Maine sighed with relief. Then she had a terrible thought.

Oh shit, the balcony landing is made of wood!

She glanced over the side of the landing and saw that the four assassins were no longer flaming. All she could see were four piles of ash melting into the wet pavement below.

Noff yipped in approval. “That’s one helluva protection spell ya got there. Now let’s get inside.”

Nodding, Maine picked herself up and stumbled through the doorway.

Before she shut the door, she peeked out through the door crack in time to see a black limo on the street below peel away into the night. Inexplicably, she didn’t see the wrecked SUV, but water still gushed from the missing hydrant.

As exhausted and delirious as she was, maybe she was seeing things.

She closed the door behind her, dropped to the floor, and pressed her back against the entry.

She might’ve survived the second attempt on her life, but it had been too close.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Before she could close her eyes, Noff yipped excitedly. “Aw right! Leather couch.”

Maine picked herself up off the floor, listening to Noff grunt and strain as he tried to hop up on the guest leather couch. Before she went over to him, her eyes caught on the Mantle hanging on the hall tree in the corner. She lifted it. It felt like it weighed nothing.

Put me on… it seemed to whisper evilly, but maybe she imagined it.

She almost slipped her arms inside—but because of it, assassins had attacked her twice now. She hadn’t needed its help either time to survive. Why should she put it on now when she was still determined to reject it? Except she had used knowledge it provided to escape, her inner voice prompted.

She slipped it back onto the hall tree, groaning. Her body felt like a truck had hit it—or rather an SUV—and she shuffled over to Noff. He persistently tried hopping once more to reach the seat cushion, but without using his magical blastoff ability, he wasn’t able to. He dropped back to the floor.

“Want me to help you?” Maine asked.

He snorted and shook off the failure. “I got this.” With a shake of his rump, the key marking glowed on his backside, and he took a position to launch upward. He must have miscalculated because his tiny frame blasted off from the floor, overshot the couch, and ricocheted off the wall. He landed softly on his back on the couch cushion so he achieved his goal—then he raised all four paws as if he wanted Maine to scratch his belly.

She sat beside him on the couch for a moment, rubbing his exposed tummy. The chihuahua’s ears went back, and his eyes rolled back in their sockets. “Yes, yes,” he breathed. Then, “Hey, that tickles.”

She stopped then and got off the couch. She walked around the other couch and squatted painfully before her father’s oak chest. Once again, as her hand touched the chest, it vibrated and unlocked. Lifting the lid, she saw everything the same as she had left it earlier. Weapons, garments, books…

And vials.

She reached in and lifted several of the glass containers. Some were red, the color of her strength-reducing elixirs. There were other colors as well: yellow, blue, green.

“Mantle,” she said, “can you tell me what these elixirs are for?”

The Mantle remained silent. Maybe it was pissed at her for rejecting it.

“Noff, how about you? Think you can identify them with your magic nose?”

“I can try…but I don’t want to get up off this couch.”

“Because you don’t know if you’ll be able to get back up on it?”

He growled. “You sayin’ I’m short again?”

She did her best to hide her chuckle. “Can’t you use your magic super jump ability to come over here?”

She heard him wiggling, and Noff’s tiny form blasted off the couch, soaring over Maine and the chest…

Into the wall.

With a yip, he picked himself up and shook himself off. “I er, miscalculated.”

Maine raised her eyebrows at him. “How come sometimes, like when you were battling the minotaur, you’re able to control your magic jump? But now, well…”

The dire wolf padded briskly up to her, stopping and rising on his hind legs to peer into the chest. “Magic is hard, okay? You know that.” He glanced up at her, panting with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. “When you keep usin’ it without much rest in between, well, it can get a bit…”

“Sloppy?”

He barked. “Exactly. Now whatcha need me to identify?”

She first held up a handful of the red elixirs to confirm that they did contain the strength-reducing elixir she thought they did. It wouldn’t do to ingest a poison accidentally. Or even something less dangerous like a love potion if that was a thing.

Noff sniffed the vial. “Strength-reducer.”

Satisfied, she set all but one of them back in the chest. She lifted the blue elixirs.

“Health potions.”

“Good to know.” Maine set one of them next to the red elixir on the floor beside her. Next, she held up a yellow vial.

Noff sniffed. “Poison. Not sure what kind though.”

She made a mental note of that as she replaced it in the chest and retrieved a green vial. She held it to Noff’s nose. The dire wolf sniffed it for a few moments, paused, then sniffed it again.

“Well, what is it, Mr. Magic Nose?”

He scowled up at her. “I’m not sure exactly. Could be a potion. Could be a poison. Never smelled nothin’ like it before.”

“A lot of help you are.”

He made a ferocious face up at her, and she laughed and scratched his belly. Noff rolled over on his side and laughed too.

“I don’t care what they say. Y’all right. For a human…”

She cleared her throat. “Halfling.” For the first time in her life, she felt a bit of pride for being half-human, half-troll.

He gave a low whine. “Sorry.”

“What do you have against humans, you little furball?”

He narrowed his doggish eyes at him. “I dare ya to call me little again. I dare ya—”

“Little.”

He looked mad. Then she scratched his belly again, and he relented with a sigh. “You know my true weakness.”

She clucked. “Didn’t need the Mantle to figure that one out. Seriously. What do you have against humans?”

He gave her a sobering look as if he didn’t want to say. Then he nodded sorrowfully. “Where I come from, humans nearly hunted my dire wolf pack to extinction.”

“I’m…sorry to hear that. I didn’t know.”

He shrugged. “It’s okay. All my litter mates survived.”

“That had to be hard.”

“After that we wandered a bit, ending up here a few weeks ago.”

“What’s your opinion of Rainwater so far?”

“Eh. It’s okay, I guess.”

She noticed then that she wasn’t the only one to suffer some cuts and scrapes during the assassination attempt. Noff had a few scratches on his nose and paw.

“How about we share a health potion?” she suggested.

He shifted on his paws. “I never thought I’d be sharing a health potion with a human. Sure.”

Maine reached for the blue vial she’d left out. “Bottoms up.”

* * *

When the flashing lights and sirens of police cars arrived outside the apartment, Maine and Noff stayed inside. Luckily no one came to their door to question them about whether they’d seen anything. She didn’t know what the official “human” story would be, but she’d find out in the morning. She still found it hard to believe that the four occupants of the SUV had been incinerated to ash by a magic fireball spell.

Also, she almost couldn’t believe how quickly the blue healing potion had made her feel better. Almost immediately after taking it, a warm trickle of healing energy had suffused through her. She found she could stand a little taller afterward and the bruising around her ribs didn’t ache as much. Noff confessed the same feeling after he lapped up his portion.

She carefully took a quick shower, then tended to her cuts and scrapes as well as Noff’s. The bathroom contained an impressive array of ointments and bandages to fit any size injury, which made her think that her father often got injured on the job. She patched both of their wounds and found a secret compartment in one of the kitchen cabinets with a stash of peanut butter and other nonperishable foods.

An hour after midnight, she lay on the bed, refreshed and staring up at the dark ceiling. She couldn’t sleep. For a dog as small as Noff, he could sure snore. He lay curled up on the bedroom floor at the foot of the bed.

The talking dog’s snores weren’t what kept her up, though. All the crazy and wondrous events of the previous thirty-six hours occupied her mind, keeping her from sleep.

Because she’d inherited her father’s powerful but evil Mantle, there had been two separate assassination attempts on her. She’d barely survived the last one.

Then there was the whole not graduating from the police academy because she had to stay in town for another five days. She couldn’t return home now because the assassins would keep coming regardless of whether she was in Rainwater or NYC. Going back to New York would only endanger more people. At least a lot of the residents in Rainwater were magical beings and could better defend themselves.

She lay there for over an hour, listening to Noff’s snoring. She spent much of that time staring up at a tiny discolored spot on the ceiling. She wondered if her father had ever lain awake at night, staring up at the same spot, unable to sleep.

She thought about all the things the residents of Rainwater had told her about her father, about how good a person he was. He wasn’t the asshole troll she’d thought. She’d spent part of her childhood living with him, and she’d never once gotten that impression. He’d also separated from her mother so that hadn’t helped. If she was honest, the reason she decided to join the police academy was so she could be better than her father.

Now, she realized, she was in danger of becoming an asshole.

Remembering how she’d turned down the missing butterfly fairy case, she shook her head and vowed to be better. She would be in town for five more days. She swore to herself that she would get to the bottom of the missing fairies.

Also, even though she didn’t fully understand her father, he was still her dad…

She would bring his killer to justice.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Maine plunked down numbly at the kitchen counter on one of the two bar stools. She’d finally fallen asleep and slept solidly for the rest of the night, but she felt anything but well-rested. She’d had the most vivid dreams. She couldn’t remember them, but they seemed violent and realistic. Setting her elbows on the tabletop, she rested her face in her palms for a few moments.

Then she sighed and lowered her arms. She dug her cell phone out of her pocket. The time said eight in the morning. Also, she had three missed calls from Jason and several texts—it seemed that, unlike the rest of the town, her father’s apartment had cell service. She dismissed the messages without reading them.

Jason was persistent. She’d give him that.

A bit too persistent given they’d only been on one date.

She set her phone aside, and that’s when she realized something looked odd about the apartment. For half a minute, she tried to determine what it was. Then she figured it out.

The Mantle was no longer hanging on the hall tree in the corner by the front door.

She remembered that it was invisible without the Veil lifted so she mentally checked and confirmed that she hadn’t lowered the Veil last night.

So where did the Mantle go?

Sighing in confusion and frustration, she started to raise her hands to her head again when a knock at the door nearly startled her off her stool. She hopped off and went to the door. After looking through the peek hole, she opened it.

“Tony.”

“Hey, Maine.” He paused. “Mind if I come in? For just a second.”

If she didn’t have an evil invisible Mantle hiding somewhere in the apartment, she probably would have let him in. Instead, she stepped out on the second-floor landing with him, closing the door behind her.

“It’s a total mess in there. You don’t want to see it.”

Tony nodded understandingly. “I saw you come down these steps yesterday. Are you related to Valkious?” When he saw her curious facial reaction, he added, “I ran into him sometimes. A result of owning a pet shop a floor below where he lived.”

Maine bit her lip. “He was my father.”

He blinked. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all good. Or, it will be.”

Thrusting his hands into his pockets, Tony said, “I’m sure you have a lot of stuff to go through. Can’t tell you how many times I saw him carrying heavy cardboard boxes up those steps to his place. Probably will take you a few days to go through it all.”

Maine shifted on her feet. That seemed a rather odd statement considering her father’s sparse furnishings. It was a rather clean interior the first moment she’d stepped inside. Definitely no boxes of junk sitting around anywhere.

He did have an iron chest with a magically enlarged capacity. That must’ve been what her father was carrying in the boxes Tony saw. Garments and vials and books and weapons.

“I’m only here for five more days. I’m sure I’ll have time to go through it all.”

“Five days?” Tony scratched his temple. “Where are you going after that?”

“Back to New York. I have a life there.”

He bobbed his head as if he understood. “I don’t want to take up any more of your time. I’m not sure if you already heard, but I wanted to let you know there was an auto accident on the street in front of this building last night. Police are saying from the tire tracks they found that someone must have wrecked into that fire hydrant,” he pointed down at the sidewalk, “and drove off.”

“How strange,” Maine said. “Is that a common thing in Rainwater? Stealing fire hydrants?”

He gave her a serious look. “Normally, kids steal street lamps.”

“Really?”

Tony slapped her lightly on the shoulder and chuckled. “Nope. Got you, though. Most likely it was a drunk driver.”

Maine decided to press him for more info. “The cops never found the vehicle?”

“Nah.”

She remembered then the previous late night when she’d peeked out through her door and thought she saw a black limo drive off. The SUV had been gone too, hadn’t it?

She thought she’d been seeing things, but maybe she hadn’t been.

“Anyway,” Tony jerked a thumb over his shoulder, “I better head back down to ground level and get my store ready to open. Just thought I’d pass on what I know.”

She smiled, then had the most random thought. “You into redheads?”

He frowned and straightened his dress polo over his dark jeans. “Yes, actually.”

Maine’s heart sank.

“But only Mexican red-headed amazons,” he added matter-of-factly.

Now it was Maine’s turn to look confused.

Tony clarified, “It’s a type of parrot.”

She laughed, and so did Tony. Then he started down the steps, calling over his shoulder, “Feel free to stop by any time.”

Smiling again, Maine headed back inside the apartment and closed the door.

If she was going to stay in Maine long-term, she might consider getting to know Tony better. Sage too, for that matter. He was so mysterious. And he could cook.

The sound of furious, lapping water snapped her from her thoughts. It sounded like it was coming from the bathroom.

“Noff?”

There was a yelp of surprise followed by a splash. Maine rushed to the bathroom.

As she reached it, a white-hot light burst out, washing Maine in a gentle heatwave. She peered inside.

“What choo lookin’ at?”

Maine laughed. She couldn’t help it. Sitting on his butt looking up at her, Noff’s short fur was fuzzy and poofy. “Did you fall into the toilet?”

“Um…definitely not.” He gave a low whine, hiding under a raised paw.

“Want me to go down to the pet shop and buy a dog brush?”

“Har har,” he yipped. “Oh yeah? Why don’t you look in the mirror, Miss Jokes-A-Lot.”

She twisted her head and caught a glimpse of herself. Her grin shriveled as she took in her disheveled appearance. Her hair was all mussed up and tangled. Her face looked even worse. Bags hung under both eyes.

Noff shook himself and his fur more or less reverted to its normal appearance. Maine had a feeling magic had been involved. “Ya know what they say, laughter is the best medicine. Well, that and blue potions.”

Maine felt like anything but laughing. “You could’ve told me I looked like shit before I stepped out and talked to someone.”

“Who, Tony? Nah. You could do better.”

She scowled at him and went about fixing her hair and splashing water on her face.

“I don’t get it. I didn’t wake up once during the night. Why do I look like this?”

“Like what? A mess?” The dire wolf snickered.

“Your personality’s a mess.”

Noff agreed. Then he looked up at her sagely. “Let me guess. You had weird dreams last night?”

She shut the faucet off. “How’d you know?” She reached for the towel.

“Ah, sleeping with the Veil lifted. Lets all sorts of bizarre and vivid dreams into your mind.”

“The Veil did this to me?”

“Yep. And—”

She lowered the Veil and Noff’s words devolved into unintelligible yapping. She smirked.

Noff continued to yap nonsensically.

With a pep in her step, she went to the secret cabinet compartment she’d discovered the previous night and prepared a quick breakfast. There was no way she was going to grab some food at the Sacred Sourdough—not with the way she looked right now.

As she ate, she replayed Tony’s words from earlier, the ones about her father carrying heavy cardboard boxes up to his apartment frequently.

After breakfast, she found her toothbrush in her duffel bag and brushed her teeth with a tube of fresh-smelling paste she found in her father’s medicine cabinet. Then she plunked herself down in front of the oak chest.

She opened it and scrutinized the contents before reaching inside. She recalled that the Mantle hadn’t been on the hall tree earlier and she momentarily lifted the Veil to steal another glance at it.

It still wasn’t there.

“I mean would it kill ya to—yap, yap, yap, yip yap.”

Maine grinned, having lowered the Veil again as she turned back to the chest. Had the Mantle somehow returned to the garment pile and was waiting to attack her again?

She cautiously inspected the neat stack of clothing, holding up the items one at a time. It seemed that her father’s typical wardrobe consisted of brown chino pants with cargo pockets and olive green shirts. How bland was that?

She continued lifting clothing until she came to her father’s underwear. She stopped with that. Having already looked at the glass vials, she turned her attention to the weapons.

Hand axes, short swords, even a dagger. Interesting. There was also a small wooden shield and crossbow.

She quickly sorted through the books and other old tomes, stacking them in impressive columns on the floor beside her. The dusty books didn’t interest her as much as the weapons although some were in languages she couldn’t read. Maybe a troll language?

She was about to start replacing the books in the chest when an iron lever at the bottom caught her attention. How strange seeing a lever in a chest. What practical purpose could it serve?

Curiosity got the better of her, and she clasped her palm around it and pulled. It rose with a clank before returning to its original position.

At first, she didn’t think anything had happened. Then she heard a click and the center of the fireplace between the two leather couches rotated, revealing a gold fireman’s pole descending into total darkness below.

She gaped in astonishment.

“Holy shit, my dad was Batman.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

She was at the front of the fireplace in an instant, reaching out for the gold pole. Behind her, Noff yipped animatedly, whether in warning or excitement, she didn’t know.

She didn’t care.

Her father had a secret room or something. Maybe if she checked it out, she’d be able to find out a little more about her dad’s role in this town.

With a last look at Noff, she took the pole in both hands and clapped the insides of her shoes around it. Then she let herself slide down into the jaws of darkness.

It seemed that she slid for a long time, stuck in some nightmare blackness with seemingly no end at either side—only the gleaming gold pole continuing to slide between her hands and feet. Which, now that she thought about it, was odd. If there was no light to highlight it, how could she see the pole?

Magic.

It had to be. She was descending into some magic hole. Maybe her father was crazy. Maybe he had a literal hole of madness in the fireplace of his apartment.

A memory flashed unbidden through her mind.

Her mother’s funeral.

It seemed so long ago. She was sitting in a church pew in a cold church next to her father. He seemed cold too because even though he sat right next to her, he felt so far away. At the time, she’d thought maybe that was how he grieved. Alone and by himself.

He seemed so distant, as in in-another-world distant.

Eventually, he was called up in front of the congregation to speak about her mother.

Maine had sat still and rigid in her seat, hoping maybe he’d explain himself. Perhaps he’d break down and start bawling, and she could rush up to him and throw her arms around him. Maybe he’d prove that he wasn’t some robot incapable of showing emotion.

Then her father tapped the mic once and spoke.

“She lived a good human life.”

He nodded as if to accentuate his words and returned to his seat next to Maine, patting her leg and telling her that everything would be all right.

She hadn’t recoiled away from him, but she’d known things would never be all right between him and her.

As soon as she was out of high school, she left Maine and attended university in New York. She’d never returned home until now, only sharing brief, infrequent conversations with him whenever he would call to check up on her birthday, Halloween, and November eleventh—the number series 11-11 was important to magical beings.

She came out of the memory, and suddenly she caught sight of the floor, a flat stone slab lit by eerie shimmering white light.

It rushed up quickly to meet her, but before she reached it, the gold pole slowed between her hands and feet, and her soles touched down gently on solid ground.

She stepped away feeling much like she’d disembarked from a new roller coaster, thrilled and pleased by this new place she found herself in.

A cave of sorts surrounded her, its chipped rock walls illuminated by sunlight reflecting off shallow pools to either side of a raised stone path leading farther into the space. The sun came through a hole in the ceiling spotted with stalactites.

“This place is so cool.” She didn’t feel silly for speaking aloud even though there was no one to hear her.

Before heading off to explore, she glanced up at the gold pole and the seemingly infinite darkness above. She didn’t know how she would get back up, but for the time being, that didn’t matter. She’d stumbled onto an important secret of her father’s.

The constant shimmering reflections on the walls and ceiling mesmerized her. She felt like she was on a distant planet. Who knew? Maybe she was.

With quick excited steps, she traversed the path between the shallow pools at either side. Once, she paused and crouched low, then scooped her hands through the clear shimmering water, letting it cascade through her fingers. It was cold but refreshing.

Before continuing, she cupped her hands to her mouth. “I’m in the friggin’ Batcave!”

Her words echoed back to her, and she stood and resumed following the path.

Eventually, the trail and shallow pools ended, and she came to a large, wide-open dark section. She wondered how she would light the way forward until she heard the hum of overhead lights warming up.

She waited, holding her breath as they revealed several workstations. Walking up to the first one, she found a surface about the size of a billiards table. It held bundles of rope, metal hooks, and cleated boots. She also spotted some high-intensity flashlights. Was her father a spelunker?

Moving on to the next station, she found various stun-type weapons. Among them, she recognized a Taser from her police training and some canisters of pepper spray. This table intrigued her. She looked through the items for a minute or two, then investigated the next workstation.

It contained a very modern and custom-looking desktop computer with a mouse and keyboard. A leather swivel chair sat in front of it, its well-worn seat begging her to sit in it. A pile of circuit boards and soldering equipment also rested on the table.

Wow. Did all this stuff belong to her father?

She did a slow spin, taking in the rest of the room since the overhead lights now lit it. Several smaller workstations filled the floor space.

She was heading toward a table with a pair of sparring gloves on it next to a punching bag when a series of excited dog yaps echoed down the raised stone path between the shallow pools. Picking up the sparring gloves, she donned them as she waited.

A few moments later, Noff padded up to her, out of breath.

“Stay back, unknown cave chihuahua. I know how to fight.”

Noff shook his head at her flatly, and when it was clear she wasn’t going to lift the Veil to hear him talk, he turned and went back to the shallow pond and lapped up some water.

Grinning, Maine turned to the punching bag and gave it some of her best jabs. She didn’t want to break too much of a sweat, but she also didn’t want to waste the opportunity to get in a quick training session.

When she wrapped it up, she turned and found Noff silently watching her. He yipped something that might’ve been, “Nice form!” or maybe, “You’re an asshole!”

Then Noff growled at her and padded off toward a section of the room she hadn’t explored yet. He stopped in front of a junky-looking leather recliner and yipped excitedly.

Stripping off her gloves, Maine joined Noff in front of the old recliner.

“Yip! Yip, yip, yip, yip-yap.”

If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought the dire wolf knew something important or fantastic about the chair.

Noff tried hopping up onto the chair but couldn’t quite make it. Maine picked him up and set him on the seat. She considered scratching his belly but didn’t.

It didn’t seem to matter. Now that he was on the leather recliner, his eyes rolled back in ecstasy, and he fell onto his back with his legs up in the air. “Yip. Yip. Yiiiip,” he barked contentedly.

It was a bit odd.

Maine turned away from the old recliner and inspected a beat-up old cupboard almost as tall as her. Moving on to the next piece of junk, she found a Jacuzzi filled with scummy water.

“Yuck.”

She moved away in distaste, tripping on something, catching herself in some sort of smooth lane sunk into the stone floor. A two-inch high ledge lined the smooth lane to the wall.

It made no sense. Why was the front half of her father’s Batcave so cool but the back end was a junkyard?

Moving farther into this new space, she came upon a folding movie theater chair mounted to the floor ten feet in front of a blank stone wall.

“Yip. Yip. Yiiiip.”

Maine lanced Noff with her gaze. His gratified barks of pleasure were starting to annoy her. It was like he was in a different room completely than what she saw.

She moved toward the farthest back portion of the room. It had a garage smell, and it certainly looked like a garage. A workbench lined part of the wall and tools hung above it. There were all sorts of equipment she couldn’t identify.

She turned back to Noff, a little disappointed.

“Yiiiip. Yiiiip…”

“I don’t get it,” she muttered. Then finally, she relented and lifted the Veil.

She got it then.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Holy shit. My dad liked to…have fun?”

“It looks…aaah…like it…wow this massage chair is…aaamaaazing.” Noff was doing slow rolls on the seat of the old recliner except that with the Veil lifted, Maine saw that it wasn’t an old recliner. Instead, it was a luxuriously padded massage chair—probably magically operated.

She turned away from the sight. Noff seemed to be experiencing way too much pleasure. It didn’t seem right.

Next to the luxury massage chair stood a vintage Ms. Pac-Man arcade game in its original arcade housing except that he’d modified it. Down in the area where you’d normally insert your coins was a mini refrigerator door. She pulled it open and cold air puffed out against her shins. Crouching, she saw it was full of beer.

“What the…hell?” she uttered, closing the minifridge door and taking a step back. She closed the Veil for an instant and saw a beat-up-looking cupboard in the arcade game’s stead.

Noff’s peppy voice came from behind her on the massage chair. “Geronimo!” He wiggled his butt and launched into the air like a spiraling missile, executing a chihuahua cannonball into the dirty Jacuzzi. Water splashed out onto Maine’s shoes.

“Ew, gross.” She stepped forward as Noff’s tiny wolfish head breached the water’s surface.

“C’mon in, the water’s great!”

She thought she might throw up until she peeked over the Jacuzzi’s rim. In place of scum-layered murkiness, water as clear as a mountain spring filled the tub, and she wanted to get in.

She didn’t, though. There was too much else to explore in here.

The smooth lane with the ridged sides proved to be a regulation size bowling lane complete with ten pins already arranged inside a rectangular hole set in the base of the far wall. She was about to turn away from it when Noff catapulted her way, his body a canine projectile, his lips flapping backward away from his gums as he careened toward the mouth of the bowling alley. He struck the lead pin, knocking it down, and the rest of the pins followed suit.

“Stee-rike!” he bellowed, scampering out of the rectangular hole as the pins magically reset in the correct triangle formation.

“What is this place?” Maine spun and saw the movie chair sitting in front of the blank wall. Glowing red words read, Think of any movie, close your eyes, and it will play in your mind as if it’s the first time you’ve ever seen it.

Noff sauntered up to her ankle, clearly exhausted and loving every bit of it. He glanced up at her. “Heaven.”

Then he raced off toward the movie theater chair, saying, “Lady and the Tramp, here I come.”

Maine watched him go, then turned, her heart momentarily catching in her throat. Not far from her stood a marble pedestal with a chisel-chested display dummy’s torso on top. She frowned, not at the partial mannequin but what it was wearing.

The Mantle.

The slick black cloth, clearly designed for a woman’s shape, wrapped around the wider male dummy.

She regarded the Mantle’s cowl pulled over the mannequin’s unseeing face with a look of unease. It was as if Arnold Schwarzenegger was wearing a two-piece bikini.

It was just…wrong.

Suddenly she had the mental image of her dad wearing this feminine Mantle, clearly many sizes too small for him. Then she remembered that the Mantle had shrunk and conformed to fit her body when she’d tried it on.

As she wiped her forehead in relief, she heard the Mantle calling to her in an evil whisper.

Don me. It is your destiny.

She stared at the Mantle, taking a step closer to inspect its form. “It’s not my destiny if I reject you.”

You cannot reject me. You have rightfully inherited me. Don me.

“How can I make it any clearer? I don’t want you.”

You don’t mean that.

“Pretty sure I do.” She fisted her hands on her lips, amused that she was talking to a piece of magic fabric. Who did it think it was?

You don’t want to reject me, do you?

“Actually. Yes. How many times do I have to say that?”

But I am powerful. Don me.

“Assassins are trying to kill me because of you.”

Ah, but I can help you deal with them.

“I’m a twenty-something-year-old girl. Don’t you see something wrong with ‘assassins trying to kill me?’ It’s not normal.”

Noff sauntered up, already bored by the magic movie. “Speaking of what’s not normal…who you talkin’ to?”

“My dad’s evil Mantle.”

“Oh.” His head swiveled to the side. “Hey look, an ice cream machine.”

She turned back to the Mantle. “I don’t want you. You’re evil.”

A pause.

You don’t have to use me for evil. Just embrace me and take my powers. Don me.

She narrowed her eyes at the Mantle and cowl embracing the much-too-big-for-it male mannequin torso. “Were you really created by a demon?”

Yes. The most cunning and vile—

“If I wear you, can you take control over me?”

No. I was created only to bestow power, to enhance one’s magical abilities as well as to enumerate your foes’ greatest weaknesses so you can best them in mortal combat. So…will you don me?

Maine shifted her hips and held her chin in one hand, her elbow in the other. “Do you come with a less-evil sounding voice?”

I do not understand the question.

“You know, like Siri. Can I change your voice? Your accent.”

Um, no.

“But if I were to wear you, I would command you. You would be like my servant or possession or whatever.”

My voice is my own. I cannot change it. Now, please, don me. Don me quickly.

“To quote you, ‘Um, no.’ Why do you want me to wear you?”

It is the sole purpose for which I exist. To aid you in mortal combat. But mostly…

Maine thought she heard the Mantle sigh.

…mostly, I am lonely.

“That’s called life.”

Any more questions? So that I may further persuade you to don me?

This Mantle wasn’t getting it. Still, she did have some questions tickling her mind. “How’d you get from the hall tree to down here while I was sleeping?”

Easily. Magic. This is my true resting place when not donned. Please don me.

“How do I get back up to ground level?”

There is a reverse gold pole down here. It leads up to Valkious’ bathroom.

She frowned as if she’d smelled something rotten. “Bathroom?”

Yes. Now don me.

“How? That makes no sense. Valkious’ apartment isn’t this big. How can all this exist? How are we in a cave? The pet shop is below the apartment—”

“Does it really matter?” Noff interrupted. He was up on the ice cream machine’s countertop, one paw depressing the ice cream lever. As a tube of ice cream dropped from the machine’s metal udder, he stuck his doggish tongue under it. “So cold.” He gulped some down. “But so good!”

Maine addressed the Mantle. “Sorry. I still reject you.” She turned to leave it.

You have not yet found a suitable person to switch the inheritance to.

The Mantle had a point. She’d need to start thinking about that. Maybe Maki-Mae would want it. She respected her father.

Come on. Don’t be such an asshole. Don me.

“Shut up,” Maine said dismissively, her eyes catching on a tall and wide velvet curtain draped across the cave’s stone wall next to the workbench.

As she started toward it, Noff said, “Whatcha,” gulp, “see over there?” He swallowed another mouthful of ice cream. “So cold!”

“I’m not sure.” The closer Maine got to the section of rock wall, the more certain she was that there was something of great import behind the curtain. She lowered the Veil to see what it would look like to a human and saw a plain rock wall.

When she lifted the Veil again, the velvet curtain was back. Stopping before she reached it, she gripped the soft, heavy fabric in both hands with the idea of ripping it theatrically to the side. First though, she turned to Noff and wished she hadn’t.

He was puking up ice cream onto the stone floor beside the ice cream machine.

“That’s gross.”

Noff’s face scrunched up. “Too much ice cream. Too much…”

With a sick look on her face, she turned back to the velvet curtain and walked it back along the wall.

Now there was an alcove into a darkened garage. She stepped inside and lights hummed to life, illuminating the contours of a car beneath a heavy tarp.

Was that what she thought it was?

She walked up to it, tore off the tarp, and gasped, “The Muscle Coronet.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Noff tottered up to her and wiped his mouth on her shoe. She didn’t care.

“What’s the Muscle Coronet?”

The garage was small, crowded with toolboxes and equipment on the two sidewalls. The back wall contained a garage door, closed. The well-lit interior had some additional lighting strategically positioned to gleam off the car’s polished hood and chrome wheels.

“My dad’s 1968 Dodge Coronet R/T Hemi.”

Licking some lingering ice cream off his lips, Noff said, “Looks like a giant grape on wheels. With an engine block sticking up out of the hood.”

“It’s a muscle car. And it’s not purple. It’s plum.” She bent over the hood and rubbed a hand over its polished surface, unable to contain her smile.

“Why you so happy?” He sauntered up to the rear tire and lifted one hind leg as if to urinate.

“Don’t you even think about it.”

Maine’s commanding tone made him lower his leg. “Heh. What? I gotta pee. It’s the ice cream.”

She shook her head, determined not to let him rain on her parade as she breathed hot breath on a side mirror and rubbed it clean with her shirt.

“So you gonna tell me what’s so special ’bout this car? Or you two gonna need a room for the night?”

“Hah. Hah.” She wasn’t laughing. “This car is one of the best things about my childhood.”

“Lemme guess, ridin’ in this souped-up purple car with your dad was one of the only good memories you have of him?” He looked at her expectantly, his ears cocking out to the side with the tilt of his head.

“Actually, yeah.”

She closed her eyes, and for a moment she was a kid again, seatbelt draped over her torso as her father sat with one hand casually on the steering wheel, the other resting on the center console between him and her.

He steered with a sort of lazy focus if that made any sense. That summer had been sweltering, and one of its only reprieves was going on drives along the coast in her father’s muscle car with the windows down. Sea breeze whipped her hair as she picked out seagulls in the sky and marveled at the lighthouses rising like sentinels on the rocky outcroppings over the ocean. Rocks. So many sharp and jagged hunks of stone made up the shore in some places.

Young Maine glanced over at her dad in the driver’s seat. Was that a smile on his face? Yes! It was.

In her memory, she was about to say something cheery when her father’s eyes narrowed at her opened window.

“Look.” He pointed. “A whale.”

Young Maine gushed with joy. It was so big! So magical.

With the wind still whipping at her face and hair, she reached over to the center console and took a couple of his callused fingers in her tiny hand.

“I love you, Daddy.”

He nodded, somehow able to convey an equal amount of emotion without actually needing to use words.

Noff yipped and Maine’s focus came back to the present day.

“Musta been some really good memories wrapped up in this hunk o’ metal.”

She nodded, and the mood of the room grew serious. Neither of them spoke for a time as they observed the purple muscle car’s low rectangular design. It looked fast, hungry, and strong. Both windows were down, and the smell of polished leather drifted out to them.

“Well, aw right! Let’s take it for a test ride.”

The idea did excite her. “You think it has gas in it?”

“One way to find out.” Noff wiggled his butt and prepared for magical blastoff.

Maine figured he probably intended to arch through the car’s open side window, but instead, Noff crashed headfirst into the door panel below the window. He yipped.

She opened the door and scooped him up, depositing him on the passenger floor. “This is a nice car. You have to sit on the floor.”

“The floor?” he yelped. “I won’t be able to see anything. I won’t be able to stick my head out the window.”

Maine doubted the little chihuahua would be able to with his small stature, but she smirked as she let herself sink back into the padded driver’s seat and closed the door. Chuckling, she motioned at the passenger seat. “I’m joking. You don’t have to ride on the floor.”

“Aw right!” He clambered up on the passenger seat, barely making it on his own without having to use magic.

Her finger shot into the air. “If you puke up ice cream on these seats, you’ll leave me no choice but to throw your scrawny, furry butt out the window.”

The dire wolf frowned at the word “scrawny” but decided to overlook it and raised a paw to his canine head in salute. “Aye, aye.”

Maine felt a bit of anxiety build up as she sighted through the windshield at the closed garage door directly ahead of them. It didn’t have any windows in it so she had no way of knowing where it led.

She was about to climb out of the car and open it manually when she noticed a garage door opener remote clipped to the overhead sun visor. She depressed it, and the garage door whirred, rising almost without a sound in a smooth, well-oiled manner. Hot sunlight poured in, speckled by tree branches. When it was up, she saw that they were in a forest.

A well-worn dirt lane the car's width stretched out through the forest beyond. The trees completely hid the dusty path from the sides and tops.

Where were they? she wondered again while Noff smacked his lips together.

“Time for the moment of truth.”

The key was already in the ignition. She pinched it between her fingers and twisted.

The engine purred to life, its power coursing through the steering wheel, seats, and floorboards, giving her a thrill.

“Aaand, we’re off!” Noff said.

Maine seconded that notion by accelerating out onto the warm forest path.

* * *

An outside observer would’ve had a hard time telling who was having more fun: Maine or Noff. Wide eyes and grins stretched both of their faces while the speedometer climbed.

The dirt path eventually led out to an old highway Maine recalled from her days driving with her dad, its entrance obscured by brush and weeds. Maine grinned at her father’s deceptive camouflage of the forest path leading to his secret Batcave.

Trollcave?

While she still didn’t like her dad, per se, he was proving to be much more interesting and exciting than she’d ever thought. There had been so many bad times in her childhood and adolescence—culminating with her parents’ split and finally her mom’s death—that she had forgotten about the days when he would take her for drives.

It was funny how sometimes the bad times could overshadow the good times, and vice versa.

Maybe he wasn’t as unemotional as she’d believed. Perhaps he showed his emotions more through his actions instead of his words.

Speaking of actions, if she could believe half of the town, her father was a silent crusader for justice. As she guided the muscle car around a tight curve, she imagined a scene of her father shuffling into the Sacred Sourdough after a hard night or morning. He’d plop down in his gold chair at the kitchen counter, and order sourdough biscuits and gravy with eggs and bacon—or whatever was a typical breakfast there.

Maybe other magical beings would come up and congratulate him on solving his latest case with a hand on his shoulder or thank him by paying for his meal.

Knowing her father, he’d probably nod silently and continue to eat his food. Afterward, he’d return to his apartment and ride the pole down to his Trollcave.

An excited yip from Noff brought Maine back to full focus behind the wheel as a giant shadow passed over the car from high above. A kestrel or osprey, maybe? It was most likely some kind of bird, but that wasn’t what had Noff’s attention.

They were driving parallel to a sloping rocky ridgeline that followed the highway. Evergreen trees and brush interspersed the mountainous landscape.

She flitted her eyes back to the road and out the passenger window. That’s when she spotted four massive, dark furry figures standing amid the sloping tree-filled slope.

They looked like wolves, but no, they couldn’t be. They were much too…big.

One of the wolves’ heads jerked up in the air, sniffing, and Maine had the feeling it had their scent. She didn’t know how but then its head rotated down at the road, its gaze fixing in on their car.

“Uh, Noff. You’re a dog with a magic nose. You know what’s going on here?”

He blinked back at the huge wolf eyeing them and wagged his tail.

“It’s my dire wolf pack.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Your pack? That’s your pack?” Maine couldn’t believe it. Even from this distance, she could discern their hulking frames. They weren’t the size of wolves. They were the size of lions.

Noff yipped casually. “Yep.”

As the purple muscle car passed the dire wolves’ position, the four beasts dropped their heads and started along the ridgeline as if to give chase, initially at a saunter, then at a full-out sprint.

“Whoa. They’re really quick.”

Noff panted. “Drive faster so you can see how fast they are.”

She shot him a glance to ask, Really?

He nodded happily, slobber dripping from his tongue.

“Okay…” Flooring the gas pedal, she watched the needle climb. The engine roared, propelling them forward on the fortunately empty coastal highway. Moving supernaturally fast, the wolves kept up with the increasing speed, and the gap between them soon closed. Now the wolves were right beside them as the rocky ridge lowered so the car was nearly level with the charging pack.

From this close, their hulking furry frames were downright scary. Maine had to keep her eyes on the road. Still, every time she glanced through Noff’s open window and glimpsed them, their muscles rippling under their thick coat with every footfall, the sight left her impressed and speechless. These were truly magnificent creatures. And probably quite savage when threatened.

She reverted her eyes to the road to ensure there was still no one in front of her, then glanced at Noff with his small front paws balancing upon the car’s windowsill.

His tail wagged, his snout and eyes barely able to peer out at the dire wolves a couple of yards away on the highway’s shoulder. “Hey, guys.”

The closest dire wolf—Maine had a feeling it was a female due to the smaller shape of its head—gave a disdainful headshake and snickered.

“Howya all doin’?” Noff asked, the wind blowing his tongue backward.

“Still surviving, brother,” a male dire wolf growled.

Maine didn’t like the wolf’s tone, but it amused her how easily her mind accepted that with the Veil lifted, she could hear dire wolves speaking.

The largest of the pack pulled forward, obviously the leader, and edged the others out of the way so he ran closest to the speeding muscle car. “How are you doing, runt?”

Noff tensed. “Hey, Dirk,” he said through his teeth. Maine couldn’t help but notice his voice was much more squeaky and high-pitched than the majestic dire wolf’s.

“Aw, listen to him. The wittle puppy dog hasn’t hit puberty yet.” A different male wolf this time.

Noff gave a low growl but kept his words genial enough. “So, you guys goin’ on any adventures anytime soon?”

Maine couldn’t believe two things. First, the fast speed the dire wolves were maintaining, and second, they were enormous dicks.

“Sure,” a different female dire wolf said, easily keeping pace with the car as she threw a hot glance Noff’s way. “Maybe you can join us when you grow a few more inches…I mean, feet.”

The rest of the pack shared harsh laughter at Noff’s expense, and Maine gripped the wheel hard, swerving ever so slightly at the wolf pack on the shoulder before straightening out again.

Maine had meant to scare them, but the wolves didn’t even flinch.

“Why don’t you quit being assholes,” she yelled.

One of the female wolves snapped at the car, and Noff nearly fell backward off the car’s window ledge.

“What a wimp,” one of the other wolves snarled. “Has to have a human fight his fights for him.”

“You don’t want to mess with this human.” Maine gripped the wheel again and prepared to perform another maneuver. Glancing farther ahead up the road, she noticed that the ridgeline the dire wolves were running along was about to end.

“Why not run with us instead of riding with that human? Oh, that’s right, you can’t. Forgot you had such short stubby legs…”

Grunting, Maine ripped the wheel sideways again, this time so her tires rumbled onto the shoulder. The pack leader, Dirk, was in the lead. He pulled back sharply to the right, toward the drop-off on the other side, skidding toward its edge, frantically scratching and clawing at the gravel beneath his paws.

He stopped before the edge, teetering there before the rest of the pack rammed into him from behind, knocking him over it.

“Oh shiiit…” the dire wolf growled as he fell from sight, his massive body connecting with an equally massive pine tree growing out from the rocky drop-off.

Maine watched this in the passenger-side mirror, not feeling guilty at all. He probably wouldn’t get hurt—he was big and would soon right himself. He yelped again as he tumbled farther down the sloping cliffside, striking more trees along the way.

Noff’s face looked horrified. “Why’d ya do that?”

She kept her eyes on the road up ahead. There was traffic so she slowed. A glance in the rearview mirror revealed that the rest of the pack were calling down the rocky slope after their leader.

“Because they were treating you like shit.”

“They were just being themselves. Dirk’s got a thick skull. All my packmates do. It’s a requirement for running with them. Oh no, Nicole is about to cold blast us…”

“Nicole? Who’s Nicole?”

“My sister.”

The slower traffic was up ahead, and Maine couldn’t pass it because of a semi heading their way on the other side. She peeked up at the mirror, seeing one of the dire wolves throw back their head. Then a puff of light blue-tinged energy left her mouth and blasted toward the car from behind.

Not having anywhere to swerve to avoid the magic attack, Maine held her breath in anticipation of the impact.

The cold blast washed through the car like a specter, passing first through the back window, then through Maine and Noff, and finally out through the windshield.

Maine shrugged off a sudden rush of coldness prickling her arms, watching in astonishment as the windshield immediately frosted over with ice. Luckily the steering wheel hadn’t been frozen, and the car itself didn’t seem damaged in any way.

However, there was the issue of her not being able to see out through the windshield at the cars in front of her…

“Uh, Noff, a little magic help here?”

Noff wiggled his butt. The key marking on his rump glowed, and a bright light lit up the car’s interior, thankfully melting the frost in an instant and not shattering the glass.

Maine blinked. “You uh…knew that wasn’t going to shatter the windows, right?”

He gave her a toothy grin that said, “Oh right, of course, I did.”

Then Noff’s stomach gurgled. “I think—” He vomited ice cream onto the car seat and floor.

Maine clenched her teeth, and Noff gave a low whine, burying his head under his front paws.

“Sorry. Oh, please don’t toss me out the window. Please don’t…”

He was genuinely fearful that she would follow through with her threat. His wolf pack family probably would. She felt bad for him. Shaking her head, she said, “Don’t listen to them. They might be your family, but they’re a bunch of pompous idiots.”

He whined. “They ain’t wrong. I am the runt of the litter. I might never be as big as them…”

Maine channeled her inner Maki-Mae. “They can’t see you for what you truly are.”

He gave her a hopeful look. “I’m so happy that I could lick you right now.”

Glancing at the dog puke on the seat and floor, she shook her head. “Please don’t.”

“I’ll clean it up when we get back to the garage.”

“You better. Think it’s time to turn around now?” She eyed a highway sign for an exit ramp that would take them back to the town of Rainwater.

Noff nodded. “First, how about I show you my favorite place in town? I haven’t been in Rainwater long, but I know a place that makes me feel safe. Wanna see?”

“Sure.” She guided the car toward Rainwater, and following Noff’s instructions, left the paved roads and headed onto dirt ones toward a lesser-traveled part of the town.

She’d never been there before because this section had all but shut down when she was a child, back when magical creatures began showing up in greater numbers to start a life for themselves. It had practically been a ghost town back then, and she could only imagine what it looked like now.

They drove under a small iron archway with a crooked wooden sign that read, Logging District.

The place was…well, it was a little creepy. The halfling knew Rainwater started as a logging center in Maine with loggers felling trees and sending them down the river outside the town. They’d built a lot of warehouses to store equipment and supplies.

Now though, the warehouses were little more than long, hollowed-out shells, some with holes in their sides and roofs. Soggy, water-ruined crates abounded along with spools of thick cable and old tractor parts. Although it was sunny, a patch of fog clung to the earth directly ahead.

Maine knew Noff said this place was like a safe place for him, but she had a sudden bad feeling about stopping here. She was looking for a place to turn around when she caught sight of three bulky men up ahead clad in what almost looked like suits of armor.

No, that couldn’t be. It had to be the fog playing with her mind.

She puttered slowly up to them. Even through the fog, she could tell they weren’t suits of armor, but their skin was rough-hewn and appeared to be stone. They were gray.

“Noff?”

He was looking out his window.

“Noff?” The dire wolf turned and sighted the three imposing figures through the windshield. “Gargoyles? What are they doing here?”

Maine eyed them closely through the fog, which clung to them almost like a shroud. “You think they’re friendly?”

Noff shivered to show his uncertainty.

Coming to a stop a few yards in front of them, Maine put an arm outside her window and leaned out for a better look at the three gargoyles.

They were definitely constructed of stone and had hard, chiseled faces and pointy chins. The fog kept shifting and obscuring their faces, but she made out two bent devil horns adorning each of their heads, and their eyes glittered like polished coal.

They seemed to be arguing among themselves.

“Can I help you guys?” she asked.

The center gargoyle crossed his arms, and they continued to debate something while keeping an eye on her. That’s when Maine noticed the giant batlike wings on their backs. She recalled the bird shadow she thought she’d seen back on the highway. Had they been following her?

She focused on them, and the Mantle said, Weakness: …need a clear image of opponent’s face to read their soul.

Maine got a bad vibe from these guys. It was spelled out in their violent hand gestures as they debated and kept pointing at the car. She didn’t know their capabilities if she were to turn and run.

Out of curiosity’s sake, she lowered the Veil temporarily to see what a human would see. Three burly construction workers dressed in reflective vests and hard hats stood arguing in front of her.

She lifted the Veil again and leaned out her window.

“If you’re new in town, I can recommend a good diner. What’s that you say? Rock people don’t eat bread?” She turned to Noff. “He says they don’t eat bread.” Not giving Noff a chance to respond, she leaned out again. “Well, are you in need of a magical attorney? They say Maki-Mae is a ‘wise’ choice…”

They didn’t find her amusing, but they finally made up their minds.

Uncrossing his stony arms, the center gargoyle—the leader—leaned forward, his face leaving the fog’s obscurity. His features had creases like a boulder that had recently tumbled down a jagged mountain slope. The way he squinted, he looked like he ought to be wearing glasses to see better. He shoved a weathered finger at her. “Enough debating. That’s her. That’s our mark.”

That confirms it, Maine thought. More assassins.

The other two gargoyles pounded their fists into their palms. “Good,” one said.

“Kill her!” said the other.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Weakness: Aversion to cold.

“Cold?” Maine muttered. “How is that supposed to help me?” Then she stared wide-eyed as each of the three stone gargoyles reached behind their backs and drew a gray stone broadsword from between their shoulder blades, grimacing with the effort as if the swords were composed of themselves. Maybe they were.

They raised the large blades high, gravel sifting off the wide stone hilts.

Maine already had the car in reverse, its tires spitting up mud as they spun.

“Come on. Come on…”

The three gargoyles swung downward in unison with the intent to rend the muscle car’s hood and engine to scrap metal. As their blades descended, the tires caught and the vehicle jolted backward.

“Watch out for that junk pile!” Noff yipped, leaning against the window ledge to see in the side mirror.

Maine was already tearing the wheel to the side. “I see it!”

Narrowly avoiding a stack of spooled cable, Maine whipped the car around and took it out of reverse, looking for a way out of the situation.

Noff yipped. “I say we go back there an’ show ’em who’s boss!”

She accelerated forward, the wheel spinning under her hands as she rounded another junk pile. “Oh really? You have a six-foot-long broadsword on you, by chance?”

Noff gulped, standing his ground. “I could bite ’em…”

Maine recalled how that had worked out with the pissed-off minotaur mechanic at the Sacred Sourdough but didn’t remind Noff of that. The little guy had already had his ego severely damaged when they’d confronted his pack.

“I’m in the driver’s seat, and I say we keep driving.” She lost track of the three sword-wielding gargoyles in her rearview mirror. “You see where they went?”

Noff shook his head, still standing on his tiptoes on the passenger seat.

Maine sped back the way they’d come, toward the warehouse district’s exit. Her eyes locked onto the iron archway with the crooked wooden sign hanging from it dead ahead.

Several mud puddles spotted the dirt road to her destination, and after executing the occasional minute adjustment, she avoided them all. The archway was directly ahead and growing bigger by the second.

“Still no sign of ’em. Maybe I intimidated ’em—”

Whoosh-crack!

A gargoyle dropped from the sky like a rock, thrusting his sword tip into the ground directly in front of the iron archway. A dust cloud emanated from the impact, and Maine braked and cursed. The force wave buffeted the car’s chassis, and Maine twisted the wheel hard, sending them drifting. She managed not to flip it, but their forward trajectory still took the muscle car toward the waiting gargoyle, his sword raised like a baseball bat.

“This ain’t good.”

Maine took her foot off the brake and stepped on the gas as the car slid sideways toward the gargoyle. He took a low horizontal swing at them as the tires caught and propelled them forward. The broadsword missed their rear bumper by inches.

Noff’s words were high-pitched and impressed, his lips flapping back due to the centrifugal forces. “Woo-hoo! Sweet drivin’. Where you ever learn to drive like this?”

It wasn’t the police academy, that was for sure. She’d taken some off-road driving courses in upstate New York during her college years, inspired by her father’s love of muscle cars. The rest, she had to admit, could only have come from her innate troll intuition. Hell, for all she knew, her father was watching over her from beyond the grave, helping to guide her driving.

“Come back here!” the gargoyle roared in a gravelly voice.

“How ’bout no!” Noff shouted out the open window. He fell back to his seat with a soft yelp when Maine spun the wheel again.

“I’d feel better if I knew where the other two gargoyles were.” Maine focused on the obstacles spread throughout the arena-like open area around her. “Can’t you sniff them or something?”

“Not when they’re a hundred feet in the air circling us. My nose ain’t that magical—”

Maine tensed as a gargoyle slammed down into the path in front of them. A moment later, the third gargoyle touched down a few yards away from it to form a blockade. Twin concussive air blasts struck the car. Dust peppered the windshield and billowed inside both of the open side windows.

“There they are,” Noff piped up helpfully, coughing on the dust.

Each had a traveling fog shroud about them so she couldn’t see their faces and thus identify any more potential weaknesses. What had the Mantle said earlier? Something about cold?

She didn’t know how she could use that weakness right now so she had to get a closer view of them. Why did they have that fog shroud? Did they have it as a defense against the Mantle?

Scanning the dirt surface ahead of her, Maine barely managed to miss a pothole the size of a meteor strike in the dirt road and arced around back toward the first gargoyle.

He was charging to meet her, his sword resting diagonally backward over one shoulder, she saw as she rounded a pile of rusty oil drums. She drove past him out of his sword’s range, avoiding the gargoyle’s fury but not getting a clear look at his face.

“They move slowly on the ground,” Maine remarked as she avoided another pothole. “I think I know how I can get a better look at them so the Mantle can do its thing.”

Noff looked hopeful. “You mean we get to get out and fight them?”

Nodding, Maine wrenched the steering wheel and coasted to a perfect parallel parking position next to a stack of tractor tires. “Stay inside,” she said before hopping out of the car in a soft crouch.

The other two gargoyles marched her way, dragging their heavy swords in the dirt. She dashed up to them and evaded a slash. It wasn’t as hard as she’d thought it would be. They were imposing but slow. As she came up to face them again, she got her second close-up of one of their faces as the traveling fog momentarily uncovered its face.

Weaknesses: slow to turn and readjust while on the ground. Must swoop from high above when out in the open. Daylight turns them to stone. Unhealthy obsession with church bells…

Well, that explained the traveling fog cloud that protected them from the sun. Also why it was so easy to evade their swords either in the car or on foot.

“She is too fast for us,” one of the two gargoyles grated out. The other one nodded, then angled his head up to the sky. Both gargoyles’ wings tensed and then they lurched skyward upon gusting flaps of their wings.

Must swoop from high above when out in the open. Maine turned to run back to the car and nearly tripped over Noff. “I told you to stay in the car—”

A large shadow passed over her, and she dove to the ground as the gargoyle leader swooped at her, hacking a rivulet in the dirt with his sword where she’d been standing.

Scooping Noff up, she opened her car door and scrambled inside. She put the Coronet in drive and sped off before the gargoyle could come back around.

Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw the other two gargoyles soaring low to the ground at her position.

“Faster!” Noff shouted.

“I am!”

She made a couple of sharp turns to try to throw off the gargoyles, but she couldn’t shake them. Up ahead, a rectangular metal shipping container sat in her path, both shorter ends open so that they formed ramps.

“Hold on.”

She accelerated toward it, holding her breath as she took the ramp and drove through the metal shipping container. Behind her on both sides, sparks rained down from the two gargoyles’ swords shearing horizontally through the container as they gained on the car, intending to shave off its top as well as Maine’s head.

“This is it.” Noff gulped.

Maine sucked in a quick breath, and they passed out the other side.

When the car’s tires thudded back down onto the dirt arena, she floored it, then braked, executing a one-hundred-eighty degree tailspin. “Shine like the sun—now!”

Noff wiggled his rear as the two pursuing gargoyles advanced. Behind them, the top half of the shipping container crunched down on top of the lower half with a clamor. The gargoyles had eyes only for the muscle car and drew back their swords for a final blow aimed at the car’s top.

Maine shut her eyes.

A white-hot blast of light discharged from the passenger seat, and Maine blinked.

The two gargoyles were still airborne, fumbling with their swords. Their coal-like eyes squinted as their backs arched in midair while forward momentum carried both of them past the car and into the cab of a rusty bulldozer.

“I trusted ya had a plan the whole time.”

She flashed her dire wolf occupant a look.

“What? I did—look out!”

The first gargoyle swooped low from out of nowhere, tackling the car’s rear bumper and tearing it off.

Maine cursed. This was a vintage muscle car!

These gargoyles would pay.

She eased the car toward the row of abandoned warehouses.

“Time to get out.” She shut off the car and climbed out. She needed a confined space to fight the gargoyles and a weapon. Her strength and agility would handle the rest—her troll powers were coming in handy. Maybe they weren’t that bad after all.

The gargoyle leader landed with a thunderclap of dust and dirt not far from them.

Noff hopped through his open car window and scampered at Maine’s side. They entered the nearest warehouse via an open side door. Inside, Maine spotted some discarded rebar stakes, crumbly bricks, and lead pipes.

She quietly selected a heavy lead pipe. From directly outside the warehouse’s closed sliding barn door, gravel crunched beneath the gargoyle’s heavy footfalls.

Gripping the makeshift weapon tightly, she waited beside the barn door, ready to make her move.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Maine adjusted her grip on the lead pipe. The gargoyle took another crunching step toward the warehouse’s closed sliding barn door.

“I know you’re in there,” he called, his words muffled by the metal wall.

Maine held her breath.

Bam!

One of the gargoyle’s stone fists punched through the metal with a clang. Both Maine and Noff jumped. Suddenly she felt like she was underequipped with only a lead pipe.

She raised the pipe to slam down on the gargoyle’s hand but then it shot back out of the hole.

“Come on out,” he called, then punched through the metal again.

Maine took a step closer to the wall to swing. Then a phone rang outside the warehouse. She waited as the gargoyle withdrew his hand from the hole and answered a blocky satellite phone clipped to his waist. When he tromped away from the warehouse, Maine peered through one of the fist-sized holes.

The lead gargoyle held the blocky phone to his ear as he gathered with the other two gargoyles. “It’s the boss,” he said, and the others nodded grimly.

Noff scratched at the wall, trying to peek. Maine shushed him and picked him up so he could look out the other hole.

“What’s he say?” one of the gargoyles asked.

“He says our cash payment doubles if we do her in right now.”

Do her in. Maine wished the gargoyle had the phone on speaker so she could hear their employer’s voice. It would be invaluable to find out who wanted her dead so badly. That way she could find him and get him out of the way, thus ending her assassin problem. Also, whoever was trying to kill her had killed her dad. She’d be able to solve his murder in the same sweep.

The two gargoyle underlings clinked their stone swords together, making a sound like colliding boulders. “Then let’s go get her.”

“She’s in an enclosed space.”

The gargoyle leader hung up the phone and reclipped it to his waist. “Then we flank her.”

Flank her. That wasn’t good.

Peeking through the hole, she realized the gargoyles had already taken flight. A whooshing sound swept past the warehouse’s wall, followed by two more.

Noff yipped. “They’re circling us.”

She felt trapped. For a moment she considered running out to the muscle car and attempting to outrun them, but they would keep coming after her, especially now that their employer had doubled their reward for killing her.

So running wasn’t an option.

There were four more warehouses on the other side of this one. Maybe she could make a mad dash for them and find a more strategic fighting location?

The first gargoyle punched through the warehouse wall thirty yards away from her. After coming to a messy fall like a meteorite, he picked himself up and immediately spotted her.

The second one tore a hole in the ceiling, rocketing straight down into the warehouse floor about ten yards from her.

Maine nearly lost her footing as the impact shook the ground. Then the second gargoyle was striding toward her with sword raised. She let the gargoyle come to her, and as he neared, she saw through his fog shroud.

Weakness: although very strong, have weak ankles.

The gargoyle swung at her, and she avoided the sword strike. She stepped in like a dancer and swung the lead pipe down at her foe’s ankle.

The pipe dented a bit, and the gargoyle groaned. As he doubled over, Maine brought the pipe down upon his wing. The bony, elastic appendage made a cracking sound.

While she’d maimed him for the time being, the victory was short-lived. The first gargoyle had now almost reached her.

Weaknesses: not proficient at fighting in a group. Very long-sighted. Like horses and moose, have a blind spot directly in front of them. Unhealthy obsession with church bells.

As the oncoming gargoyle prepared to attack, she positioned herself so the fallen gargoyle was between them. The new gargoyle slowed as he maneuvered around him and Maine saw her chance. She went for another low attack with the pipe, meaning to injure his ankle like the other gargoyle.

He might’ve been slow, but he’d witnessed the same attack on his companion. He lifted his foot as she swung. She struck nothing but air, whereas his clawed foot now struck out, catching her in the gut, propelling her backward into some crates that splintered under her weight.

“Ow!”

Noff promptly placed himself in front of Maine. “I am the Noff! I bring the Key to damage, destruction, terror. And mayhem!” He wiggled his butt and blasted off from the ground toward the gargoyle. Rotating in midair, Noff planted both rear paws upon the creature’s stone cheek and popped upward, spinning midair again and frowning as he saw that his attack hadn’t even stunned the gargoyle. The fact was, he didn’t have enough power to do any real damage against the blocky opponent.

“Noff, look out!” Maine watched, horrified as there was a whoosh and the gargoyle lashed out with one of its wings, swatting Noff to the ground like a spiked volleyball. His furry body rolled, then came to a limp stop.

Somewhere at her back, the third gargoyle punched through the wall.

Have blind spot directly in front of them…

Darting up to the gargoyle who’d struck Noff, Maine brought the pipe down upon his thick rock skull, keeping directly in front of him. She put every ounce of her strength into the blow, and it bent the lead pipe backward toward her face in nearly a ninety-degree angle.

The gargoyle, cross-eyed, laughed harshly, his head undamaged, his eyes coal black and evil-looking. His hand came out and caught her by the throat. Her toes rose off the ground as he lifted her.

“Got you!” a grating voice came from behind her.

The third gargoyle.

She heard the sound his sword made on its downward swing as it cut through the air. Utilizing every bit of super agility she had left, Maine managed to twist aside, the stone sword crashing down upon the gargoyle holding her by the neck. It took him right in the shoulder.

His grip on her released and she rolled away from the two gargoyles. For all their weaknesses, they were massively strong, and that rock skin of theirs was nearly impenetrable. Her eyes locked on Noff’s motionless body on the other side of the two gargoyles. He was still breathing, right? She couldn’t tell. All she knew was that their opponents outmatched them at the moment. They needed to get away and plan their next move to gain an advantage.

She rounded both of the gargoyles’ bulky frames as the sword-struck gargoyle picked himself up. Meanwhile, the gargoyle who’d struck him tried to wrench his blade free from where it cut into his compatriot’s shoulder. The third gargoyle, the one she’d struck in the ankle and wing, had nearly regained his composure and was hobbling toward her, swinging his sword above him like a crazed barbarian.

Swooping low to the ground, she scooped up Noff and dashed to the side of the warehouse where she knew the other row of warehouses stood outside.

There was no door set in the wall, but she spotted a section of peeled away metal a few feet wide.

Weakness: damaged structure resulting from weather exposure.

She tucked her head and threw her shoulder against it.

Maybe she should’ve worried about getting tetanus or something, but at the moment she didn’t care. Three sword-wielding gargoyle assassins wanted her head, and for all she knew, Noff was already dead in her arms.

Troll strength, don’t fail me now, she thought, suspecting then that if she were wearing the Mantle, maybe the fight wouldn’t have gone this poorly.

She didn’t want it. Right? She wanted her old life back. The police academy and graduation…

She punched through the warehouse as easily as if she was She-Hulk and found herself outside again, the next warehouse only a few feet away.

Her foot came down in a puddle, and she realized it had started to drizzle. Gotta love unpredictable Maine rain showers.

Her stomach grumbled. She felt strong enough to punch through the next warehouse wall but thought better of it. Her vision was starting to tunnel, and she was losing to the extreme troll hunger that crept up on her quickly if she didn’t eat enough beforehand.

Gotta think. Gotta think.

Noff still wasn’t moving in her arms, but his body was warm so that was good. She needed to distract these asshole assassins so she could rest, check his vitals, and determine their next move.

These gargoyles weren’t going to stop coming for her.

They weren’t leaving until either she or they were…well, out of the picture.

She decided to check the front of the warehouses, noting along the way how dangerous life behind the Veil was. It wasn’t unlike serving as a police officer in a dangerous section of any city except these bad guys had swords, claws, teeth, and magic.

As she rounded the front of the warehouse, she made the mental connection that she and her father had both chosen the same profession. How ironic, since her drive to join the academy had been to be the exact opposite kind of person.

The second building didn’t have any doors open that she could see, but the third warehouse had a small front door beside the sliding barn door and was cracked open. She entered it quietly as the gargoyles exited the first warehouse in the same fashion she had. Judging by the additional loud sounds, they’d decided to tear right into the second warehouse as well.

That might buy her another minute or two if she was lucky as they searched for her, but she needed more time than that. As she eased into the third warehouse, her eyes locked in on a horizontal stack of metal pipes of various sizes. Beside them lay a rusty sledgehammer.

Unhealthy obsession with church bells, the Mantle had said.

She had her distraction.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The sound of ringing metal sounded to her like church bells. Of course, she was also partially deaf at that point.

She had swung the sledgehammer with all her might, the violent vibrations instantly transferring to the entire stack of metal pipes, starting a very loud, very musical chorus that echoed within the warehouse’s metal confines.

Immediately afterward, she dropped the sledge and dashed toward the warehouse’s back door. It was locked, but the still-ringing sound of metal covered the sound of her forcing it open. She needed to eat something soon, but if she didn’t survive the gargoyle encounter, it wouldn’t matter.

It was raining a little harder now outside, and her feet sloshed in the mud as she threw her back against the third warehouse’s wall, waiting to see if her distraction had worked.

She didn’t have to wait long.

With a joyous grating cry easily overheard above the sound of the ringing metal, the gargoyles all abandoned the second warehouse and tore into the third.

She planned to circle back to the first warehouse and lay low for a few minutes. The gargoyles didn’t appear to be able to smell or sense her. They had, after all, probably only caught sight of her with their excellent long vision as they swooped through the skies looking for her earlier in the day, then followed her to the logging district.

She still didn’t know why Noff had wanted to come here. Something about it being a safe place.

She was about to pull away from the wall and dash toward the first warehouse when Noff stirred in her arms. He blinked up at her. “Is that angel bells I hear? Or my ruptured eardrums?”

Maine smirked, a weight lifting from her chest at the knowledge he was still alive. “That would be the latter.”

“Damn,” he yipped weakly. “Thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”

She trudged through the mud toward the first warehouse, the metal still ringing.

“I’m not sure about us going to heaven, but we’re going to die if those gargoyles find us again.” She reached the first warehouse and searched for a way in.

As she did so, she imagined what the three gargoyles might be doing. Were they standing around in front of the pipes, transfixed? Were they doing some kind of church bell jig? She shook her head, not liking that imagery. The enraged troll part of her wished she’d stayed behind in the third warehouse, hiding until it was safe to sneak up on the gargoyles with the sledgehammer.

She doubted that would’ve worked, though. Even if she managed to knock out one, or even two of them, she still didn’t have any way of defeating them. A sledgehammer was stronger than a lead pipe, but not even a sword had been able to do serious damage to the gargoyles. She’d need another way.

When she couldn’t find a way into the first warehouse, she ran around the corner. The purple muscle car sat near the front, sans its ripped-off bumper. Maybe it would be better to flee than fight at the moment, even though she knew these gargoyles wouldn’t stop hunting her.

Maybe she could make it to the Sacred Sourdough. There were plenty of magical beings there that would have her back, her being the town hero’s daughter, right?

The rain was falling harder now, and she swept a free hand back through her wet hair. For some reason, she realized she couldn’t see as well now and thought it was the rain. Then she realized it was her troll powers taking over. She felt like punching something. Felt like…

“You all right?” Noff asked, still in her arms.

It took great effort, but she managed to resist the temptation to give fully into the troll part of her. She hadn’t taken the strength-reducing elixir back at the apartment. This was the longest she’d ever gone without taking one since her powers had started to manifest.

Her legs wobbled, and she fell to her knees in the mud with a plop, Noff cradled against her chest with one hand. He yipped about something, but Maine’s mind was far away in the memory of the church on the day of her mother’s funeral service. In her mind, the scene kept replaying itself like a GIF as her father got up and headed to the mic.

Her father got up and headed to the mic.

Her father got up and headed to the mic.

“Don’t say it,” she muttered, her eyes clenched tight, her arms wrapped around her raised knees. Noff hopped out of her arm and pranced around somewhere at her side, yipping.

Her father tapped the mic. “She lived a good human life.”

“She lived a good human life.”

“She lived a good human life.”

Grunting in rage, Maine pushed herself unsteadily to her feet. Then she saw what Noff had been yipping about.

The three gargoyles tottered toward her, their swords sheathed into their backs.

“Oh shit—”

One of them grabbed her by the jacket collar and tossed her against a stack of rubber tractor tires. She hit hard and ricocheted painfully into the mud but pushed herself up on her hands and knees. Water dribbled off her hair, skin, and wet clothes. She stayed in that position for a few moments, fighting to get her bearings.

A dark shape swooped down on her from above, and she turned too slowly to see a gargoyle snatch her up in his stony hands. Wind and rain streaked past her, the clouds above her passing in a blur. He punched her once in the face and let her drop.

Right onto a stack of soggy crates that exploded under her weight.

She coughed. She tried to find a way out from the debris pile, but her left leg didn’t want to cooperate. Also, glancing down at her hand, she saw a finger splayed to the side, out of its socket.

Dimly seen in front of her, the dark shapes of the three gargoyle assassins approached, having softened her.

“…damage, destruction, terror…mayhem!” she heard dully above the rain patter and squelching sounds the gargoyles’ feet made in the mud.

A bright light flashed, and she hadn’t closed her eyes. She lost her balance and tottered onto her side in the debris pile. When she could see again, the gargoyles were now right on top of her, towering above her. Noff’s sunburst attack hadn’t fazed them.

The gargoyle leader lifted one heavy stone foot…

She lived a good human life.

Even with the anger flooding through her at the memory of her father’s insensitive words about her mother, she’d depleted her strength and energy.

“You’re assholes, you know that?” she muttered, and the gargoyle held his foot up a moment longer, comprehending her words. Then he shrugged.

“Nothing personal, kid. Just business—”

A light blue-tinged blast took the gargoyle in the chest, and he staggered backward, the mud sucking his rear end into it when he fell.

The other two gargoyles turned, their coal black eyes zooming in on the new threat. Another pale blast that distorted the air as it rushed past impacted the second gargoyle and he fell back a step. The other gargoyle raised his arms in defense. A third bluish blast pummeled his raised arms, frost searing the stone of his elbows and forearms.

Ice.

Aversion to cold, the Mantle had said when she’d first read one of the gargoyle’s weaknesses. Where was this cold attack coming from? Who was it coming from?

She came to the realization a moment before the sound of howling reached her ears.

Dire wolf howls.

With her body still feeling like a limp, bruised noodle, it was all she could do to sit up and carefully scoot herself back against a ruined crate and watch.

Noff’s dire wolf pack slammed into the gargoyles with an intensity she’d never seen even on the National Geographic channel before, not surprising since these weren’t ordinary animals. They were magical beings in the form of enlarged, pissed-off wolves with impressive physical attributes and the use of magic.

Why had they come here? Had they been spying on her and Noff from a distance? Did they stand a chance against the gargoyles? Their teeth could maybe penetrate their thick stony skin but wouldn’t the gargoyles shake them off and stomp them or cut them down with their swords?

That’s when she realized the gargoyles were moving slower now. Inches of ice encased much of their bodies as they attempted to punch and kick the attacking dire wolves. One of them managed to get his sword around, shearing off a patch of hair from one of the wolves’ shoulders.

Then another wolf pounced forward, snapping at the gargoyle’s frosted-over ankle in a ferocious clink of teeth over…ice.

Maine blinked.

The dire wolf had bitten off the gargoyle’s foot. It sat a few feet away from the stone man. Without two feet to steady its massive frame, the gargoyle toppled to the mud as the dire wolves continued to assault it with ice breath blasts that froze the mud and puddles around the downed gargoyle.

Several dire wolves leapt upon the rock giant’s back and began to claw and bite. The gargoyle could do nothing but flail with lessening intensity.

It was over then, Maine knew, well before Dirk the dire wolf leader sprang upon the gargoyle leader’s frozen chest and shoved his maw into the icy chest cavity. Gravel sifted down from the dire wolf’s menacing teeth as he lifted his snout back into the air and gave a victorious howl.

Then, still standing atop the now-lifeless gargoyle, Dirk shifted his glaring eyes to Maine.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“Um, thanks?” she said.

The dire wolf leader spat dirt and gravel off to the side. Instead of rain, snow fell in fat flakes within a ten-yard radius around the three fallen gargoyles, painting their bodies white. Magic dire wolf snow? This would make a rather bizarre snow globe scene, Maine thought.

Noff edged up beside Maine’s leg.

“Your brother isn’t going to…” Maine paused. “Eat me, is he?”

With a low growl, Dirk hopped down to the snowy earth in front of her, his eyes never leaving her. He had a fresh cut above one eye, probably incurred when he’d gone over the cliff earlier. Right when she didn’t think his eyes could grow any more disdainful, they flicked over to Noff.

The pack leader’s voice was a rumble in his throat. “You’re a disgrace to our pack.”

Noff yipped bravely, standing his ground. “Then why did you answer my call?”

He must have howled when she got dropped on the crates or maybe after his sunburst attack had failed.

The rest of the four dire wolves hung their heads. Dirk growled. “Because you’re still our brother, small as you may be.”

“He’s not small,” Maine interjected automatically. Even though she agreed with Dirk’s size assessment, Noff was the closest thing to a friend she had in this town, and she had to stand up for him.

Noff promptly padded around her to stand between her and Dirk. He flashed her a determined look. “Thanks, but I gotta defend myself this time.”

Maine recalled how she’d stepped in when the three cat-gnomes had bullied him at Maki-Mae’s. Noff had scampered out of the law office, embarrassed because he hadn’t been able to stand up for himself.

She blinked at the dire wolf leader, utterly gigantic in comparison to the chihuahua. Noff might’ve been able to pull off a good fight if it had come to it with the three cat-gnomes, maybe even could’ve won if they had a weakness against bright light. Noff against a full-grown dire wolf with ice blast breath?

Sadly, her friend didn’t stand a chance. She didn’t tell him that though, only nodded for him to be all that he could as she shifted into a position that felt more comfortable. She didn’t think she had any broken bones, but she felt like a worn-out punching bag. At least she could move her leg now, even if it hurt to do so.

Noff set his paws in the snow and lifted his tiny snout at his big brother. “I’m so tired of your shit about my size.”

Dirk remained stone-cold serious while the other four wolves snickered.

“All of yours too,” Noff continued, eyes darting to his brothers and sisters behind Dirk. “You’re all big bullies, like everyone else who overlooks me because of my size.”

Dirk took a commanding step forward, and Noff looked about ready to recoil but shivered off the notion and remained where he was.

“Bullies, huh?”

Noff swallowed. Then nodded.

The pack leader turned his head slowly to Maine. “Humans are the bullies.” He paused, his rumbling voice growing even thicker. “Or have you forgotten how they butchered scores of our kind up north?”

Noff stood there.

“They killed off our kind because they were scared of us. They’re scared of us today too.” With his gaze still on Maine, Dirk licked his wolfish lips. “As they should be.”

“They ain’t the enemy,” Noff yipped. “Your headstrong attitude is.”

Dirk was on Noff in an instant, his snout a millimeter away from Noff’s eyes. “My headstrong attitude is what has kept my pack—my family—alive for so long.” His huge nostrils sniffed at the air. “You know what? As pack leader, I think it’s about time we leave this crappy town.”

Dirk was seriously in Noff’s space, his hot breath rippling Noff’s short coat. Noff lowered his head and drew a deep breath before raising it again. “Fine by me. Why ya even telling me?”

“Because.” One of the two female dire wolves stepped forward. “We don’t always get along, but you’re still our brother. You can rejoin us and run with us again if you like. Who knows, after spending enough time with us, maybe you’ll finally hit a growth spurt.”

Several dire wolves chuckled. Noff looked ready to tear up but then his tiny features tightened with resolve.

Dirk nodded. “We’ll even forgive the transgression of hanging around a human. You were confused. It’s understandable.”

Maine wanted to say something. She really did. For Noff’s sake, she didn’t.

Noff looked like he was thinking about rejoining them, and for the briefest of moments, Maine bought it with a tinge of hurt. Then, with a wiggle of his butt, the key marking on Noff’s coat glowed brighter than it had yet, and he crouched low, his legs like coiled springs. He launched upward then, faster than could be seen, striking Dirk in the nose.

The pack leader backstepped and twitched his head in disgust. With the motion, blood droplets spilled from his nostrils to the pure white snow beneath him.

“Now that,” he growled, “is unforgivable…”

He lurched forward at Noff, but his pack was already hauling him backward with their teeth. All the same, he snapped at Noff as he tried to break free of them. After a time, he regained some semblance of his composure.

“Noff, you sicken me.”

Noff shook off the comment. “You might be my family, but I’d rather stick with my friends.” He backed up slowly so he was again beside Maine. Maine, proud of him, placed a hand on his tiny shoulder.

Dirk’s jaw quivered but then stilled. “Very well. We would’ve accepted you back into the pack. Now you’re on your own. See how well you fare the next time assassins come after your friend.”

The pack leader turned then and tramped away, out of the radius of the snow globe effect and into the ugly, muddy, rainy landscape, the rest of the dire wolves following suit without meeting Noff’s gaze.

Noff yipped softly at Maine, “Quick, I need another retort. Something quick and witty.”

Maine had just the thing, but she hadn’t said it herself because she didn’t want to be murdered by a pissed-off dire wolf. She whispered it into his ear.

“Hey Dirk,” he called out in his tinny, energetic voice. “How did it feel to have a tree kick your ass when you fell off that cliff?”

Stopping dead in his tracks, the pack leader growled. “A true human insult if I’ve ever heard one.” He turned his head slowly back at them to face not Noff but Maine. “I survive. I always survive because I am a dire wolf. Dire wolves are tough. Unlike you, halfling who prefers her human side. You could have put up a better fight against these three,” he angled his snout at the fallen gargoyles behind him, “had you known even the slightest amount about magic and utilizing your strengths.”

Then he twisted back, and the dire wolf pack bounded away into the rain.

Noff’s tail wagged as they disappeared. “That felt good. That felt really good.” Then he turned to Maine. “Speakin’ of which, what are we gonna do the next time assassins come for us?”

Maine groaned in discomfort as she tried to stand. “There isn’t going to be a next time.” Her eyes settled on the dead gargoyle leader lying on his back in the snow. The satellite phone at his waist was a smashed mess. “We’re going to go on the offensive and get the bastard who keeps sending killers after me.” She coughed. “First, help me up so we can get back to the car.”

* * *

She made it back to the car in a sort of half-stumble, half-crawl. Climbing into the driver’s seat, she turned the key, grinning when the engine fired up. Then she turned on the heater to warm herself up from the snow.

She and Noff tracked mud all over the seats and floor, but they could clean that later. To be honest, it helped cover up the smell of Noff’s ice cream puke from earlier.

Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten yet. She sighed. It was well past time they got back to the Trollcave. Her father had healing potions, and aside from food, that’s what her body badly needed—that and sleep.

Before she put the car in drive, Noff’s nostrils flared, his eyes darting to the glove box in front of him.

“Smell something good in there?” Maine joked.

Noff popped the latch with his paw and Maine gaped at what she saw.

Snacks!

Some good ones, too. As a troll, her father must have needed to eat a lot too to fuel his body so it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Still, it had been unexpected.

“Hand me a chocolate bar,” she said.

Noff carried one over to her in his teeth, dropping it into her palm.

Maine unwrapped it. “By the way, I liked what you said about family and friends back there.” She stuck the bar into her mouth, the chocolate melting between her teeth.

Grinning, Noff pushed his snout back into the glove box as he dug through the snack stash.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“Why’d we even go to the warehouse anyway?” Maine asked as she drove toward the concealed dirt path leading to the Trollcave. They’d stopped for gas station coffee, and she was now on her fourth chocolate bar. Her energy was slowly returning although her body still ached awfully—nothing a healing potion wouldn’t handle. The assassins were getting tougher with each wave that came after her. Good thing she was going to make sure the gargoyles were the last ones.

How?

She didn’t exactly know yet.

“Promise me you won’t laugh?” Noff said.

Maine gave Noff a look.

He returned a low whine. “The logging district back there is my home. Has been ever since I ran away from the pack.”

She nearly jerked the wheel to the side in surprise and Noff yipped. “You sure you should be driving in your injured state?”

“You want to drive?”

“Can I?”

“No. It’s just…you’re serious?”

The dire wolf nodded. “When it ain’t infested by gargoyle assassins, it’s kinda nice. Just me. All to myself. I feel kinda like a king ruling a kingdom.”

She felt a bit sad for Noff. Rejected by his family. Living alone in a trash heap.

“Home sweet home. I admit it’s lackin’ in amenities. Ain’t got cable TV, but the view can’t be beat.”

Maine knew he was trying to be strong, overcompensating with humor. “Do you want me to drop you off back there?”

“Hells no, woman. I’m your bodyguard, remember?”

She caught her laugh. “Right. You impressed me back there when you gave Dirk a bloody nose.”

Noff beamed. “Thanks. He didn’t see it comin’.”

“What are the rest of your siblings’ names?”

“Besides Dirk, there’s Suzy, Bran, Nicole, and Jack.”

“A piece of advice. Next time, maybe challenge Suzy or Nicole—they’re a bit smaller.”

Noff shook his head. “Oh, they’d be an even tougher fight. I ain’t joking when I say that female dire wolves are the most intense fighters. Dirk was only barely able to take over as alpha when we were old enough to leave home.”

That was interesting. “Don’t take this the wrong way but are you sure you’re part of their pack? The physical size difference between you… Let’s just say you give new meaning to the phrase ‘runt of the litter.’”

He shrugged off the size reference. “I’m what you call an anomaly. It happens every few generations.” He snickered. “At least I didn’t get the worst of it.”

“Worse than being the size of a chihuahua when everyone else is the size of a horse?” Maine brought her coffee to her mouth.

“Ohhh yeah,” Noff said with a long nod. “This one dire wolf, not only was she born small but she was also born a…” He looked around giddily. “…a human.”

Coffee sprayed from Maine’s mouth, coating the inside of the windshield and the steering wheel. After sputtering and wiping her mouth on her jacket sleeve, she said, “I’m sorry, but I could’ve sworn I misheard you. A dire wolf was born as a human?”

“Nope. You heard true. Terrible ain’t it? I think her name was Sarah…”

Maine looked dumbstruck. “So you’re telling me a human baby came out of a pregnant dire wolf?”

Noff yawned. “It was an anomaly.”

“How is that even possible?” Maine rubbed her forehead with her free hand. “Right. Magic. I’ve got to ask, what’s up with the ‘I am the Noff, and I bring the Key’ spiel?” She did her best to imitate his overly energetic tone as she said it.

“Okay, first, I don’t sound nothin’ like that.”

“And second?”

“It’s my mantra.”

“Right.”

Noff thrust his tiny shoulders back. “My power statement. It empowers me and focuses my magic. As you might’ve noticed, I’ve got a lotta pent-up energy inside that wants to get out.”

That explained why he sometimes miscalculated his magic blastoffs.

“What’s your mantra?” he asked.

“I don’t have…” she stopped. “My mantra is ‘To kick bad guy ass.’”

Noff frowned. “Nah, that’s more like a mission statement. We’ll work on it. Strange, though. I thought everyone had a mantra—”

Maine’s cell phone ringing from a cupholder beneath the car stereo cut him off.

Maine kept her eyes on the road, not trusting her sore body to be able to reach down and pick it up at the moment without having a wreck. “Can you check who it is?”

Noff hopped down to the floorboard and took a look. “Someone named ‘Jason Asshole.’ Now that’s an embarrassin’ last name.”

Groaning, Maine focused back on the highway before them. They were getting closer to the Trollcave’s concealed path entrance.

“I’m gonna answer it—”

“Please don’t.”

Noff tapped the phone screen with his tiny nose and hit the speaker icon.

“H-hello? Maine?”

Maine flashed Noff a death stare as she hissed, “Shut it off.”

Noff’s doggish grin would have been comical under different circumstances. “Why? Who is he?”

“Maine? Maine? Hello?” Jason’s voice paused. “Do you have a dog?”

Noff yipped into the phone’s speaker, inches away.

“Hang it up!” Maine hissed again.

“Maine? Maine, is that you? The connection is breaking up.”

Maine groaned. Oh, what the hell. What was the harm in talking to him? “Hey, Jason. It’s me.”

Weakness: Redheads. Boobs of all shapes and sizes. An unhealthy infatuation with you—

“Shut up!” She drowned out the Mantle as best she could.

“Huh?”

“Sorry, I was yelling at my yippie chihuahua.”

“Huh, chihuahua. Sounds annoying.”

“Hey,” Noff yipped.

Jason cleared his throat. “Ahh, how are you doing?”

Maine pinched the bridge of her nose. “You know… I’m in a small town in the middle of nowhere dealing with…life.”

“You sound…sad?”

“I am. It’s my dad. He died.”

“I’m sorry, what happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Noff hopped onto the center console and nudged her elbow. “I think maybe you do wanna talk about it.”

She shot the dog another glare. The concealed turnoff to the Trollcave was up ahead, and she slowed and pulled off to the shoulder. After making sure no one was around on the road, she pressed a button on the car’s console with the picture of a bush on it. The brush pile magically slid to the side, and she drove onto the forested dirt path. The bush slid back across the path behind her and a magic camouflaged screen shot up above it, completely hiding the path from the road. Her father had thought of everything.

“Hello? Maine, are you still there?” Jason’s voice said. “If you have a second, I want to explain what happened the other night.”

She didn’t want to hear it.

Or did she?

She was curious as to what he had to say about the redhead he was to meet after their restaurant date.

Pulling the muscle car to a stop along the forested path, she said, in as flat a voice as she could muster, “Okay. Sure, tell me what’s going on.”

“Th-thank you. I…you…like I said it’s not what it seems—”

“Then tell me before I hang up.”

Jason gulped. “That woman who sat in the booth next to me…I think she roofied me or something—I remember what I said, but she made me say it. Like I was in a trance or something.”

Maine rested her elbows on the steering wheel and massaged her hair in both of her hands as she remembered Blue Dots the fairy’s appearance at the restaurant. “You’re not making much sense.”

“That’s the thing,” Jason said. “It’s like…like it was magic or something.”

“Magic’s not real.” Maine smirked. “You banging a redhead after our date—”

“That’s not how it is. It’s not, I swear. I didn’t do that.”

Maine glanced at Noff for his opinion, who seemed a little too eager to hear more. “He might be tellin’ the truth,” he said. “Could be a good liar, though.”

Nodding, Maine turned back to the phone. “Explain then.”

“Alexa. She’s my ex. It was a messy breakup. She thought she’d moved on, but…she needs someone to talk to so I go to her place when she gets lonely.”

“You ‘go to her place’…” Maine hoped Jason could hear her exaggerated eye roll.

“Like I said, usually only to talk. I really liked you. I do like you. The night of our date, I was going to go over to Alexa’s place and break up with her. Again. For, like, good. You know?”

“Sure.”

Jason’s voice was hopeful. “So you believe me?”

“Look, I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

“And?”

“And I need to be alone now. Maybe you’re a lying, cheating asshole, and maybe you’re not—”

“I hadn’t seen Alexa since you and I met at the police academy.”

Maine shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Maine, what is it? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

She didn’t say anything, and even Noff was silent as he watched for what she would say next.

“Something is clearly on your mind,” Jason continued. “What is it? Oh right, your father. Sorry. I can only imagine what you’re going through. Maine? Hello?”

Noff looked like he was considering something as he sat next to her on the car’s center console. “He does sound like he cares about you.”

Maine huffed. “We haven’t even been on two dates. He hardly knows me.”

Wagging his tail, Noff said, “I’ve only known you for like two days. We hardly know each other.”

“Yeah, but we’ve fought monsters together.”

“Holy crap.” Jason overheard. “Did I hear you say something about monsters? You mean, like personal demons?”

“Um, yeah, that’s what I meant.” She hooked some hair over her ear. “And skeletons in the closet. Lots of skeletons—my dad’s of course, not mine.”

“Where are you?”

“My hometown in Maine.”

“The state of Maine? Hold on, you’re from Maine, and your name is Maine?”

She bit her lip. “Yes?”

“That’s so cool.”

She scoffed. Was she the only one who thought her name was lame?

“Are you sure you’re okay? I can drive up to meet you. It’s only like, what, an eight-hour drive?”

“Ten by bus,” she remarked.

“You took a bus?”

“I have a car now,” she explained. “It’s my dad’s.”

“Your dad’s?”

“I inherited it. Look, I’m only going to be here for a few more days or so. I’ve…got some things to take care of.”

“I understand. You probably have a lot to do.”

“Yeah. I thought my dad was the town asshole, but now it looks like he was the town hero, and I’ve gotten caught up in something he was um, working on when he um, died.” She decided she needed to leave out the murder and magic part of the story.

“I know we haven’t known each other for long but are you sure there’s nothing I can do to help?” he asked.

Her stomach chose that time to groan.

“Whoa, was that your stomach?”

It was, and this time it wasn’t because it was hungry but because it was upset from the copious amount of chocolate she’d consumed.

“I gotta go,” she said quickly.

“Literally,” Noff snickered. “You’ve got to go.”

She glared at him.

“Bye, Jason.”

“I’ll call—”

She hung up, and Noff hopped off the center console and back onto the passenger seat. “He sounds like an upstandin’ guy. Maybe his excuse is even true.”

A part of her did still like him…but all this reaching out had been a bit much. He seemed so balanced when they met. Now he came off as…desperate. The Mantle was right. It was an unhealthy infatuation. She wondered what the rest of the Mantle’s sentence would’ve been.

An unhealthy infatuation with you because you’re so beautiful…perfect… wonderful…agreeable. She chuckled at that last thought.

Maine shook her head, starting the engine again with a twist of the key, her face serious. “The last thing I need is guy trouble. I have a murder and a case of missing butterfly fairies to solve.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Maine stumbled out of the Trollcave bathroom, one hand holding her belly. She’d barely managed to park the car in the garage and shut the garage door before finding the bathroom.

“Feel better?” Noff panted, rolling on his back on the magic massage chair.

She groaned. “I will once I get some health potion in me. I don’t know if I’m strong enough to hold onto a pole to take me back to the first floor.”

Rolling to all four paws, Noff hopped off the leather recliner to the stone floor. “I’ll get it for ya.”

She balanced herself against the Ms. Pac-Man arcade game. “There should be one sitting on the kitchen table. How are you planning to ride a pole upward? I don’t even know how you rode down here.”

He grinned up at her. “As Maki-Mae might say, ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’”

She fisted her hands on her hips. “Seriously. How?”

“I took the stairs.”

“Right.” Pushing away from the arcade game, she walked over to where the feminine-sized Mantle clung to the masculine dummy torso.

Welcome home, Master, it said. And then, Don me.

“I’m not donning you right now.”

Don me. It will make you feel better.

“Later. First, potion.”

But I—

“Quiet!”

The Mantle went silent.

Noff had disappeared so she looked around for somewhere to sit. She considered the massage chair but then saw her father’s worn leather swivel chair in front of the computer in the front part of the Trollcave. She walked over and plunked down in it with a sigh.

It felt good. It felt like the seat was conforming to her butt, adding padding where needed. So too did the leather backrest comfort her. She felt like if she kicked her feet up on the desk, she could fall asleep.

Considering it might take Noff a while with the potion, she clenched her teeth and pulled her legs up one at a time. Her right leg went up fine, but her left leg bumped the computer’s keyboard, and the monitor blinked to life.

The word PASSWORD: flashed across the black screen.

Hmm. Now, this was interesting.

She carefully lowered her right leg to the floor and scooted the swivel chair forward. It rolled effortlessly until she was right in front of the computer. She held her hands over the keyboard.

What was the password?

Where was Blue Dots when you needed her? She’d been able to hack Jason’s phone with her magic, but Maine didn’t know how to do that yet or if her troll powers worked like that.

She stared at the black lock screen.

Weakness: your father truly cared about you.

“Is that a hint?” she muttered to the Mantle.

The password on the front door was Maine. Was this one the same? If so, her father could’ve used a lesson on password strength.

She typed m-a-i-n-e and hit the enter key.

A photograph replaced the computer’s black lock screen, letting her know she’d entered the correct password. Was that a picture of… She leaned closer.

It was. The photo was of her when she was only a few years old. It was Halloween, judging by the costume she was wearing, a petite police officer’s uniform.

She blinked. She’d never seen this picture before, and she certainly didn’t remember life at three years old. The camera flash gleamed off the police badge pinned to her costume’s chest. The girl looked so happy.

Standing beside her younger self, wearing a trench coat that looked oddly like the Mantle, stood her father. Not exactly smiling, but not frowning either. He was happy too.

Your father’s favorite memory in all his life, the Mantle said.

“How do you…know?”

He often spoke of it. He wished nothing more than to connect with you someday. To bond with you. He kept tabs on you. When he found out you went into the police academy, he was ecstatic.

“Really?” Maine said. “I would think a parent wouldn’t want their child to do a dangerous job, even if they have one.”

He believed in you. You made him proud.

Maine let the words wash over her as she stared at the screen. Tiny icons scattered the computer screen around the picture. Digital file folders.

One of them read Case Files, and she double-clicked it.

The folder opened, replacing the Halloween photo on the screen. More folders populated. There was one for each year going back several decades. She read through the file names. 2015. 2016. 2018. He’d sorted them in sequential order. She scanned through the names. He had folders going back years before she was born.

She was more interested in the most recent file folder for this current year.

A thought had hit her as soon as she’d seen the case files folder. Maybe her father had been killed because of an open case he was working on. Or maybe he’d rubbed someone the wrong way during one of his previous cases. Finding her father’s case files on his computer was exactly the kind of lead she was looking for.

Her chest started to beat fast as she double-clicked the current year’s folder.

Only two folders this time.

Solved.

In Progress.

She double-clicked the Solved folder and bit her lip hard as a surprisingly large number of additional folders populated. Each folder name had the name of a case and a date next to it. Abducted Gnome. Misplaced Witchstone. Damaged Magical Cupboard. Dancing Mice.

The case file names went on and on. How the hell had her father had time to work so many cases this year already? Did the man sleep?

No wonder the town loved him. Judging by the case file names, her father accepted every case from Food-poisoned Human to Cattle Slaughter Ritual.

She clicked out of Solved and double-clicked the In Progress folder where she saw only three case folders. The first was called Transferal Denial. She opened the folder and found several files containing information on the case. The first file’s label said Details, and she took a quick look at it. It was blank.

Great. Had she discovered her big lead only to have no details on it? She opened the file titled Client. It was a NasNas named Noolie. She didn’t know what a NasNas was, but it sounded like a magical being. The third folder was titled Leads. She opened it, but it was blank too.

Frowning, Maine got out of the Transferal Denial case and opened the Emerald Candlestick Procural case. This folder had three files in it as well: Details, Client, and Leads.

She scanned through them, relieved to find that none of them were blank. It seemed like a pretty straightforward case of locating and procuring a magical item. The Details folder contained a picture of the item in question. Maine gasped at its beauty.

It was a tall, elaborately carved gold candlestick with fat emerald gemstones set into divots on the four ornate legs of its base and up the gold stem. The top of the candlestick was devoid of a candle and the tall gold spike atop it where you would anchor the candle looked sharp and wicked. While interesting, the only thing of real notice was that the client was the same as her father’s first unsolved case. A NasNas named Noolie.

She clicked out of it and opened the third case titled Missing Garbage Clam. While the title sounded utterly ridiculous, and there was no inclusion of a description or picture, her interest was piqued when she saw this case’s client: Sage of the Sacred Sourdough.

Sage…

She didn’t need another excuse to go see the man. Enough with her father’s snacks and chocolate bars. She would need to eat a real meal soon, and she was curious to know a little more about the chef’s backstory. He was a mystery, and she loved a good mystery.

Maybe that’s why she was so interested, she suddenly realized. Not only did she want to solve her father’s case, but detective work appealed to her on some deep level.

A note in the file flagged Sage’s case as important. She didn’t know what a garbage clam was, but it was going to be the first lead she followed as soon as she felt healed enough to travel again.

Speaking of which, where the hell was Noff with her healing potion?

She considered adding two new case folders to the In Progress folder: Missing Butterfly Fairies and Valkious’ Murder. She was tired so she locked the computer screen and let her body sink back into the comfortable swivel chair. Noff could keep his magical massage recliner—this leather computer chair was all hers.

She felt suddenly sleepy, and before she could fall asleep, she dropped the Veil over her eyes so she wouldn’t have strange and vivid nightmares.

She must have dozed off because she woke to Noff’s excited yipping. At first, she thought something was wrong, but then she realized the yipping was due to the Veil being down. She lifted it.

“One health potion. Right here!”

Beside him sat one blue vial, its stopper coated in dog saliva.

Wagging his tail, Noff said, “Want me to go grab a strength-reducing elixir too?”

“Um, and wait another hour for you to get back with it? I don’t think so.”

Noff seethed. It seemed he’d finally hit his breaking point. “I get it—I’m LITTLE! There! I said it. I’m short. I can’t help that it takes my shorter than average stature longer than average to climb all those stairs.” He huffed and sat back on his hind legs upon the floor.

She watched him, stunned by his outburst. “I was totally joking. Thanks for getting the health potion.”

Noff dropped his chin onto his crossed front paws and gave a low whine. “You’re welcome.”

Maine leaned forward, reaching down for the blue vial on the floor. The range of motion sent a shot of pain up her side. She grunted, stretching a bit farther, but she still came up short. She’d have to get out of the chair to pick it up.

She glanced down at Noff. He’d closed his eyes.

“Think you can hand me the potion?” she asked nicely.

Noff didn’t bat an eyelid. “Not a chance. I’m sleepin’, woman.”

“No, you’re not.”

“How can ya tell?”

“’Cause you’re not snoring.”

He yipped irritably. “Ya know what, you’re impossible.”

She smirked, the perfect quip coming to her. “I might be impossible, but you’re ‘a Noff.’ Get it? A Noff. Enough…”

Noff groaned and got up. “I’ll be chillin’ on the massage chair if you need me.”

She stared at the blue vial just out of her reach. “But I do…”

As she thought about what to do, there came a flapping whoosh that blew back her hair. She blinked and surprisingly enough, found the Mantle standing up rigidly on the desk in front of her, the health potion gripped in a curl of its tailcoat. The Mantle’s sudden animation might’ve amazed her had the coat not attacked her when she’d first opened her father’s chest so she knew it was capable of moving on its own.

Here is your health potion.

“Wow. Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.”

You are welcome. Now, will you don me?

“No.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Maine yawned as she got out of the purple muscle car, stretching her arms wide. Her body no longer felt like a wrecking ball had slammed it, which was nice. Before her stood the Sacred Sourdough, but judging by the lack of cars in the parking lot, she had a feeling she’d missed the dinner rush and then some.

After she’d downed the healing potion earlier, she’d taken a quick shower, put on a new outfit from her duffel bag, and refreshed herself in the bathroom mirror. Noff’s coat looked like it could do with a little touching up so she stopped at the pet store below the apartment for a dog brush.

Tony had been working on a birdhouse with an ornate bespoke wood-carving tool, and he complimented her outfit and hair. In addition to the dog brush, she bought some other minor dog care essentials. Since Noff was her “bodyguard” for the moment, he would be staying with her, and she thought it was a nice gesture.

Then Maine had returned to the Trollcave where she’d groomed Noff and then started to research some of her dad’s solved cases on the computer. Time got the better of her, and now here they were, standing in front of a closed restaurant.

With the Veil lifted, Maine stepped up to the door. It was locked. She checked the hours on the door and confirmed that they’d closed a couple of hours ago.

“Darn,” Noff said. “Guess it’s time to head back to the Trollcave…”

“Not so fast.” Instead of turning for the car, she started along the side of the restaurant.

“Maine, you sneaky thing. Being a police academy trainee, I thought you were above B&E.”

She hushed him. “I’m not breaking and entering. I’m just…you know, taking a look around. This is one of my dad’s cases. I belong here, checking things out.” She stepped around the building’s corner to the restaurant’s rear.

“You sure you don’t want to ogle Sage and his delicious food?”

“No. Maybe. I don’t know. I’m sleuthing and if talking to Sage is part of the investigation, I can’t help it.”

“How about you keep him distracted, and I’ll help myself back to the kitchen, see if there are any pies about…”

Maine dropped the Veil, and Noff’s words became high-pitched yipping.

Along the back wall, Maine walked past two dumpsters. From the markings on the ground, it looked like a third dumpster used to sit next to them. Or maybe they’d simply been moved over a few yards.

Glancing up, she saw a security camera mounted over the dumpsters. It must have been motion-activated because a red light flashed on—it was filming her. She frowned. Security cameras above a pair of dumpsters seemed a bit unnecessary. Was it illegal for magical beings to steal food scraps in Rainwater?

She made her way past the dumpsters and lifted the Veil to shut up Noff’s repeated yipping.

“Hey, Nancy Drew, whatcha lookin’ for?”

Maine shifted her thoughts away from the security camera and dumpsters. “I don’t know. Clues? This is my first case.”

Noff considered this. “Well, although you look like you don’t know what you’re doing, I bet your father would be proud of you.”

Maine came to a back door next to a couple of loading bays for food trucks. She was about to inspect the loading area when the back door opened and she heard a sharp “Freeze!”

She raised her hands immediately, catching the restaurant’s back door in her periphery. A man in a chef’s hat and uniform held a rolling pin extended in his hand.

Her cheeks blushed red. “Oh, Sage, hi.” Her words were sheepish at best. She felt like he’d caught her red-handed even though she’d done nothing wrong.

The chef’s face scrunched up. “Maine? What are you doing here?”

Maine winced. “Can you put the rolling pin down first?”

Realizing he still had it extended, Sage nodded and lowered it by his side. “Sorry. The intruder alarm sounded, and I came out to blast the thief.”

“Thief? I’m no thief. And blast? You were going to blast me?” She eyed the rolling pin closely, cracking a grin.

Glancing from her to his rolling pin, he added, “With magic.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “I don’t believe y—”

Before she could finish, Sage had leveled the rolling pin a few feet off to the side of her and blasted a small purple orb of light from one end of it. The purple blast zipped past her like a firework, exploding upon the back parking lot into harmless sparks.

“Um, what would’ve happened if that had hit me?”

“It would’ve stupefied you until the cops came to haul you to jail. If you were the thief, of course. Which I doubt,” he added quickly.

Her gaze remained locked on the rolling pin. “You’re going to have to show me that trick.”

“It’s no trick. It’s a spell. Why don’t we head inside?”

At her ankle, Noff grinned up at her, whispering. “Remember, you keep him distracted. I’ll search for pie!”

Acting like she didn’t know the dog, she stepped inside the restaurant after Sage, holding the door open for Noff.

“I can explain why I was snooping around back there.”

Sage led her through the kitchen. “No need. I think I already know.”

“You do?”

He glanced back at her as he ducked under some hanging pans. “I must say, I’m a bit surprised. Glad, but surprised.”

Glad but surprised? What was Sage talking about?

“You caught me at a good time,” he continued, leading her into a cramped office off to the side of the kitchen. On the other side of the kitchen, she noticed a door with the words One-Way on it. She made a note of it.

Sage waved her to the second of two chairs. “Was just finishing up some paperwork. About to call it a night.”

“How was business tonight?” She sat.

“Packed crowd. Same as every night,” he replied simply, almost as if the notion saddened him.

She brushed some hair out of her eyes. “That’s a good thing. Right?”

“You have to have customers to keep a restaurant open.”

She tried to read the cryptic message underlying his words. Maybe she was reading into things that weren’t there, and there was no message. She decided to pursue it.

“Do you intend to keep this restaurant open?”

He eyed her sharply, clearly impressed, and turned on a small computer monitor showing feeds from several security cameras inside the restaurant. “Yes. Would you please recall your dire wolf from the kitchen or I might need to call the police tonight.”

She blushed again—stupidly—and shouted Noff’s name. He padded into the office a few moments later and looked up at her, whispering, “The pies are in the walk-in cooler. I can smell ’em. But I ain’t tall enough, and I ain’t got opposable thumbs.”

“I can hear you,” Sage said. “If pie is what you want, we had some leftover tonight. I can go grab you each a slice.”

“No, that won’t be necessary,” Maine said at the same time Noff said, “Oh, yes, please.”

When her stomach suddenly rumbled loudly, the chef snickered. “Looks like you’re outvoted two to one.” He stood and straightened his uniform. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

After he had left, Noff hungrily licked his lips. “Forget what I said about Jason Asshole. You need to hook up with Sage.”

Maine groaned. “His last name is not asshole.”

“That’s what your phone says.”

“Stop looking at my phone. You’re the asshole.” She looked up as Sage whisked into the office, elegantly setting down two ceramic dessert plates. A pristine slice of cherry cheesecake sat on each plate, perfectly centered. They looked straight out of a professional baking show.

“What’s all this talk about assholes?” Sage asked.

“Nothing. This pie looks…amazing.”

Noff wiggled his butt and blasted off from the floor to land right next to the second plate on the desk. The plates clattered upon his landing and Maine flashed him a scolding look. Then she returned to gaping at the cheesecake.

“I’ll grab some water glasses for you.” Sage stepped out into the kitchen and returned with a glass of water and a cloth napkin for each of them. For Maine, he also had a spoon. Then he sat across from her, crossing one ankle over his other knee. “Gaping mouths. A common reaction to seeing my pies. Wait ’til you try it.”

They did, Maine using the spoon and Noff using his tongue. Both of their eyes rolled up. Noff spoke first.

“Daaamn. If you’re not goin’ to ask this dude out, I will.”

Sage chuckled, clearly pleased that his guests were enjoying his food. “Now, if I’m not mistaken, you’re here to discuss the particulars of my case…”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Maine wiped her mouth on her napkin. “Right down to business, huh?”

Sage dropped his eyes to the desk between them. “Your father was very dear to this town. Not only for what he did for us but for what he represented.”

“Represented?”

Sage ticked two items off his fingers. “Law. And order. There’s a lot of, let’s say, ‘good’ magical beings in this town. Also a lot of ‘bad’ ones.” He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Now the bad ones usually don’t do bad things—they ordinarily obey the rules of society.” He chewed something over, then lanced her with his eyes. “As long as there’s a peacekeeper in town.”

“Peacekeeper?”

Noff threw his snout up to look at Maine, his mouth full of cake, which he’d smashed all over his lips and teeth. “Sheriff. Lawman. Protector.”

“Wait, I thought my dad was a detective. You’re saying he was its magical equivalent of a sheriff too?”

Sage hedged. “Unofficially. It kept him busy. Really busy. He kept the town safe. A heavy burden and responsibility to hold.”

Maine slowly nodded. Why didn’t her father tell her about his cases and life outside his family? Keeping magical bad guys in check and finding missing magical items. That was cool stuff. Instead, he’d let her think he was an asshole and a bit of a deadbeat.

Sage shifted in his seat. A smile formed on his face. “This one night, it was a full moon—he was here at the Sacred Sourdough, minding his business and eating some chili fries and scrambled eggs when four fully shifted werewolves tried to rob the place.”

Maine’s eyes widened.

“Your father. He sat there as they leaned over the kitchen counter beside him, demanding money. Then he turned an eye up at them and calmly said, ‘Boys, you better get.’ The four werewolves laughed of course and threatened to take a clawed swipe at him. Your father though, without dropping his fork, said, a bit firmer this time, ‘This is your last warning.’”

“Shit. What happened next?”

“I’m guessin’,” Noff said with a mouth full of pie, “Valkious opened a can of whoop-ass.”

With a serious chuckle, Sage continued, “The lead werewolf, the biggest of them, took a swipe at your father still sitting in his chair. Had it connected, it would’ve torn him in two. It didn’t. Before it struck him, your father swiveled out of the chair, placing it between him and the were so the claws clanged against the gold backing. Take a look the next time you’re in the dining room. The claw marks are still there.”

He continued, “Anyway, then they all went for him, swiping and biting at him. He deftly maneuvered away from them, breaking one’s ankle with a well-placed kick and shattering another one’s forearm with a punch. A third he tackled in the lower back, and the werewolf groaned and went slack, saying something about a former back injury.

“The fourth, your father squirted a blast of chili sauce into his eyes, incapacitating him. It was like he was reading each of their weaknesses. He took them all down within a full minute, and no one else inside the restaurant got hurt.”

Maine silently nodded. She’d never heard such a story about her father.

“That’s not all though,” Sage said. “While they were trying to recover for a second round of attacks, he opened the One-Way back here in the kitchen and shoved them through, sending them to Anchorage, Alaska.” At her confused look, he clarified, “Because it was summer, when it never gets dark in Alaska. No darkness or full moon so they couldn’t shift. You might not know, but werewolves need darkness and a full moon to shift—”

“I’m not a complete idiot, Mr. Mansplainer,” Maine interjected. When his face sharpened, she grinned. “I’m joking. But everyone knows that werewolves shift when the moon comes out.”

“Not everyone knows that werewolves are real.”

“I’m catching on to life behind the Veil pretty quickly.”

Noff lifted his head from his pie. “Riiight.” Then he returned to his plate.

“You feel the same draw to his detective work?” Sage said, probably in an attempt to bring the focus back to the case.

Maine spooned off another sliver of pie. “I’m only in town for a few more days, give or take. Might as well do some good while I’m here.”

He eyed her. “You’re taking the Mantle with you then?”

“To be honest, I’ve only tried it on once. It does look good on me but…there’s the whole ‘it’s evil’ thing.”

He nodded. “Created by a demon. It’s very powerful.” He paused. “You know, I sense that you have exceptional magic talent. With the right tutor, you’ll be badass.”

“If he’s hinting for you to hire him as your tutor…take him up on it,” Noff said with a mouthful. “Need. More. Pie!”

Sage chuckled at the dire wolf’s statement while Maine gave Noff a sharp look.

She set her spoon down momentarily. “I’m going home after the fourth moon of the lunar rising.”

“Tuesday?” Sage asked.

She’d only been in town for a few days, and she was already talking like the resident magic beings. “Yes. Only ‘til Tuesday. Then I’m gone. I’m on track to becoming a police officer in New York.”

She thought he might try to talk her out of it, but he only nodded as if he understood.

“What’s your story?” she asked. “You run the best restaurant I’ve ever been to. Period. Yet I sense you’re unhappy.”

His easy expression became a frown. “Is it that obvious? Very well. Like you, I also had ambitions outside my initial path.”

She waved for him to go on, ignoring Noff’s mad gulping and licking his plate.

“I, also like you, am a halfling. Before I opened the Sacred Sourdough, I attended a very prestigious wizard school. I was at the top of my class, and many of my professors said I had great potential.”

“But…”

“But my heart wasn’t in it.”

“What do you mean?”

Sage absently rubbed his chin, clearly reliving the memory of his story. Then he met her eyes. “Because studying magic wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to be a chef.”

She sat up straight and gestured around at the restaurant. “Looks like your dream has come true. What am I missing?”

“I run a restaurant for magical beings. I want to do the same thing but for… Mundanes.”

“Mundanes?” Maine asked.

Sage winced. “Oh, sorry—that’s what we call humans around here. Mundanes because, well, when you don’t have magical talents…” He glanced through his open office door toward the kitchen and twitched his hand. A few plates levitated, and he sent them to the dishwasher. “Well, life is just…”

“Mundane,” both Maine and Sage said in unison.

“But why?” Maine asked.

“Because. It’s more of a challenge without magical ingredients.”

She shook her head. “I thought that the sourdough bread I ate here the other night wasn’t magical…”

He grinned. “It wasn’t. That was me flaunting my true potential.”

She looked at him. “Damn.”

“After leaving the wizard academy, I worked my way up to the top at the Sacred Sourdough to build a resume and perfect my craft. My next step is to land an opening as a sous chef at a human three-star Michelin restaurant.”

This guy was so cool and deep. And his eyes. “Wow. I think you’re well on your way to reaching that goal—”

Noff belched loudly. “Heh heh. Sorry.”

Sage sat back in his chair, the moment ruined. “You’re here a few more days. So you’re going to Valkious’ funeral, right? Probably give a eulogy?”

The suddenness caught her off-guard, and she didn’t know what to say.

“Ah, I remember your father’s speech at your mother’s funeral. It was beautiful.”

Maine’s hand shot into the air. “That was not a sweet eulogy—that was the most cold-hearted, unemotional thing a person could say at a remembrance service.”

Looking equally shocked, Sage raised both hands peaceably. “Sorry, but for a troll, your father’s words were quite emotional. To live a good life is the highest thing you can say to someone else. Trolls’ emotions truly come through in their facial expressions and the inflection of their voice.”

Maine didn’t know any of this. Also, she wanted to change the subject.

“My father’s cases. Your case. That’s what we sat to talk about when we got sidetracked.”

“Because…pie,” Noff said. “Hey, you gonna finish yours?”

With the mention of her mother’s funeral, she no longer felt hungry. She pushed her dessert plate over to Noff.

Sage tapped the table with his knuckles. “Ah yes. What do you already know about it?”

“I found my father’s computer files,” she admitted. “But not much aside from the case name of Garbage Clam.

“I see.” Sage stood and straightened his uniform. “Follow me. Noff…you can continue to eat if you want.”

The dire wolf nodded, and Maine followed Sage out of the office and toward the restaurant’s back door. Stepping outside, Sage led her to the two metal dumpsters outside. Stars twinkled high in the night sky.

“You’ve got the Veil lifted, right?” Sage said.

Maine nodded, looking at the two ordinary dumpsters, which now looked anything but ordinary. Their metal sides were more curved and they had odd, ornately curved lids on top. Wait…

She lowered the Veil and found herself looking at two plain dumpsters. She recalled that she had lowered the Veil earlier when Noff was annoying her. When she lifted the Veil, the dumpsters grew less straight-edged, and the lids looked more…organic?

She turned to Sage. “I’m guessing these aren’t dumpsters?”

“Eh, of a sort. They’re called Garbage Clams for a reason. They can digest anything. They’re very rare and the fact that one of them went ‘missing’ is very troublesome.” The chef pointed at the security camera on the wall above them. “I had this installed the next day after…” He pointed at the imprint on the ground where a third dumpster had been. “After someone stole the third one.”

“Why steal a magical, living dumpster?”

“Aside from them being immensely valuable, these things are better than pigs at disposing bodies.”

Curiosity getting the better of her, Maine reached out and quickly lifted one of the curved clam lids. Inside was a silent, roiling mass of restaurant food garbage and something red and moist that looked like a tongue or tonsil.

“It doesn’t stink,” she commented. The air coming out of the garbage clam smelled minty fresh.

Sage shrugged. “Nature’s most perfect garbage disposal unit. Can dispose of any material and with absolutely no harmful byproducts.”

“Wow. I kinda want one now.” She carefully lowered the lid and sighed. “You think this missing dumpster might tie into my father’s murder?”

Sage touched his chin. “How so?”

“You said this town is full of ‘bad’ magical beings. Also, my dad was a lawman who helped keep them in check. If this thing can dispose of evidence, maybe a bad guy stole it.”

“Solid reasoning,” Sage said. “I’m not sure. Was your dad working on any other cases?”

“Two. Both were commissioned by a…NasNas, I think it was.”

“Oh, Noolie?” Sage said as if it were self-evident.

“I don’t even know if you’re speaking English. Who is Noolie?”

“The town’s only NasNas, as far as I’m concerned. He lives in a big mansion on the outskirts of Rainwater. Here, let me lock up, and I can take you to him.”

“Take me to him? Maybe in the morning. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s the middle of the night.”

Sage grinned. “Not to a NasNas. They’re nocturnal, sleep during the day. It would be rude to stop by in the morning.”

Maine rolled her head. “Magical creatures are so weird.”

Sage looked indifferent. “So are humans.”

“Oh, you mean Mundanes?”

Sage laughed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

“You seriously don’t have to do this,” Maine said as she led Sage and Noff back to the purple muscle car. She had hoped Sage would drive, but as it turned out, he didn’t own a car. “I mean, my car’s bumper got messed up…”

“As long as your taillights work.” Sage was undeterred.

“There’s dog puke inside…”

“Not a problem. I have magic and can clean it up for you.”

Maine stopped before the purple car, looking almost black in the night. “Really, you can do that? Thanks.”

“I can’t fix the bumper. Magic can only do so much.” He laughed, and Maine smiled.

Noff winked up at her from beside her ankle. “Yep, definitely a keeper, this one.”

“Shut up,” she whispered, and they all got inside the muscle car.

* * *

Sage was good at giving directions, and they pulled up to the mansion shortly before midnight. The muscle car growled as Maine eased it along the cul-de-sac and parked.

The mansion had many forward-facing windows, all containing a solitary candle flickering in the middle.

Recalling her father’s missing candlestick case, she said, “This is the right place. It’s a bit creepy, though. A mansion that’s only in use at night…”

Sage opened his door and got out. “The ways of the NasNas are kind of creepy, so I’ve gathered. I haven’t met Noolie face-to-face. He prefers sticking to the shadows. I’ve catered a few dinner parties out here, though. He’s always treated my staff and me with the utmost respect. Tips rather nicely too.”

“I bet he does.” Maine eyed the impressive house from behind the windshield. Then she and Noff got out as well. They joined Sage’s side, Noff sniffing wildly.

“This place…smells.”

“Smells like what?” Maine said.

“A bunch of old magic stuff. Really old magic stuff.”

“Noolie is a bit of a collector of the arcane,” Sage offered as they walked toward the front door.

As they neared the house, a horse whinnied from off to the side, and she saw a sleek outbuilding near the woods. “A horse barn? Noolie has horses?”

“And a conservatory, a grand hall, a ballroom…”

Noff snorted. “He’s filthy rich. We get it. But does he have…pies?” He flicked a glance up at Maine, then at Sage suggestively.

“Okay, guys,” Maine said. “Remember why we’re here—to get information on Noolie’s case.”

Sage and Noff nodded seriously.

They passed under a roofed entryway supported by elegant columns, and Sage raised a hand to knock on the dual solid oak doors. Before his knuckles touched wood, both doors creaked inward.

Maine and Sage shared a look as the doors swung open onto a vast candlelit foyer with a high ceiling.

“How romantic.” Then Noff stiffened as he smelled something.

Or someone.

A man stood before them, broad-shouldered but hunched, dressed in a formal black suit with his dark hair combed back neatly above his forehead. He had one large eye at the center of his face with a well-trimmed unibrow over it. The eye blinked at them, seeming to see everything there was to know about them.

“About time,” he muttered.

“Excuse me?” Maine said.

Weakness: his eye. Punch it. Punch it quickly!

The cyclops adjusted his suit coat. “I only meant that I saw you pull up, and well, humans are such slow drivers.”

His voice was gruff yet pleasantly formal, but for some reason, Maine didn’t know if she bought his explanation.

“I must confess, your arrival is not entirely unexpected. Master Nas thought you might show up eventually.” The cyclops butler bowed and pivoted on the heels of his shiny dress shoes. “Follow me, please.”

They stepped inside, but Maine paused and glanced at Sage as if for confirmation that this was a good idea. Then the double doors closed firmly behind them of their own accord, and that was that.

They followed the butler, their footsteps echoing in the tall-ceilinged foyer. Paintings and portraits lined the walls, but it was too dark to make out the details. “Mr. Nas?” Maine whispered to Sage as they walked. They were shoulder-to-shoulder now. “I thought you said he was a NasNas, not that his name was Nas.”

Sage spoke simply. “Noolie Nas is his name.”

“That’s stupid.” She thought for a moment and called to the cyclops butler ahead of them. “Mr. Butler, can I ask what your name is?”

The hunchbacked cyclops stopped and pivoted back to them on his heels. “My name is Al.”

“Your last name doesn’t happen to be Cyclops, does it?”

“No.” He spoke in a brusque, formal voice. “It is Al.”

“Then what’s your first name?” Maine was getting annoyed.

“Al.”

“So let me get this straight. Your name is Al Al?”

“It is.” He stood there for a long time. “Any more questions?”

Maine looked at him. “Yeah, you have two first names that are identical?”

Placing a hand on Maine’s arm, Sage looked apologetically at the butler. “Please excuse my friend. She’s a halfling who’s been living under a rock for the past twenty years. Just found out magic was real.”

The cyclops butler’s singular eyebrow raised at that. Then he bowed again and re-pivoted toward the front.

“Thanks a lot,” Maine whispered to Sage.

“The truth will get you farther than lies in the end.”

“Thanks, Maki-Mae-wannabe.”

Noff yipped. “It’s good advice. This guy can cook, and he’s intelligent.”

Maine nudged him with her shoe.

“Just sayin’.”

Al led them through a carved, wooden archway into a cozy sitting room. Books of variously colored spines lined the bookcases along the walls, and plush velvety couches and coffee tables filled the floor. A few laminated scrolls also rested in glass display cases throughout the room. The room had an intimate air, lent by the candles illuminating it from the centers of the tables.

“Ah, you must be Valkious’ daughter.”

The voice came from somewhere in the darkened room. Maine thought she had it pinpointed on the right side, but the lighting was dim, and the flickering candle flames didn’t help since they threw shadows everywhere. Some couches had their backs facing the room’s entrance. She thought she saw a figure on one of them to the right, but it seemed so…thin. Was that who had spoken?

“I was telling Al the other day that I was sure you would stop by to see me.”

Maine’s attention shifted to the left side of the room. While the first voice had come from the right side, the second voice had come from the left. However, it had been the same voice, slightly hollow yet commanding.

There was another rather thin figure sitting in the shadows to the left as there had been to the right. With the room’s lighting, she didn’t know what to think. Were they twins, maybe?

“May I present to you my master, Noolie Nas.” The butler gestured vaguely into the reading room and bowed out under the archway they’d come through.

Maine leaned toward Sage’s ear. “Which one is Noolie?”

“I am over here,” came the voice to the right.

“And,” said the voice on the left, “also over here.”

Already irritated by the lack of originality magical beings had when it came to names, Maine fought to keep her cool. “I don’t understand.”

“I am a NasNas. Surely you did your research and know what I look like.”

Sage whispered back to her. “He’s in both places at once.”

“Like a hologram?”

Sage gave her a look that said, Not exactly.

She turned to face the center of the candlelit sitting room, raising her voice. “I don’t know what a NasNas is or even that much about life beyond the Veil in general. Someone murdered my father, and I’m trying to pick up the pieces and see if I can figure out what happened to him by checking on his unsolved cases.”

Silence fell over the sitting room. Then Noolie’s voice spoke up in unison from both sides of the shadowed room. It seemed more substantial than before, fuller.

“My apologies. How frustrating this all must be. A girl such as yourself, out of her element. I can reveal myself to you, but I must warn you, it may be rather unsightly.”

“Um…” She turned to Sage and Noff for input, but neither had anything for her.

“I’m not squeamish,” she said at last. “I think it would be for the best if we could speak face-to-face.”

Or as she was about to find out, face-to-face-to-face.

“Very well,” Noolie’s voice sounded from both sides of the room. “I did warn you.”

It couldn’t be that bad, could it? Beside her, Sage stood ramrod straight as if steeling himself.

Then, two thin forms rose from the couches at either side. As her eyes took in the sight, she blinked. No. It couldn’t be.

But it was.

She was now looking at one man, technically. But he was cut in two halves, cleanly down the middle.

“But how?” she managed.

“Magic, woman,” Noff barked, then averted his eyes from Noolie.

The candlelight didn’t help to ease the macabre scene.

Noolie stood, two halves of one man, his skin papery, his internal organs on display for all depending on the angle one observed him from, somehow kept inside his body cavity by magic. Maine was all right until her eyes traveled down to his intestines hanging limply out the inside of both halves.

Then she felt bile coming up.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

To her credit, she kept her puke down. It wouldn’t do to vomit on her father’s client’s lavish floor.

Noff, however, wasn’t her. He yakked up a small pool of disgusting chunky liquid.

“Seriously?” Maine said.

Noff only cleared his throat and scooted sheepishly in front of her, placing himself between her and the split-in-two NasNas standing in the dark candlelit room.

Both halves of Noolie hopped forward toward Maine while also coming inward toward each other. As Maine watched more closely, she realized he didn’t hop exactly but sort of inched forward in jagged motions as if he had centipede legs beneath his feet.

The closer both halves of Noolie advanced, another wave of nausea and disgust hit her. She was determined not to show it and pushed the notion back down. Then she felt Sage’s hand enclose around hers. He didn’t look at her, only continued to stare professionally forward, trying to discern through the darkness if this was a threat or not. Maine had no doubt he had some powerful magic spell ready if needed.

Flop. Flop. Flap, came the sounds of Noolie’s insides jumbling together as he moved. Several gold and silver amulets hanging around both halves of his neck also jangled and twisted with his motions.

The NasNas stopped about two feet away from Maine and Sage—well within their private bubble of space. Before his coiled intestines came to a flapping halt, the magic being’s fetid smell wafted out from his open cavities and rushed past them.

Maine didn’t flinch. Neither did Sage. Noff shivered back against Maine’s ankles, shaking upon the tops of her shoes. With a very sensitive, magical nose, she could only imagine the horrible smells his mind was trying to process.

The dire wolf yakked again, this time spewing vomit off to the side of Maine’s shoes. By the way he shook atop her shoes, coiled up in the fetal position, Maine didn’t blame or scold him. She did wonder if it would incur Noolie’s ire.

Maine held her breath, and Sage released his grip on her hand to slide it under his jacket. Was Noolie about to murder them?

One half of the NasNas’ face curved up into a grin. “I did warn you.”

The other half of his face, a few inches away from the other now, remained impassive. “Yes. I did.”

With a jolt, both faces turned upward, the mouths opening in unison. “Al!”

Al appeared at a moment’s notice, shuffling in under the archway, a wet rag and disinfectant spray already in his hands. He must have been waiting outside the archway to the side, ready with the cleaning supplies. Maybe this was part of Noolie’s spiel when he had business partners over.

Maine knew he likely couldn’t help his appearance—he was born or created like this, a tall, slender, paper-skinned naked man split in half, his viscera held in by some invisible magic force on display for all like fish in a tank. Was it too much to ask him to put on some clothing? All the same, this felt a little too rehearsed, like a gag ploy. She realized she didn’t like this guy.

Staring at the NasNas’ face, she waited for the Mantle’s input.

Weakness: …cannot find any. Wields extremely potent magic shield or aura.

“Clean,” Noolie commanded.

“At once, Master.” The cyclops butler crouched and sprayed Noff’s first puke puddle, then the second. Then he wiped them up, even producing a second dry cloth from his pocket to finish the cleaning.

“Dismissed.”

With a bow, Al stood to his full, hunched height and blinked his big eye. Then he pivoted on his heel and shuffled off, not meeting Maine’s glance as she watched him go. What a shitty way for a servant to be treated, she thought.

“Do not fear,” Noolie spoke. “I harbor no ill will toward your dog’s…bodily reaction to me. This is why I prefer to conduct my business over the phone or from the shadows. Still, perhaps it is best that we meet face-to-face so we can better know each other.”

She nodded, not knowing if a response was expected of her or not as she tried not to gag on his body’s stench. Sage, likewise, eased his posture.

“I assume that you have taken up your father’s outstanding cases?”

Maine gave a half-nod.

“Splendid. Then are you here to discuss my two cases? Or one in particular?” One of his half-mouths gave her a sly grin. The other remained pursed, impassive.

She was here to investigate her father’s murder. She knew she was profiling—creepy, evil-looking magical creature—but maybe Noolie had something to do with it.

“The emerald candlestick,” she said at last. “Can you briefly go over the details?”

One of Noolie’s half-faces frowned. It seemed to Maine that Noolie had a “nice” half and an “impassive” half, like maybe he had a split personality. “I told your father all the details. They should be in his notes.”

“Does it have magical abilities?” Maine asked.

“I’m not sure why that is of importance.” Noolie was guarded. “Your father was a less questioning man.”

She didn’t know exactly what her father was like. Maybe, she was thinking, that was a shame.

“Did my father ever say how he’d planned on locating it?”

Noolie started to look irritated, and Sage cleared his throat. “This is her first case.”

Swallowing, Noolie drew a composing half-breath. “My apologies. A person of my standing, I expect a certain…proficiency in those I choose to deal with.”

Maine shoved the slight aside. He probably didn’t mean it like that. A lot of rich people were snooty, right? “What about your other case? The…Transferal Denial, I think he called it.”

“Has your father found the item yet?” one half asked.

“What item?” Maine asked.

The reply came from the other Noolie half. “Why, the device that would allow your father to bequeath the Mantle to whoever he wanted.”

Holy shit. She had to work to contain her surprise.

It made sense. Transferal Denial. A device to stop the inheritance of the Mantle to her. This was awful suspicious-sounding. Had Noolie killed him?

“Okay,” she said. “I know this might not be professional. Or proficient on my part. Why would you come to my father with this case?”

Noolie chuckled, this time both faces sharing the laugh, but only the “nice” half smiled. “I didn’t. Knowing that I am a collector of the rare and arcane, he came to me to see if I had an inkling where it might be. He had exhausted his resources, you see.”

“But why?” Maine didn’t understand.

“My guess is as good as yours. I suppose it is because he didn’t want to pass on the Mantle to you. I am not sure why. I was not privy to the details of his personal life.”

There it was. Her father, knowing that Maine wanted nothing to do with him or life beyond the Veil, had gone out of his way to find a way to shift the inheritance away from her. Unfortunately, someone had murdered him before he found the device.

She was never supposed to know about any of this. Her father had wanted to respect her wishes.

Damn him. Why did he seem so caring? How had she not known this side of him?

“Something…”

“…on your mind?” the two faces took turns saying.

“I think that this ‘device’ is what got my father killed.”

The “nice” half gave her a questioning glance. The other remained impassive. “Oh? Whyever would you think that?”

She scrutinized both halves of the man’s face, mentally reviewing her father’s detective tactics and trying to see if he was lying or playing a game with her. “Because three different sets of assassins have tried to kill me over the past few days.”

Beside her, Sage gasped. “What?”

Now it was Noolie’s turn to study her. “Assassins?”

“Before you ask, yes, some of them mentioned either my father or the Mantle. I know someone hired them to kill me because of it.”

Noolie huffed in two quick half-breaths. “This is a lot to take in. That my involvement in this case might have led to someone wanting to kill your father for the device…”

“It wasn’t exactly your fault,” Sage stepped in. “You might have provided him with some information about the device, but he was the one who pursued it.”

One of Noolie’s shoulders shrugged. “Perhaps. I still feel rather wretched about it. You may…uh, please disregard my emerald candlestick case.”

“Why?” Maine asked.

“It was to be an even trade. Your father wanted information on the whereabouts of the inheritance transferal device. In return, we worked out that the debt would balance out if he located the candlestick for me. Now I would feel too awful for you to have to find it.”

Silence fell and stretched among them.

“Please,” he said at last. “Allow me to be the hospitable host and show you around my home. I may yet have some information for you that could help you…track down the murderer.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

“I think he’s hiding something,” Maine whispered in Sage’s ear as they followed at a comfortable distance from Noolie’s nice half leading the way a few yards ahead of them.

“I want to know more about these assassination attempts,” he hissed back. “Assassins? How’d you survive?”

“You saying I’m incompetent?”

He shook his head. “I’m saying you know nothing about magic. What kind of assassins were they?”

“A vampire…”

Sage paled.

“Four underground-dwelling, red-eyed hooded thugs with long claws…”

Sage gasped.

“And three sword-wielding gargoyles.”

“Holy shit. And you…survived.”

Grinning, she waved mystically in front of her body. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

“How?”

“She had me.” Noff sounded pleased with himself from his comfortable position tucked under Maine’s arm. He’d claimed that Noolie’s extra strong smell weakened him to the point where he didn’t feel strong enough to walk. “I’m her bodyguard.”

“Bodyguard?” Sage looked at Maine to confirm this.

“Up ahead we have the grand ballroom.” Noolie’s nice half stepped aside at a marble-railed balcony.

Maine and Sage stepped up to it, their breaths taken away as they peered over the rail. Far below them opened an expansive oval room. It was at least three or four stories high with paintings and murals decorating every inch of the wall and ceiling. Ornate chandeliers hung from the roof. Hundreds of candle lights flickered impressively beneath the glass, sending reflected shimmers throughout the huge room. It had to be nearly the size of a football field, maybe bigger.

Tall bistro tables stood along the curved walls at intervals, with several bartending stations set up too. The place was empty right now. No dancers or revelers. Only candlelight.

Maine could only imagine being down there, dancing with…

“What do you think?” Noolie’s voice seemed proud of himself.

“It’s nice,” Sage said.

Maine agreed. “Really nice.”

“Everyone who’s someone in this town has been invited to at least one of my evening galas. Your father was no exception.”

Maine frowned as she tried to imagine her father, a troll, dancing hand-in-hand with someone. It didn’t seem right so she shook her head to clear the thought. “Do you dance?” she asked.

The nice half of Noolie in front of her chuckled. “No, no. I spend the night up here on my balcony. It is enjoyment enough seeing my guests revel down below.”

“Besides…”

Maine started as Noolie’s voice came from behind her. It was his impassive half who had been trailing them silently, sandwiching them in between the two Noolie halves along the tour.

“…they wouldn’t want to see me.” The impassive half of Noolie gave a harsh laugh. “Can you imagine over two hundred people vomiting in disgust on my ballroom floor?”

Maine grimaced. “That would be a lot of puke for Al to have to clean up.”

The nice Noolie half chuckled. “Such wit. I judged you too quickly earlier. The more I get to know you, the more I find I enjoy your company.” He angled his half-chin at Sage as he tilted his head. “She’s quite attractive too. You’re lucky to have her—”

“Oh, we’re not together,” Maine said, perhaps a bit too quickly.

“Not yet,” Noff yipped snarkily.

Maine tried to hide her embarrassment, seeing Sage blush as well at her side. “I have a question,” Maine said. “Why is it that there are so many magical beings in this small town?”

The nice Noolie by the balcony frowned. “You haven’t figured it out yet?”

Sage spoke up. “She doesn’t know about ley lines.”

“Oh, of course,” Noolie said. “My apologies. Let me explain. To humans, Rainwater looks like a sleepy little town. To magical beings, it's London, Milan, Barcelona, Paris, and NYC all rolled into one. It contains ley lines in the earth’s crust—which act as a portal to…other realms. Magical realms.”

Maine nodded, doing her best to process all this. Turning to Sage with a questioning look, he nodded in confirmation that this was true.

Noolie continued, “The town of Rainwater sits above the Beneath.” He frowned. “You could think of it as a giant city for magical beings and mythical creatures. Most ‘trade’ between the human and magic worlds takes place in the Beneath because of this connection.”

Again Maine frowned. The Beneath? Seriously, couldn’t magical beings have better naming systems? It was at least on point, she thought.

“What is this Beneath place like? Is it nice?”

Nice Noolie gave a belly laugh, his insides flopping disgustingly out his side with the action. “Oh, it has its charms.”

“Then why do you live up here?”

Noolie gave her an appraising look as if he’d underestimated her.

“She’s a questioner,” Sage said.

“Yes.” Both of Noolie’s halves stroked their half-chins. “Very curious indeed. A valid question nonetheless. The answer is simple. Real estate is cheaper topside. Among the humans.”

“Cheaper?” Maine looked at Sage, who only shrugged.

“Plus,” Noolie said, “Magical beings in the Beneath aren’t keen on seeing my true visage. It’s much easier to live among the unsuspecting humans.”

Maine lowered the Veil for a moment to see what Noolie looked like in that form. She saw a rather plain-looking man with a bald head and no peculiar features. He almost looked like a clone. Turning, she saw that Noolie’s other half looked like an identical twin.

Creepy.

She lifted the Veil again. As she did so, she spotted Al stepping into a room farther back along the hall leading to the balcony. She wondered what he was doing but didn’t want to raise Noolie’s suspicion by venturing over there. Maybe she could trick both Noolie halves into coming onto the balcony. Then she could sneak away to check on the cyclops, see what he had to say.

“Your father,” Noolie said, “was a very important figure in the magical community, taking care of those who chose to live above.”

“So I’ve come to learn.” Maine grabbed Sage’s hand and guided him out to the balcony, not looking at him when he tried to figure out what was up but not resisting either.

“Ah,” Noff sighed, still cradled in Maine’s arm. “Young love…”

In annoyance, Maine lifted Noff around his belly and suspended him over the marble balcony like baby Simba in The Lion King.

“Hey! Not funny!” he yelped.

She lanced him with her gaze. “You going to behave?”

“Yes, yes.”

Maine eyed him, sending him the message that this was a ploy and she needed a distraction. The dire wolf’s heart stilled a bit under her hands, and he winked at her. She brought him back against her arm in a cradle hold.

“Dogs,” Maine said to Noolie, who looked confused. He wasn’t a dog owner. Both Noolies watched her with interest. She needed to get their minds—his mind?—occupied.

“If I ever get a chance to visit the Beneath,” Maine began, “what part of this grand city is the best?”

“I am quite partial to the Collector’s Realm,” the nicer Noolie half on the balcony said. “I am a collector of the rare and arcane. The thrill of the auction house is like none other where collectors buy and sell exotic…things.”

The impassive half of Noolie standing in the shadows cocked his head, his brain sloshing in his half-skull. “I would have to say the Fire Gardens are quite impressive as well.”

Maine turned to the shadowed Noolie, his eyes like black diamonds set in his papery skin. She squinted at him as if she couldn’t quite see him so maybe he would step forth onto the balcony. “Fire Gardens? I’m intrigued.”

He raised a slender hand in the shadows and moved toward her a step, his gold and silver amulets glimmering faintly with the movement.

Come a little closer, Maine thought.

“They are a most impressive landscape in the Beneath. Imagine fields of blazing red wildflowers, but instead of petals, they are flames.”

“Flaming flowers?” Maine looked at Sage and Noff. “Have you ever heard of any such thing?”

Both of them shook their heads.

Maine turned to face the ballroom below. She leaned against the marble railing next to Sage and whispered in his ear, “Get ready to keep them distracted.”

“Huh?”

“I’m about to do some sleuthing. Oh, and can you make me invisible or something?”

The two Noolie halves watched her curiously. Still cradled in Maine’s arms and catching on to Maine’s ploy, Noff cleared his throat and started talking overly loud to the Noolies, asking if they had any pie in this place.

After a brief meeting of the eyes, Sage sighed and brushed his hand against hers, transferring some warm oozy magic into her.

He whispered, “This won’t turn you invisible, but it will make you…less noticeable.”

“Meaning?”

“It should make others temporarily forget about your existence.”

“Thanks.”

“Be careful.”

She barely managed to conceal her satisfaction when she heard the impassive Noolie half move up to the balcony to stand at their other side. He didn’t make it obvious, but it was clear he was trying to catch her and Sage’s soft conversation. The spell must not have kicked in yet.

Now she and Sage were sandwiched in by both NasNas halves up against the rail.

Would the spell work?

“So, Sage,” she said, “you’ve catered Noolie’s galas?”

“Several times now.” He glanced between the two Noolies. “What has it been? Three, four times now that I’ve been in charge of the arrangements?”

The nice Noolie half stroked his half-chin. The other Noolie said, “Five.”

“Oh right, five,” Sage said with a nervous chuckle. “How could I forget? The first one was the circus-themed one. Oh, you had all sorts of magical creatures there in cages. What were they again? I seem to recall a moon tiger, a manticore, a fire-breathing elephant…”

This was Maine’s chance. She didn’t know if Sage’s magic had fully kicked in yet or if it would work to conceal her, but it was worth a shot to slip away and see what Al was doing.

Feigning a slight yawn, Maine took a step away from the balcony railing as if she was stretching her legs. Neither of the Noolies seemed to notice her movement. If they did, they didn’t show it.

She took another step away from the balcony. Sage was holding his own in conversation with the two Noolies, exuding charm. Was that magic too?

It didn’t matter.

This was her chance to get away.

From behind her, Sage said, “And the second event was…”

“The masquerade ball,” the impassive Noolie offered.

“Oh yes. The masquerade. Such fun. The guests wearing all those masks, you couldn’t tell who was who.”

The nice Noolie laughed. “Even from the balcony, it was tricky…”

With Noff still tucked under her arm, Maine tiptoed toward the room she’d seen Al go into and stepped inside, wondering what she’d find.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

She was in a small storage room of sorts. There were a few magical-looking artifacts on the shelved walls, but that wasn’t what she focused on. The cyclops butler stood ten feet ahead with his back turned to her.

“Um, Mr. Al?” she asked softly.

The hunchbacked cyclops pivoted to face her, his eye wide and confused. In one hand was a black silk sheet.

Maine crouched, and Noff hopped out of her arms to take up a guard dog position next to the door. Rising slowly, she raised both arms gently. “Can I talk with you for a few seconds?”

He blinked. “Has Master Noolie commanded it?”

“He um, he said to check on you.”

“Did he?” The butler squinted at her. He pivoted again back to where he had been standing earlier and carefully draped the black silk sheet over a small, fancy cage that appeared to be for maybe a mouse or guinea pig. Maybe it was a magic cage built for…magic mice?

“What are you doing in here?” Maine asked curiously, projecting harmlessness as he faced her again.

“Preparing for Master Noolie’s upcoming event in the Collector’s Realm.”

“Oh? Is it a big event?”

Al scratched at the enlarged eyebrow over his eye. “You could say that.” He gave her a suspicious glance.

She returned the look. “Al, do you like working for Noolie?”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Is he a nice man? Creature, whatever.”

“Master Noolie is Master Noolie. I do what he says. When he says. How he says. I’m not sure he told you to check on me…”

Noff yipped. Maine spun to the entry to face the impassive Noolie half glowering at her.

“Ah. There you are, Ms. Maine. I must confess, I did not hear you…sneak off.”

“Oh, I wasn’t sneaking.” Maine fought to keep her voice flat and her face as impassive as his. “I was looking for a bathroom, and you were talking to Sage so I thought what was the harm in looking for myself?”

Noolie didn’t look convinced. “You thought this was a bathroom?”

Maine smirked. “Obviously not. I knew Al would know where I could find one.” She turned to the butler. “So can you show me?”

The butler turned to his master for approval, and Noolie nodded sourly.

Footsteps sounded from outside. Sage walked up to the doorway accompanied by the nice Noolie. Sage flashed her an irritated look that might have said, You weren’t supposed to get caught!

The impassive Noolie rejoined the nice Noolie out in the hall, and together they said, “Oh, my. Look at the time.”

Maine didn’t have her phone on her, but she could estimate the time. “You have something planned for 1:00 a.m.?”

“It is my lunchtime.” Noolie paused, his tongue caressing his half-lips. “I very much doubt you’d like to be present for it.”

Maine did not want to see that. However, she was curious about what constituted a NasNas’ lunch.

Al nodded and exited the storeroom. “Follow me, Ms. Maine. The nearest bathroom is this way.”

* * *

“I think that went rather well,” Maine said as she drove Sage back to the Sacred Sourdough.

“Went well? Are you serious? You snuck away and got caught in the act.”

“But,” she raised a finger as she watched the road ahead. “I found out that something’s off with Noolie. I think.”

Sage leaned toward her from the passenger seat. “What do you mean something’s ‘off’ with him?”

Noff yipped from the back seat. “Uh, ain’t it obvious? The dude’s split down the middle! That ain’t right.”

Sage sat back in his seat and loosened the collar to his chef’s uniform. “I will admit, that was rather…disorienting. Just because he looks…different—”

“Different?” Maine said. “He looks like something off the X-Files.”

“He can’t help how he looks.”

“Or smells,” Noff added. “Ain’t enough deodorant or perfume in the world to cover that stench.”

Maine took her eyes off the road for a moment to glance out her side window at the cozy front porch lights of houses passing by. They were nearing the restaurant. “I don’t know. Call it a detective’s intuition but—”

“It’s your first case,” Sage said.

“—but I think something is up with him. When I spoke with his butler, he seemed…oddly very loyal to a guy who regularly makes him clean up strangers’ puke off his floor.”

Sage protested, “That’s what butlers do. What their employers ask of them.”

“I explicitly asked Al if he liked working for Noolie and he never gave me a straight answer. It’s as if his tongue was tied.”

Sage tapped his knee impatiently. “Oh, come on. Have you always liked all the bosses at all the jobs you’ve held over the years? No. You do them because it’s a job, and hopefully, you enjoy the work. I remember some of the head chefs I’ve served under over the years. If someone asked me if I liked them, I wouldn’t want to talk bad about them behind their back.”

“Well, aren’t you an angel?” Maine cracked a grin.

“All I’m saying is you don’t have any proof.”

“Yet,” Noff yipped.

Sage let out an exasperated breath, instantly regaining his cool. “I don’t want to see you get hurt. Noolie’s got a lot of clout in Rainwater. I don’t want you to get in some big trouble with him, trouble you can’t get out of.”

Maine braked to a halt at a stop sign and faced Sage. They were both leaning toward each other, only half a foot between their faces.

She studied him. “Are you saying that you care about me?”

“Well, I…I respected your father. I owe it to him to watch out for you while you’re here, especially since you’re out of your element.”

He really did have eyes you could lose yourself in, she thought.

She blinked, realizing Noff was beneath the two of them, looking up at her with his lips puckered back. “This is where you two kiss,” he whispered.

Maine and Sage both jolted away from each other, sitting back in their seats.

Maine eased down on the accelerator, driving them down the quaint side streets as if nothing had passed between them—it hadn’t, had it? “I appreciate your concern, but I’ve defeated eight assassins all on my own—”

“Hey, what am I, chopped liver?” Noff whined.

Sage’s hand clasped over hers. “Just tell me if you need help, okay?” She nodded. “Where’s your cell phone? I’ll put my number in it.”

While Maine attempted to find it, Noff hopped to the back seat and back to the center console, where he dropped Maine’s cell phone, wet with slobber, into Sage’s palm.

“Whoa. Do you have a stalker or something?” he asked.

“What do you—”

“All these texts and calls from a…Jason Asshole? Weird last name.”

Noff yelped, “I know, right?”

“Give me that,” she said, but he held her phone out of reach.

“I’m not going to pry.” He waved a hand over the screen, magically unlocking it, and tapped his phone number into her contacts. He handed it back to her with a smart smile.

“Can you please show me how to do that?” Maine asked. “The unlocking the phone trick.”

“You’re so far away from learning spells like that. Doesn’t the Mantle help you with cracking passwords?”

Actually, it did, she remembered.

They drove the rest of the way in silence, and Maine pulled up to the Sacred Sourdough. Sage unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to Maine.

Before he could say anything, she blurted, “Look, I know this is completely random, but I’m so confused and a little angry that I never got to know my dad as well as the rest of this town. I need to get over it, but it makes me sad.”

Sage patted her hand. Her sudden, random outburst didn’t seem to bother him. “It makes us all sad. We all deal with emotions differently. Your father helped a lot of people in this town, including me. You know what? I made his strength-reducing potions for him.”

“Really? I figured he made them himself.” She liked the idea that Sage had been making all the elixirs she’d been taking. She’d always wondered why they’d tasted so good, unlike human-made cough syrup and other human remedies. “Are they that difficult to make?”

“Strength-reducing elixirs? Nah. They’re one of the most basic elixirs you can make. Even you could make it with a practice batch or two.”

She smiled, feeling happier than she had been. “Can you teach me?” The dashboard clock said it was nearly two in the morning. “Tonight, maybe?”

“Right now, if you like. I have all the apparatus in the kitchen…”

“No, I need to check on some things first. And get some sleep. Don’t want to add the wrong ingredient and magically turn Noff into a kitten.”

Noff gave a low growl. “Watch it, woman.”

Maine and Sage both laughed. As Sage got out, he clapped a hand on the car’s roof and leaned inside. “Thanks for the ride. I must admit, I did enjoy our little impromptu adventure.”

“Thanks for coming along. Next time, I’ll try not to trip the dumpster security alarm out back.”

Chuckling, Sage thrust his hands into the pockets of his uniform and walked away into the night.

Noff sighed, his head resting over his crossed front paws on the back seat. “That dude is so chill. You two need to hook up soon…I need more pie!”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

She slept in until noon. Then she and Noff grabbed some cheap gas station food. She spent the rest of the afternoon in the Trollcave in front of her father’s computer.

The same as the previous day, she hadn’t meant to be there for so long. She’d checked out some of the other file folders on her father’s desktop screen and time got away from her.

Valkious had a file folder for everything. The first two she checked out were Headquarters and Gadgets.

In them, he’d meticulously documented everything about his Trollcave and operations as if preparing in case someone ever had to take over for him and don his cowl, er, Mantle. As curious as she was, she didn’t mind reading through file after file on items ranging from stun guns to magical remote tracker devices to avalanche protection kits. Her father had a gadget for every adverse situation she could think of.

The next file folder was Key People in Rainwater. It included headshots and brief biographies of several of Rainwater’s key figures now and throughout the years. Mayors, attorneys, big landowners, bankers, tour guides, police officers, coroners, and others. She only recognized a few—attorney Maki-Mae, Sam the satyr mailman, and Noolie Nas among them.

Valkious even had a file folder called Investigation Basics. She’d learned a few things by glancing through the digital pages upon pages of information including tactics for interrogating, sneaking around after nightfall, and recognizing the body gestures of a liar.

All this information helped her determine her next course of action in finding her father’s murderer. She needed to look at the facts available to her. The first thing was to figure out how her father had died. In the Operations Procedure file folder, she found a link to the local human police’s online database, which had even poorer security than Valkious’ password habits.

Following her father’s detailed steps laid out in his digital instruction manuals, she accessed the coroner’s report. She winced as a photo of her father’s uncovered upper torso appeared on the screen. He almost looked like he was sleeping, which struck her as messed up considering he was lying on a stainless steel table with his chest stitched up in a “Y.”

Maki-Mae had told her that the suspected cause of death was asphyxiation. But the only kind of asphyxiation Maine could think of was strangulation. The coroner’s photo clearly did not show any bruising around his neck. Had he maybe been poisoned?

She scanned through the report, skipping past all the medical shorthand and terminology she didn’t understand. It was in the toxicology report section that she discovered some kind of gas she’d never heard of had poisoned him.

Gas?

Her father, the town's hero, had been killed by poison gas? He was a troll, probably as strong and agile as they came, and he’d had an advantage over any bad guy with all his gadgets. Also, he had the Mantle. How had this happened?

The report further detailed that his body had been found on the sidewalk outside his apartment although authorities had concluded that he’d been gassed someplace else and dumped there.

How could anyone do this to him? she wondered over and over. She equally felt like crying and punching a hole through a wall. Why had her father had to leave her like this?

With nothing else to glean from the report, she scrolled up to the top of it again and stared at her father lying on the coroner’s table so peacefully. His battle against injustice was complete.

As she focused on her father’s calm face, the Mantle’s sudden words startled her.

Weakness: due to incredible speed, dexterity, and strength, successful attacks require a method that cannot be outrun or destroyed—suggestion: poison. Weakness: loves daughter—hold her hostage. Weakness: very emotional—tell him a sad story, preferably something where a dog dies…

Wow. She turned to face the Mantle, clasped to the mannequin’s torso farther over in the Trollcave. “Those are some sick recommendations. You know that, right?”

It is the function for which my maker created me.

“This is exactly why I want to reject you. I don’t need these sick and twisted thoughts running through my mind when I look at a photo of my dead dad. Your previous master, mind you.”

He was a good master. I miss him.

Then a question popped into her head. It was so stupidly obvious that she didn’t know why she hadn’t already asked the Mantle sooner.

“Mantle, who killed my father?”

She waited. This was it. It had been this easy the whole time. Most likely, her father had been wearing the Mantle at the time of his death. All she had to do was ask the Mantle for her father’s killer.

I cannot say.

“What the hell? You cannot? Or will not?”

I cannot say.

“Why? Did you see the killer or not?”

I did not.

“You were linked to my father. So my father didn’t see who killed him either?”

He did not.

“How? This doesn’t make sense.” She took some of her hair in both hands, setting her elbows against the desktop. “Do you at least know where my father’s attacker killed him?”

In a car.

Now, this was something she could use. “What kind of car?”

I do not know.

“You’re sure he died inside a car? Poison gassed in a vehicle?”

I do not have eyes nor can I read the mind of my master. I can only read the souls of people’s faces or the weaknesses of unstable structures or objects. I am sorry. I have let you down. I will…not ask you to don me. Anymore.

The Mantle’s words were dejected, like one who has lost all hope.

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

She stopped at the sound of Noff’s paws pattering across the stone floor. “You talkin’ to that evil Mantle again, or you talkin’ to yourself?”

“The Mantle.” Maine clicked out of the coroner’s report and returned to this year’s In Progress file folder. There were now five cases: the two for Noolie, one for Sage, her father’s murder, and the missing butterfly fairies. She thought about opening one at random and taking another look at the details to see if something came to her, but instead, she bent forward and let her forehead knock against the desk.

“Yikes.” Noff padded up to her swivel chair. “I thought it was about time I came to check on you. You’ve been sittin’ down here for longer than is healthy…”

Noff wasn’t wrong. She’d stared at these folders long enough that her eyes had begun to hurt. She blinked a few times, and for a moment, all the file folder icons on the computer screen seemed to converge into a single case file. If only it were that easy, all five cases related.

“I mean,” Noff continued, “I was gettin’ worried ’bout your welfare. Starin’ at a computer screen for hours upon hours on end like you’re trapped in a cage or somethin’…”

Cage.

She sat bolt upright in her swivel chair.

That was it. Cage. The cage was the answer!

Swiveling around, she found the dire wolf’s eyes. “Noff, you’re a lifesaver. I know what I must do now.”

“Huh what? You’re welcome? What did I do?”

“You cracked this case wide open. I think.”

He looked at her. “Which case?”

“All of them.”

“All of them? Woo-hoo!” With a wiggle of his butt, he blasted off from the floor. Maine caught him and began to scratch him simultaneously behind the ears and under the belly. He gave a toothy dog grin. “Now this I could get used to. Maybe you and I should go into business together.”

Maine smirked. “Let’s solve my father’s outstanding cases first. Then we’ll talk about the future, okay, partner? First, we need to round up some gear.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

“What exactly are we lookin’ for?” Noff asked as he followed Maine through the Trollcave. Maine peeked at each pile as she walked past, searching.

“Magical remote trackers. You know, like mini GPS trackers but instead of satellites, they use magic.”

“You’re sure there are some down here?”

Maine walked back to the computer table and rummaged through the pile of computer parts near the soldering station. “Yes. I saw them in my father’s computer files. They’re cued to the thoughts of anyone who can lift the Veil so that means even a magic newbie like me can use them.”

She moved on to the next table. Her father’s computer files were meticulous, but would it have killed him to include a diagram of all the tables and what each contained?

Noff followed her. “The tracker will lead us…where exactly?”

“I’m keeping that to myself for the moment. There’s a chance I’m wrong—”

Noff whined.

“—but I don’t think so. Look, this is my first case. You learn by making mistakes so if it’s a mistake we make…then we learn from it.”

With a roll of his shoulders, Noff said, “Unless we die from it. Hey, I’ve got an idea. How about we call Sage? He knows a lot about magic…and pies!”

Maine gasped, her hopes high that this next table had the trackers buried under its mound of gadgets. “This part of the investigation isn’t dangerous. Besides, I already called Sage while you were napping. We’re going to the Sacred Sourdough in a few hours for dinner, and he’s going to show me how to brew strength-reducing elixirs.”

“Sounds like a proper date. ’Bout time!”

She lifted some kind of round magnetic metal plate. “Shut up. It’s not like that.”

“Yet.”

She set the metal plate down, confused. “According to my father’s file, I’m pretty sure it should be on this table.” About to go through the whole pile again, she turned over the metal plate and found a few trackers attached to its underside. She immediately identified them because Valkious had included images of all his gadgets and tech in his computer files. No matter how many times she pulled a tracker off and replaced it on the plate, it didn’t lose its stickiness.

Noff sniffed at the trackers. “That’s sticky magic.”

“Is there anything magic can’t do?”

Noff glanced at her sideways. “Not really.”

She held up one of the magic trackers, studying it in the light. The computer file manual had said to think about activating it to activate it. Focusing on it, she thought, Activate.

The tracker flashed a faint blue and went blank. It was about the size of a pencil eraser but flatter. After pressing it into her palm, she said, “Okay, it’s showtime.”

* * *

Tony greeted her with a wide grin when she stepped into the pet shop. “Back so soon? What can I get for you today?”

She didn’t know if Tony was involved or not so she told him she wanted to look around.

When he saw Noff padding by her side, he said, “Wait, we have a strict no pets policy.”

Maine frowned. “It’s a pet store…” Then she noticed his smile. “Very funny. You had me for a second there.”

Noff gave a low growl. “I don’t like this guy.”

Ignoring Noff, she started searching for what she was looking for.

In the meantime, Tony sold a couple of bags of dog food and a cat collar to some customers. As Maine stood in the animal cages aisle, she started to doubt whether she was on the right path or not.

Eventually Tony ambled over to her with his hands in his pockets. “You thinking about getting a bird? Because those parrots all found homes yesterday.”

“Actually,” Maine said, turning to him to see if she could use the tactics she’d learned from her father’s computer files to help her detect a liar. “Well, maybe. I know this is probably going to sound stupid, but I can’t stop thinking about your awesome birdcage craftsmanship. It almost makes me want to get a pet bird so I can have the cage.” She dropped her eyes to the floor so he wouldn’t be able to discern that she was a liar. “Does that make any sense?”

Tony smiled. “Hey, as long as it means you give an animal a loving home, of course I’ll sell you a birdcage.” He moved toward the various sized birdcages on the shelves. “What kind of bird are you looking to get? I’ll be able to tell you which cage would work best—”

She placed her hand on his arm. “Actually…” She gave an embarrassed chuckle. “I saw you working on a birdhouse yesterday. Would I be able to see that one?”

“Ooh, actually, that one was custom-built and already paid for.”

She looked into his eyes, feigning sadness. For a moment she forced her lower lip to quiver, then thought maybe that was too much. “Do you still have it in the store? I only want to look at it.”

He looked away from her puppy dog eyes and shook his head. “Um, it’s in the back room. I don’t see the harm in letting you see it. I’ll go get it.” He left her and disappeared through a doorway at the store’s rear.

“Nice job, playa,” Noff yipped. “You’ve got cage boy eatin’ outta the palm of your hand.”

She shifted uncomfortably on her feet. “If this weren’t to solve my father’s murder, I’d feel a bit bad for bending the truth like that.”

“That’s a good lesson in sleuthin’. Sometimes you gotta skirt around the truth to get to the truth.”

Tony came back then, a grin on his face and a birdhouse in his hand. “Here it is. I’m really proud of it. One of my best creations yet.”

Maine reached toward one of the tiny cage doors. “Can I open it?”

“Sure,” Tony said good-naturedly. “I trust you.”

Noff yipped. “Sucka!”

“Gee, your dog is vocal.”

Maine gave Noff a warning look. “Especially when I lower the Veil,” she muttered.

Tony scratched his cheek. “I don’t understand.”

Noff seemed to have gotten the picture because he stopped talking. “It’s an inside joke.” Maine opened the cage, pretending to test it to see how smoothly it worked. “This is nice. How much did the purchaser pay for it? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Tony, understandably, looked embarrassed. “Well, I, uh, I’m not sure I should say—”

“It’s just that the workmanship is so amazing.” Maine fished a hand inside the cage and hefted the stainless steel food cup and spill-proof water dispenser. “Even top-of-the-line accessories.”

Tony was now running his hand through his hair as if he couldn’t believe Maine was putting him on the spot like this.

After checking the slide-out poop catcher tray at the bottom, Maine withdrew her arm from the cage and closed the door. She stood and straightened her jacket. “Sorry. I’m too curious for my own good sometimes. This is top-notch. I hope you’re being compensated enough for your work.”

“Oh, I am,” Tony sputtered, retreating a step from her. “I’m going to go lock this up. I’ll be right back.”

Lock it up? she thought. Was it that valuable?

When he came back, he said, “Sorry if I seemed a little weird with the cage. Between you and me, it’s not pet food or water bowls that pay this place’s bills. It’s my custom cages.”

If anyone had acted weirdly, it had been her, she knew. Noff was right. This guy liked her, and she could use that to her advantage to fish more information from him.

“You have a lot of benefactors, then?”

His eye gave the slightest twitch—a classic tell she recognized from her father’s manual—and Maine knew he had only one or a few high-paying customers at the most. “Actually, only one,” he said. “Has a scheduled pickup tonight and then in a couple of days for another custom cage. Been coming to me for years. Gotta love repeat customers, right?”

Maine smiled. “Repeat, wealthy customers.”

“So, do you want me to show you the cages again?” He gave her a conspiratorial glance. “Or are you proposing a custom design for me yourself…”

Laughing politely, she glanced at the clock and said she’d forgotten the time, but she’d come back another time.

That seemed to placate Tony, and he waved her off.

When they were out on the sidewalk, Noff opened his mouth, his words spilling out in a rush. “Did you place the magic tracker in the cage? Huh? Huh? Didja?”

“Yep.”

He yipped. “Where at? Under the food cup? I didn’t even see you do it. Thought you got cold feet or a conscience attack and aborted the mission.”

“I stuck it under the tray at the bottom when Tony was sweating my questions. I considered the food cup, but someone would’ve discovered it sooner.”

“You’re a sly one. Nice!” Noff wiggled his butt, the key marking glowing. After glancing about for anyone and seeing no one on the street, he blasted straight up and held up a paw.

Maine high-fived him, and he dropped back to the sidewalk. “Time for a celebratory meal at the Sacred Sourdough,” she said.

“Hell yeah!”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

The meal their waiter had brought out to her this time was barbecued short ribs, steamed broccoli, and rice with a side of homemade yogurt. And of course, a loaf of sourdough bread.

After she and Noff had finished their meal, she reclined back in her booth, feeling completely satiated. Furthermore, she didn’t feel the least bit bloated or overfull.

“I feel amazing. I don’t think I can eat at any other restaurant again in my life.”

Noff licked his plate clean. “I thought you were going back to NYC after you rejected the Mantle. That is your plan still?”

“Yeah…”

She and Noff sat at the same side booth she’d sat in the first time they’d eaten here. As she glanced around at all the other hungry patrons, she couldn’t help but think she’d miss the wonder of all this. All these magical beings and mythical creatures eating together in a fancy place like this. It was so amazing, so magical. Why would she want to give this up?

Because it’s not my world, she told herself. She looked human. She had a human job and a human life. There was still so much to learn about magic. She didn’t belong here. Not really. Not even if she managed to solve her father’s murder.

Did she?

Two dessert plates clinked to the tabletop, jarring Maine back to the booth. A server had set down two slices of cinnamon apple pie. The girl bowed. “Compliments of Chef Sage.” Then she left.

“I’m in love,” Noff cooed.

* * *

By the time Sage came out to meet them, the rush hour crowd had come and gone, and only a few patrons remained in the place, eating and drinking.

As usual, Sage wore his chef’s uniform and hat. “Ready for your first magic lesson?”

Maine scoffed. “You consider making elixirs as magic?”

“It has magic ingredients in it, so, yeah.” He grinned, and it was one Maine couldn’t help but return. He led her back to the kitchen.

Before they reached it, she broke from him and inspected her father’s gold chair of honor. Sure enough, it had large claw marks on the backing that fit the size of what she was sure was a large werewolf’s paw.

They passed through the swinging door into the kitchen, and the smells made Maine want to backflip into a cultural sea of food. She smelled so much diversity and melding of ingredients she couldn’t even begin to name them.

“Our patrons come from all parts of the world. Yetis from the Himalayas. Aswang from the Philippines. Tengus from Japan. It’s tricky sourcing all of the ingredients, but it’s what you do to get the right taste.”

“Wow.”

Sage led her past the few staff cooks still churning out the last orders of the night. He stopped at a corkboard showing the cooks’ schedules, then stepped into his office. He came out and tossed her a pink apron.

“Am I supposed to put this on?” Maine asked.

Sage flashed her a look as if that wasn’t a question worth answering and Noff snickered. She put it on but had difficulty tying the back. Sage swept up to her and secured it for her.

“Thanks,” she said. “Do you tie every new chef’s apron?”

“Only the ones I like.”

“So you like me?”

“You’ve got potential,” he admitted.

Potential as a chef? Potential as a magic-user? Or potential as a partner? Why couldn’t Sage be clearer?

“Now,” he instructed, pointing at a metal rack suspended from the ceiling. “Grab a saucepan.”

Five pans of various sizes hung from the rack. Maine selected the middle-sized one, deep but not too wide. She turned to face Sage’s disapproving frown.

“How much strength-reducing elixir are you planning on making?”

She gripped the pan’s handle defensively. “I figured we’d make a big batch, for efficiency’s sake. Why make only one vial’s worth when you can make twenty?”

Sage steepled his fingers together and touched them to his forehead. “You must first learn the basics of cooking with magic. I don’t expect you to get it right on the first attempt. You want to start small when trying something new. Especially when you’re not paying for the rather expensive ingredients.”

At that, Maine hung the pan back up and set a hand against the next smallest pan. When Sage shook his head, she lifted the smallest pan off the hook.

“It looks so small.” She tried to hand it to him, but he pointed at a stainless steel countertop. As she set it down, she couldn’t help but notice the lone door on the other side of the kitchen with the words One-Way on it. She would’ve asked Sage for more details on it, but the chef was in business mode.

Sage went about grabbing some ingredients from an overhead cabinet.

Maine meanwhile inspected several large glass bowls with clear plastic wrap over their tops. Thick white liquid bubbled inside some of them and she wondered if they were the source of the vinegary smell she’d gotten a whiff of. She started to lift the clear wrap of the bowl closest to her. “Maybe I’ll surprise you with my elixir prowess and tomorrow I’ll be making sourdough bread—”

She didn’t see him come up behind as he laid a gentle hand on hers, keeping the cover down.

“Let’s not disturb the sourdough starter, shall we? They’ve already been fed for the night.”

“What did you feed them?” She hoped the question didn’t come across as too smartass. She really was curious.

Sage went back to his ingredient gathering. “Water. And flour.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all you need for the beauty that is fermentation, an essential part of cooking.” He paused and turned away from the cabinets. “The ancients believed that fermentation was divine, a gift from the heavens where one food, say grapes, was turned into something else: wine. It was magic. Alchemy.”

Maine, slightly confused, nodded. Was Sage saying that fermentation was magic?

Finished with his ingredient gathering, Sage returned with the supplies to the counter beside the stovetop. They looked like ordinary kitchen ingredients: powders, liquids, and extractions in the normal kitchen vessels. Except they bore names like Pixie Tears and Powdered Fairy Kisses.

With a measuring glass and stainless steel measuring spoons and cups, he had her measure out a half-cup of water and much smaller amounts of the magical ingredients into the small saucepan.

“Is this when I set the pan over the flames?” Maine asked.

He shook his head and handed her a wooden spoon.

“What am I supposed to do with this…I’m kidding!” She stirred the pan’s contents, pleased by Sage’s flush of irritation. He was fun to be around. She learned from him and frequently found herself smiling or laughing in his presence. Also, he could cook.

Suddenly he swooped up beside her and took hold of the pan with one hand and Maine’s hand over the wooden spoon in the other.

“This is how you stir.” He guided her hand in a more fluid motion around the pan’s sides now that he had the pan held still.

Noff, who had been lying on the kitchen floor on his belly, lifted his head from his crossed front paws. “Aw, you two make such a cute couple.”

Maine frowned back at the dog. Besides them and Noff, there was only one other cook in the kitchen, tidying up after serving the last customer.

“Why is he allowed to be back here? Isn’t dog hair a concern in the kitchen?”

Sage smirked. “Not when you have a magic spell that catches it all and sends it to the trash can.”

“That’s a thing? I need that for the apartment.”

A yip. “Hey, I don’t shed that much!”

After Sage told her she could stop stirring, he handed her a dropper of food-grade quicksilver with the instructions of adding one drop followed by one stir.

“It will greatly accelerate the fermentation process.”

She followed his instructions and cocked an eyebrow at him. “The strength-reducing elixir has to ferment?”

He nodded like a proud parent. “As did the ancients long before us in kettles resting beside warm campfires at night, we are fermenting today in this modern-day kitchen in a fraction of the time. Of course, we’re also adding some magical components to the fermentation, turning the Tears of a Pixie and the Kiss of a Fairy into something else: an elixir that weakens your innate strength.”

She smiled at him. “You make it seem so easy.”

He smiled back. “It’s not hard when you know how.”

Maine realized they were staring into each other’s eyes.

Noff snickered, then began to hum. “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage...”

They both flashed him red looks.

“Seriously, when’s the wedding?”

Another look.

“You guys ain’t no fun. If I can’t have any pie, I’m takin’ a nap.”

Lowering his look, Sage said conversationally, “You can have pie after we finish.”

Maine helped him return the ingredients to the cabinet. “Really? We already had cinnamon apple pie—excellent, by the way.”

Sage only grinned. “I figured you’d work up an appetite, you know, with that feared hangriness trolls are known for.”

She frowned. It was true, though.

“I saved you a whole pie today,” Sage went on. “Chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake.”

Noff sighed. “That’s it, folks. I have officially died and gone to dog heaven.”

“Not ’til after you’ve tried my cheesecake.”

The three of them shared a laugh, and Maine found that she was salivating at the thought of the cheesecake. Considering her appetite, she might gain weight if she hung around Sage for long enough.

“Now what?” She eagerly awaited the next step.

Sage set a timer for one hour. “We wait.”

* * *

Half an hour passed. The last of the Sacred Sourdough’s employees had left for the night. Time seemed to fly by for Maine. Sage had a way of explaining complex cooking concepts in the simplest of terms. She now had a better idea of how to make Beef Wellington, souffle, and macarons. Not that she’d be attempting any of those recipes any time soon—she’d leave the cooking to Sage, but she’d gladly eat anything he served her.

Surprisingly, Noff had shut his yapper so that was nice too.

“That’s why air is so important to bread,” Sage finished, indicating some covered dough balls sitting next to the sourdough starter bowls and some leftover bread loaves from the day. She couldn’t sense it, but Sage had told her that they all emanated magic.

Maine watched him interestedly with her arms crossed as she leaned against an industrial refrigerator.

Suddenly, Sage stiffened.

“What?” Maine asked.

“I think I heard something.” He excused himself and peeked out through the swinging door leading to the restaurant’s dining room.

He came back. “No one out there. Everyone’s gone home for the night.”

Maine didn’t like the tinge of worry on his face. “Maybe it was the building creaking.”

He shook his head. “I know this building like the back of my hand. It wasn’t the building.”

She thought for a moment. He was probably blowing this out of proportion. “What about the dumpster security camera alarm? Did it go off?”

A bit sarcastically, Sage said, “Do you hear it going off?”

She walked over to Noff as Sage stepped into his office and checked the security camera feeds.

“Something’s wrong with the video feeds outside—they’ve gone blank. What’s going on?” he mused aloud.

It was probably a glitch or something, but all the same, she now felt a tingle up her spine. Crouching beside Noff, Maine rubbed the dire wolf’s belly and nodded at the back door. “You want to go outside and check it out for us? You are my bodyguard…”

Sage returned from his office. “I don’t like this. No one is going outside until we know what—”

The back door flew open forcefully, and someone tossed something inside the restaurant. Whatever it was, the object skittered under a work table and came to a stop near Sage’s feet. It was a metal canister and gas started to spew from one end.

“Grenade!” Noff yelled.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

“Not a grenade,” Sage gasped, bringing his sleeve up to his mouth in an attempt to filter out the smoke. “Gas. Don’t…breathe.”

Gas, Maine thought. Gas had killed her father.

Poison gas.

Assassin…

Sage coughed as he made his way to the back door, his sleeve held up like Dracula with his cape raised, fleeing sunlight. He turned the handle. It didn’t budge. He coughed. “It’s magically sealed!”

They had to get out of here. Maine was already on her feet, her shirt held over her mouth as she dashed to the swinging door to the dining area. Instead of running through it, the door didn’t swing, and she fell back on her tailbone with a cry of pain.

“Magically sealed too,” Sage gasped, pulling her to her feet, his eyes wide and strained above his makeshift mask. “One-Way. Got to get…one…”

He lost consciousness then, his body sagging to the floor. Maine barely caught him before his head struck a prep table. With her strength, his weight felt like nothing, and she shifted his body so she was carrying him like a giant baby in her arms.

“Noff!” she called. The place was thick with poison gas now. Tinged yellow and opaque, she could barely see through it into the kitchen beyond.

A blur of fur blasted up into the air in front of her, and she managed to angle her body just right so Noff landed atop Sage’s chest, his body still cradled in her arms.

“We gotta breathe!” Noff yipped. “We need air!” Then he slumped over unconscious.

Air.

What had Sage said about it? Air was the most important ingredient for making bread? She spun and caught sight of the glass bowls of proofing bread as well as the leftover loaves from the current day’s operations. He’d said they were emanating magic. She focused her attention on the bread.

Weakness: humans. Any living creature with a digestive system. Mold, if left out in the heat for too long…

“Stupid Mantle,” she muttered and coughed. “I need to know how to get air!”

Focus, and you can draw air from the bread. It is magic bread after all.

Her vision was starting to go dark. Had this been like what her father had gone through at the very end? Pulled into a car and gassed with no way to get out, then dumped on the sidewalk? Was she going to die here in the Sacred Sourdough’s kitchen, only to be found by the staff in the morning?

Air, she thought. I need air. Then she looked at the sourdough bread. Stared at it.

Focus, came the Mantle’s words in her mind.

She focused.

Then she breathed in. It wasn’t like a normal breath, though. She’d somehow breathed like a fish through gills.

Although the room looked cloudier, she realized her head felt clearer.

She drew in another magical breath. Then another.

She turned her attention back to the problem at hand and the need for a solution.

She needed a way out. She needed…

“The One-Way,” she muttered. That’s what Sage had been trying to say before he passed out. It was on the other side of the kitchen, but that was their best shot.

Unless someone had magically sealed it shut too, but she couldn’t think about that now. She needed to get there.

She started across the kitchen through the gas cloud at a jog. That soon ended when her hip crashed painfully into a metal prep table she couldn’t see. She stepped to the side, and her foot caught on a trash can. Barely managing to retain her balance with a passed-out Sage and Noff in her arms, she straightened to her full height, her head smacking into the hanging metal pans. They clattered loudly, making it hard to think. Then she realized she needed another breath.

She nearly opened her mouth, but that probably would’ve done her in, rendering her unconscious and dead by asphyxiation shortly after.

Was Sage dead?

Couldn’t think about that now. She sucked in another magical breath of air from the sourdough, realizing with a grimace that she hadn’t been able to get as much air out of it that time. The bread was running out of air.

She continued through the kitchen, taking long but careful strides through the impenetrable fog. Her foot struck a couple of obstacles as she pushed on, but she maintained her balance. She winced as Sage’s legs knocked something off a table, clattering in front of her. She stepped over it, nearly falling. Then Sage’s head struck something, a giant can of pureed pumpkin maybe, and it fell in front of her too.

You’re too damn tall, she thought as she trudged onward, making a mess of the kitchen as she rampaged like Godzilla swinging his tail.

She reached the door, barely able to make out the “One-Way” in bold letters on it. Shifting her grip on Sage, she turned the knob.

It turned. She swung the door outward, her way.

A black void opened before her, dark gray clouds swirling in a vortex.

She didn’t know how the One-Way worked, but magic seemed to be simple enough, from what she knew of it. Blue Dot the fairy had used it to get to NYC. Her father had pushed the werewolves to Alaska through it.

How did she let the door know where she wanted to go? Anywhere other than here would work!

She tried to draw one last breath from the magic bread but there wasn’t any air left to draw from it. She intrinsically knew.

Shit.

She didn’t want to mess it up.

She didn’t want to die either. Oh well. Better to be trapped in a swirling mass of dark clouds and blackness than choke on poison gas.

As she fell forward through the doorway, she shouted, “Outskirts of Rainwater!” Then she was spinning, and she shut her eyes.

* * *

Thud.

When she opened her eyes, she was sprawled out in a dewy, grass field at the edge of a forest. She groaned as she pushed herself to her hands and knees. By the light of the moon, she could see all around her. Her heart jumped when she saw a lone chef’s hat sitting in the grass.

“Sage?” she called out in a weak voice she barely recognized. Then she saw him, a few feet behind her, lying on his face. She rushed to his side and easily turned him over with her strength.

“Please don’t be dead…”

She bent over his face trying to determine if he was still breathing. He didn’t look like it. She waited, mentally reviewing how to do CPR in her head when she noticed the slight rising and falling of his chest. She passed a hand over his mouth. She felt a shallow breath.

Whew. He was alive.

A few feet off to the side of him lay Noff. She rushed over to him and checked on him. He was breathing too, thankfully.

But they’d both inhaled poison gas. What was she going to do? Did Rainwater have a town doctor? It sure wasn’t big enough for a hospital.

The best she could think of was to carry them to town. If she could figure out where the town was. Or even…

What if this wasn’t even Maine? What if she’d messed up and the One-Way didn’t know where she’d wanted to go? No one had ever instructed her on how to use it. She’d blurted a location.

I have to keep calm.

She rose and started away from the forest and soon found a road. A little farther on, she spotted a big sign that read, Welcome to Rainwater!

It had worked! With adrenaline pumping through her, she dashed back to the boys. They probably needed medical assistance as soon as possible.

She scooped up Noff and set him on top of Sage’s belly, then cradled both in her arms as she’d done back in the kitchen, and managed to lift them without dislodging Noff.

She headed back to the road and started jogging toward town. With it being almost midnight, she didn’t meet any traffic that could have driven her the rest of the way.

She’d caught sight of the glow of some street lights when Sage shuddered in her arms. “Uh, Maine, why the hell are you carrying me like a baby?”

“Umm…”

“Where are we? What happened?”

“Short version: you breathed in some poison gas. I sent us through the One-Way to the outskirts of town. Now I’m carrying you back to see a doctor.”

“Poison gas? How do you know? That doesn’t make sense…”

“Another assassination attempt,” she said flatly.

Sage ground his teeth. “We have to stop whoever is behind this.”

Maine was equally pissed. “We will. I’m working on a lead. I’m done messing around. Thanks for volunteering to show me how to make the strength-reducing elixirs but I don’t want them. I want the Mantle.”

He coughed to the side and nodded as if that was a good idea.

“First, I’m taking you to a doctor—”

“I’m fine.” Sage shook his head. “I did a magic scan of my body.” He angled his eyes down at Noff now sitting up on his belly, panting with his tongue hanging out. “The poison has worn off. We didn’t have long enough exposure to need medical help. I’m fine. You and Noff appear to be fine too.”

Well, that was a relief.

“Now, can you please set me down? I can walk on my own.”

Noff gave the biggest dog grin possible. “I would like to keep being carried. I think I’m still ‘recovering.’”

“Some bodyguard you are,” she joked, but she was glad he was all right. She was glad they all were.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

“Please don’t tell me this is troll porn…”

Maine stared at the file she’d found on her father’s computer in the Trollcave. The file name was Do Not Let Maine See This.

With a title like that, she had to open it and see what it was. After sleeping in this morning, she’d fired up her dad’s computer and settled into the leather swivel chair. She’d been combing through the Gadgets instruction manual file to figure out how to use the magic tracker she’d planted in the bespoke birdcage when she’d seen the embedded link. She’d clicked it and found herself here: at a file that may or may not be her father’s hidden stash.

“Hm, troll porn?” Noff hopped off the magical massage chair and trotted her way. “That’s some surprisingly good stuff. From what I’ve heard,” he added quickly.

Maine flashed him a dirty look. Noff wiggled his butt and blasted off, landing on her lap. He set his front paws on the computer desk to watch the screen, his tongue hanging out as he panted.

“You’re joking, right? Trolls have to be the absolute worst actors.”

Noff rolled his shoulders. “Trolls are the best. They skip all the boring parts and jump right to the good stuff—you know, the action. Or so I’ve heard,” he added quickly.

“You’re weird.” Maine double-clicked the file.

She’d been expecting the worst and was ready to click out of the file if it was indeed what she thought it was. Instead, it was a note.

On it was the word Maine followed by the strength-reducing elixir recipe and the recipe to the mysterious “green” potion. That recipe looked a lot more complex. She still couldn’t figure out what the hell that green potion even did. The only clue she had was the word UnMyth next to it.

Maine only spent a few moments dwelling on the file. What did UnMyth mean?

It didn’t matter. She needed to find out how to use the magic trackers to see where the cage ended up after its delivery.

Noff stopped panting. “Wait, where’s the action?”

“It wasn’t porn, thankfully,” Maine said.

“Dammit.” Noff hopped back to the floor and padded away.

Maine continued scrolling through her father’s file detailing all of his gadgets. Finally, she came to the section on how to use the magic trackers.

How to use: hold one palm facing up. Say, “Magic tracker screen.” A multi-dimensional map of the tracker’s location shall appear.

“Wow,” Maine muttered. That seemed…too easy.

Holding up her left palm, she said, “Magic tracker screen.” Instantly, a set of glowing circles appeared above her palm. Then she saw a 3D topographical map complete with mountains, trees, and houses. It looked like she was viewing Google Maps in satellite mode, only a holographic version of it floating atop her palm.

As she watched, a tiny beacon that had to be the tracker flashed. The magic holographic view tightened and zoomed in on the beacon. The screen showed a two-story building, and some tiny words appeared next to the locator: Tony’s Pet Shop.

The view temporarily zoomed out, and Maine realized this was a view of the town of Rainwater.

Whoa!

The view zoomed back in and tracked along the town’s streets, leaving Tony’s Pet Shop and traveling toward the outskirts.

“Noff, come check this out. I’m tracing the path the magic tracker took to its destination…”

She let her words trail off as the beacon slowed, arriving at a massive mansion with a horse stable outside it next to a forest. Noolie’s Mansion appeared beside it in tiny words.

“Knew it!” Maine clenched her free hand in a fist pump of victory.

The magic projection zoomed in on Noolie’s mansion as the tracker floated up to the front door. Then, without warning, the magic holographic projection distorted and blinked out of existence.

The hell?

When the magic projection flashed back a few moments later, Maine didn’t recognize the view. She saw a giant building like a castle with a big courtyard at the center. On one side of it, a field of red flowers stretched out to the reaches of the hologram. Upon closer look, she saw that fire composed the flowers’ petals.

Hadn’t Noolie mentioned something about a flaming garden in the Beneath?

Tiny words began to populate the projection. Auction House. Auction Store Room. Fire Gardens. And floating above all this, the Collector’s Realm—the Beneath.

The magic map so entranced Maine that she didn’t hear or feel Noff leap back onto her lap.

“Nice. The Beneath,” Noff said, breaking her concentration. “Always wanted to go there.”

“How do we get there?” Maine studied every section of the map. “The map distorted when the cage got to the mansion.”

Noff yawned. “Noolie controls the way to the Beneath.”

Maine stared at the dire wolf. “You’re only telling me this now?”

“Cut me some slack, woman. I never thought you’d want to go there. You wanna go back to livin’ like a human. Ain’t nothin’ human ’bout the Beneath.”

“Well, that’s where we’re going to have to go to follow this case.”

Noff stared up at her. “I honestly don’t know how to get there, only that Noolie controls the Nexus. Maybe Sage would, though. What I do know is that you’re gonna need some serious backup if we’re goin’ venturin’ to the Beneath.”

“What do you mean?”

Noff did a slow turn, facing the Mantle wrapped around its mannequin torso.

“I know. I know. I guess it’s time.”

She clicked out of everything on the computer and shut it down. Then she eased out of her chair and walked over to the Mantle.

She expected it to say Don me. Don me! but as it had said earlier, it didn’t attempt to annoy her anymore. That earned it a little respect in her book.

Reaching out, she unclasped its straps from the mannequin and lifted it toward her, its feminine tailcoats slithering over the dummy’s head like a whisper. She forgot how lightweight it felt in her hands like she was holding a cloud. She admired its sheen and tight contours…

“You gonna stand there lookin’ at it all day or you gonna put it on? We’re burnin’ daylight.”

After giving him a quick scowl, she slid first one arm and the other into the Mantle’s tapered sleeves. The same as the first time she’d put it on, she felt a subtle tightening as the magical fabric conformed perfectly to her body so it wasn’t too tight or too loose. It fit her like a glove.

“You look hot,” Noff yipped.

She raised her arms, impressed with how it looked and moved with her. She pulled the cowl over her head, and it came down her forehead, wrapping her in strength and confidence. The dark material enveloped her from the crown to almost down to her knees, perfectly hugging her contours, never bunching up no matter what kind of move she made.

Noff pawed absently at the stone floor. “I wonder if you’re supposed to wear clothes under it or not.”

With a groan of disgust, Maine said, “Is your mind still on troll porn?”

With a front paw, he made a cross before his eyes. “Nope. Promise.”

All the same, now Maine couldn’t shake the image of her dad, naked except for a pair of boxer shorts, wearing the Mantle. Did she need to run the Mantle through the washing machine first?

“Well, Mantle. You going to say anything?” she asked.

It feels good to serve a master again. If only for a temporary amount of time.

Maine thought about that. “So that’s it? You’re not going to go all evil on me? Start giving me Noff’s weaknesses, how to disable him and stuff?”

“Hey, now,” Noff said.

I do not think you wish me to, the Mantle said. I am now more a part of you, and better attuned than the first time you donned me. I can sense if what you are looking at is a friend or foe, regular environment or obstacle.

That was agreeable to her.

Perhaps you feel additional energy and strength flowing into you from wearing me?

Maine flexed her fingers and hopped from foot to foot. She did feel invigorated. Was it really from the Mantle though?

Test me out.

“How am I going to—”

Her eyes locked onto the punching bag off to the side. Without donning the punching gloves, she sauntered up to it and drove a fist directly into it with the sound of a thunderclap. Dust came off the punching bag like ripples in a pond.

Drawing her arm back, she realized her knuckles and wrist didn’t hurt. She sent her other fist into the bag’s side, then followed up with a one-two jab with her other arm.

From behind her, Noff whistled.

Maine turned to walk away, then stopped and kicked back at the punching bag, striking it square on without looking at it to line up her strike.

I hope you don’t mind, but I helped assist you in target acquisition. Is this acceptable?

“Uh, yeah.”

So not only could the Mantle identify her opponents’ weaknesses, but it could also help her aim her strikes to maximum effectiveness? Maybe she’d dismissed this evil Mantle sooner than she should have.

“Humans can’t see it, right?”

No one can, not unless you want them to.

She tilted her head at the notion. But keeping the Mantle would just keep reminding her about this whole other crazy world of magic she was leaving behind.

After a few more kicks, she reached out and steadied the punching bag with both palms. The Mantle would make a good ally for the mission she was about to undertake. Speaking of which, she rummaged through a pile of her father’s tech on a nearby table and slipped some additional items into her jacket pockets.

She was about to ask Noff if he was ready to go when she thought of something. She had a lot on her plate, and if she could get rid of Jason, that would be one less thing to worry about.

Earlier, Noff had mentioned in passing that maybe she should send Jason an old-fashioned letter explaining that she wanted him to leave her alone since texts and phone calls didn’t do the trick. She could tell him that she only wanted to be friends and all that.

She folded up a piece of computer paper and wrote, Hey, on the front. On the inside, she scrawled a brief note, letting him know that he was a nice guy, but they needed to stop seeing and talking to each other. She signed her name and looked up Jason’s address on the Internet. Gotta love the phone and Internet service at my father’s place. She’d never known her dad was such a techie.

With the note written, she made a quick stop at the post office where she bought an envelope and a stamp from Sam the satyr mailman. With the Jason problem figured out, now she could focus a hundred percent on the case at hand: solving her father’s murder.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

“I thought we were going to the Sacred Sourdough,” Noff complained as they approached Tony’s Pet Store.

“After this. Didn’t you listen to my plan?”

“I have a lot of energy, okay? I don’t always hear everything.”

“Well, all you need to know is that I’ll do all the talking in here, okay? We’ll walk around until there aren’t any customers inside. Then we’ll lock the front door and shift into interrogation mode.”

Noff nodded energetically. “I knew there was a reason I didn’t like this guy.”

They reached the pet shop’s door, and Maine set her hand on it. “We don’t know if he’s implicit in this or not.”

“Whaddaya mean? He ain’t innocent—he’s selling cages to Noolie!”

She gave him a look and pulled open the door. “Keep your yapper shut and let me do the talking. And no biting him.”

With a dejected sigh, Noff padded after her into the pet store.

Tony had a customer at the counter, a female vampire asking about a cage for her pet snake. Of course, Tony thought he was talking to a human—he was a human after all and couldn’t see through the Veil. His face brightened when he saw Maine.

“Couldn’t stay away, could you?”

Maine rolled her eyes and pointed down at Noff, who yipped in protest. “Looking to buy some accessories for my dog. Maybe a dog sweater and some booties for colder weather.”

“Woman,” Noff yipped. “I will cut you.”

Nodding, Tony said, “Aisle five. I’ll be with you in a minute.”

She meandered down aisle five and picked out a cute dog sweater and four matching yellow socks.

Noff gave a low growl. “Don’t you even think about it…”

She was looking at a pink dog collar when Tony came back to see her, an eager smile plastered to his face.

“I’m customer-free now—except for you. Can I suggest the perfect sweater to match—”

Maine cut him off with a serious look. “I don’t want a dog sweater. I want a special cage.”

“Oh. What? Umm…”

She was forceful and insistent. “I don’t want to talk about it out here. Can we go back to the back room?”

“Well, um, uh…”

She strode past him to the front door, flipped the Open sign to Closed, and threw the deadbolt.

“Hey, you can’t…”

With the Mantle clinging to her like a form-fitting combat suit invisible to Tony’s eyes, Maine thought she could do just about anything she wanted. “Back room. Now.” She started toward the store’s rear, gesturing for Tony to follow with one of her fingers crooked.

She couldn’t help but relish in the commanding air the Mantle lent her while wearing it. Tony followed her as if he were a lost sheep.

Wearing the Mantle felt…powerful.

She strode to the back room and opened the door. Or tried to—he’d locked it. Without meaning to, her hand tightened on the knob, and the door busted through the frame with a crunch.

“Whoa!” Noff yipped.

Maine threw an apologetic glance Tony’s way. “Probably gonna have to replace that lock.” She walked inside. A work table and some wooden shelves lay against the wall, but her attention fell only on the three small, ornate cages on the desk.

Tony bumbled inside the storeroom, trying to find the words to say, his eyes catching on the busted lock and damaged door frame.

When he was inside, Maine acted swiftly, grabbing him by the collar with both hands and spinning him around. She pushed him back against the table, his butt striking next to the three birdcages. Shock painted his face, and she covered his mouth with one palm before he could sputter a word.

She flicked her eyes from his over to the birdcages. “I know these are going to Noolie. So talk.”

He looked terrified.

“Okay, okay.” He threw his hands up. “Don’t hurt me. Please?”

She could tell that Tony wasn’t a hardened criminal. The boy was a pawn in Noolie’s game. Still, she needed to hear the details from him. She needed to know what was going on.

She pretended to debate his request. “I know Noolie is your mystery client. I also know that he’s connected to my father’s death.” At least, that’s what it seemed like. There were too many coincidences going on.

“Your father?” Tony said. “Connected to Noolie?”

She nodded. “Yes. My father, the guy who lived above your pet shop. The guy you probably ran into on the street more times than you can count. Now I need you to tell me everything you know. Maybe, just maybe, I won’t report you to the police.”

“Police? Crap, Maine, it’s not what you think. I don’t do anything for Noolie. He has a thing for collecting things—”

“What’s he collecting in these cages? Birds?”

Tony swallowed hard. “I don’t know. I swear. Maybe he likes the craftmanship. Maybe he’s a weirdo and has a whole shelf in his house dedicated to different birdcages.” His eyes shot toward the storeroom doorway as if he might have a chance of escaping. For some reason, he was hesitant to say more. She needed some leverage.

Maine focused on him.

Weakness: he likes you—well, not anymore, you made him piss his pants. Weakness: his sick mother.

“I know about your mother’s condition,” Maine said.

Tony’s eyes shot wide. “How do you know about her?”

She confidently crossed her arms. “Doesn’t matter. Is that it? Is Noolie holding her hostage or something?”

Tony shook his head like this had to be the worst day of his life, which maybe it was.

Maine took a step forward and leaned toward him.

“Tell me.”

“Okay! My mother is sick. Okay? Really sick. She’s mostly confined to her bed and wheelchair. Doctors don’t know what it is.” He paused to catch his breath. “Noolie’s the only one who’s been able to help me. He might be a strange recluse, but he’s a good guy.”

His words hung in the air. Noff yipped. “Wasn’t expecting that.”

“Help you?” Maine asked.

Tony nodded vigorously. “Potions. Some kind of potions he makes or buys or…I don’t know. They work, though. In return, he asks me to build cages. For what purpose? I don’t know. Maybe he likes exotic birds. He doesn’t say, and I don’t ask. I’ve never seen Noolie in person. He always sends his butler Al. Seriously, that’s all I know.”

He passed a hand over his sweaty brow. “I shouldn’t have told you all that. Part of Noolie’s terms is that I don’t tell anyone about our arrangement. He made me sign a non-disclosure agreement.”

Maine placed a hand gently on his shoulder, and he tensed. She drew back from him. “It’s going to be okay. Maybe I’m wrong about Noolie. Maybe he’s only a weird collector of cages—nothing wrong with that.” She flexed the fingers of both hands. “If he had something to do with my dad’s murder, he’s going down.”

“But my mom!”

Maine had an answer for that. “I have a friend who is very good at making potions. He can help your mother.”

Tony didn’t look placated. “Noolie is a big deal in this town. I don’t want to be on his bad side if you…whatever you plan on doing to him.”

“I’ll take care of everything. Is he by chance going to pick up these three cages soon?” She indicated the ones on the desk next to Tony.

“Yes. Al is picking them up…” He checked his watch. “In a couple of hours. Noolie is having some big event. Needed more cages than normal, which was fine by me. It’s good to have a stockpile of potions, you know?”

She did know. Her father had left her a stockpile of various potions and poisons. She thought it would probably be a good idea to return to his apartment and grab a few of them—not the strength-reducing elixirs—before she headed to the Sacred Sourdough to meet up with Sage.

She drew a deep breath and told Tony to step outside the room for a moment so she could think. After he did so, she grabbed three additional magic trackers from her jacket as well as some other pellet-sized devices and quietly inserted them under the cages’ poop trays. Then she joined Tony outside the storeroom. “I’m…sorry about all this. I’ll pay you for the damages to the door. I’ll stop by again tomorrow, okay? I should have everything taken care of by then.”

The look on Tony’s face suggested he’d be fine if she never stopped by again. Needless to say, he didn’t wave when she left.

Before Noff followed her out, he yipped at Tony. The boy tensed again. Noff caught up with Maine as she strode through the pet store. “That was badass back there. Good job, Miss Bad Cop. You’re a real hard negotiator. Remind me never to get on your bad side.”

Maine shook her head. She didn’t like having to play rough with Tony. At least she knew more about what was going on, and no one physically got hurt. Also, she planted the new trackers and the other items in the cages.

“Now, time to grab some quick supplies back at the apartment. Then it’s showtime.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

“Are you sure you don’t want to eat anything?” Maine asked.

Sage shook his head. “I’m a bit too…anxious to eat.”

Maine forked another bite of smashed potatoes into her mouth, biting into the potato skins and relishing the richness of the gravy. She could get used to eating at the Sacred Sourdough every day. “Anxious much?”

He pierced her with his eyes. “We’re going to the Beneath, Maine. The Beneath.”

She swallowed and reached for her water glass. “You’re afraid of a giant magical city located beneath Noolie’s estate?”

“Not afraid. Anxious.”

“You have magic spells at your disposal. What’s there to be worried about?”

He looked at her as if she were a simpleton. “Magic can’t solve everything. There are limitations to it. Also, I’m a flunked-out wizard in training. There are plenty of more skilled and more dangerous magic casters sure to be inhabiting the Beneath.”

“Don’t forget, you’ve also got me.” Noff waddled up to them. He’d eaten way too much pie. That much was for sure.

Maine nodded. “That’s right. Plus, we have me and my troll strength. We’ll be fine—”

Noff let out a loud belch, and Maine winced.

“Sure,” Sage said sarcastically. “We’ll be fine.”

“You don’t have to come.”

Sage looked at Maine as if she was crazy. He also eyed the tight-fitting Mantle wrapped around her torso. “Actually, I do. If I let you go alone, chances are you wouldn’t ever see the Earth again, even with you wearing the Mantle. I at least owe it to your father to see you through this.”

Her father had been a legend and a town hero to these people but did that mean Sage owed him?

She let the notion pass and finished her meal. She didn’t eat so much that she felt stuffed, but she did eat enough so her hunger wouldn’t kick in halfway through the mission.

“You think it’s time yet?” Sage leaned back against a prep table.

Maine held her palm facing up and called forth the magic tracker hologram. The holographic circles materialized, followed by the layout of the town. She traced the three additional trackers she’d placed in the new cages to Noolie’s mansion, but this time, instead of disappearing through Noolie’s front door, the trackers veered off to the side of the house.

To the horse stables.

The next thing she knew, the magic hologram rearranged itself, and she saw the Beneath. The three trackers plus the one she’d placed earlier now sat in a storeroom in the auction house.

“That’s a lot of cages,” Sage commented. “What if Noolie is only some crazy cage collector?”

“Then why would he be taking them to the Beneath? To the auction house in the Collector’s Realm?” Maine shook her head. “He’s involved in some illicit stuff, I’m sure of it, and I think it’s connected to my dad’s murder.”

“We still don’t know how to get to the Beneath,” Noff yipped. “All we know is that Noolie is the gatekeeper. No one gets through without his approval.”

Maine smirked. “That’s easy. We stake out Noolie’s place from the forest, find out how to get to the Beneath, then sneak through.”

“You’re right,” Sage said sarcastically. “So simple—”

She smacked him lightly over the back of the head. “Remind me never to have you give a pre-mission pep talk. Now, if you’ve got everything you need, let’s go.”

* * *

“Tom Petty was right,” Noff said. “Waiting is the hardest part—can’t we go in?”

Maine shushed him. She didn’t want to lose Sage’s magical support for the mission, and he said they needed to wait a little longer.

The trees and bushes of the forest hid them completely as they surveilled Noolie’s mansion and the horse stables to the side. Maine shared in Noff’s impatience. The sun was going down. It would be sunset soon, meaning Noolie would wake and travel to the Beneath to attend his special auction event. They wanted to be back topside before Noolie ever left his mansion.

She was about to ask Sage if maybe they could take Noff’s advice when the door to the stable opened, and Al stepped onto the pristinely cut grass and made his way to the mansion, checking his watch halfway there. After he’d gone inside, Sage gave the all-clear.

He cast a non-noticing spell over the three of them, similar to what he’d cast on Maine at Noolie’s ballroom balcony. It didn’t make them invisible, but they wouldn’t stand out as noticeably to anyone watching the stable from the outside or inside. Noolie was smart, and they weren’t putting anything past him. The non-noticing spell wouldn’t last long so they had to hurry.

They broke from cover. Maine had to use all her willpower to straighten out her gait instead of rushing to the stables thirty feet away. According to Sage, for the spell to work, they had to move naturally. Quick or jerky movements would break the spell’s effects. To make sure Noff didn’t run, Maine scooped him up and tucked him under her arm. Sage had also assured her that this powerful spell wouldn’t trip any magical detection alarms.

Making it to the stable’s front door without any magical alarm sounding, Maine eased open the door. Stepping inside, she smelled horse poop, hay, and musty barn smells. Compared to the stench Noolie’s body emitted, this smelled like a fresh-cut rose.

A faint glow emanated from the far corner stall. Some of the other stalls contained horses. The rest were empty. Maine didn’t see anyone in there except for themselves. There was a worn footpath on the floor leading to the corner stall. It seemed like their best bet.

As they crept toward the back corner stall, one of the horses neighed. Maine halted abruptly. Sage placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a stern look that said, No jerky movements.

She nodded, and they continued. The door to the corner stable lay open. Inside they saw the source of the faint glow, the Nexus, a thin beam of goldish light protruding from the stable’s floor. Standing at attention in front of the glow was a hulking knight in dull black armor. The knight cleared his throat, his face concealed by his visor.

“Who goes there?” His voice echoed through the horse stable as he unsheathed a matte-finished but sharp sword from his waist.

To get to the Beneath, they’d have to go through him. She focused on him to get a read on his weaknesses.

Weakness: …need a clear image of opponent’s face to read their soul…

Maine cursed under her breath.

“Who goes there?” The knight swung his blade out before him, not seeing Maine, Sage, and Noff.

Maine backstepped away from the stall. This knight looked like a tough opponent even with her super-strength. He probably had magic defenses and maybe magic attacks that would only alert Noolie that someone had used his Nexus to the Beneath.

She had a thought. They didn’t have to go through him. They could go around him.

She whispered to Sage, “How much longer does your non-noticing spell last?”

“Another thirty seconds, maybe? I’m surprised it hasn’t faded yet.”

From inside the stable came another swish of the knight’s blade. “Is someone there?”

“Follow me then,” Maine said. She stepped back into the corner stable, eyeing the golden Nexus behind the knight. It would be a tight fit, but they could edge around him along the stable wall and reach the Nexus. Hopefully, Sage’s spell would prevent a magic alarm from sounding.

It wasn’t the best plan, but it was their best option at the moment.

She walked over to one wall and knocked on its wooden surface.

The knight’s attention immediately went to it, and he took a few careful strides toward the wall. Seizing the opportunity, she snuck past the knight’s back and reached the Nexus, Noff in her arms and Sage at her back.

She walked into the gold glow and closed her eyes as a bright flash lit up. When she next opened them, she was on a grassy plain in a place that certainly wasn’t Earth. The sky looked like dusk—did the Beneath follow the same twenty-four-hour time cycle as Earth? A dirt path led away from the glowing Nexus at her back, illuminated by lanterns at intervals. A large stone castle-like building rose about a hundred yards away, its many windows lit by candles. Off to one side of the dirt path, a low-blazing field of red flowers stretched out for as far as the eye could see. The red petals were like red hot coals, and she couldn’t help but stare in amazement—

Sage bumped into her from behind and steadied her so she didn’t fall.

“Halt!”

“Who goes there?”

The voices came from two more of the dull black knights standing watch about five yards away. They weren’t guarding the Nexus. Instead, their hulking metal shoulders obscured a plain-looking door with the words One-Way on it in blocky letters.

“And…” Sage said, “the spell just wore off.”

One of the knights trudged toward them, the lantern light reflected on its dark armor.

“You lot looking to cause trouble?”

“Um, no, not us,” Maine said.

Sage spoke calmly and elegantly. “Good sir, what would have you believe such a notion?”

The knight stood tall and turned its helmed head both ways to surveil him and Maine and Noff in Maine’s arms. “It is quite peculiar. I didn’t see you, and all of a sudden, you appeared.”

“A trick of the lighting,” Sage said with a lazy grin, playing up his magical charm.

The knight stood there. “I guess.”

“Speaking of which,” Maine said, “when does it get fully dark here?” She wanted to know how long they had until Noolie showed up.

“Full dark?” The knight chuckled, the sound echoing in his metal suit. “In the Beneath, it is always eternal dusk.” He seemed suddenly suspicious of them. “Have you never been to the Beneath?”

Maine put on her best cheesy smile. “First time.” She pointed ahead at the castle-like building in the near distance. “Is that the auction house?”

“Oh, you are a bidder then?”

Maine stood her ground. “Yes.”

The knight tilted his metal helm to one side. “You are not dressed like one.”

Maine bit her lip. They would probably need a disguise once they got to the auction house, or they were going to stand out. She decided to change the subject. “I hear Noolie will be here tonight.”

“Oh yes,” said the knight, clearly pleased.

“Do you happen to know what he’s auctioning off?” Maine asked.

“As usual when he makes an appearance, some most excellent magical specimens.”

“Such as?” Sage prompted.

“The rumor is, he will have butterfly fairies this time,” said a secretive voice. A roly-poly man in a tux with tiny octopus tentacles around his mouth stepped out from the shadows, looking far more formal than the knight.

“The auctioneer, sire.” The knight bowed slightly.

The auctioneer ignored the knight, sneering at Maine and Sage. “This event is closed to bidders only. I will not have riffraff disturbing my clientele.”

“We’re here to bid,” Sage said flatly.

“Are we on the list?” The creature snapped his fingers, and an old-school clipboard appeared in his hand.

“You’d think with magic that you’d conjure an iPad or something.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said, we’re here to bid.” Maine held the auctioneer’s gaze.

“I know every person, myth or not, who comes into my establishment. I can personally vouch for their, how shall I put it, means. You do not strike me as a person of means.”

Weakness: likes pretty things, will always sell out to the highest bidder, or grovel and beg for rare items. Offer the Mantle as collateral and when he is distracted by my glory, brain him with a rock.

Mantle. Of course! It was a rare item. That was their ticket in.

“I might not have means, but I have collateral. This.” She gestured at her shoulders.

The auctioneer narrowed his eyes. “Dandruff?”

“No.” Maine brushed her shoulders. “I don’t have dandruff, you dolt. This.” Then remembering that the Mantle was invisible to everyone but her, she mentally commanded it to show itself.

At first, she wasn’t sure it would work. Still, the Mantle had instructed her to “show” it to the auctioneer, which meant there had to be an off-switch to its invisibility function.

Again the auctioneer looked at her shoulders. More like sneered at them until his eyes grew wide with wonderment. “Is that the…”

“It is,” Maine said.

“You’d offer that as collateral.”

“Depends how much you offer me, but yes.”

He drew in close, pulling an eyepiece from his pocket. “A prize like this could fetch a million, maybe a million and half.”

“One-point-five million dollars?” Holy shit, she was rich.

Then she came to herself—the mission and why she was here. She nodded. “That will do just fine. Thank you, kind sir.” She turned and grabbed Sage by the elbow, dragging him down the dirt path.

Noolie could arrive at any time. They had one mission right now. That was to get the butterfly fairies and get out.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

The auction house was even more impressive up close, with its stone architecture confusing her mind when Maine looked at it for too long. It had stone stairwells wrapped around the external walls between the candlelit windows that impossibly doubled back down to the ground, like a loop-the-loop. They served no practical purpose to ascend them, and yet, staring at them made it seem like you wouldn’t fall off if you started ascending them even when you found yourself upside down.

As they walked in, Noff yipped, “A cool mil and a half. Nice.”

“Yeah, nice,” Sage retorted, “but maybe not enough. Butterfly fairies are worth more than that, especially if there are a lot of them. We need to be sure to keep the bids down.”

Maine nodded, distracted. This place was incredible. “Hopefully we’re not bidding ’cause no way I’m giving a creep like that the Mantle. Let’s get inside and make a plan.”

Sage agreed as Noff yipped, “Trippy,” as he padded alongside Maine instead of being carried in her arms.

“Wonder what the inside is like,” Maine said. She wasn’t surprised by finding upside-down staircases in a magical place like the Beneath.

They came to a large oval doorway with torches set on either side, which was weird because white ceiling lights lighted the auction house’s interior.

“The Beneath has electricity?” she asked.

Sage shrugged.

A few auction hall staff entered and exited the building, lithe two-legged beings in tight-fitting white suits. Their faces resembled gazelles or goats, and they all had twisting horns atop their heads, even the females.

Maine waited until no one was around and called forth the hologram tracker map in her palm. The cages were in a storeroom inside the auction house. They only needed to follow the route, sneak inside, and steal the butterfly fairies. Committing the way to memory, she extinguished the magic map from her palm.

Sage and Noff walked at either side of her as they passed down stone hallways and entered numerous foyers with ornate side tables and chairs. A few wealthy-looking magical beings sat in some of the foyers, many accompanied by servants.

It seemed the dress code for this event was quite formal, which didn’t match the casual wear Maine wore, although Sage’s pristine chef’s uniform didn’t look too out of place. Judging by the looks she was receiving from the auction attendees, she needed a disguise if she was going to make it to the storeroom without drawing too much attention.

“Change of plans,” she said as she spotted a coat check attendee taking a suit coat and a woman’s glittery overcoat to a tiny coat closet.

Noff yipped, and several of the nearby guests eyed him sharply. “You thinking about playing dress-up?” he said.

Maine nodded, waiting for the coat attendant to leave, and ambled up to the closet. There was no door, only an open doorway. It looked cramped without any order to the numerous coats and purses that hung inside.

“Keep watch, okay?” She slipped inside. Suddenly, the tight confines disappeared, replaced by a wide-open walk-in closet with plenty of space between garments. Like her father’s oak chest, it seemed this closet had a larger interior than the outside suggested.

Magic.

She was flipping through some gaudy white denim jackets and pink scarves when she heard footsteps entering from the far side of the closet. Instinctively, she ducked into the clothing closest to her. Peering out between folds of garments, she saw a curly horned female auction staff member hanging up a gold suit coat and a shiny blue robe. Then she was gone.

Maine sighed. That had been close. Before she broke from her cover to find an outfit she could “borrow” to blend in, she studied the layout of the ginormous walk-in closet. It had multiple entrances, blacked-out doorways that led out to different foyers scattered throughout the auction house, she assumed.

The wonders of magic never ceased to amaze her.

Hearing another staff member enter, she watched as the magical being hung up a sleek leather jacket and matching leather purse on the opposite side of the closet. They would fit perfectly over her current shirt and jacket and go nicely with her dark jeans.

She waited until the attendant left the closet, then rushed over to the leather jacket and purse, quickly donning them. Then she walked casually to the doorway she’d entered from.

Hopefully, it had been the same one…

She emerged into a foyer—they all looked the same—and heaved a breath of relief when she saw Sage and Noff.

Noff whistled, his tail wagging. “Lookin’ nice.”

“Glad you approve.” Maine crouched and unzipped the leather purse, seeing a bunch of cosmetics and a compact mirror. Plenty of room for her glass vials and other stuff. She quickly transferred the contents of her jacket pockets and tilted the opening toward Noff. “Now get in.”

Noff’s tail stopped wagging. “Huh?”

Maine swept her gaze over the occupants of the foyer. “I get the feeling this place looks down on pets.”

“I ain’t a pet—I’m your bodyguard.”

One of the wealthy women in the foyer gasped. She had a glowing gem attached to her forehead and opaque, unseeing eyes. “I sense a dire wolf. What is such a creature doing in here? Animals are strictly prohibited…”

“Fine, fine.” Noff hopped into the leather purse, and Maine zipped it up. She stood and exited the foyer with Sage at her side.

“Looking good,” Sage said as they walked. “Where’s my disguise?”

“You don’t need one. Maybe your outfit will help us out if we get stuck.” She raised her palm, reorienting herself with the magic map after the unplanned coat closet experience.

After taking several stone passageways that looked the same, they came to the storeroom. A female gazelle-like staff member with sharp eyes stood guard in front of it, a slender sword sheathed at her side. Maine didn’t doubt that more security was only a call away.

“Distract her, okay?” Maine said. “And hurry. Noolie could show up at any time.”

Sage’s face tightened, but he nodded. “Grab the butterfly fairies quickly, and we’ll get out.”

How many butterfly fairies could there be? Five? Six? Sage had implied there’d be more, but she wasn’t sure. The way she figured it, she could smuggle out ten, maybe a cool dozen. Any more and there’d be issues.

She waited until Sage approached the guard and stepped to the other side of the doorway to draw the guard’s attention away from the open entrance at her back. Then Maine snuck up behind the guard and slipped inside the storeroom.

It was an octagonal room, with many shelves upon each wall. There seemed to be an order to the magical items arrayed before her, but she didn’t see Tony’s cages. She kept scanning.

There.

She tiptoed to the right toward an elaborate silver cage. She counted one, two, three…

Six? Holy shit, how was she going to smuggle out six cages’ worth of butterfly fairies? Peeking into the ornate prisons, she counted four fairies per cage for a total of twenty-four butterfly fairies.

Not good.

Also, it confirmed beyond all reasonable doubt that Noolie was sick and twisted and that he most likely had something to do with her father’s murder.

She peered admiringly through the bars of the beautiful cages at the three-inch tall fairies with gorgeous, glittery butterfly wings. Some were awake, but most were sleeping. Her eyes locked on one fairy in particular—the fairy who had visited her at her father’s apartment.

“Dimple Cheeks?” she whispered. Based on their appearances, she thought she recognized a few of the others: Green Eyes, Silver Shoes, and Sparkle Legs.

Dimple Cheeks woke up. “Huh?” The tiny fairy’s face looked hopeful. Then, “Oh, it’s you.”

“How did you get captured? I thought you were still in Rainwater.”

The three-inch tall butterfly fairy crossed her arms in a pout. “After you refused my case, I went back to the butterfly fairy sanctuary. Someone had broken into it and kidnapped all of my fellow fairies—all of them!”

Maine frowned, saddened by this.

“I didn’t see the kidnapper hiding. He got me on the way out of the sanctuary.”

“Who was it?” Maine asked.

The tiny fairy shrugged. “Some anonymous hired thug of Noolie’s, judging by the fact that he was the one auctioning us to the highest bidder.”

“I’m here to rescue you and the rest. We’ve got to be quick.”

Dimple Cheeks still looked suspicious. She looked tired and wary. Being confined like this, Maine could understand why. “Why the change of heart?” the fairy asked.

“I’m learning that a lot of what I thought I knew isn’t true.”

“Huh?”

“I accept your case, and I’m here to jailbreak you and your friends.”

“Yay!” Sparkle Legs cheered softly, waking up. It was strange seeing a male fairy, mostly because the squiggly chest hair poking out above his tunic looked wrong.

From outside the storeroom, Maine heard Sage chuckle, the female guard joining in.

“We need to hurry,” Noff yipped from inside the purse.

Maine reached out to grab the cages, but Dimple Cheeks stopped her. “What are you doing? You can’t remove us from the shelves. There is an invisible magic alarm!”

Swallowing, Maine took a step back. Then she scrutinized the octagonal room’s shelves. She faintly saw a series of invisible vertical lines like bank vault trip lasers in a heist movie in front of all the walls. It would be helpful if she knew how to use her magic to detect magical traps like this.

She focused on the invisible magic lasers.

Weakness: …none… Are only shut off at the start of the auction when each item is presented to the bidders. You will have to bid for the fairies.

The Mantle seemed almost…sad? Sad that it couldn’t help her exploit how to beat the lasers?

“Thanks, Mantle,” she said to let it know she appreciated the intel.

“We gotta go,” Noff yipped. “Now.”

Sage was talking overly loud now, and she thought she heard the guard starting to turn. “I’ll be back,” Maine whispered, then snuck out of the storeroom just in time.

Sage walked past the guard. Maine took his arm, saying into his ear loud enough for the guard to hear, “Come on honey, we’ve got to get ready for the auction.”

He nodded, and she grinned.

“Enjoying yourself a bit too much back there, lover boy?” she said.

“Just doing my job, ma’am,” he replied jokingly, not even blushing. For some reason, this irritated Maine.

“What did you find out?” Sage asked. “Are the fairies in there?”

“Oh, they’re in there all right. All twenty-four of them.”

“Did you…free them?”

“You think I’ve got enough pockets and purse space for twenty-four fairies? Not with the way women’s jeans pockets are.”

“Okay?” Sage said.

“Besides, I couldn’t take them even if I had the space. It’s magical alarm central in there, and I didn’t feel like battling my way out through hordes of rushing guards. Which means we’ve got to win the bid.”

Sage cursed softly. “At an event like this? These magical beings have loads of money. How are we going to hope to outbid them?”

“With your money, Mr. Sugar Daddy.”

He frowned deeply at her. “I don’t have…”

“Oh, and I need you to pay for a replacement door at Tony’s Pet Shop too.”

“What—”

She shushed him, pointing toward the end of the hallway as Noolie’s two halves inch-worm-hopped past. Maine pulled up the magic map and determined that Noolie was heading to the auction hall.

She knew she shouldn’t have been surprised, but everyone else in the hallway had stared in respectful awe at Noolie. And to think that Noolie had told her that the magical beings in the Beneath didn’t like him. It was just a ploy. He was a king down here.

Sage pulled at his shirt collar. “The auction is probably about to start. I’ll go register and get a bidding number as fast as I can.”

* * *

Maine waited against a wall. Noff poked his head out of her purse. “Seriously. Why do I gotta play the part of the purse poodle?”

“Cause you’re cute and adorable.”

He grimaced.

“Just roll with it. So what if you’re smaller than most dire wolves? Use it to your advantage. While everyone else, including your opponent, is fawning over or laughing at you, that’s when you attack. Own your attributes—it’s your secret superpower.”

“Hmm. I ain’t never thought about my size like that before…I’ll give it a shot. You’re smarter than you look.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Sage walked up to her at that moment, smart enough to keep his mouth shut. “I was right. It’s about to begin.” He pulled a white bidding number placard from behind his back. “Now again, the plan?”

Maine adjusted the purse’s shoulder strap. “OK, new play. We win the auction. We go to the back to hand over the ‘payment…’” she gestured to her now invisible Mantle, “then bammo, we grab the butterfly fairies and flee to freedom, hopefully without setting off any magic alarms. Once we get topside, the laws of the Beneath will have no hold over us. Of course…we’ll never be able to come back down here again. Not with the warrants that’ll be out for us.”

Sage shook his head dismissively, and the two of them entered the auction hall, a wide-open banquet room, as the auctioneer appeared, taking the stage. “You ready to grab a table? The auction is about to begin.”

CHAPTER FORTY

The auction attendees inside the banquet hall stood in small groups around tall bistro tables, sipping from fluted glasses filled with dark liquid. Maine and Sage found an unoccupied table near the back, and a spiral-horned staff member promptly attended to them, asking what they wanted to drink: wine, sweetened pig’s blood, or some kind of fermented concoction that not even Sage knew what it was. They ordered wine for the sake of blending in.

Noolie’s two halves stood at the front, one on each side of the auctioneer’s stage, taking in the gathered crowd, clearly loving the attention, pomp, and power.

Maine thought they were far enough in the back that he might not be able to see them. At least, not until after the bidding for the butterfly fairies was over, and it would be too late for him to cry foul.

Standing behind a polished, wooden podium, the roly-poly auctioneer continued to go through the auction rules.

“Only raise your bid number if you’re serious, folks—no take-backs. Try it, and we’ll cut off your hand. Just joking—or am I?”

Maine had a feeling that in the Beneath, punishments were more severe than on Earth.

Noff peeked out from the leather purse still slung over Maine’s shoulder. “That auctioneer looks like a purple grape with legs.”

“You have something against the color purple?” Maine asked. “First you make fun of my dad’s muscle car. Now you make fun of the auctioneer’s clothing?”

Sage shushed them.

“First up, we have a lamp genie from the Byzantine empire. Behold the glittering relic before you. And the genie inside…”

A female staff member with curving horns and a plunging neckline emerged from a back room with a gold lamp raised over her head in both hands for all the bidders to see.

Maine did a double-take at the relic. “Are genies real?”

“Yep,” Sage answered.

“Are genies…you know, alive?”

“Yeah. What—”

“These bastards are selling and buying living, breathing magical creatures? What the hell. How is that legal?”

“It’s the Beneath,” Noff said. “Anything goes. Life is cruel being a magical being. It ain’t all rainbows and magic spells. There are costs to living this life, even in a human town like Rainwater. Count yourself lucky you’re running back to your ‘human’ life after this.”

Maine winced at the barb, watching as the genie lamp sold to an evil-looking black scaled kappa with glowing red eyes.

“Next up,” the auctioneer said, “is a set of three soul coins.” This time a male staff member came through the back door, holding up a glass case containing three gold coins on a plush red cushion. “Aren’t they shiny, folks?”

Maine stared at them as the staff member carried the display case throughout the banquet hall. “What are soul coins?”

Noff yipped. “Human souls trapped in coins, a commodity of demons.”

“I feel like my father wouldn’t condone this kind of auction,” Maine said.

Sage nodded. “I’ve heard tales about the Collector’s Realm in the Beneath. I never thought it would be this seedy.”

The winning bid on the soul coins went to a green-skinned witch with a hooked nose and long greasy white hair.

“Next,” the auctioneer drawled, “we have a lovely set of…not one…”

A female staff member with horn nubs sashayed into the room carrying one of the small, ornate butterfly cages over her head. Four butterfly fairies flitted about inside, angrily throwing up their fists and flipping off the crowd. Their tiny mouths opened, but Maine didn’t hear any sounds. She asked Sage about it.

“Silence spell cast on the cages.”

The auctioneer continued, “Like I said, folks, not one, not two…”

Another girl carrying a butterfly cage atop her head spritzed out onto the auction floor.

“Not two, not three…”

The auctioneer’s game continued, drawing out the sick entertainment until showgirls had paraded all six cages out onto the bidding floor, twisting and turning to display the fairies at all angles. As tiny as the butterfly fairies were, from a distance, it almost looked like they were just gigantic butterfly wings flapping about inside the cages. It was almost magical.

“Better than an aquarium of fishes, are they not?” the auctioneer said. “The whole set includes twenty-four of them. Do you know how rare butterfly fairies are? This truly is a catch, bigger than a magical sea tuna, ha.”

The crowd joined him in laughing.

The auctioneer grinned, his face red from all the excitement. “Let’s start the bidding at a cool million.”

“A million?” Maine hissed to Sage, careful not to raise her hand yet. “As starting bid? We have to keep the bidding low if our collateral is going to get us in that back room.”

Sage nodded.

A hand shot up in the room, about twenty feet away from Maine and Sage’s bistro table, belonging to a five-foot-tall dwarf with a two-tier beard. From his appearance, he was loaded with gold—it bunched out from under his sporty tweed jacket, and he wore a gemstone-embedded ring on each pudgy finger.

The auctioneer, looking delighted, began the auction in earnest, his tongue rolling his words.

Sage flashed Maine a look. She nodded, and he raised their bid number. “One point one million.”

The auctioneer cheered and continued in his rhythmic monotone, turning back to the general direction of the wealthy dwarf.

Hopefully, he didn’t keep bidding the butterfly fairies up, but if he did, Maine would be prepared. She focused on the dwarf as the dwarf raised his bid number again, her mind shutting out everything else.

Weaknesses: questing for loot. All things gold. Nice food. Creme Brulé...

Maine whispered to Sage. “Are you a well-known celebrity chef to the magical realm?”

He chuckled. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m a celebrity chef.” He paused to raise his bid number as the auctioneer announced final chance. “But yeah, any magical being foodie worth their salt would recognize me if I stepped up to them.”

The auctioneer was already goading the dwarf back into the bidding.

“Then you’re on deck.” Maine snatched the bid card from Sage. “I have it on good authority from the Mantle that the dwarf is a huge foodie.”

Sage raised one eyebrow.

“Go over there and offer to cater his next party if he steps out of the bid. I don’t think he’s going to quit anytime soon.”

The dwarf had already agreed to the next highest bid, and now the attention returned to their place in the back of the room. “One-point-two million? Going once. Going twice…” Maine raised the bid number, and the auctioneer clapped.

“Splendid. Just splendid!” Before turning back to the dwarf, he said, “Anyone else want to get in on this besides these two?”

Maine thought she saw several other bidders shifting anxiously on their feet, getting ready to jump in as long as the bidding didn’t go too high.

By the time the auctioneer next addressed the dwarf, Sage had already stepped up to the other bidder and was working his charm. The dwarf delightedly shook Sage’s hand, and Sage glanced back at Maine with a wink.

“What’s this?” the auctioneer said. “Our dwarf friend is stepping out? His loss…” He addressed the rest of the crowd. “One-point-three million. Do I have another bid…”

A tiny hand shot into the air. It belonged to a baggy-clothed, pointy-hatted gnome standing atop a bistro table near the center of the room.

“Yes!” the auctioneer cheered. “These butterfly fairies would make the perfect companions to you, good sir. Don’t you all agree?” The auctioneer turned to the rest of the crowd for their input. For the most part, they smiled and clapped their approval.

Maine focused on her next bidding rival—the gnome.

Weaknesses: too many UV rays in the summer. Spiders. Extremely allergic to dog hair.

“Noff,” she whispered to her purse. “You’re up. The gnome is allergic to you.”

She glanced to the side. Sage had shaken the dwarf’s hand again and was walking toward her. She handed him the bid card and began winding her way through the magical beings gathered around the bistro tables, sipping their wine and sweetened pig’s blood.

She heard the auctioneer acknowledge Sage’s next raise from behind her as she stepped up to the gnome’s table and casually looked around, running a hand through her hair while glancing in the compact mirror she found in her “borrowed” purse. The real ploy was that she was, at the same time, holding her purse out toward the gnome’s backside.

She had instructed Noff to stay inside the purse—they didn’t want to attract unwanted attention. It couldn’t look like sabotage…but getting to know this morally bankrupt crowd, she thought if anything, they might commend her for “persuading” the gnome to step out.

For a few moments, as she checked her hair and makeup in the mirror, she feared it might not work. Maybe Noff needed to hop onto the table and prance around the gnome in circles to trigger his allergic reaction.

Then, quite suddenly, the gnome’s eyes tightened, and he grabbed his throat with both tiny hands. He made a croaking sound, then spun and bolted off the table, gasping, “Dog hair…dog hair…” He hopped to the next table as if he had pogo sticks in his shoes.

“Shit, woman, I think you might’ve killed that gnome,” Noff yipped.

She did feel bad. Then she saw the gnome catch an attendant’s attention.

“Epi-pen,” he moaned, and the staff member nodded and promptly picked the gnome up, heading for the exit.

Whew. She hadn’t killed the little guy after all.

As she prepared to go back to where Sage was standing, she realized that the entire crowd’s attention had reverted to the bistro table beside her, previously bearing the gnome’s weight.

She bit her lip as she physically and mentally shrank back into the crowd.

Not before she was quite sure that one of Noolie’s halves standing up by the stage had laid an eye on her.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

She feared that the game was up. Noolie, having seen her, was going to turn on the magical spotlight, and a hundred magical beings were going to circle in on her and mob her.

No such thing happened.

For all she knew, Noolie hadn’t seen her. How good could his eyesight be anyway? All the same, she backstepped slowly away from the gnome’s empty table.

“We have a new bidder,” came the auctioneer’s amplified voice. “Ain’t she a looker, folks!”

At first, Maine thought the auctioneer was talking about her. Then she followed the crowd’s collective focus over to the sidewall at an orc woman in a tight-fitting shiny dress. Definitely not someone you wanted to pick a fight with. Maine wondered if her troll strength would be a match for the orc woman’s if it came down to a fight.

Not that it would.

Weakness: onions. Foot massages. Sexually attracted to human men…

A devilish smile lit Maine’s face. She rejoined Sage and tugged his ear to her mouth as she whispered.

He swallowed. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

Maine nodded. “You’re up again. You’re her weakness.”

“Yeah, but—”

“You only have to promise her one date. That’s all.”

“I don’t know…”

The crowd’s attention was on them again. Taking the bid card from Sage, Maine raised it high.

“Wow! The bid goes back to the lovely young couple in the back. Aren’t they so sweet together?”

Half of the crowd oohed and ahhed. The other half snickered.

“They sure are,” Noff yipped from inside Maine’s purse. “Can I please come outside now?”

“Absolutely not.” Maine forced a fake smile at all of the crowd’s attention coming her way. She waved at them, then raised a leg and gave Sage a light kick to the butt.

Dropping his shoulders, Sage ambled off in the direction of the orc woman’s table, calling over his shoulder. “You’re gonna owe me for this one.”

“Yep, love ya too, honey,” she called back jokingly.

“You two really have chemistry,” Noff said.

“Shut up.”

Predictably, the orc woman raised her hand, upping the bid yet again. Maine didn’t know how long they could keep this game up. Hopefully, the orc woman was the last bidder they needed to beat.

The orc woman raised the bid as Sage reached her, and now the auctioneer was looking Maine’s way again. She raised the bid card, the crowd and auctioneer cheering enthusiastically.

The attention flashed back to the orc woman.

“What do you say?” he bellowed. “One more raise?”

The orc woman smiled toothily and shook her head no. No one but Maine saw that she was pinching Sage’s butt while Sage glared at Maine. Maine waved pleasantly.

After searching the crowd for another bidder, the auctioneer turned to Maine. “Going once, going twice, sold! Congratulations. Everyone, please give this woman a big hand. I like a woman who knows what she wants and gets what she wants.” After the applause, he said, “Now for the next item up for bids…”

A hand fell on Maine’s shoulder, and she turned. One of the curly horned male staff members stood with a clipboard and a bid sheet for her to sign. He handed her a pen and indicated the signature line. Then she read the amount she agreed to pay.

Two million dollars.

Her “collateral” was only good for one-point-five million. Shit.

She signed, and before the staff member could walk away, she caught his arm. “I’m kind of in a hurry. Would I be able to pick up my purchase now? And pay, of course,” she added quickly.

The staff member bowed. “Certainly. I shall lead you to the payment room.”

As Maine followed, she caught Sage’s eye and angled her head for him to follow her. Sage tried to pull away from the orc lady, but she had his arm gripped in her hands, smiling at him and batting her eyelashes.

Sage could join her whenever he was…er, done. Poor thing. Having charm could be a curse, she thought.

The staff member opened a plain, unobtrusive door in the back wall and nodded for her to go inside. It was a simple white rectangular room with a gurgling pond and a small water fountain along one wall with neat rock landscaping.

Still standing in the doorway, the staff member cleared his throat. “The banker will be in to see you shortly to settle your tab. Your items will be brought to you posthaste.” He gave her a sheepish grin. “Again, congratulations.” Then he bowed and left, closing the door.

Okay… she thought, wondering if this was some trap. The gurgling of the water was pleasant enough so she walked over to the pond and sat on a large flat rock. The white room had two ways in and out, a door on either side. A long desk sat along the wall opposite her with a computer terminal and a card reader for accepting payments. Wow, the Beneath accepted credit cards? Who knew.

Maybe this wasn’t a trap after all, and the banker would be in shortly.

There was a knock at the door she had entered by, and she shifted her weight on the rock beneath her, getting ready to get offensive if the need arose.

The door opened, and a tall thin man with a face like a fox stepped inside. He wore a black business suit and a sharp-toothed grin she didn’t like. He gestured to the table, the smile still on his furry face.

“I am the Collector’s Realm’s current banker. You’re ready to settle your amount due?”

She nodded, rising from the rock and walking over to him. “First, I want to see my um, purchase up close.”

For the first time since he’d entered, the fox man’s grin faltered. “You already won the bid. You must pay first. Then you gain possession of the items. Those are the rules.”

“I understand that.” Maine wished Sage was here to cast a stupefy spell on the man. “I only want to see them again before I pay.” The banker looked about to say something, and she cut him off. “Certainly you can accommodate my wishes. I’m paying two million dollars…”

The banker looked ill at ease, then his cell phone rang. He answered it via a wireless earbud, concealed by his hairy ears. His foxlike eyes narrowed on her for a moment, and he grinned again. “I understand,” he said and hung up.

Straightening his suit, he walked toward the door he’d entered by. “I must go check on something. Your butterfly fairies will be here at any moment. Then I will be back.”

This didn’t feel right. Maine figured her best bet was to incapacitate him herself. Before she could get two steps, the door opened. Sage stepped inside and cast a purple blast of light at the banker, who slumped to the floor with disoriented eyes.

“About time,” Maine said. “What kept you?”

“A horny orc woman who couldn’t keep her hands off my ass…I uh, excused myself from her.”

Maine grinned. “Good. Sorry about that. Maybe you got more than you bargained for.”

“You think?”

“At least we won the bid.”

“Speaking of which,” Sage said, “where are the butterfly fairies?”

“They should be here any moment.”

The doorknob to the other door to the room turned, and the door opened. Three ogres stepped inside wearing business suits that did little to hide their muscles.

“Time to leave.” Noff popped his head out of the purse.

Maine and Sage turned to the open doorway behind them only to find three more of the suited ogres. They poured into the room, forcing Maine and Sage back a step toward the burbling pool and fountain.

Noff growled. “This ain’t good.”

“The banker informed us that you intend to break the rules of the Collector’s Realm,” one of the ogres grunted.

“What?” Maine said. “Wouldn’t think of it.”

“Oh, you’ll pay,” another of them said. “Either in dollars or flesh.”

Maine chuckled lightly. “Sounds like a lot of flesh.”

The ogres beat their fists into their palms. “Sure is,” one of them said. “So, which is it gonna be?”

Maine glanced at Sage. “Think you can cast some more purple stupefy spells?”

He shook his head. “Can only cast spells like that once a day.”

“Seriously?”

“Five seconds to decide.” Another of the ogres. “What’s it gonna be?” He started counting down.

Sage shook his head. “I hoped it wouldn’t come down to a fight. Before we can get to the butterfly fairies, we’re going to have to deal with them. You feel confident in your troll strength?”

“Oh yeah.” Maine punched her fist into her palm. “Let’s do this.”

The ogres roared. “Get them!”

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

“Don’t let them close us in,” Sage called as Maine ducked under a meaty punch. She passed behind the ogre and backhanded him against the back of the skull. He stumbled forward, catching himself on his hands and knees while two more ogres rushed her. As she parried a punch with her forearm, she maneuvered to the side, narrowly missing a two-handed haymaker swing at her.

Multicolor flashes of a magic spell filled her peripheral vision. She glanced over her shoulder to see Sage’s three ogres stumbling back a few steps and rubbing their eyes, stunned.

“What was that spell called?” she yelled as she evaded another punch.

“Stun,” Sage responded. His three opponents had already mostly recovered and were going on the offensive again.

She ducked a blow. “What an inventive name. Why was it so weak?”

Sage grunted, barely missing a blow that would have decimated his shoulder had it connected. “Because I used a group stun instead of a single concentrated stun. Wider range but less effective—” He doubled over as an ogre struck a glancing blow off his back. Catching his bearings, he dove to the side as an ogre stomped the floor where his leg had been.

Maine rolled to the side and jabbed an ogre in the hamstring, causing him to groan. “Let me guess. You can only use the stun spell once a day?”

Sage sent a blast of pink energy at an ogre, striking him between the eyes. He flew forward and kicked the ogre in the crotch, and the ogre fell to his knees. “You got it.”

“Magic is stupid.”

“Watch out!” Noff blurted, and Maine turned just in time to throw up a defense against an ogre’s swing. It knocked her back a step, and she noticed, too late, that a second ogre was now closing in to strike her. She didn’t have time to evade or counter.

Her purse wiggled, and Noff leapt out, the key marking on his rump glowing in midair. Maine squeezed her eyes shut as a white-hot light blasted outward, temporarily stunning the three ogres around her.

“Ha! I can use that magic attack all day,” Noff yipped. “I don’t need to use any weak-ass spells—”

One of Sage’s three ogres backpedaled and kicked out at Noff, but Noff magically blasted off before impact, soaring up and over the rock landscaping…

Into the pond.

“Dammit,” he spluttered when he broke the surface.

Maine smirked as she focused on the three ogres before her.

Weakness: stunned by magic sunburst.

Weakness: also stunned.

Weakness: stunned as well—what are you waiting for? Finish them!

She didn’t need to hear it twice. Darting forward, she jabbed the first one in the throat, feeling the Mantle making tiny adjustments to her body position as she moved for maximum effectiveness. She followed up with a kick to the side of the ogre’s leg before sliding to his other side, grabbing him by the suit coat, and swinging him roughly toward the pool. His upper torso landed with a splash and Noff cursed, still trying to doggy paddle to the rocks.

To the second ogre, Maine delivered three quick jabs to the gut and a one-two combo to the face. He crumpled.

Then it was onto the third ogre. She kicked his side, dodged around him, and threw a punch at his cheek. His senses having returned after Noff’s sun blast, he caught her arm, but she was able to swing her body around it like a horizontal pole. As she traversed the top of the arc, she lifted a foot and drove her heel against the side of his neck. With a surprised exhale, he fell to the side. She pushed off and leapt to the floor beside the pond.

Ahead of her, an ogre had his arms pinned around Sage’s chest, squeezing the life out of him.

“A little…help?” he grunted.

Maine reached behind her and fitted her hands around a particularly large stone. Her body felt warmed up, and her strength coursed through her. Tearing the rock loose from the pool, she hurled it forward, striking Sage’s ogre on the shoulder. The blow sent him sideways, and Sage broke free from the grip and joined Maine at her side. Noff padded up on her other side atop the pond rocks, his coat dripping water.

Sage pulled at his shirt collar, still wheezing from nearly having his chest caved in. “What say we wrap this fight up quickly?”

“By we, do you mean me?” Maine grinned.

He sucked in a breath. “You do have one hell of an iron fist. Remind me never to pick a fight with a troll.”

“Only half-troll here.”

The three remaining ogres gathered their energy for a final attack, positioning themselves so Maine and Sage couldn’t escape through either of the side doors without a fight. Noff’s sun flare magic probably wouldn’t work a second time so that was out of the question.

Maine barely felt winded. She probably had a lot more physical training than Sage, she guessed, although he did have a hard body. Also, she was wearing the Mantle, which was imbuing her with strength and energy.

“You got any more fancy spells up your sleeve?” she asked.

He wiped his mouth with his hand. “Eh. A few. Ready?”

The ogres made their move before she could react, charging forward at them. She made quick work of them, sidestepping and shoving one headfirst into the rock landscaping. Water burst out from the side of the pool like an exploding dam. While the rushing water tripped up the other two, she delivered a solid punch to one of their jaws that knocked him out cold, and the other one she kicked in the gut, causing him to double over with a splash into the pooling water with a pained groan.

Maine and Sage walked around the downed ogres toward the side door. As they did so, Sage flicked his hands down at his sides, water dribbling to the floor from the pool. He grunted in distaste.

“Cover your eyes!” Noff yipped, and an intense sunburst flashed, instantly drying all of their clothing and hair. “Heh. Can your fancy spells do that?”

Sage shook his head, and Maine uttered her thanks. “I knew there was a reason I let you stick around as a bodyguard…”

They stepped through the door, closing it quickly behind them to hold back as much of the water as possible, then melded in with the crowd in the auction hall as the latest item received bids. The payment room must have been magically soundproof.

Maine led them through the banquet hall’s entrance and down the stone corridors that would lead them to the storeroom for all the auction goods. She was betting that the attendants had promptly returned the butterfly fairies there for safekeeping.

“No sign of Noolie back there,” she muttered as she rounded a passageway.

Sage nodded. “We might make it out of here in one piece after all.”

“Whatchya talkin’ ’bout?” Noff yipped. “We make a good team! Hey Sage, you wanna join Maine and me in our new business venture?”

They squeezed between several female staff members chatting in the hallway. “Business venture?” Sage asked.

Maine whispered in his ear, “Just go with it.”

“Yeah,” Noff continued. “Maine’s the detective. I’m the bodyguard. You could provide all the food. I’m talkin’ pies every day!” A staff member sweeping the floor with a broom up ahead glanced at them.

Still no sign of Noolie. That was good.

Half a minute later, they came to the hallway that led to the storeroom. A single guard stood outside, but it was a burly male guard instead of the female one from before.

Sage tugged on his collar. “I hope you don’t expect me to charm him. I have an orc woman out in the auction hall who’s already been charmed way too much.”

Maine thought about her options. Speed was of the essence. “Nah. You don’t have to try to charm him. I need you to walk up to him and ask a question.”

“What kind of—” he asked, but she’d already walked off to the side. After straightening his shirt and pants, Sage stepped up to the guard standing in front of the door.

“Yes?”

“Um, I wanted to know if—”

Maine sneaked up from the side, chopping the guard lightly on the side of the neck. He sagged, and Maine caught him under the arms and eased him back into the storeroom.

She threw her gaze over the shelves of the large octagonal room. Surely the butterfly cages were back here…

“Hurry!”

The voice was high-pitched and tinny, and Maine immediately recognized it as Dimple Cheeks the butterfly fairy. She spotted the six butterfly cages along the wall and rushed up to them.

Maine quickly inspected the locks on the cages. Once she touched them, a magic alarm would sound. Then things were going to get dicey.

Noff yipped. “Um, guys, how we gonna get all six of these cages out of here?”

Maine didn’t know. She was trying to figure out how many she could fit in her pockets when Sage yelled for her attention on the other side of the storeroom. He was pointing at a brown leather pouch that looked like you might keep marbles in it.

“We can use this,” he said.

Maine scoffed. “For what, five of them?”

Sage shook his head. “No. This is a Bag of Holding. It looks small, but it can hold a lot. It’s breathable so living creatures can fit inside.”

She’d have to take his word. Maine turned to the fairies. “You all okay with that?”

They nodded vigorously.

“Anything to get us out of this place,” said Sparkle Legs the male butterfly fairy.

“Can I throw Noff in there too?” Maine asked.

“Watch it, woman. I’m an asset to this operation.”

“We’ve got to be quick,” Sage said. “The moment I lift this Bag of Holding, the invisible magic sensor alarms are going to go off, and we’re going to have more than six ogres chasing after us back to the Nexus.”

Maine drew a deep breath. “I know. Let’s do it.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Maine watched as Sage picked up the Bag of Holding and tossed it to her. A loud screeching sound filled the air. Maine barely managed to catch the bag. She tore open the drawstring and opened the ornate butterfly cages with a pinch of her thumb and forefinger against the metal bars. A new alarm shrilled each time she touched a cage. The fairies wasted no time in spilling out of the six cages and into the leather bag. After the last one had hopped inside, she cinched the drawstring closed and stuffed it in her purse. Then she drew the pellet-sized devices from the three cages that she’d planted under the poop trays back at Tony’s Pet Shop. They were smokescreen pellets and might come in handy. She stuffed them in her purse along with the vials of potion and poison.

She was about to turn toward the store room’s door when she heard a sneering voice.

“I thought I smelled…chihuahua.” Three cat-gnomes stood in the doorway, their sagging robes concealing most of their furry girth and whiskered jowls.

Noff bared his teeth and growled.

“What the hell?” Maine said. “What are you three doing here?” She could tell that these were the same three that had been at Maki-Mae’s. One of them had clawed Noff’s nose.

The three cat-gnomes steepled their paws together. Static electricity sparked around their hands.

“We are security consultants to the magical world,” one of them said.

“Very capable,” said another.

Eyeing them carefully, Maine wondered what kind of spell they might try to use. Would they shoot electricity bolts at them? “Why were you at Maki-Mae’s?” she asked.

“Curious, this one,” said the lead cat-gnome. “We required legal advice for an entry and exit toll business.” The cat-gnome didn’t expand further.

Noff leapt out in front of Maine so he was directly in front of the cat-gnomes. “I’ll show you legal advice!” Wiggling his butt, he blasted off, striking one of the cat-gnomes in the face and cartwheeling back to all fours. “Ya like that?”

The cat-gnome leader licked his feline lips. “We’ve got a bone to pick with you, dire wolf.”

All three entered the room and thrust out their furry clawed hands. Lightning blasted out, and Noff used his sunburst, causing the bolts to go astray.

Noff yipped at Maine and Sage. “You two get out of here. Get those fairies topside. I’ll handle these three bullies.”

“What? No—” Maine managed as a lightning bolt snaked toward her.

Sage threw up his hands, and a mostly invisible shield surrounded her, absorbing the lightning magic. He had a similar shield around him, and he was urging her toward the door. “We’ve got to go.”

“I’m not leaving my bodyguard…”

She winced as another lightning bolt struck her shield. It faltered but held.

“One more attack and your shield is done for,” Sage called. “You’re strong, but magic attacks aren’t like physical attacks. Trolls do have a weakness to magic, you know.”

Seriously? Thanks, Dad, she silently groused.

Sage threw up a deflective spell that turned the next lightning bolt attack back at the cat-gnome who’d cast it. The creature easily deflected it again, and the attack blasted a hole through the ceiling.

“Get goin’!” Noff yelled, blasting forth and striking another cat-gnome, staggering it. “I’ll handle these ugly furballs. I’m faster than ya. Also got some tricks up my sleeve.”

“But you don’t have sleeves,” Maine said.

“Just go!”

Sage rushed up behind her and helped her toward the door.

“I’ll see ya again!” Noff called. Then his voice faded as they darted down the hallways. Maine felt like she’d lost a friend.

* * *

“You sure this is the way?” Sage asked as he glanced at the sides of the stone corridor.

“Yeah,” Maine said. “I think.” She continued down the stone hall until she came to a tall vertical mirror. She paused to catch her bearings, then proceeded onward, eventually coming to a fork.

“Really? I sure don’t remember there being any branches on the way down here. Or mirrors, for that matter.”

She sensed tension growing in his voice. Maybe she had gotten them a bit mixed up, but she could find the way out.

She held up her palm and tried to bring up the tracker map, but the magic hologram wouldn’t form. “Why isn’t it…”

Sage cursed under his breath. “Magic dampeners—we’re in a magic maze. We’re lost.”

Squinting down one of the forks, Maine thought she saw the start of some stone steps leading upward. Definitely not the way they had come, but maybe a higher vantage point could help them find the way out.

“Follow me.” She took off down the new stone corridor. She was a bit surprised she could no longer hear any more footsteps behind them. After leaving Noff in the storeroom, a retinue of guards had given chase, but they’d soon lost them. Maybe Sage was right, and they’d entered some kind of magic maze, and there was no longer any need for the guards to pursue them…

She shook off the thought while ahead of them, the stone steps grew closer.

“What are you doing?” Sage called as she started up them.

“Finding out where the hell we are. You got a better idea?”

“Ugh. I don’t like going off-script like this. We’re in serious trouble if we’re in some sort of magic maze.”

He followed her all the same, and that was some comfort. She kept ascending the stairs, seeing a bend up ahead. She followed the bend, taking yet another flight of stone steps up to yet another bend. Sage huffed behind her as he tried to keep up.

“How much farther can the roof be?” she called over her shoulder.

Sage didn’t say anything, trying to conserve his breath and energy. After taking three more bends in the stairwell and seeing no end in sight, she stopped and steadied Sage, who looked about to keel over he was wobbling so much.

“We should be to the roof by now. What the hell is going on?”

“Magic…maze.” It took a few moments, but Sage caught his breath and cast a spell at the walls to either side of them. The solid stone melted away, revealing a black void surrounding four flights of steps that connected like a snake eating its tail. They were running in circles—or rather, squares, like in one of M.C. Escher’s mind-twisting designs.

She groaned. “If you tell me that you said so, I’m going to…”

She was interrupted by her phone ringing from her purse. “You’re telling me that this magic maze doesn’t have magic map service, but it has cell service?”

Sage chuckled. “You think 5G coverage is good? The Beneath has 7G.”

Her expression dropped even further when she saw who was calling. Jason. It was a video call on top of it.

She didn’t want to talk to the guy, but in her trangry state, her clumsy fingers accidentally hit accept, and Jason’s worried face appeared on the phone screen.

Shit.

“Maine! Are you okay? I haven’t heard from you in so long.”

“Look, Jason. I’m not going to lie. This is not a good time.”

“We need to talk.”

Maine growled. This guy needed to go. “You know, at first, I thought it was thoughtful, you trying to contact me. It’s turned into more than a little creepy.”

“Creepy? I didn’t mean to…”

“I’m dealing with a lot. My father died. Now I’m stuck in a magic maze and Noff is probably fighting for his life and all for nothing if we don’t escape.”

“That’s terrible!” Jason cried.

“Who the hell is this guy?” Sage stepped up beside Maine for a better look at her phone’s screen.

There was a worried quiver to Jason’s voice. “Maine, who’s your friend?”

They needed to get out of here. She needed to focus. To do that, she needed to be done with Jason. Whatever his deal was, the time for letting him down easy had passed. “Look, I know you didn’t get my letter yet, but you and I are not in a relationship. End of story.”

“What…what are you saying?”

Weakness: redheads. Boobs of all shapes and sizes. An unhealthy infatuation—

“I’m saying I don’t want you to call me ever again,” she cried out, cutting off the Mantle again. “You try to, and I’ll block your number.”

Jason’s face tightened in slowly comprehending anger. “Is it because of him? Maine, is that your new boyfriend?”

Sage coughed, nearly choking on a breath.

Footsteps echoed from somewhere around them. Behind them?

They needed to find a way out—Maine decided to go with Jason’s suggestion. “Yes. Sage and I are a thing. A couple. We’re so happy together.”

Sage cleared his throat. “I don’t know if I’d say that…”

Maine shushed him with a finger to his lips.

“What?” Jason said. “I don’t believe it. You think he’s hot?”

“Hey now.” Sage inched toward the phone screen.

“Yes,” Maine said.

“I don’t believe it. Prove it.”

“Prove it?” The sounds of footsteps were growing even closer although she still couldn’t see their source. She was about to end the video call when the Mantle’s voice spoke.

The Mantle sighed, and in a forceful and somewhat annoyed tone, said: Weakness: redheads. Boobs of all shapes and sizes. An unhealthy infatuation with you due to the love spell cast upon him. Easy to kill, but why kill him when he can be your slave?

Love spell? On Jason? What the hell?

“Yeah. Prove it to me,” Jason said. “Kiss him, and I promise I’ll stop bothering you. You’ll never hear from me again.”

That seemed really extreme and kind of crazy, but it sounded like it would solve one of her big problems. Before Sage could react, she turned and grabbed the back of his head with one hand, tugging his lips to her mouth. He made a mumbling sound as she kissed him. Then she released his hair and turned back to the phone.

“That real enough?”

Jason blinked, stunned. “I really did care about you. Goodbye, Maine.” The call ended.

“Um,” Sage said, “are we going to talk about what happened?”

“No time. How do we get out of this maze?”

“I don’t know.”

The footsteps had grown so loud now she thought her eardrums might burst. She didn’t know where they were coming from since they were on a looping trap staircase, but she didn’t want to find out.

With the walls to either side of them revealed as magic nothingness, there was one way she thought that might work.

It might also kill them.

Grabbing Sage’s arm, she turned to face the black expanse off to the side and jumped.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

The reality of the staircase maze shattered as if made of a thousand glass pieces.

The next thing Maine knew, she was picking herself up from the stone floor. As she bent to help Sage up, she noticed a tall vertical mirror behind them—just like the mirror they’d passed on the way to the fork. The mirror’s surface rippled as if made of water.

Had they been inside the mirror? Was that where the maze world was?

As she pondered it, a set of hands shot out from the mirror, grasping at them. Fingers groped at Sage’s shirt, and Maine pulled him back a step.

“Holy crap,” Sage gasped. “Demon hands!”

Maine tugged him after her down the stone corridor before them. More vertical mirrors lined the passageway, placed at intervals on each side. Behind them came the frantic footfalls of heavy steps.

Sage breathed hard. “They must have grabbed us before we saw that fork in the corridor and trapped us in that looping stairwell. They’re trying to take us back there.”

“Stay away from the mirrors, check,” Maine said as she led the way, skirting to the other side of the hallway as a mirror approached.

Grasping hands probed for them, and they shot past them, doing the same for the next few mirrors.

“I can’t keep running,” Sage panted, pausing with his palms to his knees as he took a quick breather.

She tugged him back up. The footsteps were gaining, but she still didn’t see the source of them. Wait a minute…

“What if this is another trap? A maze inside a maze.”

“Like Inception?” Sage again let his palms fall to the tops of his knees. “It’s possible. But I’m past my anti-illusion spell limit for the day.”

The footsteps grew louder. Still nothing. Something was off here.

“Is there another way to break the illusion, if this is one?”

“I don’t know…maybe if you knew what was causing the illusion. What are you doing?”

Maine stepped up to one of the vertical mirrors, standing just out of reach of the grasping hands. “Thinking outside the box.”

One of the hands shot out at her, and she aimed her fist down at it. Bones cracked as the hand and wrist started to retreat into the rippling glass behind it. She reached for it but was too slow to grab it. It disappeared, and the rippling glass turned solid.

She kicked the mirror, and it shattered to the stone floor.

Now the approaching footsteps were so loud that it was comical. This was some kind of maze or trap world, and they were still in it.

Shattering the mirror didn’t do anything so she ran back the way they’d come. The hands in the other mirrors in the hallway reached out for her. Stepping confidently up to the next mirror, she punched the arm. After a crunch, it retreated, and this time she was quick enough to grab it.

It pulled against her efforts like a fish resisting a hook, but she had troll blood in her, and it was no match. She pulled the pain-shriveled arm out through the glass, revealing next an elbow and a shoulder. It gave another bout of hard resistance, and she set her feet and tore the arm from the mirror.

Except it wasn’t only an arm. The arm connected to a loinclothed demon. The demon had no eyes and about twenty sets of hands protruding from its back. All of the arms from the other mirrors in the hall disappeared.

So that meant they all belonged to this ugly guy.

“Do I break the illusion if I beat you?” She eyed the demon’s two broken limbs among the rest of its arms. She was too pumped up on adrenaline to be afraid.

“Maine, it’s too dangerous,” Sage called from behind her.

She focused on the demon hissing in front of her, crouching, preparing to leap at her.

Weakness: fire.

She shot a glance over her shoulder. “Have you reached your fireball spell quota yet today?”

“Duck!” Sage yelled as the twenty-armed demon lunged for her, its many hands reaching for her.

Maine rolled out of the way at the same time Sage let loose a massive, whooshing fireball that passed over her like a roiling mini-sun.

It impacted the demon’s skin, flaring up white-hot. The demon gave an awful screeching hiss, its arms flailing about.

“Good job.” Maine picked herself up and was brushing the dust off her hands and legs when she noticed the demon crouching again and angling its flaming body toward her.

It was about to charge.

Spinning on her heels, she sprinted toward Sage. “Run!”

He tried to keep up with her as they barreled down the stone corridor. “I’m too…exhausted…”

“Want me to carry you like a baby again?”

Swallowing, he picked up his pace. Maine smiled, pulling ahead again and continuing down the stone hallway that looked like it never ended.

Heat licked at her backside, and she knew if they didn’t outpace this thing, they were going to be human toast.

She had more energy left, but Sage slowed beside her. A few moments later, he gasped, “Okay, pride be damned, carry me!”

With a grin, she picked him up and tucked her head, putting on one last speed boost as the flaming, dying demon closed the distance to her.

It was dying, right?

She stole a glance backward.

Yes. Almost dead. Keep running, the Mantle said calmly.

She did.

Prepare for detonation…

Detonation? What did the Mantle mean by that—

With great force, the flaming demon behind her exploded, throwing her forward onto her chest, Sage spilling from her arms. A couple of flailing demon arms smacked into her as they rained down upon the corridor floor like dead fish.

Then the corridor blinked out of existence and she was outside. Outside, as in lying facedown in the dirt path leading from the auction house to the golden Nexus and the One-Way door. The Fire Garden glowed warm and exquisitely to the side for as far as the eye could see.

“What the hell is this now…” she muttered. Reality? Or another magic maze? She pinched her arm. It hurt. This sure felt real. She hoped it was.

After climbing to her feet, she changed her mind.

One half of Noolie stood a few yards in front of her, inching toward her in that creepy wormy motion of his. Sage got to his feet a moment later, raising his hands to cast a spell, only to collapse forward from a spell that had struck him in the back.

Maine spun. Noolie’s other half stood a few yards behind her, his hand still glowing from his last spell.

“Did you kill him?” Maine demanded, wide-eyed.

Noolie gave a harsh hollow laugh. “Only a sleep spell. A wizard of his caliber could be useful to me. Maybe I’ll trick him into servitude.”

Maine growled and slowly backed up so she could see both of Noolie’s halves. Each side of him inched closer to her, his silver and gold amulets jangling against his half-necks and reflecting the flames of the Fire Garden that they were slowly forcing her back against.

“Isn’t it a beautiful sight to behold?” he said. “The Fire Garden.”

Maine had to admit it was pretty badass-looking.

“You know, there are strict penalties in the Beneath for those who break the law.”

“Oh? Auctioning off exotic living beings like butterfly fairies isn’t breaking the law?”

Both of Noolie’s half-heads shook. “The laws behind the Veil are much different than those in the human world. Some of them, at least. Stealing is punishable by death. You stole from the Beneath.”

“I stole?” Maine had to laugh to keep herself from hulking out and making some dumb mistake. Reaching inside her purse, she lifted the leather Bag of Holding containing the butterfly fairies she’d liberated from the auction house. “You mean these?”

He nodded.

“So if I give them back to you, there won’t be any ‘punishment’ for me?”

Both of his half-heads made tsk-tsk sounds. “Oh, halfling child, there will be great punishment for what you have done today. Trespassing at a private event, destruction of property, assault and battery of security guards, theft… You’re never making it out of this place alive.”

She considered her options—or lack thereof.

Noolie’s impassive half continued, “Do you know that those condemned to death in the Beneath have only one method of execution?”

“Gee, sure didn’t.”

“It is a forced march through the Fire Garden.”

“Let me guess, it doesn’t last long?” she said sarcastically.

“Oh, quite the contrary. The flames burn slowly, licking up your entire body, starting at the heels and moving up slowly, ever so slowly, until they encase your body in a thin sheen of living flames. It eats you, feasts on your body and mind and soul for hours upon hours. That’s why crime is so low in the Beneath.”

She scoffed. “Explains why you live above with humans then.”

He laughed coldly. “Your thirst for justice. You’re just like your father. A big pain in the ass. Like your father, you will die.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

“Tell me why you killed my father.”

Noolie’s two eyes, separated by some two feet now, regarded her curiously. The two dull-armored knights who had been guarding the One-Way door over by the Nexus had taken position on either side of Noolie. “What does it matter?”

Maine glanced to the sides as the two knights drew their swords, raising magically summoned shields in their other hands. She didn’t know if she had the strength left to contend with them, let alone Noolie’s powerful magic. The Fire Garden at her back trapped her. Still, she’d sure as hell go down swinging. “Consider it a condemned girl’s last words.”

He regarded this request for some time. Then his impassive half gave a mocking bow. “Are you sure you can handle it?”

“I want to know. I need to know.”

Noolie raised one hand in a grand gesture. “Very well. It should be no surprise that the Mantle your father wore—that you now wear—grants the wearer considerable power.”

“You’re a collector of such things? Is that it?”

Noolie hedged. “As I told you before, I never would have considered it had he not come to me seeking my help locating it. All because he didn’t want you to inherit it. I don’t blame him. The way you cling to your human aspect. It’s pathetic and weak.”

“I don’t understand,” Maine said. “I get that if I died, the Mantle would be up for grabs. If my father was looking for an item that would break the Mantle’s inheritance to me, why did you kill him?”

“Because no such item exists.”

The statement hit her like a sledgehammer to the chest. “The transferal denial, it’s not real?”

Noolie laughed. “If it were, I would know. It is my business to know such things. Your father was chasing a ghost.”

“Then why’d you kill him?”

Noolie fidgeted irritably. “I didn’t intend to. Not at first. But I had to make some “inquiries” in the Beneath to sate Valkious’ curiosity. Inquiries that drew the wrong kinds of attention. It was either they kill your father and take the Mantle. Or me.”

“So you killed him and sent assassins after me?”

He laughed again. “It’s too late to deny it. Yes. How faulty did those assassins turn out to be? How you, a halfling girl without the knowledge of how to properly use magic killed them—or persuaded them to stop hunting you—astounds me.”

“You shouldn’t underestimate me.”

“You should never have underestimated me.” When she gave him a confused look, he continued, “Coming after me? In the Beneath, where it is fully within a magical being’s rights to defend themselves with magic with no consequence…”

“I didn’t know that,” Maine admitted.

“How did you find out about the butterfly fairies?”

Maine mentally calculated the number of steps it would take her to reach the glowing Nexus in her periphery. Even if she could get past the knight guarding that way, Noolie would have a free shot at her back with his magic spells. She’d never make it. “I saw Tony making a butterfly cage for you.”

Noolie glared at her. “That fool told you about them?”

“Not exactly. I happened to see his artistry and saw the same type of skill in the cage Al was covering up when I found him in that room in your mansion.”

“When you were ‘looking for the bathroom?’”

She smirked. “It worked, didn’t it? My dad might be dead, but he still taught me a few things about sleuthing from beyond the grave. I did my research…by the way, what exactly is in the potions you supply to Tony for his mom?”

Noolie barked out a hollow laugh. “The pathetic fool. His mother isn’t sick. The potions I provide to him only serve to prolong her weakened state. So he continues to be of use to me.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Be of use?”

“I don’t only trade in butterfly fairies. He is skilled at making cages of all sizes and shapes. All I have to do is enchant them properly so they become an impenetrable magic prison for whatever creature is inside.”

As he spoke, Maine focused on Noolie to get his weakness.

Weakness: …cannot discern…powerful magical interference…

Damn him and his magic. “I’m curious.” She changed the subject. “How are you able to thwart the Mantle’s abilities?”

“Insolent girl. Because I too have done my research. I know all about the demon that created it. I know how not to have my weaknesses read. I know it all. Just like I knew how to kill your father without him seeing me while I did it so the Mantle wouldn’t know it was me—”

“Wait, you were the one who killed my father?”

“Valkious was too…skilled for me to entrust his death to an assassin. I should have done the same to you.”

Red started to creep into her vision, and she realized she’d clenched her fists. For a moment she thought it was rage growing in her from hearing Noolie’s words. Her grumbling stomach suggested she was getting hungry.

Trangry, actually.

Good, she could use that. She only needed to buy a little more time for it to grow. “How did you do it? I know he died in a car. Did you use your limo? A rich guy like you, you’ve got to have a limo.” She recalled the limo that had pulled off after the second assassination attempt on her.

“Very good. You’ll never guess how I lured him inside.”

“How?”

“I sent him an anonymous text that said his daughter was being held hostage at an offsite location and that the limo would take him to her.”

Maine stiffened.

“So in a sense, you killed your father.”

“You monster. I wasn’t the one who poisoned him!” Her strength continued to build inside her.

“You should have seen the look on his face from behind the limo’s tinted divider window. First, my poison gas knocks its victim out, then it chokes them, constricting their throat muscles as they asphyxiate. Your father, however, retained his consciousness for longer than most. He felt the gas choking him. Probably a rather painful experience…”

Now Maine’s vision was tunneling, and she had eyes only for Noolie’s two halves. “Your poison gas?” she asked.

“You think I would trust any type of poison gas? I knew mine would work—it’s created from the miasma of a NasNas.”

She blinked, refocusing on Noolie as her vision continued to narrow. “You mean your stench?”

“To put it bluntly, yes.”

“You’re a disgusting murderer.”

“I should have murdered you too. I tried. That night at the Sacred Sourdough. I had every doorway and exit out of that place magically sealed. Except for the One-Way. Although the gas should have knocked you out and killed you.”

“I used magic to breathe air from the magic sourdough.”

He shook his two half-heads. “To do something like that without any formal magic training is quite impressive. It won’t save you now, though.”

She focused on him again.

Weakness: …cannot discern…powerful magical interference…

Damn it! How was he blocking the Mantle’s ability? If she knew his weakness, maybe she’d stand a chance against him.

She blinked her rage away temporarily again. “The love spell on Jason. Did you cast it so I wouldn’t come back to Rainwater?”

Confusion etched both halves of Noolie’s face. “I have no idea what you are talking about. Now, enough chatting. You’ve cost me enough time and trouble. It’s a shame your father wasn’t able to UnMyth you.”

UnMyth me?

Without another word, Noolie raised his hands, and an eerie black ball of magic energy surrounded each of them. He joined both dark orbs together, and it grew into a single larger ball.

Now it was time to run!

Maine tore off to the side toward the Nexus. The knight blocking her path set his feet and drew back his sword, raising his shiny magic shield in his other hand. Before she reached him, she glanced over her shoulder. With a mismatched cry, Noolie sent the giant orb of black energy toward her. It screamed as it whooshed incrementally forward as if it were tearing a hole in the air. At the slow rate it was going, she’d be able to outrun it…

“You can run,” Noolie called, “but it will find you.”

Shit. A heat-seeking magic black hole?

She was to the knight now. He swung at her, but she ducked out of range. Then, using a burst of strength, she drove forward, leading with a fist. The knight raised his magic shield, deflecting her blow, and kicked out at her, striking her in the waist. She spun to the grass, her face inches away from the smoldering petals of the Fire Garden. The knight was fast, much faster than she would’ve thought possible.

The knight’s blade whooshed as it cut down at her, but she rolled to the side, springing up. She tried to jump on his back. He bashed her backward with his magic shield, knocking the wind out of her as he pulled his sword free from the dirt.

As she lay on her back, she caught sight of Noolie’s magic black hole ball. It was halfway to her, still screaming along at a snail’s pace but its arc had corrected to line up with her new position. If it hit her, she’d be a goner for sure.

Realizing she’d dropped her leather purse during the fight, she picked it up and slung it over her shoulder so it wouldn’t fall again. She rolled to the side again as the sword came down at her but this time she didn’t try to attack. The second knight approached from her backside, swinging at her. She darted between the two of them, and a sword rang off a shield.

Shield.

That was it.

The black hole energy ball wasn’t far away now. She had to act.

She stepped back and threw herself between the two knights again. She was just quick enough to evade a blow that landed on the other’s shield. As the knight recoiled back a step from the strike, Maine spun unpredictably and wrenched the magic shield from the knight’s gauntleted hand.

“Thief!” the knight cried as the other brought its sword down at her. She raised the magic shield, surprisingly lightweight and perfectly balanced in her grip, and deflected the blow. It took all of her strength and focus for the hit not to knock her backward to the ground.

Then Noolie’s black energy ball was on her, coming up from the side.

Hoping it would work, she repositioned the magic shield, wincing as it struck.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Instead of killing her, Noolie’s black hole deflected off the magic shield, striking one of the knights in the shoulder. The knight let out a pained, reverberating cry as his armor dissolved as if dunked in acid.

The other knight had the misfortune of standing too close to him. He tried to get his magic shield around in time, but he too was already in the process of dissolving. He disappeared with a scream.

Maine didn’t have time to marvel. Figuring that Sage would be okay if she left him here, she broke into as fast a run as she could manage toward the Nexus and the now unguarded One-Way door. Behind her, Noolie screamed.

She caught a glimpse of bright light in her peripheral vision and held her shield behind her as she ran. The Nexus was getting closer. She could do this. She could make it.

Noolie’s bright magic projectile struck her shield, sending her flying forward to the ground. Clambering to her hands and knees, she clawed forward. Only five yards away now.

She headed toward the One-Way door. If she took the Nexus back to Noolie’s stable, she’d only have to face off against a third knight, plus Noolie would be able to follow her and finish her off. If she took the One-Way, she could go anywhere she wanted, and Noolie wouldn’t be able to follow her.

Pushing to her feet, she reached the One-Way door. It looked odd standing upright in a field of grass with no doorframe. She threw open the door and let herself fall inside.

She was about to say, “My apartment in New York,” when something slammed into her hard from behind, sending her sprawling headfirst into the swirling vortex. At first, she thought it had been another magic projectile. Then she saw both sneering halves of Noolie floating above her, and the vortex arrayed impressively behind him. He’d used magic to throw himself forward at her, tackling her through the doorway.

“My mansion,” he said coldly.

Suddenly Maine felt her body blink out of existence. Then she was on the floor of the foyer of Noolie’s mansion.

She groaned as she sucked in a breath. Then she saw Noolie’s two halves bent over near the front door. He was catching his breath too.

She considered maneuvering up to him and punching him, but he raised one hand and electricity flickered around it. She barely got her magic shield up in time, deflecting Noolie’s lightning bolt upward, shearing a glass chandelier from the ceiling. It rained down in a blast of glass fragments.

She seized the distraction and ran haphazardly down the hallway. “Mantle, you have any more strength left in you?”

My energy stores are quite low. You have only survived this long because of what I have already given you. Now you must trust in your abilities. And the items in your purse…

Her purse. Of course. In all the craziness of the Beneath, Maine had forgotten about all the glass vials she’d taken with her in case she needed them. One blue health potion, two yellow poisons, and one green vial—she didn’t know if that one was a potion or a poison. She also had the smokescreen pellets she’d taken from the butterfly cages.

Hopefully, they were enough.

“Come back here,” Noolie shouted from behind her.

Breathing hard, she braced one palm against the wall to steady herself before pressing on. Noolie wasn’t far behind her, his two halves hovering off the floor and gliding toward her.

“Seriously?” She pushed off from the wall and soon found herself in Noolie’s sitting room full of plush couches and bookshelves. Hearing the crackle of magical energy behind her, she spun in the middle of the room and raised the magic shield. Twin snakes of lightning shot from Noolie’s hands and struck the shield.

It sent Maine flying backward, tripping and falling onto a couch. The two lightning bursts dispersed then, after they each shot off to the sides, searing through couches and across the bookcases lining the walls. The smell of singed books filled the room.

Noolie growled.

Maine pushed off with her feet against the floor, knocking the couch back. She rolled off it as another lightning blast decimated the sofa. With the magic shield held behind her, she ran toward the back of the sitting room where she found a back exit leading out into another hallway.

“Hope you’ve got home insurance,” she called out behind her. This would almost be fun had her life not been on the line. Also, had she not been almost dead tired.

Reaching into her purse, she found the magic smokescreen pellets. She wasted no time in throwing them against the floor like she’d read how to do in her father’s computer files. Thick choking smoke exploded into the air, and she continued onward, coming to a set of stairs.

“You can’t run forever!” Noolie cried.

The mansion was quite large, and Maine had seen only a small part of it on her tour the other day. There was one place she thought she remembered how to get to. She took the stairs as fast as she could. If she was lucky, Noolie might think she ran straight instead of up the stairs, which would buy her a little more time to think of a way to survive this encounter.

She was breathless by the time she reached the storeroom near the ballroom balcony, where she’d seen Al covering the birdcage. She opened the door, slipped inside, and closed it behind her. Leaning up against the wall, she let herself fall to the floor.

It was completely dark in there. She drew a deep breath and grabbed her phone from her pocket. She turned on the flashlight function so she could see. Then she unshouldered the leather purse and clutched it on her lap. She dug inside it. Upon finding the blue vial of health potion, she unstoppered it and threw it back.

As she waited for the healing potion to take effect, she closed her eyes and thought about Sage and Noff. She’d rather have a last stand against Noolie with both of them by her side. Hopefully, they were okay.

New strength and healing trickled through her, giving her enough energy to sustain her through a showdown. She had to make it count. There was no running from this fight. As with the assassins, she had to deal with Noolie.

Permanently.

How could she defeat a super-powerful NasNas wizard?

She dug through the purse and found the two yellow poison vials and the green vial of unknown substance. She slipped them into her pockets so she could access them quicker.

“Why can’t I read his weaknesses?” she muttered to herself. That was the key to beating Noolie—knowing what his kryptonite was.

Disrupt the ability, the Mantle suggested.

“Disrupt his protection spell?” she whispered.

Perhaps it is not a spell.

What did the Mantle mean by that?

She didn’t have much time to think about it.

“I know you’re in there,” Noolie called from outside the door.

Shit.

She turned off her phone flashlight and stood against a side wall, readying a yellow poison vial.

Silence settled upon the darkness. Maybe Noolie had been bluffing…

The storeroom door blasted inward with a crack of lightning and light poured inside. Noolie’s two halves inched through, a terrible grin on both half-mouths, his silver and gold amulets jangling.

Maine tossed the yellow vial as hard as she could. It shattered upon one of his half-chests, yellow liquid splattering upon his torso and neck.

Noolie half-hissed and bent over, acrid fumes wafting up from his seared chest and neck.

Acid? Maine thought. The yellow poison is acid?

The amulets hanging from the wounded Noolie dropped to the floor, their chains melted by the acid.

Weakness: …the magical interference has lessened…still cannot discern though…

It all clicked in Maine’s mind then. Noolie wasn’t casting a spell to protect him from the Mantle’s abilities—his amulets protected him. Now that she’d destroyed half of the amulets, all she had to do was do the same to the other half.

The acid-burned Noolie half rose to its full height. He chuckled. “You think some puny acid is going to hurt me? Really hurt me?” With a wave, the burns on his chest and neck dissipated. “Time to stop messing around.”

Maine grabbed her second and final yellow poison vial and prepared to throw it but pulled up short as Noolie’s two halves quivered and glowed with a faint red outline. Then the two halves sucked toward each other, the vertical line down his chest sewing shut.

“What the hell?” Maine muttered.

Noolie now stood before her, whole. And he wasn’t done. He uttered some words, and his features contorted and grew. She watched, horrified as his body grew taller, his shoulders and sides expanding with rows of newly formed muscle.

This all took place within a matter of seconds. When he had finished growing to a towering size, he leaned forward and opened his mouth, his long muscular arms held out at his side. Claws tipped his fingers. Sharp teeth lined his mouth. Saliva spattered to the floor.

His voice was a raspy hiss. “Guess what time it is?”

Maine had no idea what he expected her to say.

He grinned as a long reptilian tongue licked his lips. “Dinner time.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Noolie trundled toward her, sweeping his trunk-like arms at her. Hurdling them, she rounded him and shot through the doorway. He spun, his arms tearing through the opening. He knocked down the wall as he rampaged after her into the hall.

“You’re not the only one who gets angry when they are hungry,” he bellowed, his voice no longer sounding hollow.

Maine turned to go back toward the steps, but Noolie shot a lightning bolt at the way and obliterated the corridor. She spun and bolted down the hallway toward the ballroom balcony.

“A most perfect arena for a troll and a NasNas,” Noolie bellowed behind her.

How was she going to get down to ground level? She’d reached the balcony when a blast of magic shoved her forward, and she crashed through the balcony railing.

Is this how I’m going to die? she thought.

Then the Mantle’s tailcoats billowed beneath her, breaking her fall, and she rolled to the side, looking up in a crouch as Giant Noolie tore through the remnants of the railing. He came to a hard landing upon the ballroom floor, unfazed from the high drop.

Thick veins ran across his heavily muscled body. He was huge, like the Hulk on steroids. Even though his face had stitched together, one half of his mouth was in a perpetual grin. The other half remained impassive.

“I think now would be the appropriate time for me to make a Two-Face joke. Get it? I’m wearing a cowl like Batman. And you’re the bad guy Two-Face—”

Noolie tucked his head and charged at her. She started running parallel to the oval walls of the ballroom. A few bistro tables lined the walls. Could she maybe use them as a weapon?

The floor shook as he chased her. Shooting a glance over her shoulder, she saw the remaining amulets tight around his enlarged neck. As big and scary as he was now, she had to get them off him to figure out his weakness.

She couldn’t simply turn and throw her last yellow poison at him. It would be suicide.

I can assist in your aim, the Mantle said. First, you must stun him.

Stun him?

Up ahead, a bar station was approaching: a wooden counter with wine bottles and other liquor and glasses. She didn’t stop. She vaulted over the counter.

“What’s wrong?” Noolie called, braking to a stop. “Don’t you want to dance with me?”

Tapping into her troll strength, Maine kicked the counter out of the way and heaved a keg off the floor. She pivoted and hurled it at Noolie.

It looked like it was going to be a good hit. He swatted it out of the air.

“That’s all you’ve got?”

Maine managed to chuck a few wine bottles at him before she realized he was preparing to charge again, and she was stuck in the bar station. She managed to dive sideways as his body crashed through it. Glass shattered, and alcohol leaked out onto the ballroom floor. He picked up the remains of the bar counter and tossed them at her. She dove again, this time toward the ballroom’s wall as the wood crunched to the floor.

How the hell was she supposed to stagger him?

She picked up a bistro table and threw that at him, but he caught it and ground it to toothpicks between both hands.

“I’m still hungry,” he yelled and charged at her again.

Aside from the tables and bar stations, there were no other obstacles in the ballroom except for the wall itself.

Noolie’s heavy footfalls grew louder behind her as she tried to outdistance him, but he was too fast. With attributes like this, why didn’t Noolie always stay whole? Maybe because it took a lot of magic or energy to sustain the combined form? Would he split back into his two halves if she survived long enough?

He rushed up at her and swung a tree trunk-sized arm at her. It clipped her back, and she went tumbling across the ballroom floor. Somehow the glass vials in her pocket hadn’t broken, but she didn’t think they’d survive another tumble like that. She picked herself up and unstoppered her last remaining yellow poison.

“Mantle, help me aim.” She threw it at Noolie’s chest and the remaining amulets hanging around his neck.

The aim was spot on. Unfortunately, Noolie intercepted the vial with a swat. Acid burned his hand and wrist, and he shook off the pain.

There went her last chance.

“You know nothing of magic. I am a magical being of immense might. You are but a halfling.”

“Then why haven’t you killed me yet?”

She gained some self-satisfaction at the flash of anger on Noolie’s face. Some small part of him did fear she could win. She could. She might not have any acid left, but she still had her strength and agility—although they were failing.

Noolie charged again, and Maine headed for the keg Noolie had batted aside earlier. She reached it as Noolie was closing the gap. She stopped and picked it up and slung it against Noolie’s leg as he reached her. With a grunt of annoyance, he fell but caught himself. It was all the time she needed.

Using the last burst of energy she had, she jumped, leaning into her agility, and landed on Noolie’s hulking back. He reached up with both hands, but he was too late. Maine already had the amulets’ chains in her hand. Leaping off his back, she felt the chains give way. The amulets dropped to the ballroom floor.

She landed in a crouch, then twisted her head to focus on him.

Weakness: fears losing his wealth and power. Weakness: fears being seen as weak. Weakness: fears losing his magic.

Maine stared at Noolie as he grasped the implications of his weaknesses now being revealed to her.

“What the hell kind of weaknesses are those?” she muttered, more to the Mantle than to herself. “Fears losing his wealth? How am I supposed to use that against him? Hack his bank account?”

Noolie charged her again, and she barely evaded. Like her, it seemed he was slowly losing his enhanced strength and agility, but he was more than capable of finishing her. Her last bet had been to find his weakness. Now that she knew it, she didn’t know how to use it against him.

“Thanks a lot, Mantle.” She prepared for Noolie’s next charge. As far as she could tell, she was screwed.

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

As she faced off against Noolie about ten feet away, she remembered something he’d said earlier. He’d mentioned that her father had wanted to UnMyth her.

Where else had she seen that word?

Noolie spasmed and with a grunt of surprise, his enlarged body began shrinking down to its normal size. His combine spell must have worn down. In her weakened state, he was more than a match for her.

She still saw fear in his eyes clouded by his rage.

“So you’re afraid of losing your magic?” she said.

He grunted. “You wouldn’t understand. You’d rather leave this world of magic to live with the humans.”

They circled each other on the ballroom floor, Noolie now more or less back to his normal size except his body was still whole. She chuckled. “If you wouldn’t have sent assassins after me, maybe I would have.”

He cursed.

“You think that having magic equates to having power?” she asked.

He lunged for her, and she barely managed to dodge. They were both getting weaker by the minute. “It is true,” he growled.

“Then why haven’t you been able to kill a single halfling girl?”

She didn’t hear his response. She’d remembered where she’d seen the word UnMyth. It was in the secret file she’d found on her father’s computer, the one with the strength-reducing elixir recipe as well as the other recipe for the mysterious green potion.

UnMyth.

Noolie had said that Valkious wanted to UnMyth her. What if UnMything meant turning a magical being into one that wasn’t? That would be even better than a strength-reducing elixir if Valkious were trying to find a way to respect her wishes by getting rid of her super-strength. If that was the case, why hadn’t her father ever mentioned that possible solution to her? Was it because she never gave him a chance to talk to her? Or was it an experimental potion?

Noolie lunged for her again, and this time he grabbed one of her arms. She grasped his in turn, and they fought to push each other to the floor in a wrestling match.

What if all she had to do was take the green potion to turn human?

Or better yet…

Her eyes locked onto Noolie’s.

She felt the Mantle flooding her with one last boost of energy, and she maneuvered in close to Noolie’s chest so she was eye-to-eye with him.

“What are you doing?” he gasped, surprised by her burst of strength.

She headbutted him in the face, broke one hand free from him, and shot it into her pocket.

“What is that?” he growled, wiping blood from his nose.

Maine bit the stopper out and spat it to the side. “Your medicine. Now show me how you eat.”

She shoved the green vial between the NasNas’ fleshy lips. He made a choking sound, and when the green potion had slipped into his mouth, she dropped the vial and clapped her hand over his mouth so he couldn’t spit it out.

Hope this works…

Noolie swallowed. Her energy failed her then, and Noolie whipped his arms around, knocking her to the floor. He stepped up to her, that creepy half-smile plastered to his lips. “I don’t know what concoction you gave me, but it looks like it was a dud.” Lighting formed around one hand. “Nice try, though. Now, to finish this—”

The words caught in his throat. “What…is…happening?”

Casting a hateful glare down at her, he tensed his lightning hand, but no bolt struck her. Instead, the lightning magic dissipated.

“No. This can’t be.” His eyes went mad. “What did you give to me? What was it?”

His body vibrated violently, and she suspected he was about to split into his two halves again.

He collapsed to his knees beside her, his hands clutching his cheeks. “What did you do? What did you do?”

She sat back on her butt, watching him. “I UnMyth-ed you.”

“No. It’s not possible. It’s not—”

“Maybe the transferal device doesn’t exist. But my father found a recipe for UnMything.”

“Valkious!” Noolie shouted to the high ceiling.

“He can’t hear you. You murdered him, remember?”

A particularly forceful shiver ran through Noolie’s body, and Maine winced. Noolie’s grin no longer looked messed up. His entire mouth looked slack and impassive. His eyes, too, no longer had that feral look to them. His skin took on a healthier hue.

Noolie raised his hands before his eyes. He no longer had claws. He had human hands.

Maine watched for a few minutes as Noolie’s body became less NasNas and more human. When the change looked complete, she lowered and lifted the Veil. She saw the same entity both ways: a normal-looking bald guy with features so average he nearly looked like a clone.

He was a human.

Noolie huddled up in the fetal position, sobbing something about losing everything.

It was pathetic.

Congratulations on your victory, Master, the Mantle whispered in her ear. A most devious finishing move. You could not have exploited his weaknesses any more ruthlessly.

She felt a little dirty at the commendation, but Noolie was about as evil as they came. He deserved what he got.

As she looked at his naked curled up body, she shook her head. She went to the bar station and returned with a table cloth. She threw it over him, not knowing what she should do next. Call someone?

She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. The screen had cracked, but it looked functional. And it looked like Noolie had cell service in his mansion.

A thought hit her. What was the wise choice here?

She pulled out Maki-Mae’s business card and called her number.

* * *

When she hung up the phone, her head hurt. She thought the hard part was all over with, beating the bad guy. Now she had to find some evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the premises to call the police. Not exactly legal, but hey, Noolie had hired assassins to go after her and murdered her father. She could bend the law a little.

How twisted was that? she thought. She’d been less than one week away from graduating from the police academy. Then this past week had to come along. Maybe she wasn’t fit to be a policewoman. She could think about that later.

She turned her attention back to the matter at hand. She needed to gather evidence. It was such a huge place. She hadn’t seen half of its rooms. Where was she to look?

That’s when she noticed a figure standing in the shadows of the entryway to the ballroom. A hunched-over figure wearing a suit with one eye centered above his nose.

“Al!” she all but cried, then gathered her bearings. She had a feeling that Al didn’t like Noolie, but she had, after all, rendered his master into a blubbering human mess.

The butler stepped into the ballroom and Maine met him halfway.

“Look,” she said, trying to get in the first word. “About Noolie…”

The cyclops went down on one knee and looked up at her beseechingly. “I owe you.”

“Owe you?” she asked.

Al took her hand and kissed the top of it. “Yes, Master Maine.”

She pulled her hand away. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What the hell is going on here?”

The butler’s eye blinked. “Did I say something offensive?”

“No. But you called me Master Maine.”

“Because you are my new master.”

She tried to think this through. It made no sense. “I get that I’m new to life behind the Veil, but what are you talking about?”

He stood and folded his hands professionally behind his back. “I was indebted to Noolie for an eternity. Now he no longer has any magic to bind me to him. You have freed me.”

An eternity? That didn’t seem legal.

Al continued, “For freeing me, I now owe you one-tenth of what I used to owe Noolie.” Upon seeing her further confused look, he added, “In the human world, this equates to one hundred seventy years. Silly human math and their ten decimal system.”

Now Maine’s head was hurting even more. “Let me get this straight. One-tenth of an eternity is a hundred seventy years?”

He nodded professionally.

“I’ll be dead in seventy years or so. What does that mean?”

“As I said, Master Maine, I am indebted to you for one hundred seventy years.”

“So you’ll still be serving me when I’m dead?”

He gave her a look that said, Of course, silly!

“Well. Okay. This is a lot to take in right now, me having a magical butler. I’m exhausted. All the running for my life and fighting for my life.” Her stomach growled. “And on top of that, I’m…”

“Famished?” Al finished.

“Yeah.”

The cyclops butler grinned. “I would be honored for my first task to you to be to serve you a grand meal.”

“Or a snack to hold me over.”

He nodded. “Anything else?”

“Now that you mention it, do you happen to know where I might find some incriminating evidence against your former master?” She angled her head at human Noolie still balled up on the floor against the wall.

The cyclops’ grin grew even bigger. “Do I ever. How about snacks, then evidence? There is quite a bit of it, hidden and locked up, of course. I have the keys and know the codes.”

Maine sighed. Getting the evidence she needed against Noolie wasn’t going to be that hard after all. “Al, I think this partnership could work.”

His solitary eye twinkled. “I knew it would from the moment I first saw you.”

“Wait, what?” Then she recalled something funny about the butler when she and Sage had first come to Noolie’s mansion. “About time,” she said. “Those were your words when you opened the door for us that day. What did you mean by that?”

He nodded apologetically. “Cyclops are known for being able to see glimpses of their futures. When I first looked at you, I saw that I would one day be your butler, which in turn meant that I would no longer be serving Noolie. I said, ‘About time,’ because I’d had enough of serving Noolie.”

“Was it all the vomit cleaning he made you do?”

“That was only a part of it. Noolie made me swear a magic oath that I could never say or do anything against his wishes. Now I am free again.”

Maine scrunched up her face. “Free to serve again, you mean?” That didn’t seem free at all to her.

The butler only grinned. “Now. Snacks and evidence.”

Maine thought she might never truly understand magical beings.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

Noff showed up before the police did.

Al had taken it upon himself to clothe Noolie in a guest robe. He now stood watch over Noolie in the ballroom, who still looked in no condition to try to flee or fight. The Mantle hadn’t been wrong about his weaknesses. By taking away his magic and turning Noolie human, Maine had thoroughly devastated him even though she thought that a forced march into the Fire Gardens might have been a better punishment for her father’s murder.

“Whoa,” Noff yipped as he listened to her story. “He turned into a giant NasNas Hulk? And you beat him? That’s amazin’!”

She shrugged, studying the burned patches on Noff’s fur. He also had a couple of scratches on his nose, and one ear was hanging lower than usual. Although he tried to hide it, the dire wolf limped. She had to remind herself that she wasn’t the only one who’d survived a tough fight. The cat-gnomes had put it to him.

“Give me the highlights of your fight,” she said after she’d finished her story. “Did you send those cat-gnomes running?”

The tiny dire wolf rolled his shoulders. “Eh, not at first. If I’d been a bit bigger, I could’ve destroyed them a lot quicker. At least I didn’t have to call in my brothers and sisters to help out.”

“How did you defeat the cat-gnomes?”

Noff gave a toothy dog grin. “Agility and repetition, baby! Lots and lots of repetition.”

Maine scratched her chin. “So you kept sun bursting and blasting into them?”

Noff yipped. “That’s right. Pure skill.”

“It looks like they got some good hits on you.” Maine nodded at his burned coat.

“Whatchya talkin’ ’bout? I might’ve gotten hit a few times. Or more,” he added quickly. “What matters is the result, and I left those three furballs lying in heaps upon that storeroom floor.”

“You killed them?”

Noff paused for dramatic effect, then let his furry shoulders sag. “Nah. Tired ’em out. I’m like the Energizer Bunny. I don’t run out of energy.”

“So basically, you ran around them, avoiding their spells until they wore themselves out and ran out of spells to cast at you?”

“Woman, let’s not overanalyze my victory, ’kay?”

“Sounds good to me.” Her victory had pretty much resulted from the same tactics, running from Noolie’s magic attacks and using her strength and agility when she was able to. If she knew how to cast magic spells and shields effectively, maybe she wouldn’t have come so close to death today.

“Your celebration champagne?”

Maine turned toward Al’s voice and footsteps coming toward her. He held one arm behind his back. The other balanced a gold tray with two glass flutes and a glass dog bowl. All held bubbling liquid.

“All right!” Noff cheered, blasting vertically six feet off the ballroom floor.

With practiced ease, Al bent and placed the glass dog bowl of champagne upon the floor, then stood upright to face Maine.

Maine took one of the glasses. “Who’s the other one for?”

“Your friend,” Al said mysteriously.

“My friend?”

Her eyes locked on Sage shuffling toward them, one arm held against his side. “What?” He feigned hurt feelings. “We’re not friends?”

Inwardly feeling elated at his arrival, she scrunched up her face and shrugged. “Do I know you?”

“Unbelievable. I specifically remember you kissing me in the Beneath—”

She shoved a finger against his lips. “That was tactics. I remember you getting hit by one of Noolie’s sleep spells. You were out for most of the fight, thanks.”

“I helped.” He chuckled, grabbing the last of the champagnes. “You’re impossible. You know that?”

“That’s what I said,” Noff yipped, then returned to hungrily lapping up the champagne. “I’m feelin’ good already!”

Maine was wondering if all that alcohol was healthy for a dire wolf of his stature when Al leaned in and whispered in her ear, “I filled the dog bowl with sparkling cider—not champagne. Hopefully that is agreeable?”

She smirked, watching Noff drink. “Totally.”

Sage took a sip of champagne as he passed his gaze around the ruined ballroom, stopping on the dented keg in the middle of the floor and a robe-covered, wrist-bound Noolie sitting against the wall. “I get the feeling this was an epic battle.”

“It was a little touch-and-go there for a while,” Maine admitted. “Maybe you can teach me some magic?”

Noff glanced up. Sparkling cider dripped from his chin. “And make us more pie?”

“I can arrange that,” Sage said.

* * *

Some “magic” Veil police officers arrived shortly. While the Beneath didn’t enforce punishment for magic crimes, in the world above, it was a different story. After the magic police escorted Noolie away, Maki-Mae arrived at the mansion. She shook Al’s hand. “Thanks to your help, Noolie is going away for a very long time, nearly an eternity with the evidence you’ve provided.”

Judging by the way she’d said it, Maki-Mae meant an eternity. Whatever that meant in terms of magical beings.

Among the evidence was damning proof that Noolie had premeditated Valkious’ murder and that he’d hired assassins for Maine. There was also proof of him dealing in the illegal imports and exports of magical beings. He even had a white tiger chained up somewhere on the property.

On top of all that, Sage’s missing Garbage Clam was in Noolie’s basement. Who only knew what he’d been using it to dispose of.

Maki-Mae held a short-sided cardboard box in her hands. All twenty-four butterfly fairies were inside, chattering happily about Noolie’s demise.

“You sure you’re good to take them back to their home?” Maine asked.

Maki nodded, her barb-tipped hair floating out to the sides. “I know a magic home security specialist so there shouldn’t be any more butterfly abductions in Rainwater.”

That sounded good to Maine. It felt good to close out her father’s last unsolved case. It felt really good.

Maki pierced Maine with saddened eyes. “As I said before, you are just like your father. He would be very proud of you.”

Maine could only nod.

Studying her, Maki said, “Is your life’s path any clearer now?”

Maine noticed Sage’s and Noff’s inquisitive glances at her as she thought about how to answer. “I think so,” she said at last.

* * *

The next morning, Maine, Sage, and Noff waited outside Tony’s Pet Shop. When Tony saw them, he started. He looked ready to turn around and run. Instead, he steeled himself and walked up to his shop door.

“Maine…” he said testily.

“Tony.”

“Is…you know…Noolie…”

Maine smiled. “Everything is good now. You won’t have to deal with Noolie anymore.”

Tony’s head drooped. “My sick mother. Her potions…”

“She’s not sick,” Maine said. “Noolie was poisoning her with his ‘potions.’”

Tony looked heartbroken. Noff trotted up to him and rubbed against his ankle. Maine thought it was a generous gesture. She stepped forward and touched his arm. “It’s not your fault. Noolie was using you. He can’t anymore.”

Angling her head back at Sage, she said, “My friend here will take a look at your mother and see what she needs to recover. He’s confident he can get her back to good health. He can make potions too—actual potions.”

For a time, Tony remained silent, trying to take everything in. “Why would you help me like this? After…everything?”

“That was Noolie’s doing. Not yours.”

“Still, I don’t deserve your help. Surely there’s something I can do to help.”

Maine flashed Noff a look. “You run a pet shop. I know a dire wolf—er, I mean a dog. Maybe we can arrange something.”

Tony warmed with the possibility of being able to be of service. “Again, I’m really sorry. This town will be a bad memory for you when you leave in a couple of days, right?”

She glanced up and down the quaint little street. Some nights ago, creepy red-eyed assassins had tried to kill her here. “Eh, this town isn’t all bad.”

Tony chuckled. “Glad to hear. Rainwater has a lot to offer.” He headed inside his shop.

“If you only knew.” Maine turned to head up to her father’s apartment over the pet shop. Noff and Sage remained at the foot of the steps. “You coming up?”

Noff yipped. “I have an appointment with Maki-Mae to discuss my bodyguard business.” He trotted away.

Sage shifted on his feet. “I’d like to come in, but sourdough bread won’t bake itself.”

“Really?” Maine said. “I thought it was magic sourdough.”

“Yeah, but it can’t bake itself.” He huffed. “You know nothing of magic…” He realized she was joking and shook his head with a soft laugh.

“You’re fun to antagonize, you know that?” she said.

Sage nodded. “Before I go, I’ve been thinking. This is a little off-topic, but Valkious’ funeral is a couple of days away now. That’s the deadline for you to find a suitable replacement to take the Mantle, right?”

“Yeah…” Where was he going with this?

Sage scratched behind his head. “A demon might have created the Mantle, but you can still use it for good, as your father did. But if you’re serious about refusing it, I can take it, if only temporarily until I can find a different solution.”

Maine couldn’t suppress her surprise. “That’s…well…” She felt her face flush, and she mentally cursed. “I’ll think about it. Thanks.”

“If you need anything, give me a call.” With a wave, Sage headed off, and Maine found herself unconsciously drawing out her phone. She glanced down at it, relieved to find no text messages from Jason.

Had she gotten rid of him? Maybe more importantly, who the hell had cast the love spell on him? She’d probably need to figure that out after the funeral was over and done with.

For the moment, she was going to kick back on her father’s leather couch. If she were lucky, she wouldn’t be interrupted by a potential client.

Not that the notion of helping magical beings sounded so bad to her now.

CHAPTER FIFTY

Maine cringed when the organ music began. Sitting in the wooden church pew, she had to fight back the memory of her mother’s funeral when she was a child sitting next to her father.

This time, Sage sat on one side of her and Noff was on the other. Noff wore a black collar with the word Bodyguard in white letters. Tony had made it. Her cyclops butler Al sat on the other side of Sage, out of sight like a silent watchman. The butler’s presence was something she’d have to get used to, but her friends’ company gladdened her.

They sat in one of the front pews. Ahead of her at the center of the aisle sat a closed, shiny coffin. Beside it, an oil portrait of her father stared back at her, a neutral look on his face. The closer Maine looked at it, the more she thought she detected the trace of a smile on his painted face. Troll emotions were minute, she reminded herself. It was good to see her father smiling at her instead of imagining him smiling from some afterlife realm.

She twisted in her seat, taking in the view of all the magical beings gathered. Most she had never seen before. The butterfly fairies hovered over one pew. The satyr mailman Sam sat a few pews behind them and across the aisle from him sat the minotaur mechanic who’d stood up to her at the Sacred Sourdough. Maki-Mae sat in silence, dressed in mourning black, looking precise and businesslike in a pew of her own. Each bench contained at least one resident of the town. They’d dearly loved her father.

The funeral service was nice enough. Then it was time for the eulogies, the part of the service Maine most dreaded. Maki-Mae took the podium first, speaking some wise words about her father’s life and his impact on the town of Rainwater. Maine wished that she could’ve heard Maki’s words, but she was too busy going over her words churning in her mind. As Valkious’ daughter, she was expected to say something, even if she hadn’t known him that well.

After Maki-Mae, Sage took the podium and Maine forced herself to focus on his words.

“I remember when I first met Valkious.” Sage stood with his hands resting on the podium’s sides. “He was the first person I ever told my dreams and aspirations to. I thought he might shrug me off. Or maybe chuckle. Instead…” He paused. “Valkious told me three words that changed my life forever. ‘Go for it.’” He let them sink into the crowd. “He was a good friend, the best of friends. A man of few words, but he made them count.”

He left the podium and retook his seat next to Maine. As the minotaur mechanic trudged up to the podium, she whispered to Sage, “I didn’t know my father meant so much to you.”

Sage shrugged. “Why do you think I said I owed it to you to help you?”

“Well, one of your weaknesses is pretty girls. I figured it was because you had a crush on me.”

“You’re full of yourself.”

She punched his arm playfully, facing forward as the minotaur’s eulogy devolved into a bout of sloppy sobbing.

After him, Dimple Cheeks fluttered behind the mic while the rest of the butterfly fairies sprinkled glitter upon Valkious’ coffin. It was a surprisingly moving gesture that brought most mourning attendees to watery eyes. The butterfly fairies hadn’t said much, but it had been the most heartfelt eulogy thus far.

When the butterfly fairies had left the podium, no one else rose to go up. Maine shifted in her seat. Surely someone else was about to go up and give a speech. She wasn’t about to follow that one…

It soon became apparent that had been the last eulogy unless she got up there and gave hers. Maki-Mae confirmed this as she turned and gave her a look. This was her last chance to say something before the service concluded.

Sensing her trepidation, Sage grabbed one of her hands and Noff licked her other hand. She pulled away from Noff’s tongue but appreciated the warmth from Sage’s hand. After clearing her throat, she rose and walked up to the podium.

She had been too young to do this for her mother. She was going to do it for her father, though.

When she reached it, she rested her palms on the podium’s sides like Sage, but it didn’t feel right. Shifting on her feet, she licked her suddenly parched lips and looked out at those gathered. There were so many people here. Probably waiting to hear how the town hero’s daughter would commemorate him.

Weakness: These people share a great communal sadness—you can use it against them!

“That’s not a weakness, you evil rag,” she muttered under her breath, careful not to speak into the mic.

She unfurled the paper from her pocket containing all that she’d prepared to say. She drew a deep breath and swallowed. Never had she felt so many nerves in her life, not even when she had been fighting Noolie.

She realized she really didn’t want to mess up this moment. She didn’t know how to start.

Looking out at the crowd, she caught the serious blinking of Al’s singular eye. He raised a solemn thumbs up at her, which proved oddly comforting. Next, she met Sage’s eyes that said, You can do this. Beside him, Noff was standing on his hind legs so he could see her over the top of the pew in front of him. He panted, his tongue hanging out in anticipation.

She could do this.

She tapped the mic, wincing as the feedback reverberated over the speakers. Maybe she was going to botch this eulogy, and maybe she wasn’t. There was only one way to find out.

She leaned forward and spoke.

“He lived a good troll life.”

From the reaction of those gathered, her words had been perfect. When she glanced back at her father’s portrait on the way to her seat, she knew that yes, he was smiling at her.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Maine hadn’t gotten to know her father well in life, but she sure got to know more about him during her father’s wake at the Sacred Sourdough following the funeral. At every table she walked up to, a magical being raised a glass to celebrate Valkious’ life and shared a story about him. Surprisingly, many of the stories made her laugh. Some made her frown.

Noff had raised more than his share of celebration glasses—or rather, celebration dog bowls. At the moment, he was prancing between tables shouting, “I am the Noff. I bring the Key to destruction, terror. And mayhem!” At intervals, he would randomly blast off the floor, and the patrons would try to catch him.

At one point Noff turned to Maine. “You know, I think we should start our business. We’ll call it the Mantle and the Key Detective and Body-Guarding Agency. Our slogan: We fight so you don’t have to. Whaddaya think?”

It sounded… promising. She knew better than to pursue this line of thought with a drunk dire wolf. So instead, she shrugged. “Name’s a bit long. How about—the Mantle and Key Agency.”

Noff licked his lips at this before doing another one of his blast offs. Maine guessed that meant he approved.

Making her way to her father’s gold chair, she sat. It felt right. This time, no one protested—she was the new town hero. She was one of them. A magical being, even if she lacked a proper understanding of magic.

Behind her, the sounds of celebration continued, but it felt good to sit for a moment by herself to try to process everything. When her stomach growled, she glanced up at the kitchen, wondering if it was about time to eat yet.

Sage picked that moment to exit the kitchen in a blast of mouthwatering aromas.

“What’s the holdup with the food?” she asked lightly.

“It’s a big crowd. Takes time. It’s almost ready, though.” He snapped his fingers and called back to the kitchen. A cook brought out a tray of finger food, setting it on the counter.

Maine selected a mini quiche. “You sure you have time to chat with me? You don’t have any truffles about to burn back there?”

Sage grinned. “Very funny. No truffles today.” He leaned over the counter on his elbows, glancing out at all the magical beings gathered in his restaurant. “It’s good to see everyone in much higher spirits after Valkious’ death.”

“Good food helps.” Maine emphasized the word food to make sure he got the point.

“That it does.” Still leaning on his elbows, he eyed her. “So you’ve decided to keep the Mantle?”

“Yeah. An evil article of clothing that imbues me with strength, agility, and tells me people’s weaknesses? I can learn to live with that.”

He chuckled, watching the crowd in the dining area. A few moments later, his attention faded. He looked deep in thought like something was on his mind, but he didn’t know how to say it.

She decided to be an ass and waved in front of his face to mess with him. “Hello?”

That snapped him back to reality. “I was going to ask you. Have you decided if you’re going to go back to New York?”

She plucked another mini quiche off his platter. “Eh, I’ve thought about it.”

“And?”

“What’s it matter to you, Mr. Future-Three-Star Michelin Restaurant Chef?”

“Well, um, I just, you know. If you were going to leave, I was maybe going to throw you a party. With food and pies of course.”

She stared at him seriously for a few moments. Then she reached out and poked his nose with her finger. “Now why would I settle for one food party when I could stay in town for a while and come eat here every day of the week?”

Sage’s posture relaxed, and a smile eased over his face revealing his perfect white teeth. Then his demeanor grew earnest. “Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll have to up the weekly food order so we don’t run out.”

She smacked his arm. “Hey, a girl’s gotta eat.”

“Yeah, you and Noff both.”

“Admit it. You love hanging out with us.”

Sage stood from the kitchen counter. “What can I say? You’re my weakness.”

“Besides,” Maine said, “I have a feeling that without my father here, this town is going to require the aid of a detective or magical fixer or whatever my dad did. And you know what, the work kind of suits me.”

There was a loud yipping from the dining room floor, and she glanced over to see Noff and the minotaur mechanic doing keg stands.

“This can’t end well,” she muttered.

Sage laughed. “Whoever said life in Rainwater was ever boring?”

* * *

He wondered if he had the right place as he stepped inside the ramshackle interior of the Sacred Sourdough. What kind of name was that for a restaurant anyway? Why was there so much dust and cobwebs everywhere? The tables all looked lopsided, and the chairs were equally beat-up looking. Why would she come to a place like this? How hadn’t the health inspector shut it down?

As he ambled through the restaurant, a hodgepodge of odd people of no uniform size, shape, or anything gave him odd looks.

Strange.

He finally found Maine crouching next to a chihuahua with burn markings on his coat drinking what looked like beer from a water bowl. When Maine looked up at him, she looked shocked.

“Ahh, sorry, Maine, but the mailman, he told me I’d find you here. I know what I promised over the phone, but I couldn’t not see you again. I wanted to, well, check in on you and make sure you’re okay.”

From somewhere behind him, he thought he heard one of the odd-sized people gathered around say the words Noff and Key. What the hell?

* * *

Maine stared back at Jason, not knowing what to say. It looked like she would have to figure out that love spell sooner rather than later. Yep, there would be no such thing as boredom here in Rainwater…

THE STORY CONTINUES

The story continues with Dire Wolf Stakes. Look for it soon at Amazon.

AUTHOR NOTES RAMY VANCE

JANUARY 3, 2022

I wanted to share this wee story that my 6-year-old son and I pulled together for his baby sister’s Christmas gift.

This is a story that will never get formally published… but here, in the safe space of Michael’s author notes, I thought – Why not? Bunny Banshee’s story needs to be shared. She’s too loud not to.

* * *

This is the story of a very happy little girl.

The problem is - when she’s happy, she’s loud.

And when she’s loud, she turns into the…

Bunny Banshee Baby Fly

The Bunny Banshee Baby Fly, or Bunny Banshee for short, always finds a reason to be happy.

A furry dog approaches…

And she happily howls with the canine.

The barista steams the milk for a baby-cino…

and, well, you guessed it, Bunny Banshee meets the hiss with a loud, chaotic cry of her own.

Her dad hoped she’d learn to express her joy in quieter ways, that is, until one day they went for a hike.

A storm blew in.

Baby Banshee’s dad wasn’t worried about getting lost. They were on a path.

But he was scared of falling.

Bunny Banshee wasn’t scared. Quite the opposite…

Every time Bunny Banshee’s dad tripped, she cried out with abandoned glee.

Every time a strong gust threatened to tumble them over, Bunny Banshee met the torrent of wind with the equal fury of her cheers.

She couldn’t have been happier.

Her dad was her chariot and she was a valkyrie charging forward into battle.

When they made it to the bottom, more than a dozen fellow hikers came up to them and high-fived the little Bunny Banshee.

Seemed her cries had done more than just spur her father forward. They had served as a fog horn for others, with more than one hiker telling them that every time she cried out, they chuckled.

A chuckle that encouraged them as well.

Now when the Bunny Banshee cries out, her dad remembers that hike, her courage and how inspiration can come in the tiniest, and loudest, of creatures.

The End (for now)

AUTHOR NOTES MICHAEL ANDERLE

JANUARY 20, 2022

Thank you for not only reading this book but these author notes as well!

Baby Banshee is going to be big

I try to tell Ramy he needs to go with this Baby Banshee as a marketing effort. I mean, his stories are fun, but his child’s stories are maybe his true calling. You know, talk less about your wonderful ideas and focus on sharing her wonderful reality.

Sorry, Ramy, my man!

Kidding (mostly) aside, I get a kick out of the baby banshee stories because I see the world through the eyes of a child again.

Our kids are way out of the diapers (thank God), high school, college, and the house. So, I don’t remember much about the days Ramy is so knowledgeable about at the moment.

It is sorta similar to how a grandparent must feel. They get to see the reality of the stories the parents are living through but don’t have to take the child home after you jack the kids up on sugar.

It’s a win-win.

Have a wonderful year, and smile at someone just because. You never know if that is the one thing a person needs to make it through another day.

Ad Aeternitatem,

Michael Anderle

BOOKS BY RAMY VANCE

Middang3ard

Never Split The Party (01)

Late To the Party (02)

It’s My Party (03)

Blue Hell And Alien Fire (04)

Death Of An Author: A Middang3ard Novella

Dark Gate Angels

Dark Gate Angels (01)

Shades of Death (02)

The Allies of Death (03)

The Deadliness of Light (04)

Dragon Approved

The First Human Rider (01)

Ascent to the Nest (02)

Defense of the Nest (03)

Nest Under Siege (04)

First Mission (05)

The Descent (06)

Sacrifices (07)

Love and Aliens (08)

An Alien Affair (09)

Dragons in Space (10)

The Beginning of the End (11)

Death of the Mind (12)

Boundless (13)

Die Again to Save the World

Die Again to Save the World (Book 1)

Die Again to Save Tomorrow (Book 2)

Yesterday Never Dies (Book 3)

From Earth Z with Love (Book 4)

Osprey Chronicles

Rebel Tribe (Book 1)

Shattered Lamps (Book 2)

A New Home (Book 3)

Gathering Winds (Book 4)

A Found Beginning (Book 5)

Mantle and Keys

The Good Troll Detective (Book 1)

Dire Wolf Stakes (Coming soon)

Other Books by Ramy Vance

Mortality Bites Series

Keep Evolving Series

BOOKS BY MICHAEL ANDERLE

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